Embodied Geometry in Early Modern Theatre

Reflecting on the anonymous academic comedy Blame Not Our Author written during the Counter-reformation at the English College in Rome, this short piece addresses some of early modern anxieties about embodiment, specifically the uncomfortably close relationship between forms and their definitions. Featuring mathematical shapes and instruments as its characters, and coinciding with academic debates about Euclidean geometry, the play is ostensibly about a hapless square that wants to attain perfection by becoming a circle, willing to even endure torture in the process. The play’s surprising violence reflects the fears of execution attached to the College’s main mission of reconverting England to Catholicism. Despite resulting in the torture and death of dozens of its alumni, martyrdom was equally celebrated with frescoes depicting violent mutilations. The square’s ultimate failure raises questions about the potency of earthly instruments, of geometry or of torture, and the possibility and consequences of bodily transformation.