THE
O X F O R D C O M P A N I O N TO
SHAKESPEARE
The Oxford Companion to
SHAKESPEARE
General Editor
Michael Dobs...
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THE
O X F O R D C O M P A N I O N TO
SHAKESPEARE
The Oxford Companion to
SHAKESPEARE
General Editor
Michael Dobson Associate General Editor
Stanley Wells
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXTORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 0x2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolcutta Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris Sâo Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Oxford University Press 2001 Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2001 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0-19-811735-3 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset in Adobe Garamond by Alliance Phototypesetters, Pondicherry, India Printed by Giunti Industrie Grafiche Prato, Italy
Contents Preface
vii
Acknowledgements
viii
Contrib utors
ix
Thematic listing of entries
xi
List of plays
xxviii
Note to the reader THE
OXFORD
xxix C O M P A N I O N TO
SHAKESPEARE
i
The British Isles and France in the English Histories and Macbeth
530
The royal family in Shakespeare's English Histories
532
Shakespeare's life, works, and reception: a partial chronology
533
Further reading
537
Picture acknowledgements
541
V
Preface present-day Shakespearian studies, a diversity of opinions as well as scope which we have not attempted to iron out. Our AN AID TO T H E E N J O Y M E N T %m\ r: wide range of contributors, who are in no way answerable for one another's views, can be identified by initials appended to M ' OF T H E PLAYS AND P O E M S each entry. Cross-references are marked by an asterisk, but, since there are separate entries on all Shakespeare's works and -JL. OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, all his characters, we have generally refrained from astera writer, actor, and man of the theatre who lived from 1564 to isking their titles and names except under special circum1616. In pursuit of this objective, it hopes to contribute to a stances. better understanding of the place occupied by his writings As an Oxford Companion, this book is appropriately both in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era in which they were geared to the Oxford Shakespeare, specifically the moderncomposed and in the many subsequent periods in which they spelling edition of the Complete Works published under the have been read, performed, and reinterpreted. In so far as the two aims are separable, The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare general editorship of Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor in 1986 (and subsequently used as the basis of the Norton Shakeis designed primarily to inform readers about Shakespeare's speare, published under the editorship of Stephen Greenblatt works, times, lives, and afterlives rather than to interpret in 1997). All scene and line references are to this text of them, so we have preferred to balance its composition in Shakespeare's works, and accounts of the dating and of the favour of short, informative entries as against chapter-length textual histories of individual works are in broad conformity meditations on large topics. A map of the coverage which with its complementary volume William Shakespeare: A these entries offer of the many different fields of knowledge Textual Companion (Wells, Taylor, et al., 1987). The Oxford which the word 'Shakespeare' has come to include— edition is notable for, among many other things, a scrupulous biography, theatre history, printing and publishing, criticism, return, as far as is possible, to the texts of Shakespeare's plays translation, and so on—is provided by the Thematic Listing as they were produced in Shakespeare's theatre: in place of of Entries. the standardized titles of some of the history plays imposed Shakespeare and his canon have come to be so central to after Shakespeare's death by the editors of the First Folio, for anglophone culture over the last four centuries that the example, it returns to the titles under which Shakespeare category of knowledge about them might easily be extended composed them. Wherever these titles might be unfamiliar, indefinitely in almost any direction, and any readers hoping, we have added the Folio titles in brackets, and have of course for example, that this book will describe the whole of supplied appropriate cross-references: hence a reader looking Western cultural history prior to Shakespeare as a backup Henry V7//will be referred to the entry describing the play ground to his achievement and the whole of literary history under its original name, All Is True, and references to the since as an index to his influence are bound to be disapthird of Shakespeare's plays to be set in the reign of Henry vi pointed. Nor does it offer a glossary to all the now unfamiliar call it Richard, Duke of York (3 Henry vi). The Oxford edition words in Shakespeare's vocabulary, nor a family tree of his is notable, too, for the consistency with which it modernizes entire clan (although it does offer entries on all of ShakeShakespeare's spellings, including those of foreign names, so speare's characters, with the exception of those who, like that readers looking up the characters 'Iachimo' and 'Petruchio' Hamlet and Othello, are both eponymous and fictitious, who will be referred to Giacomo and Petruccio, the forms also are covered as part of the entries describing the plays to used here in the entries describing Cymbeline and The which they give their names). With a mere half-million Taming of the Shrew respectively. In outlining the stage histories words at our disposal we have of course had to be selective, of such roles, however, we have retained the names by which and we hope that readers will concur in the often difficult different performers actually knew them: hence in describing decisions we have had to make about the relative space to be the plot of Cymbelinewe have called the play's heroine Innogen apportioned between, for example, the literary sources, the (as did Shakespeare, despite the Folio's posthumous printing original performances, and the subsequent worldwide reerror to the contrary), but in summarizing the career of one of ception of Shakespeare's plays. Selective as it is, however, we her most notable impersonators, the Victorian actress Ellen hope that this volume reflects something of the breadth of
"
.
M
l
H I S
B O O K
IS
I N T E N D E D AS
vi 1
PREFACE
Terry, we have called her Imogen (as did Terry and her contemporaries). Entries on individual plays supply an account of their place in the chronology of Shakespeare's works, a brief discussion of their early texts and their provenance, a short account of their literary and dramatic sources and how they treat them, and a scene-by-scene synopsis. (These synopses are designed solely to aid readers in finding scenes in the play, rather than as attempts to provide narrative equivalents for the play's own effects; as an antidote to the potentially misleading impressions such plot summaries can give, each is followed by a very short account of the play's most distinctive artistic features. Any scene-by-scene synopsis of Hamlet, for example, is liable to make the play seem a good deal more busy and plot-centred than it ever does in performance, and it seems only fair to record that it is in fact as notable for meditative soliloquies as it is for crowded action.) The
synopsis is followed by summaries of the play's critical reception, its performance history, and its fortunes in the cinema and on television, and then by a very short and selective reading list including recent important single-play editions. With limited space at our disposal, we have had to be especially selective in discussing the stage histories of these endlessly revived plays, and given that this is an Oxford Companion to Shakespeare—published in the city through which Shakespeare himself passed between the town of his birth and the city of his career—we hope we may be forgiven for betraying some small bias in favour of the theatres found at the two destinations between which Shakespeare commuted, London and Stratford-upon-Avon. MICHAEL DOBSON STANLEY WELLS
April 2001
Acknowledgements
N
with him has been, as always, an inspiration and a pleasure. The support of Nicola Watson, including her expertise in the matter of food and drink, has been invaluable. It seems only appropriate, in a book about a writer who found it necessary to flee to London to get some writing done after the birth of his own twins, that I should conclude by acknowledging the crucial role that has been played by Elizabeth and Rosalind, who made the completion of this book both necessary and at times almost impossible, and who continually remind me that whatever great things Shakespeare achieved he may have missed out on some greater ones.
o book this size can come into being without a good deal of help. I am very happy to acknowledge various kinds of assistance from the following: the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for the Humanities; the University of Surrey Roehampton; Professor Lois Potter; Professor Marcia Pointon; Dr José Roberto O'Shea and Dr Mârcia A. P. Martins (who helped Margarida Rauen with the Brazilian entry); Alison Jones, Joanna Harris, and Wendy Tuckey at OUP; Edwin and Jackie Pritchard, patient copy-editors. At Roehampton Anne Button provided tireless administrative assistance, helped for one short but crucial period by Mauritza Roach. To venture beyond the category of help, Stanley Wells has been a wonderful Associate General Editor, and working
MICHAEL DOBSON
Vlll
Contributors ^ E D I T O R I A L BOARD R. A. Foakes Peter Holland Margreta de Grazia Dennis Kennedy
Anne Button, University of Surrey Roehampton Alan Brissenden, University of Adelaide Alice Clark, Université de Nantes Anthony Davies, Victoria College, Jersey Ania Loomba, University of Illinois at Urbana A. Luis Pujante, Universidad de Murcia Andrew Murphy, St Andrews University Alfredo Michel Modenessi, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Arkady Ostrovsky, Financial Times AO BE Barbara Everett, Somerville College, Oxford Balz Engler, University of Basel BEn BK Bernice Kliman, Nassau Community College, New York BR Bradley Ryner, University of Maryland BS Boika Sokolova, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London CB Chris Baldick, Goldsmiths College, University of London Charity Charity, J. Walter Thompson Advertising CC CMSA Catherine Alexander, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Cathy Shrank, University of Aberdeen CS CT Catherine Tite, University of Manchester Douglas Bruster, University of Texas at Austin DB DK Dennis Kennedy, Trinity College, Dublin DL Douglas Lanier, University of New Hampshire DP Diane Purkiss, Keble College, Oxford Eric Rasmussen, University of Nevada ER Gabriel Egan, Globe Education, Shakespeare's Globe GE Grace Ioppolo, Reading University GI George T. Wright, University of Minnesota GTW HG Hugh Grady, Beaver College Qixin He, Beijing Foreign Studies University HQX Hannah Scolnikov, Tel Aviv University HS Helen Vendler, Harvard University HV Irena Cholij, New Grove Dictionary of Music IBC Irene Makaryk, University of Ottawa IM I-SE Inga-Stina Ewbank, University of Leeds AB ABr AC AD AL ALP AM AMM
ISG JB JBn
Isabelle Schwartz-Gastine, Université de Caen Jeremy Barlow, MA, ARCM, ARAM Jerry Brotton, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London
JBt JC JH JKS JL JM J-MM
Jonathan Bate, University of Liverpool Jean Chothia, Selwyn College, Cambridge Jonathan Hope, Middlesex University Jane Kingsley-Smith, University of Hull Jerzy Limon, University of Gdansk Jean Marsden, University of Connecticut Jean-Marie Maguin, Université de Montpellier James Shapiro, Columbia University Kate Chedgzoy, University of Newcastle Kate Newman, Courtauld Institute Kenneth Parker, University of East London Kay Stanton, California State University, Fullerton Michael Bristol, McGill University Michael Dobson, University of Surrey Roehampton Margreta de Grazia, University of Pennsylvania Michael Holroyd Mark Houlahan, University of Waikato Michael Jamieson, University of Sussex Marcus Walsh, University of Birmingham Mairi MacDonald, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Michael Neill, University of Auckland Martin Orkin, University of Haifa Maurice Pope Margarida Gandara Rauen, Faculdade de Artes de Parana, Curitiba Marvin Spevack, University of Miinster Mark Thornton Burnett, Queen's University, Belfast Martin Wiggins, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham Nicola Watson, The Open University Odette Blumenfeld, Al Cusa University, Tasi Park Honan, University of Leeds Peter Hulme, University of Essex Panos Karagiorgos, Ionian University, Corfu Paul Edmondson, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham Paola Pugliatti, University of Florence R. A. Foakes, University of California, Los Angeles Robert Bearman, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Rafiq Darragi, University of Tunis Richard Foulkes, University of Leicester
JS KC KN KP KS MB MD MG MH MHn
MJ MLW MM MN MO MP MR MS MTB MW NJW OB PH PHm PK PME PP RAF RB RD RF
ix
CONTRIBUTORS
RG RJ RLS RM RS
Rex Gibson, Cambridge Institute of Education Richard Johns, Courtauld Institute Robert Smallwood, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Robert Maslen, Glasgow University Robert Shaughnessy, University of Surrey Roehampton RSB Simon Blatherwick, Museum of London RW René Weis, University College, London RWFM Randall Martin, University of New Brunswick SLB Susan Brock, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust SM Sonia Massai, St Mary's, Strawberry Hill, University of Surrey SO Stephen Orgel, Stanford University
SS SW TH TK TM VS WH WR YH ZM ZS
Steve Sohmer, Lincoln College, Oxford Stanley Wells, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and University of Birmingham Ton Hoenselaars, Rijksuniversiteit, Utrecht Tetsuo Kishi, Kyoto University Tom Matheson, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham Vivian Salmon, Keble College, Oxford Werner Habicht, Universitat Wiirzburg Wolfgang Riehle, Karl-Franzens Universitat, Graz Younglim Han, Chungwoon University, Korea Zoltan Markus, New York University Zdenëk Stribrny, Charles University, Prague
Thematic UBing of entries Longer, more discursive entries are listed first within each sub-heading. 1? B I O G R A P H Y biographies of Shakespeare Shakespeare and his family Shakespeare, William Stratford-upon-Avon education Arden, Mary arms, Shakespeare's coat of Bagley, Edward Belott-Mountjoy suit Bernard, Sir John crabtree, Shakespeare's epitaph, Shakespeare's grave, Shakespeare's Hall, Elizabeth Hall, John Hart, William highways subscription Impresa 'lost years' Quiney, Thomas Shakeshaft, William Shakespeare, Agnes/Anne Shakespeare, Anne Shakespeare as a surname Shakespeare, Edmund Shakespeare, Gilbert Shakespeare, Hamnet Shakespeare, Henry Shakespeare, Joan (i and ii) Shakespeare, John Shakespeare, Judith Shakespeare, Margaret Shakespeare, Richard Shakespeare, Susanna signatures Welcombe enclosure will, Shakespeare's Willobie his Avisa
Stratford acquaintances and contemporaries Addenbrooke, John Aspinall, Alexander Bretchgirdle, John Clopton family Collins, Francis Combe family Cottom, John Greene, John and Thomas Hamlett, Katherine Harvard, John Hathaway, Anne Hunt, Simon Jenkins, Thomas Johnson, Robert Lambert, Edmund Lane, John Lucy, Sir Thomas Nash, Anthony and John Nash, Thomas Quiney, Richard Reynolds, William Roche, Walter Rogers, Philip Russell, Thomas Sadler, Hamnet and Judith Shaw, July Sturley (Strelly), Abraham Tyler, Richard Underhill, William Walker, William Whately, Anne Whittington, Thomas Stratford places, buildings, and residences Stratford-upon-Avon Anne Hathaway's Cottage Arden Asbies
Aston Cantlow Barton-on-the-Heath Bidford Birthplace Budbrooke Chapel Lane Cottage Charlecote Clifford Chambers Clopton Davenport, James Dowdall, John Dursley fires in Stratford-upon-Avon Fulbrook grammar school Greene, Joseph Guild Chapel Hall's Croft Hampton Lucy Henley Street Holy Trinity Church Ingon Jordan, John Kenilworth Luddington Lyance Maidenhead Inn (Woolshop) Mary Arden's House New Place Old Stratford Payton, Mr Rowington Shakespeare's grave Snitterfield Stratford-upon-Avon, Elizabethan, and the theatre Temple Grafton Ward, John Warwick Welcombe Wilmcote Wincot Wroxall
London acquaintances and contemporaries, excluding literary and theatrical Andrewes, Robert Atkinson, William Belott-Mountjoy suit Clayton, John 'Dark Lady' Dethick, Sir William 'Fair Youth' Gardiner, William 'Hughes, William' Jackson, John Mr W.H. Pembroke, Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of 'Rival Poet' Savage, Thomas School of Night Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Walker, Henry Witter, John London residences and haunts, excluding theatres Belott-Mountjoy suit Blackfriars Gatehouse Mermaid Tavern Portraits and sculptures, including spurious, before 1700 portraits
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
Ashbourne (Kingston) Portrait Burdett-Coutts Portrait Chandos Portrait death mask Droeshout engraving Ely Palace Portrait Faithorne, William, engraving Felton portrait Flower portrait Hilliard miniature Janssen bust Kneller, Sir Godfrey Soest portrait Zuccaro, Federico
I P T H E SHAKESPEARE LEGEND Authorship controversy, hoaxes, and aspects of bardolatry authorship controversy advertising Bacon, Delia Baconian theory Bard bardolatry birthday celebrations Chalmers, George Chetwood, William Rufus Defoe theory Derby theory Elizabeth theory Fenton, Richard forgery Gastrell, Francis James I theory Jubilee King James' Bible Lefranc, Abel Marlovian theory monuments mulberry tree Oxford theory poems on Shakespeare popular culture portraits Rutland theory
Salom, Jaime schools, Shakespeare in (British) Shakespeare, William, as a literary character Shakespeare Tercentenary Festival Shakespeariana statuary
King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus and Cressida
Lost plays Cardenio Love's Labour's Won
1? S H A K E S P E A R E ' S WORKS
Collaborative works and their co-authors
Comedies
All Ls True {Henry VIII) Cardenio Chettle, Henry Dekker, Thomas Fletcher, John / Henry vi Heywood, Thomas Macbeth Middleton, Thomas Munday, Anthony Nashe, Thomas Pericles Sir Thomas More Timon ofAthens The Two Noble Kinsmen Wilkins, George
All's Well That Ends Well As You Like Lt The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Two Noble Kinsmen The Winter's Tale
Apocryphal plays
apocrypha Arden of Feversham The Birth of Merlin All Ls True {Henry viii) Duke Humfrey The First Part of the Edmund Lronside Contention {2 Henry vi) Edward 111 j Henry iv Edward iv 2 Henry iv Fair Em Henry v Hoffman 1 Henry VJ Locrine King John Richard Duke of York (3 Henry The London Prodigal The Merry Devil of vi) Edmonton Richard 11 Moseley, Humphrey Richard 111 Mucedorus Tragedies The Puritan Antony and Cleopatra The Second Maiden s Tragedy Coriolanus Sir John Oldcastle {Part One) Hamlet The Taming of a Shrew Julius Caesar Thomas, Lord Cromwell
Histories
Xll
The Troublesome Reign of King John The Yorkshire Tragedy
Principal characters in the plays (Information on characters who have their names in the titles can be found in entries on individual plays. Modern equivalents of foreign names have been used, as in the Oxford Complete Works modern spelling edition.)
All Is True {Henry vm) Abergavennny, Lord Boleyn, Anne Brandon Buckingham, Duke of Butts, Doctor Caputius, Lord Campeius, Cardinal Cromwell, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury Denny, Sir Anthony Ely, Bishop of Gardiner Griffith Guildford, Sir Henry Henry VIII
Katherine, Queen Lincoln, Bishop of London, Lord Mayor of Lord Chamberlain Lord Chancellor Lovell, Sir Thomas Norfolk, Duke of Old Lady, an Page, Gardiner's Patience Porter, a Sands, Lord Suffolk, Duke of Surrey, Earl of Surveyor, Buckingham's Vaux, Sir Nicholas Wolsey, Cardinal
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
All's Well That Ends Well Austringer, an Bertram Diana Florence, Duke of France, King of Helen Lafeu Lavatch Lord Dumain, First and Second Mariana Paroles Reynaldo Roussillon, Dowager Countess of Widow Capilet Antony and Cleopatra Agrippa Alexas Ambassador, an Antony, Mark Caesar, Octavius Camidius Charmian Cleopatra Clown, a Décrétas Demetrius Diomed Dolabella Enobarbus Eros Gallus Iras Maecenas Mardian Menas Menecrates Octavia Philo Pompey, Sextus Proculeius S car us Seleucus Silius Soothsayer, a Taurus Thidias Varrus Ventidius
As You Like It Adam Amiens Audrey Celia Charles Corin Denis Frederick, Duke Hymen Jaques Jaques (de Bois) Le Beau Martext, Sir Oliver Oliver Orlando Pages, Two Phoebe Rosalind Senior, Duke Silvius Touchstone William
Menenius Agrippa Nicanor Valeria Virgilia Volumnia Cymbeline Arviragus Belarius Captain, a Roman Captains, two British Cloten Cornelius Cymbeline, King Filario Ghosts of Posthumus's brothers Ghost of Posthumus's mother Ghost of Sicilius Leonatus Giacomo Guiderius Helen Innogen Jailers, two Jupiter Lord, a Briton Lords, two Lucius, Caius Pisanio Posthumus Leonatus Queen Senators, two Roman Soothsayer, a Tribunes, Roman
The Comedy of Errors Adriana Angelo Antipholus of Ephesus Antipholus of Syracuse Balthasar Dromio of Ephesus Dromio of Syracuse Egeon Emilia Jailer, a Luciana Nell Pinch, Doctor Solinus, Duke of Ephesus
The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry vi) Asnath Beadle Beaufort, Cardinal Bolingbroke, Roger Buckingham, Duke of Butcher, Dick the Cade, Jack Captain of a ship Clerk of Chatham, the Clifford, Old Lord Clifford, Young Edward, Earl of March Gloucester, Humphrey, Duke of
Coriolanus Adrian Aediles Aufidius, Tullus Brutus, Junius Cominius Conspirators Herald, a Lartius, Titus Martius, Caius (afterwards Coriolanus) Martius, Young
Xlll
Gloucester, Duchess of Gough, Matthew Henry vi, King Herald, a Horner, Thomas Hume, Sir John Iden, Alexander Jordan, Margery Margaret, Queen Master of a ship Master's mate Mayor of Saint Albans Murderers, two Richard, Crookback Salisbury, Earl of S aye, Lord Scales, Lord Simpcox, Simon Simpcox's wife Somerset, Duke of Southwell, John Stafford, Sir Humphrey Stafford's brother Stanley, Sir John Suffolk, Marquis, later Duke of Thump, Peter Vaux Warwick, Earl of Weaver, Smith the Whitmore, Walter York, Duke of Hamlet Ambassadors from England Barnardo Captain, a Claudius, King Clowns, two Cornelius Fortinbras Francisco Gertrude, Queen Ghost of Hamlet (late king) Guildenstern Hamlet Horatio Laertes Marcellus Ophelia Osric Players
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTR
Polonius Priest, a Reynaldo Rosencrantz Valtemand j Henry iv Blunt, Sir Walter Carriers, two Chamberlain Douglas, Earl of Francis Gadshill Glyndwr, Owain Harry, Prince Harvey Henry iv, King Hotspur John of Lancaster, Prince Michael, Sir Mortimer, Lord Edmund Mortimer, Lady Northumberland, Earl of Oldcastle, Sir John Percy, Lady Poins Quickly, Mistress Russell Travellers Vernon, Sir Richard Westmorland, Earl of Worcester, Earl of York, Archbishop (Scrope) of 2 Henry iv Bardolph Bardolph, Lord Blunt, Sir John Bullcalf Clarence, Thomas, Duke of Coleville, Sir John Davy Epilogue Falstaff, Sir John Fang Feeble Gloucester, Humphrey, Duk< of Gower Harcourt
Harry, Prince Hastings, Lord Henry iv, King John of Lancaster, Prince Lord Chief Justice Mouldy Mowbray, Lord Thomas Northumberland, Lady Northumberland, Lord Page, Falstaff's Peto Pistol Poins Porter, a Quickly, Mistress Rumour Shadow, Simon Shallow, Robert Silence Snare Surrey, Earl of Tearsheet, Doll Travers Wart, Thomas Warwick, Earl of Westmorland, Earl of York, Archbishop (Scrope) of Henry v Alice Ambassadors, French Bardolph Bates, John Berri, Duke of Bourbon, Duke of Boy, a Burgundy, Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Canterbury, Archbishop of Catherine Charles vi of France, King Clarence, Duke of Constable of France Court, Alexander Dauphin, the Ely, Bishop of Erpingham, Sir Thomas Exeter, Duke of Fluellen, Captain Gloucester, Duke of
Governor of Harfleur Gower, Captain Grandpré, Lord Grey, Sir Thomas Harry, King (Henry v) Herald, a Hostess (formerly Mistress QuicUy) Isabel, Queen Jamy, Captain Macmorris, Captain Montjoy Nim Orléans, Duke of Pistol Ram bur es, Lord Salisbury, Earl of Scrope, Lord Henry Warwick, Earl of Westmorland, Earl of Williams, Michael York, Duke of i Henry vi Alençon, Duke of Auvergne, Countess of Basset Bastard of Orléans Bedford, Duke of Burgundy, Duke of Charles, Dauphin of France Exeter, Duke of Fastolf, Sir John Gargrave, Sir Thomas Glasdale, Sir William Gloucester, Duke of Henry vi, King Joan la Pucelle Lucy, Sir William Margaret of Anjou Master Gunner of Orléans/his son Mayor of London Mortimer, Edmund Plantagenet, Richard (later Duke of York) René, Duke of Anjou, King of Naples Salisbury, Earl of Shepherd, a Somerset, Duke of
Suffolk, Earl of Talbot, Lord Vernon Warwick, Earl of Winchester, Bishop of (later Cardinal) Woodville Julius Caesar Antony Artemidorus Brutus Caesar, Julius Calpurnia Casca Cassius Cato, young Cicero Cinna the conspirator Cinna the poet Claudio Clitus Dardanius Decius Flavius Ghost of Caesar Lepidus Ligarius Lucillius Lucius Messala Metellus Murellus Octavius Pindarus Poet, a Popilius Portia Publius Soothsayer, a Strato Titinius Trebonius Varrus Volumnius King John Arthur Austria, Duke of Bastard, Phillip the Bigot, Lord Blanche, Lady
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
Châtillon Citizen of Angers Constance, Lady Eleanor, Queen Essex, Earl of Falconbridge, Lady Falconbridge, Robert Gurney, James Henry, Prince Hubert John, King Louis the Dauphin Melun, Count Pandolf, Cardinal Pembroke, Earl of Peter of Pomfret Phillip, King of France Salisbury, Earl of King Lear Albany, Duke of Burgundy, Duke of Cordelia Cornwall, Duke of Curan Edgar Edmond Fool, Lear's France, King of Gloucester, Earl of Goneril Herald, a Kent, Earl of Lear, King Oswald Regan Servant, Cornwall's Love's Labour's Lost Armado, Don Adriano de Biron Boyet Catherine Costard Dull, Anthony Dumaine France, Princess of Holofernes Jaquenetta Longueville Lords, two Maria
Mercadé Mote Nathaniel, Sir Navarre, King of, Ferdinand Rosaline Macbeth Angus Apparitions, three Banquo Caithness Doctor of Physic, a Doctor, an English Donalbain Duncan, King of Scotland Fleance Hecate Lennox Macbeth Macbeth, Lady Macduff Macduff, Lady Malcolm Menteith Murderers, three Porter, a Ross Seyton Si ward Siward, Young Witches, three Measure for Measure Abhorson Angelo Barnardine Claudio Elbow Escalus Francesca Friar Peter Froth Isabella Juliet Lucio Mariana Overdone, Mistress Pompey Provost, a Varrius Vincentio, Duke of Vienna
The Merchant of Venice Antonio Aragon, Prince of Balthasar Bassanio Gobbo Graziano Jessica Lancelot Leonardo Lorenzo Morocco, Prince of
Goodfellow, Robin Helena Hermia Hippolyta Lysander Mote Mustardseed Oberon Peaseblossom Philostrate Quince, Peter Snout, Tom
Nerissa Portia Salerio
Snug Starveling, Robin Theseus
Shylock Solanio Stefano Tubal Venice, Duke of
Titania
The Merry Wives of Windsor Bardolph Caius, Doctor Evans, Sir Hugh Falstaff, Sir John Fenton, Master Ford, Master Frank Ford, Mistress Alice Host of the Garter Inn John Nim Page, Anne Page, Master George Page, Mistress Margaret Page, William Pistol Quickly, Mistress Robert Robin Rugby, John Shallow, Robert Simple, Peter Slender, Master Abraham A Midsummer Night's Dream Bottom, Nick Cobweb Demetrius Egeus Fairy Flute, Francis
Much Ado About Nothing Antonio Balthasar Beatrice Benedick Borachio Boy, a Claudio Conrad Dogberry Friar Francis Hero John, Don Leonato Margaret Pedro, Don Sexton, a Ursula Verges
Othello Bianca Brabanzio Cassio Clown, a Desdemona Emilia Graziano Herald, a Iago Lodovico Montano Othello
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENT
Roderigo Senators Venice, Duke of Pericles Aeschines Antiochus Antiochus's daughter Bawd, a Boult Cerimon Cleon Diana Dioniza Fishermen, three Gower, John Helicanus Knights, five Leonine Lychorida Lysimachus Marina Marshal, a Pander, a Pericles Philemon Simonides, King Thaisa Thaliart Richard Duke of York (3 Henry vi) Bona, Lady Bourbon, Lord Clarence, George, Duke of Clifford, Lord Edward, Earl of March (later Edward iv) Edward, Prince Exeter, Duke of Gloucester, Richard, Duke of Gray, Lady Hastings, Lord Henry vi, King Huntsman, a Lieutenant of the Tower Louis, King Margaret, Queen Mayor of Coventry Mayor of York Montague, Marquis of Montgomery, Sir John
Mortimer, Sir John and Sir Hugh Norfolk, Duke of Nothumberland, Earl of Oxford, Earl of Pembroke, Earl of Rivers, Earl Rutland, Earl of Soldier who has killed his father, a Soldier who has killed his son, a Somerset, Duke of Somerville Stafford, Lord Stanley, Sir William Tutor, Rutland's Warwick, Earl of York, Duke of (Richard Plantagenet) Richard 11 Aumerle, Duke of Bagot Berkeley, Lord Bolingbroke, Harry Bushy Captain of the Welsh army Carlisle, Bishop of Exton, Sir Piers Fitzwalter, Lord Gaunt, John of Gloucester, Duchess of Green Lord Marshal Mowbray, Thomas Northumberland, Earl of Percy, HarryQueen Richard 11, King Ross, Lord Salisbury, Earl of Scrope, Sir Stephen Surrey, Duke of Westminster, Abbot of Willoughby, Lord York, Duchess of York, Duke of Richard 111 Anne, Lady Blunt, Sir James
Brackenbury, Sir Robert Buckingham, Duke of Cardinal Catesby, Sir William Christopher, Sir Clarence, George, Duke of Clarence's daughter Clarence's son Dorset, Marquis of Edward iv, King Edward, Prince Elizabeth, Queen Ely, Bishop of Gray, Lord Hastings, Lord Herbert, Sir Walter Margaret, Queen Mayor of London, Lord Murderers Norfolk, Duke of Oxford, Earl of Page, a Priest, a Ratcliffe, Sir Richard Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard 111) Richmond, Earl of (later Henry VII) Rivers, Earl Stanley, Lord Tyrrel, Sir James Vaughan, Sir Thomas York, Duchess of York, Richard, Duke of Romeo and Juliet Abraham Apothecary, an Balthasar Benvolio Capulet Capulet's cousin Capulet's wife Chorus Escalus, Prince of Verona Friar John Friar Laurence Gregory Juliet Mercutio Montague Montague's wife
Nurse, Juliet's Page, Mercutio's Page, Paris's Paris, County Peter Petruccio Romeo Samson Tybalt
The Taming of the Shrew Baptista Minola Bartholomew Bianca Biondello Curtis Gremio Grumio Haberdasher, a Hortensio Hostess, a Huntsmen, two Joseph Katherine Lord, a Lucentio Nathaniel Pedant, a Peter Petruccio Philip Players Sly, Christopher Tailor, a Tranio Vincentio Widow, a The Tempest Adrian Alonso Antonio Ariel Boatswain Caliban Ceres Ferdinand Francisco Gonzalo Iris Juno
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
Master of a ship Miranda Prospero Sebastian Stefano Trinculo Timon of Athens Alcibiades Apemantus Caphis Flaminius Flavius Fool, a Hortensius' servant Isidore's servant Lucilius Lucius Lucius' servant Lucullus Lucullus' servant Page, a Painter, a Philotus's servant Phrynia Poet, a Sempronius Servilius Timandra Timon Titus' servant Varro's servants Ventidius Titus Andronicus Aaron Aemilius Alarbus Bassianus Caius Captain, a Chiron Clown, a Demetrius Lavinia Lucius Lucius, Young Marcus Andronicus Martius Mutius Nurse, a
Publius Quintus Saturnius Sempronius Tamora Titus Andronicus Valentine Troilus and Cressida Achilles Aeneas Agamemnon Ajax Alexander Andromache Antenor Calchas Cassandra Cressida Deiphobus Diomedes Hector Helen Helenus Margareton Menelaus Nestor Pandarus Paris Patroclus Priam Thersites Troilus Ulysses Twelfth Night Aguecheek, Sir Andrew Antonio Belch, Sir Toby Captain, a Curio Fabian F este Malvolio Maria Olivia Orsino Priest, a Sebastian Valentine Viola
The Two Gentlemen of Verona Antonio Eglamour, Sir Host, a Julia Lance Lucetta Milan, Duke of Panthino Proteus Silvia Speed Thurio Valentine The Two Noble Kinsmen Arcite Artesius Emilia Gerald Hippolyta Hymen Jailer, a Jailer's daughter Palamon Pirithous Theseus Valerius The Winter's Tale Antigonus Archidamus Autolycus Camillo Cleomenes Clown, a Dion Dorcas Emilia Florizel Hermione Jailer, a Leontes Mamillius Mariner, a Mopsa Paulina Perdita Polixenes Shepherd, Old
Songs and songfragments in the plays, and composers of early settings songs in the plays ballad broadside ballad Johnson, Robert Morley, Thomas music Wilson, John All Is True {Henry vm) 'Orpheus with his lute' Antony and Cleopatra 'Come, thou monarch of the
As You Like It 'Blow, blow, thou winter wind' 'It was a lover and his lass' 'Under the greenwood tree' 'Wedding is great Juno's crown' 'What shall he have that killed the deer?' Cymbeline 'Fear no more the heat o' the sun' 'Hark, hark, the lark' Hamlet 'And will a not come again' 'For Bonny and sweet Robin is all my joy' 'How should I your true love know' 'In youth when I did love' 'They bore him barefaced on the bier' 'Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's day' 2 Henry iv 'A cup of wine that's brisk and fine' 'And Robin Hood, Scarlet and John'
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
'Be merry, be merry, my wife has all' 'Carman's Whistle' 'Do me right, and dub me knight' 'Do nothing but eat and make good cheer' Fill the cup and let it come' 'When Arthur first in court' Henry v 'And sword and shield I In bloody field' 'Câlin o custure me' 'If wishes would prevail with me' King Lear 'Child Rowland to the dark tower came' 'Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me' 'He that has and a little tiny wit' 'Then they for sudden joy did weep' Love's Labour's Lost 'King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid' 'When daisies pied' 'When icicles hang by the wall' Measure for Measure 'Take, O take those lips away' The Merchant of Venice 'Tell me, where is Fancy bred?' The Merry Wives of Windsor 'To shallow rivers, to whose falls' Fie on sinful fantasy' 'Fortune my foe' 'Greensleeves' A Midsummer Night's Dream 'The ousel cock so black of hue' 'You spotted snakes'
Much Ado About Nothing 'Pardon, goddess of the night' 'Sigh no more, ladies' 'The god of love that sits above' Othello 'And let me the cannikin clink' 'King Stephen was and a worthy peer' Willow song ('The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree') Romeo and Juliet 'An old hare hoar' 'Heart's Ease' 'Hunt's up, the' 'My heart is full of woe' 'When griping grief the heart doth wound' The Taming of the Shrew 'It was the Friar of orders grey' 'Where is the life that late I led?' The Tempest 'Come unto these yellow sands' Flout 'em and cout 'em' 'Full fathom five' 'Honour, riches, marriage, blessing' 'I shall no more to sea' 'No more dams I'll make for fish' 'The master, the swabber, the bosun and I' 'Where the bee sucks' 'While you here do snoring lie' Troilus and Cressida 'Love, love, nothing but love' Twelfth Night 'Come away, come away, death' 'Farewell, dear heart, for I must needs be gone'
'Hey Robin, jolly Robin, tell me how thy Lady does' 'Hold thy peace' 'O mistress mine' 'O' the twelfth day of December' 'Peg a Ramsay' 'There dwelt a man in Babylon' 'Three merry men be we' 'When that I was and a little tiny boy' The Two Gentlemen of Verona 'Light o' love' 'Who is Silvia?' The Two Noble Kinsmen 'Roses, their sharp spines being gone' 'Urns and odours, bring away'
Normandy Padua Rome Shrewsbury Sicilia Sutton Cop Hill Venice Verona Vienna Windsor Poems lyric poetry, Shakespeare's Epitaph on Elias James Epitaphs on John Combe A Lover's Complaint 'On Ben Jonson' 'The Phoenix and Turtle' The Rape of Lucrèce Sonnets Venus and Adonis
Attributed poems The Winter's Tale 'But shall I go mourn for that' 'Get you hence, for I must go' 'Jog on, jog on' 'Lawn as white as driven snow' 'When daffodils begin to peer' 'Whoop, do me no harm, good man' 'Will you buy any tape' Locations in the plays Ardenne Athens Berkeley Castle Bosworth Field Dover Dunsinane Elsinore Florence Gloucestershire Illyria Kent Leicester Abbey Mantua Milan Milford Haven Muscovy Naples
Belvedere, or The Garden ofthe Muses 'Crabbed age and youth' England's Helicon England's Parnassus 'A Funeral Elegy' The Passionate Pilgrim 'Shall I die' Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music 'Upon the King'
1? L I T E R A R Y FEATURES AND TERMS Genres, forms and modes dramatic poetry, Shakespeare's lyric poetry, Shakespeare's city comedy comedy doggerel epyllion history Jacobean tragedy
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
last plays lyric masque pastoral 'Problem Plays' prose revenge tragedy rhyme royal romance romances sonnet Tetralogy, First Tetralogy, Second tragedy tragicomedy Dramatic terms anagnorisis anticlimax deus ex machina dramatis personae dumb shows epilogue induction 'mutes' prologue shared lines soliloquy Figures of speech anadiplosis anaphora antithesis aporia blazon chiasmus conceit euphuism hyperbole imagery litotes meiosis metaphor metonymy onomatopoeia oxymoron paradox parison pathetic fallacy prolepsis prosopopoeia puns
rhetoric simile stichomythia synecdoche Metrical terms alexandrine anapaest anaptyxis blank verse brokenbacked line caesura couplet dactyl dimeter elision end-stopped enjambment epic caesura feminine endings foot headless line heroic couplets iambic long lines metre pauses pentameter Pyrrhic foot short lines spondee squinting line synaeresis syncope tetrameter trimeter trochee weak endings
Linguistic features English, Elizabethan alliteration anacoluthon dialects Dogberryism foreign words hendiadys pronunciation spelling vocabulary
Other literary terms allusion anachronism dramatic irony irony rhyme
1P E L I Z A B E T H A N AND JACOBEAN
LITER-
ARY CONTEXT
Sources and influences
Apuleius, Lucius Ariosto, Ludovico Bandello, Matteo Belleforest, Francois de Bible Boccaccio, Giovanni Brooke, Arthur Castiglione, Baldassare Caxton, William Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de Chaucer, Geoffrey Cinthio commedia dell'arte Du Bellay, Joachim Elyot, Sir Thomas Euripides Fabyan, Robert Famous Victories of Henry v 'Felix and Philiomena' Florio, Giovanni (John) Foxe, John Froissart, Jean Gamelyn, Tale of Gascoigne, George Geoffrey of Monmouth Giovanni (Florentino), Ser Giulio Romano Gl'Ingannati Gonzaga, Curzio Gower, John Grafton, Richard Greek drama Greene, Robert Hakluyt, Richard Hall, Joseph Halle, Edward
Harington, Sir John Harrison, William Harsnett, Samuel Hayward, Sir John Henryson, Robert Holinshed, Raphael Homer Huon de Bordeaux interludes Jodelle, Etienne Jonson, Ben Jourdan, Sylvester King Leir Knolles, Richard Kyd, Thomas Legh, Gerard 'Li Tre Saltiri' Livy Lodge, Thomas Lucan Lucian Lydgate, John Lyly, John Machiavelli, Niccolo Mantuanus, Baptista Spagnolo Marlowe, Christopher masque Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn Menander miracle plays The Mirror for Magistrates Molyneux, Emerie Monarcho Montaigne, Michel de Montemayor, Jorge de morality plays Mouffet, Thomas mystery plays oral traditions Ovid Painter, William Petrarch, Francesco Plautus Pléiade Pliny Plutarch Puttenham, George and Richard Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
revenge tragedy Rich, Barnabe Ronsard, Pierre de Rowley, Samuel Saxo Grammaticus Scot, Reginald Segar, Sir William Seneca, Lucius Annaeus Sidney, Sir Philip Sir Clyomon and Clamydes Speed, John Spenser, Edmund Strachey, William Terence Thomas of Woodstock Topsell, John Tottell, Richard The True Tragedy of Richard in Twine, Laurence ur- Hamlet Virgil 'War of the Theatres' Warner, William Whetstone, George Shakespeare's literary contemporaries Armin, Robert Ayrer, Jakob Bacon, Francis Barnes, Barnabe Barnfield, Richard Beaumont, Francis Brooke, Arthur Campion, Thomas Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de Chapman, George Chester, Robert Chettle, Henry Cinthio Coryat, Thomas Cotgrave, Randle Daniel, Samuel Davenport, Robert Day, John Dekker, Thomas Deloney, Thomas Donne, John Dorset, Thomas Sackville, ist Earl of Drayton, Michael
Sidney, Sir Philip Spenser, Edmund Stubbes, Phillip Topsell, John Tottel, Richard Turner, William Twine, Laurence University Wits Warner, William Webster, John Whetstone, George Wilkins, George Wither, George (See also Criticism and allusions before 1660, below.)
Drummond, William Fletcher, John Florio, Giovanni (John) Foxe, John Gascoigne, George Gonzaga, Curzio Gosson, Stephen Grafton, Richard Greene, Robert Greville, Fulke Grimestone, Edward Hakluyt, Richard Hall, Joseph Harington, Sir John Harrison, William Harvey, Gabriel Hayward, Sir John Heywood, Thomas Holinshed, Raphael Jodelle, Etienne Jonson, Benjamin Knolles, Richard Kyd, Thomas Lanier, Emilia Lodge, Thomas Lyly, John Markham, Gervase Marlowe, Christopher Massinger, Philip Middleton, Thomas Milton, John Mouffet, Thomas Mulcaster, Richard Munday, Anthony Nashe, Thomas Norton, Thomas Painter, William Peacham, Henry Peele, George Pembroke, Mary Herbert,
^THEATRICAL CONTEXT TO
1660
The playgoing experience acting, Elizabethan acting profession, Elizabethan and Jacobean act and scene divisions audiences groundlings intervals jig5 performance times, lengths revivals Roxana title page soundings (of trumpets) The Wits, title page Theatre hierarchy, management, and records acting profession, Elizabethan and Jacobean companies, playing
Countess of Pléiade Porter, Henry Puttenham, George and Richard Raleigh, Sir Walter Rich, Barnabe Ronsard, Pierre de Rowley, Samuel Rowley, William Scot, Reginald Segar, Sir William
apprentices book-keeper boy actors doubling gatherers Henslowe, Philip hired men housekeepers
xx
Langley, Francis parts pay playbook plots prompt-book rehearsal repertory system sharer stage-hand stage-keeper tireman The theatre building flags galleries Gentlemen's Rooms groundlings heavens Lords Room orchestra pit shadow yard T h e stage space, mechanics, and properties 'above' apron stage back-cloths costume curtains descent discovery space flats/shutters flying footlights forestage furniture Hell 'inner stage' lighting locality boards machines multiple setting music room perspective properties proscenium scenery stage decoration
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
stage doors stage furniture throne or state tiring house trap doors upper stage Theatre companies and patronage acting profession, Elizabethan and Jacobean companies, playing Admiral's Men Chamberlain's Men/King's Men Chapel Royal children's companies Derby's (Strange's) Men livery patronage Pembroke's Men protection of players provincial companies, tours Stratford-upon-Avon, Elizabethan, and the theatre Theatres theatres, Elizabethan and Jacobean Blackfriars Curtain Theatre Fortune Theatre Globe Theatre Hotel de Bourgogne London Palladio, Andrea Porter's Hall Red Lion Rose Theatre Swan Theatre Theatre, The Inns inns State regulation and court performances An Act to restrain abuses of players (1606) Buck, Sir George
censorship Chamber Accounts court performances Cromwell, Oliver Elizabeth 1 Greenwich Palace Hampton Court Herbert, Sir Henry James 1 Lent Lord Chamberlain Master of the Revels plague regulations Privy Council revels office and accounts Tilney, Sir Edmund Whitehall Anti-theatrical debate anti-theatrical polemic Heywood, Thomas religion Stubbes, Philip Other entertainments animal shows civic entertainments masques pageants university performances
Theatre personnel to
1660 acting, Elizabethan acting profession, Elizabethan and Jacobean companies, playing Allen, Giles Alleyn, Edward Armin, Robert Beeston, Christopher Benfield, Robert Brayne, John Bryan, George Burbage, Cuthbert Burbage, James Burbage, Richard Cholmeley, Richard Condell, Henry Cooke, Alexander
Cowley, Richard Cox, Robert Crosse, Samuel Davenant, Sir William Ecclestone, William Field, Nathan Gilburne, Samuel Gough, Robert Heminges, John Henslowe, Philip Hunnis, William Jones, Inigo Jonson, Ben Kempe, William Keysar, Robert Lowin, John Ostler, William Phillips, Augustine Pope, Thomas Rice, John Robinson, Richard Shank, John Sharpham, Edward Sincler (Sinklo), John Sly, William Spencer, Gabriel Street, Peter Swanston, Eliard Tarlton, Richard Tawyer, William Taylor, Joseph Tooley, Nicholas Underwood, John Williams, John
1P H I S T O R I C A L , SOCIAL, AND TURAL
CUL-
CONTEXT
art astrology calendar childbirth and child-rearing crime and punishment death Dutch wars education enclosure fairies food and drink fools ghosts
Gowrie conspiracy Gunpowder Plot heraldry hunting and sports Jews law marriage medicine monsters Moors nationalism patronage plagues prostitution reading and the book trade religion science service sexuality tobacco travel, trade, and colonialism vagrancy war witchcraft Elizabethan London (See also Theatre buildings.) London Bankside Barbican City Clink Counter Dulwich Finsbury Greenwich Palace Guilds Hampton Court Hollar, Wenceslaus Holywell Inns of Court Liberties Merchant Taylors' School Mermaid Tavern Moorfields Southwark St Mary Overies Stow, John Westminster Whitehall Winchester House
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
Prominent contemporaries
Elizabethan music and dance
Bales, Peter Bracciano, Orsini, Duke of Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of Carey, Elizabeth Cecil, Robert Cecil, William, Lord Burghley Cobham, William Brooke, 7th Lord Essex, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Garnet, Henry Gates, Sir Thomas Gerard, John Hollar, Wenceslaus Hooker, Richard Hunsdon, George Carey, 2nd Lord Hunsdon, Henry Carey, 1st Lord Jones, Inigo Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of Lopez, Roderigo Pembroke, Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Stanley, Sir Thomas Vernon, Elizabeth
music songs in the plays
The monarchy Anne of Denmark Charles 1 Elector Palatine Elizabeth 1 Elizabeth of Bohemia Henri iv of France Henrietta Maria Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales James 1
alarums bagpipe ballad Bergomask (bergamasca) brawl (branle) broadside ballad broken music (consort) Byrd, William canaries cinquepace (sinkapace) cittern coranto cornet dance in the plays dirge divisions Dowland, John drums dump Edwardes, Richard excursions fanfare fiddle fife flourish flute freemen's songs galliard gavotte harp hautboy hay (hey) horn hornpipe jigs Johnson, Robert Jones, Robert lute madrigal marches measure Morley, Thomas morris dance music of the spheres organ passamezzo pavan
proportion psaltery rebec recorder regal retreat roundel sackbut sennet strain tabor trumpet tucket ventage viol virginal volta, la Weelkes, Thomas Wilson, John
W ELIZABETHAN AND
JACOBEAN
PRINTING, PUBLISHING,
AND
MANUSCRIPTS
printing and publishing reading and the book trade act and scene divisions anonymous publications assembled texts blocking entry 'book' bookkeeper cancel capitalization cases cast-off copy collaboration colophon compositors copy copyright Crane, Ralph deletion derelict plays Dering manuscript device Douai promptbooks and manuscripts
dramatis personae emendation entrances and exits F Folios forme foul case foul papers galley handwriting imprint interpolations italics Jaggard, William and Isaac Longleat manuscript manuscript plays mislineation misprints Moseley, Humphrey Northumberland manuscript Octavo 'plots' proofreading punctuation Q Quartos reported text revision Roberts, James shorthand Sir Thomas More speech-prefixes stage directions Stationers' Company and Register title pages transcripts
1 ? T H E E D I T I N G OF SHAKESPEARE SINCE 1700
Aspects of editing authenticity bibliography canon chronology computers concordances copyright disintegration
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
Editors and editions since 1900
editing electronic media emendation facsimile editions metrical tests parallel texts textual criticism
1? E D I T I O N S EDITORS
AND IN
ENGLISH
Restoration and eighteenth-century editors and editions Bell, John Capell, Edward Dodd's Beauties of Shakespeare Hanmer, Sir Thomas Johnson, Samuel Malone, Edmond Pope, Alexander Reed, Isaac Rowe, Nicholas Steevens, George Theobald, Lewis Warburton, William Nineteenth-century editors and editions Boswell, James, jr Clark, William George Clarke, Charles Cowden Dyce, Alexander Family Shakespeare Fleay, Frederick Gard Furness, Horace Howard Furnivall, Frederick James Globe Shakespeare Halliwell-Phillipps, James Orchard Henry Irving Shakespeare 'Leopold' Shakespeare New Variorum Pitt Press Shakespeare Rochfort-Smith, Teena Rolfe's Shakespeare Temple Shakespeare Variorum Shakespeare Wright, W. Aldis
Alexander, Peter Arden Shakespeare Bevington Shakespeare Boas, Frederick S. Bowers, Fredson Cambridge Shakespeare Cambridge Shakespeare, New Challis Shakespeare Folger Shakespeare Folio Society Shakespeare Greg, Walter Wilson Halliday, F. E. Harrison, George Bagshawe Hinman, Charlton Kittredge, G. L. Mack, Maynard Muir, Kenneth New Shakespeare New Temple Shakespeare New Variorum Nicoll, Allardyce Norton Shakespeare Old-spelling Shakespeare Oxford Shakespeare Pelican Shakespeare Penguin Shakespeare Players' Shakespeare Riverside Shakespeare Signet Shakespeare Sisson, C. J. strip-cartoon Shakespeare Tudor Shakespeare Wilson, John Dover Yale Shakespeare
^THEATRICAL HISTORY OF T H E PLAYS Shakespeare in the theatre, 1660-1800 Restoration and eighteenthcentury Shakespearian production Stage personnel, 1660-1800 Baddeley, Sophia Barry, Ann
Barry, Elizabeth Barry, Spranger Beeston, William Behn, Aphra Betterton, Mary Betterton, Thomas Booth, Barton Bowman, John Bracegirdle, Anne Cibber, Colley Cibber, Susannah Maria Cibber, Theophilus Clive, Catherine Colman, George, the Elder Cooke, George Frederick Crowne, John Cumberland, Richard Dance, James Dogget, Thomas Downes, John Durfey, Thomas Fleetwood, Charles Foote, Samuel Garrick, David Harris, Henry Henderson, John Howard, James Hughes, Margaret Hull, Thomas Johnson, Charles Jordan, Dorothea Kemble, Charles Kemble, John Philip Killigrew, Thomas King, Thomas Kynaston, Edward Lacy, John Loutherbourg, Philip Jacques de Macklin, Charles Mohun, Michael Nokes, James Palmer, John Pope, Elizabeth Powell, William Pritchard, Hannah Quin, James Rich, John Robinson, Mary 'Perdita' Schroder, Friedrich Ludwig Sheridan, Thomas Siddons, Sarah
Verbruggen, Woffington, Woodward, Yates, Mary
Susannah Margaret 'Peg' Henry Ann
Restoration and eighteenth-century theatres and companies Comédie Française Covent Garden Theatre Drury Lane Theatre Duke's Company Goodman's Fields Theatre Her Majesty's Theatre Lincoln's Inn Fields Smock Alley Adaptations and adaptors, 1640-18 50 (See also the accounts of the stage history of each play, particularly for adaptations which do not significantly alter the titles of the plays they rewrite.) adaptation burlesques and travesties of Shakespeare's plays All for Love Der Bestrafte Brudermord Betterton, Thomas Bottom the Weaver The Bouncing Knight The History and Fall of Caius Marius Capell, Edward Catharine and Petruchio The Cobbler of Preston Colman, George, the elder The Comical Gallant Conspiracy Discovered Cox, Robert Crowne, John Cumberland, Richard A Cure for a Scold Cymbeline, a tragedy, altered from Shakespeare Davenant, Sir William Dennis, John Dorastus and Fawnia Droll Dryden, John
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
Duffett, Thomas Durfey, Thomas The Fairies The Fairy Queen A Fairy Tale Garrick, David The Grave-Makers Hauptmann, Gerhart Hawkins, William The History of King Lear The Ingratitude of a Commonwealth The few of Venice Johnson, Charles Kemble, John Philip King Henry the Fifth: or, the Conquest of France by the English Kirkman, Francis Lacy, John The Law against Lovers Lillo, George Love in a Forest The Modern Receipt Reynolds, Frederick The Rivals The Shipwreck Tate, Nahum Theobald, Lewis Shakespeare in the theatre 1800-1900 burlesques and travesties of Shakespeare's plays nineteenth-century Shakespearian production recitations and one-person shows Stage personnel, 1800-
1900 Aldridge, Ira Anderson, Mary Barrett, Lawrence Barrymore family Benson, Frank Bernhardt, Sarah Betty, William Henry West Bjoernson, Bjoernstjerne Booth, Edwin Booth, Junius Brutus Calvert, Charles
Cooke, George F. Cushman, Charlotte Daly, Augustin Drew family Elliston, Robert William Faucit, Helena Saville Fechter, Charles Albert Fiske, Minnie Maddern Forbes-Robertson, Sir Johnston Forrest, Edwin Greet, Sir Philip Barling Ben Hackett family Harvey, Sir Martin Irving, Sir Henry Kean, Charles Kean, Edmund Kemble, Frances Anne Langtry, Lily Macready, William Charles Mansfield, Richard Mantell, R. B. Mathews, Charles James McCullough, John Edward Modjeska, Helena Neilson, Adelaide Neilson, Julia O'Neill, Eliza Phelps, Samuel Planche, James Robinson Poel, William Rehan, Ada Ristori, Adelaide Rossi, Ernesto Salvini Savits, Jocza Sothern, Edward Hugh Sullivan, Barry Terry, Ellen Tree, Beerbohm Vestris, Elizabeth Ward, Genevieve Young, Charles Mayne
Old Vic Sadler's Wells Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Shakespeare in the theatre, 1 9 0 0 twentieth-century Shakespearean production modern dress Stage personnel, 1 9 0 0 -
Nineteenth-century theatres and companies Comédie Française Covent Garden Theatre Drury Lane Theatre Her Majesty's Theatre Lyceum Theatre Odeon, Theatre de 1'
Anderson, Dame Judith Artaud, Antonin Ashcroft, Dame Peggy Atkins, Robert Audley, Maxine Badel, Alan Barrault, Jean-Louis Barton, John Baylis, Lilian Mary Benthall, Michael Bergman, Ingmar Bloom, Claire Bogdanov, Michael Branagh, Kenneth Braunschweig, Stéphane Brecht, Bertolt Bridges-Adams Brook, Peter Burton, Richard Byam Shaw, Glen Calhern, Louis Calvert, Louis Chereau, Patrice Ciulei, Liviu Colicos, John Copeau, Jacques Craig, Gordon Deguchi, Norio Dench, Dame Judi Devine, George Evans, Dame Edith Evans, Maurice Finney, Albert Fluchere, Henri Fukuda, Tsuneari Gambon, Sir Michael Gielgud, Sir John Godfrey, Derek Goodbody, Buzz Goring, Marius
XXIV
Granville-Barker, Harley Gray, Terence Guinness, Sir Alec Guthrie, Sir Tyrone Hall, Sir Peter Hands, Terry Hardy, Robert Helpmann, Robert Holm, Sir Ian Hordern, Sir Michael Houseman, John Howard, Alan Hunt, Hugh Hutt, William Jackson, Sir Barry Jacobi, Sir Derek Jefford, Barbara Jones, James Earl Kingsley, Ben Komisarjevsky, Theodore Kortner, Fritz Krauss, Werner Langham, Michael Laughton, Charles Leigh, Vivien Lepage, Robert Llorca, Denis Marlowe, Julia McCarthy, Lilian McKellen, Sir Ian Miller, Jonathan Mirren, Helen Mnouchkine, Ariane Monck, Nugent 'Motley' Neville, John Ninagawa, Yukio Noble, Adrian Nunn, Trevor Okhlopkov, Nikolai Olivier, Lord Pasco, Richard Pennington, Michael Planchon, Roger Plummer, Christopher Porter, Eric Quayle, Sir Anthony Rain, Douglas (Ontario) Redgrave, Sir Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Reinhardt, Max Richardson, Ian
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
Richardson, Sir Ralph Richardson, Tony Rigg, Dame Diana Robeson, Paul Schell, Maximilian Scofield, Paul Seale, Douglas Shaw, Glen Byam Sher, Sir Antony Sinden, Sir Donald Sjoberg, Aid Smith, Dame Maggie Speaight, Robert Stanislavsky, Konstantin Stein, Peter Stephens, Sir Robert Stewart, Patrick Strehler, Giorgio Suzman, Janet Suzuki, Tadashi Thorndike, Dame Sybil Tutin, Dorothy Tynan, Kenneth Valk, Frederick Vanbrugh, Violet Vilar, Jean Visconti, Luchino Vitez, Antoine Warner, David Warner, Deborah Webster, Margaret Welles, Orson Williams, Clifford Williams, Harcourt Williamson, Nicol Wolfit, Sir Donald Wood, John Worth, Irene Zadek, Peter Twentieth-century theatres and companies Barbican Theatre Birmingham Repertory Theatre Cheek by Jowl Chichester Festival Theatre Comédie Française English Shakespeare Company English Stage Company Glasgow Citizens'
Globe reconstructions Her Majesty's Theatre National Theatre (Royal National Theatre) New York Shakespeare Festival Old Vic Odeon, Theatre de 1' Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park Royal Shakespeare Company Royal Shakespeare Theatre
neoclassicism New Criticism new historicism performance criticism postmodernism psychoanalytic criticism Romanticism structuralism and poststructuralism Criticism and allusions before 1660
Addenbrooke, John Aubrey, John Barksted, William (See also Shakespeare on film Barnfield, Richard Basse, William and Shakespeare's literary Beaumont, Francis influence.) Belott-Mountjoy suit Boaden, James Brecht, Bertolt Bolton, Edmund burlesques and travesties of Camden, William Shakespeare's plays Carew, Richard Lepage, Robert Chamberlain, John Macbett Chettle, Henry Marowitz, Charles Combe family Muller, Heiner Cope, Sir Walter musicals Corbet, Richard opera Covell, William A Place Calling Itself Rome Return to the Forbidden Planet Davenant, William Davies, John Verdi, Giuseppe Digges, Leonard The Wars of the Roses Dugdale, Sir William West Side Story Forman, Simon Your Own Thing Freeman, Thomas Fuller, Thomas W C R I T I C A L H I S T O R Y Ges ta Gray 0 rum OF T H E WORKS Greene, Robert Harvey, Gabriel critical history Harvey, Sir William scholarship Holland, Hugh Critical schools and Howes, Edmund periods Impresa James, Richard Christian criticism Jonson, Ben cultural materialism Keeling, Captain William feminist criticism Knight, Charles formalism Lambarde, William humanism M., I. (Mabbe, James?) Jungian criticism Manningham, John Marxist criticism Markham, Gervase modernist criticism Meres, Francis moralist criticism Stage adaptations and burlesques, 1 9 0 0 -
Parnassus plays Phillips, Augustine Pimlico Platter, Thomas Pudsey, Edward Quiney, Richard Ratsey, Gamaliel Renoldes, William Richardson, Nicholas Taylor, John Webster, John Weever, John Wayte, William Willobie his Avisa Wotton, Henry Criticism and scholarship, 1660-1800 Addison, Joseph Ayscough, Samuel Bishop, Sir William Capell, Edward Chalmers, Alexander Collier, Jeremy Davies, Richard Dennis, John Dodds Beauties of Shakespeare Dryden, John Farmer, Richard Gentleman, Francis George in Gildon, Charles Griffith, Elizabeth Hanmer, Sir Thomas Hawkins, William Johnson, Samuel Karnes, Henry Home, Lord Kenrick, William Langbaine, Gerard Lennox, Charlotte Lessing, G. E. Mackenzie, Henry Malone, Edmond Montagu, Elizabeth Morgann, Maurice Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Oldys, William Pepys, Samuel Pope, Alexander Reed, Isaac Richardson, William
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
Rowe, Nicholas Rymer, Thomas Steevens, George Theobald, Lewis Thirlby, Styan Tyrwhitt, Thomas Warburton, William Wharton, Joseph Wood, Anthony Wright, James Criticism and scholarship, 1800-1900 Abbott, E. A. Arnold, Matthew Bagehot, Walter Bartlett, John Boswell, James, jr. Bradley, A. C. Brandes, Georg Carlyle, Thomas Clark, William George Clarke, Charles Cowden Clarke, Mary Cowden Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Cornwall, Barry (Procter, Bryan Waller) Creizenach, Wilhelm Cunningham, Peter Davies, Thomas De Quincey, Thomas Delius, Nikolaus Douce, Francis Dowden, Edward Drake, Nathan Dyce, Alexander Elze, Karl Fleay, Frederick Gard Furness, Horace Howard Furnivall, Frederick James Gaedertz, Karl Theodor Gautier, Théophile Genest, John Gervinus, Georg Gottfried Gollancz, Israel Hales, John Halliwell-Phillipps, James Orchard Hazlitt, William Herrera Bustamante, Manuel Hudson, Henry Norman Hunt, Leigh
Lamb, Charles and Mary Lee, Sidney Mallarmé, Stéphane Matthews, James Brander Moulton, Richard Green Nerval, Gerard de Pater, Walter Poe, Edgar Allan Rochfort-Smith, Teena Saintsbury, George Sand, George Schlegel, August Wilhelm Simpson, Richard Stopes, Charlotte Carmichael Taine, Hippolyte Tyler, Thomas Watkins-Lloyd, W. Wright, W. Aldis Ulrici, Hermann Criticism and scholarship, 1 9 0 0 Adams, J. C. Adams, Joseph Quincy Alexander, Peter Archer, William Baldwin, Thomas Whitfield Beerbohm, Max Bentley, Gerald Eades Bian Zhilin Boas, Frederick S. Bowers, Fredson Bradbrook, Muriel Brooke, C. F. Tucker Bullough, Geoffrey Chambers, Edmund Kerchever Clemen, Wolfgang Croce, Benedetto Eliot, Thomas Stearns Ellis-Fermor, Una Empson, William Freud, Sigmund Fripp, Edgar Innes Frye, Northrop Greg, Walter Wilson Gundolf, Friedrich Halliday, F. E. Harbage, Alfred Harris, Frank Harrison, George Bagshawe Hinman, Charlton
Hotson, Leslie Hughes, Ted Jones, Ernest Kittredge, G. L. Knight, George Wilson Knights, L. C. Kott, Jan Leavis, F. R. Legouis, Emile Mack, Maynard McKerrow, Ronald Brunlees McManaway, James Gilmer Morozov, Mikhail Muir, Kenneth Murry, Middleton Nicoll, Allardyce Pollard, Alfred William Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur Raleigh, Sir Walter Rowse, A. L. Schoenbaum, Samuel Schucking, Levin Ludwig Sissons, C. J. Smidt, Kristin Spielmann, Marion Harry Sprague, Arthur Colby Stoll, Elmer Edgar Spurgeon, Caroline Tillyard, Eustace M. W. Wallace, Charles William Whiter, Walter Wilson, John Dover Yates, Frances, Dame
^PERIODICALS journals Cahiers Elisabethains Etudes Anglaises Hamlet Studies Notes and Queries Shakespeare Jahrbuch Shakespeare Newsletter Shakespeare Quarterly Shakespeare Studies Shakespeare Survey Shakespeare Yearbook Institutions Birmingham Shakespeare Memorial Library
Bodleian Library Bodmer Library British Council British Library Cambridge University Folger Shakespeare Library Huntington Library International Shakespeare Conference Oxford English Dictionary schools, Shakespeare in (British) Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Shakespeare Institute Theatre Museum World Shakespeare Congress
1? S O C I E T I E S AND CLUBS British Empire Shakespeare Society Deutsche ShakespeareGesellschaft International Shakespeare Association Malone Society New Shakespeare Society New York Shakespeare Society Oxford University Dramatic Society Shakespeare Association Shakespeare Association of America Shakespeare Club Shakespeare Ladies' Club Shakespeare Society of China Société Française Shakespeare Yale Elizabethan Club
1? S H A K E S P E A R E ' S LITERARY
INFLU-
ENCE Authors pervasively influenced by, and works inspired by or derived from, Shakespeare and his works fiction
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
poems on Shakespeare popular culture Shakespeare, William, as a literary character Auden, W. H. Austen, Jane Baring, Maurice Beckett, Samuel Bond, Edward Borges, Jorge Luis Brecht, Bertolt Burgess, Anthony Byron, George Gordon, Lord Cayatte, Andre Cesaire, Aime Chekhov, Anton Clarke, Mary Cowden Dickens, Charles Dostoievsky, Fyodor Dryden, John Dumas, Alexandre Emerson, Ralph Waldo Falstaffs Wedding Fletcher, John Forbidden Planet Freud, Sigmund Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von Gothic literature Gray, Thomas Harlequin Student Harlequin's Invasion Hauptmann, Gerhart Heine, Heinrich Herder, Johann Gottfried Hughes, Ted Hugo, Victor Marie Ibsen, Henrik Irving, Washington James, Henry Jameson, Anna Brownwell Joyce, James Judith Shakespeare: A Romance Keats, John Laforgue, Jules Lamb, Charles and Mary Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim Lewis, Matthew 'Monk' Ludwig, Otto Macbett Mallarmé, Stéphane
Melville, Herman Milton, John Mortimer, Sir John Muller, Heiner Murdoch, Iris No Bed for Bacon Nye, Robert Oehlenschlager, Adam Poe, Edgar Allan Pushkin, Alexander Queen Margaret, or Shakespeare Goes to the Falklands Richardson, Samuel Romanoff and Juliet Salom, Jaime Schiller, Friedrich Scott, Sir Walter Shakespeare Wallah Shaw, George Bernard Soyinka, Wole Sterne, Laurence Stoppard, Sir Tom Strindberg, August Swinburne, Algernon Charles Tamayo y Baus, Manuel Tennyson, Alfred, Lord Tolstoy, Leo Turgenev, Ivan Twain, Mark Vigny, Alfred de Voltaire Wesker, Arnold West Side Story Wilde, Oscar Woolf, Virginia Wordsworth, William Yeats, William Butler Shakespeare on film and television (See entries on individual plays for information on screen versions.) popular culture Shakespeare on sound film silent films television United States of America Branagh, Kenneth Forbidden Planet
Hall, Sir Peter Kozintsev, Grigori Kurosawa, Akira Miller, Jonathan musicals Noble, Adrian Nunn, Trevor Olivier, Lord Reinhardt, Max Shakespeare: The Animated Tales Shakespeare Wallah West Side Story Zeffirelli, Franco Radio and recordings Marlowe Society radio, British recordings Rylands, George (Dadie) Shakespeare Recording Society Music and dance since
1660 ballet music opera Arne, Thomas Augustine Bach, Carl Philip Emmanuel Beethoven, Ludwig van Berlioz, Hector Birtwistle, Sir Harrison Bishop, Sir Henry Rowley Boyce, William Britten, Benjamin Dibdin, Charles Elgar, Edward Ellington, Duke Faure, Gabriel Haydn, Franz Josef Hoist, Gustav jazz Lampe, John Frederick Leveridge, Richard Linley, Thomas, jr. Locke, Matthew Mendelssohn, Felix Milhaud, Darius Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus musicals
XXVI1
Nicolai, Otto Parry, Sir Hubert pop music Porter, Cole Prokofiev, Serge Purcell, Henry Reynolds, Frederick Scarlatti, Domenico Schubert, Franz Sibelius, Jan Smetana, Bedrich Strauss, Richard Sullivan, Sir Arthur Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Tippett, Sir Michael Vaughan-Williams, Ralph Verdi, Giuseppe Wagner, Richard Walton, William West Side Story Woolfenden, Guy Your Own Thing Shakespeare and the visual arts since 1660
painting advertising Barry, Sir James Blake, William Boydell, John Bunbury, Henry William Cattermole, Charles ceramics Cruikshank, George Dadd, Richard Delacroix, Eugene Fairholt, Frederick William Fuseli, Henry Gower memorial Hayman, Francis Hogarth, William illustrations monuments National Portrait Gallery Northcote, James Paton, Sir (Joseph) Noel Picasso, Pablo Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Romney, George Roubiliac, Louis Francois RSC Collection and Gallery
THEMATIC LISTING OF ENTRIES
Rysbrack, Michael Scheemakers, Peter Shakespeare Gallery Shakespeariana statuary Wright, Joseph (of Derby) Zoffany, Johann
^SHAKESPEARE AROUND T H E
GLOBE
Countries and regions Arab world Australia Austria Bohemia and the former Czechoslovakia Brazil Bulgaria Canada Caribbean, The China
East Africa France Germany Greece Hungary India Ireland Israel Italy Japan Korea Latin America Low Countries New Zealand Poland Portugal Romania Russia and the former USSR Scandinavia Scotland Southern Africa Spain Switzerland
United States of America Wales West Africa Translators and translations translation Astrana Marin, Luis Beyer, Sille Clark, Jaime Conejero, Manuel Angel Cruz, Ramon de la Eschenburg, Johann Joachim Foersom, Peter Fukuda, Tsuneari Geijer, Erik Gustaf Gide, André Hagberg, Karl August Hallstrom, Per Hugo, Francois Victor Instituto Shakespeare Kinoshita, Junji
Lembcke, Edvard Letourneur, Pierre Liang Shiqui Macpherson, Guillermo Moratin, Leondro Fernandez de Nyerere, Julius Odashima, Yushi Oehlenschlager, Adam Oliva, Salvador Pasternak, Boris Pujante, Angel-Luis Rothe, Hans Sagarra, Josep Maria de Schiller, Friedrich Schlegel, August Wilhelm Simrock, Karl Joseph Tieck, Johann Ludwig Tsubouchi, Shoyo Valverde, José Maria Voss, Johann Heinrich Wieland, Christoph Martin Zhu Shenghao
Li§i of plays in alphabetical order All Is True {Henry vm) All's Well That Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It [ Cardenio] The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline, King of Britain The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry vi) Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
1 Henry iv 2 Henry iv Henry v / Henry vi Julius Caesar King John King Lear Love's Labour's Lost [Love's Labour's Won] Macbeth Measure for Measure
The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Othello Pericles Richard Duke of York ( 5 Henry vi)
Richard 11 Richard in Romeo and Juliet
Sir Thomas More The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus and Cressida Twelfth Night; or, What You Will The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Note to the reader This book is designed to be easy to use, but the following notes
C R O S S R E F E R E N C E S : An asterisk (*) in front of a word in
may be helpful to the reader.
the text signals a cross reference to a related entry that may be of interest. Also, 'see' or 'see also' followed by a headword in small
A L P H A B E T I C A L A R R A N G E M E N T : Entries are arranged in
capitals is used to indicate a cross reference when the precise
letter-by-letter alphabetical order of their headwords, which are
form of a headword does not appear in the text. Entries are
shown in bold type.
marked as cross references the first time they appear in an Oxford
individual entry only. To avoid cluttering the text, the names of
Companion to Shakespeare follows the Oxford Shakespeare
plays and poems by Shakespeare, and of the characters that
(1986), edited by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, in returning
appear in the plays, are not marked as cross references, although
to the titles of the plays Shakespeare used when he composed
there are entries on all of these.
NAMES
OF
PLAYS
AND
CHARACTERS:
The
them, rather than the titles that appeared in the First Folio, and
T H E M A T I C L I S T I N G O F E N T R I E S : This is a list of entries
which have since become standard. For example, the play
under major topics, which appears at the front of the book (see
known as Henry vm appears under its original name of All Is
pp. xi-xxviii), and offers another means of accessing the ma-
True. Signpost entries direct the reader from the standard title
terial in the Companion. It allows the reader to see all the
to the entry under the original title. The Companion also follows the Oxford
entries relating to a particular subject—such as songs in the
Shakespeare in its modernization of
plays or extant portraits of Shakespeare—at a glance.
Shakespeare's spellings of names, for example, a reader looking up Iachimo will be redirected to Giacomo.
C O N T R I B U T O R S ' I N I T I A L S : These are given at the end of
each entry, and a key to these initials appears on pp. ix-x.
xxix
Aaron, a *Moor and Tamora's lover, is ultimately sentenced to be buried and starved, Titus Andronicus 5.3. AB Abbess. She reveals herself to be Emilia, mother of the Antipholus twins, at the end of AB The Comedy of Errors. Abbott, E(dwin) A(bbott) (1838-1926), English headmaster and grammarian, who addressed the first meeting of the New Shakespeare Society (13 March 1874). His A Shakespearian Grammar: An Attempt to Illustrate Some of the Differences between Elizabethan and Modern English (1869, repr. 1966) is an important attempt to describe Elizabethan syntax and idiom. TM
Abergavenny, Lord. He complains about Wolsey's pride and is imprisoned alongside Buckingham in All Is True {Henry vin) 1.1. The historical figure was George Neville, 3rd Baron Abergavenny (c.1461-1535). AB Abhorson, an executioner, defends his profession in Measure for Measure 4.2 and attempts to rouse drunken Barnadine for execution, 4.3. AB 'above'. About half of Shakespeare's plays need an elevated playing space which is often signalled by a stage direction of the kind 'enter above', and most of these use this location just once or twice. An actor appearing 'above' is usually to be thought of as appearing at a window, or upon the walls of a castle or fortified town. Contemporary accounts and drawings (most clearly the de Witt drawing of the *Swan) indicate a balcony set in the back wall of the stage which could be used as a spectating position but also would be ideal to provide the occasional 'above' acting space. GE Hosley, Richard, 'The Gallery over the Stage in the Public Playhouse of Shakespeare's Time', Shakespeare Quarterly, 8 (1957) Abraham (Abram), Montague's servant, participates in a fight in Romeo and Juliet1.1. AB Abram. See ABRAHAM. a c a d e m i c drama. See UNIVERSITY PERFORMANCES.
