| Popis: |
That actor’s rendition of the willow song was an instance of female impersonation – and, to judge by one eye-witness, a signally successful one. To talk about impersonation in early modern ballads is, to talk about the relationship among three entities: voice, mask, and body. The force of impersonation is especially marked in the quite diverse versions of the ballad known variously as “The Daemon Lover,” “James Harris,” “The House Carpenter,” and “A Warning for Married Women.” Because versions both in print and in oral tradition vary so widely, “Geordie” makes an especially interesting test case with respect to impersonation. The Doctor in The Two Noble Kinsmen offers the Jailer a homeopathic cure for his daughter’s love madness: “Sing to her such green songs of love as she says Palamon hath sung to her in prison”. Mary Aumbree is the name that comes to mind when noise-sensitive Morose in Jonson’s Epicene needs an epithet for loquacious and overbearing Mistress Otter. |
