Abstract

This article combines computational social network analysis and contextualized close reading to study 20 English plays from 1590 to 1640 that draw for their main plot on the Biblical parable of the prodigal son. Often viewed as an inherently conservative comic subgenre that ends with the restoration of patriarchal authority, recent literary critics argue that many plays portray the prodigal heirs in a positive light, linking prodigality to risky economic speculation and the improvisational skills needed to navigate London’s expanding commercial economy. For the earlier plays in our corpus (ca. 1590-1610), we find evidence for this view in our analysis of two clusters of understudied minor characters related to the pleasures and punishment of prodigality. However, these clusters all but disappear in the later plays (ca. 1610-1640). Instead, we see a group of weightier, more individualized servants and stewards rise to structural prominence. Informed by close reading of plays like Thomas Heywood’s The English Traveller (1624) and Phillip Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1626), we interpret this as a shift towards a more moralistic censure of prodigality as a threat to the patrilineal succession of elite households and the social hierarchy it buttressed.

摘要

本文结合计算社交网络分析和语境细读，研究了 1590 年至 1640 年的 20 部英语戏剧，这些戏剧的主要情节取材于圣经中浪子的寓言。通常被视为以父权权威的恢复而告终的本质上保守的喜剧亚流派，最近的文学评论家认为，许多戏剧以积极的眼光描绘了浪子的继承人，将挥霍与冒险的经济投机联系起来，以及驾驭伦敦不断扩大的商业经济所需的即兴技巧. 对于我们语料库中的早期戏剧（约 1590-1610 年），我们在分析两组与挥霍的快乐和惩罚相关的未被充分研究的次要角色时找到了支持这一观点的证据。然而，这些集群在后来的戏剧中几乎消失了（约 1610-1640 年）。反而，我们看到一群更重要、更个性化的仆人和管家上升到结构性的突出地位。通过仔细阅读托马斯·海伍德 (Thomas Heywood) 等戏剧而获悉在英国旅行家 (1624) 和菲利普·马辛格 (Phillip Massinger) 的《偿还旧债的新方法》 (1626) 中，我们将此解释为一种转向更加道德主义的谴责，认为挥霍是对精英家庭的父系继承及其所支持的社会等级制度的威胁。