ABSTRACT
The period of cultural authority signified by entry into the Age of Manhood was all too often just a brief reprieve before manliness again became subject to question. Almost as soon as the early modern male attained manliness, his authority was shown to wane, and this was signified in early modern drama and society by the grey beard. The greying of beards was seen as a consequence of the humoural cooling of the body and provided visual evidence of a man’s inadequacy. Despite the assumption of wisdom in old age, ageing was paradoxically associated with a number of defects including jealousy, scolding, doting, and irritability, making men incapable of the rational judgement central to masculine authority. This chapter examines such famous Shakespearean greybeards as Lear, Polonius, and Nestor but also focuses on Thomas Lodge’s The Wounds of Civil War and Dekker’s If it Be Not Good, the Devil Is In it, both of which stage direct conflicts between youthful and elderly masculinity. It also explores representations of unsavoury sexual alliances between young women and old men in early modern drama, concluding with analysis of a figure who resists the social and sexual impotence ascribed to ageing men, Simon Eyre of The Shoemaker’s Holiday.