Achilles, the treacherous champion of the Greek army (he appears in a more sympathetic light in *Homer's Iliad ), instructs his followers to kill the unarmed Hector, Troilus and Cressida 5.9. AB
act and scene divisions. Of the original quartos of Shakespeare's plays, none is divided into numbered scenes (although in Qi Romeo and Juliet a printer's ornament occasionally appears where new scenes begin) and only Othello (1622) is divided into acts. In the First Folio, nineteen of the plays are divided into acts
and scenes, and another ten are divided into acts. Nicholas Rowe's edition (1709) was the first to divide all of the plays into numbered acts and scenes. Division into scenes was a structural element of early English plays—a new scene began whenever the stage was clear and the action not continuous—but division into acts was a later convention, perhaps adopted from classical drama. Although very few plays written for the adult dramatic companies before 1607 are divided into acts, nearly every one of the extant printed plays written for those companies thereafter is divided into five acts. Gary Taylor has suggested that the transition to act-intervals occurred when the adult companies moved from outdoor to indoor theatres (the King's Men acquired the Blackfriars playhouse in August of 1608). Pauses between acts would not only have been better facilitated in indoor theatres, but might also have been required so that candles could be trimmed. Shakespeare's later plays were thus apparently written for a different convention from his early and middle ones. ER Greg, W. W., 'Act Divisions in Shakespeare', Review of English Studies, 4 (1928) Taylor, Gary, 'The Structure of Performance: Act-Intervals in the London Theatres, 15761642', in Shakespeare Reshaped 1606-162} (1993) acting, Elizabethan. The Elizabethan word for what we call acting was 'playing', and the word 'acting' was reserved for the gesticulations of an orator. We have little direct evidence about the style of Elizabethan acting, although a few general principles can be derived from the conditions of performance. The relative shortness of rehearsal periods and the large number of plays in the repertory at any one time suggest that an actor was not likely to think of his character as having a unique and complex human psychology in the way which, in our time, the *Stanislavskian technique encourages. Likewise, the distribution of parts as individual rolls of paper giving only the particular speeches needed for one character suggests that what we think of as dramatic interaction was less important than the individual's interpretation of his speeches. Modern ensemble acting requires lengthy rehearsals which were unknown on the early modern stage. But this should not be taken as evidence that the acting was mere declamation without emotion. When the King's Men played Othello at Oxford in 1610 an eyewitness was moved to report that Desdemona 'killed by her husband, in her death moved us especially when, as she lay in her bed, her face alone implored the pity of the audience'. Likewise Simon Forman's records of performances of Cymbeline, The Winters Tale, Macbeth, and a play about Richard 11 clearly express his enjoyment of the intensity of the emotional experience, and hence
ACTING PROFESSION, ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN
the quality of the acting. The mere fact that boys played great tragic roles such as a Cleopatra, Desdemona, Hermione, and Lady Macbeth indicates that a degree of unrealistic formalism (symbolic gestures and convention) must have been used, but scholars do not agree about precisely how 'naturalistic' or 'formalistic' the acting usually was, or whether perhaps some mixed style was used. There was hardly a professional acting tradition in existence in 1576 when James Burbage built the Theatre, and until the early 1600s most actors were men who had taken up this career having first trained in something else. Once the profession was established the system of apprenticeship must have helped systematize an actor's training, although without a governing guild practice might have varied greatly from one master to another. Acting was taught as part of a standard grammar-school education and of course actors had to be literate, so despite the apparent low status of the profession actors were amongst the better-educated Elizabethans. Scholars have looked to the education system, and especially the instruction in oratory, for evidence of the acting style of the period; educational policy at least is well documented. Bernard Beckerman thought that the styles and conventional gestures of the Elizabethan orator and actor were essentially the same but found manuals of oratory rather vague: a number of gestures were offered to accompany a particular emotion and the individual orator was left to choose whichever best suited the occasion. Another source of information about acting styles is the drama itself, and the most overused piece of evidence is Hamlet's advice to the players (3.2.1-45) which includes 'Speak the speech . . . trippingly on the tongue', 'do not saw the air too much with your hand', and avoid imitating those who have 'strutted and bellowed' on the stage. This does not tell us much, and indeed the conscious contradiction of the general and transcendent ('hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image') and the particular and contingent (' [show] the very age and body of the time his form and pressure') makes this if anything an evasion of detailed instruction in acting style. Commentators have relied heavily upon Hamlet's advice because we have no direct description of Elizabethan acting. Despite the lack of direct evidence, certain trends which impinged upon acting can be traced across the period. The drama of the 1570s used strong rhyme and rhythm (especially the 'galloping' fourteen-syllable line) which gave an actor little scope for personal interpretation, whereas Marlowe's looser verse style and increasingly subtle characterization gave the Admiral's Men new opportunities for virtuoso acting. Stable long-term residences at the Rose and the Globe after 1594 allowed a star system to
patron. The sharers owned the capital of the company, its playbooks and costumes, in common and shared the profits earned. All other actors were the employees of the sharers. The sharers were not necessarily thefinestactors but they would have to bring a significant contribution to the company in the form either of capital or, as in the case of Shakespeare, writing ability. The sharing took place after the rent on the venue—often simply consisting of the takings from the galleries—had been paid and the hired men had received their wages. There was no guild system in place to regulate the industry, so an apprentice was in the unusual position of being legally apprenticed in the secondary trade practised by the individual sharer who was his master. The sharers of London companies selected a new play by audition reading and, if purchased, they would rehearse it in the morning while playing items from the current repertory in the afternoon. The inconclusive evidence from Henslowe's account book suggests that at least two weeks were allowed for rehearsal of a new play, including time needed for the player to privately 'study' (memorize) his part. With no cheap mechanical means of reproducing an entire play, players were issued with rolls of paper containing only their own lines plus their cues. This practice and the short rehearsal periods suggests that acting skill was largely considered to reside in expressing the meanings and emotions in one's part rather than reacting to the speeches of others. The majority of players were hired men, and amongst these there was not a strict distinction between what we now call 'front of house' Baldwin, T. W., The Organization and Personnel and 'stage' work: an entrance-fee gatherer or of the Shakespearean Company (1927) Beckerman, Bernard, Shakespeare at the Globe,costumer might well be expected to take a 15Ç9-1609 (1962) minor role at need, and those providing musical Bradbrook, M. C, Elizabethan Stage Conditions: accompaniment might have to portray onstage A Study of their Place in the Interpretation musicians. of Fee-gathering was the only job open Shakespeare's Plays (1932) to women as well as men; apart from ambiguous Gurr, Andrew, 'Playing in Amphitheatres and Playing in Hall Theatres', in A. L. Magnusson evidence concerning Middleton and Dekker's and C. E. McGee (eds.), The Elizabethan The Roaring Girl (1611) there is nothing to suggest that women ever acted. Usually the apTheatre xin: Papers Given at the 13 th International Conference on Elizabethan Theatre prentices played the female roles in the drama Held at the University of Waterloo, Ontario,but in because of the anomalous lack of a guild July 1989 (1994) governing the acting profession we do not know Harbage, Alfred, 'Elizabethan Acting', Publica- the precise extent of an apprentice's responsitions of the Modern language Association of bilities, or if indeed any standard arrangements America, 54 (1939) existed other than the customary provision of Salgado, Gamini (éd.), Eyewitnesses of Shakeboard, keep, and training. speare: First Hand Accounts of Performances 1590-1890 (1975) There is little evidence that players were typecast although a dramatist attached to a acting profession, Elizabethan and Jaco- company, as Shakespeare was, would have bean. The Elizabethan word for an actor was thought about his human resources during composition. However, there was a distinct 'player' and there were three classes: the sharer, the hired man, and the apprentice. The nucleus position of'clown' or 'fool' in each of the major companies and Richard Tarlton of the Queen's of the company was the sharers, typically beMen and William Kempe and later Robert tween four and ten men, who were named on the patent which gave them the authority to Armin of the Chamberlain's Men had roles perform and which identified their aristocratic written to suit their abilities and did not
develop with Edward Alleyn for the Admiral's and Richard Burbage for the Chamberlain's Men being the most highly praised actors of their time. T. W. Baldwin developed a complex model of the character types ('lines') which were the special skills of particular actors of the period but other scholars feel thatflexibility,not specialization, was the most valued attribute in an actor. Whether Shakespeare ever got the performances he wanted is uncertain. Shakespeare's characters use acting as a metaphor for public behaviour of all kinds but, as M. C. Bradbrook noted, the descriptions ('strutting player', 'frets', 'wooden dialogue') are seldom complimentary. The differences in conditions at different venues appear to have had an effect on the acting. Indoor theatres were smaller than the openair amphitheatres and had less extraneous noise, so actors could afford to soften their voices and make smaller physical gestures. Players at the northern playhouses, especially the Fortune and Red Bull, were more commonly attacked for exaggerated acting once the private theatres had developed their own subtle style. Also, an actor in an amphitheatre is effectively surrounded on all sides by spectators and may choose to keep moving so that everyone has a chance to see him. The indoor theatres, however, had a greater mass of spectators directly in front of the stage and this probably encouraged playing 'out front' rather than 'in the round' as we would now call it. Adjusting between the two modes must have been fairly easy for the actors, however, as on tour they were unlikely to find many venues which provided the 'in-the-round' experience of the London amphitheatres. GE
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ADVERTISING perform in plays which lacked a 'clown' or 'fool' character. The emergence of actor 'stars' in the early 1590s appears to be related to the increasingly long residences at London playhouses which allowed audiences to follow the particular development of an individual's career. Star actors could expect to take just one of the major roles in a play, but other actors, and especially hired men, would be expected to 'double' as needed. GE
transposition of occasional scenes. Even leaving aside the questions as to whether Shakespeare's use of dramatic sources itself constitutes adaptation (e.g. whether King Lear can be regarded as an adaptation of The True Chronicle History of King Leir), or whether his own * revisions to plays such as Hamlet and King Lear might be classed as such, the altering of Shakespeare's scripts for later revivals certainly dates to before the publication of the First *Folio, which Bentley, Gerald Eades, The Profession of Player in prints Macbeth in a form revised by Thomas *Middleton. Shakespeare's Time, 1590-1642 (1984) Ingram, William, The Business of Playing: The The adaptation of Shakespeare was at its Beginnings of the Adult Professional Theater in most widespread, however, between the ResElizabethan England (1992) toration in 1660 and the middle of the 18th
act-intervals. See ACT AND SCENE DIVISIONS.
century (see RESTORATION AND EIGHTEENTHCENTURY SHAKESPEARIAN PRODUCTION), when
Act to Restrain Abuses of Players (1606), a
drastic changes in the design of playhouses (with the inception of elaborate changeable scenery), parliamentary bill introducing a fine of £10 for each occasion upon which an actor 'jestingly or in the composition of theatre companies (with the advent of the professional actress), and in profanely' spoke the name of God or Jesus literary language and tastes (with the vogue Christ. Plays written after this date have little or for French neoclassicism, and its patriotic no such profanity, and plays already written aftermath) motivated many playwrights and show alteration of the offending phrases when actor-managers to stage Shakespearian plays in revived, although the original unexpurgated heavily rewritten forms. The pioneer of adaptext could safely be printed. Words such as tation was Sir William *Davenant, whose The 'zounds' (a contraction of 'God's wounds') could be replaced by 'why' or 'come', and ex- Law against Lovers (1662) transplants Beatrice and Benedick into a sanitized Measure for clamations such as 'O God!' softened to 'O Measure cast largely in rhyming couplets: this heaven!' GE was followed by his immensely popular semiTaylor, Gary, 'Swounds Revisited: Theatrical, operatic versions of Macbeth (1664) and The Editorial, and Literary Expurgation', in Gary Taylor and John Jowett (eds.), Shakespeare Tempest (1667), the latter co-written with one of Reshaped 1606-162$ (1993) his most successful followers in this vein, John *Dryden, who went on to write his own Antony 'A cup of wine thaf s brisk and fine', sung by and Cleopatra play All for Love (1677) and alter Silence in 2 Henry iv, 5.3.46; the original tune is Troilus and Cressida (1679). Other major adunknown. JB aptors include Nahum *Tate (most famous for giving King Lear back the happy ending it had Adam, Oliver's servant in As You Like It, helps enjoyed in its sources, in 1681), Colley *Cibber, Orlando escape into the forest of Ardenne. and David *Garrick. AB An increasing veneration for Shakespeare's Adams, J(ohn) C(ranford) (1903-86), Amerioriginal texts had brought the practice of adapcan scholar, author of The Globe Playhouse: Its tation into disrepute in England by the middle Design and Equipment (1942, 2nd edn. 1961), of the 19th century, and while certain less cagiving considerable prominence to the inner and nonical plays have regularly been retouched for the upper areas of the stage, now largely superperformance since (notably the Henry vi plays, seded. He was responsible for a reconstruction condensed at different times by both John of the Globe for the Hofstra College Shake*Barton and Adrian *Noble for the *Royal TM speare Festival. Shakespeare Company alone), full-scale adaptation has in modern times been more freAdams, Joseph Quincy (1881-1946), American quently associated with the work of translators scholar, first director of the Folger Shakespeare fitting Shakespeare's plays to performance traLibrary (1934) and an editor of the New Variditions far removed from his own, and with the orum edition of Shakespeare. He was author of transformation of his plays into *ballets, *opA Life of William Shakespeare (1916) and, using eras, and *films. Revels records, Shakespearean Playhouses: A Although many adaptations of Shakespeare History of English Theatres from the Beginnings to may now seem objectionable, or at best merely the Restoration (1917). TM quaint (simplifying his language, plotting, characterization, and morality alike), some constiadaptation. The practice of rewriting plays to fit them for conditions of performance different tute intelligent and engaged contemporary critical responses to his plays, and a few more from those for which they were originally comrecent playwrights have continued to use the posed, in ways which go beyond cutting and the
3
medium as a form of practical Shakespeare criticism, notably Charles *Marowitz. MD Clark, Sandra (éd.), Shakespeare Made Fit: Restoration Adaptations of Shakespeare (1997) Marsden, Jean, The Re-Imagined Text: Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Eighteenth-Century Literary Theory (1995) Sorelius, Gunnar, 'The Giant Race before the Flood': Pre-Restoration Drama on the Stage and in the Criticism of the Restoration (1966) Spencer, Christopher (éd.), Five Restoration Adaptations of Shakespeare (1965) Addenbrooke, John, a 'gentleman' whom Shakespeare sued in the Stratford court of record for a debt of £6 in 1608. The case dragged on from 17 August 1608 to 7 June 1609. Addenbrooke was arrested but freed when Thomas Hornby, a blacksmith, stood surety for him. A jury awarded Shakespeare his debt and 24^. in costs which he tried to recover from Hornby as Addenbrooke could not be found. SW Addison, Joseph (1672-1719), poet, playwright, and essayist, most famous as an author, with Sir Richard Steele, of the Spectator papers. In Spectator 40 he voiced one of the first attacks on Nahum Tate's adaptation of King Lear, in particular its addition of a happy ending and use of poetic justice. JM Admiral's Men, the players of Charles Howard, second Lord Effingham—made Lord Admiral in 1585 and Earl of Nottingham in 1597— who were the main rivals of Shakespeare's company. Also known as the Lord Howard's Men (1576-85), the Earl of Nottingham's Men (1597-1603), Prince Henry's Men (1603-12), and Elector Palatine's Men (1613-24), their greatest asset in the 1590s and 1600s was the actor Edward Alleyn, whose uncle Philip Henslowe owned the Rose and Fortune playhouses used by the company. GE Adonis. See VENUS AND ADONIS.
Adrian, (l) A Volscian who hears from the Roman Nicanor that Coriolanus has been banished from *Rome, Coriolanus 4.3. ( 2 ) A lord shipwrecked with Alonso on Prospero's island in The Tempest. AB Adriana, wife to Antipholus of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors, is unable to distinguish between him and his twin. AB advertising. The use of Shakespeare in advertising can be traced back to the adoption of an image based on the *Chandos portrait as the publisher Jacob Tonson's trademark in 1710. More recently, some of the more famous characters from Shakespeare's plays have provided manufacturers with richly associative brand names (the tobacco sector alone has given us Hamlet cigars, Romeo Y Julietta panatellas, and Falstaff cigars). Shakespeare's characters also
AEDILES supply television commercials with conveniently familiar dramatic situations which can be rapidly established and then usually debased, for comic effect. Thus King Lear, ready to divide his kingdom, overlooks his two daughters who speak of love and loyalty for a third who offers a supply of ice-cold drinks (Coca-Cola, USA, 1997). Romeo woos Juliet, but only after her rumbling stomach has been prevented from joining in the dialogue (Shreddies Cereals, UK, 2000). Hamlet, about to meditate on Yorick's skull, drops it, improvises a football pass, and is endorsed as a lager drinker who 'gets it right' (Carling Black Label, UK, 1986). True Shakespearian dialogue is rarely used, but longer speeches may be quoted for effect; John of Gaunt's major speech from Richard n has been both used to convince consumers as to the Englishness of a certain tea (Typhoo, UK, 1994) and counterposed against images of dropped litter, to urge the use of refuse bins (Central Office of Information, UK, 1983.) Although The Merchant of Venice and Timon of Athens show that Shakespeare held much mercantile practice in low esteem, the epilogue to As You Like It suggests he took a more tolerant view of the advertising, such as it was, of his own day. CC aediles, assistants to the tribunes Brutus and Sicinius, appear in Coriolanus, speaking at 3.1 and 3.3. AB Aegeon. See EGEON.
Aemilia. See EMILIA.
Aemilius, a messenger in Titus Andronicus 4.4 AB and 5.1, presents Lucius as emperor, 5.3.
Seven characters in search of seven cars Prince Hal first! He's got flairl So give him the Corsair. Not just for its flair. But for its princely comfort and royal quality. Cleopatra of course will just have to have a Mk III Zodiac, for the speed, status and luxury that befit a queen. Now I For Romeo-and-Julietl Oniy the Capri, that rich jewel of a car. Benedick prefers something smart and snappy— the Anglia. Bravol For Prospero, the tempestuous magician, something magical. Like the Cortina, which pulls so many big-car qualities out of its small-car costs. What about Falstaff, the
mountainous Falstaff. Cho**#f Humors of feveral Nations, fitted for the plea«* fure and content of all Perfons, either in Court, City, Cotintrey, or Campé The like never before Publifhed* P A R T
L
LO 2VÙ 0 JSt* ftmtà f while the rich might eat sprats or herrings, fresh, dried, smoked, or salted. Christmas feasting, during which open house was kept by big households, ran from 1 November right through to Twelfth Night (6 January): its special dishes included boar brawn, mince pies (still made with spiced meat), and the 'flapdragon' mentioned in Love's Labour's Lost (5.1.42). Other feasts would include funerals (cf. Hamlet on the
The printing of the Folio was probably completed shortly thereafter—a copy at the Bodleian Library in Oxford was sent for binding on 17 February 1624—and the book was then available in bookshops for the princely sum of £1 (40 times the cost of an individual quarto). The volume was so successful and demand apparently so great that a second edition was required within less than a decade. In 1632, Thomas Cotes, who had taken over the Jaggard shop following Isaac's death in 1627, printed the Second Folio for a syndicate of publishers that again included Smethwick and Aspley. The Second Folio was a carefully corrected page-forpage reprint of the first that made hundreds of minor changes in the text, the majority of which have been accepted by modern editors. The preliminaries of the Second Folio include John Milton's first published poem, 'An Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatic Poet W. Shakespeare'. The elegant paper stock used for the Second Folio occasioned William Prynne to lament in Histrio-mastix (1633) that 'playbooks are grown from quarto into folio' and that 'Shakespeare's plays are printed in the best crown paper, far better than most Bibles.' The Third Folio appeared in 1663, with a second issue in 1664 that added Pericles and six apocryphal plays: The London Prodigal, Thomas, Lord Cromwell, Sir John Oldcastle, The Puritan, A Yorkshire Tragedy, and Locrine. The Fourth Folio was published in 1685; 70 pages of this edition were reprinted f.1700 to make up a shortage and may be considered a Fifth Folio printing. ER Greg, W. W., The Shakespeare First Folio (1955) Hinman, Charlton, The Printing and Proof Reading of the First Folio of Shakespeare (1963) Pollard, A. W., Shakespeare Folios and Quartos: A Study in the Bibliography of Shakespeare's Plays 1594-168$ (1909) Folio Society Shakespeare. The 37 volumes of this handsomely printed edition were issued between 1950 and 1976, using the text of the New Temple Shakespeare. They are chiefly notable for the introductions, of varying interest, written mainly by well-known actors and directors, among them Laurence *01ivier, Paul *Scofield, Richard *Burton, Peter *Brook, and
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^4 The Longleat MS, attributed to Henry Peacham and dated 1595, though it appears to conflate Tamora's plea in the opening scene of Titus Andronicus with a subsequent moment from Aaron's role (since he should not be armed at this moment) provides our only contemporary image of a Shakespeare play in performance.
Low COUNTRIES extremely poor sightlines to the 'discoveries' which were a recurrent feature of the drama. It is probable that, like the 'gentlemens roomes' described in the contract to build the Fortune, the Lords Room was in the lowest auditorium gallery directly adjacent to the stage. GE
her uncle, John. He is based on Louis (11871226), who succeeded to the French throne as
Honigmann, E. A. J., Shakespeare: The 'Lost Years'(1985, rev. edn. 1998)
comedy written before 1598 and not mentioned by Meres fits this title. It seems almost certain that before 1598 Shakespeare had written a comedy called Love's Labour's Won, possibly a sequel to Love's Labour's Lost, which for some reason failed to get into the Folio, but no copies of the quarto have yet come to light. Anyone finding one should contact the editors of this volume immediately. MD
Louis VIII in 1223.
AB
Loutherbourg, Philip James de (1740-1812),
French designer. He was born in Strasbourg and studied art in Paris before moving to LonEgan, Gabriel, 'The Situation of the "Lords don in 1771 and presenting *Garrick with Room": A Revaluation', Review of English revolutionary staging plans for Drury Lane. Studies, 48 (1997) Lawrence, W. J., The Elizabethan Playhouse and Innovative in his use of perspective, as well as lighting and costume, he may have designed for Other Studies (1912) Richard in, and his moving scenic display Lorenzo elopes with Jessica in The Merchant of Eidophusikon (1781) was a device adopted by Venice. AB Edmund *Kean for the staging of King Lear in 1820. CMSA 'lost years' of William Shakespeare. The period between 1585, when Shakespeare's twins Love in a Forest Charles Johnson's short-lived were baptized in Stratford, and 1592, when 1723 adaptation of As You Like It tidies up Robert *Greene obliquely alluded to him in his Shakespeare's comedy on Neoclassical lines, Groatsworth of Wit, are often known as the 'lost cutting Touchstone and all the rustic characters, years', since there is no documentary evidence and pairing off Celia with Jaques instead of an about him except in a reference in a court case unforgiven Oliver. Apologizing in a prologue, involving Edmund *Lambert. A starting date Johnson makes it clear that he would rather see of 1585 for this period presupposes that he Shakespeare's plays as potential aristocratic garremained in Stratford until his family was esdens than as forests of Arden: tablished, but some conjectures about his emForgive our modern author's honest zeal, ployment, whether in or out of Stratford, before He hath attempted boldly, if not well: he became an actor concern the period beBelieve, he only does with pain and care, tween leaving school—whenever that was—and Presume to weed the beautiful parterre. marrying. *Dowdall reported that he had been MD apprenticed to a butcher. *Malone, who had Lovel, Lord. He is one of Richard's henchmen been a barrister, deduced that he must have in Richard in. He appears in Act 3 of *Folio been employed 'in the office of some country editions. AB attorney', and many others, including E. I. Fripp (who thought that legal imagery often Lovell, Sir Thomas. Present at Wolsey's banobtruded inartistically into the works), agreed. quet in All Is True {Henry VIII) 1.4, he also Duff Cooper (a soldier), who wrote a book conducts Buckingham away from his trial, 2.1. called Sergeant Shakespeare (1949), was not the AB first to show that he must have been a soldier. William Bliss, on the other hand ( The Real 'Love, love, nothing but love', sung by Pandams in Troilus and Cressida 3.1.111. The oriShakespeare, 1947), proposed that he had cirginal music is unknown. JB cumnavigated the globe with Drake on the Golden Hind. E. B. Everitt ( The Young ShakeLover's Complaint, A (seepage 262) speare, 1954) saw him as a scrivener. John *AubLove's Labour's Lost (seepage 264) rey's report that 'he had been in his younger years a schoolmaster in the country' had behind Love's Labour's Won Francis *Meres lists a it the testimony of William *Beeston, whose play by this title among Shakespeare's works in father had acted with Shakespeare. It has been 1598, and we know that it even got into print in used to support the hypothesis that the William quarto: Love's Labours Won is listed in an extant *Shakeshaft named in the will of Alexander bookseller's catalogue compiled in August 1603. Houghton in 1581 is Shakespeare, though Scholars have suggested that this may have been Shakeshaft is not explicitly called a teacher (and the original title of another Shakespeare play of course 1581 pre-dates the 'lost years'). SW known by a different title after. 1598, but no
Louis, King. Warwick and Margaret unite with Louis against Edward iv in Richard Duke of York (3 Henry vi) 3.3. He is based on Louis xi (1423-83), King of France, the first cousin of both Henry vi and Margaret. AB Louis the Dauphin, (l) Henry v. See DAUPHIN. (2) In King John his marriage to Blanche does not prevent him from taking up arms against
161
Low Countries. The earliest contacts between the Elizabethan stage and the Low Countries date from the late 16th century. At this time, the strolling players, on their way to Germany and beyond, first performed in venues like Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden, Brussels, and Ghent. This explains how Titus Andronicus became a model for Jan Vos's Aran and Titus (1641), why The Taming of the Shrewwas first translated and performed in the early 1650s, and how in 1651 Richard ///became a source for Lambert van den Bosch's Red and White Rose of Lancaster and York, a chronicle play glancing at the regicide of *Charles 1 and the Cromwellian protectorate. With the rise of French classicism in the 1660s, interest in Shakespearian drama declined, despite words of admiration from critics like Justus van Effen and J. C. Weyerman. As *Voltaire's voice prevailed, spectatorial writings of English origin became the main Shakespearian conduits for many years. Around the mid18th century R. M. van Goens and Hieronymus van Alphen were the first to renounce normative poetics, cultivating an image of Shakespeare founded on the early German *Romantics' views of individual genius and the imagination. In 1778, the publisher Albrecht Borchers initiated the first translation project, using both the Edward *Capell text and J. J. *Eschenburg's German prose translation. Until well into the 19th century, however, the Dutch translations of Jean François Ducis's classicist French pseudo-Shakespeare held their position, in the study and on the stage. Only around the middle ofthe century (with Jurriaan Moulin, the Dutch novelist Jacob van Lennep, and the Ghent poet Napoleon Destanberg) did the professional translation of Shakespeare from the original English come into its own, culminating in Dutch renderings of the complete works by A. S. Kok (1880) and L. A. J. Burgersdijk (187785). Burgersdijk's translation of The Merchant of Venice premiered in 1880 with Louis Bouwmeester as Shylock. This was to become the most popular Dutch Shakespeare interpretation of all time, with over 2,000 performances worldwide, including one at Stratford-uponAvon on 3 August 1921. Abroad, Bouwmeester would perform in Dutch, his supporting cast in English. The late 19th century also saw the rise of Shakespeare criticism in the Low Countries. This included literary interpretation, but also produced valuable work on the cultural relations between the English and Dutch stages in the 17th century (H. E. Moltzer and J. A. Worp).
During the 20th century, Shakespeare's popularity in the Low Countries only increased. His plays continue to be translated, and the list of distinguished translators has come to include Jacques van Looy, Bert Voeten, Dolf Verspoor, and Gerrit Komrij, as well as the Fleming Willy Baldwin, T. W., Shakspere's Loves Labours Won Courteaux, who is responsible for the only translation into Dutch of the complete plays (i957) (cont. on page 263)
A Lover's Complaint
S
hakespeare's poetic depiction of a seduced and abandoned woman, the last and at 329 lines the shortest of his narrative poems, was published at the end of the Sonnets when they first appeared in quarto in 1609. Although it uses the same rhyme-royal stanza as The Rape of Lucrèce (1593-4), the poem shares some imagery, phrasing, and rare vocabulary with All's Well That Ends Well, Hamlet, and King Lear, and was probably composed when Shakespeare was revising and completing his sonnet sequence, possibly while the theatres were closed by plague in 1603-4.
TEXT: The whole of the 1609 volume {see SONNETS) appears beautiful, with brown curling hair, eloquent, and a brilliant to have been set from a transcript rather than from an au- horseman, his gifts, especially of rhetoric, made him univerthorial holograph. A Lovers Complaint is at times mislead- sally popular. She explains that though many women desired ingly punctuated, but otherwise the 1609 text poses few him and sought to own pictures of him, she did not pursue problems. The poem reappeared in 1640 in the printer John him herself, and at first was immune to his charms, recogBenson's pirated Poems: Written by W. Shakespeare, Gent., but nizing that he was capable of perjury and had seduced others this text merely reprints that of the 1609 quarto and has no (11.134-75). She only fell when he made the speech she goes on authority. to quote (11. 176-280), in which he claimed that his previous amours had all been mere lusts of the flesh, while his vows to SOURCES: A Lover's Complaint has no specific single source, but, like The Rape of Lucrèce, draws on a well- her were the first he had ever made sincerely. He showed her established poetic tradition which goes back to *Ovid's heroic locks of hair different women had given him, together with epistles. The dramatization in verse of the sorrows of unfor- gifts of jewels, which he then gave to her, tokens of conquest tunate women had more recently featured in The *Mirrorfor passed on to his conqueror: he even showed her a gift he had Magistrates (1559, reprinted and augmented thereafter), a received from a love-struck nun. All these women were in love collection of poems in which historical figures lament their with him, but he only with her, he claimed, and they all share fates, and the form had been adopted by Samuel *Daniel, in his sorrow at her refusal and join in wishing her to accept whose Complaint of Rosamond (1592), the lament of Henry him. At the close of this speech he wept (11. 281-7), and the ill's ill-fated mistress, employs the same rhyme-royal stanza. lady laments to her auditor that these dissembling tears SYNOPSIS: The narrator describes hearing the echoing overcame her, so that she wept too, seduced (11. 288-301). She voice of a woman lamenting in a valley, and then seeing her, feels that he was such a skilled hypocrite, able even to preach wearing a straw hat, her beauty faded with time and grief. She chastity as part of a plot to seduce, that no one could resist sits beside a river, weeping, reading and tearing up love letters, him, and she is convinced that were he to repeat his attentions throwing gifts of jewels into the water, and breaking rings (11. she would even now be persuaded to give up her repentance 1-56). An old man grazing his cattle nearby comes and sits and be seduced again (11. 302-29). with her and asks what is the matter and whether he can help ARTISTIC FEATURES: The poem shares some of the for(11. 57—70). The remainder of the poem, from line 71 onwards mality, as well as some of the concerns, of The Rape of Lucrèce, (the start of the eleventh of 47 stanzas), is given over to her but this poem, its central woman seduced rather than raped, reply. She first explains (11. 71-84) that she is not as old as she deliberately eschews the dramatic and conclusive ending of looks: her beauty has in fact been damaged by sorrow as a its predecessor. Part of its strength lies in its vivid depiction of consequence of her wooing by a young man she goes on to a psychological state from which neither the woman nor the describe at length (85-133). Young and almost androgynously poem seems able to imagine an escape, condemned endlessly
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to re-enact to herself the drama of her own undoing. The 'complaint' of the title may be either the inset complaint of the woman, or the complaint of her seducer which it quotes: in either case, neither the rural old man to whom she speaks nor the narrator who overhears them is able to place the woman back into a wider world outside her own selftormenting consciousness. CRITICAL HISTORY: While the long-ignored Sonnets were rehabilitated at the end of the 18th century, A Lover's Complaint had to wait until the 1960s before many scholars were willing to concede that Shakespeare had even written it. Most editors of the Sonnets, considering their publication to have been unauthorized, omitted this poem, believing it to have been an inferior work foisted on Shakespeare by Thomas Thorpe. It was only after Kenneth Muir and MacDonald P. Jackson independently vindicated the poem's authenticity in 1964 and 1965 that more commentators began to find the poem of interest, particularly in relation to the Sonnets it follows. It was pointed out that in placing this poem after the
since Burgersdijk. The complete Shakespeare in Frisian was produced by Douwe Kalma (1956— 63). Nine complete translations of the Sonnets are available. Shakespeare has come to be performed ever more frequently, and a gallery of notable theatricals has formed. Actor-director Eduard Verkade (1878-1961), in the tradition of Gordon *Craig, determined the face of Hamlet for five decades. Willem Royaards (1867-1929), a *Reinhardt adept, produced epoch-making productions of A Midsummer Nights Dream and Twelfth Night. More recently, the innovative directorial skills of Hans Croiset, Erik Vos, Franz Marijnen, and Gerardjan Rijnders have met with great acclaim. Remarkable actors include Albert van Dalsum as Macbeth (1937), Richard m (1947), and Lear (1964); and Ko van Dijk as Othello (1951,1964) and Macbeth (with Ank van der Moer as Lady *Macbeth, 1957). The plays are also often performed by amateur companies, like the Shakespeare company at Diever, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1997. In 1993, the Shakespeare Society of the Low Countries was founded. Its biannual journal Folio first appeared in 1994. (See also DUTCH WARS.)
TH
Lowin, John (1576-1653), actor. Lowin was apprenticed to goldsmith Nicholas Rudyard at age 17 and was an actor in Worcester's Men in 1602-3 at the Rose but in 1603 he began his association with the King's Men, which was to last the rest of his long career. Lowin appears to have joined Shakespeare's company as a hired man since he is in the 1603 cast list for Ben *Jonson's Sejanus but not in the company patent. In the Induction to *Marston's The Malcontent (performed in 1604) Lowin plays
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last of the Sonnets Shakespeare might have been following the examples of Thomas *Lodge and Samuel Daniel, who had both appended poems in which seduced women lament their falls to their own sonnet sequences, and most modern criticism of A Lover's Complainthns taken up this suggestion. The poem is now usually regarded as a deliberate coda to the Sonnets, and critics have looked for ways in which it takes up their thematic concerns, particularly with the ethics of dissimulation (the seducer of A Lover's Complaint is, among other things, a consummate actor) and the use and abuse of praise. MD RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
John Kerrigan (New Penguin, 1986); Katharine Duncan-Jones (Arden 3rd series, 1998); Stanley Wells (Oxford, 1985); each of these prints the poem as the coda to the Sonnets SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Jackson, MacDonald P., Shakespeare's 'A Lovers Complaint': Its Date and Authenticity (1965) Muir, Kenneth, Shakespeare the Professional (1973)
himself, the actor, helping his fellows eject gallants who attempt to take up seats on the *Globe stage. Lowin published a mildly Puritan pamphlet called Conclusions upon Dances in 1606 and in 1607 he married a widow, Joan Hall. In his Historia histrionica (published in 1699) James Wright claimed that 'Lowin used to act, with mighty applause, Falstaff, Morose, Volpone, and Mammon in The Alchemist; [and] Melantius in The Maid's Tragedy'. John Downes, in his Roscius Anglicanus (published 1708), attributed the quality of *Betterton's performance in the role of Shakespeare's Henry vin to instruction transmitted via William *Davenant 'who had it from old Mr Lowin, that had his instructions from Mr. Shakespeare himself.
Emperor Nero. His epic poem Bellum civile or Pharsalia, an account of the civil wars between Caesar and Pompey, is a probable source for Julius Caesar. Shakespeare may have used the Latin edition published in 1589, or *Marlowe's English translation of book 1 which circulated in manuscript before its publication in 1600.
Lowin was apparently a large man, judging from consistent comments on his characters' appearance and from his picture (when aged 64) in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. A number of his roles are men whose outspokenness borders on gruffness, although more significant is the range of his roles which in his 50s included Domitianus Caesar in Philip Massinger's The Roman Actor, Eubulus in Massinger's The Picture, and Undermyne in John Clavell's The Soddered Citizen. After John *Heminges's death in 1630 Lowin became joint manager of the company with Joseph T a y l o r but he continued to act and thus may be considered the origin of the theatrical tradition of'actor-manager'.
Lucetta, Julia's servant in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, tries to get her to read Proteus' letter, 1.2. AB
GE Bowers, Rick, 'John Lowin: Actor-Manager of the King's Company, 1630—1642', Theatre Survey, 28 (1987) Lucan (AD 39-65), Roman poet, the grandson of *Seneca, forced to commit suicide by the
JKS Jones, Emrys, The Origins of Shakespeare (1977) Luce. See N E L L .
Lucentio falls in love with Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew and disguises himself as a teacher under the name 'Cambio' to woo her. AB
Lucian (c.120-200), Greek satirist who wrote mainly in the form of dialogues. One such dialogue, Timon Misanthropus, is a possible source for Timon of Athens. Available to Shakespeare in a Latin translation by Erasmus, and in French and Italian, Lucian's dialogue may also have influenced the dramatist indirectly, through the anonymous Timon comedy which survives only in manuscript. JKS Luciana is Adriana's sister in The Comedy of Errors. AB
'Lucianus'. See PLAYERS. Lucilius, Timon's servant, is given money by him to marry the woman of his choice, Timon of AB Athens 1.1. (cont. on page 266)
Love's Labour's Lost
A
t once Shakespeare's most airy comedy and his most sustained discussion of language, Love's Labour's Lostwas probably composed in 1594 and 1595. It is listed among Shakespeare's works by *Meres in 1598, and appeared in the same year in a quarto edition which boasts that the play was acted before Queen Elizabeth 'this last Christmas' (which may mean either 1597-8 or 1596-7). The play's heavy use of rhyme suggests it belongs to the 'lyrical' period initiated by Venus and Adonis (1592-3): in rare vocabulary it is closely linked to Romeo and Juliet (1595) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595), but stylistically it seems to be earlier. Probable allusions in Act 5 to the Christmas revels at Gray's Inn in 1594 suggest that the play was composed, or at least completed, early in 1595. TEXT: The surviving 1598 quarto of the play claims to be 'Newly corrected and augmented', but in all probability this is an exaggeration and the edition is merely a reprint of a now lost earlier edition of the same year. The text seems to have been set, fairly carelessly to judge by certain passages which seem to preserve two successive drafts of the same speech (in 4.3), from Shakespeare's own *foul papers. The play was reprinted in the *Folio in 1623, directly from the quarto text, but with some corrections made apparently from a promptbook. SOURCES: NO specific source is known for the play's plot, although it clearly alludes to the historical French court: King Henri of Navarre did have two lords called the Maréchal de Biron and the Duc de Longueville, who served as commanders in the French civil war from 1589 to 1592. Biron was widely known in England, since he became an associate and adviser of the Earl of *Essex when he led an English force to Henry's aid. It has been conjectured that the main story of Love's Labours Lost may derive from a now-lost account of a diplomatic visit to Henry in 1578 made by Catherine de Médicis and her daughter Marguerite de Valois, Henry's estranged wife, to discuss the future of Aquitaine, but this is by no means certain. What is much clearer is that the play's subplot is peopled by Shakespeare's variants on familiar comic types from Italian *commedia dell'arte, which abounds in pedants (like Holofernes), braggarts (like Don Armado), rustic priests (like Sir Nathaniel), rural clowns (like Costard), and pert pages (like Mote).
SYNOPSIS: I.I Ferdinand, the King of Navarre, has three of his lords, Biron, Longueville, and Dumaine, sign a declaration vowing that they will study with him for three years, not seeing a woman throughout that time: Biron is sceptical about the scheme, but eventually signs anyway. The rustic constable Dull, on the instructions of the Spaniard Don Armado (from whom he brings an affected letter), brings the country swain Costard to the King; Costard is condemned to a week's fasting for having been caught in the royal purlieus with the wench Jaquenetta. 1.2 Armado confesses to his punning page Mote that he is in love with Jaquenetta. Dull brings Costard with the King's instruction that Armado guard him and make him fast for a week. Armado undertakes to write poetry about his love. 2.1 The Princess of France arrives on an embassy to Navarre from her father, accompanied by three ladies, Maria, Catherine, and Rosaline, and three lords, one named Boyet: having heard of the King's vow she sends Boyet ahead to him, and while he is away the three respective ladies discuss the King's three respective fellow students. When the King and his three colleagues arrive the Princess presents him with a letter from her father, demanding back a share of Aquitaine in recompense for the full repayment of a loan: while the King reads it Biron is wittily rebuffed by Rosaline, with whom he attempts to flirt. The King agrees to accommodate the Princess while they await the arrival of documents which will establish whether or not the whole loan has already been repaid. Each of his lords privately asks Boyet the name
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LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST
of one of her ladies: Dumaine is attracted to Catherine, Longueville to Maria, and Biron to Rosaline, while Boyet tells the Princess he thinks the King himself is falling in love with her. 3.1 Armado sends Mote to fetch Costard, with whom he means to entrust a love letter to Jaquenetta. Costard, after a bantering quarrel with Mote about hurting his shin, is left with three farthings for delivering the letter. Biron arrives and gives Costard a shilling to deliver a letter to Rosaline; left alone, he reflects on the demeaning absurdity of his having fallen in love with her. 4.1 The Princess, out hunting with her ladies, meets Costard, who does not know which of them is Rosaline: he gives the Princess Armado's letter by mistake, which Boyet reads aloud to general amusement. Costard jests with Boyet and the ladies. 4.2 The schoolmaster Holofernes and the priest Nathaniel are being learnedly witty at the expense of Dull, and Holofernes is showing off his pedantry to Nathaniel, when the illiterate Jaquenetta and Costard arrive to ask Nathaniel to read them the letter Jaquenetta has received from Armado: unfortunately Costard has given her Biron's letter to Rosaline, which Holofernes tells her to take to the King. 4.3 Biron has been writing more poetry for Rosaline: hiding, he overhears the King reading aloud his own poem to the Princess. The King in turn hides when he sees Longueville approach, and both he and Biron overhear Longueville reading out a poem he has composed for Maria. Longueville then hides, and all overhear Dumaine sighing in rhyme for Catherine. Longueville steps forward and reproaches Dumaine: the King steps forward and reproaches Longueville for hypocrisy: then Biron steps forward and reproaches all of them. His triumph is short-lived, however, as Jaquenetta and Costard arrive with his own letter to Rosaline, which he at first tears up but then confesses to. Biron urges his colleagues to lay aside their unnatural vow and set about their wooing. 5.1 Nathaniel and Holofernes, discussing Armado's pretensions to linguistic style before a silent and uncomprehending Dull, are interrupted by Armado's arrival, with Costard and Mote: he has been sent confidentially by the King to commission an entertainment to be performed for the Princess. Holofernes decides they shall stage a pageant of the Nine Worthies. 5.2 The Princess and her ladies scoff at the respective love letters they have received. Boyet brings news that the King and his three lords are approaching, disguised as Muscovites: the women exchange masks, so as to trick their suitors into wooing the wrong people. The men arrive, posing as Muscovites, prefaced by a speech from Mote which, despite prompting, he forgets: all four are taken in by the trick and each is dashed by the witty rebuffs of his partner before they leave, discomfited. The women scoff behind their backs, and when they return undisguised they pretend not to have recognized them, lamenting that they have had their time wasted by foolish Russians. Biron forswears all affectation and pretence to wit in his future wooing, andfinallyunderstands how he and his companions have been ridiculed. Costard arrives to
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ask whether the Nine Worthies should perform, and despite the King's misgivings the Princess insists the pageant should proceed. Mocked by their spectators, speaking in archaic verse, Costard impersonates Pompey the Great, Nathaniel (who forgets his words) plays Alexander the Great, Mote plays the infant Hercules strangling snakes in his cradle, but Holofernes' performance as Judas Maccabeus is dashed by heckling. Armado appears as Hector, and is even more dashed by Costard's public claim that Jaquenetta is two months' pregnant by him: the two nearly come to blows, but at this point the entertainment is interrupted by the coming of a messenger, Mercadé. He brings the news that the Princess's father has died. The women at last listen seriously to the mens' love-suits, but will give no answer until they meet again in a year and a day: Rosaline makes Biron promise to spend the intervening period telling his jokes in a hospital. Armado returns, and before the King and his lords and the princess and her ladies part he and the rustics perform a song of spring and winter, 'When daisies pied'. ARTISTIC FEATURES: The play is marked by long passages of sustained punning, and by a heavy use of rhyme: even when not reading aloud from love letters, the aristocratic characters frequently speak in sonnets. CRITICAL HISTORY: Until the 19th century very few critics found a good word to say about Love's Labour's Lost, which seemed to most commentators to represent Shakespeare simultaneously at his most self-indulgent and his most datedly Elizabethan. Francis *Gentleman, relegating the play to the eighth volume of *Bell's edition in 1774, called it 'one of Shakespeare's weakest compositions. . ., he certainly wrote more to please himself, than to divert or inform his readers or auditors'. Enthusiasm grew over the following century, albeit often of a qualified sort. *Hazlitt, though admitting it had charm, found it pedantic, while *Coleridge enjoyed the play primarily as an intelligent game at the expense of the ideals of Renaissance humanism. Victor *Hugo initiated one enduring strand in the play's critical history in the preface to his translation of the play, when he attempted to show that it was a specific satire on Elizabeth's court, directly inspired by the relationship between the Earl of *Southampton (according to Hugo, the original for Biron, as well as for the *'Fair Youth' of the Sonnets) with Elizabeth *Vernon. (The quest for topical or allegorical significance in the play has been pursued more recently by Frances Yates and her followers). The play only came into its own critically with the dawning of the aesthetic movement at the end of the century, when commentators such as Walter Pater and Algernon Charles *Swinburne began to celebrate the play's studied artifice and pose of ^substantiality instead of lamenting it. Since then critics have, however, looked for sterner things in the play, whether its questioning of the limitations of comedy (notably by the bereavement which cuts off its marital ending), its alleged attempt to beat the *University Wits at their own game, its views of language, identity and social hierarchy, or its understanding of the pastoral and the festive.
LUCILLIUS
STAGE HISTORY: The courtly tone of the play, together with its comparative brevity, has led some to speculate that it may have been written for performance at an annual revel of one of the *Inns of Court, but there is no direct evidence for this beyond the possibility that the missing *Love's Labour's Won was a sequel, played the following year and depicting the renewal of the courtships postponed for a year at the end of this play. The play was certainly acted before Elizabeth (see above), and a private performance took place at *Southampton's house over Christmas 1604-5, according to a letter from Sir Walter *Cope. After this, though, the play disappeared from the stage, regarded as the least rescuable of all Shakespeare's comedies (though the transplanted concluding song for many years adorned revivals of As You Like Li): an anonymous adaptation published in 1762, The Students, was never performed, and when Loves Labours Lost was finally staged by Elizabeth *Vestris at Covent Garden in 1839 it enjoyed the distinction of being the last play in the canon to have been revived. Vestris was highly praised as Rosaline, but the play was not revived again until it flopped in 1857, with Samuel *Phelps as Armado. (During the 19th century, however, an adaptation of the play in French sometimes served as a replacement libretto for *Mozart's Cost fan tutte, regarded at the time as immoral.) Love's Labours Lost was chosen (partly for its obscurity) to be acted on Shakespeare's birthday at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford in 1885, but sporadic revivals there and elsewhere (including a musical version in 1919) failed to establish it in the repertory. The young Tyrone *Guthrie produced it twice, first at the Westminster theatre in 1932 and then four years later at the *01d Vic (with Michael *Redgrave as the King), but neither pro-
duction was a hit, though the play did become something of a favourite at the *Open Air Theatre in Regents Park in the mid-i930s. The first production really to establish the play was Peter *Brook's delicate, bitter-sweet revival at Stratford in 1946, with Paul *Scofield as a melancholy Armado and designs suggestive of the paintings of Watteau. Since then it has been revived much more frequently: notable RSC productions, for example, have included John *Barton's, set in a wooded Elizabethan park, in 1977-8 (with Michael *Pennington as Biron and Jane Lapotaire as Rosaline), Barry Kyle's in 1984 (with Josette Simon as Rosaline) and Ian Judge's in 1994-5, set in a Zuieika Dobson-esque Edwardian Oxford on the eve of the First World War. MD O N T H E SCREEN: The earliest of five silent films was made in 1912, unsuited as the medium seems to such a wordoriented play. The Bristol Old Vic production (1964) was recorded on television to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth. Elijah Moshinsky directed the B B C TV production in an 18th-century setting (1984). Kenneth *Branagh's version, heavily cut and featuring song-and-dance routines to music by Cole *Porter and others, which appeared in 2000, has so far been the least critically acclaimed of his films. AD RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
John Kerrigan (New Penguin, 1982); G. R. Hibbard (Oxford, 1990); Henry Woodhuysen (Arden 3rd series, 1998) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Barber, C. L., Shakespeare's Festive Comedy (1959) Hoy, Cyrus, 'Love's Labours Lost and the Nature of Comedy', Shakespeare Quarterly, 13 (1962) Yates, Frances, A Study of'Love's Labour's Lost' (1936)
Lucullus sends Timon a gift of greyhounds but Lucillius (Lucilius) is a friend of Brutus and Cassius in Julius Caesar. He is taken prisoner at refuses to give him a loan, Timon of Athens 3.1. Philippi, 5.4. AB AB Lucio asks Isabella to intercede for Claudio, and slanders Duke Vincentio, in Measure for Measure. AB
Lucullus' Servant appears briefly, Timon of Athens 3.1. AB
Lucy, Sir Thomas (1532-1600). According to a popular legend, the young Shakespeare poached deer from the estate of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, near Stratford-upon-Avon. The Sir Thomas of Shakespeare's boyhood lived from 1532 to 1600 and built the great house of Charlecote, which still stands. He also owned, through his wife Joyce Acton, rich estates at Sutton in Worcestershire. He was knighted by the Earl of Leicester at Charlecote in 1565, and Queen Elizabeth visited him there in 1572. Lucius, Caius. He is a Roman ambassador and He was a prominent figure in Stratford-uponthen general in Cymbeline. AB Avon, with a household of about 40 servants Lucius, Young. He is Lucius' son in Titus and retainers. William *Camden and other Andronicus: Lavinia uses his copy of *Ovid to heralds attended his funeral, and his effigy in indicate that she has been raped, 4.1. AB armour is still to be seen in Charlecote church. The legend that Shakespeare poached Sir Lucius' Servant. See Lucius. Thomas's deer is first mentioned by Richard Davies in a manuscript dated between 1688 and Lucrèce. See RAPE OF LUCRÈCE, THE.
Lucius, (l) Titus' eldest son in Titus Andronicus, he takes revenge on Saturninus and is made emperor at the end of the play. (2) See Lucius, YOUNG. (3) He is Brutus' boy servant who sleeps as Caesar's ghost appears to Brutus, Julius Caesar 4.2. (4) He is a lord who gives Timon four horses (mentioned 1.2.181-3), but refuses to give him a loan, Timon of Athens?,.2. His servant is also called by the name 'Lucius', Timon of Athens 3.4.3. (5) See Lucius, CAIUS. AB
1708 in which Lucy is identified with 'Justice Clodpate'—i.e. Shallow in The Merry Wives of Windsor. * Aubrey does not mention the tale, but in 1709 *Rowe reported *Betterton's saying that Shakespeare had been prosecuted by Lucy, wrote a ballad about him, and was consequently obliged to escape to London. William Oldys and Edward *Capell quoted what was said to be the 'first stanza of that bitter ballad' transmitted by 'several old people at Stratford' who vouched that it had been stuck on Lucy's park gate. The legend has formed a picturesque incident in many accounts of Shakespeare's life, but according to Eccles, 'The Sir Thomas Lucy who died in 1600 had no park in Warwickshire, though he had a coney warren, and the whole story seems to be a late invention.' His heir was his son, also Sir Thomas (1551-1605), who in 1618 was licensed to impale a park at Charlecote. SW Lucy, Sir William. He is a messenger who appears in 1 Henry vi 4.3, 4.4, and 4.7. AB Luddington is a small village close to Stratford, reputedly the scene of Shakespeare's marriage
266
LYRIC POETRY, SHAKESPEARE'S to Anne *Hathaway. Its registers for the period do not survive. According to a Victorian biographer, S. W. Fullom, a very old resident claimed to have seen 'the ancient tome in which it was registered'. Other residents confirmed this, but said that the curate's housekeeper 'one cold day burnt the register to boil her kettle'. SW Ludwig, Otto (1813-65), German author of realist novellas and plays, whose eventual selfabandonment to the admiration and copious annotation of Shakespeare's plays (published posthumously in 1874) was said to have caused the premature extinction of his remarkable creative talent. WH Luhrmann,
Baz.
See
ROMEO
AND
JULIET;
SHAKESPEARE ON SOUND FILM.
lute, a plucked string instrument central to music-making in Shakespeare's time, among both amateurs (including Queen Elizabeth) and professionals. It has a fine surviving repertoire; John *Dowland was the leading exponent and composer. JB Lyance, the name of land at Hatton, later known as Moat Farm, about 7 miles (11 km) from Stratford, which was in the hands of the Shakespeares of *Rowington and *Wroxall SW from 1547 to 1578. Lyceum theatre. A big theatre built in 1834 just off the Strand, it was from 1878 the fiefdom of Henry *Irving, whose major productions of Shakespeare, often co-starring Ellen Terry, drew fashionable audiences. In 1902 it was reconstructed as a music hall. Due for demolition in 1939, it was restored in 1996 and now houses large-scale musicals. MJ Lychorida, Thaisa's nurse, brings the newborn Marina to Pericles {Pericles 11) and becomes her nurse. AB Lydgate, John (c.1370-1451), priest and prolific poet. Lydgate is best known for his Troy Book (1412-21), an English poem based on a Latin prose account of the Trojan Wars. The Troy Book was highly esteemed in 16th-century England and was one of Shakespeare's sources for Troilus and Cressida. JKS Lyly, John (c.1554-1606), novelist and dramatist, one of the *University Wits, who aspired to be Master of the Revels but eventually became a member of Parliament. His prose romance Euphues; or, The Anatomy of Wit (1578), followed two years later by Euphues, and his England (1580), established a vogue for a literary style based on rhetorically balanced sentences featuring antimetabole and antithesis and employing abundant metaphors and similes. This style, dubbed 'euphuism', was frequently imitated by Lyly's contemporaries, most obviously *Lodge and *Greene, and sometimes
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satirized. It was also a central feature of his courtly comedies of the 1580s, Sapho and Phao (1584), Campaspe (1584), Gallathea (1585), and Endimion (1588), whose popularity was such as virtually to dictate the form of comedy for years to come. Shakespeare was undoubtedly influenced by the style, themes, and structure of Lyly's drama. The absurdity of love and the wittiness of courtship characteristic of Lyly are central to Shakespeare's comedies. Concerned with setting up a debate through language rather than through action, Lyly's static forms are reflected in Love's Labours Lostzna As You Like It, both renowned for their thinness of plot. Another aspect of form that Shakespeare may have borrowed and developed is the juxtaposition of different groups of characters, noble and artisan, god and mortal. Moreover, Lyly's preoccupation with mistaken identity may have influenced Shakespeare. Gallatheds examination of inconstancy, through the literal transformation of its characters and linguistic images of vacillation, has marked similarities with A Midsummer Nights Dream. In As You Like It, Ganymede's image of woman as constantly changing, 'moonish', may relate directly to the eponymous character in Lyly's The Woman in the Moon (?I593). Other works which have been thus linked include Euphues and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Endimion ana The Merry Wives of Windsor, Campaspe and Timon of
This unequivocal belief in the erotic compulsion of sight governed, as perplexing theme, most of Shakespeare's lyric poetry. In the seriocomic Venus and Adonis (1593), Venus is taken by the looks of 'rosecheeked' Adonis, with his 'round enchanting' dimples; in the tragic history of The Rape of Lucrèce (1594), Tarquin inflames his lustful gaze by watching 'the silent war of lilies and of roses' in Lucrece's blushing face; in the vein of pathos, the betrayed maid of A Lover's Complaint (published as a tailpiece to the Sonnets in 1609) sighs still after her faithless but fatally handsome lover; and the speaker of the Sonnets (1609) is infatuated with the beautiful young man. Since the Sonnets are by common consent Shakespeare's greatest lyric achievement, I will turn first to them. Because of Shakespeare's intense subjection to beauty of visage, the chief epistemological concern of the Sonnets is the haunting fear of discrepancy between the physical exterior and the moral interior of the beloved. Sonnet 54—dwelling on this theme— will serve as a typical example of Shakespeare's manner of developing the three alternately rhymed quatrains and concluding couplet of the sonnet form that has come to bear his name. The speaker begins by contrasting the beautiful but odourless canker roses to those 'true' roses from which perfume can be distilled:
O how much more doth beauty beauteous seem By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! Athens. JKS The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem Mincoff, Marco, 'Shakespeare and Lyly', Shake- For that sweet odour which doth in it live. The canker blooms have full as deep a dye speare Survey, 14 (1961) Scragg, Leah, The Metamorphosis of 'Gallathea ': As the perfumed tincture of the roses, Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly A Study in Creative Adaptation (1982) When summer's breath their masked buds discloses; But for their virtue only is their show Lymoges. See AUSTRIA, DUKE OF. They live unwooed and unrespected fade, lyric, a short poem expressing the mood or Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so; Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made: thought of a single speaker, whether real or ficAnd so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, tional. This need not be intended for singing, When that shall fade, by verse distils your truth. and the term embraces literary sonnets etc., as CB well as songs. The sonnet's first notable linguistic means is a cascade, in lines 1-6, of self-duplicating lyric poetry, Shakespeare's No full account language—'beauty beauteous'; 'sweet ornament of Shakespeare's lyric poetry could ignore the . . . I . . . sweet odour'; 'fair . . . fairer'; 'rose . . . I lyrics in the plays—'Full fathom five thy father roses'. This reduplicative lexicon vanishes enlies' or 'Was it the heavenly rhetoric of thine tirely in lines 7-10, only to reappear (further eye'—but here I mention only the revealing emphasized by grammatical parallelism) in lines stanza sung in The Merchant of Venice during 11—13—'Sweet roses. . . I sweet deaths . . . I Bassanio's choosing of the casket. That brief sweetest odours . . . I . . . beauteous.' Although question-and-answer poem argues that it is not the word 'truth', too, is duplicated in the sonin the heart, nor in the head, but solely in the net, the duplication (1. 14) comes so long after eye that 'fancy' (or sexual attraction) is bred, the initial instance (1. 2) that it serves only to fed, and ultimately extinguished: give conclusiveness to conclusion, differing Tell me, where is fancy bred, thereby from the earlier duplication of closeOr in the heart, or in the head? packed heaps of luscious words; and 'truth' of How begot, how nourished? course differs radically in semantic category Reply, reply. from the 'natural' words about roses. It is engendered in the eyes, We must explain, then, why Shakespeare With gazing fed; and fancy dies writes lines 7-11 in a different mode of expresIn the cradle where it lies. ( The Merchant of Venice 3.2.63-9) sion, and ask whether the second heap of
LYRIC POETRY, SHAKESPEARE'S
sweetness and odours and roses (11. n-13) replicates thefirstor changes it. The second of these questions is more easily answered: the earlier heap speaks of the life ('live', 1. 4) of roses, the later one of the death ('deaths', 1. 12) of roses. Two different 'odours' are in question: the first is the natural odour of the living rose, the second the distilled odour of perfume. There is another difference: in the first set of roseexpressions, the rose is externally 'fair', and only its inner odour is 'sweet': in the second set—in which the rose is sweet, its death is sweet, and its distilled odours are sweet—external 'fairness' has vanished from the equation. In lieu of 'fairness' and 'odour' as categories of outside and inside, the poet substitutes (in 1. 9) 'show' and 'virtue'—moral words connected in category to the word 'truth'. Such distinctions are the very stuff of Shakespeare the poet: he liked nothing better than to subdivide scholastically any available object or concept. Divide roses in general into unscented canker roses and perfumed 'true' roses. Divide a living 'true' rose into its fair exterior and its sweet fragrant essence; divide a dead 'true' rose into its sweet death and its subsequent sweet distillation. Find a pun: the canker blooms have a 'dye' and they indeed 'die', but their death is not 'sweet'. Draw a chart of similarities between true roses and canker roses: both are deep dyed, both hang on thorns, both play wantonly as the zephyr discloses their covered buds. But to this list of similarities introduce the fatal point of non-similarity: because one cannot distil the odourless canker roses into perfume, they suffer sexual and social ostracism, and die alone. Then point your moral. The eye falls in love (as the casket-song says) with fairness, not with sweetness (an invisible moral virtue); one can be as sexually undone by a canker rose as by any true rose. Therefore the second quatrain of the sonnet, introducing the canker rose, is the most sensual, the most seductive, the most teasing, the most wanton in language. The kiss of summer's breath, intent on encouraging the erotic 'masked buds' to unclose themselves, is substituted for the kiss of the lover, who began by mistakenly judging truth to be merely an 'ornament'. In addition to the rich exploitation of contrary lexicons, Shakespeare—because of his experience with drama—tends to vary speech-acts throughout a poem. Here, the speaker begins with a moral proposition—'O how much more'; continues with direct description of sensuous experience—'and play as wantonly'; passes into emblem—'Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made'; and ends with an adjuration and prophecy—'And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth'. The varying speech-acts of the Sonnets, together with their fecundity of lexicon and metaphor, are made to mimic the evolving gestures of the mind behind them.
In the sonnet sequence, discrepancy between exterior and interior makes itself felt slowly, as Shakespeare's speaker gradually loses faith in thefidelityof both the young man and the dark lady. The intellectual ingenuity of the effort to explain away betrayal leads Shakespeare's speaker into elaborate 'logical' antitheses (the poet's favouritefigure)and to many emblems of truth and falsehood (the rose, the wolf in sheep's clothing, the bad angel, and so on). A grim comedy pervades some of the sonnets, not least 144, which, taking as its convention the struggle (found in medieval drama) between a good and a bad angel for the soul of Everyman, blasphemes against its religious origin by revising the expected plot: in Shakespeare's version, the good and bad angels go off together as a sexual couple, leaving the bewildered Everyman behind. Even in the so-called 'impersonal' sonnets, there can exist a dark personal irony. In 129, the famous sonnet on lust, wefirstsee the speaker in hellish retrospective recollection of his own past actions ('Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame'); this gradually changes to chronological recollection (how sexual attraction felt at the time, i.e. heavenly, if brief and ultimately unreal—'A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe; I Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream'). In the knowing chiasmus of the couplet, the phrase 'well knows' stands for retrospective recollection, and the phrase 'none knows well' for chronological recollection; and by this adroit reversal the couplet represents the helpless circuit between our chronological perception of our life as we live it (hoping for joy), and our devastating sense of our life as we look back on it (aware of our mistakes): All this the world well knows, yet none knows well To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. The language of the Sonnets is racy, dramatic, lurid, and even pugnacious ("Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed', 121) when it is not being courtly, abject, pleading, and strategic ('Let me not to the marriage of true minds', 118). In both sorts of poems, as the plight of Shakespeare-thespeaker is analysed and formally enacted by Shakespeare-the-author, an ironic distance separates the sufferer from his expert portrayer. By animating his sequence with four main protagonists—the speaker, the young man, the dark lady (mistress to both), and a rival poet— Shakespeare added immensely to the dramatic play of the (normally dyadic) genre. And by ingenious, if covert, verbal schemes (such as frequently compelling the same root-word to appear in each of the four units of a sonnet (cf. 7, where the root-word is 'look'), Shakespeare joyfully complicated for himself the writing wager. Shakespeare's longer poems, with their elaborate erotic conceits, conscious rhetoric,
and stately pentameter rhyme-schemes (ababcc for the mythological Venus and Adonis; rhyme royal—ababbcc—for both the aristocratic The Rape of Lucrèce and the pastoral A Lovers Complaint) prefigure and confirm the deceptions of fair appearance that vex the Sonnets. Throughout Venus's teasing and petulant sexual debate with the reluctant Adonis, we are instructed by Shakespeare's urbane and experienced Ovidian narrator, who points the moral: Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast, Yet love breaks through, and picks them all at last. (11. 575-6) Frustrated of her desire (as Adonis resists her and is killed by the boar) Venus, in the most didactic passage of the poem, lays a curse on human love (a curse that comes true in the Sonnets). The diction and rhythmical movement are conspicuously less original in this youthful epyllion than in the best poems of the sonnet sequence: Sorrow on love hereafter shall attend. It shall be waited on with jealousy, Find sweet beginning, but unsavoury end; Ne'er settled equally, but high or low, That all love's pleasure shall not match his woe. (11. 1136-40) The deceptions of fair appearance are marked once more in The Rape of Lucrèce: Tarquin, says Lucrèce, 'beguiled' her with 'outward honesty, but yet defiled I With inward vice'. The poem is one long tracking of the mortal effect of Tarquin's rape—itself provoked by the careless boasts, by Lucrece's husband, of her beauty. Shakespeare's narrator (commenting on Lucrece's long inner debate on the proper course to take) is given to ceremonious sententiae about love, shame, evil, and the relations between the sexes, moralizings which are nonetheless—in spite of their rather stiff presentation—often ahead of their time: No man inveigh against the withered flower, But chide rough winter that theflowerhath killed. Not that devoured, but that which doth devour, Is worthy blame. O, let it not be held Poor women's faults, that they are so full-filled With men's abuses. Those proud lords, to blame, Make weak-made women tenants to their shame. (11. 1254-60) The dramatist in Shakespeare relished the insoluble nature of Lucrece's dilemma: were she to have resisted, Tarquin would have left her dead in bed with one of her male servants, shaming her and her husband in perpetuity; were she to submit to Tarquin and afterward accuse him, she could be thought to be concealing a voluntary submission on her part; and so her only resort—in order to preserve her husband's honour and her own, and to ensure the punishment of Tarquin—is to make good her tale by suicide. At the end of the poem, the Romans, seeing her violated body borne through the streets, expel the tyrannical house
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LYSIMACHUS
of Tarquin and establish Rome as a republic, thereby giving political, as well as moral, force to Lucrece's self-sacrifice. The secure moral viewpoint of the narrator of Lucrèce (and of its heroine) disappears in A Lover's Complaint. Its narrator is almost invisible, and the overheard voice of the seduced and betrayed maiden dominates the poem. The moral is not even equivocal: if, says the lovesick girl, her seducer (who greatly resembles—in his beauty, his carelessness, and his amorality—the young man of the Sonnets) were to return, she would—such was his beauty, so entrancing was his tongue—willingly succumb to him again. The Spenserian elaborations of pathetic complaint make this poem (whose attribution to Shakespeare has been contested) less appealing
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to the modern reader than the vigorous Sonnets, but we can see its plot as another version of that perennially deceiving discrepancy between appearance and character, 'show' and 'virtue', on which—from the 'lascivious grace' of the young man to the vicious 'honesty' of Iago— Shakespeare expended so much of his lyric and dramatic energy. There remains Shakespeare's enigmatic and beautiful elegy of married constancy 'The Phoenix and Turtle' (written in trochaic tetrameter). The two birds, 'co-supremes and stars of love' who have perished 'in a mutual flame', are celebrated in a liturgy (in thirteen abba quatrains) followed by a threnody (infiveaaa tercets). The style is one of metaphysical concision: 'Two distincts, division none: I Number
there in love was slain' (11. 27-8). In its confidence that a kind of love exists in which a 'concordant twain' live in exemplary fidelity, Shakespeare's terse formal elegy stands as the Platonic opposite to his corrosive lyric and narrative investigations of human sexual fallibility. HV
Lysander is in love with, and eventually permitted to marry, Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream. AB
Lysimachus is overcome with shame when he meets the virtuous Marina in a brothel, Pericles 19. AB
M., I. James Mabbe (1572-1642), a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, is probably the 'I.M.' who wrote a brief elegy for the First Folio (1623). In the poem, Shakespeare leaves the 'world's-stage' for 'the grave's-tiring-room', but lives on in print to renewed applause. PH Macbeth (c.1005-1057), King of Scotland (reigned after defeating King Duncan in battle in 1040, and was himself killed by rebels under Malcolm in 1057). See MACBETH. AB Macbeth
(see opposite page)
Macbeth, Lady. See MACBETH. Macbeth nach Shakespeare.
See MACBETH.
Macbett, \Ç)ji French play by RomanianFrench author Eugène Ionesco (1909-94). Ionesco's ironic version of Macbeth constitutes an 'absurdist' critique of Shakespeare's heroic tragedy, exposing a brutal and banal cycle of ambition, conspiracy, and assassination, in which some scenes and speeches are replayed verbatim by different characters. The First Witch transforms herself into 'Lady Duncan', who then seduces a compliant Macbett. The triumph of Macol (Shakespeare's Malcolm) brings only crueller tyranny. TM Macbird. See MACBETH. ' M a c c a b e u s , Judas' See 'JUDAS MACCABEUS'.
McCarthy, Lillah (1875-1960), English actress, wife of Harley *Granville-Barker from 1906 to 1917 and his managerial partner. Noted for her statuesque beauty and eloquent voice, she gave enticing performances in his productions at the Savoy as Hermione and Viola (1912) and Helena DK (A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1914). McCullough, John (1832-85), Irish-born American actor in the heroic mould, whose successes included Richard in, Hamlet, King Lear, and Othello. When he played the latter role at Drury Lane in 1881 his performance was considered old-fashioned, but effective in a rather coarse way. RF Macduff finds the murdered Duncan {Macbeth 2.3) and begins to suspect Macbeth, whom he kills at the end of the play in revenge for the murder of his family. Shakespeare broadly follows *Holinshed's account of Macduff, the AB Thane (later Earl) of Fife. Macduff, Lady. She and her children are killed by Macbeth's henchmen, Macbeth 4.2. AB Machiavelli, Nkcolo (1469-1527), Italian political philosopher who became notorious for his ruthlessly pragmatic ideas. Machiavelli served as assistant secretary of state to the Florentine republic until the return of the Medici caused him to be exiled in 1512. Nevertheless, it was to the Medici that Machiavelli dedicated II principe
{The Prince), which he wrote in 1513 urging them to unite the country against the French invaders. As the chance of this happening became remote, Machiavelli decided not to publish this treatise or his Discorsi {Discourses) written from 1513 to 1517. It was not until after his death in 1532 that The Prince was published and the ideas within it became the focus for lengthy and heated debate across Europe. Machiavelli recognized moral exigencies and condemned rulers for excessive brutality. Nevertheless, he allowed that violent or immoral acts could be justified in the pursuit of a unified and self-sufficient state. He distinguished the successful prince from the ideal Christian ruler, implying that spiritual and ethical values had no place in the political sphere. He also emphasized the need to take risks and to accept one's dependence upon chance. These ideas were condemned by moralists in England and France as demonic and an incitement to tyranny. In 1576 Innocent Gentillet published a denunciation of The Prince, the Contre-Machiavel, which was translated into English in 1602. But long before then, the words 'Machiavellian' and 'Machiavelism' had passed into the English language and the Machiavel had become a stock dramatic type, brought onto the stage at the beginning of Marlowe's The Jew of Malta and claimed as an influence by Richard of Gloucester in Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) (3.2.193). Shakespeare may not have read The Prince but he advertised his awareness of 'Machiavelism' through direct reference and characterization, and through the creation of a savage political world in which a pious Christian king like Henry vi is entirely at a loss. JKS
machines in the Elizabethan theatre. Little was needed to adapt the mechanical winches used in the Elizabethan construction industry for theatrical *flying from the 'heavens' and for unassisted ascent from or descent into 'hell', but once settled at permanent playhouses the companies were slow to give up the minimalist habits required for touring. No play written for the Globe requires a mechanical elevator platform beneath the trapdoor set into the stage—simple steps will do for the descending actor—and not until Shakespeare's Cymbeline (1610), when Jupiter descends on an eagle, was flight called for. Philip *Henslowe was ahead of his rivals, paying for the flight machine at the Rose in 1595. GE Mack, Maynard (b. 1909), American academic, editor, and critic. His 'The World of Hamlet' {Yale Review, 41, 1952) discusses the imagery of the play; and King Lear in our Time (1965) considers both the play's literary mode and several modern productions, including Peter *Brook's versions on stage and film. TM (cont. on page 275)
Macbeth
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ossibly Shakespeare's most intense tragedy, and certainly his most Jacobean—in that its interests in *Scotland, in *witches, and in the Stuarts' ancestor Banquo suggest that Shakespeare was here deliberately catering to the tastes of his company's patron King *James—Macbeth was probably first performed in 1606. The Porter's remarks about equivocation and treason appear to allude to the trial of the *Gunpowder Plot conspirators, which took place from January to March of 1606, and the First Witch's undertaking to condemn a ship called 'the Tiger' to 81 weeks of storms (1.3.6-24) may allude to a real ship of that name which reached Milford Haven in June 1606 after a traumatic voyage of just that duration. Banquo's ghost may be glanced at in two plays written in 1607, the anonymous The *Puritan and perhaps *Beaumont and *Fletcher's The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Internal evidence, moreover, particularly the play's metre, also suggests that Macbeth was composed in 1606, after King Lear but just before Antony and Cleopatra: Macbeth even mentions Antony (3.1.58) in a manner which suggests that Shakespeare was already revisiting *Plutarch in preparation for the latter tragedy while composing his Scottish play. Macbeth was first printed in the *Folio in 1623, which provides its only authoritative text, unfortunately in many ways a defective one. The play is unusually short: many editors have suspected cutting, wondering, for example, whether the murderers' description of the killing of Banquo was originally a separate scene between 3.3 and 3.4, or whether King Edward the Confessor originally made an appearance in 4.3. More conspicuously, three episodes in which the goddess Hecate appears in person to the Witches (3.5, 4.1.38-60, 1418), which have little or no effect on the plot and are different in style to the surrounding dialogue, seem to be non-Shakespearian interpolations. Since these episodes call for the performance of two songs found in Thomas *Middleton's play The Witch, it is now generally believed that the text of Macbeth in the Folio derives from a promptbook of the play as adapted by Middleton for a later Jacobean revival. SOURCES: Shakespeare's principal source was *Holinshed's account of the reigns of Duncan and Macbeth, supplemented by material borrowed from elsewhere in Holinshed's history of Scotland: Lady Macbeth, for example, is largely based on the wife of Donwald, who prompted her husband to kill King Duff. Shakespeare restructures Holinshed's material, however, making the historical Macbeth's long and peaceful reign TEXT:
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look like a short-lived usurpation, and framing his play by the appearance of the three witches who tempt Macbeth and Banquo with their prophecies. Shakespeare may have consulted other accounts of Macbeth's reign too, including George Buchanan's Rerum Scoticarum historia (1582) and Andrew of Wyntoun's poem The Original Chronicle of Scotland (f.1424), in which Macbeth is incited to kill Duncan by three women who appear to him in a dream. It is likely that Shakespeare also knew of a playlet by Matthew Gwinne, Très sibyllae, performed before King James at St John's College, Oxford, in 1605. The three sibyls of the title reminded James that they had once prophesied endless dominion to Banquo's descendants, and saluted him in turn with the words 'Hail, thou who rulest Scotland!' 'Hail, thou who rulest England!' 'Hail, thou who rulest Ireland!' (cf. 1.3.46-8). SYNOPSIS: I.I Three witches agree to meet again on a heath in order to accost Macbeth after the day's battle. 1.2 King Duncan, fighting against the rebel Macdonald, receives a report from a bleeding captain about Macbeth's valiant deeds in the battle: Macbeth has killed Macdonald, and he and his comrade Banquo have met the fresh assaults of Macdonald's Norwegian allies. Ross brings the news that Macbeth has defeated the King of Norway and his associate, the traitorous
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Thane of Cawdor: Duncan condemns Cawdor to death and confers his title on Macbeth. 1.3 The three witches hail Macbeth by his current title, Thane of Glamis, and then as Thane of Cawdor and as future king: before vanishing they tell Banquo that though he will not be king his descendants will. Ross and Angus bring the news that Macbeth is now Thane of Cawdor: reflecting on the witches' prophecy, now partly fulfilled, Macbeth is already imagining the murder of Duncan. 1.4 Duncan, after hearing a report from his son Malcolm of the death of the former Cawdor, welcomes Macbeth and Banquo, before declaring Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland and his heir. Duncan means to be Macbeth's guest at Inverness, towards which Macbeth sets off to inform his wife, conscious that he must now remove both Malcolm and Duncan if the witches' prophecy is to be fulfilled. 1.5 Lady Macbeth reads a letter from Macbeth describing his meeting with the witches, and, aware of the conscience which may hold back his ambition, she is ready to urge him on to the murder of Duncan. A servant brings the news of Duncan's impending arrival: Lady Macbeth calls on the forces of darkness to make her cruel and unwomanly enough to be an instigator of Duncan's murder. When Macbeth arrives she urges him to dissemble with Duncan and promises to do her part. 1.6 Duncan and his nobles, including his sons Malcolm and Donalbain along with Macduff, the Thane of Fife, are welcomed to Inverness by Lady Macbeth. 1.7 Briefly alone while Duncan dines, Macbeth reflects in horror on the crime he is on the verge of committing, for no motive but ambition, and when Lady Macbeth comes to find him he renounces their plot to kill the King. By taunting him for unmanliness and inconstancy, however, she persuades him to resume his original purpose, saying she will get Duncan's chamberlains drunk so that the Macbeths can make it appear that they are the culprits. 2.1 After midnight, Banquo and his son Fleance are met by Macbeth: Banquo opens the subject of the witches, but Macbeth says they will discuss them on another occasion. After the departure of Banquo and Fleance, Macbeth, awaiting the bell which will be Lady Macbeth's signal that it is time to kill Duncan, sees a vision of a dagger, at first clean but then bloodstained, beckoning him towards Duncan's chamber. The bell rings and he goes to commit the murder. 2.2 Lady Macbeth, having drugged Duncan's grooms and left their daggers ready for her husband to use, awaits Macbeth. When he arrives he is terrified by what he has done and fearful of discovery, convinced he has heard a voice cursing him with eternal insomnia: he is still clutching the bloodstained daggers, which Lady Macbeth has to take back to Duncan's chamber. Macbeth feels he will never be able to get his hands clean of the blood. He is frightened by the sound of knocking at a door: Lady Macbeth leads him away to wash his hands and change into a nightgown. 2.3 A drunken porter, also disturbed by knocking, indulges a fancy that he is the porter at the gates of Hell before finally admitting Macduff and Lennox, to whom he discourses about the effects of drink.
