Music and Emotion on the Caroline Stage

Shirley Bell is an associate lecturer and researcher in English at Sheffield Hallam University, UK, specialising in early modern literature, drama, and culture. Her doctoral thesis explored the use of instrumental music and song in the works of Richard Brome, James Shirley, and Ben Jonson’s ‘late plays’ to determine how much of an impact the music had on a holistic understanding of the plays in performance. She has published a piece on Brome for Notes and Queries, and she has been a yearly contributor to the Year’s Work in English Studies since 2016. She has presented her work at several conferences including the Society for Renaissance Studies conference, the British Graduate Shakespeare conference and the Medieval and Renaissance Music conference.

• .- Chapter 1: Introduction: Feeling Music in the Caroline Period.- Chapter 2: Inciting fear: Unsettling Sounds Onstage.- Chapter 3: Ravishing Music: The Image of the Sexualised Woman in Performance.- Chapter 4: Performing Madness: Obsession, Lovesickness, and Grief on the Stage.- Chapter 5: Listening Calmly: Discernment in Onstage Listening.- Chapter 6: Conclusion: “Music for a While”: Time and Emotion on the Stage.