David Martin Bevington

David Martin Bevington John D. Cox Click for larger view View full resolution 13 may 1931 . 2 august 2019 Photo By William Burlingham [End Page 289] David Martin Bevington, eminent Shakespeare scholar at the University of Chicago, died of natural causes at his home in Hyde Park on August 2, 2019. He was born on May 13, 1931, in New York City, where his parents, Merle and Helen Bevington, lived. When both of his parents were appointed to the faculty of Duke University, David attended Durham High School but finished his secondary schooling at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1948. He was admitted to Harvard University, where he was awarded a B.A. in 1952. After a stint as an officer in the United States Navy, Bevington returned to Harvard and completed his Ph.D. in 1957 under the direction of Alfred Harbage. Bevington thoroughly revised his doctoral thesis and published it with Harvard University Press in 1962. In this book, titled From Mankind to Marlowe, Bevington showed that the structure of English plays written in the early 16th century was influenced by the way professional performance troupes were composed, as they made their living by touring the countryside with a repertory of one or two plays. Led by one strong actor, a typical group of five performers featured their star as a failing sinner who succumbed to vicious influence but was restored in the end by virtuous agency. Bevington showed that this common pattern persisted for decades and influenced the plays of Christopher Marlowe at the end of the century. When Bevington published his first book he was teaching at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, where he was mentored by Fredson Bowers and Lester Beaurline. In 1967 he accepted a visiting appointment at the University of Chicago, leading soon to a full-time position and eventually, in 1985, to an endowed chair, the Phyllis Fay Horton Professorship in English. As it turned out, David and I arrived at the University of Chicago together—he as a newly appointed assistant professor and I as a beginning graduate student. Without knowing anything about him, I signed up for his course on Shakespeare's predecessors, a decision that for me turned out to be life-changing. He was a brilliant teacher, and we took to each other at once. I met Peggy and the children, and at their invitation I joined the family on a 400-mile weekend drive (one way) to London, Ontario, to see English plays from the Middle Ages in performance. We traveled in a 1955 Nash Rambler Coupe with David behind the wheel. David's colleague, Alan Nelson, was in the front passenger seat, and Peggy and I were in the back with three children, aged five, four, and three. When David's appointment at the University of Chicago was made permanent, the Bevingtons bought a big house, with seven bedrooms and five bathrooms, on South Blackstone Avenue. They were living in a [End Page 290] rental apartment at the time, and they invited me to stay in their newly purchased house, rent-free, in exchange for helping to redecorate it before the family moved in. Four other graduate students joined me, and when we weren't writing papers or studying for exams, we stripped wallpaper, painted walls and woodwork, and hung new wallpaper. At the end of his first year at Chicago, Bevington published his second book, again with Harvard University Press, called Tudor Drama and Politics. In this book, he showed that playwrights responded deliberately and often forcefully to events in 16th-century English political life. They seldom made the connection between politics and drama obvious because England was ruled by a succession of absolute monarchs who did not welcome public scrutiny, much less criticism, of their policies and decisions. Bevington showed how insightful playwrights were in their judgments, as well as careful. A succession of remarkable books followed, including the one for which Bevington is most widely known: his edition of the complete works of Shakespeare. This included introductions to the plays, copious notes, and appendices on Shakespeare's language, life in Shakespeare's England, Shakespeare's own life, and similar topics to help undergraduate...

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