ABSTRACT
The chapter focuses on instances across various plays and dramatists that demonstrate the body's ability to convey meanings that can contradict the rational mind's judgments and will. The chapter explores this ontological outlook in three contexts: the body's ability to signify the opposite meaning of discursive reason and articulation; its ability to intuit future contingents; and its ability to understand its surrounding world, exercise judgements and prompt an action against the rational mind's judgments. The chapter discusses how early modern playwrights used the phenomenon of the intelligent body in order to cause a sense of wonder in the audience. This style of performance production arouses tragic pleasure, opening new vistas of thought against which to reconsider Aristotle's theory of catharsis and the paradox of tragic joy. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the complications that arise from the relation between real-life persons, actors and the intelligent body.
