Gendered night, or the nocturnal brightness of the early modern English stage
In French, critics speak of the night using feminine terms, but the term is grammatically neutral in English. Despite this neutrality, night may be gendered. In Romeo and Juliet, virgins hide their shame from their lovers by hiding in the dark. If night is consecrated for love games, it is also a time for death. In Macbeth, Satan acts in media nocte, and Lady Macbeth calls on night and the « ministers of hell » to murder in secret. Carpe noctem. This paper will discuss the different loci used in Elizabethan and early Jacobean drama, as well as the different literary genres, to describe the rich variety of the plays’ gendered nocturnal landscapes. The Shakespearean « gendered » night may prove more revealing than plain daylight.