Macbeth arrives and conducts Macduff, calling by appointment to awaken the King, to Duncan's door: Lennox describes the ominous storms of the past night. A horrified Macduff brings the news of Duncan's murder and awakens the household while Macbeth and Lennox go to the chamber: Lady Macbeth, Banquo, Macbeth, Lennox, Malcolm, and Donalbain assemble and learn both of Duncan's death and of Macbeth's sudden killing of the two apparently guilty chamberlains on reaching the fatal chamber with Lennox. While Macbeth is explaining that righteous anger overcame his judgement, Lady Macbeth faints. Banquo urges the others to dress and arm themselves: left alone, Malcolm and Donalbain, convinced that they too are intended victims, resolve to flee. 2.4 Ross is discussing further omens with an old man when Macduff arrives: he reports that it is thought the two chamberlains had been paid to kill Duncan by the fugitive Malcolm and Donalbain, and that Macbeth, chosen as Duncan's successor, has gone to Scone to be crowned. Although Ross means to attend the coronation, Macduff is on his way home to Fife. 3.1 Banquo recognizes that the witches' prophecies to Macbeth have been fulfilled, and suspects him of Duncan's murder; he wonders if their remarks about his own descendants will also come true. Macbeth, arriving with Lady Macbeth, Lennox, Ross, and other nobles, invites Banquo to a feast that evening and asks in detail about where he and Fleance mean to ride that afternoon. Dismissing his court, the insecure Macbeth summons two murderers, reflecting bitterly on the pointlessness of his crime if Banquo's descendants are destined to inherit the throne. He instructs the murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance. 3.2 Lady Macbeth also feels that their achievement of an anxious throne is worthless. When Macbeth arrives, envying the dead Duncan's freedom from fear, she urges him to feign cheerfulness at the feast. He hints darkly at the impending murder of Banquo and Fleance but does not confide that he has already commissioned it. 3.3 The two murderers, joined by a third, kill Banquo, but Fleance escapes. 3.4 Macbeth is called away from the feast by the two murderers, who report their partial success. Rejoining the party, he alone sees Banquo's ghost sitting in his place, and speaks in guilty horror. Taking him aside, Lady Macbeth rebukes him for his visible distraction, and after the ghost leaves he is able to compose himself and apologize to his guests for what he claims is merely an indisposition. The ghost returns, however, and Macbeth speaks to it in such terror that Lady Macbeth has to dismiss the company. Left alone with his wife, Macbeth comments on Macduffs absence from the feast, and resolves to consult the witches again. 3.5 The three witches are rebuked by Hecate for their dealings with Macbeth: Hecate is summoned away by spirits, with whom she sings. 3.6 Lennox, recognizing that Macbeth is responsible for the murders of Duncan and Banquo, talks with a Lord, who reports that Macduff has gone to the English court to join Malcolm and to urge the English king to provide military aid against Macbeth.
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4.1 The witches, subsequently joined by Hecate, prepare a dreadful potion. Macbeth arrives and insists that they call forth their spirits to provide him with further insights into the future. An armed head warns him to beware of Macduff; a bloody child tells him he cannot be harmed by any man born of woman; and a crowned child holding a tree tells him he will never be defeated until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. Encouraged, Macbeth insists that the witches tell him whether Banquo's descendants will indeed rule Scotland: to his horror he is shown a procession of eight kings, the last holding a mirror, with Banquo's ghost smiling and indicating that they are his descendants. After the witches vanish, Lennox brings the news that Macduff has fled to England. Alone, Macbeth resolves to have MacdufFs family killed at once. 4.2 Lady Macduff laments her husband's absence to Ross, and speaks of it with her young son after Ross leaves. A messenger warns that they are in immediate danger, and flees: shortly afterwards murderers arrive, stab the boy to death, and pursue the screaming Lady Macduff. 4.3 In England Malcolm speaks warily with Macduff, professing a suspicion that he may have been sent by Macbeth, especially since he has left his family in Macbeth's power. Malcolm goes on to tell Macduff that he is unfit to be king in Macbeth's place, claiming to be lascivious, greedy, and generally vicious: when Macduff, despairing for Scotland, finally repudiates him, Malcolm says he is now convinced of MacdufFs sincerity and is in fact innocent of all crimes, having maligned himself only as a test. He has indeed already secured English aid. A doctor tells of the English King's miraculous ability to cure scrofula. Ross brings the news that MacdufFs wife, children, and servants have all been killed: overcome by grief and self-reproach, Macduff vows revenge on Macbeth. 5.1 A gentlewoman has brought a doctor to witness Lady Macbeth's habitual sleepwalking: Lady Macbeth duly arrives, obsessively washing her hands, and speaking guiltily of Duncan's murder and the deaths of Lady Macduff and Banquo. 5.2 Scottish nobles, including Lennox, go to Birnam to rendezvous with Malcolm's English army. 5.3 At Dunsinane Macbeth, convinced of his invulnerability, learns of the English army's approach: he reflects that he may as well die, however, having forfeited the respect and friendship that make life worth living. He asks the doctor about Lady Macbeth's health, but despairs of a cure for her sorrows. Angry and coarse with his staff, he dons his armour. 5.4 Malcolm instructs his army to carry boughs cut in Birnam Wood as camouflage. 5.5 Macbeth, with his servant Seyton and soldiers, learns that Lady Macbeth is dead: he feels life is futile. A messenger brings the news that Birnam Wood is apparently coming to Dunsinane: Macbeth feels that he is doomed, but resolves to fight defiantly. 5.6 Malcolm places the English nobleman Siward and his son in the vanguard of their army. 5.7 In the battle Macbeth, convinced he can only be killed by a man not born of woman, kills Young Siward. 5.8 Macduff seeks Macbeth. 5.9 Siward tells Malcolm Macbeth's castle has surrendered. 5.10 Macduff confronts Macbeth: they fight, but
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Macbeth tells Macduff of his presumed invulnerability. Macduff, however, tells Macbeth he was born by Caesarean section. Despairing, and cursing the witches' equivocation, Macbeth still refuses to surrender, and the two resume their combat. Macbeth is killed. 5.11 Malcolm and his nobles, knowing they have won the battle, await news of the missing. Siward stoically accepts the reported death of his son. Macduff brings Macbeth's head, and Malcolm is hailed as King of Scotland: he makes his nobles earls. ARTISTIC FEATURES: The structure of Macbeth resembles that of Julius Caesar—following the tense, suspense-filled preparations for an assassination, after which the perpetrators fall into discord and anticlimax—but Shakespeare's focus on the consciousness of Macbeth and his wife, achieved by a succession of extraordinarily dense and rich soliloquies, goes far beyond his comparatively dispassionate investigation of Brutus' more intellectual motivations. The vividness with which the play thus renders the psychological experiences not only of committing murder but of anticipating and remembering doing so, coupled with its depiction of the witches, make even reading the play seem a genuine engagement with the forces of evil, an effect no doubt partly responsible for the superstition according to which it is unlucky to mention Macbeth by name in the precincts of a theatre. CRITICAL HISTORY: Macbeth has been of crucial importance not only to Shakespeare's reputation as a master of tragic pity and terror, possessed of uncanny psychological insight, but also to the work of subsequent artists, whether writers (from *Byron to the authors of countless *Gothic novels and detective thrillers), musicians such as * Verdi, painters such as *Fuseli, or film-makers from Hitchcock (on whom the play exerted a palpable influence) to *Welles, Polanski, and *Kurosawa. In the modern theatre alone, the play's offshoots range from the American political skit Macbird (an attack on President Johnson, 1965, one of a long line of Macbeth *burlesques and travesties) to Heiner *Miiller's radical adaptation Macbeth nach Shakespeare (1972) and Ionesco's *Macbett (1972). Quite apart from anything else, the play has influenced all subsequent notions of *ghosts and *witches. The force with which Macbeth depicts terror and the supernatural gave it a special place in the canon for 18thcentury and *Romantic commentators, with their interest in the sublime, while the density of its *imagery has made it a perennially important test case for studies of Shakespeare's style. Although the success with which Sir William *Davenant's verbally simplified adaptation displaced Shakespeare's text from the stage between the 1660s and the 1740s suggests that Restoration playgoers found this very density objectionable, Macbeth was by the mid-i8th century one of the most highly regarded of the tragedies. Dr *Johnson, who cites it more often than any other play in his Dictionary, found it more satisfactorily moral than most of Shakespeare's work. Romantic critics were less interested in the play's morality than in its intense theatrical and psychological
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effects; Macbeth, for example, inspired one of Thomas *De formance as Macbeth, and indeed the lucidly neoclassical Quincey's best literary essays, 'The Knocking at the Gate' script he was using, had been overshadowed by the arrival of {London Magazine, 1823). Following *Coleridge, many 19th- David *Garrick. In 1744 Garrick advertised Macbeth at Drury century critics examined how Shakespeare created the play's Lane 'as written by Shakespeare' ('What does he mean?', distinctive atmosphere: A. C. *Bradley, for example, in Quin is said to have remarked, 'don't I play Macbeth as Shakespearean Tragedy (1904), pursued the play's recurrent written by Shakespeare?'), and though his own version rereferences to darkness, anticipating 20th-century discussions tained Davenant's operatic witches and still excludes the (by *Spurgeon and others) of its imagery of blood. This in- Porter and the murder of the Macduffs' children (as well as creased sense of the play's literary technique led to an impa- supplying Macbeth with a longer and more penitent onstage tience with earlier, realist accounts of its plot and characters, dying speech), from Garrick onwards the great soliloquies of famously voiced in L. C. *Knights's 1933 essay 'How Many Shakespeare's script, and the unaltered dialogues between Children Had Lady Macbeth?' The play has fascinated Macbeth and his Lady (played with particular success by ^psychoanalytic criticism since the time of *Freud himself Hannah *Pritchard), were again the heart of the play. (who felt that the play resembled a dreamlike account of Since Garrick's time, however, Macbeth, though one of Elizabeth I'S presumed guilt over the execution of Mary, Shakespeare's most regularly revived tragedies, has occaQueen of Scots), with ^feminist critics in particular pursuing sioned more conspicuous disasters in the theatre than sucthe connections between the uncertain gender of the witches, cesses (another factor, perhaps, contributing to actors' Lady Macbeth's imagined unsexing, and the mother-ripping superstitions about the play), and the much shorter role of birth of Macduff. Historically oriented critics, meanwhile, Lady Macbeth has been far luckier for performers than that of continue to muse on the play's relations to Jacobean politics. her husband. Charles *Macklin was ahead of his time in his 1773-6 production at Covent Garden, which gave the play a STAGE HISTORY: Although Macbeth probably enjoyed its first performances in 1606, the first to be recorded took place consistent, 'authentic' old Scottish design, much ridiculed. in April 1611, when the astrologer and diarist Simon *Forman Between 1777 and 1817 Lady Macbeth was by common consaw it at the Globe. Forman was especially struck by the sent Sarah *Siddons's greatest role, but her brother J. P. prophecies, Banquo's ghost, and the sleepwalking scene, but *Kemble's Macbeth was less successful. Edmund *Kean cut despite his interest in supernatural affairs he says nothing of some of Davenant's added witch material in 1814 (the rest the cauldron scene, or Hecate, and refers to the witches as disappeared finally from Samuel * Phelps's revival of 1847), 'fairies or nymphs'. It was probably a little after this, around and he was followed by William Charles *Macready, who 1613, that Middleton adapted the script, adding Hecate, and a played Macbeth (in tartans) between 1820 and 1848. tendency to elaborate on the witches' scenes would be even Macready's performance, however, is remembered less vividly more spectacularly visible when the play enjoyed its next re- than that of his Lady Macbeth, Charlotte *Cushman, just as corded revivals 50 years later. Sir William Davenant rewrote Henry *Irving's nervy and unwarlike Thane (*Lyceum, 1875, the play to suit the tastes and concerns of Restoration audi- 1888) was a critical flop compared to Ellen *Terry's Lady ences and the scenic possibilities of Restoration playhouses in Macbeth. Cushman upstaged the American actor Edwin 1664. As well as developing its opportunities for music and *Forrest just as successfully during his visit to London in 1845, special effects (with singing,flyingwitches, a cloud for Hecate and Forrest's own Macbeth is remembered principally for its to ride, and a disappearing cavern for the apparition scene), riot-provoking rivalry with that of Macready in New York in Davenant updated the play's interest in the Stuart monarchy, 1849, which further contributed to the play's evil reputation. so that his usurping, regicidal Macbeth becomes a figure Unequivocally successful 20th-century revivals of the play analogous to Oliver Cromwell and his Malcolm to the re- were equally rare. Sybil *Thorndike and Flora *Robson were cently restored Charles 11. More pervasively, Davenant sim- both praised as Lady Macbeth, but opinions were divided plified Shakespeare's diction, cut the indecorous Porter, and about the Macbeths offered by the most prominent Shakegave the play an unambiguous, symmetrical moral scheme by spearian actors of the time. John *Gielgud, in 1930 at the *01d expanding the roles of Macduff and Lady Macduff to make Vic, was sensitive and introverted but unsoldierly; Donald them into virtuous counterparts to the Macbeths. *Wolfit forceful but mannered (1937, 1945-6, 1953); Laurence With Thomas *Betterton and his wife Mary in the leading *01ivier was felt to be simplistic opposite Judith *Anderson's roles, this adaptation was immensely successful (Samuel operatic Lady at the Old Vic in 1937, but was more impressive *Pepys saw it eight times in less than four years, describing it in Glen *Byam Shaw's Stratford production in 1955. Notable as 'a most excellent play in all respects, but especially in disasters include Barry *Jackson's 'tweedy' modern-dress divertisement'), and Macbeth remained one of Betterton's production (1928), Orson *Welles's 'voodoo' design (1936), greatest roles down to his retirement in 1709. His most im- and Peter O'Toole's notoriously gory, melodramatic perportant successor in the part as reshaped by Davenant was formance (1976). Perhaps the period's only legendary success James *Quin, who played it at different times from 1717 (at was Trevor *Nunn's studio production for the *RSC in 1976, *Drury Lane) until 1751 (by which time he had moved to with Ian *McKellen and Judi *Dench. Further afield, mean*Covent Garden), but by then his dignified, oratorical per- while, the play inspired Welcome Msomi's popular Zulu
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adaptation uMabatha, premiered in Natal in 1972, which toured throughout the world between 1973 and 1998. MD O N T H E SCREEN: The earliest recorded film of Macbeth is a one-minute scene shot in America (1905). The cinema adaptations of the play have had a more enduring impact than any television version. Still vigorously discussed are Orson Welles's Macbeth (1948), * Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (1957), and Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971). The places, the atmospheric dimensions, and the spatial detail referred to in the dialogue afford the cinematographer more elaborate opportunities than can effectively be accommodated on the television screen. Welles, Kurosawa, and Polanski each adopt different priorities in visualizing the drama; Welles dramatizes an amorphous universe, Kurosawa incorporates both Noh theatricalization and samurai realism, and Polanski counterpoises scenic realism with powerful acting and strong projection of dialogue. The play also provided the basis for an American gangster film, Men of Respect (1991), but its most interesting film version probably remains the one that got away, the film of Macbeth which Olivier planned after his stage performance in 1955 but was unable to finance. George Schaefer's American TV adaptation (1954, remade i960) featuring Maurice *Evans and Judith Anderson drew scant praise from the critics, though Michael *Hordern's Banquo shone memorably in the later version. The television
McKellen, Sir Ian (b. 1939), English actor. As an undergraduate at Cambridge, he played many parts including Justice Shallow and in 1962 was Henry V in repertory at Ipswich. His star quality was established in 1969 when he played both *Marlowe's Edward 11 and Shakespeare's Richard 11 at the Edinburgh Festival, in London, and on television, though his Hamlet in 1971 disappointed most critics. In 1972-4 he was a co-founder of a co-operative, the Actors' Company; his parts included Edgar in King Lear and Giovanni in Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. At Stratford in 1976 he played Romeo and Leontes and excelled in Trevor Nunn's intense studio production of Macbeth, later portraying a suppressed, paranoid Iago in a similarly intimate production by Nunn of Othello. Over several years at the National Theatre he has acted Coriolanus, Kent in King Lear, and a ruthless, fascistic Richard m in a production set in a version of 1930s London. This latter concept he re-explored in a prizewinning film version, directed by Richard Loncraine (1996). A gay activist, McKellen has also spoken out against elitism and racialism in London theatres. In 1999 he played Prospero at the Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds. MJ Mackenzie, Henry (1745-1831), English novelist, playwright, and editor of and major contributor to the Mirror. His observations on
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film (1979) of Trevor Nunn's famous RSC in-the-round production is historically interesting but suffers from the inevitable distancing which the camera brings to such a production, though it remains more effective than the foggy B B C TV production (1982) with Nicol ^Williamson and Jane Lapotaire. AD RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
Kenneth Muir (Arden 2nd series, 1951); Nicholas Brooke (Oxford, 1990); A. R. Braunmuller (New Cambridge, 1997) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Adelman, Janet, in Sujfocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal Origin in Shakespeare, Hamlet to The Tempest (1978) Bartholomeusz, Dennis, Macbeth and the Players (1969) Bradley, A. C , in Shakespearean Tragedy (1904) Brooks, Cleanth, 'The Naked Babe and the Cloak of Manliness', in The Well-Wrought Urn (1947) Garber, Marjorie, in Shakespeare's Ghost Writers: Literature as Uncanny Causality (1987) Knights, L. C , in Explorations (1946) Knights, L. C , Some Shakespearean Themes (1959) Orgel, Stephen, 'The Authentic Shakespeare', Representations, 21 (1988) Orgel, Stephen, Macbeth and the Antic Round', Shakespeare Survey, 52 (1999) Spencer, Christopher (éd.), Davenant's Macbeth from the Yale Manuscript (1961) Spurgeon, Caroline, in Shakespeare's Imagery (1935).
Hamlet in this weekly, Edinburgh-based periodical (23 Jan. 1779-27 May 1780) were praised by *Bradley for their response to Hamlet's charm and their discernment of Shakespeare's intentions. CMSA McKerrow, Ronald Brunlees (1872-1940), British bibliographical scholar. With A. W. Pollard and W. W. Greg, he transformed the understanding of Shakespeare *quartos and *folios by systematically investigating the nature and transmission of extant early printed copies, rather than relying on later derivative editions. An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students (1927) pioneers the study of early printed books in the process of transmission from manuscript to print. Unfortunately, despite an influential Prolegomena for the Oxford Shakespeare (1939), setting out the principle of printing Shakespeare's works as nearly as possible in the form in which he left them, his own edition never reached publication. TM Macklin, Charles (1699-1797), actor and playwright. He was born in Ireland, and his early career, possibly as a strolling player, is obscure. From 1725 he alternated minor, often comic roles in London theatres (Touchstone, Osric/Gravedigger, Sir Hugh) with periods in the provinces. In 1735 he killed a fellow actor, and his reputation for violence endured. He achieved overnight fame in 1741 playing a dig-
nified, tragic Shylock, which contrasted with the low comic norm, in a Merchant of Venice largely reclaimed from Granville's 1701 adaptation The *Jew of Venice. In the same season he played Malvolio. From 1742 he helped train actors, including preparing *Garrick for King Lear, and ran a school of oratory in 1753. In 1744 he hired the Haymarket and attempted to evade the Licensing Act with performances of Othello offered as the 'free' second half of a fee-paying concert of music. Despite a rift with Garrick he opened for him as Shylock when he took over Drury Lane in 1747 and subsequently played Iago to his Othello. In 1773 he staged a memorable Macbeth, partly in Scottish costume, and retired from the stage in 1789 when his memory failed while playing Shylock. CMSA McManaway, James Gilmer (1899-1980), American scholar, acting director of the *Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington (1946-8), editor of the important journal *Shakespeare Quarterly, and, with Jeanne Addison Roberts, of A Selective Bibliography of Shakespeare: Editions, Textual Studies (1975). TM MacMorris, Captain. He is an Irish officer who AB quarrels with *Fluellen, Henry V3.3. Macpherson, Guillermo (1824-98), translator of Shakespeare into Spanish. Born in Gibraltar, he held consular posts in Cadiz, Seville,
MACREADY, WILLIAM CHARLES
Ian McKellen as a chain-smoking, fascist Richard m in Richard Loncraine's film version, 1996.
Madrid, and Barcelona. He and Jaime *Clark were the first to render Shakespeare's blank verse systematically into Spanish verse (usually hendecasyllabic lines, as well as the rhymed lines as such). He translated 23 of Shakespeare's plays {Dramas de Shakespeare, 1873). The 1885 reprint of his versions contained an introduction by Eduardo Benot which was remarkable for its perceptiveness. ALP Macready, William Charles (1793-1873), English actor. Born in London, he made his acclaimed debut as Romeo on 7 June 1810 under his father's—financially challenged— management in Birmingham. During the next four years with his father's company in the provinces the youthful Macready essayed 70 roles including Hamlet, Hotspur, Richard 11, and Othello. His initial London Shakespearian performances at Covent Garden (Othello and Iago in October 1816) did not impress, but he triumphed as Richard m (25 October 1819). Already Macready was directing his attention to the restoration of Shakespeare's original texts and to thorough rehearsals, concerns which would distinguish his own manage-
ment of that theatre (1837-9) and Drury Lane (1841-3)In the interim Macready encompassed— comedy apart—the range of the Shakespearian repertoire—Coriolanus and Cassius, Hubert, Cardinal Wolsey, Henry v, Leontes, Prospero, and Shylock—but he excelled in the major tragedies, particularly as Macbeth and King Lear. To them he brought a strong physical presence, powerful—if mannered—vocal delivery, and above all a searching intelligence which revealed character psychology. John Forster hailed his Lear as 'the only perfect picture that we have had of Lear since the age of Betterton'. This was in his landmark revival at Covent Garden (25 January 1838) in which he restored the Fool. In Coriolanus and Henry vat that theatre and As You Like It and King John at Drury Lane, Macready implemented the principles of Shakespearian production (authentic text, well-rehearsed cast, historically accurate scenery and costumes) which were to set the standards for decades. By the time he retired in 1851 Macready could take personal credit for the greatly enhanced status of the theatre, central to which had been his achievements in Shake-
speare, who had formed the core of Macready's three American tours and the model for several new plays written for him. His diaries are a RF major resource. Downer, Alan S., The Eminent Tragedian William Charles Macready (1966) Trewin, J. C , Mr Macready: A NineteenthCentury Tragedian and his Theatre (1955) madrigal, secular vocal music in parts, imported to England from Italy in the late 1580s and then imitated by many composers, including *Morley and *Weelkes. The partsongs in Shakespeare's plays are simple *catches and JB *three-man songs in the English tradition. Maecenas, after trying to reconcile the triumvirs in Antony and Cleopatra 2.2, encourages Caesar's attack on Antony, 4.1. He is based on C. Cilnius Maecenas (d. 8 BC), friend of Octavius Caesar, best known as the patron of *Virgil and Horace. AB Maidenhead Inn and Woolshop are names by which parts of Shakespeare's *Birthplace were previously known. Soon after John *Shakespeare's death in 1601, his three-bay house in
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MANTUANUS, BAPTISTA SPAGNOLO
Henley Street was let to Lewis Hiccox, who converted it into an inn known as the Maidenhead (later Swan and Maidenhead). It continued in the same use until the sale of the premises in 1847, although, around 1700, it was reduced in size, to occupy the two south-easterly bays only. The Woolshop was the part of the Birthplace property which, because it was originally unheated, is thought to have been John Shakespeare's business premises (he was a glove-maker and wool dealer). It occupied the south-east bay of the house, beyond the crosspassage. RB
Lord Chamberlain's Office; he was the first to Malvolio has tended to attract 'star' actors use both *Henslowe's 'Diary' as well as *Stramore than any other role in Twelfth Night, chey's 1610 account of the discovery of the perhaps unsurprisingly given that he is of cenBermudas. His concern with accuracy is ap- tral importance to some of Shakespeare's funparent in both his biographical and historical niest scenes. A wide range of interpretations accounts as well as his textual efforts. In his have included the old and cold—John Lowe unfinished factual Life of Shakspeare and his (1939), Ernest Thesiger (1944), Roger Mitchell documentary Account of the English Stage, he (i960), Nigel Hawthorne in Trevor *Nunn's strives to distinguish verifiable facts from re- film version (1996)—and the young, oily, and ceived accounts. His textual labours are simi- upwardly mobile—John Abbott (1937), Laurlarly driven by the desire to separate the ence *01ivier (1955). Whether he deserves his authentic Shakespeare from the spurious. He punishment, and what we are to make of his scrutinizes Pericles and the Henry vi plays in intended revenge, has usually worried literary order to single out Shakespeare's hand, cordons critics more than audiences. AB Malcolm, Duncan's oldest son, leads the Eng- off the * apocryphal works of the Third Folio Mamillius is the young son of Leontes and lish forces against Macbeth, Macbeth 5.6. AB from the canonical, and supplants *Benson's Hermione. His death is announced, The Winhybridized 1640 Poems with the Sonnets of the Mallarmé, Stéphane (1842-98), French poet. ter's Tale 3.2.142-4. AB 1609 quarto. The same impulse determines his An unhappy English teacher but a highly selection of copy texts for the plays; hoping to Manningham, John (d. 1622), diarist. A law praised Symbolist poet, he discussed Shakebypass the mediations of intervening printers student at the Inner Temple, Manningham speare in an influential article (La Revue and scholars, he returns to the early *quartos and jotted memoranda in a notebook later known as indépendante, 1 November 1886) focusing on *Folio and aims at the ideal of reproducing them his Diary (1868). In his Hall in February 1602, Mounet-Sully's performance of Hamlet in the verbatim. In one notorious instance, his obses- he watched a performance of Twelfth Night, five-act verse drama by Dumas and Meurice, sion with authenticity led to the whitewashing probably not its first. Then on 13 March he re*Comédie-Française, 1886. He described the of Shakespeare's bust in Stratford, subsequently corded a ribald anecdote. Richard *Burbage, inner dilemma of the melancholy prince as a discovered to have in its original state been who played Richard in, had a tryst with a lady lonely shadow of himself playing a solitary trapainted. whom Shakespeare got to first. Already 'at his gedy, thus defining 'Hamletism', the late 19thHowever determined to return to an unme- game' when Burbage arrived, Shakespeare sent century trend, characterized by the metaphysical uneasiness of a dual personality. ISG diated Shakespeare, Malone unquestionably word that 'William the Conqueror was before built on the work of the long succession of 18th- Richard in'. Embellished with new details, the Malone, Edmond (1741-1812), Anglo-Irish century editors which preceded him. At the anecdote wasfirstprinted in Thomas Wilkes's A General View of the Stage (1759). PH scholar. Born in Dublin, graduated from same time, the basis of the modern textual apparatus is recognizable in his efforts: the estabTrinity College, and called to the Irish Bar in Mansfield, Richard (1854-1907), American 1767, he settled permanently in London in his lishing of authentic texts, the commitment to actor-manager who was compared to Henry mid-thirties. Having inherited an ample in- factual accuracy, the need for a chronology to *Irving. His productions were lavish spectacles come after his father's death, he devoted himself co-ordinate his life and his works, and a hisand his performances were forceful; his Shaketo the study of English letters. His literary torical background to differentiate Shakespearian successes included Henry v—'with his projects include editions of William Goldsmith speare's times from the present. In addition to panache always in evidence'—Shylock, and the two monumental editions which incorpor(1780) and John Dryden (1800), and substantial Richard in—with 'a hump like a camel'. RE assistance to James Boswell on his Life of John- ated his Shakespearian projects, Malone's legacy son. He busied himself, too, with such occa- to Shakespeare scholarship includes the better Mantell, R(obert) B(ruce) (1854-1928), Scotsional efforts as the exposure of the two great part of his extensive library, now at the Bodleian tish-born actor whose efforts to establish himMG self in the United States only succeeded when he literary * forgers of the day, Thomas Chatterton Library, Oxford. and William Henry Ireland. His main efforts, introduced the robuster tragic and historical Grazia, Margreta de, Shakespeare Verbatim: The however, centred on Shakespeare, beginning Shakespearian roles (Richard in, King John, Reproduction ofAuthenticity and the IJÇO Apwith the first sustained attempt to establish the paratus (1991) Shylock, Macbeth, Othello, and Lear) into his Martin, Peter, Edmond Malone Shakespeareanrepertoire, achieving surprising popularity with *chronology of Shakespeare's work (1778) and Scholar: A Literary Biography (1995) culminating in two editions of Shakespeare's audiences more attuned to melodrama. RE Schoenbaum, S., Shakespeare's Lives (1991) The Plays and Poems, the first in ten volumes Mantua, the Italian city, is the scene of parts of (1790) and the second, completed posthuMalone Society, a scholarly organization, The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Romeo's place of mously by James Boswell the younger, in 21 founded by R. B. *McKerrow in 1896 and exile in Romeo andJuliet; and in The Taming of (1821). named in honour of Edmond *Malone, dethe Shrew the Pedant is told "Tis death for Believing no limits should be set on Shake- voted to the republication (usually in facsimile) anyone in Mantua I To come to Padua', 4.2.82. speare studies until 'every temporary allusion of Elizabethan plays and dramatic documents, AB shall have been pointed out, and every obscurity including many Shakespearian *quartos. SLB elucidated', he was in his own time mocked as Mantuanus, Baptista Spagnolo (1448-1516), well as admired. He is now considered among Malvolio, Olivia's steward in Twelfth Night, is an Italian Carmelite monk, also known as the greatest of Shakespearian scholars. He is Mantuan, renowned for his pastoral poetry. His disproportionately humiliated after disparaging credited for both his use of primary materials Latin eclogues, translated into English in 1514 the jester Feste (1.5) and scolding Sir Toby Belch and his respect for accuracy. His exhaustive and his companions for their noisy revelry (2.3): by George Turberville and published in 1567, 'investigations' extended to old plays and tracts, he finally leaves the stage with one of the most were extremely popular in 16th-century Engrecords of Chancery, parish registers, wills and land and formed part of many *grammar ominous exit-lines in all comedy, 'I'll be reletters, and documents in the Exchequer and venged on the whole pack of you' (5.1.374). schools' curricula. In Love's Labours Lost, the
277
MANUSCRIPT PLAYS Marcius. For Caius Martius Coriolanus, see CORIOLANUS.
For
his
son,
see
MARTIUS,
YOUNG.
Mardian, Cleopatra's eunuch, is sent by her to tell Antony that she has killed herself, 4.14 (and does so, 4.15). AB Margaret, (l) Daughter of René Duke of Anjou, she is captured by Suffolk, / Henry vi 5.5, and her marriage with King Henry is arranged. In The First Part of the Contention {2 Henry vi), now Suffolk's mistress, she quarrels with the Duchess of Gloucester, 1.3, and helps plot the Duke of Gloucester's death, 3.1. She openly mourns the death of Suffolk, 4.4. In Richard Duke of York (3 Henry vi) she is one of those who taunt and stab York, 1.4, but by the end of the play is herself defeated and her husband and son murdered (5.5 and 5.6) by Richard of Gloucester. In Richard ill she curses all the members of the House of York, especially Richard, 1.3. Shakespeare's character has little to do with the historical figure of Margaret of Anjou (1430-82). She is his only character to appear in four plays: her most celebrated impersonator was undoubtedly Peggy *Ashcroft in the *RSC's The Wars of the Roses, 1964. (2) Hero's gentlewoman is mistaken for Hero by Claudio during her night-time tryst with Borachio, Much Ado About Nothing (described 3.3.138-56). AB Margareton (Margarelon; 'Bastard' in '"speechprefixes). He is the illegitimate son of Priam. He challenges Thersites, Troilus and Cressida 5.8. AB
'This does make some obstruction in the blood, this cross-gartering, but what of that?' (Twelfth Night 3.4.19-21). Henry Ainley as Malvolio in Harley Granville-Barker's production, Savoy theatre, 1912.
pedant Holofernes quotes Mantuan and invokes him by name (4.2.93-9). JKS
You List (1631), heavily annotated for use as prompt copy by the ""bookkeeper for the King's Men. ER
manuscript plays. Although the original manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays have not survived (with the exception of the three pages in the collaborative manuscript play Sir Thomas More), there are a dozen extant dramatic manuscripts from the period that provide information about the ways in which play scripts were prepared for the stage. Of particular interest are the layers of addition, revision, playhouse annotation, and * censorship in the playbook of Thomas *Middleton's The Second Maidens Tragedy (1611), which was performed by the King's Men when Shakespeare was still an active member of the company, and Philip *Massinger's autograph copy of Believe as
Greg, W. W., Dramatic Documents from the Elizabethan Playhouses (1931) Werstine, Paul, 'Plays in Manuscript', in John D. Cox and David Scott Kastan (eds.), A New History of Early English Drama (1997)
Maria, (l) A lady attending the Princess of France, she is wooed by Longueville in Love's Labours Lost. ( 2 ) She is Olivia's gentlewoman and chief architect of the plot against Malvolio (in gratitude for which Sir Toby Belch marries her). AB Mariana, (l) Betrothed to Angelo but rejected by him, she agrees to help Isabella in Measure for Measure. ( 2 ) Widow Capilet's friend in All's Well That Ends Well 3.5. AB Marin, Luis Astrana. See ASTRANA MARIN, LUIS.
Marina, daughter of Pericles and Thaisa, is carried away by pirates {Pericles 15) and sold to the proprietors of a brothel (16). AB
Ma reel lus is a soldier of the night watch on the battlements at *Elsinore. He sees the *ghost of Hamlet's father, Hamlet 1.1 and 1.4. AB
Mariner. He sets Antigonus and baby Perdita on the coast of Bohemia, The Winter's Tale^.^. AB
marches in Shakespeare's plays were accompanied by the *drum (muffled for dead marches), occasionally with the *fife too; a passage in 1 Henry vi 3.7.29-35 suggests that English and French marches each had a distinctive drum rhythm. JB
Markham is sometimes imagined to be the *'rival poet' of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Raised in Nottinghamshire, he soldiered briefly in the Low Countries, and in 1595 addressed an elegant sonnet to the Earl of Southampton. Later he
Markham,
Gervase
(?i568—1637), writer.
278
MARLOWE, CHRISTOPHER
rose to a captaincy in Ireland under the Earl of *Essex. PH
duces that Marlowe must have died before 1623, when Walsingham must have covertly sponsored the publication of the First Folio, title page, testimonials, astonishingly plausible atMarlovian theory. The notion that some or all of Shakespeare's plays were in fact written by tributions to Shakespeare, and all. Christopher *Marlowe, despite his meticuAlthough Hoffman's theory attracted one or lously attested death in May 1593 (mentioned two followers (including a lawyer, Sherwood E. when Phebe quotes from Marlowe's Hero and Silliman, who dramatized the theory in The Leander in As You Like It 3.5.82-3), was first Laurel Bough, 1956, and David Rhys Williams, developed during the heyday of the *Author- author of Shakespeare thy Name is Marlowe, ship Controversy by a San Francisco lawyer, 1966), it is now largely forgotten: picturesquely William Gleason Zeigler, who in 1895 pub- dotty as it is, it has been unable to distract very lished a bizarre historical novel, It Was Marlowe: much intellectual attention from the genuinely A Story of the Secret of Three Centuries. Accord- fascinating topic of Marlowe's actual literary ing to Zeigler, Marlowe's death was only faked, influence on Shakespeare. MD and he lived on in secret until 1598, producing Hoffman, Calvin, The Murder of the Man Who all of Shakespeare's best plays during these five Was 'Shakespeare'(1956) extra years. Zeigler's hypothesis (despite the McMichael, George, and Glenn, E. M. (eds.), Shakespeare and his Rivals (1962) problems involved in redating plays which alSchoenbaum, S., Shakespeare's Lives (1970, rev. lude to the Jacobean era to dates of composition edn. 1991) between 1593 and 1598) was supported by an Wraight, A. D., The Story that the Sonnets Tell obscure Ohio professor, T. C. Mendenhall, (i994) who published elaborate numerical graphs of Shakespearian and Marlovian vocabulary in the Marlowe, Christopher (1564-93), poet and Popular Science Monthly of December 1901 playwright, one of the most brilliant of early which made the two playwrights' work look modern English dramatists. The son of a shoestatistically similar, despite their obvious differ- maker, he went to Cambridge on a scholarship, ences of style. The idea was further taken up in and may have been recruited there as a spy. He 1931 by Gilbert Slater, whose Seven Shakespeares is thought to have worked on and off as a govalleges that the Shakespeare canon was really ernment spy for the rest of his life. After graduwritten by a committee which included Mar- ating he joined the army and went to the lowe (supposed to have returned from a simu- Netherlands, where he got involved in counlated death under Shakespeare's name in 1594), terfeiting money and was sent home in disgrace. as well as Sir Francis *Bacon, the Earls of In 1589 he was imprisoned after afightin which *Derby, *Oxford, and *Rutland, Sir Walter a man was killed. Later he joined the group of * Ralegh, and Mary Herbert, Countess of Pem- freethinkers surrounding Sir Walter * Ralegh. In broke. 1593 he was summoned to appear before the These fantasies were understandably ig- Privy Council, accused of heresy, and released nored, however, until the Marlovian theory was on bail while evidence was gathered against reinvented by a determined Broadway press him. Some of this evidence survives in the form agent, Calvin Hoffman. In 1955 Hoffman pub- of the 'Baines Note', which vividly lists Marlished The Murder of the Man Who Was lowe's 'damnable opinions' on religious and 'Shakespeare', a sufficiently lurid piece of work sexual matters. While on bail he was stabbed to to have attracted wide press coverage at the death in a guesthouse in Deptford, supposedly in a quarrel over a bill, but perhaps for some time. Based, it claims, on nineteen years of research (which sadly failed to produce any other reason connected with his espionage activities (one of the men present at his death, documentary evidence), the book outlines a scenario according to which Sir Francis Wal- Robert Poley, was a government agent). The few details we have of Marlowe's life make it sound singham, head of Elizabeth I'S secret service, employed a team of agents to murder a name- as busy and as full of intrigue as any of his plays. Hisfirstplay, Tamburlaine (published 1590), less foreign sailor and pass the corpse off as Marlowe's in 1593, while Marlowe fled to the was performed in 1587, and it took the London stage by storm. Its prologue announces MarContinent, avoiding the enemies who had threatened him. Marlowe then allegedly re- lowe's intention to revolutionize English verse, to set it free from the 'jigging veins of rhyming turned undercover to spend the rest of his life in hiding, writing new plays and poems for Wal- mother-wits' and fill it instead with 'high assingham, who, determined that these works tounding terms', and the play triumphantly fulfils this ambitious promise. Its flamboyant should not languish in obscurity, passed them use of contemporary rhetorical techniques, its on to an actor called Shakespeare, insisting that he should pass them off as his own. Hoffman arrogant exploitation of classical myth and explains all this, in so far as he does, by alleging Asian geography, and its flagrant disregard for that Walsingham wished to protect Marlowe crude moral imperatives set radical new standbecause he was his homosexual lover, and de- ards for the new generation of Elizabethan
279
playwrights. Marlowe followed Tamburlaine with a series of equally popular and influential exercises in theatrical virtuosity: 2 Tamburlaine (1590), Doctor Faustus (printed 1604), The Jew of Malta (printed 1633), Edward 11 (printed 1594), and The Massacre at Paris (printed c.1594). Some of these were still being performed and imitated until well into the 17th century. The Massacre at Paris was probably written with Thomas *Nashe, and Marlowe also collaborated with Nashe in writing the tragicomedy Dido Queen of Carthage (1594). This is closer in tone to *Ovid than to *Virgil, populated with irresponsible gods and self-centred heroes, and opening with a saucy homoerotic love scene. In this play, as in all Marlowe's works, the classical literary tradition so revered by Elizabethan schoolmasters becomes an inexhaustible repository of scandalous erotic narratives. He drew repeatedly on Ovid's Metamorphoses, a familiar text in schools, but crossed these with Ovid's controversial Elegies. Marlowe's fine translations of the latter circulated in manuscript and print throughout the 1590s, and were publicly burned by order of the Church in 1599. His narrative poem Hero and Leander (written f.1592) is his most ebulliently Ovidian text. It takes place in a pagan world where the gods are always interfering with the sexual affairs of mortals, and where mortals struggle to satisfy their own desires against overwhelming odds. Its fusion of myth, eroticism, and satire was hugely influential, both before and after its publication in 1598. Hero and Leander resembles Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, but nobody knows which came first. The doubt is symptomatic of the relationship between the two writers: this might best be described as a dialogue, in which ideas, plots, and stylistic techniques circulate from Marlowe to Shakespeare and back again up to the moment of Marlowe's death. Marlowe's effect on the young Shakespeare was so pervasive that some scholars have attributed parts of Shakespeare's early plays to Marlowe (and on scholarship's lunatic fringe, contributors to the * Authorship Controversy have attributed the late ones to him too: see *Marlovian theory). The protagonist of Richard m mimics the devious political machinations of Marlowe's villains, and Richard 11 looks like an admiring response to Marlowe's Edward 11. Titus Andronicus, with its plot partly based on the Metamorphoses, its shocking transformation of ancient Rome into a 'wilderness of tigers', and the control exerted over events by a murderous outsider, Aaron, is one of Shakespeare's most Marlovian productions. Another is The Merchant of Venice, which like The Jew of Malta uses a Jewish protagonist to probe the moral and economic values of contemporary Christianity. But the transference of material between the playwrights was not all one way. Marlowe
MARLOWE, JULIA probably wrote Edward n in response to the popularity of Shakespeare's three plays about Henry vi. The Machiavellian villain of Marlowe's play, Mortimer Junior, may recall Richard in. So too may the Guise in The Massacre at Paris, who orchestrates the genocide of French Protestants for the benefit of an English Protestant audience, just as Shakespeare's Richard implicates his Elizabethan audience in his jovial demolition of the English social hierarchy. The rivalry between these young contemporaries seems to have been richly fruitful for both. In Shakespeare's plays of the later 1590s, imitation of Marlowe gradually gives way to affectionate parody: the description of the sack of Troy in Dido Queen of Carthage parodically recalled by the First Player in Act 2 of Hamlet, Pistol remembering Tamburlaine in 2 Henry iv (2.4.154-8), Phoebe, quoting Hero andLeander in As You Like It (3.5.83-4). This last is Shakespeare's only clear allusion to a contemporary poet. After about 1600 his references to Marlowe become more oblique. But one thing is certain: without Marlowe's poems and plays the works of Shakespeare would have been very different. RM
ical adaptations and collages of classic, canonical texts, including Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, The Shrew, Measure for Measure, and The Merchant of Venice (collected as The Marowitz Shakespeare, 1978). TM Marprelate
controversy.
See
NASHE,
THOMAS; RELIGION.
marriage in Shakespeare's world was not just a matter for the wedded couple, but was a crucial social institution that situated the married pair in a complex network of relationships to the extended family, the household, and the wider community. In post-Reformation England, there were very few institutions that sustained a life of elective celibacy, and in effect the only alternative to marriage for women was domestic service, essentially a transitional life-stage experience rather than a permanent option. Transitions between the childhood home, domestic service, and marriage shape the plots of several of Shakespeare's early comedies (e.g. The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice). The cultural prescription and economic necessity of marriage were especially determining of women's life chances: T.E.'s statement in The Law's Resolutions of Women's Rights (1632) that 'all women are married or to be married' is exemplified by the expectation that women must be either 'maid, wife or widow' that resonates in Measure for Measure and All's Well That Ends Well
Bradbrook, M. C , 'Shakespeare's Recollections of Marlowe', in Philip Edwards, Inga-Stina Ewbank, and G. K. Hunter (eds.), Shakespeare 's Styles: Essays in Honour of Kenneth Muir (1980) Brooke, Nicholas, 'Marlowe as Provocative Agent in Shakespeare's Early Plays', ShakeWork on marriage and the family in Shakespeare Survey, 14 (1961) Cartelli, Thomas, Marlowe, Shakespeare and the speare in recent decades has been informed by developments in the social history of these inEconomy of Theatrical Experience (1991) Shapiro, James, Rival Playwrights: Marlowe, stitutions. The immense influence of Lawrence Jonson, Shakespeare (1991) Stone's magisterial but not uncontroversial book The Family, Sex and Marriage in England Marlowe, Julia (1866-1950), American actress. 1500-1800 (1977) has given way to more varied Marlowe was famous for playing young heroexplorations of the status of husband and wife, ines, such as Viola (1887,1907), Rosalind (1889), and the nature and quality of the relations beand Imogen (1893). Her scholarly and intellitween them, as these matters are represented gent acting bridged Romantic and realistic both in prescriptive writing and in Shakestyles. By 1924, Marlowe had reportedly played speare's plays. Such work has constituted one of more Shakespearian roles than any other the key sites in Shakespearian criticism where actress, many opposite her husband E. H. fundamental questions about what we might Sothern. BR expect the relation between drama and social history to be have been posed, though no easily Marlowe Society. Founded at Cambridge agreed answers have been generated. To take University in 1907 for student productions of just one example, marriages such as that beneglected Elizabethan drama, the Marlowe, tween Macbeth and his 'dearest partner of commissioned by the British Council and dirgreatness' (1.5.10) have been adduced as eviected by George *Rylands, broke new ground dence both for the rise of the affective comwith its audio *recordings, released on the Argo panionate marriage in which both husband and label between 1958 and 1964, of the Complete wife understand themselves as embarked on a Works, unabridged (in Dover Wilson's '"Camjoint emotional and social enterprise, and bridge edition). A mixture of student and proequally as an instance of the irreconcilability of fessional actors perform. JKC the competing demands of heterosexual marriage and the homosocial culture of aristocratic Marowitz, Charles (b. 1934), American dirmasculinity. ector, dramatist, and critic; founder of the innovative Open Space theatre company in London. Having worked as assistant to Peter *Brook, from 1965 on he staged a series of rad-
The relation between marriage as a social practice and the aesthetic work it accomplishes in shaping dramatic action and generic form has
been much discussed in recent criticism, especially by *feminist scholars who have played a key role in reinvigorating discussions of Shakespearian marriages. Working in and against the structures of New Comedy, the teleology of marriage is what gives the romantic comedies their generic identity, though when the religious and sexual consummation of marriage is deferred beyond the ending of the play, questions can be posed about how far theatrical pleasure and social imperatives are reconcilable (Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure). In the dramas of British history which Shakespeare composed in the 1590s, the purpose of marriage is primarily dynastic, and the theatrical strategies of comedy are borrowed to underpin marriage as political resolution with the pleasures of narrative closure {Richard in, Henry v). Dramas of cuckoldry (or supposed cuckoldry) such as Othello, Cymbeline, and The Winter's Tale play out an anxiety about female sexuality within marriage which in the comedies of Shakespeare's contemporaries is linked to the question of property, but in these tragically inflected representations of aristocratic marriage takes on a more psychological cast. Throughout the canon, then, Shakespeare uses a variety of theatrical and generic strategies to explore the dramatic consequences of the often conflicted relations between love, marriage, and other social imperatives. KC Belsey, Catherine, Shakespeare and the Loss of Eden (1999) Hopkins, Lisa, The Shakespearean Marriage: Merry Wives and Heavy Husbands (1998) Rose, Mary Beth, The Expense of Spirit: Love and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama (1988) Marshal. He officiates at Simonides' banquet, Pericles 7. AB Marshal, Lord. See LORD MARSHAL.
Marston, John (?i575—1634), English dramatist who forsook the stage in 1609 to become a priest (at Christchurch Priory in Hampshire). After graduating from Oxford in 1594 Marston joined his father's law practice at the Middle Temple, where he began to publish satires, at first pseudonymously. His writing for the '"children's companies (beginning with Antonio and Mellida and Antonio's Revenge, 1599-1600) may have helped to inspire the discussion of satirical juvenile drama in Hamlet (2.2.337-62) : in any event he became involved in the *'War of the Theatres' against *Jonson, though they were later reconciled. His later plays include the bitter, tragicomic The Malcontent (printed in 1604), which with its disguised Duke and atmosphere of sexual corruption shares key elements with Measure for Measure; the comedy The Dutch Courtesan (c.1604); and a comedy which takes its title from a Shakespearian subMD title, What You Will {1607).
280
MARY ARDEN'S HOUSE
in 1930, when the property next came up for sale, and, after extensive restoration (including the removal of the early 19th-century stucco) was opened to the public. In 2000, however, the true location of the Arden homestead was Martius. (l) Titus Andronicus. See QUINTUS. identified as the neighbouring Glebe Farm, and (2) Caius Martius Coriolanus. See CORIOthe name Mary Arden's House transferred to it. LANUS. The former Mary Arden's House has been renamed Palmer's, after Adam Palmer, the owner Martius, Young. He is the young son of in the 1580s. Coriolanus. He speaks two lines, Coriolanus Robert Arden, who died in 1556, was a well5.3.128-9. AB to-do husbandman with eight daughters. In Marullus. See FLAVIUS. 1550, when he made arrangements for the future division of his estates, four were still unmarried. Marx, Karl. See MARXIST CRITICISM. Mary was one of these and she was still single on Robert's death six years later. By that time, her Marxist criticism. By the end of the 20th father had married again, taking as his second century Marxism had long ceased to be a uniwife a widow, Agnes Hill, who had four young tary political philosophy, having developed children of her own. over its 150-year history into an extraordinary array of competing theories ranging from the Palmer's, with the exception of the lean-to most vulgar or tyranny-abetting economic structure at the rear, dates from the 16th cendeterminisms to some of the most sophisticated tury. The south face, with extensive use of intellectual projects of the 20th century. Marxdecorative timber, must originally, as now, have been the 'front'. The biggest difference between ist criticism of Shakespeare has varied accordthe building today and the 16th-century farmingly. All Marxist criticism is characterized by the belief that art and literature are interrelated house is at the eastern end. This bay, with with the societies which produce them, but elaborate herring-bone decoration in its gable, further generalization is impossible. was originally a cross wing at least two bays deep. By the 18th century, however, the bay (or The German radical philosopher and social bays) at the rear had been demolished, and the theorist Karl Marx (1818-83) himself was an avid lean-to added. The central section of the house, admirer of Shakespeare and quoted him frea two-bay hall, was originally open to the roof. quently throughout his works, often decoraTo the east was the cross wing. The bay to the tively, at times more substantively, as in the west, with cross passage and kitchen, may have discussion in his The Economic and Philosophic been built at the same time, though there is Manuscripts 0/1844 of Timon's tirade on gold in some structural evidence to suggest that it may Timon of Athens (4.3.26-45), in which Marx saw have been added slightly later. expressed his own ideas on money as an alienated human power destructively ruling over At the rear of the property is a complex of humanity. farm buildings, including, in one range, a dovecote, an open-fronted cowshed and small Perhaps because of these Marxian precebarn with cider press, together with a stable and dents, perhaps because Shakespeare was already large barn now housing a display of farming associated with nationalist resistance against equipment. These form part of the Shakespeare Napoleon in much of Central and Eastern Countryside Museum which is continued in Europe, Shakespeare was a major subject for Cohen, Walter, 'Political Criticism of Shakeboth theatrical production and literary criticism speare', in J. E. Howard and M. F. O'Connor another complex of farm buildings to the west. (eds.), Shakespeare Reproduced: The Text This, in formerly known as Glebe Farm, has now in the socialist and communist movements of History and Ideology (1987) been identified as the *Ardens' family residence, 19th- and 20th-century Europe—and in the last a copyhold property, held of the lord of the days of Soviet-imposed rule in Eastern Europe, manor, which Robert Arden bequeathed to his Shakespearian productions were often vehicles Mary Arden's House was the name given, of political protest and resistance. Characterisuntil 2000, to a timber-framed farmhouse in wife Agnes (Mary's step-mother) and which was recorded as late in her tenure in a 1587 survey. tically Shakespeare was a hero for both sides in Wilmcote, a hamlet in the parish of Aston the major debate of mid-20th-century Marxist Cantlow. It was so called on the strength of a The main part of the farmhouse itself, originally built with an open hall in its central bay, has literary criticism, championed both by antitradition (which cannot, however, be traced modernist Georg Lukâcs for his consummate back beyond the 1790s) that it was owned by been dendochronologically dated to 1514. A artistic representation of social 'typicality' and Robert Arden, and may therefore have been the wing was added to the west end soon afterby pro-modernist Bertolt *Brecht as a prede- home of his daughter Mary until her marriage wards, and this was extended northwards early cessor of Brecht's anti-realist epic theatre. to John ^Shakespeare. In 1891, when the in the 18th century. The Ardens' copyhold title passed from As Marxism metamorphosed into a varie- *Shakespeare Birthplace Trust was placed on a legal footing by private Act of Parliament, it was Agnes Arden to her son-in-law, John Fullwood, gated component of avant-garde thought in charged with the duty of purchasing 'as and and then descended in his family until 1662. It Western Europe after the Second World War and as the radicalizing 1960s spawned theoret- when the opportunity shall arise . . . the house at was then sold offby the lord of the manor and in 1738 later owners disposed of it to augment the ically sophisticated literary-critical methodolo- Wilmcote known as the house of Mary Arden living of the neighbouring parish of Billesley, gies not only in Western Europe but in the UK his [Shakespeare's] mother'. This was achieved
Martext, Sir Oliver. He is a clergyman who is prevented by *Jaques from marrying Touchstone and Audrey in the forest, As You Like It 3.3. AB
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and the USA, new Marxist-inspired work on Shakespeare began to proliferate. There were several individual attempts at explicitly Marxist interpretations of Shakespeare. The German critic Robert Weimann and the American Walter Cohen, to take outstanding examples, each developed unique Marxist contributions to Shakespeare studies. But Marxism was perhaps most influential as a component of broader developments. From the 1980s on Marxism in Shakespeare studies became a part of a larger synthesis including *feminism, postcolonial theory, *psychoanalysis, and poststructuralism more generally, variously referred to as cultural studies, *new historicism, or *cultural materialism. Even while resisting the label 'Marxist', both the new historicism chiefly associated with Stephen Greenblatt in the USA and the cultural materialism of Catherine Belsey, Alan Sinfield, Jonathan Dollimore, and many others in the UK incorporate Marxist themes in their emphasis on literature as a product of broad cultural and ideological processes mediating social and political power. Ironically other elements of Marxist literary theory have provided other themes for some of the most forceful critiques of the new historicism and cultural materialism. Michael Bristol in Carnival and Theater (1985) developed the ideas on carnival of the sui generis Marxist cultural critic Mikhail Bakhtin into a provocative criticism of what he sees as an overemphasis on power in the new historicism, while Jean Howard has incorporated feminism and theories of nationalism into a developing Marxistinfluenced synthesis. Graham Holderness, Terence Hawkes, Hugh Grady, and Richard Halpern (among others) have developed Marxist-influenced analyses of Shakespeare as a cultural phenomenon, and Terry Eagleton showed the possibilities of combining Marxism and deconstruction in the analysis of Shakespeare. HG
MASQUE OF THE INNER TEMPLE AND GRAY'S INN Schoenbaum, Samuel, Shakespeare's Lives (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991). Styles, Philip, 'Aston Cantlow' in Victoria History of the County of Warwick, vol. 3 (London: Oxford University Press, 1945).
Masque of the Inner Temple and Cray's Inn, a masque written by Francis * Beaumont (perhaps with Francis *Bacon's assistance) to celebrate the marriage of Princess *Elizabeth and the Elector Palatine in 1613. It was performed in the banqueting hall at Whitehall along with various plays including The Tempest. One of the antimasques was borrowed by Shakespeare and Fletcher for The Two Noble Kinsmen. JKS
Mary Arden's House, Wilmcote, the 16th-century farmhouse (formerly known as Glebe Farm) identified as the girlhood home of Shakespeare's mother in 2000.
hence its traditional name, Glebe Farm. A few years later, more lands and buildings were added to this glebe which recent research has further established represent the freehold premises in Wilmcote which had come to John Shakespeare on his marriage to Mary Arden. These John had then mortgaged to his brotherin-law, Edmund Lambert, whose son John kept them in his possession despite legal cases brought against him by the Shakespeares. The buildings of Glebe Farm were bought by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1968, but it was not until 1978, on the death of the sitting tenant, that occupancy was obtained. Palmer's was bequeathed, in 1584, by Adam Palmer to his son Edmund, and has a welldocumented history thereafter. Its mistaken attribution as the home of the Arden family can
be traced back no earlier than 1794, when it featured in correspondence between Samuel *Ireland and John *Jordan. Jordan also executed the earliest known drawings of the house, though none were published during his lifetime. It was another 80 years or so before uncritical attributions of the property as Mary Arden's House became a regular feature of tourist guides. RB Alcock, N. W., 'Topography and land ownership in Wilmcote, Warwickshire', unpublished report, May 2000. Halliwell-Phillips, J. O., Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare (London: Longmans, 2 vols, 6th edn. 1886). Meeson, Bob, 'Glebe Farm, Wilmcote, Warwickshire: an architectural analysis', unpublished report, 2000.
m a s q u e s were quasi-dramatic entertainments performed at court which combined music and dancing and, especially in their blossoming under *James 1, elaborate scenery and spectacle. Masques were often written to celebrate a particular event—a royal birthday or a marriage— and performed by a company made up of professionals and members of the court before a banquet; the culmination being a mass dance joining performers with the audience. Typically the characters of a masque would be classical deities or abstract qualities such as a Virtue and Beauty, contrasted with rustic figures, and the story would represent an archetypal conflict proceeding to resolution. Originally a carnivalesque folk celebration with the traditional themes of inversion and transgression, the courtly form became highly formalized in the Jacobean collaborations of Inigo *Jones and Ben *Jonson. As set-designer Jones emulated the elaborate perspective designs of the Italian Sebastian Serlio which were best seen from a focal point—where the monarch sat—and which used complex machinery to transform the scene as if by magic. To match Jones's visual effects Jonson wrote poetic dialogue of the highest order. In 1608 Jonson introduced the innovation of an 'antimasque' in which grotesque figures (antics) danced before the main masque, for which reason the word 'antemasque' is also sometimes used. Although new to the court masque, the Jonsonian contrast was really a reintroduction of the folk element of inversion. The fullest extant eyewitness account of a masque is by the Venetian chaplain Orazio Busino describing a performance of Jonson's Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue in 1618, ending with an exhausting communal dance and an unseemly rush for food which sent the glassware crashing to the floor of the Banqueting House. GE Bevington, David, and Holbrook, Peter (eds.), The Politics of the Stuart Court Masque (1998) Orgel, Stephen, The Jonsonian Masque (1965) Orgel, Stephen, The Illusion of Power (1975)
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MEDICINE Welsford, Enid, The Court Masque: A Study in books for public performance and when George the Relationship between Poetry and the Revels *Buck succeeded to the office in 1610 he brought (1927) to it his responsibility (held since 1606) for the licensing of printed plays. Buck was succeeded Massinger, Philip (1583-1640), dramatist. by John Astley in 1622, who was himself sucMassinger was born into the gentry—a fact he ceeded by Henry Herbert in 1623. Herbert kept never forgot—but by about 1613 he was in the job until the closure of 1642 and his office prison for debt and appealing to the theatrebook is an important source of our knowledge owner Philip *Henslowe to bail him out. For of play licensing and * censorship in the the next few years he collaborated with John period. GE *Fletcher, writing for Shakespeare's company, the King's Men; twelve of these collaborations were published in the first folio of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays (1647). Some scholars have argued that he, rather than Fletcher, was Shakespeare's collaborator in The Two Noble Kinsmen and All Is True. After Fletcher's death Massinger succeeded him as the company's principal dramatist. His highly critical portrayals of autocratic rulers in plays like The Duke of Milan (1623) and The Maid of Honour (1632), together with his bold choice of topics connected with contemporary politics in, for instance, the lost first version of Believe as You List (1631), have led to a recent resurgence of critical interest in him as a daring exploiter of the theatre's resources for political ends. Some of his work, such as his fascinating account of conflict and conversion in the Ottoman Empire, The Renegado (1630), suggests that he was sympathetic to Catholicism. His best-known play is a funny and disturbing analysis of 17thcentury class warfare, A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1633). It features the courageous, flamboyant, and utterly unscrupulous financier Sir Giles Overreach, a part played with huge success by the great actor-managers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. RM Howard, Douglas (éd.), Philip Massinger: A Critical Reassessment (1985)
Master Gunner of Orléans. The Master Gunner tells his son to watch for the English while he is away from his cannon, / Henry vi 1.6. The boy fires it himself and kills Salisbury and Gargrave. AB Master Gunner of Orleans's Son. See MASTER GUNNER OF ORLÉANS.
Master of a ship, (l) He and his Mate demand 1,000 crowns ransom each for their prisoners, The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry vi) 4.1.16. (2) He tells the Boatswain to 'Bestir' at the beginning of The Tempest. AB
Master of the Revels. The Office of the Revels, overseen by its Master, existed to provide entertainment for the court and the official reason for the existence of Elizabethan playing companies was to meet this need; by public performance the players could maintain a state of perpetual readiness for court performance. In 1581 Edmund *Tilney (Master from 1579 to 1610) was given the patent to license all play-
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medicine. Renaissance medical theory was based on that of ancient Greece. The main authority was still Galen, a writer of the 2nd century AD who had been physician to the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Its most important doctrine was that of the four humours. Our bodies were thought to be composed of blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow Clare, Janet, Art Made Tongue-tied by Authority': bile just as the world at large consisted of earth, Elizabethan andJacobean Dramatic Censorship air, fire, and water. The underlying principle (1990) was the opposition between hot and cold, wet Dutton, Richard, Mastering the Revels: The and dry. Blood was hot and moist, yellow bile Regulation and Censorship of English Renais- hot and dry, black bile cold and dry, phlegm sance Drama (1991) cold and moist. Each predominated in turn as 'master, the swabber, the bosun and I, The',one went through the stages of life. Health depended on always keeping the right balance or sung by Stefano in The Tempest 2.2.45. The temperature. original melody is unknown, but it very closely Distemperature was not itself a disease but a fits a 16th-century tune, 'The Leather Bottel'. prelude to it. When Henry iv complained that JB 'rank diseases grew near the heart' of his kingMate, Master's. See MASTER OF A SHIP. dom, Warwick reassured him: 'It is but as a body yet distempered I Which to his former Mathews, Charles James (1803-78), English strength may be restored I With good advice comic actor, whose metier fell outside the and little medicine (2 Henry iv 3.1.40-2). A Shakespeare repertoire. He was involved in sevsimilar progression is described in The Comedy eral managerial enterprises with his wife Maof Errors 5.1.79-87: the husband of a jealous wife dame Vestris, including Covent Garden (1839is said to get no recreation; this leads to 'mel42), where Love's Labour's Lost (1839) and A ancholy' (i.e. black bile); and 'melancholy' Midsummer Night's Dream (1840) were notable successes. RE brings 'a huge infectious troop Of pale distemperatures and foes to life'. Matthews, James Brander (1852-1929), Another cause of disease was bad air due to American academic, playwright, and critic, who natural conditions. Caliban's wish 'All the infounded the Theatre Museum at Columbia fections that the sun sucks up I From bogs, fens, University. His Shakespeare as a Playwright flats, on Prosper fall, and make him I By inch(1913) brings to bear his own practical and themeal a disease' (The Tempest 2.2.1-3) assumes oretical experience of drama. TM this miasma theory. But infection or contagion of the air could be caused by people too. 'Men Mayor of Coventry. He appears with Warwick, take diseases, one of another,' said Falstaff, and Richard Duke of York (3 Henry vi) 5.1 (mute). hoped that a sense of discipline could be caught AB in the same way (2 Henry iv5.1.69); Olivia said Mayor of London, (l) He complains about the one might fall in love as quickly as one might riotous behaviour of the feuding followers of catch the *plague (Twelfth Night 1.5.285): the Gloucester and the Bishop of Winchester, / fear of contagion led to plague-sufferers being Henry VII.J, and 3.1. ( 2 ) He is one of Richard's left alone ( The Two Gentlemen of Verona 2.1.19) supporters in Richard in. (3) He is thanked by with an isolation order put on their houses Henry, All Is True {Henry vm) 5.4.69-70 (mute (Romeo andJuliet 5.2.9-11). part). AB In both prevention and cure the physician's prime concern was to control the balance of the Mayor of St Albans. He sends for a beadle to humours. He had various means at his disposal. whip Simpcox, The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry vi) 2.1.144. AB He could recommend a change of air or of diet, administer a concoction of herbs (perhaps made Mayor of York. He reluctantly admits King to his own special recipe and charged at a high Edward to the city of York, Richard Duke of price), purge the patient, or, in the case of fever York (3 Henry vi) 4.8. AB or threatened fever, bleed him. The justification for bloodletting before the measure, a dance term with various meanings: discovery of the circulation of the blood in 1628 it could signify, according to context, a dance, a by William Harvey was eminently logical. specific choreography, a step sequence, or a unit Blood was thought to be the final and most of steps. This ambiguity, combined with the purified form of our food and drink, and to be word's more usual meaning, is exploited by distributed through the body by the veins. It Shakespeare on several occasions, e.g. in Romeo andJuliet 1.4.9-10. JB started in the liver, and had to be used up by the (cont. on page 28/)
Measure for Measure
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hakespeare's ambivalently comic treatment of power, sexuality, and repression belongs very much to the early years of the Jacobean period. According to the * Revels accounts for 1604-5, t n e n r s t recorded performance of Measure for Measure took place at court on 26 December 1604. Several topical allusions in the text suggest a slightly earlier date of composition. A passing reference in the opening lines of 1.2 to the final stages of a war between the Duke of Vienna and the King of Hungary might be an allusion to the peace settlements with Spain which King James I signed at Hampton Court on 18 August 1604. It has been suggested that these lines might refer to the Duke of Hoist, Queen Anne's brother, who levied an army in London in December 1604 to support the new Protestant ruler of Hungary. However, Mistress Overdone's complaint in the same scene provides another set of allusions to memorable events which occurred in London in the winter of 1603-4. The Overdone-Pompey exchange in 1.2 might also be another allusion to the King's proclamation of 16 September 1603 calling for the demolition of houses in the suburbs of London. The hypothesis that Measure for Measure was not a new play when it was staged at court in December 1604 is further reinforced by the fact that Shakespeare might have decided to write the play while performances at the Globe were suspended between 19 March 1603 and 9 April 1604 because of the plague.
Measure for Measure was entered in the *Stationers' later adapter, probably Thomas *Middleton. This later addRegister by Edward Blount and Isaac *Jaggard on 8 Novem- ition was probably meant to replace the original exchange, ber 1623: it was never printed in a *quarto edition prior to its but Crane transcribed both by mistake. inclusion in the 1623 Folio. The Folio text was transcribed by SOURCES: Of the three main plot-components upon Ralph *Crane, probably from a promptbook. Crane is likely which Measure for Measure \s based—'the corrupt magistrate', to have supplied the list of characters, where the Duke, who is 'the ruler in disguise', and 'the bed-trick'—only the first one otherwise never referred to by his proper name in the play, is derives from the play's main sources, the fifth novella of the called Vincentio. eighth decade in *Cinthio's Hecatommithi (1565), its dramatic The text shows some signs of adaptation: the Boy's song, rendition Epitia (1573), and * Whetstone's Promos and Cas'Take, O take those lips away', at the beginning of Act 4 sandra (1578). The stock character of the ruler in disguise, may be a late interpolation from *Fletcher's Rollo, Duke of which enjoyed sweeping popularity on the early Jacobean Normandy (1616—19), and the Duke's subsequent mono- stage (see, for example, Middleton's The Phoenix, *Marston's logue 'O place and greatness' (too short to allow Isabella to The Malcontent una The Fawn, and Sharpham's The Fleer), inform Mariana about the Duke's plans) was probably might derive from Elizabethan history plays, such as transposed by the later adapter responsible for introducing *Heywood's King Edward iv (1600), the anonymous *Fair the act division with the original monologue, 'He who the Em (1590), or *Peele's King Edward 1 (1593), where the ensword of heaven will bear', which is longer and more suitable counter between the disguised ruler and his subjects is the as an act-break. More tampering must have occurred in 1.2, focus of the dramatic tension. The bed-trick, which Shakewhere the news of Claudio's arrest is divulged twice: the speare used again in All's Well That Ends Well, has famous first part of 1.2 was probably added to the promptbook by a precedents in the Italian novelistic tradition but also in the TEXT:
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Old Testament (Genesis 38), Plautus' Amphitruo, and Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. SYNOPSIS: I.I The Duke leaves *Vienna straight after appointing Angelo as his substitute. Angelo is younger and more inexperienced than the old councillor Escalus and asks the Duke to test him before handing the rule of the city over to him. The Duke refuses to delay his departure any further. 1.2 Lucio's banter with two gentlemen is interrupted by Mistress Overdone's announcement that Claudio is being carried off to prison for getting Juliet with child. Mistress Overdone informs Pompey, the pimp, that because of a new proclamation her brothel and other houses of ill-repute in the suburbs will be pulled down. Lucio meets Claudio on his way to prison. The latter explains that although Juliet is 'fast' his wife, following a private exchange of vows between them, they have not been married in the church because Juliet's relatives oppose the match. Claudio will be sentenced to death as a result of Angelo's decision to revive an ancient law, which the Duke had failed to enforce for years. Claudio hopes that his sister Isabella will plead with the strict deputy for his life. 1.3 The Duke explains to Friar Thomas that he had to leave Vienna because of his failure to enforce the law and that Angelo was appointed to restore order on his behalf. The Duke will go back to Vienna disguised as a friar in order to keep an eye on his deputy. 1.4 Lucio goes to the convent where Isabella is about to take her vows and persuades her to plead with Angelo for Claudio's life.
by Angelo a few years earlier following the loss of her dowry. They agree that Isabella will persuade Angelo to meet her in the dark, so that he will mistake Mariana for Isabella and spare her brother's life. 3.2 On his way out of the prison, the Duke meets Lucio, who slanders him. Because he is still in disguise, the Duke cannot refute Lucio's allegations. 4.1. Mariana, who is still in love with Angelo, welcomes the Duke's plans and agrees to go to Angelo pretending to be Isabella. 4.2 Pompey, who is now in prison himself, is appointed personal assistant to Abhorson, the executioner. The Duke realizes that Angelo has failed to keep his word and has ordered Claudio's execution. The Duke is therefore forced to inform the Provost that he is acting on the Duke's behalf and that he wishes him to delay Claudio's execution. He also suggests that the Provost should pretend that Angelo's orders have been carried out and that Claudio is dead, by sending Angelo the severed head of Barnardine, another prisoner who is shortly to be executed. 4.3 Barnardine spoils the Duke's plans by refusing to be executed. He claims to be too drunk and therefore unfit to die. The Duke instead sends Angelo the head of Ragozine, another prisoner who has fortunately just died in prison. The Duke lies to Isabella about Claudio's execution. She believes him dead and Lucio tries to comfort her, taking once more the opportunity to slander the Duke, by blaming him for leaving his subjects at the mercy of the strict deputy. 4.4 Angelo and Escalus learn of the Duke's imminent homecoming. 4.5 The Duke finalizes the arrangements for his homecoming, instructing Friar Peter to help Mariana and Isabella report Angelo to the Duke after his reinstatement as the supreme ruler in Vienna. 4.6 Still unaware of the friar's true identity, Isabella and Mariana are also instructed by the Duke.
