User:Iammarie1234566/sandbox

Instructor feedback

overall: references 5 and 6 need to be filled out/fixed X

should be: "of the early seventeenth century" X

should be: "members of the English court" X

should be: " James I's daughter, is also represented in the play" X

should be: "Maria Anna of Spain is represented by the Black Queen." X Also, the citations need to be fixed and placed at the end of this sentence. X

should be: "the Spanish ambassador who was deeply unpopular in England, is depicted by the Black Knight." X

should be: "later returning to Rome." X

should be: "takes place at a time of heightened tension between England and Spain" X

should be: "that still lingered after the" X Also, it would help to clarify here that James I hoped for the marriage alliance to result in restoring his daughter Elizabeth to the Bohemian throne. X

should be: "and unconverted, with the" X

should be: "The English public was overjoyed" X

should be: "that the play had been approved" X

*All with an 'X' have been implemented.*

Historical Context

A Game at Chess satirizes historical events and figures of the early seventeenth century. Those depicted include members of the English court, the Spanish court, and prominent religious figures. James I, who reigned as King of England and Ireland from 1603 until his death in 1625, is depicted as the White King by Middleton. His son and successor, Prince Charles or Charles I, reigned after the play was written and is depicted as the White Knight. Elizabeth of Bohemia, James I's daughter, is also represented in the play as the White Queen. From Spain, Middleton depicts Philip IV, who reigned as King from 1621 to 1665, as the Black King. His sister Maria Anna of Spain is represented by the Black Queen. Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Conde de Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador who was deeply unpopular in England, is depicted by the Black Knight. Amongst important religious figures depicted is the Archbishop of Split Marco Antonio de Dominis, or the Fat Bishop, who left the Roman Catholic Church to join the Anglican Church, later returning to Rome.

The play itself takes place at a time of heightened tension between England and Spain and presents the then unpopular negotiations between the two countries to wed Prince Charles and the Spanish Infanta, Maria Anna. The royal families hoped that the Spanish Match would at the very least resolve some of the conflicts between England and Spain that still lingered after the Thirty Years War. Additionally, James I hoped that a marriage alliance may restore his daughter Elizabeth to the Bohemian throne. The two countries were at religious differences, which increased the tensions, as the Protestant English citizens were severely against the marriage between their prince and the Catholic Spanish Infanta. Many of the public feared for the safety of Prince Charles and the Duke of Buckingham when they traveled to Spain in February 1623 for the negotiations (and that the Prince may convert to Catholicism), but the two returned unharmed and unconverted, with the talks ending in failure. The English public was overjoyed to have the proposed marriage fall through, seeing this as a victory against the Spanish Catholics, and Prince Charles was welcomed as a hero for his failure turned success.

The play was stopped after nine performances (6–16 August, Sundays omitted), but not before it had become "the greatest box-office hit of early modern London". The Privy Council opened a prosecution against the actors and the author of the play on 18 August (it was then illegal to portray any modern Christian king on the stage). The Globe Theatre was shut down by the prosecution, though Middleton was able to acquit himself by showing that the play had been approved by the Master of the Revels, Sir Henry Herbert. After James I's death, the play was reprinted for public purchase, although Middleton never wrote another full play.

Article Evaluation- The Spanish Tragedy

The article on The Spanish Tragedy is fairly detailed and maintains a neutral tone. There are some technical issues, however, as there is one source that is a broken link to a PDF, and there are two links to other wikipedia pages that are not functional. The page's weakest section is the Themes and Motifs section which only really discusses one theme: revenge. This section does include a little more about other themes, for instance it mentions "Wealth and Power" as being a key theme and discusses death and murder as being possible themes. But the "death and murder" paragraph is unclearly connected and can almost be read as an extension of the theme revenge. The "Wealth and Power" theme is only mentioned in passing and is not fully explained. I think it would be valuable to break each of these themes up into different, clear sections where each theme is equally addressed. Another weaker section is the 1602 Additions section because although it provides a lot of great information, it lacks the sources to back up everything that is said. The entire last paragraph in this section lacks a citation and provides unclear content.

I think the stronger sections are the plot summary and the The information provided about the play's Influences section is nicely cited and relevant. The plot summary is fully descriptive, although the ending of the play is less detailed and doesn't include that Hieronimo wrote the play Soliman and Perseda to not just entertain the court but to get his revenge. I also feel that the page concerning the Allusions is well done and demonstrates the significance of The Spanish Tragedy in the time period it is from and in the more modern era. However, I might have changed the section title to something other than "Allusions," perhaps to "Allusions in Contemporary and Modern Media" to clarify that it's not referring to the literary device.

Historical Context (Personal Implementation Plan)

*Second Paragraph of this new section on the page A Game At Chess* I will be adding this new paragraph after Ray's paragraph, as follows:

The play itself takes place in a time of heightened tensions between England and Spain and presents the then unpopular negotiations between the two countries to wed Prince Charles and the Spanish Infanta, Maria Anna.^[5] The royal families hoped that the Spanish Match would at the very least resolve some of the conflicts between England and Spain that still lingered from the Thirty Years War.^[6] The two countries were at religious differences, which increased the tensions, as the Protestant English citizens were severely against the marriage between their prince and the Catholic Spanish Infanta. Many of the public feared for the safety of Prince Charles and the Duke of Buckingham when they traveled to Spain in February 1623 for the negotiations (and that the Prince may convert to Catholicism), but the two returned unharmed and unconverted with the talks ending in failure.^[5][6] The public was overjoyed to have the proposed marriage fall through, seeing this as a victory against the Spanish Catholics, and Prince Charles was welcomed as a hero for his failure turned success.^[5]

*In addition, I recommended edits to Ray's paragraph and edited the format of Luke's section in his sandbox. The above is all original and to write it I researched a new source (The Prince and the Infanta) as well as a source we read in class (Mixed Faith and Shared Feeling).

*(Removed reference citations here because their formatting would not allow them to properly show up in the above historical context section. I will add them unformatted as a reference below.)*

[5] Gunis, Musa (2018). Mixed Faith and Shared Feeling: Theater in Post-Reformation London. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 93–94. ISBN 9780812250251.

[6] Redworth, Glyn. (2003). The Prince and the Infanta: The Cultural Politics of the Spanish Match. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300101988. OCLC 52946694