Cavendish

Bell in Campo is dominated by long rhetorical speeches that are reminiscent of a Platonic Dialogue or a collection of speeches from Renaissance history plays. Is Cavendish actively engaging with a philosophical style of writing? Should we see this play (in its two parts) as an extension of her prose works, or is this a distinctly dramatic text? Was Bell in Campo a closet drama, because it seems close to unperformable?

In Act II Scene II of The Convent of Pleasure, Lady Happy gives a long description of what makes the 'Convent of Pleasure' pleasurable. I find it interesting that the 'Convents' pleasures are all defined in terms of material goods, particularly luxury items, and what Lady Happy calls "pastimes" (2.2, pg. 225). The element that connects these two forms of pleasure in Lady Happy's description is that are constantly changing, thus one will never get bored. There is even a mention of their garments being of the latest fashion, which seems impossible due to their cloistered state. What relationship does change have with pleasure in this play? How is pleasure related to material culture and to conspicuous consumption?