2.1 Elbow, a constable, takes Pompey and Froth to court for attempting to corrupt his wife. Elbow's malapropisms bring the trial to an end and both Pompey and Froth are let off with a warning. 2.2 Isabella is brought before Angelo and she pleads for her brother's life. Her arguments grow stronger and Angelo is attracted both by the strength of her rhetorical powers and by her chastity. Angelo tries to repress 5.1 The Duke meets Angelo and Escalus at the city gates. his feelings for Isabella and wonders why he should be Isabella is brought before him and accuses Angelo of detempted by such a chaste creature as Isabella, since he has flowering her. The Duke pretends to ignore the truth and, never been tempted by a woman before. 2.3 The Duke, dis- despite Lucio's interference, proceeds to have Isabella arrested guised as a friar, goes to the prison and lectures Juliet for slandering his deputy. Friar Peter announces that a witabout her share of responsibility for what has happened to ness can corroborate Isabella's accusations. Mariana enters her and Claudio, but fails to comfort her. 2.4 Isabella goes wearing a veil and promises to reveal her identity only when back for a second meeting with Angelo, who tells her that he her husband bids her to do so. Mariana claims that Angelo is will spare her brother only if she agrees to give up her virginity her husband and that they have already consummated their to him. Isabella threatens to report him, but Angelo is con- marriage. Angelo accuses Mariana of lying and the Duke fident that his 'false' will overweigh her 'true', because of his pretends to side with him. Friar Peter asks that another witspotless reputation and his privileged position as the Duke's ness be brought before the Duke. The Duke exits and redeputy. enters wearing his disguise as a friar. When Lucio accidentally 3.1 The Duke visits Claudio in prison pretending to be his unmasks him, Angelo finally realizes that the Duke has 'ghostly father', a religious figure in charge of a penitent or known the truth all along. He begs to be executed but the one near death. His lesson in ars moriendi seems to persuade Duke orders him to marry Mariana in order to restore her Claudio that life is not worth living after all, but as soon as reputation, ordering his execution immediately after the Isabella hints at Angelo's indecent proposal, Claudio begs ceremony. Mariana pleads for his life and asks Isabella to do her to comply with Angelo's request. Isabella scolds Claudio the same. Isabella argues that Angelo should be spared befor asking her to sacrifice her virtue. The Duke approaches cause Claudio was at least punished for a crime he actually Isabella and persuades her to trick Angelo into sleeping committed, while Angelo was in the event prevented from with his former fiancée Mariana, who had been spurned taking her virginity. Angelo isfinallyforgiven when the Duke
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orders the Provost to unmask a prisoner whose execution had been delayed and the prisoner turns out to be Claudio. The Duke asks Isabella to marry him. A R T I S T I C F E A T U R E S : Measure for Measure has been perceived as an exceptionally complex and 'dark' comedy, or tragicomedy, mostly because of its peculiar structure and characterization. Whereas the first half of the play explores the moral issues raised by Claudio and Isabella's potentially tragic ordeal, the second half is largely devoted to the Duke's efforts to orchestrate the happy ending. The comic resolution, however, is remarkably fraught with tension, embarrassing silences (such as Isabella's failure to respond to the Duke's proposal) and disappointing reunions, and fails to provide an answer to the moral issues raised in the first half. The characters themselves are never single-mindedly evil or entirely sympathetic. Isabella is one of Shakespeare's most articulate heroines, but may seem harsh and self-righteous in her adamant conviction that 'more than our brother is our chastity'. Angelo is a hypocritical coward and yet he is also a selfconscious villain, who wonders at the mystery of his own fall from grace. The Duke aims to appear as a merciful ruler but resorts to spying, scheming, and acting as a meddling busybody throughout the play. Shakespeare seems therefore intent on systematically undercutting his characters' ideals so as to show them as painfully human and fallible. Measure for Measurers always had a mixed critical reception: its moral complexity irritated *Johnson but pleased *Hazlitt; the personal shortcomings of its characters alienated *Coleridge but moved *Ulrici. Twentieth-century critics have replicated this split by reading this comedy as either a *problem play (as did *Tillyard and Schanzer) or as a Christian allegory of mercy and forgiveness (as did Wilson *Knight 1930, Roy Battenhouse, and Neville Coghill). Recent criticism is similarly divided in its assessment of this play in relation to the political and social institutions of its time. Some critics regard the low characters as ultimately subversive, while others argue that Measure for Measure exemplifies the systematic suppression of diversity. A feminist and a materialist critic have, for example, remarked that if'feminist criticism . . . is restricted to exposing its own exclusion from the text' (Kathleen McLuskie, 1985), a materialist critic 'looking for evidence of resistance . . . [will] find rather further evidence of exploitation' (Jonathan Dollimore, 1985). CRITICAL HISTORY:
STAGE HISTORY: The * Revels accounts for 1604-5 report the only recorded performance prior to the closure of the London theatres in 1642. During the Restoration, Measure for Measure was revived in two heavily adapted versions, *Davenant's The *Lau> against Lovers (1662) and Charles *Gildon's Measure for Measure; or, Beauty the Best Advocate
(1700), which cuts the low characters and instead fills out the play by having Angelo listen to Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas in instalments in a fruitless bid to take his mind off Isabella. The Shakespearian original was restored to the stage in 1720, often understood as a warning against prime ministerial government, but most 18th-century productions were heavily cut. Measure for Measure disgusted the Victorians, but appealed to 20th-century audiences. Tyrone *Guthrie's 1933 production at the Old Vic was only moderately successful, despite its star-studded cast, which included Charles *Laughton as Angelo. The next remarkable production this century was Peter *Brook's at Stratford-upon-Avon, remembered for Paul *Scofield's foppish Lucio and for Barbara *Jefford's dramatic pause before she knelt down to plead for Angelo's life in Act 5, which was never less than 30 seconds long and sometimes far longer. The cultural changes ushered in by the late 1960s led directors John *Barton and Trevor *Nunn to depart from Brook's optimistic interpretation of the Duke: their 1970 and 1990 productions emphasized the oppressive nature of the Duke's regime and Isabella's plight in Act 5. More sympathetic Dukes, however, have included Michael *Pennington's in Barry Kyle's production (1978) and Daniel Massey's in Adrian *Noble's (1984), opposite Juliet Stevenson's powerful Isabella. SM O N T H E SCREEN: The earliest film recorded was a 1913 Italian version. A 90-minute adaptation, again from Italy (1942), was followed by a more substantial German television film (1963). The B B C TV version (1978), though recognizing its Gothic elements, presented the play as a comedy. David Thacker's later B B C TV production (1994) is memorable for updating the play socially (into a world of televised courtrooms) and for taking a much more serious view of the action. Like Barton's stage production, it left the question of Isabella's marriage unresolved. AD
RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
N. W. Bawcutt (Oxford, 1991); Brian Gibbons (New Cambridge, 1991); J. W. Lever (Arden 2nd series, 1965) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Bloom, Harold, William Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure' (1987) Dollimore, Jonathan, 'Transgression and Surveillance in Measure for Measure', in Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield (eds.), Political Shakespeare (1985) Foakes, R. A., Shakespeare, The Dark Comedies to the Last Plays (1971) McLuskie, Kathleen, 'The Patriarchal Bard: Measure for Measure and King Lear', in Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield (eds.), Political Shakespeare (1985) Watts, C , Shakespeare: 'Measure for Measure' (1986) Wood, Nigel, Theory in Practice: 'Measure for Measure '(1996)
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MERES, FRANCIS time it got to the furthest parts, like the water in an irrigation channel (hence the remark in Coriolanus 1.1.153 about the 'great toe' being 'the worst in blood'). If there was still any blood over, there could be trouble. The excess might simply erupt in pimples, boils, and the like, but a more serious consequence, blood being hot, could be a fever. The most obvious remedy for this was to stop eating (whence our saying 'starve a fever') and so stop blood being produced, but the quicker way, as Biron puts it in Love's Labour's Lost(^.%-6), was to cut into a vein and let the excess blood out 'in saucers'. Less relevant for therapy was the function assigned to the arteries and the nerves. The arteries were thought to contain a refined form of air—'life-breath' or 'vital spirit'—which was pumped through the body by the heart for the purpose of ventilation. Thus the body could be called 'a confine of blood and breath' (KingJohn 4.2.247), and at a less serious level it could be argued that too much academic study, 'universal plodding', creates dullness because it 'prisons up I The nimble spirits in the arteries' (Love's Labour's Lost, 4.3.301-2). The nerves were tiny tubes by which sensation passed from the body to the brain and the power of voluntary motion from the brain to the body. The medium of communication was an extremely refined form of air—'soul-breath' or 'animal spirit'—created within the brain, and the brain itself was, according to some, 'the soul's frail dwelling-house' (King John 5.7.3). These words were spoken as the King lay dying, and so at a solemn moment. In another play at a romantic moment Lorenzo explains to Jessica that her appreciation of music is due to her spirits (Merchant of Venice 5.1.70), and goes on to add that the same holds true for animals. Earlier in the play (3.2.63-4) and in a different, lighter, context, the song 'Tell me where is fancy bred, I Or in the heart or in the head' alludes to the same question, for though the brain as the seat of thought was orthodox doctrine according to Galen, it was nevertheless possible to follow Aristotle and assign this role to the heart. Shakespeare's wide knowledge of medical theory is not displayed pedantically for its own sake. It comes out in the natural conversation of his characters and is for the most part unobtrusive. It can also be surprisingly up to date. The idea that the spirits are the substance of the soul seems to be due to Telesius who published it (in Latin) in 1590. Telesius also, following Argenterius (1565), drew no distinction between the vital and the animal spirits—and Shakespeare, unlike most of his contemporaries, does not distinguish them either. One imagines that he must have learnt of these ideas by talking about them, and that he may therefore have numbered doctors among his friends. At any rate his eventual son-in-law John *Hall was one, and it is noteworthy that, except for Doctor
287
Caius in Merry Wives, who is made fun of for being a Frenchman, doctors are always treated with respect. They are never, as they often have been by poets and satirists, attacked as either mercenary or murderous. MP
Menteith is a Scottish thane who first appears with the other thanes who are to join Malcolm and the English forces against Macbeth, Macbeth 5.2. AB
Mercadé brings the Princess of France the news Hoeniger, F. D., Medicine and Shakespeare in the of her father's death, Love's Labour's Lost, English Renaissance (1992) 5.2.711-13. AB Pope, M., 'Shakespeare's Medical Imagination', Shakespeare Survey, 38 (1985) Merchant of Venice, The (see page 288) Simpson, R. R., Shakespeare and Medicine (1959) meiosis, a figure of speech that belittles what it describes; or an understatement. Landlord of England art thou now, not king (Richard 112.1.113) CB Melun, Count. Mortally wounded, he warns the English lords that Louis the Dauphin will AB betray them, King John 5.4. Melville, Herman (1819-91), American novelist. Melville himself hoped that Nathaniel Hawthorne would emulate Shakespeare's achievement for America, but most critics feel that Melville's own epic-tragedy Moby-Dick (1851) comes nearest to fulfilling that function, Captain Ahab evoking King Lear, and Pip the Fool (see Charles Olson, Call Me Ishmael, 1947). Melville was always drawn to Shakespeare's tragic vision, his power of darkness, his capacity for invoking savage nature, and several versions of Iago (Jackson in Redburn, 1849; Babo in Benito Cereno, 1855; and Claggart in Billy Budd, 1924) surface throughout his work. TM memorial
reconstruction.
See
REPORTED
TEXT. Menander.
See
GREEK
DRAMA; PLAUTUS;
TERENCE.
Menas. He tries to persuade Pompey to kidnap Antony and Caesar at the banquet on his galley, Antony and Cleopatra 2.7. AB
Mendelssohn,
Felix
(1809-47),
German
composer. Mendelssohn's tremendously popular, and substantial, music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61, received its first public performance in Berlin in 1843 (although the overture, Op. 21, had already been written in 1826) and was soon adopted on the British stage. The music contains the famous Wedding IBC March. Menecrates comments on the will of the gods, Antony and Cleopatra 2.1. AB Menelaus is the husband of Helen and brother of Agamemnon in Troilus and Cressida, based on the character of the same name who plays a AB more prominent part in *Homer's Lliad. Menenius Agrippa, Coriolanus' friend, vainly attempts to dissuade him from attacking Rome, Coriolanus 5.2. AB
merchants, (l) A merchant of Ephesus gives Antipholus of Syracuse helpful advice, The Comedy of Errors 1.2. ( 2 ) A second merchant is owed money by Angelo, The Comedy of Errors 4.1. (3) A merchant appears in the first scene of Timon of Athens and is cursed by Apemantus. AB Merchant Taylors' School, originally located in Suffolk Lane in the *City of London, was founded in 1561 by Richard *Mulcaster, under whom it became a hotbed of educational drama. Plays acted at court by Merchant Taylors' boys include Ariodante and Genevra (1583), a possible source for Much Ado About Nothing. The school's alumni include Edmund *Spenser. RSB Mercutio, in Romeo and Juliet, accompanies Romeo to the Capulet masque, and talks among other things of 'Queen Mab' in one of Shakespeare's most famous speeches (1.4.5595). He vainly attempts to summon Romeo by teasing him about Rosaline before he and Benvolio leave the masque without him (2.1). The next morning he indulges in elaborate word games with Romeo and is with him when he encounters the Nurse (2.3). In 3.1 he fights with Tybalt and is mortally wounded when Romeo tries to stop them, in revenge for which Romeo kills Tybalt. In many ways Mercutio is a parallel figure to Romeo, the complexity, lyricism, and imagination of his language balancing Romeo's. Actors have sometimes exchanged the two roles, as did John *Gielgud and Laurence *Ohvier in 1935. When Mercutio is killed the tone of the play changes, losing some of its romantic energy as the tragedy gathers pace. In the 19th century he was seen as a 'mercurial and spirited' young gentleman (*Hazlitt, 1817) but more recent productions have seen a darker side to his character, as does *Zeffirelli's film version (1968) in which John McEnery as Mercutio is intellectual, macabre, and perhaps a little mad. AB Levenson, Jill, Shakespeare in Performance: Romeo and Juliet (1987) Meres, Francis (1565-1647), critic and clergyman. Born in Lincolnshire, Meres entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he took his BA. He later claimed to be 'Master of Arts of both Universities'. Before moving to a Rutland parish, he lived in London where in 1597 and (cont. on page 291)
The Merchant of Venice
S
hakespeare's perennially popular, and perennially controversial, comedy of religious conflict was entered in the *Stationers' Register on 22 July 1598, and is mentioned in Francis *Meres's Palladis Tamia soon afterwards. The Merchant of Venice cannot have been more than two years old then: the passage in which Shylock cites the story of Jacob and Laban (1.3.70-89) shows the influence of Miles Mosse's tract The Arraignment and Conviction of Usury (1595), and the play is unlikely to have been written before 1596, since a reference at 1.1.27-9 t o 'wealthy Andrew' probably alludes to a Spanish ship, the St Andrew, captured in the Cadiz expedition that summer. Internal, stylistic evidence links the play's metre and vocabulary to those of the Henry iv plays, and it was probably composed during the same period, around 1596-7.
The Stationers' Register calls the play The Merchant of not to drink the wine which the Lady always offers her suitors Venice, or Otherwise Called The Jew of Venice, possibly re- before bed, which she drugs: he is thus enabled to win her. As flecting Shakespeare's original subtitle, but when it appeared in the play, the Jew is foiled in his attempt to exact a pound of in quarto in 1600 it did so as The Most Excellent History of the flesh from the defaulting merchant. Shakespeare knew the Merchant of Venice. With the Extreme Cruelty of Shylock the pound of flesh story from other sources too, one of which, Jew towards the Said Merchant, in Cutting a Just Pound of his Alexander Silvayn's The Orator (translated in 1596), influFlesh: and the Obtaining of Portia by the Choice of Three Chests.enced his own trial scene. In rewriting the story of Giannetto This remains the only authoritative text for the play, serving as that of Bassanio, Shakespeare replaced the seduction test as the basis for a further quarto printed by the *Jaggards for with the choice of the three caskets, a motif also available to Pavier in 1619 (fraudulently dated '1600') and for the text him in many forms, in John *Gower's Confessio amantis, in published in the 1623 Folio, which adds, however, a number *Boccaccio's Decameron, and in the anonymous Gesta of stage directions (mainly musical cues) which may derive Romanorum. It is possible that Shakespeare was not the first from the additional consultation of a theatrical manuscript. playwright to combine the pound of flesh and the casket Fortunately it is a generally reliable text, deriving either from plots: Stephen Gosson's The Anatomy ofAbuses (1579) refers to a fair copy in Shakespeare's own hand or from an accurate a now lost play called The Jew, which represents, he reports, transcript of such a manuscript. 'the greediness of worldly choosers and the bloody minds of SOURCES: Shakespeare's play, as the quarto's subtitle usurers'. Whether or not this vaguely described play served as suggests, brings together two widely known folk-tale motifs, a source for The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare must have the story of the pound of flesh and the story of the three been conscious as he wrote his own play about a Jew of ancaskets. Many of the play's most important elements are al- other, Christopher *Marlowe's black farce The Jew of Malta ready present in the Florentine writer Ser *Giovanni's version (c.1589). In Marlowe's play the titular Machiavellian villainof the pound of flesh plot, a story known as 'Giannetto of hero, Barabas, is betrayed by his daughter Abigail, who falls Venice and the Lady of Belmont'. In this story a merchant in love with a Christian, and becomes a nun after Barabas borrows from a Jew in order to fund his protégé Giannetto's has her suitor killed. The elopement and conversion of Shyrepeated attempts to woo the Lady of Belmont, who will only lock's daugher Jessica, significantly, is an addition by Shakemarry the man who can first pay a contestant's fee and then speare to his chief, prose, sources. Marlowe's play had enjoyed stay awake long enough to seduce her. Giannetto falls asleep a new lease of life in 1594, when it was revived by the *Adon his two first attempts, before the Lady's maid warns him miral's Men, apparently to capitalize on the anti-Semitism TEXT:
MERCHANT OF VENICE, T H E
death's head bearing a poem, 'All that glisters is not gold 2.8 Salerio and Solanio, associates of Bassanio, discuss Shylock's anguish at the loss of his daughter, Antonio's tender parting from Bassanio, and rumours that a Venetian ship, possibly one of Antonio's, has been wrecked. 2.9 Portia's next suitor, the Prince of Aragon, chooses the silver casket, which contains a fool's head and another mocking poem. As he departs, news arrives that another, Bassanio, is approaching. 3.1 Solanio and Salerio are discussing the wreck of one of Antonio's ships when Shylock arrives and accuses them of complicity in Jessica's elopement: distraught, he is consoled only by the news of Antonio's losses, and promises to pursue his revenge against him as ruthlessly as would a Christian. Left alone with Tubal, Shylock learns of Jessica's extravagance with the money and jewels she took with her, alternating between grief at this and vengeful glee as he hears further of Antonio's impending bankruptcy. 3.2 Though Portia begs him to postpone his choice, Bassanio, to the accompaniment of a song ('Tell me, where is fancy bred . . .?'), reflects prudently on the caskets' mottoes and correctly chooses the lead one: within is a picture of Portia and a poem which instructs him to claim her with a kiss. Portia formally gives herself and her estate to him, with a ring which she urges him to wear forever. Graziano now announces that Nerissa has promised to marry him should Bassanio succeed; Portia and Bassanio give their blessing. Lorenzo and Jessica arrive, together with Salerio, who brings Bassanio a letter from Antonio: it tells him that, all his seaborne ventures having failed, he is at 2.1 The Prince of Morocco agrees to vow, before making Shylock's mercy. Bassanio explains to Portia that Antonio his choice of casket, that if he chooses wrongly he will remain incurred this lethal debt on his behalf, and she immediately unmarried forever. 2.2 Lancelot Gobbo debates the morality postpones their marriage, sending him to Venice with money of running away from his master Shylock, finally deciding to in the hopes of persuading Shylock to let Antonio live. 3.3 On do so. When his blind father arrives he pretends to be a the eve of the pound of flesh falling due, Shylock refuses to stranger and announces his own death, before revealing his hear Antonio's pleas for mercy. 3.4 Portia hands over her identity and announcing his intention of leaving Shylock's house to Lorenzo's keeping, saying she and Nerissa will stay in service. When Bassanio enters, the Gobbos beg that Lancelot a nearby convent while Bassanio and Graziano are in Venice, may join his staff, to which Bassanio agrees. Bassanio is but after Lorenzo's departure she sends her servant Balthasar subsequently met by Graziano, whom he permits to accomon an errand to her relative, the lawyer Bellario, and explains pany him to Belmont on condition that he behave soberly. 2.3 to Nerissa that the two of them will in fact go to Venice in Shylock's daughter Jessica bids farewell to Lancelot, giving male disguise. 3.5 Lancelot banters with Jessica about her him a letter to Bassanio's friend Lorenzo, with whom she plans to elope. 2.4 Lorenzo, among his revelling friends, re- conversion to Christianity. Jessica and Lorenzo speak adceives Jessica's letter, which directs him to take her from her miringly of Portia and Bassanio. father's house, disguised as a page, that night. 2.5 Shylock, 4.1 Before the Duke, Shylock, though offered his 3,000 invited out to dine with Antonio and associates, bids farewell ducats, insists on his pound offlesh.Bassanio offers twice the first to Lancelot and then, despite misgivings, to Jessica. 2.6 sum, which Shylock also refuses. Antonio professes a stoical Lorenzo, disguised among his friends, receives Jessica as she acceptance of death while Shylock sharpens his knife. The climbs from her window disguised as a boy, bringing much of Duke threatens to adjourn the court until he has received Shylock's gold and jewellery. Antonio urges Graziano to join legal advice from Bellario: instead he receives a letter sending Bassanio on board their ship for Belmont. 2.7 Morocco a young expert in his place, Balthasar, who is really Portia in chooses between the three caskets, which all bear mottoes: the disguise, accompanied by Nerissa as clerk. Portia speaks elolead 'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath', the quently to Shylock, urging him to show mercy, but he refuses, silver 'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves', and and she concedes his legal right to the pound of flesh. the gold 'Who chooseth me shall get what many men desire'. Bassanio and Graziano, in Portia and Nerissa's hearing, each To Portia's relief he chooses the gold casket, which contains a tell Antonio they would sacrifice their wives to save him. exacerbated by the execution that June of Elizabeth I'S JewishPortuguese physician Roderigo *Lopez on dubious charges of attempting to poison the Queen: some commentators regard Graziano's reference to 'a wolf . . . hanged for human slaughter' (4.1.132-7) as a punning allusion to Lopez's fate (lupus is Latin for 'wolf'). SYNOPSIS: I.I Antonio, a Venetian merchant, will not be cheered up by his associates, even the frivolous Graziano. Left alone with his friend Bassanio, who already owes him much money, he learns of Bassanio's desire to woo an heiress of Belmont called Portia, for which Bassanio will need further money. Antonio urges Bassanio to borrow money on his credit for this purpose. 1.2 In Belmont, Portia reflects on her late father's will, which obliges her to marry whichever suitor correctly chooses between three chests of gold, silver, and lead: she speaks disparagingly of the suitors listed by her waiting-woman Nerissa. Nerissa speaks of Bassanio, but they are interrupted by news that a fresh suitor has arrived, the Prince of Morocco. 1.3 Bassanio is negotiating a loan of 3,000 ducats, for three months, with the Jewish usurer Shylock. When Shylock sees Antonio approaching he speaks in an aside of his hatred of him, but when Antonio arrives, Shylock, though reminding him of many public insults, speaks affably in defence of usury, and despite Antonio's renewed profession of enmity offers to lend the 3,000 ducats at no interest, insisting only—professedly in fun—that Antonio should sign a bond specifying that if he defaults Shylock will be entitled to a pound of his flesh.
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MERCHANT OF VENICE, T H E
Antonio has exposed his breast for Shylock's incision when Portia announces that since the bond mentions no blood, Shylock's estate will be forfeit to the state if he sheds any while cutting his pound of flesh. Baffled, Shylock accepts 9,000 ducats in place of the flesh, but Portia insists he is entitled only to the flesh, not even to the 3,000 ducats he originally loaned. Shylock is about to leave when Portia announces that as an alien who has sought to kill a Venetian he is liable to the death penalty, and his possessions must be divided between Antonio and the state. The Duke spares Shylock's life and offers to waive the state's claim to half Shylock's wealth, requiring only a fine. Antonio in his turn says he will only borrow half Shylock's estate and give it after Shylock's death to Lorenzo, to whom he insists Shylock bequeaths all his other possessions, and he further insists that Shylock should convert to Christianity. Shylock leaves, unwell. The disguised Portia and Nerissa, gratefully offered gifts by Bassanio and Graziano, demand their respective wedding rings: at Antonio's insistence the men hand them over. 5.1 Lorenzo and Jessica, outside Portia's house, listen to music by moonlight. Portia and Nerissa, no longer disguised, return home, followed separately by Bassanio, Antonio, and Graziano. Nerissa upbraids Graziano for giving her ring to the clerk, and Bassanio soon has to admit he gave his to the lawyer. Portia and Nerissa claim they will not sleep with their husbands, but only with the lawyer and his clerk: only when a penitent Antonio intercedes on Bassanio's behalf does Portia produce the ring again, at first claiming to have obtained it in bed from the lawyer before revealing her deception. Portia further gives Antonio news that three of his argosies have arrived safely, and gives Lorenzo the deed by which Shylock has made him his heir. ARTISTIC FEATURES: Combining the logics of both the fairy tale and the financial market place—or perhaps revealing their secret kinship— The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's most tightly structured comedies, both narratively and thematically. The questions raised by the lead casket's motto, 'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath', resonate throughout its two interwoven plots as they scrupulously weigh the competing claims of religion and civil society, justice and mercy, marriage and friendship. Shylock, the first of the mature comedies' great antagonists, owes some of his enduring impact not only to his formal status as the comedy's tragic scapegoat and his religious status as an embodiment of Judaic *law in a Christian community nominally committed to love and mercy, but to the skill with which Shakespeare invests his comparatively short role with its own distinctive voice. CRITICAL HISTORY: Responses to this play have for most of its history been dominated by responses to Shylock. The question of Shakespeare's attitude to the *Jews has been debated since the time of Nicholas *Rowe, and from the early 19th century onwards many commentators have seen the play as essentially sympathetic to Shylock: *Hazlitt insisted that he was presented as, finally, an object of pity, while *Heine, re-
membering an English theatre-goer weeping 'The poor man is wronged!' at the end of Act 4 (in Shakespeares Màdchen und Frauen, 1839), opined that even if Shakespeare had consciously intended Shylock to be a monster his humanity had led him to write a vindication of the Jews. The argument between those who insist that Shakespeare was exposing his Christians' hypocrisy rather than attacking Judaism, and those who claim that all Elizabethans were automatically antiSemitic and would have found Shylock's torments hilarious, continues to this day, though since the early 20th century accounts of Shylock's significance (such as that offered by *Auden in 1948) have been more inclined to see him in thematic relation to the play's other outsider, Antonio. Antonio's erotically charged patron-client relationship with Bassanio has come under considerable scrutiny over the last century, while *psychoanalytic criticism has been interested in the symbolism of the play's plots since *Freud's own remarks on the play (in Psychopathology of Everyday Life, 1914). Portia, meanwhile, offered as a role-model to the countless Victorian schoolgirls required to memorize her oration on mercy, has been studied in relation to the other cross-dressed heroines, and her successful replacement of Antonio as Bassanio's chief benefactor has been of much interest to recent *feminist criticism. STAGE HISTORY: In the theatre, the history of The Merchant of Venice has largely been a history of great Shylocks. According to the quarto, the play was popular in its own time, and the *Revels accounts record two court performances in 1605, but the play's next recorded performances were only in the form of George Granville's adaptation The few of Venice in 1701. It was only in 1741 that the original play returned to the stage, with Charles *Macklin as a fierce, methodically prepared Shylock (a role he retained to his retirement in 1789). Macklin's most notable successors included J. P. *Kemble (with Sarah *Siddons as Portia), Edmund *Kean, who played Shylock wholly sympathetically in 1814 (replacing his traditional red beard with a small black one), William Charles *Macready, Charles *Kean, and, most famously, Henry "Irving, whose aristocratic, proud Shylock, first seen at the * Lyceum in 1879 (with Ellen *Terry as Portia), was a summit of his career. With actor-managers so frequently casting themselves as Shylock, the play sometimes finished at the close of his part, with Act 5 cut entirely. The 20th century, however, with its shift towards the director (well exemplified by *Komisarjevsky's fantastically designed debut production at Stratford in 1932), saw a movement towards more balanced productions, using fuller texts. The period's troubled history, however, emphatically kept the spotlight on Shylock, whether played as an unsympathetic caricature (as in Max *Reinhardt's Cubist production of 1921, and in several notorious revivals in *Germany during the Nazi period) or as a wronged victim (as he was by George C. Scott in New York in 1962, and by Laurence *01ivier in Jonathan *Miller's production of 1970). Although the play continues to divide Jewish audiences and actors (it has been much performed and discussed in
290
METRE *Israel, a n d has inspired combative adaptations such as Ar-
question about the place o f the p l a y in the
nold Wesker's The Merchant,
world.
1 9 7 6 ) , the role o f S h y l o c k has
increasingly attracted Jewish players, a m o n g them
Dustin
Hoffman,
Henry
Goodman,
Warren
Mitchell,
whose
Antony
meticulous
*Sher,
performance
and
dominated
Trevor *Nunn's *National Theatre production, set in a justpre-Nazi Central E u r o p e , in 1999. ON
MD
T H E S C R E E N : N i n e silent versions were m a d e be-
tween 1902 a n d 1926. O f the m e m o r a b l e
television ver-
sions, five were m a d e for the B B C after 1947, c u l m i n a t i n g in the J o n a t h a n
(1980) with
Miller production
Warren
Mitchell (Shylock) a n d G e m m a Jones (Portia). M o s t impressive was J o n a t h a n Miller's television adaptation o f his National Theatre stage production
(1970), with Laurence
Olivier as a n E d w a r d i a n S h y l o c k whose off-screen wailing after his final exit gave his a g o n y an indelible p o i g n a n c y . F r a n k F i n l a y ' s S h y l o c k for B B C T V (1972) was seen as significant in touching the role with comedy, so s h a r p e n i n g the
1598 he met literary men and prepared his uniquely informative Palladis Tamia. Wit's Treasury. Being the Second Part of Wit's Commonwealth, registered on 7 September 1598 and published late that year. Though full of similitudes and routine panegyrics, the book is valuable for its lack of originality and reflection of current views. Importantly, Meres refers to Shakespeare's 'sugared Sonnets among his private friends'; possibly these are not surviving poems, but it is clear that some Shakespeare sonnets circulated by September 1598. Even more usefully, we learn about dramas which existed by that date, although Meres's list is not exhaustive and is meant to point up Shakespeare's double superiority in the theatre's two main genres. For 'Comedy', Meres cites The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, Love's Labour's Won, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Merchant of Venice. For 'Tragedy', he mentions Richard 11, Richard in, Henry iv, King John, Titus Andronicus, and Romeo and Juliet. Unless it is an alternative name for an existing comedy *Love's Labour's Won refers to a missing play, and Meres, evidently, was not mistaken to list that title. PH
291
AD
RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
Jay L. Halio (Oxford, 1993); John Russell Brown (Arden, 1955); M. M. Mahood (New Cambridge, 1987) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Auden, W. H., 'Brothers and Others', in The Dyer's Hand(1948) Brockbank, Philip, 'Shakespeare and the Fashion of These Times', Shakespeare Survey, 16 (1963) Edelman, Charles, 'Is This the Jew that Shakespeare Drew? Shylock on the Elizabethan Stage', Shakespeare Survey, 52 (i999) Gross, John, Shylock: A Legend and its Legacy (1992) Jardine, Lisa, 'Cultural Confusion and Shakespeare's Learned Heroines', in Reading Shakespeare Historically (1996) Lelyveld, Toby, Shylock on the Stage (i960) Lever, J. W., 'Shylock, Portia and the Values of Shakespearean Comedy', Shakespeare Quarterly, 3 (1952) Shapiro, James, Shakespeare and the Jews (1995)
Words that have been So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, As if that everyone from whom they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest And had resolved to live a fool the rest Of his dull life. There is no evidence that Shakespeare was a member of the circle. The legend that the Mermaid was the scene of the 'wit combats' which according to Thomas *Fuller took place between Shakespeare and Jonson derives from William SW Gifford in his 1816 edition of Jonson.
Merry Devil of Edmonton, The. A popular comedy, dated f.1602-3, possibly written by *Dekker or *Drayton. It was attributed to Shakespeare by Humphrey *Moseley in 1653 and then included in 'Shakespeare Volume I' in SM Charles n's library: see APOCRYPHA.
Merry Wives of Windsor, The (seepage 292) Messala brings Brutus and Cassius the news that the triumvirate have executed many senators, including Cicero, Julius Caesar 4.2, but is himself reconciled with Octavius Caesar and Antony, 5.5. He is based on M. Valerius Messalla, who fought on the republican side at Philippi but later became one of Augustus Caesar's generals. AB
Merke, Thomas. See CARLISLE, BISHOP OF.
Mermaid Tavern, a tavern in Bread Street, London, in which, according to Thomas *Coryat, writing in 1615, aristocrats and intellectuals assembled on the first Friday of each month during the early years of the 17th century for convivial conversation. A verse letter of uncertain date and authorship, often ascribed to *Beaumont, addressed from the country to *Jonson, speaks nostalgically of the 'full mermaid wine' and the 'things' done and spoken there:
post-Holocaust
messengers. There are many unnamed messengers in Shakespeare's plays, some of whom occasion very dramatic or significant moments: (l) A messenger appears 'with two heads and a hand', Titus Andronicus 3.1.232, to tell Titus his voluntary mutilation has been pointless. ( 2 ) A messenger announces the approach of Don Pedro, Claudio, and Benedick, giving Beatrice the opportunity to make sarcastic remarks about Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing 1.1. (3) A messenger tells an incredulous Macbeth that Birnam wood is moving, Macbeth 5.5. AB
Mahood, M. M., Playing Bit Parts in Shakespeare (i998) metaphor, the most imaginatively powerful of rhetorical figures, in which one thing, idea, or action, is referred to by the name of another, and thus some quality shared by the two terms is assumed without being specified: 'the bubble CB reputation' {As You Like Iti.y.i$i). Metellus Cimber is one of the conspirators in Julius Caesar, based on L. Tillius Cimber. AB metonymy, a figure of speech that substitutes for the thing meant some quality or property associated with it. Most commonly a quality, in the form of an adjective, stands in place of the noun: 'a flagon of Rhenish', i.e. of wine (Hamlet 5.1.175), 'the quick and dead', i.e. people (ibid. 247). CB metre, the pattern of measured syllables recurring in lines of verse. In English, this refers to the expected number of stressed syllables in a line (usually four or five), and often also to the total number of syllables in the line (usually eight or ten). The predominant metre of Shakespeare's work is iambic pentameter, i.e. normally a line of ten syllables, alternately unstressed and stressed, but with many variants. See BLANK VERSE: also ALEXANDRINE; ANAPAEST; ANAPTYXIS;
BROKENBACKED
CAESURA, EPIC; ELISION;
LINE;
CAESURA;
COUPLET; DACTYL; DIMETER;
END-STOPPED; ENJAMBMENT;
FEMI-
NINE ENDINGS; FOOT; HEADLESS LINE; HEROIC COUPLETS; IAMBIC; LONG LINES; PENTAMETER; PYRRHIC
FOOT;
SHORT
LINES;
SPONDEE;
SQUINTING LINE; SYNAERESIS; SYNCOPE; TETRAMETER;
ING.
TRIMETER;
TROCHEE;
WEAK
END-
CB/GTW
Wright, George T., Shakespeare's Metrical Art (1988) (cont. on page 29$)
The Merry Wives of Windsor
S
hakespeare's only comedy set in his homeland (with the exception of the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew), and his closest to the mainstream tradition of English farce, may also be his only play composed for a spécifie state occasion. According to a tradition first recorded by John *Dennis in 1702, the play was personally commissioned by Queen *Elizabeth, who, added *Rowe in 1709, particularly wished to see Falstaff in love. This unlikely piece of hearsay may have a kernel of truth, in that the play's last act alludes to the ceremonies of the Order of the Garter, to which Shakespeare's patron George Carey, Lord *Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain, was admitted at Windsor early in 1597. These ceremonies were followed by a Garter Feast at the Palace of Westminster on St George's Day, 23 April, attended by the Queen, and the play's topical references to the Order of the Garter suggest that The Merry Wives of Windsor may have been composed expressly for performances associated with this event. The play may thus have enjoyed a royal première on Shakespeare's 33rd birthday: in any event its rare vocabulary, quite apart from its leading role, links it closely with the Henry /splays (1596-8), and since it calls Sir John Falstaff throughout rather than Oldcastle it must post-date the censorship of/ Henry iv. Royal command performance or not, the play was almost certainly composed in 1597 or 1598. TEXT: The play was entered in the *Stationers' Register in January 1602, and was printed in the same year in a quarto that was subsequently reprinted in 1619: a much fuller and more reliable text appeared in the *Folio in 1623, and was itself reprinted in quarto in 1630. The two early quartos preserve an abbreviated and sometimes clumsily rewritten text of the play, apparently adapted from a memorial reconstruction (see REPORTED TEXT) prepared by an actor who had played the Host, but it is nonetheless a useful one, since the Folio text—visibly prepared from a transcript by the idiosyncratic scribe Ralph *Crane—is apparently based on a promptbook which had undergone both expurgation (in compliance with the *Act to Restrain the Abuses of Players, 1606) and censorship. Lord *Cobham, who had already complained about Shakespeare's treatment of his ancestor Oldcastle, seems to have objected to Ford's alias as 'Brooke' (the Cobhams' family name), which the Folio text alters to 'Broome' (though preserving, meaninglessly, some of the puns occasioned by the original pseudonym). The confusing incident involving the theft of the Host's horses, apparently incorporating allusions to the German Count Momplegard
(finally elevated to the Garter in absentia in 1597 after much embarrassing importunity), also seems to have been censored, but is irrecoverably truncated in both extant texts. SOURCES: NO single source for this play is known, though its plot draws on widespread literary traditions, most obviously that of the Italian novella (exemplified, for example, by the work of Ser *Giovanni). With its good-natured plot of a comic elopement in a realistic English provincial setting, the play resembles Henry *Porter's Two Angry Women of Abingdon, published in 1599, but Porter's comedy may have been influenced by Shakespeare's rather than vice versa. A long-standing tradition regards Justice Shallow as a hostile portrait of Sir Thomas *Lucy, alleged to have prosecuted the young Shakespeare for deer-poaching, though Leslie Hotson (in Shakespeare versus Shallow, 1931) claimed him more plausibly as a hit at the Surrey justice William *Gardiner. SYNOPSIS: I.I Justice Shallow calls at Master Page's house in Windsor, hoping to recommend his foolish nephew Slender as a suitor to Page's daughter Anne: he is incensed against Sir John Falstaff, also a dinner guest at the Pages', who has been poaching his deer. The Welsh parson Evans
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MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, T H E
attempts to make peace between Shallow, Sir John, and Sir John's followers Bardolph, Nim, and Pistol, who have earlier got Slender drunk and robbed him. Finally left alone with Anne, Slender is socially inept. 1.2 Evans sends a letter, via Slender's servant Peter Simple, to Mistress Quickly, housekeeper to the French physician Dr Caius and a friend of Anne, urging her to promote Slender's suit. 1.3 Sir John, staying at the Garter Inn, successfully recommends Bardolph to his Host as a tapster. Sir John then explains to Nim and Pistol that he means to gain money by seducing Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, and gives them love letters to deliver: when they refuse this dishonourable errand he dismisses them, entrusting the letters instead to his page Robin. Nim and Pistol decide to avenge themselves by warning Ford and Page. 1.4 Mistress Quickly is telling Simple she will recommend Slender to Anne when Dr Caius returns unexpectedly: she hides Simple in a closet, where Caius finds him. Furious to learn of Simple's errand—since he himself wishes to marry Anne—Caius sends a challenge to Evans. After Caius's departure, the well-born Fenton arrives, also hoping to be recommended to Anne. 2.1 Mistress Page is affronted by the letter she has received from Sir John: Mistress Ford arrives, similarly agitated by her own letter, and when the two women compare notes they discover Sir John has written identically to each. They decide to avenge themselves on him by feigning compliance only to delay him at the Garter until he is bankrupt, deliberately arousing Ford's causeless jealousy at the same time. Ford and Page arrive, receiving their warnings from Pistol and Nim: Page laughs his off, but the jealous Ford is troubled. The two wives leave with Mistress Quickly, whom they intend to use as go-between to Sir John. Ford arranges with the Host to visit Sir John under the alias of Brooke: he, the Host, Page, and Shallow leave in the hopes of seeing the intended duel between Evans and Caius. 2.2 At the Garter Mistress Quickly tells Sir John that both wives, ignorant of each other's affairs, are in love with him, and that Mistress Ford sends word her husband will be absent from his house tomorrow between ten and eleven: she begs Robin, a potential go-between, for Mistress Page. Ford, sending Sir John a bottle of sack, subsequently arrives as Brooke, and privately explains that he has long desired Mistress Ford himself but despairs of overcoming her virtue unless she is first seduced by a more accomplished lover. Sir John delightedly accepts the money Brooke offers him to seduce Mistress Ford, and tells him gleefully of his appointment with her the following morning. Alone, Ford, horrified that his worst fears are apparently justified, rejoices that at least he now stands a chance of averting his cuckolding. 2.3 Caius and his servant John Rugby are waiting for Evans to arrive and fight: the Host, Shallow, Page, and Slender arrive, and the Host promises not only to lead Caius to where Evans is but to bring him to a farmhouse where he may woo Anne. 3.1 Evans is also waiting, with Simple, for Caius, trying to maintain his courage by singing: when Shallow, Slender, and
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Page and at last the Host and Caius arrive, the jovial Host reveals that he has deliberately been averting the duel by sending the would-be combatants to separate places. Caius and Evans, reconciled, plan to avenge themselves on the Host for this indignity. 3.2 Ford, learning that Mistress Page now employs Sir John's page, is astonished at Page's unsuspicious nature. Page arrives, assuring Slender that he supports his suit with Anne although Mistress Page favours Caius, and though the Host thinks that Anne herself will prefer Fenton. Ford takes Caius and Evans with him towards his house, expecting to surprise Sir John with his wife. 3.3 Mistresses Ford and Page are preparing for Sir John's arrival, having their servants bring a large laundry basket and hiding Mistress Page in another room. Sir John arrives and woos Mistress Ford, swearing that her suspicion that he is also courting Mistress Page is groundless: on a pre-arranged cue from Robin, Mistress Page enters, announcing that the jealous Ford is on his way with armed men to search the house, and the two women hide Sir John in the laundry basket, in which he is carried out by two servants just as Ford, Page, Caius, and Evans arrive. When their combined search of the house fails to find Sir John, the baffled Ford has to apologize to the company. 3.4 Fenton is reassuring Anne that although at first, as her father suggests, he only wooed her for her money, he now loves her truly, when Shallow, Slender, and Mistress Quickly arrive: Slender is as incompetent a wooer as ever. Page and Mistress Page arrive: Page rebukes Fenton for his persistence, favouring Slender, whom Anne tells her mother she does not wish to marry. Left alone, Mistress Quickly admits she has been accepting gifts from all three of Anne's rival suitors. 3.5 A chilled Sir John, who has been tipped from the basket into the Thames with the laundry, orders some mulled sack. Mistress Quickly apologizes on Mistress Ford's behalf and tells him to come again between eight and nine, when Ford will be out birding. Ford then arrives as Brooke for a progress report, and learns both how Sir John escaped him among the laundry and of his next impending appointment with his wife. 4.1 Mistress Page's young son William is given a Latin lesson by Evans, much misconstrued by Mistress Quickly. 4.2 Sir John is again wooing Mistress Ford when Mistress Page again brings news that the jealous Ford is approaching: Sir John refuses to enter the laundry basket again, and the women instead arrange to dress him as Mother Prat, a suspected witch. Before Page, Caius, Evans, and Shallow, Ford triumphantly ransacks the laundry basket, baffled not to find Sir John, and himself unwittingly drives Sir John, disguised as Mother Prat, out of the house, beating him with a cudgel. After the men depart, the wives agree to inform their husbands of the whole story, hoping this will have cured Ford's jealousy forever, and resolve to punish Sir John further only with their husbands' co-operation. 4.3 Bardolph requests three horses from the Host for a mysterious German duke, who has apparently booked the Garter for a week already, obliging the Host to turn away his other guests. 4.4 The Pages and the Fords, laughing over Sir John's misadventures to
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, T H E
date, plot that the two wives should invite Sir John to meet them, disguised as the legendary horned spirit Heme the Hunter, at Heme's Oak in Windsor Park at midnight, where Sir John can be ambushed by Anne, William, and other children disguised as fairies and then exposed to public ridicule. It is agreed that Anne Page will be dressed as the queen of the fairies: Page plans secretly to arrange Slender's elopement with her, though his wife still prefers Caius. 4.5 Simple has come to the Garter, hoping to consult Mother Prat, supposedly seen entering Sir John's rooms, about Anne Page's fortune. The Host learns from Bardolph, Evans, and Caius that the German duke was a hoax and his horses have been stolen. Mistress Quickly brings Sir John the letter appointing his midnight rendezvous. 4.6 Fenton arranges with the discomfited Host for a vicar to be ready to marry him to Anne between midnight and one: she has feigned compliance with both her father's plot that she should elope with Slender and her mother's that she should elope with Caius, but really plans to run away with Fenton. 5.1 Sir John agrees to the rendezvous, and tells Ford as Brooke of his escape and sufferings in the guise of Mother Prat. 5.2 Page and Shallow check that Slender knows how he is to identify the figure with whom he is to elope: he and Anne will both be dressed in white. 5.3 Mistress Page similarly briefs Caius, who expects Anne to be in green. Anne, Evans, and the other pretended fairies are already lying in wait in a pit near Heme's Oak. 5.4 Disguised as a satyr, Evans marshals his fairies. 5.5 The amorous Sir John, wearing horns, awaits Mistress Ford: she arrives, with Mistress Page, and he is delightedly preparing to enjoy both when, hearing a noise, they flee in pretended panic. Evans and the fairies appear, with Anne dressed as a fairy and Mistress Quickly as the fairy queen: Sir John hides, convinced he is witnessing fairy revels and in grave danger, as they recite verses blessing Windsor and the Garter emblems. The fairies find Sir John, testing his purity with lighted tapers, then pinching him as a punishment for his sins (to the song 'Fie on sinful luxury . . .'): meanwhile Caius steals away with a fairy in green, Slender with one in white, and Anne leaves with Fenton. The pretended fairies disperse at a sound of hunters, and are replaced by the Pages and the Fords, who confront Sir John and reveal their various stratagems. Evans joins in their sermonizing. Slender arrives, indignant at discovering that the fairy in white was a boy, followed by Caius, whose fairy in green was also a boy: the newly-weds Fenton and Anne then arrive, and on Ford's advice the Pages accept their new son-in-law. All, including Sir John, set off for Windsor to laugh about the night's events. A R T I S T I C FEATURES: The play uses less verse than any other Shakespeare play, and features more devices familiar from later situation comedies, such as comic stage accents (Welsh and French) and malapropisms (or, less anachronis-
tically, Quicklyisms). Nonetheless its harmonious, magichaunted conclusion is recognizably akin to the worlds of A Midsummer Nights Dream and As You Like It. C R I T I C A L HISTORY: Apart from a long-running argument about whether the Sir John of this play lives up to his appearances in the Henry iv plays, The Merry Wives of Windsor has occasioned very little critical discussion, although some modern criticism has related it usefully to the *city comedies favoured by some of Shakespeare's colleagues, such as *Jonson and *Middleton. STAGE HISTORY: AS its multiple early editions suggest, the play was popular before the Civil War (played at court in 1604 and in the 1630s), and it was revived in unadapted form soon after the Restoration in 1660. Despite *Dennis's short-lived adaptation The ^Comical Gallant (1702), the original play has remained popular ever since, often starring actors already established as Sir John in Henry iv (from *Betterton through *Quin to Beerbohm *Tree and beyond), though many important performers have also been attracted to the role of Ford (including *Kemble and Charles *Kean), and to those of the wives themselves (including Anne *Bracegirdle and Elizabeth *Barry, Madge Kendal and Ellen *Terry, the *Vanbrugh sisters, Peggy *Ashcroft and Edith * Evans). Modern directors have found possibilities in the play too: *Komisarjevsky gave it a Viennese setting at Stratford in 1935, Terry *Hands has directed it twice, and in 1985 Bill Alexander successfully staged the play for the *RSC in a kitsch, mockTudor 1950s setting, the wives comparing letters under adjoining hairdryers. It remains true, however, that this unabashedly middlebrow play has enjoyed its greatest acclaim as an *opera, its musical transformations including Otto Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (1848) and *Verdi's last masterpiece Falstaff {1%^). MD O N T H E SCREEN: Historically interesting screen versions include the B B C TV transmission of Glen *Byam Shaw's Christmassy Stratford production (1955), with Anthony *Quayle, and the 1982 B B C TV production with Ben *Kingsley (Ford) and Richard Griffiths (Sir John). AD
RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
Giorgio Melchiori (Arden 3rd series, 2000); T. W. Craik (Oxford, 1989); David Crane (New Cambridge, 1989) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Barton, Anne, 'Falstaff and the Comic Community', in Peter Erickson and Coppélia Kahn (eds.), Shakespeare's Rough Magic: Renaissance Essays in Honor ofC. L. Barber (1985) Bradley, A. C , 'The Rejection of Falstaff', in Oxford Lectures on Poetry (1909) Bruster, Douglas, in Drama and the Market in the Age of Shakespeare (1992) Evans, Bertrand, in Shakespeare's Comedies (i960) Green, William, Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor (1962) Vickers, Brian, in The Artistry of Shakespeare's Prose (1968)
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MILAN metrical tests. Scholars have long assumed that Shakespeare had characteristic metrical habits, which can be used to distinguish his work from that of his contemporaries, and that those habits changed over time, such that statistical analyses of metrical irregularities may be of use in determining the order in which the plays were composed. Attempts to establish the authenticity and chronology of Shakespeare's works by means of metrical tests began in 1857 with the publication of Charles Bathurst's Remarks on the Differences in Shakespeare's Versification. In founding the New Shakespeare Society in 1873, F. J. *Furnivall stated that ascertaining the order of the plays by metrical tests would be one of the society's principal objectives. A year later, F. G. Fleay tabulated the total number of lines of blank verse, rhymed verse, and prose in each play, along with short and long lines, and lines with redundant syllables. Fleay's tables became the standard guide used by the 'distintegrators' to reject suspect plays and passages as nonShakespearian. In 1930 E. K. Chambers pointed out many inaccuracies in Fleay's tables, cited the deficiencies of verse-tests conducted by other investigators, and concluded that 'in view of all the uncertainties attaching to the metrical tests, I do not believe that any one of them or any combination of them can be taken as authoritative in determining the succession of plays'. In the wake of Chambers's critique, scholars have approached metrical tests with some caution. A 'metrical index' developed by Karl Wentersdorf and further refined by MacD. P. Jackson and others attempts to be comprehensive in charting a multitude of changes in the features that together make up Shakespeare's blank verse style (including *feminine endings, *alexandrines, variations in stress in iambic pentameter lines, extra mid-line syllables, extra syllables, and overflows) that may have application to questions of chronology and authorER ship of Shakespeare's plays.
Michael, Sir. He takes letters from the Archbishop of York, and reassures him about their military action, / Henry iv4.4. AB Middle
Temple.
See
INNS
OF
COURT;
MANNINGHAM, JOHN; TWELFTH NIGHT.
A similar blurring of social and moral borderlines occurs in his two great tragedies, The Changeling (printed 1653), written with William Rowley, and Women Beware Women (printed 1657). In the former, a governor's daughter falls in love with a merchant, for whose sake she has her fiancé killed, then becomes sexually entangled with the gentleman she hired to do the killing. The play derives much of its intensity from her desperate efforts to convince herself that her values remain unchanged as she changes partners. In Women Beware Women the wife of a mercantile husband—a nobleman's factor or business agent—grows weary of her confinement in his house and has an affair with a duke, to which her husband retaliates by having an affair with a noble widow. In all three of these last-mentioned plays, young women are the ultimate victims of what Middleton depicts as a general tendency to substitute commercial values for other methods of measuring human worth. Women are exchanged between men as expensive luxury commodities, and struggle to gain a measure of control over the various sexual transactions in which they are caught up. They invariably die in the attempt; even Moll, the heroine of A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, goes through a mock death and funeral before her sufferings can achieve a comic resolution. Middleton's biggest contemporary success was the satirical comedy A Game at Chess (1625), an attack on *James I'S negotiations for a Spanish marriage alliance, which had the first long run in theatrical history (9 days) before being suppressed by the authorities. Otherwise he was apparently not much admired in his own lifetime. But his reputation rose to unprecedented heights in the 20th century. One reason for this is the skill with which he represents the responses of Jacobean city-dwellers—especially women—to the pressures exerted on them by their urban environment. Another is the astonishing metaphorical and thematic unity of his plays, and the ingenuity of their plotting. The new edition of his complete works by Oxford University Press should confirm his status as one of the greatest dramatists in the English language. RM
Middleton, Thomas (1580-1627), playwright, poet, and pamphleteer. His father was a prosperous bricklayer, wealthy enough to send him to Oxford. Before 1600 he wrote poetry, including a set of satires, Micro-Cynicon (1599), and an imitation of Shakespeare, The Ghost of Lucrèce (1600). By 1601 he was 'accompanying the players' in London. He collaborated with *Webster and others on a lost play for the Admiral's Men in 1602, but a year later the plague closed the theatres and he started writing pamphlets, among them the flashy urban satire The Black Book (1604). Throughout his career he collaborated often, on pamphlets, on plays, and on the many pageants he devised for the City of London. His most frequent collaborator was Thomas *Dekker, but he also worked with Shakespeare on Timon of Athens (published 1623). The title pages of two more of his plays— The Puritan (1607) and A Yorkshire Tragedy (1608)—claim (improbably enough) that Shakespeare wrote them, but there is a much better case for believing that Middleton revised Shakespeare's Macbeth, since it incorporates two songs from his tragicomedy The Witch (not published until 1778). In the mid-i6oos Shakespeare was the principal dramatist for the King's Men and Middleton his anonymous assistant; but it would not be long before Middleton was presenting the company with some of its most remarkable successes. From 1604 to 1606 Middleton wrote, on his own, a series of plays for a children's company, the Paul's Boys. These include three scintillating city comedies: Michaelmas Term (1607), A Mad World my Masters (1608), and A Trick to Catch the Old One (1608), all modelled on the cunningly plotted comedies of Terence. Then in about 1606 he wrote his first great tragedy for the King's Men, The Revengers Tragedy Chambers, E. K., William Shakespeare: A Study (1607), often attributed to Cyril Tourneur. of Facts and Problems (1930) Jackson, MacDonald P., 'Another Metrical The revenger of the title first appears clutchIndex for Shakespeare's Plays: Evidence for ing a skull, in a pastiche of the graveyard Chronology and Authorship', Neuphilo- scene from Hamlet, but he soon becomes Chakravorty, Swapan, Society and Politics in the logische Mitteilungen, 95 (1994) absorbed—linguistically, morally, and through Plays of Thomas Middleton (1996) Wells, Stanley, and Taylor, Gary, William the disguises he adopts—into the degenerate Friedenreich, K. (éd.), Accompaninge the PlayShakespeare: A Textual Companion (1987) ers': Essays Celebrating Thomas Middleton, Wentersdorf, Karl, 'Shakespearean Chronology world of the aristocracy on whom he has sworn 1580-1980 (1983) and the Metrical Tests', in Shakespeare-Studien vengeance. This is one of the hallmarks of Heinemann, Margot, Puritanism and Theatre: Middleton's drama: characters who strive to set (i95i) Thomas Middleton and Opposition Drama themselves apart from the social classes or values under the Early Stuarts (1980) they despise find themselves inextricably enMexico. See LATIN AMERICA. Taylor, Gary, (éd.), The Complete Oxford meshed in them. His best comedy, A Chaste Middleton (2001) Michael is a follower of Cade, The First Part of Maid in Cheapside (printed in 1630), revolves the Contention (2 Henry vi) 4.2. His lines an- around the interdependence between a decayed Midsummer Night's Dream, A (see page 296) aristocracy and the emergent middle classes, to nouncing the approach of the Staffords are whom the aristocrats turn for the sexual and Milan, the main city of Lombardy, is mengiven to a messenger in the Oxford edition. tioned in The Tempest(Prospero is the 'rightful' AB economic regeneration of their family fortunes. (cont. on page 29c) 295
A Midsummer Night's Dream
O
ne of Shakespeare's most perfect achievements in comedy, or perhaps in any other genre, A Midsummer Nights Dream—with its exuberant range of poetic styles, metres, and rhymeschemes—clearly belongs to the lyrical period of his career that also produced Loves Labours Lost, Richard n, and Romeo and Juliet. It has close links with the latter play (which in Mercutio's 'Queen Mab' speech displays a similar conception of *fairies), of which the play-within-the-play staged by the 'mechanicals', 'Pyramus and Thisbe', is almost a burlesque. Indeed, Shakespeare's departures here from *Ovid's version of the Pyramus and Thisbe story seem to be shaped by the plot of Romeo and Juliet, suggesting that A Midsummer Nights Dream was written soon after it, in 1595. Other evidence, too, ties the play to the 1594-6 period: it was certainly extant by 1598, when it is listed by *Meres, and its references to disrupted weather (2.1.88-114) suggest composition between mid-1594 and late 1596, a disastrous period for English agriculture. A familiar hypothesis that the play was specifically written for performance at an aristocratic wedding seems implausible (elaborate courtly entertainments were more prevalent in the Jacobean period, and the earliest known example of a play commissioned for a wedding is Samuel *Daniel's Hymen s Triumph, 1614), but if the play were acted privately in association with such a function the likeliest candidates are the nuptials of the Earl of Derby with Elizabeth Vere (1595) and those of Thomas Berkeley with Elizabeth Carey (1596). TEXT: The play, entered in the *Stationers' Register in October 1600, appeared in quarto in the same year, and this quarto was reprinted in 1619 (though this second quarto is fraudulently dated '1600'). The quarto text seems to have been set from Shakespeare's *foul papers: some of its mislineation probably results from confusion over revisions jotted in their margins. The text printed in the *Folio in 1623 was set from a copy of the second quarto (reproducing some of its errors), but one which had been supplemented by reference to a promptbook. This promptbook had clearly been used in relatively late revivals of the play: one stage direction mentions the musician William *Tawyer; a cut of 'God warrant us' and 'God bless us' at 5.1.314-15 suggests compliance with the 1606 *Act to Restrain the Abuses of Players; and the newly imposed act divisions suggest the introduction of intervals, not used by the King's Men before around 1609. But the bulk of the Folio's amendments to stage directions and the attributions of speeches may date from early in the play's performance history, and are probably authorial.
SOURCES: Most of the plot is Shakespeare's own invention, though the play draws on a number of literary sources. The most important is *Chaucer's Knight's Tale, to which Shakespeare would return, with *Fletcher, nearly 20 years later, dramatizing it as The Two Noble Kinsmen. Chaucer's story provides the basis for Shakespeare's depiction of Theseus and Hippolyta's marriage, which it juxtaposes, furthermore, with a rivalry between two men for the same woman, source for the competition between Lysander and Demetrius over Hermia. Shakespeare, however, adds a second woman, Helena, who has earlier been jilted by Demetrius, and thereby repeats the pattern of love intrigues he had deployed in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. A Midsummer Nights Dream is pervasively indebted to Ovid, most obviously for Pyramus and Thisbe, but also for the name Titania, an alternative name for Diana (hence the fairy queen's reference to the Indian boy's mother as 'a vot'ress of my order', 2.1.123) and also for Circe (who transformed her lovers into beasts, a habit echoed in Titania's infatuation with the 'translated' Bottom).
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The name Oberon for the fairy king derives from the French romance *Huon de Bordeaux, and also appears in Robert *Greene's James iv (c.1591). * Robin Goodfellow was well known in folklore, and Shakespeare may also have read about him in Reginald *Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft (1584). The transformation of Bottom owes much to *Apuleius' The Golden Ass, written in Latin in the 2nd century and translated into English in 1566, while Bottom's anxiety about bringing a lion among ladies (3.1.25-30) may derive from a real incident at the Scottish court (reported in a pamphlet, A True Reportary, 1594) when a lion was excluded from the entertainments at Prince *Henry's baptismal feast because its presence 'might have brought some fear to the nearest'. SYNOPSIS: I.I Four days before their wedding, Theseus, Duke of Athens, and the Amazonian Queen Hippolyta whom he has conquered are visited by Egeus, accompanied by his daughter Hermia and her two suitors: Egeus complains that Hermia refuses to marry his choice, Demetrius, because she has been wooed by Lysander, and demands that she be put to death, as Athenian law allows, unless she marries Demetrius. Lysander points out that Demetrius formerly wooed Helena, who still loves him, but despite this Theseus supports Egeus, declaring that unless Hermia agrees to marry Demetrius she must accept either death or a vow of eternal celibacy. Left alone, Lysander and Hermia arrange to meet in nearby woods the following night andfleeto his aunt's house beyond Athens's borders, where they may marry. They confide this in Helena, who arrives bewailing Demetrius' preference for Hermia, and who decides to betray their elopement to Demetrius and accompany him when he goes in pursuit. 1.2 Led by Quince the carpenter, a team of artisans meet to cast the play of 'Pyramus and Thisbe' which they hope to perform at Theseus' wedding: *Bottom the weaver has ambitions to play most of the roles, but finally agrees to confine himself to Pyramus. They arrange to rehearse privately in the woods. 2.1 In the woods Robin Goodfellow, a puck who serves the fairy king Oberon, meets a fairy servant of their queen, Titania, with whom Oberon has fallen out because she will not part with an Indian changeling boy she keeps as an attendant. Oberon and Titania meet, accusing one another of over-familiarity with Hippolyta and Theseus respectively, and Titania recounts how their quarrel has affected the climate, confusing the seasons. Oberon urges her to make peace by yielding up the boy, but she refuses, explaining that she loved his mortal mother, and departs with her train. Oberon resolves to defeat her by applying the magic juice of a flower, love-in-idleness, to her eyes as she sleeps, which will make her fall in love with the next creature she sees: he sends Robin to fetch it. Meanwhile he watches Demetrius, unable to find Hermia and Lysander, rebuking Helena, who follows him off despite his disdain, and when Robin returns with the lovejuice, Oberon, determined to punish Demetrius, instructs Robin to find a man wearing Athenian clothes and apply some of the love-juice to his eyes when the woman he scorns is nearby. 2.2 Titania's fairies sing her a lullaby, 'You spotted
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snakes . . .': while she sleeps Oberon drops the love-juice on her eyelids. Lysander and Hermia arrive, benighted, and settle themselves to sleep (apart, at her insistence): Robin, assuming Lysander to be the Athenian Oberon intended, applies the love-juice to his eyes. Lysander is awakened by the arrival of Helena, whom Demetrius flees, and falls in love with her: although she is outraged at what she thinks is his mockery, Lysander pursues her off. Hermia awakens from a nightmare and finds herself alone. 3.1 The artisans meet, and Bottom insists that they alter their script to point out that Pyramus and Thisbe do not really die and the lion is only Snug the joiner dressed up: after further discussion they agree that the play's characters must include the moonshine by which the lovers meet and the wall through whose cranny they speak. As they rehearse, Robin arrives, and mischievously transforms Bottom's head into that of an ass. Bottom cannot understand why his colleagues flee, assuming they are playing a joke, and sings to keep up his courage. Titania awakens, sees Bottom, and falls in love with him: she appoints four fairies to be his attendants and leads him away to her bower. 3.2 Robin tells a delighted Oberon of Titania's love for the transformed Bottom, but when Hermia arrives, accusing Demetrius of killing the missing Lysander, it becomes clear that Robin has enchanted the wrong Athenian. While Demetrius, eluded by Hermia, sleeps, Oberon sends Robin to fetch Helena and applies the love-juice to Demetrius' eyelids. Helena arrives, pursued by the besotted Lysander, and when Demetrius awakes and also falls in love with her she concludes that both are mocking her. When Hermia arrives, lamenting Lysander's defection, Helena decides she too must be a participant in this cruel game, and accuses her of betraying their childhood friendship. The incensed Hermia decides Helena must have lured Lysander away by pointing out her superior height, and after the two rival men leave to fight, Helena has to run away from her. Oberon accuses Robin of negligence and instructs him to lead Demetrius and Lysander astray and use the love-juice to restore Lysander's love for Hermia before day breaks. Robin, feigning the respective would-be duellists' voices, keeps them apart. 3.3 Misled by Robin, Lysander and Demetrius, still hoping to fight, independently settle to sleep: Helena arrives too, and also sleeps, as does Hermia. Robin applies the lovejuice to Lysander's eyes, with a spell to restore his affection to Hermia. 4.1 Titania arrives with Bottom and his fairy attendants: after these have been dismissed, the two sleep. Oberon reports to Robin that the enchanted Titania has given him the changeling, and proceeds to undo the spell: waking, Titania at first thinks her passion for Bottom was a dream before seeing him asleep. Robin removes Bottom's ass-head: Oberon and Titania, reconciled, dance, and leave, as does Robin. Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus arrive, hunting, and find the four lovers, who awaken, restored to themselves and to each other, and attempt to explain what has been happening. Theseus overrules Egeus, declaring that Hermia
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, A
spoke of 'a puerile plot, an odd mixture of incidents, and a forced connexion of various styles'. The * Roman tics, however, completely revalued the play's elements of fancy, and over the course of the 19th century A Midsummer Night's Dream was taken ever more seriously by literary critics: Georg *Brandes, recognizing its seminal importance to his Romantic precursors, identified the play as a bridge between *Spenser and Shelley. Twentieth-century critics variously mined the play for elements of folk May-games (treating its comedy as a sort of fertility ritual), pursued its lines of thought about the nature of theatrical make-believe, and considered its potentially troubling representations of the relations between the sexes. Louis Montrose, in one of the most influential of*new historicist essays, related the play's animus against virginity and its depictions of the tamed Amazon Hippolyta and the defeated Titania to imputed male anxieties about the dominance of England's real-life fairy queen, Elizabeth I. STAGE HISTORY: A range of allusions suggest the play was frequently revived in Shakespeare's own time and afterwards: it was acted at court in 1604, and was popular enough to survive even during the Interregnum in the form of Robert *Cox's *droll The Merry Conceited Humours of *Bottom the Weaver. After the Restoration the play was revived in London and also at the Smock Alley theatre in Dublin, but seemed suddenly dated and artificial in a theatrical repertoire now dominated by contemporary satirical comedy: *Pepys, seeing it in 1662, called it 'the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life'. Thereafter its stage history for most of the next century and a half is one of successive *adaptations: *Betterton's The *Fairy Queen (1692), *Garrick's 77?^ *Fames(ij$5), George Colman's A *Fairy Tale (1763), and the independent fortunes of'Pyramus and Thisbe,' transplanted into Charles Johnson's *Love in a Forest (1723) and made into separate mock-operas by Richard *Leveridge (1716) and Frederick * Lampe (1745). An attempt by Garrick, in collaboration with Colman, to revive the whole play in 1763 was, instructively, a flop: the play was too various, and too much of an ensemble ARTISTIC FEATURES: AS well as showing off some of piece, to fit the 18th-century theatre. Regarded as too poetical Shakespeare's most dazzling *dramatic poetry—which, with for the stage by *Hazlitt—disappointed by Frederick *Reyits evocation of the minutely-detailed woodland world of nolds's pantomime-like musical version of 1816—the play Robin Goodfellow and his colleagues, has shaped all subsehad to await the displacement of the actor-manager by the quent notions of *fairies—A Midsummer Night's Dream offers designer and the director before coming into its own. The some of his most piercing reflections on the nature of theatre most important revival of the Romantic period took place in and the imagination themselves. The Mozartian interweaving *Germany in 1843, supervised by the translator, *Tieck, who of its different layers of plot and artifice has never been used *Mendelssohn's famous incidental music (1826). At last equalled: it is understandable why the play should have atseized upon by designers, the play was ever more lavishly tracted not only painters and illustrators (from *Fuseli staged by Elizabeth *Vestris, Samuel *Phelps (self-cast as through *Dadd and beyond) but operatic composers, from Bottom, the favourite role of actor-managers), and Charles Purcell to Benjamin *Britten. *Kean, whose production included an 8-year-old Ellen *Terry CRITICAL HISTORY: Popular in its own time and beyond entering as Robin Goodfellow on a pop-up mushroom. This ('Pyramus and Thisbe', for example, profoundly influenced tradition of spectacle peaked in Beerbohm *Tree's production the pioneer of English nonsense poetry John *Taylor), A Midsummer Night's Dream fell from favour after the Restor- (1900): his wood featured real live rabbits. More indicative of ation, dismissed as a self-indulgent novelty for most of the 20th-century Dreams to come was Harley *Granville-Barker's 18th century: Dr *Johnson called-it 'wild and fantastical', controversial 1914 production at the Savoy, with its gilded, while Francis *Gentleman, annotating *Bell's edition in 1774, other-worldly, puppet-like fairies. Since then the play has may marry Lysander, and Helena Demetrius, when he marries Hippolyta. The lovers, uncertain as to whether they are dreaming, follow Theseus and his party towards Athens. Bottom awakes, awestruck at the recollection of experiences which he too thinks must have been a dream, which he hopes to have Quince make into a ballad. 4.2 The artisans are distraught at Bottom's absence and their missed opportunity to perform, but to their delight he rejoins them and they leave for the palace. 5.1 Hippolyta and Theseus discuss the lovers' reported experiences, which Theseus puts down to overactive imagination. As the two other newly-married couples join them, Theseus considers what entertainment should while away the time before bed, and despite being warned how amateurishly bad 'Pyramus and Thisbe' is he chooses the artisans' play. Quince duly mis-recites a prologue, and his cast enact the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in dumb show. Punctuated by derisive comments from its audience, the play, written in archaic and comically inept rhyme, proceeds. Snout the tinker explains that he is playing the Wall through which Pyramus and Thisbe converse. Bottom as Pyramus and Flute the bellows-mender as Thisbe arrange to meet at Ninus' tomb. After Starveling, bearing a lantern, hasfinallyexplained that he represents the man in the moon, Thisbe arrives and flees from Snug as the lion, who worries her dropped mantle. Pyramus finds the mantle, concludes that Thisbe has been eaten by the lion, and kills himself: Thisbe returns, finds his body, and kills herself too. Theseus declines their offered epilogue, and Bottom and Flute dance a bergomask instead before leaving. After the three couples have retired to bed, Robin arrives, sweeping with a broom, followed by Oberon, Titania, and their train, who bless the house and the three married couples, warding off birth defects from their children. Left alone, Robin speaks an epilogue, advising the audience to dismiss the play as a dream if they have not enjoyed it, but promising to improve if the audience applauds.
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been both immensely popular (one of the most frequently revived in the canon, especially in outdoor venues: it appeared every year at the *Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park between 1932 and 1940 and has nearly done so ever since) and a directors' playground, successive productions veering between spectacle and minimalism, nostalgia and eroticism. Notable revivals have included Max *Reinhardt's eclectic spectacular of the 1920s (the basis for his later film), Tyrone *Guthrie's gauzily Victorian production of 1937 (with Vivien *Leigh as Titania and Ralph * Richardson as Bottom), the successive incarnations of Peter *Hall's Elizabethan production of 1959 (also filmed), and, most famously, Peter *Brook's 'white box' production for the *RSC in 1970, the play's magic translated into the terms of the circus. Brook's influence has haunted subsequent directors of the play, notably Adrian *Noble. The play's depiction of amateur drama, coupled with its equal balance of roles and indestructibly comic plotting, has made MD it a perennial favourite of amateur companies. O N T H E SCREEN: The play clearly offers attractive possibilities for visual realization. The earliest version was an eightminute sequence shot in America (1909). The year 1935 brought to the screen the Max Reinhardt film featuring Olivia de Havilland as Hermia, Mickey Rooney as Puck, and James Cagney as Bottom, so asserting a claim by Hollywood film actors for Shakespearian roles. Between 1937 and 1981 there were eight British television productions based on the play, the last being the visually elaborate B B C TV version produced by Jonathan *Miller (with Elijah Moshinsky as director), some of its framed compositions alluding to 17thcentury Dutch paintings.
Peter Hall's film (1969), based on his earlier stage production, had a mixed reception. It juxtaposes in an arresting way expressionism and realism, and boasts an impressive cast (including Diana *Rigg, Helen *Mirren, Judi *Dench, Ian * Richardson, and Ian *Holm), but its documentary camera techniques can seem at odds with the illusory worlds of the play. In 1984 Celestino Coronado made a memorably imaged film of the Lindsay Kemp London stage production. Adrian Noble's film-(1996), based on his own RSC production, uses a boy's dream as a central narrative device, linking the cinematic world of Theseus' court with the more theatrically minimalist woods. Michael Hoffman's less intellectually cogent Hollywood film (1999) sets the play in 19th-century Italy, crassly punctuating its soundtrack with famous operatic arias. AD
RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
Peter Holland (Oxford, 1994); Stanley Wells (New Penguin, 1967); Harold F. Brooks (Arden 2nd series, 1979); R. A. Foakes (New Cambridge, 1984) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Barber, C. L., in Shakespeare's Festive Comedy (1957) Barton, Anne in Shakespeare and the Idea of the Play (1962) Dent, R. W., 'Imagination in A Midsummer Nights Dream, Shakespeare Quarterly, 15 (1964) Leggatt, Alexander, in Shakespeare's Comedy of Love (1974) Montrose, Louis, ' "Shaping Fantasies": Configurations of Gender and Power in Elizabethan Culture', Representations, 1 (1983) Young, David P., 'Something of Great Constancy': The Art of A Midsummer Night's Dream ' (1966)
Duke of Milan) and is the scene of parts of The professional theatre in the satirical revue Beyond Two Gentlemen of Verona. AB the Fringe (1961). He has an international reputation as a director, especially of opera. His Milan, Duke of. (l) Father of Silvia in The Two Shakespearian productions always express a Gentlemen of Verona, he finally agrees to her view of the play, whether in early work with marriage with Valentine, 5.4. (2) For Prospero, Oxbridge amateurs (Julius Caesar set in a de see TEMPEST, THE. (3) The Tempest. See Chirico forum, a Renaissance Hamlei) or his ANTONIO. AB work at the National Theatre {Measure for Measure set in Freud's Vienna, The Merchant of Milford Haven, on the coast of PembrokeVenice with Laurence *OHvier as Shylock in a shire, was the landing place of *Richmond in August 1485 before he defeated Richard 111 at social setting redolent of Henry James). In 1980-1 he reinvigorated the hitherto stuffy BBC *Bosworth. Pisanio is instructed to kill Innogen there, Cymbeline 3.4.28. AB Shakespeare Television Series, producing thirteen and directing six of the plays. He twice Milhaud, Darius (1892-1974), French comdirected The Tempest as a myth of colonialism, poser. In 1936-7 he composed incidental music and he brought out the Oedipal conflicts in for Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet (both Hamlet by staging it alongside Tbsen's Ghosts performed in Paris) and for Macbeth (Old Vic and *Chekhov's The Seagull. His adventurous theatre, London). He also wrote incidental seasons at the *01d Vic (which included Eric music for a parody of Hamlet (Paris, 1939) and Porter in King Lear) were abruptly terminated C.-A. Puget's adaptation of The Winter's Tale in 1990 by the theatre's owners. MJ (Paris, 1950). IBC Miller,
Miller, Jonathan (b. 1934), British stage and television director and cultural critic. Formerly a doctor, he remains fascinated by neurology and the workings of the mind. He entered
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Subsequent Performances
(1986) Millington, Thomas. See PRINTING AND PUBLISHING.
