Prologue. The Actor as Hypocrite -- Act One. They Dress Up -- Scene One. As Secret as Maidenhead -- Scene Two. Putting on the Cloth -- Scene Three. Humanizing the Fop -- Act Two. They Lie -- Scene One. Rousseau and the Cult of Sincerity -- Scene Two. Playing Joseph Surface -- Scene Three. Ibsen's Small Stage of Fools -- Scene Four. Princely Hypocrite -- Act Three. They Drink -- Scene One. The Tavern -- Scene Two. Liberty Hall -- Scene Three. Harry Hope's Saloon -- Scene Four. Contested Sites -- Epilogue
Summary
The idea that actors are hypocrites and fakes and therefore dangerous to society was widespread in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Fangs of Malice examines the equation between the vice of hypocrisy and the craft of acting as it appears in antitheatrical tracts, in popular and high culture, and especially in plays of the period. Rousseau and others argue that actors, expert at seeming other than they are, pose a threat to society; yet dissembling seems also to be an inevitable consequence of human social intercourse
