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  2. Dr Charles Cathcart

Dr Charles Cathcart

Profile summary

  • Honorary Associate
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
  • School of Arts & Humanities
  • English & Creative Writing
  • charles.cathcart

Professional biography

I grew to love Renaissance plays as a private reader and as a visitor to London’s fringe performances of old plays during the 1980s and 1990s. I owe a special debt to the editors of modern scholarly dramatic texts because I first encountered many of the plays I most enjoy through their work. Although I later had the chance to study at doctoral level and have since engaged in scholarly debate, mostly as an independent scholar, I look back with affection to those early encounters with Renaissance drama.

I am intrigued by the ways in which writers interact with others. I like to explore the ways in which poets and playwrights respond to the words of fellow authors. And I am fascinated by the ways in which institutional connections – with playing companies and publishers, for example – affect the work of writers.

Much of this has had a focus in John Marston’s plays and poems. Marston was the subject of my doctoral studies and also of my book, Marston, Rivalry, Rapprochement, and Jonson (2008). Because ‘The War of the Theatres’ was a topic at one time notorious for over-development by excitable literary scholars, this book reflects upon the decorum of academic debate as well as upon the plays and playwrights involved.

I am very interested in questions of authorial agency, in literary borrowings and allusions, and in the playing companies that flourished in the early Jacobean years. I have enjoyed exploring the popular writings published by Leonard Becket from around 1610 to the early 1630s. Becket’s miscellanies and other publications are packed with unattributed snippets of verse from published poets. They are a kind of adventure playground for the scholar. No less fascinating are the little-known writings of Thomas Heywood in the final decade of his life.

Charles may be reached at charles.cathcart@open.ac.uk.

 

Publications

John Marston’s Stationers, 1607–1633 (2023)
Cathcart, Charles
The Review of English Studies, Article hgac098 ((Early Access))

A Source for the Satirised Vocabulary in Poetaster (2021-03)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 68(1) (pp. 136-138)

John Day and Edward Sharpham at the Black and White Friars (2021)
Cathcart, Charles
Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, 34 (pp. 19-40)

Du Bartas’ Semaines and John Marston’s The Malcontent (2019-12)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 66(4) (pp. 515-519)

‘Heavens Tones’ and ‘Tones of Heaven’ in Antonio’s Revenge and What You Will (2019-09)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 66(3) (pp. 469-473)

Alexander Grosart, ‘The First True Gentleman That Ever Breathed’, and the Independent Scholar (2019)
Cathcart, Charles
English: Journal of the English Association, 68(262) (pp. 264-282)

The Insatiate Countess, William Barksted’s Hiren, the Fair Greek, and the Children of the King’s Revels (2019)
Cathcart, Charles
Early Theatre, 22(1) (pp. 119-140)

Thomas Brewer and his Associates: Hayman, Taylor, Heywood (2018)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 65(2) (pp. 198-201)

Leonard Becket, Stationer, and A help to discourse (2018)
Cathcart, Charles
The Library, 19(3) (pp. 301-324)

“Swell, swell, my joys”: Ben Jonson, Quotation, and A Help to Memory and Discourse (2017)
Cathcart, Charles
Ben Jonson Journal, 24(2) (pp. 187-204)

Robert Daborne's Irish critic (2017)
Cathcart, Charles
Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, 30 (pp. 36-51)

The Curtain-Drawer of the World: Hamlet, Lear , Parkes, and Becket (2016)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 63(4) (pp. 543-547)

‘A Memento for Mortality’, the Publications of Leonard Becket, and the Afterlife of Hamlet (2016)
Cathcart, Charles
The Review of English Studies, 67(279) (pp. 275-293)

Edward Greene, Goldsmith; William Marston, Apprentice; and Eastward Ho! (2016)
Cathcart, Charles
Early Theatre, 19(2) (pp. 81-100)

'The Masque Being Endid' and The Works of Mr John Marston (2013)
Cathcart, C.
Notes and Queries, 60(4) (pp. 538-542)