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Milton, John (1608-74), political pamphleteer, Latin secretary to the Council of State under Cromwell, and the greatest poet of the 17th century. Hisfirstpublished work was the sonnet 'On Shakespeare', included without attribution among the commendatory verses in the Second *Folio (1632). It appeared definitively as Milton's only in the 1673 Poems, where it is dated 1630. In it, the 22-year-old Milton credits Shakespeare with 'easy numbers' and 'delphic lines'. A year later, in 'L'Allegro', the delphic element had disappeared, and Milton's cheerful man heard 'Sweetest Shakespeare, fancy's child I Warble his native woodnotes wild'. The many echoes of Shakespeare in the Masque ... at Ludlow (Comus, 1634), however, reveal a much broader appreciation of the complexity and depth of Shakespearian verse—Comus greets the Lady with the words of Ferdinand greeting Miranda, and his seductive arguments speak a language learned as much from Angelo, Othello, and Cleopatra as from Oberon. Shakespeare is implicitly invoked in the prefatory note on the verse of Paradise Lost to justify the absence of rhyme; and the earliest sketch for the epic (according to Milton's nephew Edward
MlNOLA, BAPTISTA Philips), Satan's monologue at the opening of book 4, is deeply indebted to Macbeth, as is the figure of Satan generally. In Eikonoklastes (1649) Milton cites as the prototype of the hypocritical *Charles 1 Shakespeare's Richard in. The tragic models recalled in the preface to Samson Agonistes are exclusively classical, but King Lear and Coriolanus resonate throughout the work. If, as Milton told *Dryden, 'Spenser was his original', so, even more profoundly, was Shakespeare. SO Minola, Baptista. See BAPTISTA MINOLA.
miracle plays, a form of drama based on biblical texts, popular in England from the 14th century until the late 16th century when the government took active measures to prohibit it. The miracle plays derive from the introit plays of c.950-1250, part of the liturgy of the Catholic Church, performed at the festivals of Easter and Christmas. Gradually, the plays moved outside the church, laymen joined the cast, and Latin was replaced by the vernacular. What had initially been single scenes became a series or cycle of plays under the control of local guilds rather than the Church, of which the most famous examples are the York, Towneley (Wakefield), Chester, and Coventry cycles. In the 14th century, the most popular occasion for these performances was the feast of Corpus Christi so that 'Corpus Christi cycles' became a generic term. References to such popular figures of miracle plays as Herod can be found in many 16th- and 17th-century plays including those of Shakespeare. JKS Miranda, Prospero's daughter, witnesses the wreck of Alonso's ship; listens eagerly to Prospero's account of his life; and meets Ferdinand with whom she falls in love, The Tempest 1.2. Her match with Ferdinand is accepted by the end of the play by their reconciled fathers. Miranda's upbringing was sufficiently fascinating to *Dryden and *Davenant for them to create other versions of her, a sister Dorinda and a man who has never seen a woman before, Hippolito, in their 1667 * adaptation of the play The Tempest; or, The Enchanted Island. Miranda's ignorance of social and sexual mores remained appealing to many of Shakespeare's admirers through to the 19th century and beyond. Coleridge, for example, thought Miranda Shakespeare's 'favourite character' and greatly admired 'the exquisite feelings of a female brought up in a desert, yet with all the advantages of education, all that could be given by a wise, learned, and affectionate father' (1811-12). However, as Stephen Orgel has argued in his Oxford edition of The Tempest (1987), precise attention to Miranda's lines reveals a much more troubling version of her as an individual
and in relation to her father than many stagings of the play have dared to suggest. AB Mirren, Helen (b. 1945), English actress. After training with Michael Croft's National Youth Theatre, Mirren played Cleopatra at the Old Vic in Croft's Antony and Cleopatra (1965). Cleopatra, a role she reprised with the *Royal Shakespeare Company in Adrian *Noble's acclaimed production (1982) and again at the *National Theatre (opposite Alan Rickman in a critically disastrous revival in 1998), is typical of the powerful, seductive characters Mirren excels at playing. In 1967, she joined the RSC, where her roles included Hero (1968), Cressida (1969), Lady Macbeth (1974), and Queen Margaret in the Henry viplays (1977). Drawn increasingly to film and television, she can be seen in the BBC Shakespeare series as Rosalind (1978), Titania (1981), and Imogen (1982). BR Mirror for Magistrates, The, a collection of verse biographies of famous historical figures published by William Baldwin in 1559 and 1563. The first Mirror contained nineteen lives, all written from the perspective of the dead subject who lamented his downfall, usually attributing it to some crime or fault that brought retribution upon him. After Baldwin's death, John Higgins continued the work, publishing in 1574 and 1587 The First Part of the Mirror for Magistrates, which contained new lives plundered from ancient British history. Thomas Blenerhasset's Second Part (1578) covered the period from Caesar's invasion of Britain to the Norman Conquest. Clearly, Baldwin had come up with a winning formula, a kind of history that emphasized the divine nature of royal authority and the nemesis incurred if this authority were violated. In his dedication to the 1559 edition, he presented the work as 'a mirror for all men as well noble as others' to see the 'slippery deceits' of Fortune and the 'due reward for all kinds of vices'. Shakespeare's debt to the Mirror'is apparent in the plots and characters of many of his English history plays as well as in King Lear and Cymbeline. The suicide of Cordila in Higgins's poem may have influenced the ending of King Lear. For the scene of Clarence's murder in Richard in, Shakespeare borrowed details and a gruesome joke from Clarence's tragedy in the Mirror. JKS
misprints. Mistakes in the printing of Shakespeare's early texts can be attributed to a wide variety of factors, including compositors misreading their manuscript copy (especially when setting from Shakespeare's original *foul papers), working from a *foul case, or accidentally setting a piece of type upside down (such that 'you' reads 'yon'). ER Mnouchkine, Ariane (b. 1939), French visionary founder and director of the Theatre du Soleil since 1964 (now based in La Cartoucherie de Vincennes, a former cartridge warehouse near Paris). Mnouchkine promotes a radical, political theatre which favours collective training, improvisation, and grand visual effects: pet projects have included plays on the French Revolution, sequences of Oriental history and classical drama, and a long-term collaboration with the feminist playwright and theorist Hélène Cixous. Mnouchkine first came to Shakespeare in the early 1960s as associate director on an English student production of Coriolanus. Her A Midsummer Night's Dream, translated by her fellow actor Leotard, was played on a circus-ring covered with furs (1968, Cirque de Montmartre, and London), conveying a dreamlike, sensuous animality. Her widely acclaimed but controversial Shakespeare cycle (1981-4) consisted of three plays (out of the twelve originally planned) given in her own versions: Richard 11 (1981), Twelfth Night (1982), and / Henry iv (1984). These productions transposed Elizabethan codes of honour into the aesthetics of Japanese Kabuki theatre and Indian Kathakali (though their red-nosed clowns came from the * commedia dell'arte tradition). Although sometimes accused of cynically plundering other cultures for spuriously exotic effects (a criticism similarly levelled at the later work of Peter *Brook, with whom Mnouchkine is often compared), Mnouchkine's productions have exerted a visible influence on directors of Shakespeare throughout the West. IS G Mock-Tempest, The. See BURLESQUES AND TRAVESTIES OF SHAKESPEARE^ PLAYS; DUFFETT, THOMAS.
modern dress, the use of contemporary costumes for classic plays. The Elizabethans had Prior, Moody E., The Drama of Power: Studies in loose ideas about earlier periods and were not conscious of anachronisms, as evidenced by the Shakespeare's History Plays (1973) Peacham drawing of Titus Andronicus (in the mislineation. Blank verse is sometimes *Longleat manuscript) which shows Roman mislined, wrongly divided, or set as prose in togas and 16th-century garb together. It was the early printed texts of Shakespeare's plays. common in the 17th and 18th centuries to dress Mislineation may indicate that scribal tranactresses in gowns with a contemporary cut, but scripts were being used as printers' copy, but in many instances the compositors may have departed from their copy and intentionally set Ariane Mnouchkine rehearsing her production of verse as prose in order to conserve space and Twelfth Night, Festival d'Avignon, 1982. cover up errors in casting off. ER
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the self-conscious use of modern clothing became possible only after the historically minded productions of the 19th century, like those of Charles *Kean, where efforts were made to set the plays in precisely rendered periods. Like the Elizabethan-dress Shakespeare of William *Poel, these productions tried to erase all evidence of the present moment. The first major use of modern dress for Shakespeare in the 20th century was in a production of Hamlet by Max *Reinhardt in Berlin in 1920. In England the movement is associated with Barry *Jackson, who began with Cymbeline at the Birmingham Rep in 1923 and caused a sensation with Hamlet in London in 1925. Directed by H. K. AylifF, the production used short skirts and fashionable 'bobbed' hairdos for the women, cigarettes, cocktails, syncopated dance music, and plus fours for Hamlet. Macbeth in 1928 set the action in the First World War. It has since become common to dress the plays in modern attire, sometimes to pull the action away from any specific period, more often to indicate a direct parallel with a present circumstance. A parallel movement has preferred to set the plays in identifiable periods between Shakespeare's and the present {Hamlet in Napoleonic dress, for example), while productions with a postmodern bias have often used eclectic or historically mixed costumes. The advantages of modern dress are many, but contemporary dress in English-speaking performances comes at the price of a conflict between the archaism of the language and the modernity of the clothes. DK modernist criticism. Modernism was an international movement in the arts and literature characterized by radical experiments with aesthetic time and space and a revolt against 19th-century realism. With roots in 19thcentury French Symbolism, modernism established itself in English-speaking cultures around 1910 and was the dominant aesthetic until the rise of postmodernism (seen by some as a continuation of modernism, however) late in the 20th century. Both international Shakespeare theatrical productions and English literary studies were markedly influenced by new modernist currents as the century developed, and in Shakespeare studies the shift from 19th-century preoccupations with character and plot to 20thcentury emphases on myth, poetic images, and symbols was clearly related to the new modernist literary techniques and themes of James *Joyce, T. S. *Eliot, Virginia * Woolf, and William Faulkner. T. S. Eliot was a pivotal figure in this movement, and works of G. Wilson * Knight, the American New Critics Cleanth Brooks and Robert Heilman, the British Scrutiny critics F. R. *Leavis, L. C. *Knights, and Derek Traversi, and historicists E. M. W. *Tillyard and followers can all be
characterized as instances of modernist criticism in an old inn and later at the Maddermarket theatre, which approximated to an Elizabethan displaying the influence of modernist aesthetics. HG playhouse, he staged some 300 plays including all of Shakespeare's. His productions were adGrady, Hugh, The Modernist Shakespeare: Critmired for their pace and, on occasion, for their ical Texts in a Material World (1991) Halpern, Richard, Shakespeare among the Mod-pageantry and crowd scenes. At Stratford-uponerns (1997) Avon in 1946 he directed Cymbeline and in 1947 Pericles (minus its first act). Monck is a charModem Receipt, The. John Carrington's poacter in David Holbrook's novel A Play ofPaslite * adaptation of As You Like Lt, subtitled A sion (1978). M] Cure for Love and printed at its author's expense Monck, Nugent, 'The Maddermarket Theatre in 1739, is heavily influenced by Charles Johnand the Playing of Shakespeare', Shakespeare son's *Love in a Forest (1723) but shows conSurvey, 12 (1959) siderably less enthusiasm for Shakespeare's original play. It was never intended to be permoney. The 'universal equivalent' of all other formed, and probably never will be. MD commodities, money in Shakespeare is imModjeska, Helena (1840-1909), Polish actress portant from many perspectives. These include who based her international career on a sub- the dramaturgical, in which money is passed from hand to hand—perhaps most typically stantially Shakespearian repertoire (sixteen in the form of purses, as stage properties— roles), initially performing in Polish or English. signifying much about the personal and soPerceptive and sensitive, her interpretations cial relations of the playworld in question; the were overwhelmingly sympathetic, from her moralistic, in which acquisitiveness, possesmercurial and intelligent Rosalind to her exonerative Lady Macbeth. RF siveness, and liberality may be alternately decried or praised; the thematic, in which such Mohun, Michael (?I6I6-84), trained as a boy topics as husbandry and usury figure importactor by Christopher *Beeston. He may have antly in works like the Sonnets and The Merchant of Venice, among many others; and the performed for Prince Charles (Charles 11) at Antwerp. At the Restoration he worked for the linguistic, in which, for example, puns and King's Company in secondary roles including other wordplay are made on such irresistible Edgar, Cassius, and Iago. CMSA denominations as the 'crown', 'angel', 'cross', and 'dollar'. Moiseiwitsch, Tanya (b. 1914), British deShakespeare uses a variety of monetary dessigner associated with the open stage move- ignations, including, where appropriate, terms ment. With Tyrone *Guthrie she designed the for classical and foreign currency. Among the stage of the Stratford Festival Theatre in On- coins circulating in England mentioned by tario in 1953. Her work was characterized by Shakespeare (real money at this time consisted simple settings and costumes that accented wholly of coins, and not paper notes), those character rather than period, often relying on listed below are among the more important. portable banners and hangings to establish place They are listed in escalating order of value with and mood. For Richard in, the inaugural pro- the common abbreviation supplied. duction in Ontario, she used large, ritualistic The penny {id.) was a silver coin for which costumes; a modern dress All's Well That Ends the word 'pence' is the collective plural. The Well in the same season, however, was re- silver farthing was worth a quarter of a penny. A strained, cool, and elegant. DK halfpenny was of course half a penny; a groat was worth fourpence (4^.); and a sixpence Molyneux, Emerie (fl. f.1590-1600), cartog(popularly called a 'tester') was worth six penrapher whose map of the world, the 'Hydronies, or 6d. The shilling {$.) was a silver coin graphical Description', published in 1598-9, is worth twelvepence {nd.). The crown was orimentioned in Twelfth Night (3.2.74-5). Shakeginally a gold coin worthfiveshillings {$s.), but speare may have come across it in his reading of later was minted in silver (as was the half*Hakluyt's Navigations. fKS crown); it is the coin that Shakespeare most Monarcho (fl. £-.1570-90), a delusional Italian often uses to indicate large sums of money. The angel was a gold coin worth ten shillings {10s.). who entertained the Elizabethan court with his fantasies. His name became a byword for fool- The ryal or rose noble was a gold coin worth ery or lunacy and is mentioned in Love's La- fifteen shillings (15^.). A gold farthing (farthing bour's Lost(4.1.98) and All's Well That Ends Wellnoble) was worth a quarter of a noble. The (1.1.106). JKS sovereign was a gold coin valued at one pound sterling (20^. or £1). In addition to these English coins, a wide variety of foreign coins regularly Monck, Nugent (1878—1958), British director. circulated in England, among which were the A professional who had assisted William *Poel, he preferred working with amateurs and in 1911 French crown (valued around 6s.), the Dutch founded the Norwich Players. For 40 years, first florin (a gold coin of two denominations, worth
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NEW SHAKESPEARE Halliwell, J. O., An Historical Account of New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon (1864) Pringle, Roger, 'The Rise of Stratford as Shakespeare's Town', in Robert Bearman (éd.), The History of an English Borough: Stratford-upon-Avon 1196-1996 (1977) Tennant, Philip, The Civil War in Stratfordupon-Avon (1996) New Shakespeare (Cambridge, 1921-66). The critical introductions to the earlier volumes in this important edition of the works, written by 'Q' (Sir Arthur *Quiller-Couch), are in belletristic style and largely forgotten, but the textual work of John Dover *Wilson proved enormously influential. By 1947, when his notable edition of Macbeth appeared, he had taken complete charge of the series, and wrote his own challenging critical accounts of the plays. Later on he collaborated with G. I. Duthie, J. C. Maxwell, Alice Walker, and Peter Ure. But Dover Wilson's is the name associated with the overall plan of a series that was the first to bring A. W. Pollard's recognition of the authority of the quartos (1916-17) and Sir Edmund Maunde Thompson's discovery of Shakespeare's hand in *Sir Thomas More (1916) to bear on the editing of Shakespeare. Dover Wilson's full discussions of the copy for the texts became required reading after The Tempest appeared in 1921, a volume that included a facsimile of a passage from the manuscript of Sir Thomas More. Dover Wilson's fondness for inventing elaborate stage settings and directions (e.g. 'on one side the land slopes gently down to the shore', The Tempest 3.2; 'he leads them down to the sea', Antony and Cleopatra 2.6) had become something of a joke by the time the series was completed, but much of his lively writing, critical and textual, bears rereading. RAF
New Shakespeare Society, founded in 1873 by F. J. *Furnivall who defined its purpose as getting the plays 'as nearly as possible in the order' in which they were written so as to study 'the progress and meaning of Shakespeare's mind'. The society, which was disbanded in 1894, held lectures and published primary materials. RF
New Temple Shakespeare (Dent, 1934-6). This handsomely printed pocket edition of the individual works, with wood cuts by Eric Gill, was edited by M. R. Ridley. Each volume has a brief introduction, plain text on the page, and sketchy notes and glosses at the end. It was innovatory in three respects: first, in relegating act and scene divisions to the top margin in order to maintain the flow of the action; second, in returning to a lighter punctuation, in accordance with early printed texts; and third, where *quarto and *Folio texts exist for the same play, in using brackets to enclose passages found only in one or the other, and not in both. Ridley's
edition bears no relation, except in name, to the first Temple Shakespeare edited by Israel Gollancz over a period of years from 1894. RAF New Variorum Shakespeare (1871, in progress). Horace Howard *Furness, a Philadelphia lawyer, joined the Shakespeare Society of the city in i860, and became involved in their serious study of the plays. In 1866 they began to study the texts of Romeo and Juliet, and this led to Furness's idea of replacing the so-called Variorum edition of 1821 with a new Variorum edition, beginning with this play. At first he thought of basing his work on the text and notes of the ^Cambridge Shakespeare (1863-6), which led to a quarrel with W. Aldis Wright, one of the editors of this edition; but the quarrel was soon resolved when Furness dropped his initial idea, and instead adopted the reading preferred by a majority of the best editors. Also, the New Variorum Romeo and Juliet, published by J. B. Lippincott in Philadelphia in 1871, not only gives readings of old editions, but notes 'the adoption or rejection of them by the various editors' (preface, p. vii). This volume soon established an international reputation for Furness, as well as numerous offers of help and emendations for his future work. Macbeth appeared in 1873, a huge two-volume Hamlet in 1877, and King Lear in 1880. By 1912, when Furness died, editions of thirteen plays had appeared, and another, Cymbeline, was in the press. Furness's son, Horace Howard, Jr., worked on a further five plays. After his death in 1930, Matthias Shaaber and Matthew W. Black continued to work on Richard 11 and 2 Henry iv, but it was not until after the Modern Language Association of America took charge of the project that these plays and four other volumes were brought out between 1936 and 1955. Lack of funding then halted the project until 1973, and further volumes began to appear in 1977, now published by the Association. The New Variorum has established itself as a basic resource for research on Shakespeare's works.
RAF New York Shakespeare Festival, theatre company founded by Joseph Papp in 1954. Though housed in the Public Theatre in the East Village, the centre of Shakespeare operations remains the Delacourt theatre in Central Park, an open-air stage built in 1957 where the Festival offers free performances in the summer. A large number of multicultural American actors and directors have worked there, and nonShakespearian activities have made the company one of the chief producing organizations in New York. Since 1993 the artistic director has been George C. Wolfe. DK
New York Shakespeare Society, founded in 1885 by Appleton Morgan and others. It published Shakespeariana (1889-93), the
first American journal devoted exclusively to Shakespeare, New Shakespeareana (1902-11), the Bankside Shakespeare edition (1888-1906), and the Bankside Restoration Shakespeare (1907- ). The society, refounded in 1982, now meets as a Columbia University Seminar. SLB New Zealand. Shakespeare has been a presence in New Zealand culture since 1769, when a copy of his works sailed on the famous voyage of the bark Endeavour during which Captain James Cook claimed New Zealand as British territory. Waves of later migrants then brought with them Victorian double-column small-type Shakespeares. Throughout the 19th century, travelling players performed Shakespeare in the Theatres Royal of the scattered settlements of the colony; and in more informal surroundings, such as the 1846 Macbeth H. F. McKillop saw when, to the 'uproarious . . . laughter of the crowd', Macbeth enlivened 'some long soliloquy' by singing and dancing the sailor's hornpipe. Itinerant Shakespeare continued until the 1920s, when Alan Wilkie's company toured Shakespeare throughout New Zealand. The cinema curtailed such tours, which were followed by the sophisticated amateur productions staged by the writer Ngaio Marsh. Her finely honed Shakespeares entertained New Zealanders from 1942 to 1972. From the 1960s local repertory companies, from Dunedin's Globe to Auckland's Theatre Corporate, regularly performed Shakespeare. Their efforts were supplemented by tours of the *RSC (1997) and the *National Theatre (1998) (both recalling the celebrated visit of the *01d Vic Company, with Laurence *01ivier, in the 1940s). By the 1990s also, outdoor summer Shakespeares were enthusiastically received throughout the country. The Shakespeare market was fuelled by the compulsory reading of his works in secondary schools and universities. This began in the 1870s with the introduction of state education and the founding of university colleges. By the year 2000 school leavers were still required to study Shakespeare; and his texts were a prevalent if no longer an absolute requirement of university training in literature. Students were well served by their instructors. John MacMillan Brown, professor at Canterbury College, was a renowned lecturer and prolific writer on Shakespearian topics. His writings and those of his contemporaries are listed in Percy Marks's pioneering Australasian Shakespeareana: A Bibliography of Books, Pamphlets, Magazine Articles ... Printed in Australia and New Zealand, Dealing with Shakespeare and his Works (1915). After the Second World War, increased professionalization and access to microfilm, facsimiles, and rare book collections made possible more serious contributions to scholarship. New Zealand scholars were acclaimed for work in
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NINETEENTH-CENTURY SHAKESPEARIAN PRODUCTION bibliography (D. F. McKenzie), attribution (MacD. P. Jackson), and literary/cultural studies (Michael Neill). New Zealand writers return frequently to Shakespeare. Katherine Mansfield (the nation's most famous expatriate writer) read Shakespeare obsessively; a pattern repeated in the autobiography and fictions of Janet Frame, New Zealand's greatest living writer. M. K. Joseph's satirical campus fiction A Pound of Saffron (1962) invents a Machiavellian drama lecturer who stages a scandalously multiracial Antony and Cleopatra. Ngaio Marsh's detective novels often use Shakespearian motifs and clues. Her last novel Light Thickens (1982) features a lavish, neo-medieval production of Macbeth. Later writers have been more playfully postcolonial. Mike Johnson's surrealist Lear: The Shakespeare Company Performs Lear at Babylon (1986) imagines the play as performed in a plague-ridden future. Pouliuli (1977) by the Samoan New Zealand writer Albert Wendt rewrites King Lear zs, the crisis of a Samoan elder. Jean Betts's plays Revenge of the Amazons (1983) and Ophelia Thinks Harder (1994) burlesque A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet. Pacific Underground's Romeo & Tusi delighted crowds in the late 1990s, weaving a production of Shakespeare's play into a fable of Samoan/ Maori conflict: Shakespeare's lines emerge as healing and energizing. Many New Zealanders still engage in orthodox *bardolatry, crafting tapestries as New Zealand's gift to the reconstructed *Globe in London, and flocking to annual Shakespeare in Schools contests, where a 'speech straight' is the 'taste of . . . quality' {Hamlet 2.2.433-4). Marked by such contradictions, Shakespeare in New Zealand remains in a state of productive flux. MH
Nicoll, Allardyce (1894-1976), Scottish theatre historian, author of British Drama (1925); The Development of the Theatre (1927); History of English Drama 1660-1900 (6 vols., 1952-9); World Drama from Aeschylus to Anouilh (1949); Shakespeare (1952); and The Theatre and Dramatic Theory (1962). He was the first editor (1948-66) of * Shakespeare Survey and the founder and first director of the *Shakespeare Institute, for research and postgraduate study, in Stratford (1951-61). His work as a theatre historian has sometimes been underestimated as the product of an encyclopedic card index, but this completely misses the intellectual acuity and stylistic precision of his critical writing. TM Nim. In The Merry Wives of Windsor Falstaff becomes angry with Nim and Pistol because they will not deliver his letters to Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, 1.3. Their revenge is to tell the women's husbands, 2.1. In Henry v, Nim quarrels with Pistol over Mistress Quickly, 2.1. He is hanged with Bardolph for looting, 4.4. Spelled 'Nym' in Folio editions, 'Nim' in the first quarto, his name was slang for 'to steal': his favourite word is 'humour', and the cast list of 2 Henry iv aptly classifies him as an 'irregular humorist'. AB
Ninagawa, Yukio (b. 1935), Japanese director. Originally an actor, Ninagawa made his directorial debut in 1967 and quickly established himself as one of the leading figures of artistically and politically radical 'underground theatre'. In 1974 he directed Romeo and Juliet for a commercial company in Tokyo with a Kabuki actor playing Romeo, and since then has directed many other Shakespeare plays. His productions are usually dominated by visually impressive scenery with strong Oriental flavour Frame, Janet, To the Is-land: An Autobiography such as a huge Buddhist altar {Macbeth, 1980), a (1983) Noh stage {The Tempest, 1987), and a rock Houlahan, Mark, 'Shakespeare in New Zeagarden {A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1994). land', in Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie Actors often wear traditional Japanese costume, (eds.), The Oxford Companion to New Zealand and frequently acting techniques of Noh and Literature in English (1998) Kabuki are assimilated. Most of these producMarsh, Ngaio, Black Beech and Honeydew: An tions were successfully presented outside Japan Autobiography (1966) and earned the director an international repuNeill, Michael, 'Post-colonial Shakespeare? Writing away from the Centre', in Ania tation. Ninagawa directed Peer Gynt{v)^^) with Loomba and Martin Orkin (eds.), Postan English-speaking cast and King Lear (1999) colonial Shakespeares (1998) for the *Royal Shakespeare Company. Later he was based at the Saitama Arts Theatre in Japan, Nicanor. See ADRIAN. where he hoped to mount all of Shakespeare's plays. TK Nicholas. See JOSEPH.
Nicolai, Otto (1810-49), German composer. His popular opera Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, based on The Merry Wives of Windsor and first staged in Berlin in 1849, has remained in the repertory due to its charming melodies and carefully crafted comic situations. With a libretto by Hermann Mosenthal it also includes material from Twelfth Night, 2 Henry iv, and A IBC Midsummer Nights Dream.
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nineteenth-century Shakespearian production. During the first decade of the 19th century, *Drury Lane and *Covent Garden, which, as holders of the patents granted by King Charles 11 in 1660, enjoyed a monopoly on legitimate drama in London, were burnt down. When rebuilt both theatres held in excess of 3,000. The consequences were an increasing emphasis on the visual and the spectacular and a
reliance on powerful vocal delivery and emphatic gesture from the actors. Covent Garden was presided over by the dignified John Philip *Kemble, who with his sister Sarah *Siddons and younger brother Charles formed the theatre's 'first family'. As an actor Kemble was deliberate in delivery and statuesque in stance, lacking his sister's emotional force; as a manager he made far-reaching initiatives. He extended the Shakespearian repertoire, reintroducing long-neglected pieces to the extent that his collected edition of 1815 comprised 26 plays; he began to discard the accretions of adaptors such as *Dryden, returning to original Shakespeare, albeit cut and rearranged; with the architect and antiquarian William Capon he produced historically accurate sets (a Gothic Macbeth, 1794, an AngloNorman Hamlet, 1812) and costumes; he marshalled hitherto undreamt of numbers of extras (240 for Coriolanus, 1806); and in the year (1817) he retired, gas-lighting was installed at Covent Garden. The family tradition was upheld by Charles Kemble whose revival of King John in 1823 was supervised by J. R. *Planché, an expert in costume and heraldry. Thus the playbill cited sources (in Worcester cathedral and elsewhere) for the costumes. In 1832 Charles Kemble was a leading witness before the Select Committee appointed to inquire into the laws affecting dramatic literature. Throughout his lengthy testimony Kemble staunchly defended the monopoly, claiming that only large theatres with experienced companies could adequately represent 'such plays as Coriolanus or Julius Caesar', though he conceded that 'Hamlet may be done in a small theatre'. The monopoly was abolished in 1843, but in the interim William Charles *Macready, as manager of Covent Garden (1837-9) and Drury Lane (1841-3), showed what the resources of the patent houses properly managed could achieve in the production of Shakespeare's plays. He set the standard with King Lear at Covent Garden (25 January 1839): discarding *Tate, restoring the Fool, rehearsing the whole cast—processions, marches, groups— thoroughly, setting every scene from castle to druid circle appropriately, and summoning the 'dreadful pother' with unprecedented verisimilitude. Refusing to exploit Lear's success with a long run, Macready applied his high standards to further Shakespeare revivals at Covent Garden {Henry v 'with pictorial illustrations from the pencil of Mr [Clarkson] Stanfield') and at Drury Lane {KingJohn, 'an animated picture of those Gothic times'). Madame *Vestris, who had succeeded Macready at Covent Garden, also applied the principles of careful preparation and antiquarianism to her revivals of Love's Labour's Lost (1839) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1840), both with J. R. Planché, who went on to
NINETEENTH-CENTURY SHAKESPEARIAN PRODUCTION
contribute his historical expertise to The Taming of the Shrew, which Ben Webster staged in the Elizabethan style at the Haymarket in 1844. By then the monopoly was abolished and any theatre could stage Shakespeare. That 'minor' theatres (such as the Surrey) had long included Shakespeare in their bills, evading the law by interspersing songs, was indicative of the popular appeal of the plays to the expanding artisan population of London. In these theatres the plays were presented and appreciated as rattling good stories with thrilling theatrical moments which brought the occupants of the pit and the gallery to the edge of their benches. Their enjoyment was now legitimized and the Britannia, for example, indulged in such novelties as having each act performed by a different Hamlet. It was a rather more refined populist urge which Samuel *Phelps brought to Islington in 1843, where at Sadler's Wells theatre he offered 'an entertainment selected from the first stock drama . . . at a price fairly within the habitual means of all'. During his eighteen years' tenure of Sadler's Wells Phelps staged 32 of Shakespeare's plays, including such rarities as Timon of Athens and Pericles, in productions characterized by relatively authentic texts, specially prepared, though not pedantically 'accurate', scenery and costumes, and thoroughly rehearsed ensemble acting. The suggestion that the abolition of the patent theatres' monopoly should be accompanied by the establishment of a *National Theatre with Shakespeare's plays as its centrepiece fell on deaf ears, but in 1848 Queen Victoria instituted the 'Windsor Theatricals', in emulation of European court theatres, appointing Charles *Kean as director. Thither Kean marshalled his profession for performances of which Shakespeare's plays formed a significant part. With his personal status enhanced, Kean set up in management at the Princess's theatre, where through the 1850s he staged his spectacular Shakespearian revivals, 'realising', as he wrote in the playbill for King Richard n in 1857, t n e scenes and actions which he [Shakespeare] describes . . . exhibiting men as they once lived'. To this end the plays were ruthlessly cut and rearranged, but Kean's productions with their historically accurate costumes, armour, furniture, and sets—in which the 'join' between the two and three dimensional was scarcely perceptible—succeeded in attracting a new educated audience to his theatre. When the *Shakespeare tercentenary of 1864 was celebrated Phelps had left Sadler's Wells and Charles Kean was in * Australia, whither English actors, for whom America had long been a visiting or permanent destination, were venturing primarily in search of personal fortune, but in so doing laying the foundations for a substantially British—Shakespearian— repertoire in these new English-speaking lands.
In England during the 1860s and 1870s it was in Manchester that the traditions of Shakespearian staging were most effectively upheld. There at the Prince's theatre, between 1864 and 1874, Charles *Calvert mounted eleven Shakespeare revivals. Although Calvert proclaimed his admiration for Phelps, who appeared in two of the revivals, his greater debt was to Charles Kean, whose influence was apparent in the choice of plays, the acting editions, the practice of interpolating 'episodes' such as Henry v's return to London, the attention to historical accuracy and the deployment of the muses of music, painting, movement, and history to create as complete an illusion of reality as possible. The contribution of the scenic artists was particularly important (and noticeable) and Calvert's team, which included the Grieves, the Telbins, George Gordon, Walter Hann, and Hawes Craven, formed a link between Kean and *Irving. With Henry v, first seen in Manchester in 1872, Calvert's influence spread all over America (starting in New York in 1875, with George Rignold in the lead) and Australia. Indeed when Richard Mansfield staged Henry v at the Garden theatre, New York, in 1900, with the purpose of showing that the American theatre could hold its own with Europe's, he followed the detail of Calvert's scene order and business. Amongst Calvert's Manchester company was a young actor serving a lengthy provincial apprenticeship, who in 1878 opened his own management at the *Lyceum theatre, London, with Hamlet, appearing in the title role as he had done fourteen years earlier with Calvert. Henry Irving's idiosyncrasies of speech and physique made him an unconventional Shakespearian actor; nevertheless, according to Edward Gordon Craig, 'Irving thought only as an actor'. Thus, although he engaged distinguished academicians (Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Ford) to design scenery and employed a talented team of scene-painters (Craven, Telbin, Harker), the ultimate criterion was not historical authenticity but theatrical effectiveness. Accordingly for Cardinal Wolsey he discarded the robe of authentic red (from Rome) in favour of one of a rosy dye produced in England. Although his 1879 production of The Merchant of Venice was prompted by a visit to the Levant, the most striking feature of the design for the trial scene is the sheer distance contrived (through the use of diagonals) for Irving's exit as Shylock. The escalating costs of these Shakespearian productions could not be recouped at the Lyceum, but though finance was a factor in his eight North American tours, Irving also saw himself as an ambassador (if not missionary) introducing American audiences to Shakespeare and setting standards for the profession there to follow. It was early (1881) in Irving's reign at the Lyceum that the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen's
company made its influential visit to London. Their meticulously rehearsed and historically accurate productions were much admired—the forum scene in Julius Caesar being particularly celebrated—but theirs was essentially the method of Charles Kean, carried forward with the advantage of generous state subsidy, a luxury which no British theatre enjoyed. Herbert Beerbohm *Tree, the actor-manager widely regarded as Irving's heir, was proud of the fact that his Shakespearian revivals (from 1897 at Her/His Majesty's) were sustained by 'public opinion as revealed by the coin of the realm'. He was equally unrepentant about his use of all 'the arts and sciences' to achieve such successes as Julius Caesar (1898), seen by 240,000 people in London alone, the forum scene of which with designs by Alma-Tadema could stand comparison with the Saxe-Meiningen company's down to the individualized actions of each member of the crowd. Another actor-manager who acknowledged the influence of the Saxe-Meiningen company, but whose resources were far more modest than Tree's, was Frank *Benson, who, after a short engagement with Irving, took over a touring Shakespearian company in 1883 and made it his life's work to take Shakespeare to audiences all over Britain and beyond. In the Cornhill Magazine for May 1900 the eminent Shakespeare scholar Sidney *Lee summarized Benson's creed: that Shakespeare's plays should be acted constantly and in their variety; regular changes in the programme with no play enjoying a disproportionately long run; every part should be played by an actor trained to speak blank verse; no play should be adapted for the sake of one part; scenery should be simple and subordinate to the dramatic interest. For the first half of 1884 Benson's stagemanager was William *Poel, latterly manager of the Royal Victoria Hall (the *01d Vic) for Emma Cons, whose niece, Lilian *Baylis, was to turn to Shakespeare in despair. In 1877 Poel had founded the Elizabethans, a company of 'professional ladies and gentlemen' dedicated to creating 'a more general taste' for Shakespeare; in 1881 he staged the 'bad' quarto of Hamlet on a bare platform in St George's Hall, London, with himself in the title role. In 1893 Poel produced Measure for Measure on what was intended as a reconstruction of the Fortune theatre which was placed (inauthentically) within the proscenium arch at the Royalty theatre. The following year Poel established the Elizabethan Stage Society which, until 1905, staged plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the Elizabethan manner. Eccentric and erroneous as much of Poel's work now appears, it provided a vital corrective to the prevailing pictorialism of 19th-century Shakespearian production and influenced *Granville-Barker's seminal productions of The Winter's Tale ana Twelfth Night
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(both 1912) and A Midsummer Nights Dream (1914). Nevertheless the dominant style of Shakespearian production at the end of the 19th century was that prefigured at the beginning by J. P. Kemble: visually spectacular, usually historically accurate sets and costumes; the authentic Shakespearian text, albeit cut and rearranged; and an essentially pictorial style of acting. Styles and trends in Shakespearian production were increasingly international as improved travel facilitated the movement of actors, often complete with their own company and sets. From America Edwin *Booth, Mary *Anderson, Augustin *Daly, and Richard Mansfield took on the challenge of staging Shakespeare on a scale equalling or excelling their British rivals. In his article on 'Shakespeare and Stage Costume' (Nineteenth Century, May 1885) Oscar *Wilde wrote: 'In fact, everywhere that Shakespeare turned in London he saw the apparel and appurtenances of past ages, and it is impossible to doubt that he made use of his opportunities.' The passage of time meant that only a portion of the apparel and appurtenances which Wilde found it impossible to doubt that Shakespeare had used in his plays had survived, but that did not deter producers from using every means— antiquarian and artistic—to realize them for the adornment of Shakespeare's plays and the entertainment and erudition of their audiences. RF
artistic director in 1991. Noble is noted for his faith in well-spoken poetic language as the cornerstone of a good Shakespearian production as well as for his love of spectacular staging. Both his King Lear productions (1982, 1993) were highly acclaimed. His productions can be poignant without being heavy-handed; for example, he directed Henry v in 1984—just two years after the Falklands conflict—with the young Kenneth *Branagh in the title role, 'to try to understand the attraction of war as well as its horror'. His playful A Midsummer Night's Dream (1994, subsequently made into a film under Noble's direction), which echoed elements of *Brook's production, included the muscular Barry Lynch as an unconventionally large and sexualized Puck. BR noise, collective noun for a group of instruments, e.g. 'a noise offiddles',or of instrumentalists, like the band summoned to play at Mistress Quickly's tavern: 'see if thou canst find out Sneak's noise. Mistress Tearsheet would fain hear some music', 2 Henry iv 2.4.11-12. JB
Nokes, James (d. 1696), actor, whose comic playing was admired and copied by Colley *Cibber. He took women's roles at the Restoration and was dubbed 'Nurse Nokes' for his performance as the Nurse in Otway's version of Romeo andJuliet, The History and Fall of*Caius Marius. Other roles included Polonius and he Foulkes, Richard (éd.), Shakespeare and themay have played the Fool to *Betterton's Lear. Victorian Stage (1986) CMSA Odell, George CD., Shakespeare from Betterton 'No more dams I'll make for fish', sung by to Irving (2 vols., 1920) Caliban, drunk, in The Tempest 2.2.179. The 'Nine Worthies' The figures appearing in the original tune is unknown. JB pageant performed for the King of Navarre and his guests in Love's Labour's Lost 5.2. AB Norfolk, Duke of. (l) In Richard Duke of York (5 Henry vi) he appears, 1.1 and 2.2, as a supNo Bed for Bacon (1941, repr. 1999), a comic porter of York. (2) Father of Surrey, he is put in command at *Bosworth in Richard in. (3) historical novel, by Caryl Brahms (Doris Caroline Abrahams) and S. J. Simon (Seca All Is True (Henry vni). See SURREY, EARL OF. Jascha Skidelsky), in which Shakespeare pursues AB his dramatic art and Francis Bacon a 'secondNormandy, in the north of France, was tembest bed'. Its vivid but tongue-in-cheek depicporarily occupied by Edward m and conquered tion of Elizabethan life, and its plot in which a by Henry v in 1419. In The First Part of the stage-struck Lady Viola moonlights in drag as a Contention (2 Henry vi), Cade executes Lord boy actor with Shakespeare's company, thereby Saye for 'giving up' Normandy (4.7.25), which inspiring Twelfth Night, clearly lie behind the was indeed reclaimed by the French in 1450. film Shakespeare in Love (1998, co-scripted by AB Tom *Stoppard), which uses this novel as shamelessly as Shakespeare used *Cinthio or North, Sir Thomas. See PLUTARCH. *Holinshed. TM Northcote, James (1746-1831), English painter, who turned to history painting after Noble, Adrian (b. 1950), English director. finding himself unable to create a lucrative Serving as associate director for the Bristol Old portrait practice. His collaboration with John Vic theatre from 1976 to 1979, Noble gained *Boydell, proprietor of the *Shakespeare Galrecognition for daring, innovative interpretations of Titus Andronicus (1978) and Timon of lery, proved long and fruitful, since he shared Athens (1979). He joined the * Royal Shake- Boydell's ambitions for its commercial success. Northcote's subjects were largely drawn from speare Company as a resident director in 1980, the English history plays and often employed becoming an associate director in 1982 and
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old master precedents, such as his supplement to Richard in, Burial of the Royal Children, which draws from 17th-century religious paintings of the deposition and entombment of Christ. The artist's paintings from Shakespeare were praised for their treatment of stories familiar to the popular viewer. A journalist writing in the Public Advertiser of 28 May 1789 claimed of Northcote: 'of English history he has given us English pictures . . . invoked with that energetic air . . . that Baronial hardihood.' CT Northumberland, Earl of. (l) A Lancastrian, he nevertheless pities the captured York, Richard Duke of York (3 Henry vi) 1.4. Henry Percy (1421-61) was the 3rd Earl of Northumberland, grandson of *Hotspur. (2) In Richard n, he is one of Bolingbroke's supporters. In / Henry iv he joins his brother ^Worcester and his son Hotspur in the rebellion against Henry iv (1.3), but, 'crafty-sick' (2 Henry iv Induction 37), avoids the battle of ^Shrewsbury where his son dies. His plans for revenge come to nothing, and his own defeat is announced, 2 Henry /V4.3.97101. Henry Percy (1342-1408) was the 1st Earl of Northumberland. (3) See SIWARD.
AB
Northumberland, Lady. She advises her husband the Earl of *Northumberland to escape to Scotland, 2 Henry 7^2.3.50-2. AB Northumberland manuscript, a manuscript dating from c.1598 containing several essays and speeches by Francis *Bacon, the *title page of which is covered with annotations, possibly in the hand of Adam Dyrmonth, including the name 'Mr ffrauncis Bacon', many repetitions of the name 'William Shakespeare', the titles 'Rychard the second' and 'Rychard the third', a quotation from The Rape of Lucrèce (11.1086-7), and a variant spelling of the word 'honorificabilitudinitatibus from Love's Labour's Lost (5.1.41)ER Norton, Thomas (1532-84), poet, translator, and anti-Catholic agitator. He wrote the important tragedy Gorboduc (1565) with Thomas Sackville, later Earl of Dorset. It shares both its source (Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain) and elements of its plot with Shakespeare's King Lear. RM Norton Shakespeare. The well-illustrated Norton one-volume Shakespeare, general editor Stephen Greenblatt, appeared in 1997 to challenge other student editions designed mainly for the American academic market (such as the * Riverside and the *Signet). Its text is basically that of the *Oxford Shakespeare (1986), as is its ordering of the works. Unlike other one-volume editions, it is printed with a single column per page, with glosses in the right margin, and some longer notes at the foot of the page. The works are printed in chronological order,
NORWAY though the dating of many plays remains speculative, and titles are sometimes taken from early quartos as embodying acting versions, rather than from the 1623 Folio. 2 Henry vi thus becomes The First Part of the Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster, a title derived from the 1594 quarto, although the control text for this play is that in the Folio. The edition seems to be designed in part to destabilize the usual patterns of one-volume editions. So it includes three texts of King Lear, quarto and Folio texts on facing pages and a composite text. The 'economics of publishing and the realities of bookbinding' (p. xii), however, prevented the editor from including multiple texts of other variant plays in a volume that runs to 3,400 pages. The powerful general introduction and the introductions to the individual plays contributed by Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean Howard, and Katharine Eisaman Maus show the influence of *new historicism, and are very much of their time in their concern with darker resonances in the plays, and with such issues as gender and cross-dressing. The Norton edition provides very full documentation in relation to Shakespeare, and includes an essay by Andrew Gurr on 'The Shakespearean Stage'. RAF Norway. See SCANDINAVIA.
Notes and Queries was founded in 1849 by William J. Thorns with the epigraph 'when found, make a note of (Captain Cuttle)' as 'a medium for intercommunication for literary men, artists, antiquaries and genealogists, etc' Now addressed to 'readers and writers, collectors and librarians', it publishes brief factual articles, requests for information, and reviews, of which a substantial percentage have always SLB concerned Shakespeare. novel. See FICTION.
Nunn, Trevor (b. 1940), British director. After undergraduate acting and directing at Cambridge he scored a success at the *Royal Shakespeare Company with a stylized production of The Revenger's Tragedy in 1966 and soon became artistic director. In eighteen years at Stratford he directed a wide range of plays on the main stage. Soon after The Other Place (seating 140) opened he staged an enthralling, simple Macbeth and subsequently Othello. Both survive on videotape. His Comedy of Errors (1976) won a prize for Best Musical. From 1981 Nunn amassed a personal fortune, staging hit musicals like Cats and Les Misérables in London and worldwide. He directed a feature film of Twelfth Night in 1996. A year later he became the fourth director of the *National Theatre, where his eclectic productions have included an epic Troilus and Cressida and a more intimate, naturalistic Merchant of Venice. His involvement with the Shakespearian stage has extended to marriages to two Shakespearian actresses, MJ Janet *Suzman and Imogen Stubbs. nurses, (l) A nurse brings Aaron's child to him, Titus Andronicus 4.2, and he murders her (4.2.144). ( 2 ) Juliet's Nurse in Romeo and Juliet tells anecdotes of Juliet's early childhood at her first appearance (1.3). She is present at the first meeting of Romeo and Juliet and acts as a gobetween in 2.3, 2.4, and 3.3. She breaks the news of Tybalt's death to Juliet (3.2) and advises Juliet to marry Paris when Romeo is banished (3.5), after which Juliet ceases to confide in her. She discovers Juliet's apparently dead body (4.4). There is, no doubt, some irony intended in her name Angelica (4.4.5), as her decrepit physical state (made much of by her in 2.4) and her questionable moral values (her role in creating Juliet's predicament) are anything but angelic. In some productions she has been made into an ancient crone to contrast with Juliet's
beauty, youth, and innocence (notably Peter *Brook's 1947 production in which, according to the News Chronicle, she was 'racked by every ailment known to pathology'). Pre-20thcentury productions preferred a more benign version of her, and her lines, many of which are bawdy in tone, were severely cut. Lines intact, she is one of the most colourful and developed of the comic characters in the tragedies. The role was a speciality of Dame Edith *Evans: more recent Nurses have tended to be less rustically Chaucerian, closer in social tone to governesses than to wet-nurses. AB Levenson, Jill, Shakespeare in Performance: Romeo and Juliet (1987) Nye, Robert (b. 1939), English novelist. Nye has specialized in robust and linguistically exuberant recreations of mythical or fictional characters, sharing some of Anthony Burgess's—and Shakespeare's own—enthusiasm for bawdry, puns, lists, and neologisms in Falstaff (1976), Mrs Shakespeare (1993), and The Late Mr Shakespeare (1998). TM Nyerere, Julius (1922-99), President of the United Republic of Tanzania 1964-85. He was regarded as the most cultured of modern African statesmen; austere and incorruptible in his personal life; severe and even autocratic in dealing with opponents to his administration, and ready to use force to put down rebellion or to overthrow regimes in Uganda, the Comoros, and the Seychelles. To the end of his life he was known in Swahili as 'mwalimu', or teacher. Not surprisingly, for an experienced statesman named Julius, he was drawn to Shakespeare's political plays, and his publications include translations of Julius Caesar and The Merchant of Venice into Swahili. See EAST AFRICA. TM Nym. See N I M .
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Oberon is the king of the *fairies in A Midsummer Nights Dream. Angry with his consort Titania because she refuses to part with the changeling boy, he tells *Robin Goodfellow to fetch a magic herb with which to drug her (a herb subsequently used on Lysander and Demetrius too). In the 19th century, Oberon was usually a singing part for a woman. In the 20th century, most often played by male actors, the attempt to make him other-worldly has moved towards giving him either fantastic costumes or very little costume at all. With the advent of electricity he was given lights in his headdress by Frank *Benson and Beerbohm *Tree (both 1900), although Benson's use of the new technology was abandoned when the battery concealed in the actor's wings leaked over him. Various reviewers have described the Obérons they have seen as resembling insects or birds (beetles, Michael *Benthall 1957 and Patrick Kirwan 1914; a bluebottle, Robert *Helpmann 1938; a dragonfly, Benthall 1954; a cockatoo, Paul *Scofield 1982; and an Aztec bird, George *Devine 1954). In the second half of the 20th century Oberon has become an increasingly sinister figure as critics and directors have become more alive to the play's dark sexual undercurrents: at the same time the role has often been doubled with that of Theseus (and that of Titania with Hippolyta, doublings first recommended by Robert *Cox in the 1640s), suggesting that the fairy king is in some sense AB the rational Duke's unconscious. octave. See SONNET.
Octavia is Caesar's sister in Antony and Cleopatra. Her marriage with Antony is arranged, 2.2. AB octavo, the format of a book in which the printed sheet was folded in half three times, making eight leaves or sixteen pages. Although the *quarto format was standardly used for single-text printings of Shakespeare's plays, the octavo format was employed for most early ER editions of the narrative poems. Odashima, Yushi (b. 1930), Japanese translator. Odashima majored in English at the University of Tokyo, where he later worked as a professor of English. Together with Shoyo Tsubouchi, he is one of the two Japanese who have translated the complete canon of Shakespeare. His translations have successfully recreated the original in contemporary Japanese, and he is regarded as a great popularizer of Shakespeare. TK
Odéon, Theatre de I', founded in 1780, at times dependent on the Comédie-Française. It was run between 1906 and 1914 by André *Antoine, who directed Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and Romeo and Juliet. It was conceded to
the Renaud-*Barrault company (and staged Bonnefoy's adaptation ofJulius Caesar m i960), and is now Theatre de l'Europe, originally under the direction of Giorgio *Strehler. When the ^National Theatre's productions of King Lear (directed by Deborah Warner) and Richard 111 (directed by Richard Eyre) visited in 1991, they were the first Shakespeare plays to be perISG formed with French subtitles.
Oehlenschlager, Adam (1779-1850), Danish Romantic poet and playwright. Instrumental in introducing Shakespeare into Scandinavia, he translated A Midsummer Nights Dream (1816) and wrote plays influenced by Shakespeare. His Amleth (1847) goes back to *Saxo and creates a happy ending for a heroic Prince. I-SE Hanson, K. S., 'Adam Oehlenschlager's Romanticism', Scandinavian-Canadian Studies, 2 (1986) office book. See MASTER OF THE REVELS. Okes, Nicholas. See PRINTING AND PUBLISHING.
Okhlopkov, Nikolai (1900-67), Soviet director. His Hamlet (Moscow, 1954) was set in a massive pair of gates that looked like an iron curtain and presented Denmark as a literal prison. The play had been banned during and after the Second World War: this was the first major Hamlet in the USSR after Stalin's death. DK Old Athenian. See ATHENIAN, O L D .
Oldcastle, Sir John. Known as Lord Cobham ((7.1378-1417), he was a Lollard leader (the Lollards followed John Wyclif's heresies of scepticism originating in anticlericalism). Though acquainted with Prince Henry (later Henry v), he was condemned for treason and heresy and executed in 1417. He was venerated as a martyr by John *Foxe (1516-87) and others during Shakespeare's lifetime. Sir John FalstafFs name was originally Oldcastle in / Henry /v(as in one of Shakespeare's sources, The Famous Victories of King Henry v), but Shakespeare changed it because of pressure from Oldcastle's descendants the *Cobhams after the play had been performed but before the first *quarto was registered in February 1598 (see also HARVEY; RUSSELL).
AB
Old Lady. See LADY, O L D .
Old-Spelling Shakespeare (1907-9). An ambitious project to issue all Shakespeare's works in 40 volumes 'in such a form as would have harmonized with the poet's own orthography' (Prospectus) was part of the plan for the Shakespeare Library, general editor Israel Gollancz. These old-spelling texts, edited initially by F. J. *Furnivall and W. G. Boswell-Stone, and from 1908 by Boswell-Stone and F. W. Clarke, included modern stage directions in
OLD STRATFORD
Coriolanus in 1959. His appearance as the comedian Archie Rice in John Osborne's The Entertainer brought him in close touch with younger actors and directors at the *Royal Court, including the actress Joan Plowright who (following his second divorce) became his wife. When the long-delayed *National Theatre Oliver is the villainous older brother of Jaques became a reality Olivier, as the leader of his (de Bois) and Orlando in As You Like It. The profession, was the obvious candidate as first Old Stratford, that part of the parish of parallel character in *Lodge's Rosalynde is director. From 1962 to 1973 in temporary Stratford-upon-Avon which lay outside the Saladyne, who is killed rather than undergoing quarters at the Old Vic he built up an acting medieval borough boundary, where Shake- a conversion. AB ensemble and production team drawing not on speare bought 107 acres (43 ha) of land in 1602 old associates like Richardson but on young Olivia, a countess in Twelfth Night, is loved from William and John *Combe. It was leased directors, actors, and designers from the Royal by Orsino but falls in love with his servant for farming to Thomas (d. 1611) and Lewis (d. Court, including Plowright. His Shakespearian 'Cesario'. The parallel character in * Rich's 1627) Hiccox. The latter was to set up an inn, contributions included directing the opening AB the Maidenhead, later the Swan and Maiden- Apolonius and Silla is Julina. Hamlet With Peter O 'Toole as well as a visually head, in the eastern wing of the property now Olivier, Lord (Sir Laurence) (1907-89), British charming Love's Labours Lost. He played an known as Shakespeare's *Birthplace. SW stage and film actor and director. At 15 as Kate arresting, arrogant Othello in blackface (less in a school version of The Taming of the Shrew convincing when filmed), and a 19th-century Old Vic theatre. Located in the Cut, off this son of a high Anglican vicar attracted the Shylock (under Jonathan *Miller's direction) Waterloo Road, it is the fifth oldest standing reminiscent of a Rothschild financier. By the theatre in London. Originally the Royal Coburg praise of Dame Ellen *Terry. By 1930 he was a time he reluctantly yielded his post to Peter name in the West End and by 1939 a lauded (built 1818), it provided broad melodrama but *Hall, he had survived a series of major illnesses, Hollywood star. Meanwhile in 1935 in London also hosted six appearances by Edmund *Kean and he never acted in the new National Theatre (1831). It was redecorated in 1833, renamed the he had performed the parts of Romeo and complex where the largest, open-stage auditorMercutio in succession with the more classical Royal Victoria Theatre after the future Queen, ium is named the Olivier. No longer able to and soon became known affectionately as the John *Gielgud. Olivier's animal magnetism and sustain a part on stage, he appeared on film and 'Old Vic'. Strugglingfinancially,it was bought impetuous verse-speaking provoked debate. by social worker Emma Cons in 1880 and The next year he appeared as Orlando in a coy television; his King Lear was screened by Granada Television. Uniquely honoured, he garnered opened as a temperance music hall managed by film of As You Like It. He confirmed his posOscars, honorary doctorates, and a peerage. The ition as a major stage actor at the *01d Vic in William *Poel. In the 1900s, Cons began stamemorial service for Lord Olivier of Brighton ging Shakespearian scenes during concert inter- 1937-8 when under Tyrone *Guthrie he played OM in Westminster Abbey was televised like a ludes. In 1914, Cons's niece Lilian *Baylis, now Sir Toby Belch, Henry v, Hamlet, Macbeth, Iago, and Coriolanus. He divorced hisfirstwife royal event: his chosen epitaph, recalling his controlling the theatre, mounted the first enHamlet, was 'Goodnight, sweet Prince.' MJ tirely Shakespearian season. The following and married the beautiful film star Vivien *Leigh, and in 1940 they collaborated on a disseason, Baylis put Ben *Greet in charge of production. A series of great actors such as astrous Romeo andJuliet on Broadway. Released 'O mistress mine', sung by Feste in Twelfth from war service he adapted, directed, and Sybil *Thorndike, John *Gielgud, Edith Night 2.3.38. Much debate has taken place over starred in the imaginative, patriotic Techni- whether the popular tune of the same title ar*Evans, Peggy *Ashcroft, and Richard *Burton colorfilmof Henry 1^(1944), which moved from ranged by Thomas *Morley in The First Book of contributed to the theatre's success. It housed a stylized opening at Shakespeare's Globe to the *National Theatre Company under LaurConsort Lessons (1599) is the right one for the realistic battle scenes. In the peak years 1944-8 ence *01ivier and later Peter *Hall from 1963 to lyrics; if it is, then the song probably pre-dates 1976. It housed the Prospect Theatre Company along with Ralph *Richardson he led the fabled the play and the words therefore may not be Old Vic seasons in the West End. His Shake(1979-81) until the company disbanded, causShakespeare's. The title is found as an opening ing the theatre to close until 1983: it later pro- spearian roles alone displayed his versatility: to other early English songs. Hotspur and Justice Shallow in the two parts of vided a London base for Peter Hall's own The song was set by many late 19th- and early Henry iv, Crookback in Richard in, and King 20th-century composers, including Coleridgecompany. In 1997, the building was almost sold, Lear. His second Shakespearian film as director Taylor, Dankworth, Finzi, Korngold, Macbut in 1998 supporters established a trust to ensure that the theatre would survive. BR and star was Hamlet (1948), shot in black and Cunn, Parry, Quilter, Stanford, Sullivan, white. The Old Vic did not re-engage him and Warlock, and *Vaughan Williams. JB Oldys, William (1696-1761), biographer and he went into management. In 1951 he appeared antiquarian who, with *Johnson, compiled the with Vivien Leigh in London in a Festival of 'On Ben Jonson' According to an anecdote in Harleian Miscellany. His notes form the 'Add- Britain production of Antony and Cleopatra, the papers of Nicholas Burgh (c.1650) in the itional Anecdotes' in *Steevens's 1778 edition of repeated in New York. The third and last of his Bodleian Library, Shakespeare and *Jonson, Shakespeare and are a source for such myths as remarkable Shakespeare films was Richard m 'being merry at a tavern, Master Jonson having the existence of a Stratfordian model for Fal(1955): he played the hunchback King with a begun this for his epitaph: "Here lies Ben Jonstaff, Shakespeare's performance as Adam in As relish which has been much imitated. Leading son, I That was once one", he gives it to Master You Like It, and Shakespeare's paternity of the season at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1955 with Shakespeare to make up, who presently writes: *Davenant. CMSA Vivien Leigh, he played a brooding Macbeth "Who while he lived was a slow thing, I And and (under Peter *Brook's direction) a great now, being dead, is nothing." ' In another Oliva, Salvador (b. 1942). Catalan poet and translator of Shakespeare. His translations were and moving Titus Andronicus as well as a ra- version, found among the papers of Thomas ther fussy *Malvolio. He returned to Stratford Plume in Maldon, Essex, Jonson wrote, 'Here first conceived to subtitle and dub the BBC to give a strikingly physical performance as lies Ben Jonson, I Who was once one', whereTelevision Shakespeare series. He casts blank brackets, collations, and brief textual notes. They were handsomely printed in a limited edition, beginning with the comedies in 1907. Only thirteen plays were issued, as the project was then halted. It was not until 1986 that another modern old-spelling edition was published, as part of the *Oxford Shakespeare. RAF
verse into Catalan free verse, and aims at a close poetic and dramatic rendering. Having started in the 1980s, Oliva is the most prolific of modern translators of Shakespeare into any Spanish language: he has translated all the plays, as well as the Sonnets. ALP
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OPERA
* JlC^^
'Upon the King . . . ' Laurence Olivier as Henry v the night before Agincourt, from his film version (1944).
upon 'Shakespeare took the pen from him, and made this: Here lies Benjamin— With short hair upon his chin— Who while he lived was a slow thing, And now he's dead is no thing.'
SW O'Neill, Eliza (1791-1872), an actress who had already made her name (as Volumnia, Constance, and Juliet) in her native *Ireland before her sensational Covent Garden debut as Juliet in 1814. Greatly admired (not least by Talma) and regarded as a successor to Mrs *Siddons, Eliza O'Neill's career ended with her marriage RF in 1819. onomatopoeia, the use of words that seem to imitate the sounds they refer to: Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears. (The Tempest3.2.135-6) CB
3*5
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. Often regarded as a tourist attraction, this playing area on the greensward of a royal park has afforded pleasure to many (some seeing their first play by Shakespeare) as well as giving young players like Ralph Fiennes their first work. The champion of such pastoral playing was Ben *Greet, a founding father in 1932-3; its longest serving exemplar was the stentorian Robert *Atkins who frequently directed and acted in the park, 1933-61. Stars like Gladys Cooper and Anna Neagle were happy to don Rosalind's doublet and hose for a short summer season; admired regulars included Leslie French as Ariel and Puck. The repertoire has never been restricted to Shakespeare's pastoral comedies. In 1975 a more permanent theatre with up-to-date technology was constructed, further modernized in 1999-2000. Under David Conville and Ian Talbot production values became more sophisticated than was possible within Atkins's limited budget. MJ
opera. No literary figure has inspired so many operas as Shakespeare, with nearly 300 operas to date (and many failed attempts) based wholly or in part on his works, including two on The Rape of Lucrèce and one on Venus and Adonis. Admittedly, of these 300 only *Verdi's masterpieces Otello and Falstaff currently rank in the top 50 most frequently performed operas, though there are good recordings of several of the other Shakespearian operas, which are periodically revived. The most often set plays are (in order): The Tempest (the play requiring the most music), A Midsummer Nights Dream (arguably the most musical play in terms of its poetry), Hamlet (always the most popular of the plays), Twelfth Night, and Romeo and Juliet. The plays which have not yet received operatic treatment are: Titus Andronicus, the Henry vi plays, King John, and Richard 11. Although Shakespearian operas have been composed all over Europe, the Americas, and in the Far East, this brief survey will concentrate on the
OPERA Heroine and antagonist as soprano and bass: Isabella (Sabine Hass) pleads with Friedrich [Angelo] (Hermann Prey) in the Bavarian State Opera's 1983 production of Richard Wagner's opera Das Liebesverbot
(1836),
based on Measure for Measure.
better-known, mainstream Western compositions. Because of the very different nature, and demands, of opera compared with legitimate drama, Shakespeare's plays cannot be turned into opera simply by setting all the words to music. (The one attempt to do so, John Barkworth's Romeo and Juliet, performed in Middlesbrough in 1916 and London in 1920 and 1926, was not a success.) Instead, much pruning and tightening up of both text and plot is required: in effect an opera libretto is a type of translation. Abroad, librettos often underwent a kind of double transformation, being prepared from foreign-language translations (not always of the highest standard) and even adaptations of the plays. More often than not, Shakespearian operas have also reflected the prevailing dramatic and operatic tastes of the time. Thus, these operas, while clearly relating to Shakespeare's works on one level, are often at many different removes from their sources. This is particularly vividly demonstrated in the English operas. The earliest Shakespearian operas are the socalled semi-operas, or dramatic operas, composed in England during the Restoration, namely: Macbeth (*Davenant's adaptation, 1664, with music first by Matthew Locke and later by John Eccles and then Richard Leveridge), The Tempest; or, The Enchanted Island (Davenant and *Dryden, 1667, set by various composers including Locke, Pelham Humfrey, John Banister, and Giovanni Battista Draghi, and later by John Weldon), and The *Fairy Queen (1692, with music by Henry Purcell, adapted from A Midsummer Night's Dream). For centuries the English were uncomfortable with all-sung operas in English. These Shakespearian Restoration dramatic operas, with plots and language heavily altered from their originals, contained vocal and instrumental music and spoken dialogue, but had a particular emphasis on the use of splendid scenery, costumes, and stage machines. Essentially, English opera at the time was a multisense experience, appealing as much to the eye as to the ear. Also, in contrast to continental opera, none of the principal characters had singing roles. Naturally, such spectacles were very expensive to produce, and they became less frequent in the 18th century. As Italian opera became more popular in England at the end of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th, so there developed a strong anti-Italian opera sentiment. This feeling ex-
327
pressed itself in the one-act mock-opera Pyramus and Thisbe (1716), a work derived from A Midsummer Night's Dream and set to music by Richard Leveridge. This text was revised and set to music by John Frederick Lampe in 1745. Like its predecessor, Lampe's work ridiculed Italian operatic convention and called for an alternative English form of musical entertainment. Although both these pieces enjoyed moderate popularity on the stage, the most effective attack on Italian opera during this period was John Gay's parody The Beggar's Opera (1728), which used ballad tunes rather than more sophisticated newly composed music. The Beggar's Opera spawned a large number of other ballad operas, of which the only Shakespearian one was James Worsdale's two-act ballad farce A *Curefor a Scold (1735), based on The Taming of the Shrew. Despite this discomfort with all-sung English opera, several attempts were made in the 18 th century to create all-sung English Shakespearian operas. In 1755 John Christopher Smith composed The *Fairies, a three-act allsung opera in Handelian style with a libretto (by *Garrick) based on the first four acts of A Midsummer Night's Dream; the following year he set The Tempest in similar fashion. Both operas were supplemented with lyrics from other authors, such as Milton and Dryden, and The Tempest included material from the Restoration adaptation of the play. Although successful enough at the time, neither opera was performed for more than one season, probably because of the difficulty in engaging singers of sufficient merit. Seventeen years later, in 1773, at Garrick's prompting Captain Edward Thompson adapted Love's Labour's Lost (the one Shakespeare play that was never performed in the Restoration and 18th century) as an opera. Thompson's text is very close to Shakespeare's, but was not quite completed, perhaps because of a major falling out with Garrick, and none of it was ever set to music. Finally, there appears to have been an operatic version of The Tempest at Covent Garden theatre in December 1776. Reduced to three acts on account of all the extra music, this was still principally a spoken drama with lots of music rather than a true opera. At Covent Garden theatre in the early 19th century Frederick *Reynolds prepared texts for a number of Shakespearian 'operas' of this type, continuing the tradition of freely adding lyrics from other authors or from other plays, with the music often arranged from or composed by a number of composers. Similar treatment was given to The Merry Wives of Windsor (1824) at Drury Lane theatre, with music principally by Charles Edward Horn. This period, however, also witnessed an 'authentic', Rossiniinfluenced opera in Michael Balfe's two-act opera buffa Falstaff (Her Majesty's theatre, London, 19 July 1838).
Other genuine operas followed in the 20th century. A sense of nationalism, combined with a rediscovery of folk music, inspired Gustav *Holst to use traditional 17th-century English dance music in his one-act opera At the Boar's Head (1924), based on scenes from the Henry iv plays. Also caught up in this movement was Ralph *Vaughan Williams, whose four-act opera Sir John in Love (1924-8), derived from The Merry Wives of Windsor, also employs English folk songs as part of its musical language. Of more recent operas, those by Benjamin *Britten have proved of international significance. Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream is particularly notable for having a libretto that is very close to Shakespeare's original (though reduced in length to about half). As Shakespeare's works became known abroad, so their potential for operatic transformation quickly became apparent. However, since Shakespeare's plays are not entirely original in their source material, it is not always easy to determine to what extent an opera in a foreign language can truly be said to be derived from Shakespeare rather than from sources in common. For example, Apostolo Zeno and Pietro Giovanni Pariati wrote a Hamlet libretto, Ambleto, that was set to music by Francesco Gasparini (Venice, 1706), Domenico Scarlatti (Rome, 1715), and Giuseppe Carcani (Venice, 1742). Their source was *Saxo Grammaticus' Historia Danica, which also lies behind Shakespeare's play. Many other Hamlet, Caesar, and Coriolanus operas are likewise not directly derived from Shakespeare's works. The earliest Italian operas generally accepted as Shakespearian were, in fact, first produced outside Italy. Francesco Maria Veracini's Rosalinda (1744), based on As You Like It, Ferdinando Bertoni's / / duca d'Atene (1780), derived from The Taming of the Shrew, and Pietro Carlo Guglielmi's Romeo e Giulietta (1810) were all first performed in London. Stephen Storace's Gli equivoci (1786), the only operatic version of The Comedy of Errors before the 20th century and one of the finest early Shakespearian operas, has the unusual distinction of being an Italian opera composed by an Englishman and premiered in Vienna, with an Italian libretto (by *Mozart's librettist Lorenzo da Ponte) based on a French translation of the play. (Storace reused much of the material from Gli equivoci in his London operas No Song, no Supper, 1790, and especially The Pirates, 1792.) Other Italian operas from this time include Gaetano Andreozzi's Amleto (Padua, 1792), Luigi Caruso's La tempesta (Naples, 1799) and Falstaff; ossia, Le tre burle (Vienna, 1799) by Antonio Salieri (1750-1825), a prolific Italian opera composer who lived and worked mostly in Vienna.
OPHELIA
important influence on the operatic world, Although not the most popular subject though, in complete contrast to Germany, matter (when turning to British literature in search of plots, Italian librettists often went first for example, there are no French operas on The to Sir Walter *Scott), Shakespeare's plays conTempest. Instead, on the whole, the French have tinued to attract operas by Italian composers in been more attracted to the tragedies. Neverthe 19th century, including one by Gioachino theless, the earliest French Shakespearian opera appears to be Papavoine's Le Vieux Coquet; ou, Rossini (1792-1868), the most important Italian composer of the first half of the 19th century. Les Deux Amies (Paris, 1761), based on The Otello; ossia, II mow di Venezia, which includesMerry Wives of Windsor. Romeo and Juliet, some music from Rossini's earlier works, was however, was the subject of operas by Nicolasfirst performed in Naples in 1816. For its revival Marie Dalayrac (Paris, 1792), Daniel Steibelt in Rome, 1819, it was given a happy ending. (Paris, 1793, one of the most successful early Giovanni Pacini's La gioventà di Enrico v Shakespearian operas) and, in 1867, afinework (Rome, 1820) and Salvario Mercadante's opera by Charles François Gounod (1818-93) w l t n of the same title (Milan, 1834) are unusual for much sumptuous music. Macbeth caught the being based on episodes in the two Henry iv attention of two composers early in the 19th plays. But Vincenzo Bellini's I Capuleti e i century: Hippolyte-André-Baptiste Chelard Montecchi (Venice, 1830), for long considered (Paris, 1827) and Louis Alexandre Piccinni one of the finest Shakespearian operas of this (Paris, 1829). Of greater artistry and success, period, proves on closer analysis of the text not however, were Hector *Berlioz's Béatrice et in fact to be derived from Shakespeare at all but Benedict (1860-2) and a musically rich setting of from his Italian sources. Hamlet (1868) by Ambroise Thomas (1811-96), The second half of the 19th century in Italy is containing some of his most splendid music (and a happy ending). Thomas's other Shakedominated by Giuseppe Verdi's masterpieces Otello (Milan, 1887) and Falstaff (Milan, 1893), speare opera is Le Songe d'une nuit d'été (Paris, 1850) which rather than being the setting of A preceded by the stirring Macbeth (Florence, 1847). Arrigo Boito, Verdi's librettist for his last Midsummer Night's Dream its title suggests is a two operas, prepared his first Shakespearian li- biographical fantasy about Shakespeare himself. bretto for Franco Faccio's Amleto (Genoa, The writer (a yearning tenor) is redeemed from 1865), a work, however, of finer literary than his corrupting association with Falstaff (here a real-life gamekeeper) by the inspiring intermusical merit. In the 20th century more notable Italian Shakespearian operas include vention of Queen Elizabeth, who poses in Gian Francesco Malipiero's Antonio e Cleopatra diguise as Shakespeare's muse and stirs his soul (Florence, 1938), Giulio Cesare (Genoa, 1936), with some magnificent coloratura arias. An and Romeo e Giulietta (the second act of Mondi operatic Henry vrn (Paris, 1883) by Camille celesti e infernali, 1950) and Ottorino Respighi's Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), however, is based not on Shakespeare but on Calderon's play La cisma Lucrezia (Milan, 1937). More recent operas include the unperformed All's Well That Ends in Inglaterra. Ernest Bloch's opera Macbeth WeillGiglietta di Narbona (1955-8), and the (Paris, 1910) was originally written in French prize-winning The Merchant of Venice/Il but was translated into Italian and into English menante di Venezia (Milan, 1961), both by and, after revivals in a number of European towns, received its first major American perMario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968). Although Italy produced arguably the finest formance at the University of California at Berkeley in i960. Bloch (1880-1959) was Swiss, Shakespearian operas, Shakespeare has been more frequently set by German composers. The not French, and assumed American nationality Tempest in particular was a great favourite of in 1924. late 18th- and early 19th-century Romantics, With the exception of M. Cooney's Hamlet while Twelfth Nightand The Winter's Tale also (New York, 1870), all the many North Ameriattracted a number of settings. Even Richard can Shakespearian operas were composed as Wagner (1813-83) was tempted by Shakespeare. recently as the 20th century (although Harry His opera Das Liebesverbot; oder, Die Novize Rowe Shelley's Romeo and Juliet dates from as von Palermo, based, rather unusually, on early as 1901). The USA has been particularly Measurefor Measure, was, however, a failure and important for the development of lighter was performed just once in his lifetime, at Shakespearian operatic forms, such as *musicals Magdeburg on 29 March 1836. The only Ger- and rock operas. However, there have also been man Shakespearian opera to obtain any endurmore serious works, such as Samuel Barber's ing popularity is Otto *Nicolai's Die Lustigen Antony and Cleopatra (NewYork, 1966). Barber Weiber von Windsor (Berlin, 1849). More recent (1910-81) was commissioned to compose this German operas include Aribert Reimann's Lear opera to celebrate the reopening of the New (Munich, 1978) and Hans Gerfor's Der Park York Metropolitan Opera at the Lincoln Cen(Wiesbaden, 1992), a 'psychological interpretter. Unfortunately the production (by *Zeffiation' of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In relli) was a disaster, and the most expensive flop France Shakespeare's works have also had an in the Metropolitan Opera's history. IBC
Gooch, Bryan N. S., and Thatcher, David, A Shakespeare Music Catalogue (1991) Hartnoll, Phyllis (éd.), Shakespeare and Music (1964) Sadie, Stanley (éd.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992) Schmidgall, Gary, Shakespeare and Opera (1990) Ophelia, Polonius' daughter and Laertes' sister, is warned away by them from Hamlet, who has been wooing her. Polonius orders her to speak to Hamlet while he and the King spy on them in the 'nunnery scene' (Hamlet 3.1) and she also appears in 3.2. In 4.5, now insane, she is brought before the King and Queen. Gertrude describes her death by drowning, 4.7, and there is a confrontation between Laertes and Hamlet at her burial, 5.1. On one level Ophelia's madness is easily explicable: her father forces her to betray Hamlet and he has apparently gone mad, rejected her, and killed her father. However, none of the characters links her madness with these events explicitly, and her part is lightly sketched, leaving it tempting to fill in the gaps. Laurence *OHvier is by no means alone, for example, in declaring that Hamlet 'is not just imagining what is beneath Ophelia's skirts, he has found out for himself (1937, though he seems to have changed his mind for the film version in 1948: *Branagh's film version, by contrast, supplies flashbacks to a nude bedroom scene). In some stage productions the violent language of the nunnery scene has been accompanied by violent groping: Jonathan Pryce's Hamlet, for example, was particularly physical with Harriet Walter's Ophelia in 1980. The 19th century preferred their Ophelias more innocent: on stage the bawdier verses of her mad songs were cut, and in fiction Mary Cowden *Clarke, in 'Ophelia: The Rose of Elsinore' (from Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines), explained how Ophelia had learned them from a seduced and abandoned peasant girl. An enduring fascination with Ophelia's psychology (visible, for example, in the *Pre-Raphaelite Millais's hugely popular painting of her death) was accompanied by a sentimentality which, Elaine Showalter has argued, affected the way that madness in real women was perceived. AB Showalter, Elaine, 'Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism', in Patricia Parker and Geoffrey Hartmann (eds.), Shakespeare and the Question of Theory (1985) oral traditions. Perhaps all Shakespeare's plays derive material not just from printed texts but from a variety of unwritten forms, from *fairy tales, gossip, superstitions, *ballads, *jigs, and mummings. To trace such borrowings we are paradoxically reliant upon written records which will only exist if this information was finally thought worthy of preservation.
