| This study explores the early modern fascination with developmental timing, teasing out ways in which the Renaissance stage produced and reflected on precocity. Building on the narrative of Philippe Aries, who contends that childhood was only "discovered" sometime in the seventeenth century, scholars have stressed the degree to which early modern adults (in Leah Marcus' phrase) "tended to...advocate the early abandonment of childish traits." The precocious characters in Shakespeare---the princes in Richard III, Juliet, Hal, Mamillius---have often been understood in this light: as embodying the cultural wish to press immediately past childhood. This study offers a different reading of precocity in plays by Shakespeare, Jonson, Marston, and Middleton, identifying an alternative wish---namely, the fantasy of keeping one foot in adulthood and one foot out. These extraordinary young characters stage a simultaneous advance and retreat, at once occupying two developmental moments.; This dance involves using the self-as-other and other-as-self. Some of these characters send part of the self forward into the adult realm and allow another part to lag behind, while others send a proxy forward into such treacherous territory and reserve themselves safely in the wings. If figures of the first type resemble boy actors, split between young performer and mature role, those of the second type resemble playwrights, enlisting others to stand in for them. Theater, I argue, is perfectly suited for the self-other magic of precocity.; In the initial chapters, children serve as surrogates for adults---either their masters (in Twelfth Night and Epicene) or their parents (in The Fawn and The Winter's Tale ). From the adult's perspective, this arrangement proves dangerous: the young people who represent them can also replace them. A concluding chapter centers on one youth (Hal in I Henry IV) who employs another youth (Hotspur) as his surrogate in intergenerational competition. Hal's delayed growth not only shields him from rivalry, but also leaves his agency visible: he exercises authorial control over the timing of his development. In the early modern period, this study finally proposes, maturation and authorship observe similar rhythms and require similar relationships. |