"Sir Giles Goosecap, Knight": George Chapman; "Poetaster"; and the Children of the Chapel (2012)
Cathcart, Charles
Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, 25 (pp. 42-61)

Guilpin and the Godly Satyre (2011-02)
Cathcart, Charles
The Review of English Studies, 62(253) (pp. 64-79)

John Davies of Hereford, Marston, and Hall (2010-11)
Cathcart, Charles
Ben Jonson Journal, 17(2) (pp. 242-248)

Romeo at the Rose in 1598 (2010)
Cathcart, Charles
Early Theatre, 13(2) (pp. 149-162)

Lampatho's 'Delicious Sweet' in Marston's What You Will (2009-12)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 56(4) (pp. 610-612)

How a Man may Choose A Good Wife from a Bad and The Taming of the Shrew (2009-12)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 56(4) (pp. 612-615)

Old Plays and the General Reader: an Essay in Praise of the Regents Renaissance Drama Series (2009)
Cathcart, Charles
Early Modern Literary Studies, 14, Article 5(3)

Guilpin, Shakespeare, and 'A Scourge of Wire' (2007-09)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 54(3) (pp. 307-310)

Poetaster and the Prince of Love (2007)
Cathcart, Charles
Ben Jonson Journal, 14(2) (pp. 206-217)

John Marston, The Malcontent, and the King's Men (2006-02)
Cathcart, Charles
The Review of English Studies, 57(228) (pp. 43-63)

Authorship, Indebtedness, and the Children of the King's Revels (2005)
Cathcart, Charles
Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 45(2) (pp. 357-374)

Lodge, Marston, and the Family of Love (2003)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 50(1) (pp. 68-70)

The Insatiate Countess: Date, Topicality, and Company Appropriation (2003)
Cathcart, Charles
Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, 16 (pp. 81-100)

Histriomastix, Hamlet, and the "quintessence of Duckes" (2003)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 50(4) (pp. 427-430)

Club Law, The Family of Love, and the Familist Sect (2003)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 50(1) (pp. 65-68)

Borrowings and the Authorial Domain: Gostanzo, Polonius, and Marston's Gonzago (2003)
Cathcart, Charles
Comparative Drama, 37(2) (pp. 159-174)

John Weever and the Jonson-Marston Rivalry (2002)
Cathcart, Charles
Ben Jonson Journal, 9(1) (pp. 235-247)

John Fletcher in 1600-1601: Two Early Poems, an Involvement in the "Poets' War," and a Network of Literary Connections (2002)
Cathcart, Charles
Philological Quarterly, 81(1) (pp. 33-51)

"Lust's Dominion"; or, the "Lascivious Queen": Authorship, Date, and Revision (2001)
Cathcart, Charles
The Review of English Studies, 52(207) (pp. 360-375)

Hamlet: Date and Early Afterlife (2001)
Cathcart, C.
The Review of English Studies, 52(207) (pp. 341-359)

Twelfth Night and John Weever (2000)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 47(1) (pp. 79-81)

Plural Authorship, Attribution, and the Children of the King’s Revels (2000)
Cathcart, Charles
Renaissance Forum, 4(2) (pp. 1-36)

Ben Jonson and the Dedication of Antonio and Mellida (2000)
Cathcart, Charles
Notes and Queries, 47(1) (pp. 100-103)

Marston, Montaigne, and Lady Politic Would-be (1999)
Cathcart, Charles
English Language Notes, 36(1) (pp. 4-8)

"You will crown him King that slew your King": "Lust's Dominion" and Oliver Cromwell (1999)
Cathcart, Charles
Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, 11 (pp. 264-274)

Marston, Rivalry, Rapprochement, and Jonson (2008-04-28)
Cathcart, Charles
ISBN : 978-0-7546-5636-4 | Publisher : Ashgate | Published : Aldershot

“Passionate Man In His Slight Play”: John Marston’s Prologues And Epilogues (2013-03-05)
Cathcart, Charles
The Dutch Courtesan Project