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OUTLAWS Sixteenth- and 17th-century drama is itself an important resource in studying oral traditions. The oral culture of Britain may be traced from the Anglo-Saxon society wherein the retainers or comitatus of a great lord would gather to hear the narrative performed by the poet and accompanied by harp, to the nth-i4th-century minstrel tradition. With the invention of print, minstrels in their medieval form largely disappeared, becoming balladeers selling broadsheets of their songs and singing to advertise their wares, or stage-players. Nevertheless, for the considerable percentage of the population of Elizabethan England still illiterate, this oral culture continued. Whilst more than 4,000 *ballads were printed before 1600, they continued to be produced and transmitted orally. The popular festive rites of a particular town or village continued to be passed on from year to year without being fixed through literacy. Memory was a much more important and reliable tool than it is now. Some of the plots that Shakespeare turned into drama clearly have their roots in the fairy tale. The choice between three caskets in The Merchant of Venice or between three daughters of whom only the youngest is good in King Lear derives ultimately from folk tales, as does the wicked stepmother of Cymbeline. The Taming of the Shrew recalls a tradition of stories about scolds. Even Hamlet was a popular Danish legend before *Belleforest's French translation made it more accessible in written form. Shakespeare probably drew upon his own knowledge of superstition, fairy lore, and * ghost stories for A Midsummer Nights Dream and Macbeth. The ballad tradition was also an important influence upon his work, supplying 'old' and 'fantastical' tales such as are proffered by Autolycus in The Winter's Tale, tales to which the play's improbable drama is likened. There are snatches of ballads in many of Shakespeare's plays, performed by *Ophelia, *Desdemona, and, of course, Autolycus. The influence of various festive kinds of oral performance is also apparent. The *jig was a popular kind of dancing performed to the music of a pipe or tabor that often had a vocal accompaniment. In the 16th century, jigs became a common conclusion to stage plays. Although they varied in content, there was often a narrative précis improvised beforehand and some kind of structure to the dancing, usually a competition in which the *fool triumphed. One specific kind of jig in which the Robin Hood tradition, a popular subject of ballads, prevailed was the *morris dance. The dancers competed for the favour of a lady, usually called Maid Marian, in a kind of ritual combat, often featuring the hobby-horse. Another kind of festive combat was the mumming. These plays were based on the conflict between St George and his adversary, the Turkish knight, and sometimes a
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dragon. St George is killed in the course of the action but miraculously brought back to life through the attentions of the Doctor. Yet another popular festive rite passed on through oral tradition rather than through any written text was the charivari or skimmington ride, an opportunity for neighbours to protest at the perceived wrongdoing of one of their number by means of a noisy procession with the subject represented in effigy. Some of these popular forms, particularly the Robin Hood plays, were deliberately appropriated for the stage and Shakespeare's plays include a number of references to them: Jack Cade as morris dancer in / Henry vi (3.1.365-6), the mention of 'the old Robin Hood of England' in As You Like It (1.1.111), the reference to jigs and the hobby-horse in Hamlet (3.2.126-9), the morris dance in The Two Noble Kinsmen (3.5). Parallels have also been identified between the St George mummings and Coriolanus and between the combat between Carnival and Lent fKS and Henry iv.
'Orpheus with his lute', sung by a Gentlewoman in All Is True {Henry VIH) 3.1.3, to her own lute accompaniment; the earliest setting to survive is by Matthew *Locke, published 1667. Nineteenth- and 20th-century settings include those by Bishop, Coates, Gurney, Kodaly, Quilter, Rubbra, Stenhammer, *Sullivan, and *Vaughan Williams. JB Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, is rejected by Olivia and is ultimately betrothed to Viola in Twelfth Night. His name may have been adapted from Orsini, Duke of *Bracciano, who was in LonAB don during the winter of 1600-1. Osric, an effete courtier, acts as an umpire AB during the fencing match of Hamlet 5.2.
Ostler, William (r.1585-1614), actor (Blackfriars Boys 1601-8, King's Men 1608-14). Ostler first enters the dramatic record via the actor list for *Jonson's Poetaster (performed 1601), printed in the 1616 Jonson folio. In the Sharers Papers of 1635 Cuthbert *Burbage described Ostler as one of the 'boys growing up to be men' (the others Barber, C. L., Shakespeare's Festive Comedy: A were John *Underwood and Nathan *Field) Study of Dramatic Form and its Relation to who joined the King's Men when the Social Custom (1959) Liebler, Naomi Conn, Shakespeare's Festive *Blackfriars reverted to the Burbages in 1608. Ostler subsequently appeared in actor lists for Tragedy: The Ritual Foundations of Genre the King's Men's performances: Jonson's The (i99S) Smith, Bruce R., The Acoustic World of Early Alchemist and Catiline; Webster's The Duchess Modern England (1999) ofMalfim the role of Antonio; and Beaumont and Fletcher's The Captain, Bonduca, and orchestra, in the Roman theatre the space Valentian. In 1611 Ostler married Thomasine directly in front of the stage reserved for the Heminges, daughter of John *Heminges, and senators. In his drawing of the *Swan, Johannes soon after he acquired shares in the Globe and de Witt labelled as 'orchestra' the auditorium the Blackfriars which were the subject of a legal gallery adjacent to the tiring house, presumably dispute between Thomasine and her daughter to indicate that this was the place (known as the after Ostler died intestate on 16 December 1614. *lords room) where the most socially elevated An epigram by John Davies, printed around members of the audience sat. The reorganiza1611, described Ostler as 'sole King of Actors'. tion of spectating positions in the * Restoration GE theatre gave the position in front of the stage to the musicians who, by transference from the old Oswald, Goneril's steward in King Lear, is name for this location, became known as the challenged by Kent {Tragedy of King Lear 2.2; GE orchestra in the early 18th century. History of King Lear 7) and killed by Edgar (4.5.249; History 20.242). AB organ. Although Shakespeare's play texts do Othello (see page 330) not refer to the organ, the instrument was used in the indoor theatre; Marston's tragedy Other Place. See ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMSophonisba (1606) indicates an organ in enPANY. sembles playing between the acts. JB 'O' the twelfth day of December 7 , snatch sung by Sir Toby in Twelfth Night 2.3.81. The ballad Orlando, mistreated by his eldest brother Oliof 'Musselburgh Field' opens similarly; the ver, escapes to the forest of *Ardenne in As You music is unknown. JB Like Lt. The parallel character in Todge's Rosalynde is Rosader. Orléans,
Bastard
AB of.
See
BASTARD OF
ORLÉANS.
Orléans, Duke of. One of the noblemen at Agincourt, he is taken prisoner {Henry v\.%.76). He is based on Charles, Duke of Orléans (13911465). AB
'ousel cock so black of hue. The', sung by Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream 3.1.118. The original tune is unknown, but the early 17th-century tune 'Woodicock' fits well, as suggested by Professor John Ward. JB outlaws capture Valentine and Speed in The Two Gentlemen of Verona 4.1, then Silvia, 5.3, the Duke of Milan and Thurio, 5.4. AB (cont. on page 334)
Othello
S
hakespeare's claustrophobie tragedy of jealousy and slander belongs to the same period of his career as three plays with equally dark views of sexuality, Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure, and All's Well That Ends Well: it is close in its use of rare vocabulary to the former tragedy, and similar in its versification to the two comedies. According to the *Revels accounts, it was acted at court in November 1604, and it is apparently echoed in a play by Thomas *Dekker and Thomas *Middleton, / The Honest Whore, composed in the same year. It is just possible that Othello was already in the King's Company's touring repertoire towards the end of 1603 (some commentators find echoes of its phrasing in the 1603 quarto of Hamlet, a reported text compiled by an actor perhaps influenced by recollections of Othello), but it seems likeliest that the play was composed in late 1603-4 a n d fifst acted in 1604, especially since its account of the Turkish navy is informed by Richard Knolles's History of the Turks, published only in autumn 1603. TEXT: The play first appeared in quarto in 1622, and reappeared in the Folio the following year. The differences between these two texts make Othello one of the most complicated plays to edit in the canon, and they are compounded by the fact that both seem to have been set from manuscripts that had already been transcribed by fairly independentminded scribes. The quarto, the only Shakespearian quarto divided into acts, seems to derive from a presentation copy of the play prepared from Shakespeare's *foul papers by a scribe who sometimes had trouble making sense of their details, and who sometimes intervened to expand and clarify stage directions for the benefit of readers. The Folio text, 160 lines longer and different in wording at over 1,000 points, seems to have been set from a later manuscript incorporating Shakespeare's subsequent revisions, prepared by an even more intrusive scribe with different tastes. As well as having been expurgated in compliance with the *Act to Restrain the Abuses of Players (1606), the Folio has fewer and less detailed stage directions, and more punctuation, and insists on spelling out in full some words and expressions contracted in the quarto. The Oxford edition, favouring Shakespeare's revisions, incorporates the new passages found only in the Folio (which include Desdemona's Willow song, and an increased emphasis on Emilia's role in the last act), but in other respects
follows the unexpurgated and less scribally sophisticated quarto. SOURCES: Shakespeare derived most of the plot for Othello from a story in *Cinthio's Hecatommithi (1565), which he must have read either in the original Italian or in a French translation published in 1584. In this rather squalid prose tale, an ensign lusts after his Moorish captain's Venetian wife Disdemona, and avenges her rejection of his advances by persuading the Moor that she has committed adultery with his friend, a captain. The ensign substantiates his allegation by stealing a handkerchief from Disdemona while she is fondling her baby, planting it in the captain's room, and showing the Moor the captain's wife copying its embroidery. Convinced of his wife's guilt, the Moor collaborates with the ensign to beat her to death in her chamber with a sand-filled stocking, and they then pull down the ceiling in order to make the murder look like an accident. Disdemona's relatives, though, learn the truth and eventually kill the Moor in revenge, and the ensign dies horribly under torture. Shakespeare both promoted and ennobled the Moor to create the first black tragic hero in Western literature, though the name he gave him may consciously echo a comedy: in Ben *Jonson's Every Man in his Humour (1598), the obsessively (and groundlessly) jealous husband is called Thorello (later
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renamed Kitely when Jonson rewrote the play to set it in London instead of Italy). Shakespeare moved the action to the earliest days of Othello and Desdemona's marriage, adding the characters of Brabanzio and the gullible disappointed suitor Roderigo, and set this relationship between a Moor and a Venetian against the backdrop of Venice's wars against the Ottoman Empire. Cyprus was attacked by the Turks in 1570 and fell the following year, but in the play military conflict gives place to marital once the characters reach Cyprus. Exotic details in Othello's speeches suggest a familiarity with *Pliny's Natural History (translated by Philemon Holland in 1601): see also TRAVEL, TRADE, AND COLONIALISM, MOORS.
SYNOPSIS: I.I The ensign Iago, enraged that the Moorish general Othello has made Cassio his lieutenant instead of him, has Roderigo awaken the Venetian senator Brabanzio and inform him that his daughter Desdemona has eloped with Othello. Horrified, Brabanzio raises a hue and cry. 1.2 Iago, concealing his enmity, warns Othello against Brabanzio's wrath. Cassio brings Othello a summons to the Duke. Brabanzio arrives with officers, accusing a calm Othello of having seduced his daughter by sorcery: all depart for the palace, Brabanzio confident that the Duke will support him. 1.3 The Duke learns that a hostile Turkish fleet is bound for Cyprus. When Othello arrives the Duke says he must be sent immediately against the Turks, before Brabanzio makes his accusation against the Moor. Sending for Desdemona as a witness, Othello eloquently describes how she fell in love with him when, invited by her father, he related his past military escapades and exotic adventures. Challenged by Brabanzio on her arrival, Desdemona says her first duty is now not to him but to her husband Othello: heartbroken, Brabanzio refuses the Duke's consolation. The Duke sends Othello to defend Cyprus: neither Brabanzio nor Othello wishes Desdemona to stay at her father's house during his absence, and she herself insists on accompanying her husband. Othello gives order that she shall travel to Cyprus in the conduct of Iago. Left with Iago, Roderigo despairs of ever enjoying Desdemona, but Iago, promising that her marriage to Othello will prove fragile, urges Roderigo to provide himself with money and come to Cyprus, undertaking to help him cuckold the Moor as part of his own revenge. Alone, Iago speaks of his hatred of Othello and a rumour that the Moor has cuckolded him, and hatches a plan to persuade Othello that his wife is unfaithful with Cassio. 2.1 Montano, governor of Cyprus, awaits news of the Turkish fleet, soon reported to have been wrecked in continuing storms. Cassio arrives from Venice, anxious for the safety of Othello's ship. Iago, his wife Emilia, Desdemona, and Roderigo arrive on another vessel, and receive a courtly welcome from Cassio. Iago banters misogynistically with Desdemona as she awaits Othello's arrival, and watches as she speaks with Cassio, certain he can use their friendship to their undoing. Othello arrives and is blissfully reunited with Desdemona before confirming the destruction of the Turkish
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fleet. Left with Roderigo, Iago tells him Desdemona is in love with Cassio, and outlines a scheme by which this new rival may be discredited: placed in charge of the watch that night, Roderigo will provoke Cassio into a brawl. Alone, Iago claims he too desires Desdemona, to avenge his own alleged cuckolding by Othello, and hopes that by convincing the Moor she is false with Cassio he may enjoy Othello's favour. 2.2 A herald announces feasting in honour of Othello's marriage. 2.3 Leaving Cassio in charge, Othello retires to bed with Desdemona. Iago gets Cassio drunk among members of the Cypriot garrison, singing 'And let me the cannikin clink' and 'King Stephen was a worthy peer'. Iago alleges that Cassio is a drunkard, a story apparently confirmed when Cassio drives in Roderigo, who has succeeded in provoking him to fight. Montano tells Cassio he is drunk, and they also fight. An alarm bell summons Othello to quell this brawl: he interrogates the participants, and Iago, feigning to defend Cassio, blames the incident on the lieutenant. Othello cashiers Cassio before leading Desdemona, roused by the fray, back to bed. Alone with Iago, Cassio laments the loss of his reputation: Iago advises him to woo Desdemona to plead for his reinstatement. Alone, Iago reflects with satisfaction on his hypocrisy. A bruised Roderigo arrives, dissatisfied with Iago's progress on his behalf, and is reassured. Alone again, Iago plans to have his wife advise Desdemona to support Cassio's suit, and to arrange for Othello to find Cassio soliciting Desdemona. 3.1 The next morning Cassio has musicians play outside Othello's apartments: they are dismissed by a clown, whom Cassio sends to fetch Emilia. Iago arrives and undertakes to lead Othello away while Cassio speaks with Desdemona. A sympathetic Emilia promises to bring Cassio to her. 3.2 Othello arranges to meet Iago at the citadel. 3.3 Desdemona and Emilia promise Cassio to do all they can to persuade Othello to reinstate him: he takes his leave when he sees Othello and Iago approaching, a departure to which Iago insinuatingly draws Othello's attention. Desdemona speaks on Cassio's behalf, but Othello postpones the subject and asks to be left alone for a while. Iago, alone with the Moor, questions him about Cassio's role in his courtship, and at Othello's increasingly anxious and impatient promptings suggests that Othello should watch Desdemona carefully lest she be engaged in an affair with Cassio, warning against jealousy, and promising to help Othello investigate the situation. Alone, Othello, trusting Iago's supposed honesty, is convinced of Desdemona's infidelity, though when she returns his faith revives: nonetheless he complains of a headache, for which she offers a handkerchief to bind his brow, which he drops. When the troubled couple leave Emilia picks the handkerchief up, recognizing it as Othello's first gift to Desdemona, for which Iago has been asking, and which she gives him on his return. Iago, alone, plans to leave it in Cassio's lodging. Othello returns, already visibly distracted with jealousy, and demands that Iago prove the truth of his allegations. Iago claims he has overheard Cassio dreaming of
OTHELLO
illicit encounters with Desdemona and has seen him with the handkerchief. Othello vows revenge: Iago vows to serve it. Othello commands Iago to kill Cassio and means to kill Desdemona himself. 3.4 Desdemona sends the clown to fetch Cassio. She is troubled about the loss of the handkerchief, which Emilia denies having seen. Othello arrives, and Desdemona tells him she has summoned Cassio: he feigns a cold and asks for the handkerchief. When she says she has lost it he tells her it was magically charmed to ensure the continuance of mutual love, given to his mother by a sorceress, and that its loss is ominous: as his questioning about it grows more urgent, she attempts to change the subject back to Cassio, which enrages him further until he leaves. Desdemona and Emilia are alarmed by this unwonted behaviour. Cassio arrives with Iago, but Desdemona explains that Othello is uncharacteristically vexed and will not hear his suit. Desdemona decides Othello must be anxious about state affairs, and the two women go to seek him. Cassio is accosted by his mistress Bianca, who is suspicious when he asks her to copy the embroidery on Desdemona's handkerchief, which he has found in his chamber. 4.1 Othello, told by Iago that Cassio has admitted sleeping with Desdemona, falls into a fit. While Iago gloats, Cassio arrives: Iago has him wait nearby. When Othello recovers, Iago hides him where he may watch Cassio talking, as Iago claims, about his liaison with Desdemona: he then converses flippantly with Cassio about the doting Bianca. Othello, watching, is convinced Cassio is laughing about Desdemona, and is even more enraged when he sees Bianca give Cassio back the handkerchief. Alone again with Iago, Othello asks Iago to fetch him poison for Desdemona: Iago persuades him instead to strangle her in bed, and promises to kill Cassio before midnight. Desdemona arrives with Lodovico, a Venetian senator who has brought letters: Othello, with increasing fury, reads that he is to return to Venice, leaving Cassio in his place, and strikes Desdemona. She is leaving in tears, but he calls her back before dismissing her again, eventually storming off himself. Lodovico is astonished. 4.2 Emilia tells Othello Desdemona is innocent, but he dismisses her as a bawd, telling her to keep the door while he speaks with Desdemona. He accuses his wife of whoredom, discounts her denials, and insultingly gives Emilia money as he leaves. Desdemona, weeping, speaks with Iago and Emilia, vowing eternal fidelity despite Othello's mistreatment. After the women leave, Roderigo comes to accuse Iago of merely leading him on: Iago promises he will soon enjoy Desdemona so long as he is prepared to kill Cassio. 4.3 After supper, Othello, leaving to walk with Lodovico, bids Desdemona prepare for bed and dismiss Emilia. Undressing with Emilia's help, Desdemona sings the Willow song ('The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree'). The two women discuss infidelity, which Desdemona can hardly believe any woman would commit: Emilia, however, argues that wives should revenge themselves in kind against unfaithful husbands.
5.1 Iago sets Roderigo on to kill Cassio in the dark, but Cassio wounds Roderigo, and Iago, attacking unseen from behind, is able to wound Cassio only in the leg. Hearing his cries, Othello is satisfied that Cassio is dying and, inspired by Iago's example, goes to kill Desdemona. Lodovico, with Brabanzio's brother Graziano, hears the wounded men: Iago, feigning to help, stabs Roderigo, then pretends horror on finding him dead. When Bianca arrives Iago accuses her of being behind the incident, and when Emilia comes he sends her to tell Othello of what has happened. 5.2 Othello comes, with a light, to the sleeping Desdemona and kisses her tenderly, though convinced of her guilt. When she awakens he tells her to pray, as he is about to kill her. Desdemona protests her innocence and that of Cassio, weeping when Othello tells her he is dead: he smothers her and conceals her body behind the bed curtains as Emilia calls for admittance, bringing the dismaying news that Roderigo is dead and Cassio wounded. Desdemona, regaining consciousness, tells Emilia she has been falsely murdered but insists Othello was not her killer before dying. Othello, however, admits killing her, explaining to a horrified Emilia that he did so because he learned from Iago that she had committed adultery with Cassio. Emilia calls for help and confronts Iago, who arrives with Montano and Graziano. Graziano says the sight of Desdemona's body would drive Brabanzio to despair had he not already died of grief over her marriage. Othello says he saw Cassio with Desdemona's handkerchief: aghast, Emilia declares how she gave the handkerchief to her husband. Realizing the truth, Othello runs at Iago, but Montano disarms him: Iago stabs Emilia before fleeing, pursued by Montano. Emilia, still reproaching Othello with Desdemona's innocence, dies. Othello produces another sword and laments over Desdemona's body, intending suicide. Lodovico, Montano, and a crippled Cassio enter with Iago under guard, whom Othello wounds before being again disarmed: Othello asks forgiveness of Cassio, and asks why Iago has so conspired against him. Iago says he will never speak again. Cassio and Lodovico, with the help of letters found on Roderigo, unravel Iago's machinations: Lodovico says Othello must be taken to Venice. Othello, however, asking to be remembered fairly, along with his services to the state, stabs himself, just as he once stabbed a Turk who had beaten a Venetian. He dies kissing Desdemona. Lodovico, leaving to report these tragic events in Venice, urges Cassio, now governor of Cyprus, to have Iago tortured to death. ARTISTIC FEATURES: The diction of Othello is unusually polarized between the glamorous, exotic music of the Moor's poetry and the harsh cynicism of his ensign's soliloquies: this has contributed to the play's attractiveness to operatic composers such as *Verdi, who have translated Othello into a tenor and Iago into a baritone. Partly through these soliloquies, Othello exploits *dramatic irony more relentlessly than any other play in the canon, letting us know of'honest' Iago's treachery from its opening scene onwards but denying that knowledge to the rest of the cast until the final act. The play's
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OTHELLO
intensity is assisted by the absence of any sub-plot, and by the skill with which Shakespeare compresses the narrative he found in Cinthio: it is this compression which gives rise to the famous 'double time' effect, whereby the play's events seem at once to take place with terrible swiftness over only two or three days (so that there is no time for Othello to realize the truth) and yet to encompass enough time for lago's allegations to be plausible. CRITICAL HISTORY: The subject of more 17th-century allusions than any other Shakespeare play except The Tempest, Othello was already established as one of Shakespeare's greatest achievements long before Thomas *Rymer made his ineffectual attack on it in 1693 (describing it as 'a bloody farce', a view which would be developed more sympathetically in W. H. *Auden's account of lago's scheme as a terrible practical joke). Samuel *Johnson and William *Hazlitt alike praised the rich contrasts between its characters and the skill of its design. *Iago influenced *Milton's dramatization of Satan, and would fascinate the *Romantics, *Coleridge finding in his soliloquies (with their excess of potential rationalizations for his crimes) 'the motive-hunting of motiveless malignity'. Although some 19th-century Americans (including Joseph Quincy * Adams) found the play's depiction of interracial marriage objectionable (and even Coleridge refused to see Othello as black, preferring to envisage him as an aristocratic Arab), most 19th-century critics found Othello convincingly noble. It was only in the 20th century, when T. S. *Eliot took issue with A. C. *Bradley's account of the play, that some began to adopt lago's view of Othello as a bombastic self-deceiver. This argument between pro- and anti-Othello factions has now been largely displaced by the discussion of Shakespeare's attitude to *Moors, and whether Othello's unquestioning assumption that adulterous wives should die is intended to be seen as confirming the racist views expressed by Brabanzio and Iago. lago's interconnected obsessions with class, race, and gender have indeed helped to keep the play central to much current critical discourse, whether *feminist, *Marxist, or *psychoanalytic. STAGE HISTORY: The quarto reports that the play was acted at both the *Blackfriars and the *Globe, and an eyewitness account of a performance in Oxford in 1610 confirms the power the play exerted on the Jacobean stage. Still in the repertory through the 1630s, it was revived in unadapted form at the Restoration (so that *Desdemona was one of the first roles to be played by a woman on the English professional stage) and few seasons have gone by without a revival since. Outside the English-speaking world, the play has been especially popular in * Russia. The roles of Desdemona and Iago are discussed elsewhere. Great Othellos have included *Betterton, *Quin, Spranger *Barry, J. P. *Kemble, and Edmund *Kean, whose frightening, animalistic performance in the role was one of his greatest from 1814 until his death (after collapsing onstage in Act 4) in 1833. The American Ira *Aldridge was the first black actor to play Othello, a role he played al-
333
most everywhere except in his own country between 1826 and 1865, but the role remained predominantly a blackface one (from *Forrest and *Booth to *Salvini and *ForbesRobertson) until the advent of Paul *Robeson, who first played it at the *01d Vic in 1930 and last in Stratford in 1958 and whose record-breaking Broadway run in the role in 1943 greatly distressed white supremacists. Laurence *01ivier's Othello for the *National Theatre in 1963, a magnificent egotist who reverts to barbarism, was in retrospect the last possiblefloweringof the blackface tradition: non-black actors who have played the role since (such as Anthony Hopkins and Ben *Kingsley) have preferred to make the role less African. Patrick *Stewart even played a white Othello among an otherwise all-black cast in Washington in 1998. Nowadays some black actors refuse the part on the grounds that in making an exotic spectacle of Othello's blackness the play is innately racist, but it has elicited towering performances from the likes of James Earl *Jones and Willard White, and Janet *Suzman's production at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg in the late 1980s, with John Kani in the title role, made an eloquent protest against apartheid. MD ON THE SCREEN: The most interesting *silent film is the 93-minute German Othello (1922) directed by Dmitri Buchowetzki, with Emil Jannings as the Moor. The four bestknown sound cinema films are those made by Orson *Welles (1952) and Sergei Yutkevich (1955), Stuart Burge's film with Olivier as Othello (1965), and the Othello directed by Oliver Parker (1995). Pre-eminent among those filmed for television are Janet Suzman's Johannesburg production (1988) and Trevor *Nunn's RSC production with Willard White as the Moor (1990). Despite its unimpressive Venice sequences, Welles's film, with its Moroccan location brilliantly exploited for dramatic contrasts, stands in a class of its own. Yutkevich's Othello, shot in colour and originally with Russian dialogue, is profoundly memorable for its visual impact, with stone, sea, and sky as elements in the film's language. Burge's film of John Dexter's National Theatre production is historically important for its capturing of Olivier's immense performance, though his stage projection is somewhat overpowering for the camera. While Jonathan *Miller's BBC TV Othello (1981) featuring Anthony Hopkins was criticized for its failure to give Othello the necessary dramatic weight, the two stage productions filmed for television focus well on characters other than the Moor. Parker's Othello is Laurence Fishburne, an American black actor whose portrayal has been seen as capitalizing on the recent media dramatization of the O. J. Simpson trial. Kenneth *Branagh plays Iago. AD RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
E. A. J. Honigmann (Arden 3rd series, 1997); Kenneth Muir (New Penguin, 1968); Norman Sanders (New Cambridge 1984) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Auden, W. H., 'The Joker in the Pack', in The Dyer's Hand'(1948) Bradley, A. C, in Shakespearean Tragedy (1904)
OVERDONE, MISTRESS Callaghan, Dympna, 'Othello was a White Man', in Shakespeare without Women: Representing Gender and Race on the Renaissance Stage (2000) Eliot, T. S., 'Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca', in Selected Essays (1932) Empson, William, in The Structure of Complex Words (1951)
Overdone, Mistress. A bawd in Measure for Measure, she is sent to prison, 3.1.464.
AB
Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (43 BC-AD 17) was Shakespeare's favourite classical poet: 'for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy . . . Ovidius Naso was the man. And why indeed "Naso" [nose] but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of invention' {Love's Labour's Lost 4.2.122-5). The epitome of style, the preceptor of love, Ovid was exiled from Rome to Tomis on the Black Sea for an offence against the Emperor Augustus. Hence Touchstone among the exiles in Arden: 'I am here with thee and thy goats as the most capricious poet honest Ovid was among the Goths' {As You Like It 3.3.5-6). At school Shakespeare would have been drilled in extracts from Ovid's works in their original Latin—first brief passages in textbooks for the teaching of grammar and rhetoric, then more substantial sections of the poems themselves. Ovid's love poems, the Amores, are among the key precedents for the Sonnets; each sequence is a set of variations on the moods of love, shifting rapidly between different poses and tones. The Fasti, which linked major events in Roman history and mythology to the calendrical year, provided the principal source for The Rape of Lucrèce. The Amores could have been read in *Marlowe's translation, but the Fasti were only available in Latin. When Ben *Jonson wrote of Shakespeare's 'small Latin' he was measuring with the yardstick of his own prodigious learning—by modern standards, Shakespeare had perfectly adequate Latin. Ovid's Heroides, imaginary verse-epistles from women in mythology who are deserted by their lovers (e.g. Ariadne on Naxos, Dido after the departure of Aeneas from Carthage), were widely studied in school, where a frequent exercise was to imitate them. They are cited in the tutoring scene in The Taming of the Shrew (3.1.28-9), which also alludes playfully to Ovid's notorious Ars amatoria or 'art of love'. Like *Lyly and Marlowe, Shakespeare found in the Heroides models for a character's solitary self-examination at moments of emotional crisis. The influence of these shorter works pales beside that of Ovid's magnum opus, the Metamorphoses (written before his exile in AD 8). About 90% of Shakespeare's allusions to classical mythology refer to stories included in this epic compendium of tales. Shakespeare knew
Gardner, Helen, Othello: A Retrospect, 1900-67', Shakespeare Survey, 21 (1968) Leavis, F. R., in The Common Pursuit (1952) Stallybrass, Peter, 'Patriarchal Territories: The Body Enclosed', in Margaret Ferguson, Maureen Quilligan, and Nancy Vickers (eds.), Rewriting the Renaissance (1986)
the book in both the original Latin and Arthur Golding's 1567 English translation. Golding's language influenced, for example, the bristles on the boar in Venus and Adonis and the 'babbling' of the nymph Echo to whom Viola compares herself in Twelfth Night (1.5.262). Shakespeare frequently referred to the stories in the Metamorphoses as parallels or paradigms for the emotional turmoil of his characters. Where Ovid told of bodily metamorphoses wrought by extremes of passion, Shakespeare translated these into psychological transformations and vivid metaphors. Ovid was especially important for his representation of female feeling. Shakespeare was most Ovidian at the beginning and the end of his career. Both his early narrative poems are based on Ovidian sources. Venus and Adonis takes a 100-line story from the third book of the Metamorphoses and expands it into more than 1,000 lines of elegant artifice. Shakespeare wove into the narrative structure elaborate arguments for and against the 'use' of beauty. For this, he pulled together different parts of Ovid: the witty persuasions to love are in the manner of the Amores and the Ars amatoria, while the figure of the vain youth has something of Narcissus and that of the forward woman more than a little of Salmacis, who seduces another gorgeous but self-absorbed boy, Hermaphroditus {Metamorphoses 4). Lucrèce combines the Ovidian narrative of Tarquin's act of rape with a long lament in the tradition of female 'complaint' which descends from the Heroides. Tarquin's ravishing stride returns as a sinister image in several of the plays. If Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrèce are poetic explorations of, respectively, the light and the dark sides of desire, then A Midsummer Night's Dream (written soon after) and Titus Andronicus (written or revised in 1594) are their dramatic equivalents. Titus is explicitly patterned on the story of the rape of Philomel in book 7 of the Metamorphoses (some fifteen years after Titus Shakespeare returned to this tale in Cymbeline, where Giacomo notices in Innogen's bedchamber that 'She hath been reading late, I The tale of Tereus. Here the leafs turned down I Where Philomel gave up'— 2.2.44-6). A copy of Ovid's book is actually brought on stage in Titus (4.1) and used as a plot-device: by pointing to the story of Philomel, raped in the secluded woods by her brother-in-law Tereus, Lavinia indicates that she too has been violated. Titus then acts out his
revenge in deliberate homage to that of Procne, Philomel's sister: 'For worse than Philomel you used my daughter, I So worse than Progne I will be revenged' (5.2.193-4)—Procne tricked Tereus into eating his own son, whereas Titus goes one better and bakes both Tamora's sons in his pie. In A Midsummer Night's Dream the metamorphic power of the flower 'love-in-idleness' is Ovidian. Bottom's assumption of the ass's head plays on animal transformation, while 'Pyramus and Thisbe'—which includes clanking verse that may parody the 'fourteener' of Golding's translation of the Metamorphoses—is a comical staging of one of Ovid's most tragic stories of doomed love {Metamorphoses 4). Ovid's great theme is the inevitability of change. Book 15 of the Metamorphoses offers a philosophical discourse on the subject, mediated via the philosophy of Pythagoras. It was from here that Shakespeare got many of those images of transience that roll through the Sonnets, but A Midsummer Night's Dream is his chief dramatic celebration of how something positive and potentially enduring can grow from change: 'And all their minds transfigured so together I More witnesseth than fancy's images, I And grows to something of great constancy' (5.1.24-6). Though no subsequent comedy has transformation woven so fully into its texture as this, Ovid was of continued importance in Shakespeare's later work in the genre. At the climax of The Merchant of Venice, Lorenzo and Jessica duet upon a sequence of Ovidian lovers— Pyramus and Thisbe, Dido, Medea. The myth of Actaeon, transformed into a hart and torn to pieces by his own hounds as punishment for his gaze upon the naked goddess Diana bathing, is alluded to in both The Merry Wives of Windsor and Twelfth Night. The Golden Age before the earth was scarred by property-ownership, legal codes, and empire-building {Metamorphoses 1) is an important point of reference in both As You Like Lt and The Tempest. In The Winter's Tale, Perdita, flowers in hand, invokes Proserpina (4.4.116), whose abduction to the underworld by Dis {Métamorphoses 5) symbolizes the coming of winter, her recovery the return of spring. Florizel, meanwhile, compares his mock-transformation of dress and rank to the disguises of the Ovidian gods (4.4.25—31). The reanimation of Hermione is modelled on the bringing to life of Pygmalion's ivory statue {Metamorphoses 10).
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OXYMORON Shakespeare's most sustained passage of Ovidian imitation is Prospero's renunciation of his rough magic {The Tempest 5.1.33 ff.). That Shakespeare went to the Metamorphoses so late in his career shows that his Ovidianism was no mere young man's affectation; that Prospero's speech is modelled on the words of Ovid's witch Medea {Metamorphoses7) raises questions about the 'whiteness' of his magic. JBt
his own works, Looney hit upon Oxford as the true author after noticing that his poem 'Women', anthologized in Palgrave's Golden Treasury, was written in the same (common) stanzaic form as Venus and Adonis. Looney offered no explanation as to why or how de Vere should have published mediocre work under his own name and masterpieces under Shakespeare's, nor why the deception should have Barkan, Leonard, The Gods Made Flesh: Meta- been kept up by the compilers of the Folio, and he had to argue that the Shakespeare plays vismorphosis and the Pursuit of Paganism (1986) ibly written after de Vere's death in 1604 must Bate, Jonathan, Shakespeare and Ovid (1993) Carroll, William, The Metamorphoses of Shake- have been subsequently revised by others. An spearean Comedy (1985) exception was The Tempest, which Looney Nims, J. F. (éd.), Ovid's Metamorphoses: The simply dismissed as inauthentic. Arthur Golding Translation (1965, repr. 2000) Despite the theory's shortcomings it attractTaylor, Tony (éd.), Shakespeare's Ovid(2000) ed followers in the 1920s and 1930s (most noOxford, Earl of. A Lancastrian in Richard Duke toriously Sigmund *Freud), and was further of York {3 Henry vi), he is captured at the battle developed in the 1950s by Charles and Dorothy of Tewkesbury, 5.5.2. In Richard 111 he speaks Ogburn, who in the 1,300-page This Star of two lines, 5.2.17—18. He is based on John de England claimed that Oxford had been secretly Vere (1443-1513), 13th Earl of Oxford. On the married to Queen *Elizabeth and that the *Fair 17th Earl, see OXFORDIAN THEORY. AB Youth of the Sonnets was their hitherto unacknowledged son, the Earl of *Southampton. Oxford English Dictionary, commonly Since the 1980s the Oxfordian theory has been known as OED and now in its second edition enthusiastically propagated by one of de Vere's (1986). It is constructed on historical principles, descendants, the Earl of Burford (sometimes to using quotations, listed chronologically, to ilthe embarrassment of his father, the current lustrate the various senses of a word, as well as Earl of Oxford), who has successfully appealed, providing etymology, pronunciation, and dein particular, to the displaced snobbery of rivatives. It includes nearly all the vocabulary of wealthy Texans. MD important authors from 1590 to 1660, including Bate, Jonathan, in The Genius of Shakespeare Shakespeare. SLB (1998) Matus, Irvin Leigh, Shakespeare, in Fact (1999) Oxfordian theory, a term for what has since the Schoenbaum, S., Shakespeare's Lives (1970, rev. mid-20th century been the most visible strand edn. 1991) in the * Authorship Controversy, the claim that Shakespeare's works were in fact written by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (15501604). De Vere published verse and also wrote comedies, though these do not survive (they are mentioned by *Meres in Palladis Tamia, quite independently of Shakespeare's). His involvement with the theatre extended to employing *Lyly as a secretary, and patronizing an acting company from 1580 onwards, Oxford's Men, who seem to have mainly toured the provinces and were absorbed by Worcester's Men after 1602. De Vere was a notorious figure at Elizabeth's court, violent and irresponsible: he killed a servant when only 17, and his many subsequent quarrels included a brawl with the family of a lady-in-waiting he had impregnated and a conspiracy against *Sidney. In between squandering his estate, fighting in Flanders, and feuding, however, he established a reputation as a good dancer and musician. The view that de Vere supplemented his more public involvement with poetry and the theatre by secretly writing the Shakespeare canon in his spare time was first put forward by the unfortunately named Thomas J. Looney in 'Shakespeare' Identified (1920). Already convinced that Shakespeare could not have written
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Oxford Shakespeare (1) 1982, in progress; (2) 1986. (l) A new 'Oxford Shakespeare', one work to a volume, began to appear, under the general editorship of Stanley Wells, in 1982. Like the New *Cambridge edition that began life at almost the same time, this series is based on a fresh appraisal of the texts by scholarly editors, as well as a concern with performance, and uses illustrations to enliven the substantial critical introductions. It also provides a collation and notes on the same pages as the text. Its format and printing style suggest a more sober approach than that of the New Cambridge, but in their general aims the two editions appear to be much alike. (2) The Complete Works, general editors Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, published by Oxford University Press, together with a second volume containing an edited 'original spelling' text, and often referred to as the Oxford Shakespeare, appeared in 1986. It is based on a comprehensive rethinking both of the textual basis for each of the plays, and also of the best way to present them for present-day readers. The works are printed in a newly determined chronological order, which often challenges
previous assumptions, though the dating of many plays and poems remains speculative. This means, for instance, that / Henry vi follows 2 Henry vr, here titled The First Part of the Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster. (The title is taken from the quarto, although the control text for this play is the Folio). The effect is destabilizing, as is this edition's choice of texts, preferring, where possible, those associated with the stage rather than those thought to be derived from Shakespeare's drafts or *'foul papers'. The edition thus subverts a tradition of textual criticism that argued for recovering as nearly as possible what was in Shakespeare's manuscript. The edition also acknowledges that Shakespeare may have *revised his plays, most notably by printing two texts of King Lear, based on the quarto and the Folio, and also by relegating to a list of 'Additional Passages' the lines found in the second quarto of Hamlet but not in the Folio text. Another innovatory feature of the edition is the provision of numerous stage directions that help the reader to visualize the staging, so that 'Enter Ghost' {Hamlet 1.1.37) becomes 'Enter the Ghost in complete armour, holding a truncheon, with his beaver up.' Some critics of the edition have been troubled that these editorial interventions are often not marked as such, and others protested that such innovations as renaming Falstaff, a character of mythic repute, as *01dcastle (in 1 Henry iv), are ill advised. The edition was published with double-column plain text on the page, very brief prefaces to each of the works, a glossary at the end of the book, and a general introduction that includes a brief explanation of the thinking that went into the edition. A full account of this thinking was later published separately in William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion (1987). The text of the Oxford Shakespeare has been taken over, with some modifications, into the *Norton Shakespeare (1997), which adds the full apparatus that American students expect. RAF Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS, pronounced 'owds') was formed in 1885 by undergraduates and limited by the university to the performance of the classics, especially Shakespeare. The involvement of professionals (including John *Gielgud) as guest directors and designers has sometimes attracted national reviews. It has launched many theatrical careers, among them those of Peter *Brook and Kenneth T y n a n . SLB oxymoron, a compressed paradox, in which complete opposites qualify one another: Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health {Romeo and Juliet 1.1.177) This figure of speech is particularly associated with *Petrarch, and became a cliché among his English imitators. CB
is a collection of prose tales, mainly from *Boccaccio, *Bandello, and *Cinthio, in Painter's own English translations. As a repository of Pacorus, son of Orodes i, King of Parthia, plot material, it may have been a particular fainvaded Syria unsuccessfully, dying in battle vourite of Shakespeare's: the outlines of The 38 BC. His body is paraded in triumph by Rape of Lucrèce, Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Ventidius, Antony and Cleopatra 3.1. AB Wives of Windsor, Timon of Athens, and All's Well That Ends Well are all found in these volPadua, in the north of Italy, was a famous umes. Painter translated with such conscienuniversity town and a centre of art and literature in the Middle Ages. It is the scene of much of tiousness that he made few alterations to his AB sources, though he may have been responsible The Taming of the Shrew. for the protagonist's name in Romeo and Juliet Page, Anne. In The Merry Wives of Windsor being Romeo, not Romeus as in *Brooke. she elopes with Fenton, but is forgiven by her JKS mother and father, who had intended her for Caius and Slender respectively. AB painting. Although illustrators had been providing frontispieces to the plays since *Rowe's Page, Mistress Margaret. See FORD, MISedition of 1709, the first depictions on canvas of TRESS ALICE. scenes from Shakespeare belong to the 1730s, Page, Master (George). Father of Anne and when British artists such as *Hogarth identified William, he rejects Nim's information that these as a properly native subject matter at a Falstaff is pursuing his wife, The Merry Wives of time of increasing cultural nationalism. As the Windsor 2.1, and advises Ford to do the same. century progressed the search for sublime and AB national-historical subjects brought painters repeatedly to the great tragedies, especially Page, William. Younger brother of Anne Page, King Lear, depicted, for example, in Francis his Latin grammar is tested by Sir Hugh Evans, *Hayman's decorations for Vauxhall Gardens The Merry Wives of Windsor 4.1. (1741), James *Barry's Lear Weeping over the pageants. Professional players were hired to Body of the Dead Cordelia (1786-8, now in the perform in public events celebrating the instal- Tate Gallery), and the early drawings of Willation of officials such as the lord mayor of liam *Blake. *Fuseli, meanwhile, found inspirLondon. On 31 May 1610 the investiture of ation in the live theatre (returning repeatedly, Prince *Henry as Prince of Wales was celefor example, to compositions derived from brated with a sea-pageant on the Thames in actors' movements in Macbeth), and in the which Richard *Burbage and John *Rice per- supernatural characters of the tragedies and formed as tritons. In recompense, Burbage and comedies alike. Art and politics were again Rice were allowed to keep their costumes which compounded in the opening of *Boydell's probably were reused for *Caliban and *Ariel*Shakespeare Gallery in 1789, which appealed as-sea-nymph in The Tempest. GE to national sentiment as Britain prepared for war with revolutionary France. Paradoxically, it pages, (l) Taming of the Shrew. See BARwas the collapse of the print trade with France THOLOMEW. (2) In Richard m a page is sent to that also contributed to the gallery's sale in 1803. fetch Tyrrell, 4.2. (3) Love's Labours Lost. See Later in the 19th century, scenes from plays MOTE. (4) Mercutio's Page is sent to fetch a by Shakespeare set in Italy and in historically surgeon, Romeo and Juliet 3.1.94. Paris's Page distant eras provided material that met the artalerts the watch, Romeo and Juliet 5.3. (5) The istic agenda of the *Pre-Raphaelite BrotherMerry Wives of Windsor. See ROBIN. (6) Falhood, who aspired to pre-industrial standards staff has a page in 2 Henry iv, possibly the same of artistic production, while less idealistic hisperson as Robin and the Boy in The Merry tory painters mined the Roman plays for subWives of Windsor and Henry ^respectively. (7) jects of classical violence and voluptuousness. Two pages sing *'It was a lover and his lass' to The 20th century's preference for abstraction, Touchstone and Audrey, As You Like It$.3. (8) however, led to the virtual disappearance of A page summons Paroles, All's Well That Shakespearian scenes as a subject for major Ends Well 1.1.183. (9) A page banters with painters, and despite some noteworthy comApemantus, Timon of Athens 2.2. (lO) A page missioned portraits of actors in Shakespearian attends Gardiner, All Is True {Henry viii) 5.1. roles (such as those held in the *RSC Collection AB in Stratford) it is hard to imagine the plays being rediscovered as such in the age of Damien Painter. He and a Poet present their work to CT Timon, Timon of Athens 1.1; they are reviled by Hirst. him in the woods, 5.1 AB Pacino, Al. See RICHARD HI; UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA.
Pakistan. See INDIA.
Painter, William (c.1540-94), schoolmaster, Palamon, Arcite's rival for Emilia, is to marry fraudulent clerk at the Tower of London, translator. Painter's Palace of Pleasure (1566-7) her at the end of The Two Noble Kinsmen. AB
PASSY-MEASURES
Palladio, Andrea (1508-80), Italian architect, builder of the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza in 1583. Palladio's neoclassical designs were based on principles of harmonious proportion derived from mathematical ratios, especially 1:2, 3:4, 2:3, and 3:5. Inigo *Jones's absorption of Palladian principles is evidenced in his Whitehall Banqueting House of 1622 and the Cockpit-at-Court playhouse conversion of 1629. GE
Paris. One of Priam's sons in Troilus and Robert *Greene's Orlando furioso, in the form Cressida, he is wounded by Menelaus (men- of a scroll over 17 feet (5 m) long. GE tioned 1.1.no), whose wife Helen he has abPasco, Richard (b. 1926), British actor. Having ducted. They fight again, 5.8. AB won attention as Berowne, Henry v, Angelo, and Hamlet at the Bristol Old Vic, he went on Paris, County. Intended by Capulet for Juliet, he bitterly laments her supposed death, Romeo to play leading parts for the *Royal Shakespeare Company, notably both Richard 11 and Boland Juliet 4.4.68-73. He is slain by Romeo, 5.3.73AB ingbroke (alternating with Ian *Richardson) in 1973 and Timon of Athens in 1980. M]
Paris Garden. See ANIMAL SHOWS; THEATRES, ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN. Ackerman, James S., Palladio (1966) Wittkower, Rudolf, Palladio and English Pallaparison, parallelism of construction in succesdianism (1974)
sive clauses or lines: Palmer, John, actors: 'Gentleman' Palmer (1728-68) made his Drury Lane debut in the 1748—9 season playing Graziano, Lennox, and Cassio. At his illness and death his roles were inherited by 'Plausible Jack' Palmer (1744-98, no relation) who, after an indifferent career to that point, became one of the most versatile actors and best comedians of his day with successes as Falstaff, Sir Toby Belch, and Henry vin. CMSA
My manors, rents, revenues, I forgo; My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny {Richard 114.1.212-13)
CB parley, a *trumpet signal indicating a meeting between opposing parties, or a ceasing of hostilities (e.g. / Henry TV4.3.31). JB
passamezio (passy-measures), a livelier version of the *pavan; also chord sequences, associated originally with the dance, which formed the basis for many popular song and dance tunes throughout Europe from the late 16th century onwards: *'Greensleeves' is based on the minor or Dorian mode passamezzo antico. The eight-bar phrase structure may explain Sir Toby {Twelfth Night, 5.1.198) calling the drunk surgeon (whose eyes are set at 'eight i'th' morning') a 'passy-measures pavan'. JB
Parnassus plays, the collective name for three Passionate Pilgrim, The, a collection, anonymous plays, The Pilgrimage to Parnassus, ascribed to Shakespeare, of 20 short poems, The First Part of the Return from Parnassus, and mostly amorous, some of them mildly erotic, Pandar. See PANDER. The Second Part of the ReturnfromParnassus, published in 1599 by William *Jaggard. The first edition survives only in part of one copy; the Pandarus. Owing much more to *Chaucer's written between 1598 and 1602 and performed second followed in the same year. It opens with at St John's College, Cambridge. The theme is version of the character than *Homer's Greek versions of two of Shakespeare's Sonnets (138 hero, he is the uncle of Cressida and inter- several young scholars' attempts to find occuand 144), perhaps in order to capitalize on pations, and in the final part two of them try mediary between her and Troilus in Troilus and Francis *Meres's reference, in the previous year, to join the *Chamberlain's Men. During their Cressida. AB to Shakespeare's 'sugared sonnets among his audition, William *Kempe disparages univerprivate friends'. The remaining poems include sity plays and university men, in particular Pander. Sometimes given the proper name three extracts from Love's Labour's Lost along 'Pandar', he owns the brothel in Pericles. AB *Jonson, to whom Shakespeare has given 'a purge that made him beray his credit', which with several other short poems known to be by Pandolf, Cardinal. He is a papal legate who suggests that Shakespeare too indulged in per- writers other than Shakespeare: two by Richard excommunicates John, King John 3.1, forcing sonal satire. In First Part of the Return from *Barnfield, one by Bartholomew Griffin, a verKing Philip of France to end his new alliance. Parnassus are disparaging allusions to Shake- sion of *Marlowe's 'Come live with me and be (He is 'Pandolph' or 'Pandulpho' in the First speare's Venus and Adonis and The Rape of my love', and the last stanza of the reply to that *Folio and 'Pandulph' in *Holinshed.) AB Lucrèce. GE poem attributed to Sir Walter *Ralegh. For no clear reason, the first fourteen poems are folAnon., The Three Parnassus Plays (i$c8-i6oi), ed. Panthino. The servant of Antonio, he advises lowed by a second title page promising 'Sonnets J. B. Leishman (1949) him to send Proteus to the Emperor's court, to Several Notes of Music'. The eleven poems Glatzer, Paula, The Complaint of the Poet. The The Two Gentlemen of Verona 1.3. AB not definitely known to be by writers other than Parnassus Plays: A Critical Study of the Trilogy Shakespeare are included in the Oxford edition, Performed at StJohn's College, Cambridge, i$ç8l paradox, an expression that is or appears puzP9-1601/2, Authors Anonymous (1977) with a statement that the ascription is very zlingly self-contradictory: 'the truest poetry is doubtful. the most feigning' {As You Like It^.^.i6-ij). Paroles, a cowardly braggart who falls victim to A third edition, of 1612, adds poems from CB the conspiracy of his comrades in All's Well That Thomas *Heywood's Troia Britannica (1609). Ends Well. AB In his Apology for Actors, published in the same parallel texts. Several of Shakespeare's plays, including Hamlet and King Lear, survive in two Parry, Sir Hubert (1848-1918), English com- year, Heywood protested against the 'manifest injury' of printing writings by him 'in a less or more early versions. Editors since the 19th poser. He set a large number of Shakespeare's century have often printed the textual versions songs and sonnets, either as solo songs or as volume, under the name of another, which may in parallel columns in order to facilitate study partsongs. Many were published in his twelve- put the world in opinion I might steal them and analysis of their differences. ER volume collection English Lyrics (1885-1920) or from him'. Acknowledging his lines unworthy The Parallel King Lear 1608-1623, ed. Michaelin A Garland of Shakespearian and Other Old of Shakespeare, Heywood declared 'the Fashioned Songs, Op. 21 (1874). IBC author'—i.e. Shakespeare—'much offended Warren (1989) with Master Jaggard that, altogether unknown The Three-Text Hamlet, ed. Paul Bertram and parts. Players of Shakespeare's time were not to him, presumed to make bold with his name'. Bernice W. Kliman (1991) given the entire script of a play to rehearse, but Probably as a result, the original title page was only their 'part' or 'side' written out with cues 'Pardon, goddess of the nighf, sung, probcancelled and replaced with one that did not indicating when to commence a speech (cf. A ably by a musician or musicians (the text is mention Shakespeare. SW Midsummer Night's Dream 3.1.92-5). The only unclear), in Much Ado About Nothing 5.3.12. The original music is unknown. JB extant 'part' is for Edward *Alleyn's title role in passy-measures. See PASSAMEZZO.
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PASTERNAK, BORIS
Pasternak, Boris (1890-1960), Russian novelist, poet, and translator. Unable to publish his own poetry under the tyrant Stalin, he became the official translator of Shakespeare into Russian. His Gamlet (Hamlet) and Korol Lir {King Lear) were used infilmsby *Kozintsev. A poem linking Hamlet and Christ is the first of the hero's poems printed at the end of his banned novel Doctor Zhivago (1958). TM pastoral, a kind of imaginative literature taking its characters and settings from an idealized conception of the unhurried life of shepherds and shepherdesses. In prose or verse, in drama or lyric, it provides an escapist picture of rural tranquillity and idleness in which actual sheeptending is displaced by amorous conversation and song, and real shepherds by noble exiles from the corruptions of city and court. Paradoxically a sophisticated literary treatment of imagined simplicity, this tradition originated in ancient Greek and Latin poetry—the Idylls of Theocritus, the Eclogues of * Virgil—and was revived in 16th-century Italy, notably by Sannazzaro, Tasso, and Guarini. English pastoral was inaugurated by *Spenser's verse eclogues in The Sbepheardes Calendar (1579) and further developed in The Arcadia (1590), a prose romance by *Sidney. Shakespeare's use of pastoral conventions, which can include an element of apparently 'anti-pastoral' realism about country matters, is most evident in As You Like Ita.nà The Winters Tale, and fainter echoes of them can be felt in A Midsummer Nights Dream and Love's Labour's Lost. For these works he drew upon contemporary English pastoral romances, notably *Greene's Pandosto (1588) and *Lodge's Rosalynde (1590). CB
Bergeron, David M., Practicing Renaissance profile 1847 Westminster Hall competition. Scholarship: Plays and Pageants, Patrons and Characterized by a profusion of minutely obPolitics (2000) served detail, The Reconciliation and its pendant Brennan, Michael, Literary Patronage in the The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania (1849, see English Renaissance: The Pembroke Family page 134) teem with encounters between naked (1988) fairies—generating sexual undertones absent Schmidgall, Gary, Shakespeare and the Poet's Life from his later Oberon and the Mermaid (1883). (1990) Paton illustrated Shakespeare's plays throughout his career: from The Tempest (Chapman & Paulina, Antigonus' wife in The Winter's Tale, defends Hermione in spite of Leontes' anger in Hall, 1845) through to William Mackenzie's The National Shakespeare (1888-9)• KN Acts 2 and 3. She reunites them, and, long since bereaved of Antigonus, agrees to marry Camillo, Patroclus, based on *Homer's character of the 5.3. AB same name, is killed by the Trojans (his body is produced, Troilus and Cressida 5.5.16), spurring pauses. See CAESURA. his friend Achilles back into action. AB pavan, a sedate dance in common time per-
patronage, in a Renaissance literary context, the social convention by which authors (and acting companies (see COMPANIES, PLAYING) )
would receive protection, support, or subsidy from wealthy individuals, families, or institutions, in return for furthering their reputations, either simply by associating them with their work or by actively praising them in it (in flattering dedications, if nowhere else). More broadly, 'patronage' is a term for the entire pyramid-shaped social structure by which a network of mutual favours and obligations extended from the monarch downwards through the aristocracy and beyond. Until well into the 18th century, most writers seeking to publish works with any literary pretensions at all both needed and sought patronage: Shakespeare was no exception, dedicating his narrative poems to the Earl of *Southampton and later, according to the dedication of the First Folio, attracting the benign attention of the earls of *Pembroke. The development of the commercial theatre, however, could offer Pater, Walter Horatio (1839-94), English academic, influential in the fin de siècle aesthetic writers an alternative source of income—albeit movement with Studies in the History of the a meagre and precarious one if, as most did, Renaissance (1873) and Marius the Epicurean they remained freelance. Although the Lord (1885). Essays on Measure for Measure (1874), *Chamberlain's Men of course depended colLove's Labour's Lost (1878), and Shakespeare's lectively on the patronage of the Lord ChamEnglish Kings were collected in Appreciations berlain, Shakespeare was from the mid-i590s onwards—as a shareholder in the theatre com(1889). TM pany for which he wrote—more independent of pathetic fallacy, a mild form of poetic perindividual patronage than were many of his sonification in which human motives are at- literary contemporaries. tributed to inanimate nature or non-human The Shakespeare canon abounds in depiccreatures (e.g. 'the scolding winds', Julius Cae- tions of patron-client relations, both artistic— sar 1.3.5). John Ruskin, who coined the term, as in Timon's dealings with the Poet and commended Shakespeare for his sparing use of the Painter in Timon of Athens—and more such metaphors, by comparison with later general—as in the relationship between 'morbid' poets. CB Antonio and Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice. As this latter example may suggest, the terms Patience, Katherine's waiting woman, attends in which a client solicits the favours of a patron, AB her All Is True (Henry vin) 4.2. and those by which a patron promises favours, can be close to the language of love, and some Paton, Sir (Joseph) Noel (1821-1901), Scottish painter and illustrator. Paton earned recogni- have detected an erotic dimension to Shaketion for himself and the proliferating genre of speare's own dealings with Southampton on the *fairy painting with The Reconciliation of Ob- strength of the dedications to Venus and Adonis MD eron and Titania, winning a prize in the high- and The Rape of Lucrèce.
formed by one couple or in procession; it went out of fashion during Shakespeare's lifetime. Musically it was often succeeded by the livelier *galliard. JB Pavier, Thomas. See QUARTOS. pay. See HIRED MEN.
Payton, John (fl. 1760-1800), a Stratford alderman who lived in Shottery. A street in modern Stratford is named after him. The master bricklayer Joseph Mosely, who found the document known as the Spiritual Last Will and Testament of John ^Shakespeare in the *Birthplace in 1757, later gave it to Payton, who around 1789 sent it to *Malone, who printed it in 1790. In the interim John *Jordan had tried unsuccessfully to publish a copy in the Gentleman 's Magazine. SW Peacham, Henry (?i576-?i643), author and artist. His Truth of our Times (1638) contains an account of *Tarlton playing when Peacham was a London schoolboy; his Complete Gentleman (1622) provides insight into London playgoing. A sketch of Titus Andronicus with an extended quotation (c.1595) is attributed to Peacham: see LONGLEAT MANUSCRIPT.
CS
Peaseblossom is one of Titania's fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream. AB Pedant. He is a travelling schoolmaster whom Tranio persuades to impersonate Vincentio in The Taming of the Shrew 4.2. AB Pedro, Don. He arranges the betrothal of Claudio to Hero, but becomes convinced of her infidelity, in Much Ado About Nothing. AB Peele, George (1556-96), playwright and poet. After attending Christ Church, Oxford, he wrote a series of plays and entertainments which helped revolutionize the theatrical use of verse. His best-known plays are The Arraignment of Paris (1584) and The Old Wives Tale (1595). The first is a pastoral play—one of the earliest in English—which ends with *Elizabeth 1 being offered a golden apple by the goddess Diana; the second is a cheerful adaptation of various
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PENNINGTON, MICHAEL motifs from folk tale and romance. He also wrote two energetic history plays and a melodious biblical drama, David and Bethsabe (1599). RM 'Peg a Ramsay 7 , the title of a popular dance and ballad tune, quoted by Sir Toby in Twelfth JB Night 2.3.73Pelican Shakespeare. This paperback edition, designed for an American market, was produced between 1956 and 1967. Shakespeare's works were separately edited by noted scholars under the general guidance of Alfred Harbage. He emphasized the flow of action in the plays by omitting scene locations and relegating act and scene divisions to the margins. With very brief introductions and light glossing at the foot of the page, the volumes offered attractively presented texts at an initial price, in the USA, of 65c: in many respects they resembled the *Penguin and New Penguin editions. The Pelican series was revived in 1999 under the general editorship of A. L. Braunmuller and Stephen Orgel. RAF Pembroke, Earl of. (l) Edward iv orders Pembroke and Lord Stafford (both mute) to 'prepare for war' against Henry, Richard Duke of York (3 Henry vi) 4.1.127-8. ( 2 ) He vows revenge for Arthur's death, King John 4.3, and joins the French, but returns to John in time to see him die. AB Pembroke, Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of. See PEMBROKE'S M E N .
Pembroke, Mary Herbert, Countess of (15611621), third wife to Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, and sister of Philip *Sidney. A patroness of poets, including Ben *Jonson, Herbert initiated courtly interest in *Seneca, translating Garnier's Marc Antonie (1592), echoes of which occur in Antony and Cleopatra. Dover *Wilson speculates that Herbert commissioned Shakespeare's first seventeen sonnets. CS
Pembroke, Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of (15841650), younger son of Henry and Mary Herbert. Possibly called Philip after his uncle Philip *Sidney, he was a munificent patron and lifelong benefactor of the artist Van Dyck and playwright Philip *Massinger. John *Heminges and Henry *Condell, joint editors of Shakespeare's posthumous First *Folio in 1623, dedicated the work to Philip and his brother William. The dedicatory epistle to this 'incomparable pair of brethren' is testimony to an established connection between Shakespeare and the Herberts, and their long-standing generosity towards the playwright, noted in the dedication as their 'servant Shakespeare'. As Heminges and Condell wrote, 'your [lordships] have been pleased to think these trifles something heretofore, and have prosecuted both
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them and their author living, with so much favour [that . . . ] the Volume asked to be yours'. Philip was known for his hasty temper, and was frequently embroiled in brawls at court, including a quarrel with Shakespeare's patron, the Earl of *Southampton, over a game of tennis in 1610. Despite this, Philip remained a firm favourite of *James 1, becoming gentleman of the bedchamber in 1605, and retaining the position until James's death in 1625—continued favour that owed much to the comeliness of his person, and his passion for *hunting and field sports. Philip married Susan Vere, daughter of the 17th Earl of Oxford, in 1604, and was created Earl of Montgomery in 1605, succeeding his brother William as Earl of Pembroke in 1630. CS Pembroke, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of (1580-1630), eldest son of Henry and Mary Herbert, educated by the poet Samuel *Daniel. Like his brother Philip, co-dedicatee of Shakespeare's First *Folio (1623), William was an enthusiastic patron of the arts. His beneficiaries included Ben *Jonson, Philip *Massinger, and Inigo *Jones. John * Aubrey remembers William as 'the greatest Maecenas to learned men of any peer of his time or since', and according to Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, his liberality exceeded both his own considerable fortune, and that of his wife Mary Talbolt. William was disgraced, and imprisoned briefly in 1601, for an affair with Mary Fitton, believed by some to be Shakespeare's *Dark Lady. Despite getting Fitton pregnant, William refused to marry her, making her at least the fourth well-born woman he had declined to wed—the previous three being Elizabeth *Carey (1595); Bridget Vere, Lord Burghley's granddaughter and daughter of the 17th Earl of Oxford (1597); and a niece of Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham (1599). Dover *Wilson conjectures that William's reluctance to marry induced his mother Mary to commission Shakespeare to write seventeen sonnets advocating marriage to mark William's 17th birthday in 1597 (Sonnets 1-17). This identification of William Herbert as *'Mr W.H.', to whom the publisher Thomas Thorpe dedicated the Sonnets in 1609, was first floated by James Boaden in 1837. Supporters of William Herbert as 'W.H.' find further evidence in Francis Davison's Poeticall Rhapsody (1602), in which Davison celebrates William's 'lovely . . . shape'. Another suggestive allusion is Thorpe's reference to himself as 'the Well-wishing Adventurer', which may celebrate William's incorporation as a member of the King's Virginia Company in 1609. This connection with the Virginia Company may have allowed Shakespeare access to unpublished accounts of the wreck of the Sea-
Adventure in 1609, an incident on which he based The Tempest, especially William *Strachey's Reportary, later published in Samuel Purchas's Pilgrims (1625). CS Pembroke's Men, an obscure playing company, under the patronage of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (?i534-i6oi), known mostly from the title pages of their plays. Their The Taming of a Shrew has some relation to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, their Richard Duke of York is a memorial reconstruction of the play printed as 3 Henry vim the Shakespeare Folio of 1623, and their Titus Andronicus is Shakespeare's. It seems likely that Shakespeare was one of Pembroke's Men before he, and several of the others, joined the *Chamberlain's Men in 1594. Other Pembroke's Men were John *Sincler, Gabriel *Spencer, Robert Shaw, and possibly Richard *Burbage. The company probably played at the *Theatre in 1592-3 and broke in 1594, to be reformed in 1597 for a brief season at the Langley's *Swan playhouse before their production of The Isle of Dogs caused that playhouse's closure. The company survived Ben *Jonson's murder of Gabriel Spencer in 1598, occupying the *Rose after the Admiral's Men left it for the Fortune in 1600, only to break forever with the death of GE their patron on 9 January 1601. Penguin Shakespeare. Penguin Books began a revolution in publishing with their sixpenny pocket paperbacks, and included in their early lists an edition of Shakespeare. The first six titles appeared in 1937, attractively printed, with a plain text uncluttered by scene locations, a very brief introduction, and some notes and a short glossary at the end. The editor, G. B. Harrison, preferred Folio texts as closer to what he supposed was acted, but included in brackets passages found only in quartos. The series was superseded by the New Penguin Shakespeare (1967- ), which retained the plain text format, but gave individual editors of the various works freedom to determine the text in the light of current scholarship. This new edition also provided much more substantial critical introductions, extensive commentaries, and accounts of textual problems. The general editor, T. J. B. Spencer, soon brought in Stanley Wells as his associate editor. In the plays the scenes are numbered in the margins, so that the stage directions and text seem to run on from one scene to the next. Both series have been very popular, and the New Penguin Shakespeare has been much used by schools, and also by acting companies, including the *Royal Shakespeare Company. RAF
Pennington, Michael (b. 1943), British actor, renowned for his grace of movement and mellifluous speaking of verse. Having acted at Cambridge, he played Angelo, Berowne, and
9 * 4 f S 7 i E f ^ « ^ *. .
?s
William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, by Isaac Oliver, certainly an important patron of Shakespeare (and as such a co-dedicatee of the First Folio), and possibly the 'Mr W.H.' of the Sonnets.
PETER THUMP
Hamlet with the *Royal Shakespeare Company, 1974-81. He co-founded with Michael *Bogdanov the ^English Shakespeare Company and toured worldwide in their popular sevenplay Wars of the Roses (1986-9), later videotaped. He rejoined the RSC in 1999 to play Timon of Athens. MJ pentameter, a verse line offivefeet. Although there are other kinds (such as anapaestic pentameter, occasionally used by Browning), the most important form of pentameter is iambic. In English, iambic pentameter (five predominantly iambic feet) is the standard metre of blank verse, heroic couplets, sonnets, and rhyme royal. CB/GTW
Percy, Henry, (l) See NORTHUMBERLAND, EARL OF.
(2) See HOTSPUR.
AB
Percy, Lady. *Hotspur's wife (b. 1371), called 'Kate' by him, appears in 1 Henry IV2.4 and 3.1, and as a widow in 2 Henry IV2.3. ' AB Percy, Thomas. See WORCESTER, EARL OF.
Perdita is the daughter of Hermione and Leontes in The Winters Tale. The parallel character is Fawnia in *Greene's Pandosto, Shakespeare's chief source. AB Perdita; or. The Royal Milkmaid. See BURLESQUES AND TRAVESTIES OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS. performance criticism, in Shakespeare studies, a term for the kind of analysis of Shakespeare's plays which considers them as scripts only fully realized in performance, rather than solely as literary works to be read on the page. Despite the anti-theatrical perspective of many 18th-century editors, and the dominant *Romantic and 19th-century view of Shakespeare as a poet whose works only happened to take the form of plays, this has always been a strong element in Shakespeare criticism (exemplified, for example, by *Hazlitt, and by professional theatre reviewers from Leigh *Hunt onwards), but it has been newly prominent since the mid-20th century, as the academic study of Shakespearian drama has extended from the library and the classroom and into the theatre. The amount of space which major editions of the plays such as the *Arden devote to considerations of performance (both in Shakespeare's time and since) has increased immensely since the 1970s, for example, while series such as Shakespeare in Performance (Manchester University Press, 1984- ) and Shakespeare in Production (Cambridge University Press, 1996- , the successor to Plays in Performance, 1981- ) have proliferated. Much contemporary performance criticism draws on semiotics, and, in reading performance as a social as well as an aesthetic event, incorporates some form of cultural theory. An influential work was Raymond Williams's chapter on Antony and Cleopatra in his Drama in Performance (1954): since then important exponents of performance criticism have included J. L. Styan, Dennis Kennedy, and Peter Holland. MD
formances began at 2 p.m. and 3p.m. and lasted two to three hours; the elite indoor venues probably had more latitude to run late than did the amphitheatres. At court the performances were always at night, and quite possibly the authorities in towns visited by touring companies were flexible, since an unanticipated performance would draw a larger crowd if it began after the working day was finished. No contemporary reference to performance lengths is shorter than the Romeo and Juliet Prologue's 'two-hours' traffic' and a few go as high as three hours, which is a variation of+/— 20% around a norm of 2.5 hours. Surviving play-texts, on the other hand, vary by as much as +/— 50% around a norm of about 2,600 lines, with a tendency to longer plays in the later years. Whether plays were routinely cut for performance remains a matter of argument. GE
Pepys, Samuel (1633-1703), diarist. He began writing his Diary in 1660 when a civil servant in Gurr, Andrew, 'Maximal and Minimal Texts: the Naval Office and continued the record, in Shakespeare v. the Globe', Shakespeare Survey, 52 (1999) cipher and shorthand, until 1669 when his eyesight began to fail. Among much else, it Pericles (see page 342) provides a remarkable account of the social experience of theatre-going and of the *Restorperiphrasis, afigureof speech in which someation theatre's innovations (particularly the thing is referred to by circumlocution where a introduction of actresses, Shakespearian *adapmore direct expression is available: tations, and the development of stage effects), in As he is but my father's brother's son addition to commenting on performers and (Richard 111.1.117) performances. For example, he records visits to CB Macbeth (in *Davenant's adaptation): 'From Perithous. See PIRITHOUS. hence to the Duke's house, and there saw "Macbeth" most excellently acted, and a most perspective. Stage scenery can be made to excellent play for variety' (28 December 1666); appear three dimensional by illusionistic tech'and thence to the Duke's house, and saw niques of painting based upon perspective "Macbeth", which, though I saw it lately, yet foreshortening, but this technique was not used appears a most excellent play in all respects, but in the theatres until the Restoration. Artificial especially in divertisement, though it be a deep perspective effects require spectators to view tragedy; which is a strange perfection in a trafrom within a predefined focal area and so degedy, it being most proper here, and suitable' (7 mand a seated audience all of whose members January 1667); 'So to the playhouse, not much are looking in approximately the same direccompany come, which I impute to the heat of tion, as in a hall playhouse; open-air playhouse the weather, it being very hot. Here we saw conditions, with spectators all around the "Macbeth", which, though I have seen it often, stage, are quite unsuited to perspective effects. yet is it one of the best plays for a stage, and Sebastiano Serlio's mid-i6th-century work on variety of dancing and music, that I ever saw' (19 theatre perspective illusions was absorbed by April 1667); 'I was vexed to see Young (who is Inigo *Jones and his assistant-nephew John but a bad actor at best) act Macbeth in the room Webb and emerged in the elaborate court of Betterton, who, poor man! is sick: but, Lord! *masques and in the perspective techniques of What a prejudice it wrought in me against the the Restoration theatres. GE whole play' (16 October 1667); 'Thence to the Campbell, Lily B., Scenes and Machines on the Duke's playhouse, and saw "Macbeth." The English Stage during the Renaissance: A Classic King and Court there; and we sat just under Revival (1923) them and my Lady Castlemayne, and close to Orrell, John, The Human Stage: English Theatre Dobson, Michael, 'Shakespeare on the page and the woman that comes into the pit, a kind of Design, 1567-1640 (1988) stage', in Stanley Wells and Margreta de loose gossip, that pretends to be like her' (21 Grazia (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Peter (l) Peter is the Nurse's servant in Romeo December 1668). Pepys was nearly as fond of Shakespeare (2001) AB Holland, Peter, English Shakespeares (1997) " and Juliet. (2). See JOSEPH. the Davenant-Dryden adaptation of The Kennedy, Dennis, Looking at Shakespeare (1993) Tempest, but other Shakespearian comedies Peter, Friar. See FRIAR PETER. Wells, Stanley, (éd.), Shakespeare in the Theatre: pleased him less: he dismissed A Midsummer An Anthology of Criticism (1997) Peter of Pomfret is a prophet hanged by John, Night s Dream, for example, as 'the most insipid King John 4.2. AB ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life' (29 performance times, lengths. Ordinarily at September 1662). CMSA open-air and indoor hall playhouses the perPeter Thump. See HORNER, THOMAS. (cont. on page 344) 341
Pericles
C
onclusive external evidence shows that thefirstand most deceptively simple of Shakespeare's late romances was written no later than 1608. A manuscript copy of the play, most probably the *promptbook used by the King's Men at the *Globe, was entered in the *Stationers' Register by Edward Blount on 20 May 1608. In the same year, George *Wilkins published a novel called The Painful Adventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre, which is clearly based on the play. The Italian ambassador Giorgio Giustinian saw a production of Pericles during his visit to London between January 1606 and November 1608, and it is referred to as 'new' in a pamphlet, *Pimlico, of 1609. The only extant text of Pericles is a pirate *quarto edition published by Henry Gosson in 1609. The text of the play was reconstructed either by one of the actors playing a minor role or by two reporters, who transcribed the text of the play surreptitiously, as it was being performed at the Globe. The 1609 quarto is a very poor text, where verse is printed as *prose and prose as verse, the *stage directions are few and sketchy, and blatant mistakes abound. Perhaps because of the textual shortcomings of this edition, Pericles was not included in the 1623 *Folio, although it was added to the Third Folio, along with several * apocryphal plays. Although the original quarto does not divide the play into acts (and is followed in this respect by the Oxford edition), later editions conventionally break it up intofive,starting Act 2 at Scene 5 (after the Antioch incidents and the relief of Tarsus), Act 3 at Scene 10 (after the wedding of Pericles and Thaisa), Act 4 at Scene 15 (after the storm and its immediate consequences), and Act 5 at Scene 20 (after Marina's release from the brothel). A considerable amount of effort has gone into establishing the origins of Wilkins's 1608 The Painful Adventures. The theory that Wilkins's novel served as a source for the play has been repeatedly confuted, although the assumption that the novel contains passages from an earlier play on the subject has found some supporters. Many modern editions, including the Oxford, take the view that the novel in part derives from the play, and use it to emend the defective quarto text. SOURCES: The story of Pericles derives from the Greek romance of Apollonius of Tyre, which had already been retold several times, most importantly in John *Gower's Confessio
TEXT:
Amantis (1393): Gower himself features as the Chorus in Shakespeare's play. The other main source, which Shakespeare followed as closely as Gower, is Laurence *Twine's The Pattern of Painful Adventures (1576). Twine's influence is especially noticeable in the brothel scenes in Act 4. Given that the main hero is called Apollonius in both sources, editors since *Steevens have argued that Shakespeare may have borrowed the name 'Pericles' from a character in *Sidney's Arcadia. SYNOPSIS: I The presenter Gower introduces himself and the main characters involved in the Antioch episode, namely King Antiochus the Great, who is having a secret incestuous affair with his daughter, and Pericles, the King of Tyre, who has travelled to Antiochus' court to woo the fair Princess. The King has devised a riddle, which his daughter's suitors must solve in order to gain her hand. If they fail they lose their lives. Pericles is brought before Antiochus: professing his love for the Princess, he is granted the opportunity to solve the riddle. Pericles deciphers the riddle, which reveals the King's incest. Knowing that either revealing this secret or pretending not to have solved the riddle will bring about his death, Pericles gives a riddling answer, whereby he warns the King without exposing him. The King grants Pericles more time to solve the riddle only in order to arrange to have him murdered by Thaliard. Pericles, conscious of the danger, flees. 2 Pericles confides his troubles to Helicanus, who urges him to leave Tyre. 3 Thaliard arrives at Tyre straight after Pericles' departure. 4 Pericles arrives at Tharsus, formerly a rich town, whose resources have been wasted by its proud citizens, and delivers them from famine by giving them corn. The rulers
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PERI
Cleon and Dioniza swear allegiance to Pericles in return for his generosity. 5 As Gower, with the help of a dumb show, explains, Pericles receives word of Thaliard's mission and decides to resume his travels, which are brought to an end by a sea-storm. Pericles suffers shipwreck and is cast ashore near Pentapolis among fishermen. After offering Pericles food and shelter, they recover his father's armour from the sea. Pericles decides to wear it and take part in a joust which Simonides, King of Pentapolis, has organized to test the valour of his daughter's suitors. 6 The joust is preceded by a parade and the interpretation of the emblematic shields and mottoes carried by the six suitors. Pericles is mocked for his modest apparel. The joust takes place offstage. 7 Pericles wins but looks melancholic and refuses to eat at the banquet. Simonides and his daughter Thaisa also lose their appetite: Thaisa is charmed by the mysterious knight and her father is too keen to discover his origins to care about food. Simonides sends his daughter over to Pericles to enquire about his identity. Pericles refrains from disclosing his real identity and introduces himself as a lord from Tyre. 8 In Tyre, Pericles' lords complain about the protracted absence of their King and offer Helicanus the crown. Helicanus asks them to wait and search for their King for another year. 8a Pericles, brought to a bedchamber, requests a stringed instrument on which to play. 9 Simonides dismisses the other suitors, then tests Pericles by confronting him with a forged love letter to Thaisa. He pretends to be angry while Pericles begs Thaisa to tell her father that he has never importuned her with love. Simonides, now certain of his daughter's feelings and Pericles' virtue, suddenly grants them his consent to marry. 10 Gower describes the joyful celebration of their wedding, and with the help of a dumb show narrates its sequel: Thaisa is pregnant when a second letter reaches Pericles, announcing that Helicanus will be crowned king should Pericles fail to return within the following six months. Pericles discloses his real identity and although Simonides is happy to find out that his son-in-law is a king, he is sad to see him and his daughter depart for Tyre. 11 The sea journey to Tyre is interrupted by another storm. Thaisa apparently dies in childbirth: at the superstitious sailors' insistence, Pericles casts her body overboard, sealed in a box. He decides to take Marina, his newly born baby, to Tharsus. 12 Cerimon, a lord of Ephesus, manages to revive Thaisa, washed up on his coast, from her deathlike slumber. 13 Pericles arrives at Tharsus and hands Marina over to Cleon and Dioniza. 14 Cerimon takes Thaisa, unable to remember Marina's birth, to the temple of Diana in Ephesus. 15 Gower tells how after Marina grows into a charming and talented young woman, Dioniza, forgetful of her debt to Pericles, plans to have her murdered in order to enhance her own daughter's chances of an advantageous marriage. Leonine, hired to kill Marina while she is walking along the seashore, is interrupted by the arrival of pirates, who kidnap Marina. 16 In Mytilene, a pander and a bawd complain that they are short of healthy young women to initiate to their trade. Their man Boult is sent to the market to search for female slaves.
