I find myself thinking about IV.3. in "A King and No King," the scene in which Bessius consults with the two laughably pedantic sword-men about the extent of the injuries he's suffered at the hands of his enemies. That this interaction serves to emphasize Bessius' cowardice and mock the sorts of specious arguments which could justify his behavior and profess him a "valiant man" seems clear. I wonder, however, to what extent we can further see the presence of these characters as a criticism of a sort of burgeoning commercialization of honor and/or manhood. Does their presence in the text, though comical, point to an underlying anxiety about the position of masculine honor in the city's growing capitalist economy?
In reading "Philaster," I was struck by the action in Act IV moving so very briefly into the forest. This rural space seems far from any idealized "green world" that allows for identity play or revelation; how, then, does the forest function in the piece? How does it compare to the environment of the palace and the city?
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