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Boult comes back with the pirates who agree to sell Marina to the Bawd. Marina regrets that Leonine was too slow to dispatch her. The Bawd attempts to let Marina into the secrets of the sex trade, but Marina refuses to collaborate. 17 Cleon arraigns his wife for betraying Pericles' trust. 18 Gower describes Pericles' arrival at Tharsus and his suffering following the discovery of Marina's death, on which he swears to spend the rest of his life mourning the loss of his wife and daughter, his hair unshorn. 19 Virtuous Marina converts the Bawd's customers. Lysimachus, the Governor of Mytilene, apparently a regular client despite a subsequent claim that he is there solely to gather evidence against the Bawd, visits the brothel and is left with Marina, who persuades him she is genuinely a virgin and no prostitute: he leaves promising to help. The Bawd, outraged by Marina's behaviour, orders Boult to deflower her, but she persuades him she will be more profitably employed in respectable activities such as sewing, weaving, and dancing. 20 Gower narrates Marina's establishment as a singer and embroiderer, and the arrival of Pericles' ship at Mytilene. 21 Lysimachus enquires after Pericles' distemper and suggests that Marina might be able to cure him. Marina is sent for and sings to the silent Pericles. He initially pushes her away, but his interest is aroused by her defiant reaction: Marina claims to have suffered as much as he and to have royal ancestors. Pericles finally looks at her and notices her resemblance to Thaisa. Marina reveals her name and father and daughter arefinallyreunited. Diana appears to Pericles in a dream and directs him to Ephesus. 22 Gower narrates the arrival of Pericles and his party at Diana's temple, where Thaisa is among the vestals. 23 When Pericles narrates his story, Thaisa faints, and, reviving, is reunited with Pericles and Marina. Gower's epilogue recommends endurance in the face of adversity. ARTISTIC FEATURES: The most prominent, and most vilified, feature of Pericles \s the uneven quality of its dramatic and poetic diction, often mock-medieval in style. The differences in style, characterization, and structure between Acts 1 and 2 and the second half of the play are remarkable, even allowing for the shortcomings of the reporters of the first pirate edition of 1609 and the idiosyncrasies of its compositors. Critics and editors have therefore argued that Pericles was either hastily revised by Shakespeare or written collaboratively with William *Rowley, Thomas *Heywood, John *Day, or, more plausibly, George *Wilkins. Both hypotheses help to account for the rambling plot and the scanty characterization in Acts 1 and 2 and the sudden improvement at the beginning of Act 3. Particularly admired for its psychological and dramatic complexity is the reunion between Pericles and Marina in Act 5. Although neither the revision nor the collaboration theory have been convincingly confuted, critics now tend to emphasize the structural unity of the play, which is reinforced by the constant presence of the sea and the re-emergence of the incest motif, and Shakespeare's reliance on music, magic, and supernatural intervention, which is typical of the late romances.
PETO C R I T I C A L HISTORY: In his Ode to Himself (1629), Ben *Jonson famously referred to Pericles ILS a 'mouldy tale'. Many critics after him criticized the 'absurdity' of its plot and the lack of consistency of its characterization. In An Essay on the Dramatic Poetry of the Last Age (1672), Dryden remarked on the 'lameness' of the plot and the 'ridiculous' and 'incoherent' qualities of the story: fooled by the play's conscientiously naive style and manner, he thought Pericles must have been Shakespeare's first play. This view was even endorsed by *Malone, who dated the play c.1592. Because Pericles abounds in what Neoclassical critics regarded as, serious formal flaws, its authorship was regularly contested. *Rowe included it in his 1709 edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works, but *Pope, *Theobald, *Warburton, Dr *Johnson, *Capell, and others omitted it from the *canon. Malone, who believed that Shakespeare wrote at least some parts of the play, reintroduced it in his 1780 edition. Many critics have remarked on Shakespeare's unusual reliance on his sources. Malone noticed that Shakespeare 'pursued the story exactly as he found it'. In 1898, Albert Henry Smyth defined Pericles 2& the 'most singular example in Elizabethan literature of a consistent copying of a venerable and far-travelled story'. In 1956, Maxwell observed that the 'complicated episodic narrative of the sources is followed in a fashion unparalleled in Shakespeare'. In 1976, Northrop *Frye reached a similar conclusion: 'Pericles seems to be a deliberate experiment in presenting a traditional archetypal sequence as nakedly and baldly as possible.' After almost two centuries of critical neglect, the play is now praised for its power to move. The reunion between father and daughter in Act 5, which is often compared to the climactic reunion between Lear and Cordelia at the end of King Lear, Act 4 , was T. S. *Eliot's main source of inspiration for his poem 'Marina'. More generally, critics now tend to regard Pericles as the first of the last plays, in that, despite the obvious flaws of its text, it anticipates several elements of the romances. Shakespeare, for example, uses Gower to bridge the temporal gaps between adjacent episodes in Pericles in ways which parallel the use of Time as chorus in 77?^ Winter's Tale.
Peto brings news to Prince Harry, 2 Henry iv 2.4.358-63. See also RUSSELL. AB Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) (1304-74), Italian humanist and poet who combined diplomatic missions abroad with the humanist quest for long-neglected classical works. He translated and published many such works whilst writing some of his own prose and verse compositions in Latin. Petrarch's sonnets, dedicated to his beloved Laura, were published in collections called the Canzoniere and Trionfi. Their structure, themes, and conceits established a convention in sonneteering which lasted for more than 200 years, first imitated in England at the court of Henry vin by Sir Thomas Wyatt and
S T A G E HISTORY: Pericles was an immense theatrical hit in 1608, possibly Shakespeare's largest: Qi was printed twice in 1609 and four new reprints were published before the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642. Pericles was the first of Shakespeare's plays to be revived when the London theatres reopened in 1659—60: the young Thomas *Betterton was highly praised for his performance in the leading role. The play was not performed again until George *Lillo adapted it as Marina in 1738, omitting the first two acts. The play had hardly any stage revivals until Robert *Atkins's 1921 production at the *01d Vic. In 1939 Robert Eddison played Pericles at the *Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park: after the war, Paul *Scofield played the title role twice (in 1947 and 1950), and Douglas *Seale directed a successful production at the *Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1954. This revival established an enduring directorial tradition of emphasizing the fairy-tale qualities of the plot and Shakespeare's unusual use of pageantry, followed, for example, by Glen *Byam Shaw's Stratford production the following year, with Géraldine McEwan as Marina. It remains, however, one of Shakespeare's least-revived plays, a situation unimproved by Phyllida Lloyd's short-lived production at the *National Theatre's SM Olivier auditorium in 1991.
O N T H E SCREEN: The only extant screen version is a slightly literal-minded B B C TV production of 1983, with Mike Gwilym as Pericles and Juliet Stevenson as Thaisa. AD RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
F. D. Hoeniger (Arden 2nd series, 1963); J. C. Maxwell (New Cambridge, 1956); Philip Edwards (New Penguin, 1976) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Arthos, J., 'Pericles, Prince of Tyre: A Study in the Dramatic Use of Romantic Narrative', Shakespeare Quarterly, 4 (1953) Barber, C. L., ' "Thou That Beget'st Him That Did Thee Beget": Transformation in Pericles and The Winter's Tale\ Shakespeare Survey, 22 (1969) Massai, Sonia, 'From Pericles to Marina: "While Women are to be had for Money, Love, or Importunity" ', Shakespeare Survey, 51 (1998)
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Shakespeare often wrote in the Petrarchan style, most notably in his own Sonnets and in Romeo andJuliet which includes a direct reference to Petrarch (2.3.36-7), but he was also part of a contemporary anti-Petrarchan movement and sometimes ridiculed the pretensions and frustrations of the Petrarchan lover. JKS Petruccio (Petruchio). See TAMING OF THE SHREW, THE.
Phaonius, Marcus. See POETS. Phebe. See PHOEBE.
Phelps, Samuel (1804-78), English actormanager, born in Devon. After an eleven-year
provincial apprenticeship, which included Richard in, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and Lear, Phelps made his London debut (for Ben Webster at the Haymarket in 1837) as Shylock, reviewed as judicious and correct rather than striking or remarkable. In the engagements with *Macready which followed Phelps generally found himself cast in subservient roles, or kept idle, though he seized such opportunities as Macduff (1837), Hubert (1842), and, alternating with Macready, Othello and Iago (1839)Following the abolition of the patent theatres' monopoly in 1843, Phelps set up in management (initially with Mrs Warner) at *Sadler's Wells theatre in Islington with the
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PINCH, D R professed objective of presenting 'the first stock drama in the world . . . [performed by] a Company of acknowledged talent . . . in a theatre where all can see and hear, and at a price fairly within the habitual means of all'. In the opening production of Macbeth, Phelps as the Thane was acclaimed by experienced critics (who credited him with greater energy and reality than Macready) as well as local audiences. Thenceforward Shakespeare was established as the 'house dramatist', with revivals of 32 of his plays during the next eighteen years. These productions were characterized by a (relatively) full text, ensemble acting, and costumes and sets, of which gauzes and dioramas were regular features, which illuminated rather than swamped the play. Although he was indisputably the leading actor Phelps ensured that his performances harmonized with the production as a whole. Thus Henry Morley wrote that Phelps's Bottom 'was completely incorporated with the Midsummer Night's Dream, made an essential part of it, as unsubstantial, as airy and refined as all the rest'. Following the termination of his management in 1862, Phelps continued to work as an actor in London and the provinces (especially in Manchester with *Calvert), where his Shakespearian performances established a tradition for young actors to follow, notably Johnston *Forbes-Robertson, who played Hal to Phelps's Henry iv, which the veteran actor doubled with Justice Shallow. The high point came in the Jerusalem chamber encounter between father and son, with Phelps's broken emphasis on 'Harry' ('Come hither, Harry') maximizing the pathos of their affectionate reconciliation. RE Allen, Shirley, Samuel Phelps and the Sadler's Wells Theatre (1971) Philario. See FILARIO.
Philemon is Cerimon's servant, Pericles 12. AB Philharmonus. See SOOTHSAYERS. Philip. See JOSEPH.
Philip, King of France. He supports Arthur's claim to the English throne in King John. AB Phillips, Augustine (d. 1605), actor (Strange's Men 1593, Chamberlain's-King's Men 1598— 1605). Phillips is named as taking the role of Sardanapalus in 'Sloth' in the plot of 2 Seven Deadly Sins which was performed before 1594, possibly by Strange's Men. A touring licence issued to Strange's Men by the Privy Council names Phillips, but by 1598 he had joined the Chamberlain's Men, appearing in the actor lists for *Jonson's Every Man in his Humour and Every Man out of his Humour, and Sejanus, as printed in the 1616 folio. When the syndicate to
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run the Globe was formed in 1599 Phillips was a member, and on 18 February 1601 he was called upon to explain to Chief Justice Popham and Justice Fenner why the company had performed Shakespeare's Richard 11, which dramatizes usurpation, at the Globe on the eve of *Essex's rebellion and at the request of his supporters. Phillips's name appears in the King's Men's patent of 1603 and the actor list of the 1623 Folio of Shakespeare's plays. The circumstances of Phillips's marriage are unclear, but Simon *Forman's notes suggest that he was twice rejected in marriage suits before being accepted by Anne, who survived him. In his will Phillips left money to his fellow actors (including Shakespeare) and costumes, properties, and musical instruments to his apprentice Samuel *Gilburne. GE Philo, Antony's friend in Antony and Cleopatra, only appears in the first scene. AB Philostrate, Theseus' Master of the Revels, appears (mute) in the first scene of A Midsummer Night's Dream. (In *quarto editions he also introduces the interlude of the 'hard-handed men' in Act 5, but the Folio reassigns these AB speeches to Egeus). Philoten, the daughter of Dioniza, is described by Gower, Pericles 15, but does not appear. AB Philotus' Servant. See HORTENSIUS' SERVANT.
Phoebe (Phebe in the *Folio), loved by Silvius in As You Like It, herself falls in love with *'Ganymede'. AB 'Phoenix and Turtle, The', a *lyric poem—also known as 'The Phoenix and the Turtle'— ascribed to Shakespeare when it appeared, untitled, as one of the 'Poetical Essays' by various authors, including the playwrights Ben *Jonson, George *Chapman, and John *Marston, in Robert *Chester's Love's Martyr; or, Rosalind's Complaint (1601, repr. 1611). It was later included in John Benson's 1640 edition of Shakespeare's poems. Chester's Love's Martyr is a long poem described as 'allegorically showing the truth of love in the constant fate of the phoenix and turtle' (i.e. turtle dove). The 'poetical essays' appended to it are called 'Divers poetical essays on the former subject, viz. the turtle and phoenix, done by the best and chiefest of our modern writers, with their names subscribed to their particular works; never before extant.' How Shakespeare came to be involved in the enterprise is not known; he appears to have read Chester's poem before writing his own, a 67-line allegorical elegy which mounts in intensity through its three parts. First it summons a convocation of benevolent birds, with a swan as priest, to celebrate the funeral rites of the phoenix and the turtle dove, who have 'fled I In a mutual flame from
hence'. Then the birds sing an anthem in which the death of the lovers is seen as marking the end of all 'love and constancy'. So they loved as love in twain Had the essence but in one, Two distincts, division none. Number there in love was slain. Their mutuality was such that 'Either was the other's mine'. Finally Love makes a funeral song To the phoenix and the dove, Co-supremes and stars of love, As chorus to their tragic scene. This threnos—funeral song—is set off by being written in an even more incantatory style than what precedes it; each of its five stanzas has three rhyming lines, and the tone is one of grave simplicity. The poem, often regarded as one of the most intensely if mysteriously beautiful of Shakespeare's works, is usually assumed to have been composed not long before publication, though Honigmann (see CHESTER, ROBERT) dates it as
early as 1586. Its affinities and poetical style seem to lie rather with Shakespeare's later than his earlier work. In subject matter it appears to have irrecoverable allegorical significance. Various scholars have identified one or other of the phoenix and the turtle with the dedicatee Sir John Salisbury and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, her collective subjects, the Earl of *Essex, Shakespeare himself, and even the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno (who died at the stake in 1600). G. Wilson * Knight, one of the poem's most passionate advocates, supposed that 'the Turtle signifies the female aspect of the male poet's soul'. SW Underwood, R. A., Shakespeare's 'The Phoenix and the Turtle': A Survey of Scholarship (1974) Phoenix theatre.
See BEESTON, CHRISTO-
PHER.
Phrynia and Timandra (Tymandra), both mistresses of Alcibiades, are given gold and verbal abuse by Timon, Timon of Athens 4.3. AB Picasso, Pablo (1881-1973), Spanish artist. In 1964 Picasso made a series of twelve drawings on the theme of Shakespeare and Hamlet to commemorate the quatercentenary of Shakespeare's birth, as well as a number of related 'portrait' heads of the poet. The Hamlet series was published the following year in Louis Aragon's Shakespeare (published by Editions Cercle d'Art, 1965). RJ PimÏÏCO, an anonymous pamphlet printed in 1609, refers to a crowd swarming as if at a 'newplay' such as 'Pericles'. Hence Pericles must have existed, and still been relatively new, when Pimlico was registered on 15 April 1609. PH Pinch, Dr. He attempts to exorcize the supposedly possessed Antipholus of Ephesus and
PlNDARUS Dromio of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors 4.4: he derives from 'Medicus' in *Plautus' Menaechmi, AB Pindarus. See CASSIUS, CAIUS.
pipe, in Shakespearian usage, specifically the three-holed pipe played with the *tabor (see Much Ado About Nothing 2.3.15); also used as a term for wind instruments generally. JB piracy. See REPORTED TEXT.
Pirithous (Perithous), Theseus' friend and attendant, describes Arcite's fatal accident, The AB Two Noble Kinsmen 5.6.48-85. Pisanio, Posthumus' servant, is commanded by him to kill Innogen in Cymbeline. AB Pistol is at the centre of the tavern brawl in 2 Henry iv 2.4. In 5.3 he announces the death of Henry iv and in 5.4 witnesses Sir John's rejection by the new King and is taken with Sir John and others to prison. In The Merry Wives of Windsor he refuses to act as Sir John's gobetween and betrays him to Ford (2.1). In Henry v, now married to Mistress Quickly, he joins Harry's French campaign after Sir John's death. In France his quarrels with Fluellen culminate when the latter forces him to eat a leek: by now the revelations of his dishonesty and cowardice render him a pathetic as much as a comical figure, completing the picture of the disintegration and decay of Harry's old set of acquaintances. Actors have made the most of the flamboyantly bombastic side of the role: most famously, Theophilus *Cibber was nicknamed 'Pistol', both for his superlative performance as such and for his alleged offstage resemblance to the character. In modern times, though, the role, with its swaggering mock-Marlovian jargon, has become less easily comprehensible, and directors have often resorted to elaborate comic stage business: in Trevor *Nunn's 1982 2 Henry iv, for example, Pistol's eviction from the tavern was accompanied by much chasing up and down the immense set and firing of his gun. Michael *Bogdanov (1986) had him in motorbike leathers bearing the label 'Hal's Angels' and a T-shirt which, alluding to the punk group the Sex Pistols and the title of their collected works, read 'Never mind the bollocks; Here comes Pistol'. AB
Pitt Press Shakespeare. This early *schools edition of the individual plays began to appear in 1893, and was intended by the editor, A. W. Verity, for 'schoolboys' aged 14 and up. It offered them a short introduction describing aspects of each play, its characters, and giving an outline of the story. The plain text was followed by extensive notes and a glossary, so no schoolboy could complain of shortage of information. RAF Place Calling Itself Rome, A (1973), a modernized English version of Coriolanus by John Osborne (1929-94). Given Germany's turbulent modern history, Bertolt *Brecht {Coriolanus, 1951-3) and Gunter Grass {The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising, 1966) have produced the major 20th-century dramatic reactions to Shakespeare's republican Rome. However, Caius Martius' reactionary political opinions, capacity for demotic invective, and motherfixated sexual nausea make Osborne a powerful apologist in this angry play. TM plague was unhappily frequent in Shakespeare's London, but its causation was not known. The disease is transmitted by the bite of an infected rat flea. The flea, though, will only bite humans when it has infected and killed all the local rats. This means that there are no rats around when an epidemic breaks out and their part in the process is not evident. Moreover the rat flea, unlike the human one, cannot hop far, so that people who are just visiting the sick are unlikely to get infected. However the flea can live for weeks without food if the humidity and temperature are right for it. The clothing and bedding of plague victims are particularly dangerous, as are wooden buildings, earthen floors, rubbish heaps, and dunghills. Hence the poor suffered far more in an epidemic than the rich.
Medical opinion never suspected the flea or the rat, and the disease was normally thought to be spread by contagion from the air and from infected sufferers (see MEDICINE). Therefore, when plague struck, one of the first measures taken by the authorities to prevent it spreading was to close the playhouses. This was no light matter for the actors' companies—for instance between 1603 and 1613 the theatres were closed for a total of 78 months. Even if they managed to get engagements to play outside London it still meant a curtailment of their activities. Indeed it has been suggested, on the plausible assumption that Shakespeare only wrote a play when there was an immediate demand for one, Hodgdon, Barbara, Shakespeare in Performance: that the gaps in his dramatic creativity and his Henry iv Part Two (1993) seemingly early retirement can be largely accounted for by these closings of the theatre. pit. The area of ground-level seating nearest the stage of an indoor hall playhouse such as the If so, epidemics of the plague were more Blackfriars, corresponding in location and important for Shakespeare than for his characrelative low cost to the yard in the open-air ters, who neither catch it nor die from it. Plague amphitheatres. A thrust stage projecting into and pestilence are words more often used in the pit would be surrounded by seats. GE cursing than to describe a real medical event.
Once or twice they are used jokingly to refer to falling in love, as when Biron says, 'They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes' {Love's Labours Lost 5.2.422). And there is an even more unexpected, though perfectly logical, use. If bad air helped spread the disease, good air should prevent it. Pomanders were used for this purpose. But one could extend the principle to young and healthy people. 'The plague is banished by thy breath', says Venus, dreamingly, of Adonis ( Venus and Adonis 510). 'Methought she purged the air of pestilence', says Orsino of Olivia {Twelfth Night 1.1.19). It is an attractive thought: one only wishes it could have been true. MP Barrol, E. F. L., Politics, Plague, and Shakespeare's Theatre (1991) Slack, P., The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England (1985) plague regulations. A large crowd gathering in a confined space, such as a playhouse, was thought to give ideal conditions for transmission of the plague, and the Privy Council closed the playhouses when the weekly death toll exGE ceeded 50 (reduced under James 1 to 30). Barroll, Leeds, Politics, Plague, and Shakespeare's theatre (1991) Wilson, F. P., The Plague in Shakespeare's London (1927) Planché, James Robertson (1796-1880), English playwright and antiquarian, who became Somerset Herald (1866). His prolific and diverse output extended to some 150 theatrical pieces (extravaganzas, pantomimes, and librettos, including Weber's Oberon, 1826), scholarly works such as his History of British Costume (1834), his Recollections and Reflections (1872), and designs for several Shakespeare plays. His costumes for Charles *Kemble's King John (1823) broke new ground by setting the play in its historical period, even citing 'Authorities for the Costumes' on the playbill. Planché worked on Madame *Vestris's notable productions of Love's Labour's Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream and Ben Webster's Elizabethan-style The Taming of the Shrew (1844). RE Planchon, Roger (b. 1931), French actor, director (Théâtre de la Cité, Villeurbanne, near Lyon) and playwright, who has explored the full range of the French repertoire. His Richard in (1966 Avignon Festival, then Villeurbanne) was influenced by post-*Brechtian theories. He played the title roles in Antony and Cleopatra and Pericles (1978) in sets recalling well-known epic films. IS G Plantagenet, Edward. See AUMERLE, DUKE OF; YORK, DUKE OF.
Plantagenet, Lady Margaret. See CLARENCE'S SON.
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PLUTARCH Plantagenet, Richard, (l) Duke of York, see i Henry vi; T H E FIRST PART OF THE CONTENTION;
RICHARD
DUKE
OF YORK. ( 2 )
See
CAMBRIDGE, RICHARD, EARL OF.
Platter, Thomas (1574-1682), Swiss traveller. Born in Basle, Platter took his medical baccalaureate at the Université de Montpellier, and later visited England from 18 September to 20 October 1599. Writing in a difficult German dialect, he noted that on 21 September he crossed the Thames and observed a tragedy about Julius Caesar, performed 'with approximately fifteen characters', in 'the straw-thatched house' ('steuwine Dachhaus'). He may report on an unknown 'Caesar' drama; but it is probable that he saw Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and that he offers the earliest report of any dramatic performance at the newly built *Globe. The most approved modern translation of Platter's remarks on the play is Ernest Schanzer's, in 'Thomas Platter on the Elizabethan Stage', Notes PH and Queries, 201 (1956). PlautUS (c.254-184 BC), Roman comic dramatist who wrote in the tradition of the New Comedy, popular in 4th-century Greece and exemplified by the work of Menander. Of the 130 plays attributed to Plautus in the 1st century BC, 21 survive, more than any other classical playwright and a testament to his contemporary success. Plautus was one of the causes célèbres of Renaissance humanism, admired for his witty and vivacious style and for the intricacy of his comic plots. Henry vm commanded the performance of two of his plays at court and throughout the 16th century there were numerous continental translations and adaptations of his plays. Stephen Gosson complained that early English drama 'smelt of Plautus'. The Plautine mode of comedy was based upon stock characters, including the crafty servant or the braggart soldier {miles gloriosus), which often figured in early English comedy. Perhaps most Plautine, however, was the plot of confusion or error based on mistaken identity in which these characters appeared. This could be the deliberate deception practised by the stock character of the trickster or that practised by nature through the phenomenon of twins. In The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare combined the 'errors' of two Plautine comedies, Menaechmi and Amphitruo, to compound the possible confusion. The Comedy of Errors also employs the Plautine convention of a child lost and found, and of a family reunited. The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, and All's Well That Ends Well all contain elements of Plautine comedy. Shakespeare probably read the Menaechmi, and other Plautine plays {Amphitruo, Rudens, and Mostellaria), in Latin. JKS
Riehle, Wolfgang, Shakespeare, Plautus and theof Greece and Rome, in particular Pindar and Humanist Tradition (1990) Anacreon, and by contemporary Italian literaplaybills, public notices advertising that plays were to be performed, attached to posts in the surrounding district. No playbills have survived from Shakespeare's time, so we cannot be sure how much detail was given. Richard Vennar's advertisement for his entertainment England's Joy at the Swan in 1603 was fraudulent—he planned to steal the receipts without giving a performance—so it cannot be regarded as a typical playbill. GE playbook, the official play-text manuscript (or 'book'), containing the essential licence from the Master of the Revels. From this valuable document—which ordinarily never left the theatre—the bookkeeper would have actors' parts copied, and he might also annotate the playbook with reminders and additional directions to help him run the performance from offstage. The word promptbook is equivalent, although prompting (in the sense of reminding actors of their lines) does not seem to have happened in Shakespeare's time. GE 'Player King*. See PLAYERS. 'Player Queen'. See PLAYERS. players, (l) As part of a lord's deception of Sly in the Induction, they perform the bulk of The Taming of the Shrew. (2) After much advice from the Prince, they perform the play presented by Hamlet to King Claudius, Hamlet^.i. The Player King plays Duke Gonzago, and the Player Queen his wife Baptista. Other parts are AB the Prologue and the poisoner Lucianus. players' quartos. See QUARTOS.
Players' Shakespeare. This rather grand large-paper limited edition, published by Ernest Benn, set out to print Shakespeare's plays 'litteratim from the First Folio of 1623', with line-blocks by various artists, among them Paul Nash, and long introductions by Harley *Granville-Barker. The edition ran out of steam after seven plays had been published between 1923 and 1927. It provided the occasion for Granville-Barker to develop *performance criticism' in what later became well known as his 'Prefaces' to Shakespeare; the first three of these (to Julius Caesar, King Lear, and Love's Labour's Lost) were published in a separate RAF volume in 1927. p l a y h o u s e s . See THEATRES, ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN.
playing companies. See COMPANIES, PLAYING.
Pléiade, French literary movement founded in 1549 by five university students including JoaMiola, Robert S., Shakespeare and Classical chim du Bellay and Pierre de Ronsard. Named Comedy: The Influence of Plautus and Terence after the Alexandrian society of the 3rd century (1992) BC, the group was inspired by the great writers
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ture. In dismay at the state of French literature, the Pléaide set out to reform it by importing the style, vocabulary, and themes of these classical and contemporary models into French poetry. The Pléiade's translations and imitations of classical lyric, and its innovations in the sonnet form, influenced English Renaissance poetry.
JKS Pliny (AD 23/24-79), equestrian, rhetorician, and author of many works of history and rhetoric of which only the Naturalis historia survives. This is a study of the physical universe with sections on botany, geography, metallurgy, and human and animal biology. It was translated as Natural History or History of the World by Philemon Holland in 1601. That Shakespeare knew Pliny's work is suggested by descriptions of exotic lands and peoples in Othello. Features drawn from Pliny include the Anthropophagi, Arabian trees which drop medicinal gum, and a description of the Pontic Sea (1.3.127-44, 5.2.359-60, 3.3.456-63). JKS 'plots'. Scene-by-scene outlines of plays written on large sheets of paper and posted in early playhouses. Plots reminded actors when and in what character they were to appear, while alerting backstage personnel when specific properties were required and when music or noises were called for. Seven 'plots' or 'platts' from the period are extant, including two from the * Admiral's or Strange's Men c.1590 and five ER dating from 1597-1602.
Plummer, Christopher (b. 1929), Canadian actor. With Broadway experience behind him, he was the first Canadian-born actor to play leading parts in the Stratford Festival, Ontario, 1956-67, beginning with Henry v and going on to Hamlet, Leontes, Mercutio, Macbeth, Aguecheek, and Antony—absenting himself in 1961-2 to play Richard m and Benedick for the *Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford and London. In New York he has played Iago in Othello (1982) and the title role in a disastrous production of Macbeth with Glenda Jackson (1988). He also starred in a one-man show Barrymore, based on the life of the selfdestructive Shakespearian player. MJ Plutarch (L.[?] Mestrius Plutarchus) was born in Chaeronea to the west of Delphi in c. AD 46, and he died after AD 120. This makes him a direct contemporary of the great Roman historian Tacitus and, during his younger years, of the Emperors Claudius and Nero. Plutarch wrote in his native Greek and was a prolific essayist, philosopher, biographer, and historian. He was best known in the Renaissance for his Parallel Lives, of which 23 have survived. In nineteen of them the biographiesof famous Greeks and Romans such as
POE, EDGAR ALLAN Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar are compared. Plutarch is an accomplished narrator who uses vivid anecdotes and colourful cameos to bring his characters to life. In the 'Life of Alexander' he famously noted that, as Sir Thomas North's translation puts it, 'The noblest deeds do not always show men's virtues and vices, but oftentimes a light occasion, a word, or some sport, makes men's natural dispositions and manners appear more plain than the famous battles won.' For Plutarch history was a stage on which great men shaped the world according to their moral inclinations. It is fitting that the other collection of extant works by this much-travelled writer, who quietly ended his life at Delphi as a priest, should be called the Moralia. Plutarch's influence on Shakespeare is hard to overestimate. Shakespeare knew Plutarch's Lives in the 1579 English version by Sir Thomas North (North in turn translates the French text of Jacques Amyot) and the Moralia in the 1603 translation by Philemon Holland. Plutarch's writings provided material for Titus Andronicus, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Timon of Athens, and, probably, for the nomenclature of The Winter's Tale. It is, however, in Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus that Shakespeare's use of Plutarch is most thorough. While the chronological spread of Plutarchan material across the canon suggests that Shakespeare was steeped in Plutarch from the start and drew on him for each one of his dramatic genres, these three Roman plays dramatize material from Plutarch's Lives and, in the case of Antony and Cleopatra, the Moralia as well. Shakespeare repeatedly telescopes his source materials from the Lives, and his uses range from direct verbal echoes between text and source to artful rewritings of Plutarch. At times, as in the case of Enobarbus' tribute to Cleopatra's magic at Cydnus, the intertextual play between the source and the drama is so intimate that Shakespeare must have worked with a copy of North's Plutarch at his elbow, as he did with *Holinshed in Henry v and a handful of other *sources such as, for example, *Greene's Pandosto (for The Winter's Tale) and *Brooke's Romeus and Juliet. Shakespeare generally transcends Plutarch's moral homilies by attributing them to particular characters in his plays. RW Bullough, Geoffrey, Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare, vol. v (1964) Spencer, T. J. B., Shakespeare's Plutarch (1964) Stadter, Philip A. (ed.), Plutarch and the Historical Tradition (1992) Poe, Edgar Allan (1809-49), American poet and story-writer. Comments on Shakespeare occur in 'Letter to B — ' , from the preface to Poems (1831) and in the Southern Literary Mes-
senger (1836), where he contrasts the 'hideous and unwieldy' spirit of Samuel *Johnson with the 'airy and fairy-like' creations of the 'immortal Shakespeare!' TM Poel, William (1852-1934), English actor and director who dedicated his life to reforming Shakespearian performance. An antiquarian at heart and always a bit of a crank, Poel was caught between a zealous study of the Elizabethan stage and a fanatical hatred of the Victorian theatre. He began by directing (and taking the main role in) the 'bad' quarto of Hamlet 21 St George's Hall in London in 1881 in Elizabethan dress. After the publication of the de Witt sketch of the *Swan theatre in 1888, Poel set about to discover how stage practice in Shakespeare's time resided in Shakespeare's texts. Believing that the plays had been buried under the silt of subsequent production styles, he insisted that only by taking them out of the proscenium theatre and discovering Elizabethan performance methods could they be adequately understood. For Measure for Measure in 1893 (in which he played Angelo) he built what he considered to be a replica of the Fortune theatre as a portable structure and placed it on the stage of the Royalty theatre, jutting out partly into the auditorium, adding ladies and gentlemen as 'spectators' in Elizabethan costume matching that of the actors. He founded the Elizabethan Stage Society in 1895 and until 1905 directed a number of its productions, starting with Twelfth Night and continuing with Richard 11 (1899, with Harley *GranvilleBarker in the title role), Everyman (1901), Romeo and Juliet (1905), and lesser-known plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries. In the 1920s he Punished, *Arden of directed ^Fratricide Faversham, Sejanus, and plays by *Rowley and *Chapman. He refused a knighthood in 1929 because he would not be allied with other theatrical knights whose work he abhorred. Though his productions were usually marred by idiosyncratic notions of vocal tone and delivery, and though his understanding of Elizabethan acting was seriously flawed, he had great influence on the general 20th-century project of invigorating Shakespeare by simple and open staging. His inheritors include Granville-Barker and Tyrone *Guthrie, who succeeded in part because they followed Poel's ideal rather than his practice. DK Poel, William, Shakespeare in the Theatre (1913) Speaight, Robert, William Poel and the Elizabethan Revival (1954) p o e m s on Shakespeare. The First *Folio of Shakespeare's works (1623) included five commemorative verses in its introductory material, two by Ben *Jonson, one by Hugh *Holland, one by Leonard *Digges, and one, by I. *M., for whom a number of authors have been proposed. The Second Folio (1632) added three
more; the anonymous 'Upon the Effigies of my Worthy Friend', *Milton's epitaph 'What need my Shakespeare for his honoured bones . ..', and 'On Worthy Master Shakespeare and his Poems' by I.M.S. The most influential of these pieces has been Jonson's 'To the Memory of my Beloved, the Author Mr William Shakespeare: And What He Hath Left Us', which was reprinted in all the major 18th-century collected works and has adorned many more complete editions since. It has been read biographically, '—thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek'; has articulated Shakespeare's 'immortality', 'He was not of an age, but for all time!'; it described, presciently, his status as an international figure and a source of national pride, 'Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show, I To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe'; and contributed the enduring descriptor 'Sweet swan of Avon'. These points were developed by many subsequent poets, building on Jonson and developing Milton's metaphors for Shakespeare's instinctive imaginative power—'fancy's child' who 'warble[d] his native woodnotes wild' ('L'Allegro', f.1631)—and shifting from epitaphic commemoration to a celebration of skill and pride in national achievement. Thomas *Gray's 'The Progress of Poesy' (1751-4) supplied Shakespeare with an appropriate literary pedigree and made an implicit comparison with the classics as the Nine Muses forsook Parnassus and sought out Albion where, 'Far from the sun and summer-gale, I In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid, I What time, where lucid Avon stray'd.' Such sentiments, often exploited for commercial or political reasons and frequently using snatches of quotation, were made explicitly chauvinistic in theatrical prologues and epilogues, and rapidly became part of a standard language of *bardolatry. A good example is provided by Philip Frowde's 1727 prologue to Lewis Theobald's Double Falsehood. Such Shakespeare's genius was . . . let Britons boast The glorious birth, and, eager, strive who most Shall celebrate his verse; for while we raise Trophies of fame to him, ourselves we praise: Display the talents of a British mind, Where all is great, free, open, unconfined. The culmination of such material was the songs and verses written for the 1769 Stratford "Jubilee and its London dramatization, which celebrated 'Warwickshire Will', 'The *Mulberry Tree', 'Sweet Willy O' ('The pride of all nature'), and, in 'Roundelay', 'Avon's Banks, where Shakespear's bust I Points out, and guards his sleeping dust'. The hyberbolic chorus of David *Garrick's Ode, the Jubilee's centrepiece, left other poets little else to say—'The lov'd, rever'd, immortal name! I Shakespeare! Shakespeare! Shakespeare!'—although many went on trying, notably Matthew *Arnold. CMSA
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POLIXENES 'Poetomachia'. See 'WAR OF THE THEATRES'. poetry, dramatic. See DRAMATIC POETRY. poetry,
lyric.
See
LYRIC
POETRY,
SHAKE-
SPEARE'S.
poets, (l) A poet interrupts the discourse of Cassius and Brutus, Julius Caesar 4.2. The incident is based on *Plutarch's account of the poet Marcus Phaonius who supposedly ended the quarrel by making Cassius laugh. (2) See PAINTER.
AB
Poins, Edward (Ned). He is a companion of Prince Harry and practical joker in 1 and 2 Henry iv. AB Poland is mentioned in several of Shakespeare's plays, but nowhere, with one exception, is the country's presence more than incidental. The exception is Hamlet, where Poland plays an important role, providing, along with Norway, the background of international politics. Shakespeare's Poland, however, is both confused and confusing. Old Hamlet 'smote the sledded Polacks on the ice' (1.1.66), though it took *Malone to restore the sense of 'Poles' from Q2's and F's 'Pollax'—an Elizabethan spelling of pole-axe. The context, however, confirms his emendation, since Poland has always been in the eyes of the English a northern country ('Poland winter' is mentioned in The Comedy of Errors), and the image of people, or troops, travelling on sleds stirs the imagination and gives local colour to the Baltic wars. It is further confirmed by another allusion to Poland, the name of the garrulous courtier known in the first quarto as 'Corambis': 'Polonius' is simply the Latin for 'Polish'. The name seems slightly ironic: as the Lord Chamberlain (?) of the Danish court, dealing with international politics, Polonius is responsible for the permission given to the Norwegian army to march against Poland. Polonius further reveals the play's confusion about Poland when he uses the word 'Danskers' in his conversation with Reynaldo ('Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris', 2.1.7). The context implies that this means Danes, but in usual Elizabethan and Jacobean usage the word meant a citizen of Dansk, or Danzig (in German) or Gdansk (in Polish). Shakespeare appears to have confused dansk (Danish), Danske (Danes) with Dansk (Danzig or rather Gdansk) and Dansker (a citizen of Dansk or Gdansk), the only writer of the period to do so. The linguistic affinity probably led the poet to think that Denmark bordered with Poland, where Dansk was the major city and harbour: hence his apparent ignorance of the fact that in order to reach Poland from Denmark by land, Fortinbras' army would have to pass through three other countries, namely, Holstein, Mecklenburg, and Pomerania. All Danish or Swedish invasions of Poland in the
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16th and 17th centuries were sea invasions; military clashes with Norway are not recorded. Shakespeare may have heard about Gdansk (and Elsinore) from his fellow actors, many of whom in the late 1590s ventured tours on the Continent, where shortly Gdansk was to become one of the centres of their activity. During Shakespeare's own lifetime his plays were performed there. And in around 1610 a public theatre was built in that city, which accommodated c.3,000 spectators and which was reminiscent of the Fortune playhouse in Shakespeare's London (a reconstruction project of the Gdansk theatre is in progress). Also, from around 1617, the kings of Poland kept English players at their courts, and in fact Poland was the only country in Europe where the activity of English actors continued uninterrupted during the Thirty Years War. One of the bestknown English comedians, Robert Reynolds, who gained fame under the stage name 'Pickleherring', died in Warsaw in or shortly before 1642 and his wife was given a pension by King Vladislaus iv, perhaps the first known example of an actors' pension scheme in Poland. In the 17th century Shakespeare was performed in German prose translations. The first Polish translations (free adaptations rather, based on German renditions) and productions of Shakespeare appeared towards the end of the 18th century, and were the creations of Wojciech Boguslawski. His 1797 production of Romeo and Juliet m Lwow is considered the first Polish performance of Shakespeare; this was soon followed by Hamlet (1798), Othello (1801), King Lear (1805), and Macbeth (1809), which became permanent pieces in theatre repertories. After the failure of the November Uprising in 1831, in the Russian sector of partitioned Poland, Shakespeare disappeared from the stage for over thirty years: the Tsarist censors did not approve the frequent conspiracies against rulers and government in general presented in the plays. Shakespearian productions continued in the other parts of divided Poland, especially under Austrian rule (with two important cultural centres, Lwow and Krakow). These early productions were always abridged, adapted, and altered to suit the taste of the period, and it was not until around the middle of the 19th century that Shakespeare appeared unamended on the Polish stage. It was Stanislaw Kozmian, the theatre manager and director in Krakow, who introduced nearly 20 new productions of Shakespeare in the last quarter of the 19th century, including Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Nights Dream, and As You Like It—all in new translations from the original. Around this time, following a relative relaxation of censorship, Shakespeare enjoyed a comeback in Warsaw, and some of Poland's leading actors and actresses, such as Helena Modrzejewska
(who gained international fame as *Modjeska) Karol and, later, Ludwik Solski and Adwentowicz became Shakespeare's great promoters. In the period between the wars, in the reborn Poland, perhaps the greatest productions of Shakespeare were those directed by Leon Schiller, and the memorable Shakespearian roles were played, among others, by Aleksander Zelwerowicz, Kazimierz Junosza-Stepowski, and Stefan Jaracz along with Stanislawa Wysocka (the first Polish actress to play Hamlet, with Teresa Budzisz-Krzyzanowska being the most recent example). In the post-war period the greatest Shakespearian productions were directed by Willam Horzyca, Konrad Swinarski, Jerzy Jarocki, Adam Hanuszkiewicz, and Andrzej Wajda; best remembered are the roles of Jacek Woszczerowicz, Gustaw Holoubek, Zofia Kucôwna and Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieslak, to mention just a few. Despite its fuzziness about Poland's geography, Hamlet has featured prominently in recent Polish theatrical history, and in one respect has generally done so in an unusually full text. The scene in which Hamlet converses with a captain of the Norwegian army that is marching against Poland (4.4.9-29), often cut from productions elsewhere, has generally been retained in Poland, where this depiction of a foreign military threat has often been crucial for political interpretations of the play (as in Andrzej Wajda's production of 1981). On average there are about a dozen new Shakespearian productions in Polish theatres every season, and some Polish television productions of Shakespeare are equally notable for their artistic and intellectual quality. In 1993 an annual international Shakespeare Festival was started in Gdansk. Several translations of the complete plays have appeared (the last one was completed in the 1970s by Maciej Slomczynski), whereas the most recent attempt, undertaken by Stanislaw Baranczak, is still in progress. Individual plays have enjoyed varying popularity both on the stage and in translation (Hamlet is the leader with 23 translations). As far as Shakespeare criticism goes, Jan *Kott's Shakespeare our Contemporary has won international acclaim and has influenced theatre directors around the world, including such prominent figures as Peter *Brook. There is a Shakespeare Association of Poland, and recent Shakespeare scholarship is represented by the work of Przemyslaw Mroczkowski, Henryk Zbierski, and Marta Gibinska. JL Stribrny, Zdenëk, Shakespeare and Eastern Europe (2000) Pole, William de la. See SUFFOLK, EARL OF.
Polixenes is the King of Bohemia and father of Florizel in The Winters Tale. The
POLLARD, ALFRED WILLIAM corresponding character in Shakespeare's source, *Greene's Pandosto, is Egistus. AB
Pollard, Alfred William (1859-1944), English bibliographer. With W. W. Greg and R. B. McKerrow, initially through the Bibliographical Society's journal The Library, Pollard revolutionized not only the bibliographical and textual study of all early English printed books, but specifically that of Shakespeare, mainly by the careful investigation and analysis of all the earliest printed copies, in both quarto and folio. His main publications are: Shakespeare Folios and Quartos (1909); Shakespeare's Fight with the Pirates (1917); and The Foundations of Shakespeare's Text (1923). Some of the information at his disposal has been supplemented or superseded, but not the intellectual rigour of his approach. TM Polonius, father of *Ophelia and Laertes in Hamlet, is killed by Hamlet, 3.4.23. He is called Corambis in the first *quarto. AB 'Polydore' is the name given to Guiderius by Belarius in Cymbeline. AB Pompey. Mistress Overdone's servant, he is interrogated by Elbow and Escalus, Measure for Measure, giving his full name as Pompey Bum (2.1.205-7). He later becomes Abhorson's asAB sistant (4.2.14-17). 'Pompey*. Costard takes the part of Pompey the Great (Cn. Pompeius Magnus, 106-48 BC) in the performance of'The Nine Worthies', Love's Labour's Lost 5.2. AB
Pompey (Pompeius), Sextus (75-35 BC). Son of Pompey the Great, he makes a short-lived treaty with the triumvirs, Antony and Cleopatra 2.6. His defeat by Caesar is announced, 3.5. AB 'poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree. The'. See W I L L O W SONG.
pop music. Although those conspicuous 'New Elizabethans' the Beatles were prevailed upon to act out 'Pyramus and Thisbe' from A Midsummer Night's Dream in a TV special in the year of Shakespeare's 400th birthday, 1964 (with Ringo as Lion), and used an extract from a *radio production of King Lear m the fade-out to 'I am the Walrus' (1968), the influence of Shakespeare on anglophone pop music has predominantly been in the quotation of single lines of text, often simply as titles, such as B. A. Robertson's 'To be or not to be', David Essex's 'A Winter's Tale', and Dire Straits' love ballad 'Romeo and Juliet'. A more abstract Shakespearian influence can be seen in Elvis Costello's 'The Juliet Letters' (written in collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet), and the Smiths' song 'Shakespeare's Sister'. Bands adopting Shakespeare-inspired names include 'Shakespear's [sic] Sister' and 'Romeo's Daughter'. Two notable rock-based
musical versions of Shakespeare's plays are Drei Herren aus Verona (Nuremberg, 1972) and *Return to the Forbidden Planet(London, 1989), a sci-fi version of The Tempest loosely based on the 1956 film ^Forbidden Planet. Perhaps surprisingly, translated Shakespeare has been used frequently as a source for pop lyrics in Eastern Europe. LBC Grzegorzewska, Malgorzata, 'Wooing in Festival Terms: Sonneteering Lovers, Rock and Blues', in Jonathan Bate et al. (eds.), Shakespeare and the Twentieth Century (1998)
Pope, Alexander (1688-1744), poet and Shakespearian editor. Pope's six-volume edition of Shakespeare's Works (1725) was the product of a poet rather than a specialized philologist or dedicated Shakespearian scholar. Though Pope carried out some textual collation, and made innovative use of the Shakespearian *quartos, he was less concerned to explain difficulties and resolve variance on rational or critical grounds than to mediate his author for what were perceived to be more cultivated contemporary tastes. Pope's text is in part constructed and presented according to aesthetic criteria. The 'most shining passages' are pointed out by marginal quotation marks, or preceded by an asterisk. Some lines which Pope thought 'excessively bad', on the basis of their verbal quibbles or * conceits, he 'degraded' from the text itself to the foot of the page. Pope's preface is an important document of early 18th-century English criticism, characterizing Shakespeare, despite his 'great defects', as an original genius, the great poet of nature, and famously comparing the Shakespearian drama, in its strength and irregularity, to 'an ancient majestick piece of Gothick Architecture'. ML W
Strange's Men). Strange's Men's licence to tour, issued on 6 May 1593, names Pope but by 27 November 1597 he was with the Chamberlain's Men and received, with John *Heminges, the payment for court performances. His name appears in the actor lists for *Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour and Every Man in his Humour in Jonson's 1616 folio, and in the actor list in the Shakespeare Folio of 1623. In 1599 he was one of the original *Globe housekeepers, but he is not mentioned in the King's Men's patent of 19 May 1603. His will indicates that he also had a share in the Curtain playhouse. GE
Popilius (Popillius) Laena (Lena) (historically 'Laenas'), a senator who alarms Cassius by wishing him well and then speaking to Caesar just before the assassination, Julius Caesar 3.1. AB
popular culture. It is an accident of history that Shakespeare and popular culture seem to modern audiences an odd couple. For many previous generations, Shakespeare and popular culture would have seemed an obvious match. The public theatre for which he wrote occupied the bottom rung of early modern literary institutions, its questionable reputation shaped by its commercialism, its consciously broad appeal, and its predilection for sensationalism and low humour, qualities we have come to associate with popular culture rather than the high art with which Shakespeare is now routinely identified. Shakespeare's transformation from popular playwright to highbrow icon, largely a 20th-century phenomenon, is the result of several developments. Most important of these were the displacement of stage performance by *film, *radio, and television, and the instituDixon, Peter, 'Pope's Shakespeare', Journal of tionalization of English as an academic discipEnglish and Germanic Philology, 63 (1964) line. Professionalized study of Shakespeare Hart, John A., 'Pope as Scholar-Editor', Studies established canons of authenticity that tended in Bibliography, 23 (1970) Jarvis, Simon, Scholars and Gentlemen: Shake- to treat popular appropriations of Shakespearian Textual Criticism and Representations speare as degraded versions of the 'legitimate' of Scholarly Labour, ij2$-ij6$ (1995) Shakespeare found in the historical researches of scholars and in performances by profesPope, Elizabeth, née Young, (c.1740-97), a sional theatrical companies. However, many leading actress with a broad range. She made her have begun to reassess the function of Shakedebut as Imogen for *Garrick at *Drury Lane in speare in popular culture. Taking their cue from 1768. She specialized in young innocents— *cultural materialist criticism, *performance Perdita, Juliet, Miranda—and played Cordelia criticism, and cultural studies, scholars have to Garrick's Lear at the end of his career. She analysed how Shakespeare's works and cultural joined *Covent Garden in 1779 where her more authority have been used and reinvented, parmature roles, some performed with her husticularly in popular culture. If, scholars argue, band, Alexander, included Queen Katherine, Shakespeare exists not in a single authoritaLady Macbeth, and Mrs Ford. CMSA tive form but in multiple performances, pop Shakespeare ought to be included within the Pope, Thomas (d. 1603), actor (Strange's Men newly broadened continuum of Shakespear1593, Chamberlain's Men 1597-1603). First ian 'performance'. Many have recognized that mentioned among the players at Elsinore in audiences encounter Shakespeare through the 1586 (the others were George *Bryan and Wilmediation of cultural institutions of which the liam *Kempe), Pope's name occurs in the role mass media is a powerful and, for many, a priof Arbactus in 'Sloth' in the *plot of 2 Seven mary source of ideas about Shakespeare. Most Deadly Sins (performed before 1594, possibly by
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POPULAR CULTURE important to this sea-change, however, has been the revived ideal of a popular Shakespeare fostered throughout the 1990s, prompted largely by the box-office success of Shakespeare film. Since popular culture's interest in Shakespeare tends to be cyclical, a response to a perceived 'trend', Shakespeare has become a newly insistent point of reference in the mass media, particularly in film, television, and genre fiction. Current interest in pop Shakespeare belatedly acknowledges that for modern audiences it is Shakespeare's appearance in the mass media, and not in the work of the academy, that lends his work cultural legitimacy. The ubiquity of Shakespeare in popular culture hardly needs demonstration. Shakespeare's likeness is perhaps one of the most recognizable images in the world, functioning something like a trademark in the popular imagination. Shakespeare himself regularly appears as a character in popular *fiction, ranging from cameos—as in 'The Bard', an episode of the TV show The Twilight Zone (1963)—to full-blown fictional biography—as in Neil Gaiman's series on Shakespeare for the Sandman comics (1991) or Erica Jong's bestseller Shy lock's Daughterly')). Allusions to his works abound in *advertisements, sermons, political speeches, self-help books, radio and television shows, movies, popular drama, rock and *pop music, comic books, erotica, and genre fiction, in addition to being the subject matter of massproduced collectibles such as *ceramics, dolls, toys, games, *statuary, prints, stamps, and cards (see SHAKESPEARIAN A).
Shakespearian plots and characters have provided the basic armature for popular works in many genres, including westerns, science fiction, detective fiction, *Gothic romances, X-rated films, cartoons, and, most recently, teen movies. Some of these adaptations remain relatively faithful to their Shakespearian originals—Men of Respect (1991), a modernized film noir rendition of Macbeth, provides a good example. More typical, however, are popular works which might best be characterized as 'free variations' on Shakespearian motifs, works that negotiate between Shakespeare's works and the conventions, thematics, and iconography of popular culture. Where popular works depend upon recognition of the Shakespearian subtext or allusion, they tend to refer to those plays most widely taught or to lines, plots, or characters that have passed into common parlance—the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, 'To be or not to be', Hamlet's discoursing to the skull of Yorick, Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene. Conversely, 'proper' Shakespearian productions are increasingly shaped by conventions and allusions taken from popular culture—*01ivier's Hamlet {1948) and *Welles's Othello (1952) both borrow themes and motifs from 1940s film noir. In many cases, the vari-
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ation is so 'free' that the relationship to Shakespeare is not immediately recognizable and thus a matter of some debate. To what extent do stories of young lovers blocked by their families—a favourite of adolescent fiction and romance novels—owe specifically to Romeo and Juliet? Need the typical reader perceive the parallels between Gloria Naylor's novel Mama Day (1988) or the science-fiction film *Forbidden Planet (1956) and The Tempest to appreciate the works? Such problems open larger theoretical questions: to what end is Shakespeare being used if the use is not perceived by a popular audience? Do such parallels testify to Shakespeare's status as a persistent master narrative, to certain archetypes of which Shakespeare and contemporary popular works are both exemplars, or to the interpretative ingenuity of *bardolaters anxious to project Shakespeare into every nook and cranny of cultural production? Just as popular culture appropriates Shakespeare in a dizzying variety of forms and modes, so too works of popular culture display a complex—and contradictory—range of attitudes towards Shakespeare. Central to those attitudes is an awareness of Shakespeare's prestige, what Pierre Bourdieu has dubbed 'cultural capital', and of the tension in the cultural market place between highbrow and lowbrow. Frequently Shakespeare serves as a metonym for ideologically charged concepts— literature, classical theatre, highbrow culture, intellectualism—against which popular culture defines itself. Even so, popular conceptions of Shakespeare are hardly monolithic. Shakespeare is often treated as a repository of 'universal' truths, invoked to underwrite a particular claim—as in political speeches or advertisements—or to elevate the cultural register of the work—as in the case of book or movie titles. In the science-fiction film The Postman (1997), for example, the protagonist's concern with preserving a cultural legacy in a post-apocalyptic America takes the form of reciting Shakespeare. Shakespeare has also served to confer an aura of artistic authenticity on culture industries, particularly at moments of crisis. Early in the century *silent film adopted Shakespeare to counter claims that the movies were a corrupting influence, a process repeated in different ways in the mid-1950s with the talkies and in the 1950s and 1960s with early television. Even the sex industry has fought off threats of censorship by grafting Shakespeare onto erotica. This gloss of artistic legitimacy extends to the individual Shakespearian actor, as Paul Rudnick chronicles in his play / Hate Hamlet (1994). Just as often, however, legitimization operates in the opposite direction: Shakespearian performances by film or TV stars and productions of Shakespeare on film, TV, and radio confer the imprimatur of stardom on
Shakespeare and remove the taint of elitism and antiquarianism. Indeed, many cases of popular Shakespearian appropriation partake of what might be called reciprocal legitimization, through which Shakespeare and popular media exchange different types of cultural prestige. Other popular adaptations remain ambivalent or sceptical about Shakespeare's cultural authority, making it and its agents subjects of critique. Since mass culture typically establishes itself as 'popular' by demonizing the highbrow, Shakespeare has served as a symbolic target or, occasionally, as an unlikely ally. The vicissitudes of reading Shakespeare for class or performing Shakespeare in a school production are staples of TV and film partly because they are part of the audience's shared experience, but also because they provide opportunities for taking issue with 'proper' Shakespeare. Comedy groups such as the Reduced Shakespeare Company or Shakespeare Skum target the classcoded canons of stylistic decorum that underlie 'authentic' Shakespeare. Such canons of taste are closely linked for modern audiences to the quaint, quasi-scriptural ring of Shakespearian language, another favourite target for satirists. But critique can extend far beyond stylistic decorum to those institutions that use Shakespeare to purvey a notion of'proper' culture and thereby protect their own class privilege. Indeed, popular culture often situates Shakespeare in those cultural institutions that reproduce and regulate his high-cultural status. Such is the case with the campy horror film Theatre of Blood (1973), in which disgruntled actor Edward Lionheart makes Shakespearian murder scenes the gruesome instruments of his revenge against those critics who have rejected his performances. Theatre of Blood makes explicit what is implicit in pop renderings of Shakespeare: a contest between cultural constituencies for authority, a struggle that makes Shakespeare the cultural icon both weapon and prize. In the 1990s, a number of works have made the contestatory ideal of a popular Shakespeare a central concern, among them the films Looking for Richard (1995), A Midwinters Tale (1995), and Shakespeare in Love (1998). The sheer variety of popular Shakespeariana testifies that Shakespeare remains a powerful resource in popular culture, even as the media with which he has long been associated, the page and the stage, have been dethroned by the screen and the 'zine. (See also UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.)
DL
Burt, Richard, Unspeakable ShaXXXspeares (1998) Garber, Marjorie, 'Shakespeare as Fetish', in Symptoms of Culture (1998) Hawkins, Harriett, 'From "King Lear" to "King Kong" and Back: Shakespeare and Popular Modern Dramas', in Classics and Trash (1990) Levine, Lawrence W., Highbrow/Lowbrow. (1990)
PORTER, COLE Porter, Cole (1891-1964), American composer. His masterpiece is the *musical Kiss Me Kate, based on The Taming of the Shrew, first performed in Philadelphia and New York in 1948. Many of its individual songs gained independent popularity, notably 'Brush up your Shakespeare'. A film adaptation was made in 1953. IBC Porter, Eric (1928-95), British actor. He played a range of parts in repertory at Birmingham and Bristol and at the *01d Vic in London, notably Jaques and Bolingbroke. Between i960 and 1965 he was a pillar of the *Royal Shakespeare Company, excelling as Malvolio, Leontes, Ulysses, Macbeth, Shylock, and Bolingbroke. He returned in 1968 to play an impressive King Lear. He became a household name for playing Soames in the B B C television Forsyte Saga (1967) and won major awards for stage performances, but never quite achieved the recognition he deserved. MJ Porter, Henry (d. 1599), a playwright who wrote for the Admiral's Men between 1596 and 1599. His one surviving play, The Two Angry Women of Abingdon (printed in 1599), was successful enough to spawn two sequels. This bawdy farce ties itself in complicated knots around the feud between the two angry women of the title and the efforts of their husbands and children to reconcile them. Much of it is set at night, and it has affinities with A Midsummer Nights Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Porter may have been killed by his fellow RM playwright John Day in 1599. porters, (l) A porter attends the Countess of Auvergne, / Henry vi 2.3. ( 2 ) A porter tells Lord Bardolph where to find Northumberland, 2 Henry iv 1.1. (3) A porter admits Macduff and Lennox to Macbeth's castle, Macbeth 2.3. (4) A porter and his man try to contain the crowds eager to see *Elizabeth I'S christening, AB All IsTrue {Henry viii) 5.3. Porter's Hall. When Philip Rosseter's lease on the Whitefriars playhouse expired he obtained a royal patent (dated 3 June 1615) to build a playhouse in Porter's Hall in Blackfriars. The Porter's Hall playhouse was not long open when the Privy Council, under pressure from the London Corporation and presumably also the local residents, closed the playhouse by exploiting a flaw in the patent: since 1608 Blackfriars had not been 'in the suburbs' as the patent had stated, but within the City. GE Portia, (l) She is a rich heiress of Belmont who according to her father's will must accept the suitor who chooses the right casket of three in The Merchant of Venice. The Princes of Morocco and Aragon choose incorrectly, but Bassanio, whom Portia favours, is successful (3.2). Hearing of Antonio's plight she disguises
herself as 'Balthasar', 'a young doctor of Rome'; saves Antonio with a legal quibble at the Venetian court; and humbles Shylock (4.1). Ellen Terry's overt (by Victorian standards) advances to Bassanio and crucial use of feminine intuition in the trial scene were the result of the actress's developing proto-feminism. Since the Second World War, directorial attempts to integrate the Belmont romantic comedy with the Venetian tragedy have resulted in some interesting if less attractive Portias: notably Joan Plowright, whose calculating, mature Portia was very much a reflection of the Machiavellian world of Venetian business politics in Jonathan *Miller's 1970 production; and Deborah Findlay's smugly racist Portia in Bill Alexander's daring 1987 production. ( 2 ) She is Brutus' wife, who entreats him to confide in her, Julius Caesar 2.1. Her death is announced, 4.2.201.
Original portraits of Shakespeare continued to be produced during the 19th century, and most frequently appeared as engraved frontispieces to new editions of the plays. Depicting the sitter alongside attributes serving both to identify and elevate him has been one of the principal conventions of portraiture since the 16th century. It is, therefore, common to find Shakespeare not only shown with pen and scroll in hand, as in the statue by Louis François *Roubiliac commissioned by *Garrick (1758, now at the British Library), but portrayed alongside characters from the plays. The frontispiece to Knights Pictorial Shakespeare (1838), for example, was executed by the Dalziel Brothers and depicts the dramatist alongside his characters, forging a link between creator and creations worthy of Old Testament narratives.
In the wake of the successful construction of Shakespeare as a national hero (ratified, in 1847, Bulman, James C , Shakespeare in Performance: by the purchase of the dramatist's *birthplace and its transformation into a national shrine) The Merchant of Venice (1991) the spurious 'identification' of portraits with obviously non-authentic provenances became portraits Speculation regarding the date of the especially frequent during periods of national *Chandos portrait aside, no depiction of crisis. In the period preceding the explosion of Shakespeare made during his lifetime exists hostilities in 1914, one such 'discovery' was antoday. This absence has provided an opportune nounced in Llandudno, Wales, and a portrait of space for the scholarly, fantastic, and political 'Shakespeare' signed by 'Jo Taylor' was later projections of art historians, private collectors, exhibited at Earl's Court, London. Another *advertisers, comedians, journalists, and even mis-identification of a 17th-century Dutch publicans. Shakespeare's likeness has been portrait, likely to have represented an Old avidly sought out, copied, forged, appropriated, Testament prophet, and incorrectly attributed invented, and capitalized upon. The two iconic to Frans Hals, was made in the Reynolds News representations at the heart of this cultural on 5 November 1944. phenomenon are the *Droeshout engraving of 1623 and John Taylor's oil portrait of c.1610, Renewed momentum was given to the known as the Chandos portrait. These images identification of Shakespeare portraits by the were used as sources by artists commissioned to institutionalization of Art History as an acaproduce early portraits of Shakespeare, such as demic discipline. A celebrated instance of this Michael Van der Gucht, who produced a design phase of portrait identification is that relating to for a derivative of the Chandos portrait with a portrait miniature of a young man by Nichallegorical figures in 1709. Throughout the olas *Hilliard. In 1977, Leslie *Hotson argued 18th century, the principal appropriations of that the sitter was indeed Shakespeare, and Shakespeare portraiture were, however, comwrote a detailed iconological account of the mercial in function. The London publisher piece. Hotson claimed that Shakespeare was Jacob Tonson incorporated the Chandos porrepresented as Mercury (the amethyst-coloured trait into his shop sign and trademark, and the hat supposedly referring to the god) and that the same portrait was engraved for Paul Rapinyouthful hand grasped by the sitter was that of Thoyras's highly successful History of England Apollo. Hotson's view of the portrait, however, (1725), which went into eight editions between was not shared by other scholars, and Sir Roy 1725 and 1789. Strong later identified the sitter as Lord Thomas Howard, later 1st Earl of Suffolk. The 19th century witnessed a spate of 'reAB
discovered' originals allegedly used by Martin Droeshout in engraving the First Folio portrait. These images included the *Ely Palace, *Flower, and *Ashbourne portraits. This trend— intimately linked to the growth of *bardolatry—was exemplified by the appearance, in 1814, of an image in the style of a late 16th- or early 17th-century Dutch portrait, identified as Shakespeare's likeness, which came into the possession of Dunford, a prosperous publisher. The painting was later identified as a forgery.
The use of Shakespeare portraiture for purposes other than commemoration of the dramatist himself shows no sign of abating. The Droeshout engraving appeared on the initial screen of the British Library's computer catalogue until 1999, above the institution's claim to world-class status as 'the leading resource for research, innovation and scholarship'. Seemingly endowed with boundless authority and powers of historical and scholarly validation, yet executed in a style that was anachronistic in its
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PRINTING AND PUBLISHING own day, the Droeshout portrait testifies to the value still placed upon Shakespeare's authorial presence. CT
variously said to have begun in 1945, 1965, or 1980 and marked by an aesthetics of disunity, anti-hierarchy, flatness, ironyless irony, and decentred subjectivity. Many critics see its imEngler, Balz, 'Shakespeare in the Trenches', pact on Shakespeare after about 1980 in avantShakespeare Survey, 45 (1991) Hotson, Leslie, Shakespeare by Hilliard (1977) garde (or merely eclectic) theatrical productions Pointon, Marcia, 'Shakespeare, Portraiture, and and in poststructuralist literary criticism. National Identity', Shakespeare Jahrbuch, 133 (2) According to French social theorist (i997) François Lyotard, postmodernism (or postScharf, George, A Few Observations Connected modernity) is the intellectual problematic ariswith the Chandos Portrait of Shakespeare ing from the collapse of central assumptions of (National Portrait Gallery, Mar. 1865) long-term modernity (seen as having begun in Spielmann, Marion H., The Portraits of Shakespeare, vol. x of The Stratford Town Edition the Enlightenment). In this view modernity or (long-term) modernism had been marked by (1906-7) Strong, Roy, 'No Man's Hand', The Times, 6 teleological narratives of progress and increasOct. 1977 ing rationality which are now revealed as ideological. 'Postmodernist' in this connection Portugal was, apparently, of limited interest to denotes those theories and theorists which share Shakespeare: England's oldest ally is mentioned Lyotard's diagnosis, usually including Nietzin his writings only twice, once as one of several sche, Foucault, and other poststructuralists, and foreign countries in which banished xenophohence this term is sometimes used in Shakebic rioters would themselves be foreign (Sir speare studies to designate poststructuralist Thomas More, Add.II.D., 141-5), and once critiques of rationality and teleology. At other solely for its proximity to the depths of the Bay times the term is used in a conflated sense, of Biscay ('My affection hath an unknown HG combining meanings (1) and (2). bottom, like the Bay of Portugal', As You Like It 4.1.197-8). Reciprocally, Portugal's interest in poststructuralism. See STRUCTURALISM AND Shakespeare was slow to develop. An 18th-cenPOSTSTRUCTURALISM. tury Hamlet opera (Francisco Luis Ameno's Powell, William (?i735—69), English actor. He Ambleto em Dania, c.ijtf) was based on an was trained by *Garrick, and covered many Italian or Spanish version of the story rather roles during his absences abroad. Success in than directly on Shakespeare's play, and when a London was followed by summer seasons at few Shakespeare plays began to appear in PorBristol, where he became a popular actortuguese (and subsequently *Brazilian) theatres manager. In 1767 he acquired a part-share in in the later 18th and 19th centuries they too had *Covent Garden theatre, where he played major been heavily adapted from translations into Shakespearian roles including Hamlet. other languages (Rebello da Silva's Othello, CMSA 1856, for example, is a sentimental prose adaptation of de *Vigny's French translation). It took a monarch to initiate a tradition of translating Shakespeare directly from English into Portuguese, Louis 1, who published his Hamlet anonymously in 1877. His notable successors included Bulhâo Pato and Antonio Petronillo Lamarao. In the 20th century a translation of the Complete Works was carried out by the Faculty of Letters at the University of Coimbra, and the coming of age of a Portuguese Shakespeare industry was marked by a major conferMD ence in Lisbon in 1987.
Pre-Raphaelite
postmodernism, (l) The aesthetic and literary period following 20th-century modernism,
Priam is King of Troy and father of Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Paris, Troilus, and
Brotherhood, a
society
formed in 1848 by the English artists William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with four friends. The PreRaphaelites identified in Shakespeare an ideal they could harness to their attempt to revitalize British art with noble ideas and fidelity to nature: in 1848 Rossetti and Hunt prepared 'a list of Immortals, forming our creed', wherein the 'first class' comprised Jesus and Shakespeare. Hunt chose episodes dramatizing moral conflict in Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus (1851) Coloquio sobre Shakespeare, 7, 8 e 9 de maio de and Claudio and Isabella (1850-3). Millais's 1987 (1987) luminous Ferdinand Lured by Ariel (1849) ende Mello Moser, Fernando, Discurso inacabado: livened popular *fairy painting with an innovaensaios de cultura portuguesa (1994) tive realism which also characterizes his Ophelia Michaelis de Vasconcellos, Carolina, 'Shake(1852) (see page 354). Like the latter, Rossetti's speare in Portugal', Shakespeare Jahrbuch, 15 sketches Hamlet and Ophelia (f. 18 54-9) and The (1880) Death of Lady Macbeth (c.1876), and his paintPosthumus Leonatus, banished when his ing of the pining Mariana (1868-70), all explore marriage to Innogen is discovered, makes a tragic Shakespearian women—a theme popular wager with Giacomo that he will not be able to with followers of the movement after 1853, when seduce her in Cymbeline. AB the formal Brotherhood ceased. KN
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Margareton in Troilus and Cressida. (According to Homeric legend, and the joke Pandarus recounts at 1.2.156-8, he had 50 sons.) AB priests, (l) A priest greets Hastings, Richard in 3.2, who whispers something to him. He is named 'Sir John' at line 105. ( 2 ) A priest tells Laertes that *Ophelia's 'death was doubtful', Hamlet 5.1.221. (3) A priest testifies that Olivia and Sebastian have married, Twelfth Night 5.1.154-61. AB Prince of Verona. See ESCALUS, PRINCE OF VERONA.
princes, five. See KNIGHTS, FIVE. Princes in the Tower. See EDWARD, PRINCE.
Princess's theatre. See KEAN, CHARLES.
printing and publishing. In Shakespeare's time the printer of a book owned the type and the press. The publisher acquired the manuscript, paid for copies of it to be printed, and sold them wholesale. The imprint on a Shakespearian *quarto usually identifies the printer (often only by his initials, perhaps to emphasize the greater importance of the publisher), the publisher, and the bookshop (usually the publisher's own) in which copies of the book could be purchased wholesale: 'Printed at London by P.S. for Thomas Millington, and are to be sold at his shop under Saint Peter's Church.' The publisher would acquire a manuscript that he deemed publishable, register it in the *Stationers' Register, and obtain approval of the text by the ecclesiastical authorities (or by others to whom this task had been delegated, such as the *Master of the Revels). The publisher would select a master printer and the two would then decide on the format, type size and design, paper quality, and the number of copies likely to be sold. The publisher would supply the printer with the manuscript to be printed and a sufficient amount of paper for the print run. The master printer would decide whether the text would be set into type by a single *compositor or by a number working simultaneously, in which case the copy would have to be cast off". The compositor would set individual lines of type in a composing stick, transfer these to a * galley which made up a page, and then transfer his galleys to the imposing stone where they would be positioned to make up a *forme. When the forme was completed, it would be tightly wedged into an iron frame and delivered to the pressman, who would place it on the bed of the press. While one pressman inked the type in the forme, another placed a sheet of slightly dampened paper on a hinged frame covered with parchment, the 'tympan'. The tympan was then folded over the type and rolled under the upper plate of the press, the 'platen'. The pressman pulled on the bar, causing the platen
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From addition IID of Sir Thomas More (0.1603?), one of the passages most convincingly attributed to Shakespeare: here the humane More quells a riot against foreign refugees. Shakespeare's distinctive 'p' (see HANDWRITING) is visible in the word 'peace', which occurs twice shortly before the cancelled lines.
Folio, in the actor list in the Shakespeare *Folio of 1623, and in the King's Men patent of 1603. Sly also appears as himself in the Induction to *Marston's The Malcontent. Although not an original housekeeper of the *Globe he acquired a share in it after Augustine *Phillips died in 1605 a n d j u s t before his own death he became a housekeeper of the *Blackfriars. GE
Hamlet ever attempted' (an edition of four parallel texts), encouraged if not exploited by the infatuated enthusiasm of an older married male mentor. TM Smith the Weaver. See WEAVER, SMITH THE.
Smock Alley. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Smock Alley, Dublin, was a key location for Shakespearian performance: the theatre's copy of the Third *Folio (1663) survives, in which fourteen of the plays are marked up for performance. Managed from 1745 to 1758 by Thomas *Sheridan, the theatre followed the trends set by comparable London establishments. It closed in 1788. MTB
Smetana, Bedrich (1824-84), Czech com- Snare. See FANG. poser. For the Shakespeare tercentenary celeSnitterf ield, a village some 3 miles (5 km) north brations in Prague in 1864 Smetana composed a of Stratford where Shakespeare's paternal Festival March and also conducted *Berlioz's grandfather Richard *Shakespeare owned a Roméo et Juliette. Three years later he composed house and farmed land owned by Robert some fanfares for the second act of a production Arden, Shakespeare's maternal grandfather. of Richard m in Prague; his tone poem Richard John *Shakespeare lived there before moving to m (composed in 1857-8) was performed before Stratford in 1551. William Shakespeare's aunt the start of the performance. IBC Margaret Webbe, last surviving sister of Mary *Arden, was buried there in 1614. SW Smethwick, John. See FOLIOS. Smidt, Kristian (b. 1916), Norwegian Shakespeare scholar. He has made distinguished contributions to international scholarship in the areas of textual studies (particularly on Richard m, 1969,1970) and of genre criticism (with four books on Unconformities in Shakespearian drama, 1982-93), and has also written on problems of Shakespeare translation. I-SE Smith, Dame Maggie (b. 1934), British actress. An outstanding player, especially in high comedy, she became in 1962 a founder member of the *National Theatre under Laurence *OHvier, to whose Othello she played Desdemona on stage and on film. She also played Beatrice to the Benedick of her then husband Robert *Stephens. Feeling cheated of Rosalind—a part she seemed born to play—when the National staged its all-male As You Like It, she moved to the Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario, where her Cleopatra, Titania, Lady Macbeth, and Rosalind were acclaimed. She was Duchess of York in the Richard Loncraine/Ian *McKellen film of Richard m (1996). MJ Smith, Teena (Mary Lilian) Rochfort (186183), English scholar. The poet Robert Browning wrote to the founder of the New Shakespeare Society, Frederick *Furnivall, referring to the recently deceased Teena as 'your sweet lost intimate'. Ann Thompson {Shakespeare Quarterly, summer 1998) describes how Teena, burning letters in 1883, fatally setfireto herself. Her brief career is a cautionary Victorian tale, fortunately unthinkable in modern post-feminist academia, of an ardent young female scholar undertaking 'the most complex presentation of the texts of
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Snout, Tom. He is a tinker in A Midsummer Nights Dream, given the parts of Pyramus' father (see 1.2.59) a n d the 'Wall' (5.1) in the interlude. (In *quarto editions the latter part was given to *Flute.) AB Snug is a joiner who is given the part of the 'Lion' in the interlude of A Midsummer Nights Dream. AB Société Française Shakespeare, founded in 1977 as the national French Shakespeare society, affiliated to the international Shakespeare Association. Its members are academics and students or amateurs. From the first it established close links with the world of theatre, and the aim of its members is to promote the knowledge and appreciation of Shakespeare in France. Two conferences are held each year in November and February: the first is dedicated to the Shakespearian work on the national syllabus of competitive examinations for the recruitment of secondary-school teachers, and the second focuses on a theme agreed two years beforehand. Proceedings of both conferences are published annually. J-MM Soest portrait. This half-lêngth oil painting, executed at some time after 1656 by the Dutch artist Gerard Soest (1600-81), may conceivably be based on the *Chandos portrait: it now hangs in the Shakespeare Centre in Stratford. Its presentation of a comparatively refined-looking, soulful, uncorpulent Shakespeare pleased 18th-century bardolaters, but it has no authority as a likeness. CT Solanio. See SALERIO.
Soldier who has killed his father. In Richard Duke of York (j Henry vi) he laments his tragedy before King Henry, 2.5, followed by a second soldier who has killed his son. AB Soldier who has killed his son. See SOLDIER WHO HAS KILLED HIS FATHER.
AB
soliloquy, a dramatic speech uttered by a single character, usually alone on the stage, either as a confidential disclosure to the audience or in private but audible self-communion. This kind of speech may reveal motives that are hidden from the other characters, as with Richard of Gloucester (e.g. Richard 77/1.1.1-41); or unfold a character's inner tensions and doubts, as in Shakespeare's most admired soliloquies—those of Brutus, Hamlet, and Macbeth. The device may also serve comic purposes, as in Malvolio's soliloquies (e.g. Twelfth Night3.4.63-82). CB Solinus, Duke of Ephesus. He condemns Egeon to death if he cannot pay a ransom of 100 marks, The Comedy of Errors 1.1. AB Somerset, Duke of. (l) Edmund Beaufort (d. 1455), the 2nd Duke of Somerset, continues the feud of his elder brother (see (3) below) against the Duke of York in The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry vi); is made regent of France, 1.3.215 (but has to report France lost, 3.1.85); willingly goes to prison to avert York's attack, 4.8, but when York finds him at liberty, 5.1, it precipitates the Wars of the Roses. He is killed by crookback Richard at St Albans (5.2). (2) The Duke of Somerset in Richard Duke of York (j Henry vi) appears to be a composite of the brothers Henry and Edmund Beaufort, the 3rd and 4th dukes of Somerset, respectively. He defects with Clarence in protest against Edward's marriage (4.1.121)—Henry Beaufort (d. 1464) also deserted Edward, to rejoin the Lancastrians, whom he had supported initially. The Somerset of Act 5, however, seems always to have been a Lancastrian, like Edmund Beaufort (d. 1471). (3) The 1st Duke of Somerset, John Beaufort (1404-44), nephew of Cardinal Beaufort and the Duke of Exeter, and grandfather of Henry VII, tries to keep the peace between Gloucester and the Bishop of Winchester (who becomes Cardinal Beaufort), but quarrels with Richard Plantagenet (later called the Duke of York), inviting those who side with him to pluck a red rose, / Henry vi 2.4.31-3, in the Temple Garden scene. AB Somerville reports the approach of Clarence's troops to Warwick, Richard Duke of York (j Henry vi) 5.1. He is called Summerfield in the quarto, Somervile in *Folio editions, and was first called Sir John Somerville by *Capell. AB songs in the plays range from snatches of popular *ballads to lyrics several stanzas long. The First *Folio edition indicates text to be
The Soest portrait of Shakespeare, executed by Gerard Soest (1600-81), pleased the playwright's 18th-century admirers (including Sir Joshua Reynolds, who painted this meticulous copy), but has no authority as a likeness.
SOURCES sung through indentation and italic typeface, though apparently not with absolute consistency. Since there is no music in the early editions of the plays and no scores survive that can be associated with particular productions in Shakespeare's lifetime, it is impossible to state categorically that any setting from the period would have been used in the first production of the play. Some songs survive with words and music together in manuscripts of Shakespeare's time or earlier, although words rarely match the play-texts exactly (e.g. the *Willow song). Others, published considerably later in the mid17th century, have been attributed to composers such as Robert *Johnson, who were active at the time of the original productions.
(New York, 1900) with Romeo (1904, opposite his future wife Julia *Marlowe), Benedick, Petruchio, and Malvolio; and later (1909-10)— less successfully—Antony and Macbeth. Regarded as America's leading Shakespearian actor, Sothern was also well received in London (1907)RF soundings (of trumpets). At outdoor .playhouses a trumpet was sounded three times to indicate that a performance was about to begin. The figure standing in the hut of the *Swan in de Witt's drawing might be a trumpeter, although his instrument lacks the distinctive bellmouth. The more refined indoor hall playhouses did not use this device. GE
sources. Speculation about the influences upon Shakespeare began during his lifetime. In those critical responses to Shakespeare's work that survive, he is identified as a disciple of LAD', 'BROADSIDE BALLAD', and 'MUSIC IN THE *Ovid, as a modern-day *Plautus and *Seneca, PLAYS'. JB Seng, Peter J., The Vocal Songs in the Plays of as the author of Italian-style comedies. However, Shakespeare's attempts to locate himself Shakespeare (1967) within a literary tradition were not always met Sternfeld, Frederick W. (éd.), Songs from Shakespeare's Tragedies (1964) with such approbation. In Greene's Groatsworth of Wit (published in 1592), Robert *Greene acsonnet, a short lyric poem, usually of fourteen cused the poet of stealing the words of his fellow rhyming lines which in English are of ten syldramatists. Shakespeare is portrayed as an 'uplables (in French twelve, in Italian eleven). The start crow, beautified with our feathers, that two principal patterns of the sonnet's rhymewith his tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide, scheme are (i) the Italian or *Petrarchan form, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a in which the first eight lines (the octave) are blank verse as the best of you'. Greene accuses distinguished from the last six (the sestet) by Shakespeare of presumption in borrowing the rhyme, by a pause, and by a 'turn' in the dirlines of a university-educated dramatist, perection of the poem's thought, the standard haps himself. The image of the tiger's heart rhyme-scheme being abbaabba, cdecde, often comes from Richard Duke of York (3 Henry vi), varied to abbaabba, cdcdcd; and (ii) the English a play that Shakespeare may have written in or Shakespearian form, established by Surrey, collaboration with Greene or have based on one comprising three quatrains and a final couplet of Greene's earlier works. Whatever their relarhyming ababcdcdcdefef, gg, or, in *Spenser's tionship, the older dramatist identifies Shakepreferred variant, ababbabccdcd, ee. CB speare as one whose writing is not pure invention (as later critics would claim) but deSonnets (see page 438) pendent upon the inventiveness of others, Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music. A second, dressed in borrowed plumes. Nevertheless, it is or supplementary title page in The ^Passionate also significant to a study of Shakespeare's Pilgrim provides this heading for the last six sources that Greene lays his charge of plagiarism poems in the volume. There is no clear reason by plagiarizing Shakespeare. Both dramatists for the division. SW were working in a culture of continual imitation, quotation, and * allusion. Prose romances Son w h o h a s killed his father, see SOLDIER were rewritten as plays, old plays were rewritten WHO HAS KILLED HIS FATHER. as new, classical texts were translated, adapted, and plundered for moral sententiae, apothegms, soothsayers, (l) A soothsayer warns Caesar to and imagery. Greene's own first extant play, 'Beware the ides of March', Julius Caesar 1.2 and Alphonsus, King of Aragon, was deeply indebted 3.1. (2) A soothsayer 'reads' the hands of to *Marlowe's Tamburlaine. Charmian and Iras, Antony and Cleopatra 1.2, and warns Antony away from Octavius Caesar, Assumptions about Shakespeare's reading 2.3. (3) In Cymbeline 5.6.434, a soothsayer have invariably depended upon a culture's atnamed Philharmonus interprets his own vision titude towards imitation and originality. In 4.2.348-54, and Posthumus' 'label', 5.6. AB 1630, *Milton published a poem praising More details of tunes and settings are given under the heading for each song; see also 'BAL-
S o p h o c l e s . See GREEK DRAMA.
Sothern, Edward Hugh (1859-1933), Englishborn American actor who followed his Hamlet
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Shakespeare as an imaginative genius, 'fancy's child', apparently unencumbered by any literary debts. Ten years later, a dedicatory epistle by Leonard *Digges was posthumously published
in an edition of Shakespeare's Poems, commending the poet for not borrowing from Greek, Latin, or English writers: 'Nor begs he from each witty friend a scene I To piece his acts with. All that he doth write I Is pure his own.' As Greene could have testified, this was blatantly untrue, but did not prevent the *Romantic conception of Shakespeare as an artless genius whose work was pure inspiration. When critics did acknowledge Shakespeare's debt to his sources, it was often to his detriment. In Shakespear Illustrated (1753-4), Charlotte *Lennox complained that in almost every case the original source was superior to Shakespeare's adaptation and deplored his 'lack of invention' that he should have to rely on these works at all. In the 21st century, attitudes towards Shakespeare's borrowing are very different. Scholarship has embraced a large number of sources for Shakespeare. There are works to which he returned again and again, perhaps part of his own library. These include Sir Thomas North's translation of *Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, *Holinshed's Chronicles, Ovid's Metamorphoses in Latin and in Golding's translation, and the Geneva *Bible. An edition of *Chaucer's works, *Florio's translation of *Montaigne's Essais, and a collection of Senecan tragedies were probably also part of Shakespeare's collection. Apart from these, the dramatist drew upon a variety of other sources. Shakespeare clearly learnt and borrowed a great deal from his contemporaries, from *Lyly's comedies and Marlowe's plays and poetry, from Greene's romances, *Lodge's Rosalynde, and a number of anonymous plays. He also knew well *Sidney's Arcadia, *Spenser's Faerie Queene, and the sonnets of Spenser, *Sidney, and *Daniel. Collections of Italian romances such as *Boccaccio's Decameron, *Cinthio's Hecatommithi, and *Bandello's Novelle (the latter reproduced in *Belleforest's Histoires tragiques) provided many of the plots for Shakespeare's plays. Classical literature, other than that of Ovid and Seneca, is represented in the canon by reference to *Virgil, Plautus, *Terence, *Apuleius, *Lucan, and *Lucian. Other historians to whom Shakespeare was indebted include Edward *Halle, Jean *Froissart, John *Foxe, Richard *Grafton, and William *Warner. The ^Mirror for Magistrates was another important historical source. Among didactic writings, Shakespeare seems to have known *Castiglione's The Courtier, *Elyot's The Book of the Governor, and various tracts including Samuel *Harsnett's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures and William *Strachey's True Reportary of the Wrack and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates. The number of potential sources for Shakespeare continues to grow, partly through the discovery of further relevant texts, partly (cont. on page 441)
Sonnets
D
espite his contemporaries' preference for Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrèce, the Sonnets have long been regarded as Shakespeare's most important and distinctive contributions to *lyric poetry, as well as the most profoundly enigmatic works in the canon. In certain select circles Shakespeare already had a reputation as a sonneteer by 1598, when Francis *Meres wrote of 'his sugared sonnets among his private friends', but although two of his sonnets reached print the following year (in The ^Passionate Pilgrim) his whole sequence only appeared in 1609, with A *Lover's Complaint as its coda. (A *Stationers' Register entry of 1600 for a book called Amours by I.D., 'with certain other sonnets by W.S.', could conceivably refer to some of Shakespeare's sonnets, but the issue is clouded by the existence of another sonneteering W.S., William Smith, who had published a sequence of his own in 1596.) The title page of the 1609 quarto is dominated by Shakespeare's surname, and implies that the sonnets of this by-now celebrated dramatist and narrative poet have long been eagerly desired by the reading public: it offers 'SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS. Never before Imprinted.' Although the subsequent history of the Sonnets suggests that this book failed at first to excite as its printer clearly hoped it would, its implication that these poems had been awaiting publication for some time by 1609 is borne out by their style. It is probable that Shakespeare had begun writing sonnets some fifteen years before this quarto appeared, in the mid-i590s, during the boom in the form that extended from the posthumous publication of Sir Philip *Sidney's Astrophil and Stella in 1591 through Samuel *Daniel's Delia (1592), Michael *Drayton's Idea's Mirror (1594), and Edmund *Spenser's Amoretti (1595), among many other English sonnet sequences. Suggestively, Shakespeare's sonnets share rare vocabulary with Love's Labour's Lost (a play which includes no fewer than seven sonnets in its text), A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Richard 11, all of them composed around 1594—5. But Shakespeare was still writing in this form after Meres's report of the existence of some of his sonnets in manuscript: Sonnet 107, for example, appears to allude to the death of Queen Elizabeth in early 1603 ('The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured'). Variants between the 1609 texts of Sonnets 2 and 106 and versions transcribed in 17th-century manuscripts, and between the 1609 texts of 138 and 144 and the
versions published in The Passionate Pilgrim, suggest that Shakespeare revised some of the earlier-composed poems when organizing his collected sonnets into the sequence published in 1609. The positioning of A Lover's Complaintes the tailpiece to the sequence—itself convincingly dated to around 1603-4—suggests that Shakespeare finished assembling the collection at around that time. TEXT: The 1609 text of the Sonnets, published by Thomas Thorpe, is on the whole a good one, though its punctuation is demonstrably not authorial (two recognizably different compositors display quite different preferences) and an unusual recurrent misprint of 'their' for 'thy', found nowhere else in the canon, suggests that the edition was printed from a manuscript not in Shakespeare's own handwriting. Shakespeare's Sonnets, however, was Shakespeare's least reprinted quarto: its contents reappeared only in 1640, in John Benson's pirated volume Poems: Written by W. Shakespeare, Gent., which includes most of the sonnets along with A Lover's Complaint, 'The *Phoenix and Turtle', The Passionate Pilgrim, and various non-Shakespearian poems by the likes of Ben *Jonson and John *Milton. Benson reordered the sonnets and gave them titles, running some of them together, and,
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SONNETS
anticipating subsequent anxieties about their content, he made verbal changes to make some refer to a woman rather than a man. The question hanging over the belated 1609 quarto of Shakespeare's Sonnets has always been whether it too, like Benson's opportunistic reprint, was unauthorized, a question hardly simplified by its notoriously baffling dedication to *'MrW.H.': TO.THE.ONLY.BEGETTER.OF. THESE.ENSUING.SONNETS. MR.W.H. ALL.HAPPINESS. AND.THAT.ETERNITY. PROMISED. BY. OUR.EVER-LIVING.POET. WISHETH. THE.WELL-WISHING. ADVENTURER.IN. SETTING. FORTH. T.T. 'T.T.' is presumably the printer Thomas Thorpe, but beyond that no wholly convincing explanation of what this dedication is supposed to imply—or any clue as to whether Thorpe transcribed it from the manuscript or composed it himself— has ever been found. Does 'begetter', for example, mean the person who inspired the poems, or the person who wrote them, or the person who obtained the manuscript? Like so much else about the Sonnets, this dedication has provoked endless biographical speculation, and it is admittedly different in kind from the authorial dedications Shakespeare supplied when he published Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrèce. However, the view that the publication of the Sonnets was Thorpe's own unauthorized 'adventure' has usually been based on the questionable assumption that the poems themselves are so compromisingly autobiographical that Shakespeare must have actively sought to prevent their being made public, and while this view certainly invests the appearance of the 1609 quarto with ample drama (exemplified by the relevant episode of John *Mortimer's biographical novel Will Shakespeare, which imagines the poet smashing the type of a projected second edition after his wife has complained about the first) it is a very difficult one to substantiate. Given Thorpe's otherwise untarnished reputation and the lack of any evidence that Shakespeare took offence at the appearance of this book (compared to his reported displeasure over The Passionate Pilgrim), it seems reasonable to assume that the publication was legitimate. SOURCES: Beyond their general debt to the entire European tradition of the sonnet back to *Petrarch, Shakespeare's Sonnets are among his least obviously derivative or allusive works. In form, however, they are specifically indebted to the sonnet's chief English importers, Sir Thomas Wyatt (150342) and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1515-47), who had
439
generally translated their Italian originals not only into Jb# English but into a different shape of sonnet, replacing the f| Petrarchan division of the sonnet's fourteen lines into sense| £* units of eight and six (the octave and the sestet, often rhymed * w| abbacddc ejgejg) into the simpler 'English' (and subsequently «ES 'Shakespearian') pattern of three quatrains and a couplet lfc (usually rhymed abab cdcd efefgg). This form of sonnet had fjf^0 been employed by other English sonneteers between Wyatt's ^^ j time and Shakespeare's, but rarely as exclusively. Some spem cific literary borrowings can be traced: Shakespeare'sfirstfew % i sonnets echo a specimen from Erasmus' widely known treaJ%J tise De conscribendis epistolis, a model letter advising a young man to marry, and his last two are variations on an anacrep ' ontic epigram from The Greek Anthology, while in between different commentators have detected thematic and somem J times verbal debts to *Ovid, Sidney, Spenser, *Marlowe, and 3*%! Henry Constable (whose Diana, 1594, assuming it pre-dates «I j mm Shakespeare's poem, anticipates Sonnet 99, 'The forward dm violet thus did I chide'). However, Shakespeare, in common Jag!*1 with his most successful fellow sonneteers, seems for most of ^^ the sequence to be writing without specific literary models, a Jr fact which, coupled with the poems' very few references to ' mythology, has contributed to the willingness of many p"*»^ readers to treat the sequence as unmediated autobiography. *^J| Indeed Shakespeare is strikingly original in the uses to which ^ * King. Bring him before vs. Bgfn How, bring in the Lord. They enter* King. Now Ham/et, whites Pobnml' f Ham. At (upper. / ^ ^% King At (upper, where. j ? • : n _ . i*v Ham. Not where he cates, but where a is eaten, a certaine conuacation ofpolitique wormcs are cen at him ; your wormc is your oncly EmpcrourfcrdyctpWcfatallctcaiures elf to fat vs, and wee fat our felues for maggots, your fat King an d y our Icanc begger is but variable feruice, two diflics but to one table, t ^ ' s ^ p u t * , » \ King Alas, alas. <s . . . . . . . : %a Bam. A man ma^fifTi w)th the wprme that hath catc of a King, & eateofthcfi(h that hath feddeofthat wormc. ,. * ! King. King. Whatdooflthoun?eancbyfJHS? ; u\ua< fV Ham. Nothing but ta iht\pjpj$h$w a King may go c a J?rôg**f« r K i sbrou&b:
STAGE-KEEPER
Stage-keeper, the hired man responsible for sweeping the stage and attaching the playbills to posts near the playhouse, and occasionally called upon for small non-speaking roles in the performance. GE Stanislavsky (Alekseev), Konstantin Sergeevich (1863-1938), Russian actor-director, closely associated with *Chekhov, whose 'system' of acting—designed to balance the
actor's inner experience of his role with its precise vocal and physical expression—remains influential throughout Western theatre. Stanislavsky's work with Shakespeare started in Much Ado About Nothing (1896, as Benedick), Othello (1896, as the Moor), Twelfth Night (1897), and Julius Caesar (1903, as Brutus), all produced at the Moscow Society of Art and Literature. At its successor, the famous Moscow Arts Theatre, Stanislavsky staged The
UN
Merchant of Venice in 1898: controversially, he refused to treat it as Shylock's tragedy and gave the usurer a strong Jewish accent. He revived Twelfth Night in 1899, and staged it again in 1917, but the centrepiece of his encounter with Shakespeare was Hamlet (1911), co-directed with Gordon *Craig. The production tested the universality of Stanislavsky's realism-oriented acting system, and proved that it could not easily be applied to Shakespeare's poetic text. At the same time Stanislavsky, uncomfortable with tragedy, tried to turn Hamlet into a mystery play, with Hamlet a Christ-like figure and Fortinbras an archangel. His career-long grappling with Shakespeare ended in anticlimax when the Othello he planned while recovering from a stroke in Nice in 1930 opened and failed in Moscow without his knowledge. Stanislavsky's system was debased almost into a psychological therapy in the 1940s and 1950s by the Actors Studio in New York, whose neglect of vocal technique made their 'methodacting' graduates a positive liability in Shakespeare: but it has been adapted successfully by Shakespearian actors around the world, ever since Stanislavsky's writings first appeared in the 1920s. AO Stanislavsky, Konstantin, Stanislavsky on the Art of the Stage, trans, and introd. David Magarshack (1950) Stanley, George. See STANLEY, LORD, EARL OF DERBY.
Stanley, Sir John. He is to take the disgraced Duchess of Gloucester to the Isle of Man, The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry vi) 2.4. AB Stanley, Lord, Earl of Derby. He professes loyalty to Richard in Richard ill, but Richard distrusts him and keeps Stanley's son George (Richmond's half-brother) as a hostage. At *Bosworth Stanley refuses to lend military support to Richard (5.6.73) and crowns Richmond Henry VII after his victory. Called Derby by Shakespeare, Thomas Stanley (c. 1435-1504) was only created Earl of Derby by Henry vu. AB Stanley, Sir Thomas (d. ?i576), uncle of Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange, buried at Tong in Shropshire. E. A. J. Honigmann argues that Shakespeare was commissioned to write an epitaph between 1600 and 1603, well after Sir Thomas's death and that of his wife Margaret Vernon, buried with him in 1596. CS Stanley, Sir William. He helps Edward iv escape, Richard Duke of York (3 Henry vi) 4.6 (mute). AB
Konstantin Stanislavsky as Benedick, Moscow, 1897.
Starveling, Robin. He is a tailor, given the part of Thisbe's mother in the interlude of A Midsummer Nights Dream 1.2.56, and 'Moonshine' in the performance itself, 5.1. AB
448
STOW, JOHN Stationers' Company and Register. The Stationers' Company of London, a trade guild chartered in 1557, served as the organization that ordered trade practices of printers, publishers, booksellers, and bookbinders. Among the early articles by which the stationers regulated themselves was an ordinance enabling a printer to secure his right to a work (an early form of * copyright) by recording the title with his name in a register book. What stationers called *'copy' belonged to the member concerned once he or she had 'entered' it in this volume. Once entered, a copy could be 'assigned' to other members in a variety of ways: it could be sold, exchanged, mortgaged, or even subdivided into shares. The entries of Shakespearian texts in the Stationers' Register chronicle the publishing fortunes of his poems, individual plays, and the four *folios from the 1590s to the Restoration. ER Statuary. Following the spate of public, freestanding statues of Shakespeare produced during the 18th century by sculptors such as *Scheemakers and *Rysbrack, Shakespeare statuary began to be mass-produced on a scale appropriate to the domestic interior. Numerous statuettes of varying quality were produced in England during the 19th century, including those by Edward William Wynn (1811-85). Public *monuments to Shakespeare erected in the 19th century and since (such as the statues in Central Park, New York, and Lincoln Park, Chicago) have in general imitated Scheemakers's much-reproduced statue quite closely: even the *Gower memorial in Stratford modifies its general design only by showing a seated Shakespeare and adding likenesses of four of his characters. CT
Steevens,
George
(1736-1800),
evening spectacular pageant-exhibition-recreation of the Elizabethan era in Shakespeare's Memory (1976). This was in preparation for his 1977 multiple-stage production, with real trees and a pool, of As You Like It m a film studio on the outskirts of Berlin. Stein has also memorably staged Ibsen, Gorky, and O'Neill, as well as opera, including Verdi's Otello (Welsh National Opera, 1986) and Falstaff(WNO, 1988). Julius Caesar (1992) was presented at the Salzburg summer festival, where he had become theatre director; his final co-production there in 1997 was Othello (directed by Sam Mendes for the Royal *National Theatre) at the Perner-Insel theatre in Hallein. TM Stephens, Sir Robert (1931-95), British actor. Recruited from the *Royal Court to Laurence *OHvier's National Theatre from its inception, he played Benedick to the Beatrice of his then wife Maggie *Smith as well as Jaques in As You Like It. Notorious later for drinking and hellraising, he made a glorious comeback at Stratford as a vulnerable Falstaff (1991) and as a moving, frail King Lear (1993). MJ Sterne, Laurence (1713-68), Anglo-Irish cleric and novelist. Sterne's chosen literary persona Mr Yorick—witty, humorous, volatile, much possessed with death, memory, time, and melancholia—owes as much to Prince Hamlet as to his jester. He governs Tristram Shandy (1760-7) and A Sentimental Journey (1768) (both crammed with digressions on Hamlet), and, scandalously, Sterne's sermons, published as The Sermons of Mr Yorick (1760). Appropriately, Sterne's own skull was exhumed by graverobbers (and recognized by an acquaintance, at an anatomy lecture). NJW
English
Stewart, Patrick (b. 1940), British actor. The balding Yorkshireman has won worldwide iconic status as Captain Picard in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Earlier from 1966 he was a stalwart of the *Royal Shakespeare Company, where his roles included Touchstone, Hector, King John, Cassius, Enobarbus, Titus Andronicus, Shylock, and Leontes. In 1998 in Washington, DC, he Groom, Nick, 'Introduction' to The Johnsonplayed a white Othello with black Americans as Steevens Edition of the Plays of William Shake- the Venetians and Cypriots. MJ speare (12 vols., 1995), vol. i. Sherbo, Arthur, The Achievement of George stichomythia, dramatic dialogue in which two Steevens (1990) characters rapidly exchange single lines partly
Shakespearian editor and commentator. Steevens produced a groundbreaking oldspelling reprint of *quarto texts entitled Twenty of the Plays of Shakespeare (1766), the great variorum expansions of Samuel *Johnson's 1765 edition (1773, 1778), and (in retaliation to Edmond *Malone) a new fifteen-volume variorum (1793). MLW
Stefano (Stephano). (l) He is one of Portia's servants in The Merchant of Venice, and appears as a messenger, 5.1. (2) The Tempest. See TRINCULO.
AB
Stein, Peter (b. 1937), German theatre director. Stein's approach at the Berlin Schaubiihne theatre (1970-85) was characterized by prolonged collective research into the social and political context of any play, leading to a two-
449
echoing one another's previous utterances, as in Richard 1114.4.274-98. CB Stoll, Elmer Edgar (1874-1959), American professor and critic, best known in Shakespeare studies for his vigorous, at times cantankerous essays (written over the period 1914-44) critical of Romantic Shakespeare criticism, especially that of A. C. *Bradley. In the spirit of early 20th-century professionalism Stoll believed that
interpretative problems in Shakespeare studies could be solved through knowledge of Elizabethan stage techniques and assumptions. For example, he thought that soliloquies were always reliable and that in general, as he put it, in drama things must be as they seem. Consequently, Stoll believed *Coleridge and Bradley, with their philosophical interests, were overly subtle complicators of what he thought of as Shakespeare's essentially simple art. Similarly, he was scornful of the *modernist criticism of *Empson, Brooks, and other *New Critics, and he criticized American historical critics like Lily Campbell for being too specialized and downplaying Elizabethan theatrics in favour of antiquarianism. HG
Stopes, Charlotte Carmichael (1841-1929), Scottish scholar, member of the New Shakspere Society. Her research into local associations is objective rather than fanciful (although occasionally inaccurate). Books include Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries (1897, r e v 1907) and Shakespeare's Family (1901). Shakespeare's Environment (1914) reproduces her findings on John *Shakespeare's accumulating debts and obligations. TM Stoppard, Sir Tom (b. 1937), Czech-born British playwright. Stoppard's habitual witty and inventive appropriation of classic literature (Shakespeare, Byron, Wilde, Joyce) is a mixture of challenge, confrontation, parody, and tribute. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966; film 1990) places two of Hamlet's, supernumeraries centre stage, puzzling in Beckettian fashion about both the nature of the action and the meaning of the universe. Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth (1979) offers two separate but linked plays, each incorporating truncated versions of the respective Shakespeare texts, the second reflecting Stoppard's continuing preoccupation with oppressive censorship in the former Czechoslovakia. Stoppard's contribution to the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love (on which he is co-credited as scriptwriter alongside the American Marc Norman) is assumed to be the script's exhilarating wit and the exuberant combination of comedy and romance it achieves by its sly recycling of the structure of Romeo and Juliet. TM Stow, John (1525-1605), historian. His Survey of London (1598, 1603, later expanded by *Munday) is still a valuable resource for Shakespearian scholars, describing many aspects of ""London's built environment and its cultural activities. He is buried in the church of St Andrew Undershaft, Leadenhall Street, where there is a memorial to him. RSB Kingsford, C. L. (éd.), A Survey of London by John Stowe (2 vols., 1908) Wheatley, H. B. (éd.), John Stow: The Survey of London (1987)
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Gwyneth Paltrow as Lady Viola and Joseph Fiennes as Shakespeare in John Madden's film Shakespeare in Love, scripted by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, 1998.
Strachey, William (fl. 1588-1620), secretary to Stratford Festival Theatre, Ontario. See Sir Thomas Gates and Lord De La Warr at the CANADA; GUTHRIE, SIR TYRONE. English colony at Jamestown. Strachey travelled to Virginia on the Sea-Adventure in 1609 when Stratford-upon-Avon is the Warwickshire it was wrecked off the coast of Bermuda. town where William Shakespeare was born, Among the accounts of this incident, Strachey's brought up, and educated, where he later A True Reportary of the Wrack and Redemption ofbought property, and where he died and was Sir Thomas Gates, Knighth the one Shakespeare buried. The population of Shakespeare's seems to have relied on most in writing The Stratford can only be roughly estimated, but in Tempest. Written as a private letter, the 1600 was certainly no more than 2,500 and was Reportary was not published until its inclusion probably less. It was, however, growing around in Samuel Purchas's Pilgrims (1625) but Shake- this time—from afigureperhaps as low as 1,600 speare's connections with the Virginia Com- in 1550—due mainly to a drift from the counpany make it likely he read the manuscript. He tryside to the town. Its topography was, and still may also have known Strachey. JKS is, based on a grid pattern of streets laid out Frey, Charles, The Tempest and the New World', when Stratford was founded, as a 'new' town, Shakespeare Quarterly, 30 (1979) around 1200. The focal point was the presentday Wood Street/Bridge Street axis, along the Strain, a section of a song or dance-based instrumental piece (see Twelfth Nighti.1.4); often line of the main road through the town. Much repeated with *divisions. JB of this had originally been left as open space as a site for the town's market, but by Shakespeare's strangers, one called Hostilius, discuss time, large sections had beenfilledin, including Timon's fortunes, Timon of Athens 3.2. AB a row of buildings up the centre of Bridge Street. At the west end of Wood Street, then near the edge of the town, was another open The entry in the Stationers' Register for the hitherto space, which still survives, where the cattle unpublished plays printed in the First Folio, 8 Novemmarket was held. Branching off from Bridge ber 1623. Street to the north-west was a busy thorough451
fare, Henley Street, where Shakespeare's father, John, set himself up as a glove-maker in the
1550s (in the house now preserved as Shake speare's ^Birthplace); again on an important route out of town. High Street, to the south of the main road, was a main shopping area. Beyond that, in Sheep Street and Chapel Street, the atmosphere was quieter, and minor streets, like Ely Street, Scholars Lane, and Waterside, were, for the most part, either undeveloped or lined with barns. The parish church stood (and still stands) somewhat apart from the town, marking the site of the original village. This had been left undisturbed when the new town had been laid out alongside it, but by Shakespeare's day had dwindled to a few large houses occupied by town gentry. In Shakespeare's time, the state of the roads meant that travel at more than walking pace, even for those fortunate to own a horse and cart, was rarely possible. Most country-dwellers wishing to exchange their farm produce for items they could not make for themselves depended almost entirely on towns within a radius of 5 miles (8 km) or so. As a result, places like Stratford, with populations which now seem very small, had fairs and a weekly market and a whole range of shops and small businesses.
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
Some dealt in food but there were also tailors, shoemakers, glove-makers (including Shakespeare's father), wheelwrights, carpenters, blacksmiths, tinsmiths, and many more. Others, like vintners, mercers, and drapers, dealt in goods brought into the town from more distant parts. On Thursday, market day, the town was exceptionally busy. Some of the streets were named after the particular market held in them, Sheep Street, for example, and Rother Street (after the Old English word for cattle), or Corn Street (now Chapel Street) and Swine Street (now Ely Street). Shakespeare's grandfathers, Richard Shakespeare and Robert Arden, from the nearby villages of Snitterfield and *Wilmcote, would have been typical of the many country-dwellers making their way to Stratford on market day. Stratford was particularly well placed to serve as a market centre, at an important crossing of the River Avon where several routes converged. The Avon also marked a division between contrasting regions, the open Feldon to the south, largely given over to the growing of crops, and the more wooded area, the Arden, to the north, where cattle farming was more common. Stratford's market was thus an obvious place for the exchange of the different types of produce from these two regions. In the 1490s, a wealthy Stratford townsman, Hugh *Clopton, had made sure the routes to the south remained passable throughout the year by paying for the construction of the fine stone bridge that still spans the river. Stratford was famous for its malting—the roasting and grinding of grain, usually barley, for use in brewing. This was best carried out as near as possible to where the crops grew, as untreated grain was bulky and expensive to transport. The cereal-growing areas to the south of Stratford were particularly productive, hence the growth of the industry in the town: in one contemporary document Stratford is cited as 'one of the chiefest towns in England for maltmaking'. In 1553, Stratford was granted a charter of incorporation. This created a form of town council (the corporation), made up of aldermen and chief burgesses, headed by a high bailiff. They were given various properties in the town formerly belonging to the Guild of the Holy Cross. This was a medieval religious foundation which, until the Reformation, had also provided a school for the sons of its members and almshouses for the sick and infirm. These responsibilities passed, with the guild property, to the new corporation. In this way the corporation came to administer the * grammar school, where Shakespeare is believed to have received his *education. The corporation was not elected: itsfirstaldermen were named in the charter, and they were given the job of nominating the chief burgesses. New members were chosen in
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'One of the chiefest towns in England for malt-making . . . ': Stratford's brewing company, Flower & Sons, influential patrons of the town's Shakespearian theatres since the 19th century, have long celebrated their association with the playwright on their beer-mats.
the same way as and when vacancies occurred. Its membership came quickly to be made up of the principal tradesmen in the town, including Shakespeare's father, who was nominated to join the corporation in 1557, rising to serve as high bailiff in the year 1568/9. Like most other towns at the time, Stratford was beset by religious division. At one extreme were those who clung to the old Catholic faith and who were fined for it (including, it is believed, Shakespeare's father). They also risked accusations of treason whenever a national conspiracy was uncovered. At the other extreme were the Puritan reformers who wished to do away with bishops altogether and who saw the church courts as a means of carrying the Reformation into every aspect of people's lives. The majority, however, preferred to avoid taking up these conflicting positions. It is true that, in order to make its Protestant position clear, the Stratford Corporation ordered the defacement of the images in the *Guild Chapel in 1564. Moreover, in 1602 and 1612, it passed by-laws to restrict the activities of travelling players, and in 1605, much anti-Catholic fervour erupted when it was discovered that one of the *Gunpowder Plotters had been living at nearby Clopton House. On the other hand, the demands of Puritan extremists, who sought to use the law to regulate private morals, eventually proved too much for the corporation, leading,
in the 1620s and 1630s, to a serious quarrel with the vicar. Concentrations of people in towns presented problems. Water supplies, mainly wells and streams, could become contaminated, and the lack of a proper system to remove human and animal waste was a particularly acute problem at a time when livestock markets were held in the street and cattle slaughtered on the spot. The corporation did what it could to tackle these problems: 'muckhills' were set up in locations where they were least likely to cause offence, and fines imposed on those who failed to use them: Shakespeare's father was one of these, fined in 1552 for making a muckheap near his house in Henley Street instead of using the authorized one at the out-of-town end of the street. Butchers were ordered not to throw their 'garbages' out into the street, but to carry them out of the town to 'some convenient place', and pigs left by their owners to roam the streets were impounded. Nevertheless, outbreaks of disease were common, with particularly serious results for children. In the 1560s, the decade when Shakespeare was born, only one in three children was likely to survive into adulthood. Shakespeare's own son Hamnet died at the age of 11. Adults were also at risk from epidemics. The year 1558 was one of high mortality, with influenza apparently the cause. Far more devastating was an outbreak of bubonic plague in
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, ELIZABETHAN, AND THE THEATRE 1564, the year of Shakespeare's birth, which carried away around 15 per cent of the population. An epidemic of a different type struck in 1597, second only in severity to that in the plague year. Its precise nature is unknown but it was linked to the disastrous weather conditions of the period 1594-7, when heavy summer rains destroyed the harvests, leaving the poor malnourished and prone to infectious disease. This shortage of food in the 1590s led to serious riots in many large towns and protests in smaller ones, including Stratford. One measure the authorities took was to try to restrict the activities of the maltsters, who were thought to be wasting what little grain there was in the production of beer rather than bread. Others were simply accused of hoarding grain and malt in an attempt to profit out of steeply rising prices. In Stratford, this resulted in the 'Noate of corn and malt' of 1597, featuring Shakespeare's name, and those of some 74 other leading townsmen, some of whom clearly possessed more grain than they needed to feed their families. Serious *fires in 1594 and 1595 made this bad situation worse. At a time when fire-fighting equipment was virtually non-existent and buildings constructed of timber and thatch, town fires were a constant hazard. However, to suffer two in successive years, destroying at least 120 houses (perhaps as much as a quarter of the housing stock), at a time when the town was already experiencing general hardship, was particularly serious. The outbreak was blamed on shoddy backland development which had grown up to house the migrant poor who had drifted into the town. In petitions to the government, the corporation talked of 700 paupers in the town, at least a third of the population. This is reflected in the soaring death rate in 1596 and 1597, and in the regulations brought in by the corporation in an effort to deal with the problem of the poor. Vagrants were denied entry to the town, and newcomers driven out. Townspeople sheltering 'strangers and inmates' were fined and 'tippling houses' more closely regulated. There was another serious epidemic in 1608, probably smallpox, a fire in 1614, and in 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, a further outbreak of disease, probably typhus, the 'new fever' which Shakespeare's son-in-law, Dr John *Hall, noted in his casebook the following year. On the other hand, there is no evidence that the town went into serious economic decline. Many of Stratford's fine timber-framed buildings, including the richly decorated Harvard House in High Street, date from immediately after the fires of 1594/5, telling evidence of the wealth of the town's leading tradesmen. RB Dyer, Alan, 'Crisis and Resolution: Government and Society in Stratford, 1540-1640', in Robert Bearman (éd.), The History of an Eng-
lish Borough: Stratford-upon-Avon 1196—1996 (1997) Hughes, Ann, 'Building a Godly Town: Religious and Cultural Divisions in Stratfordupon-Avon, 1560-1640', in Robert Bearman (éd.), The History of an English Borough: Stratford-upon-Avon 1196-1996 (1997) Jones, Jeanne E., Family Life in Shakespeare's England: Stratford-upon-Avon 1570-1630 (1996) Martin, J. M., 'A Warwickshire Town in Adversity: Stratford-upon-Avon in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries', Midland History, 7 (1982) Stratford-upon-Avon, Elizabethan, and the theatre. In 1569 John *Shakespeare, the playwright's father, as bailiff of Stratford, approved payments of 9s. to the Queen's players and i2d. to the Earl of Worcester's players for official performances in the guildhall. These are the earliest recorded performances by professional players in the town. From then onwards many theatre companies visited the town—more, no doubt, than are recorded. Leicester's Men played there in 1573, Warwick's Men in 1574-5 and 1576, Worcester's Men in 1576 and 1577, Leicester's and Worcester's again in 1576-7, Strange's in 1579, Essex's also probably in August 1579, Derby's in 1580, Worcester's again in 1581-2, Berkeley's and Chandos's in 1582-3, and Oxford's, Worcester's, and Essex's in 1585-6. In 1586-7 five companies appeared: the Queen's, Essex's, Leicester's, Stafford's and another (unnamed). Clearly the young Shakespeare had ample opportunity to see plays and to encounter actors. When the Queen's Men arrived in 1587, one of their number, William Knell, had just been killed, in Thame, Oxfordshire. His widow was to marry John *Heminges. It has been conjectured that Shakespeare took Knell's place. In 1583, the Stratford officials contributed to a performance given at Whitsuntide by local amateurs and organized by one Davy Jones, who had married Elizabeth, daughter of Adrian Quiney, in 1577; after her death two years later, he married Frances Hathaway. Perhaps Shakespeare took part; he may even have written the script. In 1602 it was ordered 'that there shall be no plays or enterlewdes played in the Chamber, the guild halle, nor in any parte of any howse or Courte from hensforward'. This presumably reflects a trend towards Puritanism. When the King's Men visited Stratford for the first time in 1622 they were given money but refused permission to play. SW Eccles, Mark, Shakespeare in Warwickshire (1961) Strato. Brutus asks three followers—Clitus (sometimes spelled 'Clytus'), Dardanius, and Volumnius—to help him commit suicide when faced with defeat at Philippi. They each refuse in turn, but Strato agrees, holding his sword for him to run on to it, Julius Caesar 5.5.49. The account of Brutus' death broadly follows that of *Plutarch. AB
Strauss, Richard (1864-1949), German composer. He composed incidental music for a performance of Romeo and Juliet (Munich, 1887) and published, as part of Op. 67, three Lieder der Ophelia (1918). His tone poem Macbeth (1886-8), while reflecting some incidents from the play, is essentially a psychological IBC study. Street, Peter (1553-1609), carpenter-builder of the *Globe and *Fortune playhouses. Street completed his apprenticeship in 1577 and may have helped build the *Theatre in 1576; detailed knowledge of its construction would have been useful when he transformed it into the Globe in 1599. GE Edmond, Mary, 'Peter Street, 1553-1609: Builder of Playhouses', Shakespeare Survey, 45 (1993)
Strehler, Giorgio (1921-97), Italian director, founder of the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, and a major figure in world theatre. His first productions of Shakespeare occurred in 1948 but after contact with *Brecht he recognized the political potential in the texts. Coriolanus in 1957 used epic theatre methods to underline its contemporary relevance; the Henry vi plays, staged over two nights as Ilgioco deipotenti (The Game of the Mighty, 1965), openly drew upon speeches from other plays to illustrate Jan *Kott's theory of the histories as an endless cycle of bloodshed; King Lear (1972) presented Lear and Gloucester as old men taunted like animals in a circus. His greatest production of Shakespeare was The Tempest (1978), which used baroque scenography to equate Prospero's magic with the controlled artifice of the theatre itself. Throughout his career Strehler relied on the actor Tino Carraro for major Shakespeare roles. DK Strindberg, August (1849-1912), Swedish playwright. Influenced by Hagberg's 1847 translation and *Brandes's 1896 biographical study, he came to regard Shakespeare as 'my teacher'. Strindberg only ever saw four plays in performance, but regarded Hamlet as 'a revelation, and a milestone in my gloomy life'. His five Open Letters to the Intimate Theatre (1908-9, collected 1919) also refer to Shakespeare's tragedies and histories, which inspired his own cycle of plays on Swedish history. The plot and situation of his misogynistic masterpiece The Father (1887)—the destruction of a military man by paranoid sexual jealousy—irresistibly suggest Othello. TM
strip-cartoon Shakespeare. The Cartoon Shakespeare', presenting the text of popular plays inset within a series of illustrations of the
The closet scene from Hamlet, as seen in Stephen Grant and Tom Mandrake's 'Classics Illustrated' stripcartoon edition, 1990.
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STRUCTURALISM AND POSTSTRUCTURALISM
to news about Quiney's letter to Shakespeare of speare studies changed 'more suddenly than 25 October. SW ever before'. The year 1985 in particular saw the publication of three influential critical antholoSuffolk, Duke of. (l) William de la Pole, 1st gies marking the new influence of postDuke of Suffolk. See SUFFOLK, EARL OF. (2) structuralism: Patricia Parker and Geoffrey Based on Charles Brandon (d. 1545, created Hartmann (eds.), Shakespeare and the Question Duke of Suffolk 1514), in All Is True {Henry of Theory; Jonathan Dollimore and Alan viii), he plays a part in the downfall of Wolsey Sinfield (eds.), Political Shakespeare: New Essays (3.2) and the arraignment of Cranmer (5.2); acts in Cultural Materialism; and John Drakakis as High Steward at the coronation of Anne (éd.), Alternative Shakespeares. Parker and Boleyn (4.1); and is present at the christening of Hartmann featured specifically Derridean Princess Elizabeth (5.4). AB criticism of Shakespeare, notably the work of the leading Shakespearian deconstructionist Suffolk, Earl of. In / Henry vi he picks a red Howard Felperin, whose book Beyond Decon- (Lancastrian) rose in the Temple Garden scene struction (also 1985) dealt centrally with Shake- (2.4.37). At Angiers he captures Margaret of structuralism and poststructuralism are respeare. Terry Eagleton contributed a short but Anjou, arranges her marriage to Henry vi, and lated interdisciplinary theories of signification which made themselves felt in Shakespeare provocative instance of politicized deconstruc- woos her for himself (5.5). In The First Part of tion in his 1986 William Shakespeare. But the the Contention {2 Henry vi), now the Duke of criticism after about 1980. Structuralism had begun around 1910 in the linguistic theories of major line of poststructuralist criticism in Suffolk and the lover of Margaret (there is no Shakespeare studies (few used the label 'struc- historical evidence for the latter), he secures the Ferdinand de Saussure and continued in Central Europe and the Soviet Union, but it only turalist' after Derrida's critique became popu- disgrace of the Duchess of Gloucester, and the became an important intellectual force in the lar) was of the 'contextualist' variety modelled murder of the Duke of Gloucester, for which he on the work of Michel Foucault and the related West in the 1950s and 1960s in France through is banished (3.2.299-301). He is killed by Walter the structuralist anthropology of Claude Lévi- social theory of *feminists, *Marxists, and Whitmore (4.1.140). William de la Pole was the Strauss, who thought culture and myth could be postcolonialists which became known as *new 4th Earl and 1st Duke of Suffolk (1396-1450). described, like Saussure's 'language', as a system historicism, *cultural materialism, and postAB of binary opposites. Structuralism reached the structuralist feminism, so that, while 'tradSullivan, Sir Arthur (1842-1900), English itional' criticism continued in Shakespeare USA and UK primarily in the 1970s as an studies after the changeover, much of the new composer. He composed incidental music for interdisciplinary movement with an important branch in literary studies, but it was largely work in the field has been broadly posts- productions of The Tempest (Leipzig, 1861), The Merchant of Venice (Manchester, 1871), The tructuralist in its premisses and methods, espesubsumed by what came to be called postcially recent feminism, psychoanalysis, new Merry Wives of Windsor (London, 1874), Henry structuralism in the 1980s. HG VIII (Manchester, 1877), and Macbeth (London, Structuralism was an important influence in historicism, and cultural materialism. 1888). He also set a number of Shakespeare English and American literary theory from the lyrics as solo songs or madrigals. IBC Stubbes, Philip (c1.555-f.1610), pamphleteer. 1970s onwards, but Shakespeare studies at first seemed to resist this development in favour of Educated at both Oxford and Cambridge, Sullivan, Barry (1821-91), actor, born in EngStubbes published the popular tract A Crystal its traditional methods. Pioneering structuralist land, but of Irish parentage. He made his Glass for Christian Women (1591), and a virulent or semiotic works in Shakespeare studies were London debut as Hamlet in 1852, when he was assault on the stage, The Anatomy of Abuses written in the 1970s by Terence Hawkes and commended for his slender figure, graceful at(1583), which condemns plays as incitements 'to Howard Felperin, and important work at that titudes, and absence of claptrap. Amongst the time was done in Italy, notably by Alessandro idleness, unthriftiness, whoredom, wantonness, Shakespearian roles which Sullivan subsequentdrunkenness, and what not'. RM Serpiero, but the impact of this work on the ly added to his repertoire, in a career which took larger field was limited. him to America, Canada, and Australia, were Students, The. See LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Poststructuralism developed in several counJaques, Faulconbridge, Macbeth, Benedick, tries in the 1970s and 1980s as a critique that Sturley (Strelly), Abraham (d. 1614), a Wor- and Richard in. By 1879 when he played shared structuralism's idea of a world con- cester man who, after graduating from Cam- Hamlet and Benedick at the opening of the structed through language but which broke bridge, served Sir Thomas *Lucy at Charlecote *Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratfordwith some of its other crucial tenets. The key and moved to Stratford around 1580. He was upon-Avon, his girth and acting style had initial figure developing this critique was bailiff in 1596, and on 24 January 1598 wrote to broadened to excess, but admirers such as *Shaw French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who was his friend and townsman Richard *Quiney, preferred to remember him in his heyday, to his especially critical of the structuralist idea of who was in London on town affairs, that rivals as 'Hyperion to a satyr'. RF binary opposites. As Derrida's influence de- Shakespeare was interested in buying 'some odd veloped, Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault, yardland'—about 30 acres (12 ha)—'or other at Summerfield. See SOMERVILLE. who had for a time been interpreted as 'strucShottery'. He wished Quiney to encourage Surrey, Duke of. He challenges Fitzwalter, turalists', were relabelled as poststructuralists Shakespeare to invest in Stratford tithes, which Richard 114.1. AB when it was recognized that their writings an- he did only in 1605. On 4 November of the ticipated many of Derrida's ideas about lan- same year, Sturley replied sceptically to a letter Surrey, Earl of. (l) In Richard m he is put in guage as open-ended and anti-systematic. from Quiney 'which imported . . . that our command of the vanguard at *Bosworth with countryman Master William Shakespeare [Mr Norfolk, his father (5.6.26). In *Folio editions The influence of poststructuralism seemed to he has a short speaking part at the beginning of overtake Shakespeare studies suddenly after Wm. Shak.] would procure us money, which I 5.3. In All Is True {Henry viii), now called the 1980 when, according to E. A. J. Honigmann will like of as I shall hear when, and where, and Duke of Norfolk, he plays a part in the downfall ('The New Shakespeare', New York Review of how', while encouraging Quiney to do all he of Wolsey. Thomas Howard (1443-1524) was Books, 35/5 (31 Mar. 1988) ), the face of Shake- could to bring it about. This appears to respond action, was launched in 1982. Several artists with different styles contributed, creating their own vision of the settings. John H. Howard, for instance, who illustrated Twelfth Night (1985), chose to show a modern setting, with telephones and a Feste who plays the saxophone. By contrast, 'Von' represents the characters of Macbeth as ancient Britons. 'Von' also worked on A Midsummer Nights Dream for a rival series (1985), setting this play in ancient Athens. Other efforts at presenting Shakespeare to teenagers in the guise of a comic-book include the American 'Classics Illustrated' series. RAF
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SWAN THEATRE the 2nd Duke of Norfolk, made Earl of Surrey 1483, and the grandfather of Anne Boleyn. ( 2 ) He is eager to take revenge on Wolsey for his father-in-law Buckingham's fate in All Is True. Thomas Howard (1473-1554), Earl of Surrey and 3rd Duke of Norfolk, was the eldest son of Surrey (1). He was the father of the poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. (3) He calls on the insomniac King with Warwick, 2 Henry iv 3.1 (mute). AB Surveyor, Buckingham's. He gives evidence against Buckingham, All Is True (Henry vin) 1.2. He is based on *Holinshed's account of Charles Knyvet (Knevet). AB Sutton Cop Hill (cophill; cop-hill, in folios and quartos), or Sutton Coldfield, is a town in Warwickshire. Sir John sends his recruits there, 1 Henry iv 4.2.3. AB Suzman, Janet (b. 1939), actress and director. Born into a South African family vigorously opposed to apartheid, she acted with intelligence and glamour at the *Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford where between 1963 and 1973 her parts included Katharina the Shrew, Rosalind, and (outstandingly) Cleopatra. In 1988 in Johannesburg she directed a politically resonant Othello with the Bantu actor John Kani which was televised in Britain. MJ Suzuki, Tadashi (b. 1939), Japanese director. A leading figure in the 1960s avant-garde theatre in Japan, Suzuki later became an internationally influential director mainly with his method of training actors. He has directed classical Western plays, transposing them to a Japanese setting, and often worked with Noh and Kyogen actors. His major Shakespearian production is King Lear (1989), which unfolds itself as a fantasy of an old Japanese living in a hospital. TK Swanston, Eliard (d. 1651), actor (Lady Elizabeth's Men 1622, King's Men 1624-42). Swanston played a number of roles for the King's Men including the lead in Shakespeare's Othello and Richard m in the 1630s. A housekeeper (one of the initiators of the Sharers Papers dispute) at the Globe and the Blackfriars, Swanston unusually (for an actor) took the parliamentary side in the Civil War. GE
Aernout van Buchel's copy of the drawing of the Swan playhouse made by his friend Johannes de Witt while visiting England, c.1596. This is the only reliable drawing we have of the inside of an open-air playhouse of Shakespeare's time.
Swan theatre. The Swan was built in 1595 by Francis Langley in the Bankside district of south London and it was clearly intended to compete with the nearby Rose owned by Philip *Henslowe. In 1596 a Dutch humanist scholar, Johannes de Witt, visited the Swan and drew a picture of it which his friend and fellow classicist Aernout van Buchel copied; this copy is extant. De Witt's sketch is the only surviving interior view of an open-air playhouse of the period and it shows a virtually round amphitheatre of somewhere between 16 and 24 sides
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with a stage projecting into the yard surmounted by a stage cover supported on two pillars. External views of the Swan also appear in a number of pictures of London, including a 1627 map of the Paris Garden Manor which appears to show the Swan having a single exterior staircase. None of the external views of the Swan is a reliable guide to its dimensions, but the Hope playhouse contract specified that it should be 'of such large compass, form,
wideness, and height as the Plaihouse called the Swan'. *Hollar's sketch of the second Globe shows the Hope to be about 100 feet (30 m) across, and we may assume the Swan was about the same. De Witt described the Swan as the largest of the London playhouses of its day and wrote that it was made out of an aggregate of flint stones ('ex coacervato lapide pyrritide'), a detail we must doubt given the construction practices of
SWAN THEATRE the day. The large wooden columns supporting the stage cover were painted like marble so cleverly as 'to deceive the most inquiring eye', and perhaps the external rendering too was deceptive. The described marbling, the circular shape, and the use of classical columns with ornate bases and capitals put the Swan in a neoclassical, *Palladian tradition of design emerging at the end of the 16th century despite the apparent Tudor bareness of the sketch. The Swan was closed in 1597 when Pembroke's Men played The Isle of Dogs (now lost) by Thomas *Nashe and Ben *Jonson, which was highly critical of the government and which landed the dramatists in jail. By 1602 it appears to have been operating again: the hoaxer Richard Vennar circulated a playbill describing an entertainment called England's Joy, 'to be Played at the Swan this 6 of November, 1602'. Having received the takings Vennar tried to flee without providing a performance and the expectant audience 'when they saw themselves deluded, revenged themselves upon the hangings, curtains, chairs, stools, walls' of the playhouse. Langley died in 1601 and the Paris Garden estate was sold to Hugh Browker. The Swan had a revival of theatrical activity between 1611 and 1615, as shown by the receipts of the estate's overseers and also the allusion in Middleton and *Dekker's The Roaring Girl (1611) to a 'new play i' the Swan'. The only extant play known to have been performed at the Swan is Thomas Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (1613), presumably during the 1611-15 revival of activity. After 1620 the Swan was occasionally used for prize-fighting, and in 1632 Nicholas Goodman described it as 'now fallen in decay, and like a dying swan, hanging down her head, seemed to sing her own dirge'. Herbert Berry discovered that in 1634 the Swan was used by the commissioners of the Court of
Requests as a venue for taking evidence in a lawsuit concerning the Globe, and such men 'would not take official evidence in a hovel' so presumably the building had been restored to some of its former elegance. GE Swan
theatre,
Stratford-upon-Avon.
See
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY.
Sweden. See SCANDINAVIA. Swinburne, Algernon Charles (1837-1909), English poet. Swinburne's passionate admiration for Shakespeare began at 6 with a bowdlerized copy. He contrived to end his own eulogistic Study of Shakespeare (1880) on the exalted name of Imogen; while an appendix burlesques the 'incomparable blackguard' F. J. *Furnivall and his New Shakspere Society. TM
in his novella 'Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe' (1856), and Friedrich Diirrenmatt in his play Kônig Johann (1968). BE Bircher, Martin, and Straumann, Heinrich, Shakespeare und die deutsche Schweiz bis zum Beginn des ip. Jahrhunderts (Shakespeare and German-Speaking Switzerland to the Beginning of the 19th Century) (1971) Brâker, Ulrich, A Few Words about William Shakespeare's Plays (Etwas iiber William Shakespeares Schauspiele), trans. Derek Bowman (1979) Stadler, Edmund (éd.), Shakespeare und die Schweiz (Shakespeare and Switzerland) (1964) Sycorax, Caliban's mother, a witch, dies long before the action of The Tempest begins. In the *Dryden/Davenant version of the play the name is given to Caliban's sister. AB syllabic variation. See ANAPTYXIS; SYNAERESIS;
Switzerland. Thomas *Platter, a Basle traveller, was the first to describe a performance of Julius Caesar in *London (1599). Zurich played a crucial role in establishing Shakespeare's poetic (rather than theatrical) genius in the Germanspeaking world. Johann Jakob Bodmer (16981783) defended Shakespeare against German neoclassicist critics. A correspondent of his, Simon Grynàus, produced the first blank verse translation into German (of Romeo and Juliet) in 1758, and the first collected translations, by Christoph Martin *Wieland and Johann Joachim *Eschenburg, appeared there (1762-6, 1775-82 respectively). The painter Johann Heinrich Fussli (*Fuseli in England) (17411825) received early Shakespearian inspiration in his home town. Ulrich Bràker (1735-98), a farmer from Toggenburg in eastern Switzerland, produced a sophisticated document of Shakespearomania. Swiss writers have repeatedly adapted Shakespeare, e.g. Gottfried Keller
SYNCOPE.
synaeresis, the fusing or elision of adjacent vowel sounds within a word: violent. But Shakespeare, like other poets, often treats such combinations differently in the same or neighbouring lines: 'As fi I re drives I out fire, I so pity pity' {Julius Caesar 3.1.171). GTW syncope (syncopation), the fusing of syllables in polysyllabic words, frequently evident, as the metre shows, in words like natural, general, and even el'quence, in'cent, count'feit, vag'bond. All these suggest a speedy delivery of lines on the Renaissance English stage. GTW synecdoche, a figure of speech, related to *metonymy, in which some thing or person is referred to by naming only some part thereof, as when York addresses Bolingbroke's 'banished and forbidden legs' {Richard 7/2.3.89). CB
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tabor, a double-headed drum with gut snares on one or both heads, associated with dance when played together with the three-holed *pipe by one person (see The Winter's Tale 4.4.183)JB Tailor. In The Taming ofthe Shrew 4.3 he brings a gown for Katherine which Petruccio rejects. AB Taine, Hippolyte (1821-93), French historian and critic. Taine's rationalist objections to the passionate and absurd excesses of Shakespeare, particularly in language and style, owe something to *Voltaire; but he ends by acknowledging Shakespeare's prodigious, if extravagant and frenzied, genius (see A History of English Literature, 1865). TM
'Take, O take those lips away7, sung by a boy in Measure for Measure 4.1.1. A setting by John *Wilson, published in 1652, may date back to an early revival of the play. Later settings include those by Alcock, Chilcot, Galliard, Giordani, Jackson, Weldon (18th century); *Bishop, Chausson, Macfarren, Parry, Pearsall (19th century); and van Dieren, Quilter, Rubbra, Warlock, *Vaughan Williams (20th century).
JB Talbot, Lord. Commander of the English forces in France, he is reported as having been made prisoner, / Henry vi 1.1.145. He returns from captivity, 1.6, and enjoys great military success until killed with his son *John Talbot at Bordeaux, 4.7. Also called John (£-.1388-1453), the real 6th Baron Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, died with his son at Castillon 2 2 years after *Joan la Pucelle was executed. AB Talbot, Young. See JOHN TALBOT.
Tamayo y Baus, Manuel (1829-98), one of the most significant Spanish playwrights of the 19th century. His play Un drama nuevo (A New Drama, 1867) is set in Elizabethan England, and the protagonists are Shakespeare's company of actors. It is the third and most important 19thcentury Spanish play in which Shakespeare is a stage character. It contains a hero who is jealous on stage and in real life, and an Iago-figure who feeds his jealousy. It was performed in English as Yorick and Yoricks Love. There is also a published English translation: A New Drama: A Tragedy in Three Acts from the Spanish, trans. John Driscoll Fitz-Gerald and Thacher Howland Guild (1915). The play was made into a film in Spain in 1946 by Juan de Orduna. ALP Tamer Tamed, The See FLETCHER, JOHN; TAMING OF THE SHREW, T H E .
Taming of a Shrew, The, an anonymous play, entered in the Stationers' Register in 1594 and first printed in the same year, whose precise relation to Shakespeare's longer and more so-
phisticated The Taming of the Shrew has long puzzled scholars. Efforts to date it or track its performance history are complicated by the existence of Shakespeare's play, which on stylistic grounds must have been written before The Taming of a Shrew was published: *Henslowe's 'Diary', for example, records a performance of 'the Tamynge of A Shrowe' at Newington Butts on 11 June 1594 (by either the Admiral's Men or the *Chamberlain's Men or both), which could be either play. The Taming of a Shrew has a similar main plot and sub-plot to The Taming of the Shrew, though some characters have different names—Ferando (Petruccio) tames Kate, while her sister Philema (Bianca) is won by Aurelius (Lucentio). More strikingly, it has a similar frame-narrative, only here it is completed. Christopher Sly, duped into thinking himself a lord, watches the whole of the inset play, interrupting it from time to time with ribald and impertinent comments, and afterwards is taken back, drunkenly asleep, to the refuse heap where he was found, where he wakes up and decides that the whole experience must have been a dream—an instructive one, however, since he means to employ Ferando's methods on his own wife. This final phase of the Christopher Sly Induction has often been transplanted from The Taming of a Shrew into productions of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, which at some stage in its existence probably offered a similar closure. Most of the possible hypotheses about the connections between this play and The Taming of the Shrew have been argued at some point: some scholars have seen it as a source, some a first draft, some a garbled reported text, some a botched plagiarism, some an alternative version of a common lost source. What is certain is that The Taming of a Shrew is a highly derivative play—some passages are taken almost verbatim from *Marlowe—and the balance of probability, supported by early allusions to passages found only in The Taming of the Shrew— suggests that it borrows from Shakespeare MD rather than vice versa. Craig, Hardin, ' The Shrew and A Shrew, in Elizabethan Studies in Honor of George F. Reynolds (1945) Lancashire, Anne, and Levenson, Jill, 'Anonymous Plays', in Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith (eds.), The Predecessors of Shakespeare: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama (i973) Wells, Stanley, and Taylor, Gary, 'No Shrew, A Shrew, and The Shrew: Internal Revision in The Taming of the Shrew, in B. Fabian and K. Tetzeli von Rosador (eds.), Shakespeare: Text, Language Criticism (1987)
Taming of the Shrew, The (see page 460) Tamora, Queen of the Goths, vainly pleads for the life of her son Alarbus, Titus Andronicus 1.1; (cont. on page 463)
The Taming of the Shrew
T
he most enduringly popular of the early comedies, if also the most potentially offensive, The Taming of the Shrew has sometimes been regarded as Shakespeare's first play—partly on the sentimental grounds that its Induction's allusions to Warwickshire reflect the homesickness of a Stratford man newly arrived in London. Although the sophistication of its dramatic structure and scenic technique compared to those of The Two Gentlemen of Verona make this placing in the * chronology unlikely, the play does belong to the veryfirstphase of Shakespeare's writing career: while evidence as to its date is complicated by the existence of a similar play, The *Tamingofa Shrew, published anonymously in 1594, it seems certain that The Taming of the Shrew was already extant by 1592, when passages without any equivalent in A Shrew were echoed in another anonymous play, A Knack to Know a Knave. In 1593 Shakespeare's play was remembered again, this time by the poet Antony Chute, whose poem Beauty Dishonoured includes the line 'He calls his Kate, and she must come and kiss him.' The Taming of the Shrew requires a similar size of cast to The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry vi) and Richard Duke of York ( j Henry vi), and shares rare vocabulary with both plays: it is likely that it was composed at around the same time as Shakespeare's earliest histories, r.1590-1.
Although The Taming of a Shrew appeared in quarto in 1594, 1596, and 1607, The Taming of the Shrew was not printed until the publication of the Folio in 1623. Its text is among the most puzzling in the canon: for one thing it lacks a completion to the frame-narrative of Christopher Sly, which disappears after 1.1 (though one possible ending is preserved by The Taming of a Shrew, which is probably a garbled plagiarism of Shakespeare's play). In incidentals the Folio text is a mess, and an inconsistent mess at that: some speech-prefixes preserve the names of actors rather than characters ('Sinclo' (see Sincler, John) for one of the players, 'Nick' for a messenger in 3.1), consistent with a text derived from *foul papers, while some speech-prefix errors suggest a scribe who has been misled by authorial use of an abbreviated alias to designate a character currently in disguise. Some passages suggest the Folio text derives from foul papers, in which Shakespeare's process of initial composition is still visible (4.4, for example, suggests indecision as to whether the location is outside Baptista's house or outside Tranio's lodging), others—notably 'Sinclo's' reference to 'Soto', apparently an interpolated allusion to John *Fletcher's Women Pleased TEXT:
(c.1620?)—suggest a manuscript which has been altered for a late Jacobean revival, perhaps in conjunction with Fletcher's sequel The Woman's Prize; or, The Tamer Tamed. This last hypothesis, however, is itself rendered problematic by the fact that the Folio text has not been expurgated to comply with the *Act to Restrain the Abuses of Players. It seems impossible to decide whether the Folio text derives from foul papers or from a transcript which has undergone some theatrical adaptation: some of its inconsistencies have been explained by the hypothesis that Shakespeare may have been working with a collaborator, but this theory has not been generally accepted. SOURCES: The Taming of the Shrew has an impeccably literary sub-plot—the Bianca-Lucentio story is derived from George *Gascoigne's pioneering prose comedy Supposes (1566), itself a translation of *Ariosto's I suppositi (1509)—but its main plot belongs more to folklore than to high culture. Although countless *ballads depict a husband disciplining an unruly wife (among them A Merry Jest of a Shrewd and Cursed Wife, 1550), most of these are far more brutal than Shakespeare's play (in A Merry Jest, for example, the shrew is beaten
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up and wrapped in the skin of a dead horse), and none is close enough in detail to the Petruccio-Kate story to be cited as a specific source, though the play clearly belongs in the same general tradition. Some commentators, however, have detected the influence of a relatively humane colloquy by the Dutch humanist Erasmus (c.1466-1536), translated in 1557 as 'A Merry Dialogue, Declaring the Properties of Shrewd Shrews and Honest Wives'. The Induction, too, detailing the adventure of a peasant duped into believing himself a lord, derives from a story widespread through folklore and told in various earlier ballads, and Shakespeare does not seem to have had any single precedent in mind as he composed his own Warwickshire variant on the theme. SYNOPSIS: Induction 1 Christopher Sly, a beggarly tinker, falls asleep after being ejected from a tavern for breaking glasses, and is found by a lord out hunting, who instructs his men to take Sly to his house, put him to bed, and persuade him when he wakes that he is its lord, who has been suffering from delusions. The Lord welcomes a troupe of players, and gives order that his page Bartholomew shall be dressed for the role of Sly's lady. Induction 2 As instructed, the servingmen tell Sly he is a lord who has been mentally ill for fifteen years, to the grief of his lady: accepting the story, Sly is eager to resume conjugal relations with the cross-dressed Bartholomew, but is put off, and instead agrees to watch the players perform a comedy. 1.1 Lucentio, arriving in Padua to study, falls in love with Bianca when he sees her with her father Baptista, her elder sister Katherine, and two rivals for her love, Gremio and Hortensio. Baptista declares that Bianca may be courted only after the angry and disdainful Katherine is married, and that meanwhile Bianca will be tutored at home. Hortensio and Gremio agree that they must find some man willing to marry Katherine. Lucentio, overhearing all this, hits upon a strategy with his servant Tranio: he will gain access to Bianca by disguising himself as a schoolmaster while Tranio, seconded by his other servant Biondello, fills the role of Lucentio. They exchange clothes. (Above, Sly is apparently bored by the play.) 1.2 Petruccio, arriving from Verona with his servant Grumio, calls on his friend Hortensio, and, learning of Katherine's dowry, agrees to woo her despite her reported shrewishness: he also agrees to recommend a disguised Hortensio to Baptista as Bianca's music teacher. Gremio arrives with the disguised Lucentio, whom he will present to Baptista as a tutor for Bianca: he agrees with Hortensio to cosponsor Petruccio's wooing of Katherine. Tranio arrives, disguised as Lucentio, and announces his own intention of courting Bianca: he too agrees to fund Petruccio's suit, and Petruccio and the rivals repair to a tavern. 2.1 Katherine has tied Bianca's hands, and is interrogating her about her suitors when Baptista arrives, separates them, and sends them indoors. The company arrive from the tavern: Petruccio offers himself as a suitor for Katherine (confirming that her dowry is 20,000 crowns and half of Baptista's land in reversion) and presents Hortensio, disguised as Licio, as a
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KATHARINE AND P E T R U C H I O .
To offer war, where they should kneel for peace : Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway, Where bound to love, to honour, and obey !
CURTAIN
FALLS,
LONDON: VritLUUGHBT & CO., PRINTERS, 10P, GOSWEI.L STRKKT.
George Cruikshank's concluding image of Kate, from an 1838 illustrated edition of Garrick's adaptation Katharine and Petruchio, at once celebrates her taming and acknowledges the violence by which it is accomplished.
music master. Gremio offers Lucentio, disguised as Cambio, as a tutor: both supposed teachers are accepted and sent to the two women, though Hortensio soon returns, after Katherine has broken his head with a lute, and is sent to Bianca instead. At Petruccio's insistence he is left alone and Katherine sent to him: in the wrangling conversation which follows Petruccio affects to disregard the contempt she displays, declares that he was born to tame her, and tells the returning Baptista that she has agreed to marry him the following Sunday. Despite Katherine's protests Baptista agrees, and Petruccio leaves to prepare for the wedding. Gremio and the disguised Tranio now attempt to outbid one another for Bianca's hand, Tranio promising all Lucentio's father Vincentio's wealth, an offer Baptista accepts on condition that Vincentio confirms it. Tranio realizes he will need to produce a surrogate Vincentio. 3.1 Hortensio and Lucentio, furious rivals, each declare their identities and purposes to Bianca under cover of teaching her: she seems to favour Lucentio, and Hortensio is
TAMING OF THE SHREW, THE disgusted at the idea that she might welcome the courtship of a mere tutor. 3.2 After keeping his bride and the company waiting, Petruccio arrives for his wedding in grossly tattered and absurd clothes. 3.3 Gremio tells Lucentio and Tranio of Petruccio's rough and swaggering behaviour during the marriage service: when the company arrive from the church, Petruccio refuses even to stay for the wedding breakfast, despite Katherine's protests, and takes her away immediately. 4.1 Grumio, arriving at Petruccio's country house to prepare his master's welcome, tells the servant Curtis of the foul and uncomfortable journey Katherine has suffered. When Petruccio and Katherine arrive, Petruccio abuses the servants, rejects the food they bring, and insists that Katherine goes to bed hungry: alone, he explains that his strategy is to break her spirit by depriving her of food and sleep, always pretending that he is doing so for her own good, and he asks whether anyone in the audience knows of a better way of taming a shrew. 4.2 Hortensio leads Tranio where he may see the mutual courting of Bianca and Lucentio: Tranio feigns shock and abandons his pretended suit, while Hortensio, forswearing Bianca, leaves to court a wealthy widow he means to marry instead, intending to call on Petruccio on the way. Lucentio, Bianca, and Tranio agree on their strategy for obtaining Baptista's consent by producing a false Vincentio to assure a marriage portion. Tranio persuades a passing Mantuan pedant that he is in mortal danger in Padua because of fictitious hostilities between the two city-states, and must disguise himself for safety: he explains that the Pedant can easily pass for Vincentio if he only goes through some formalities about a marriage settlement, in which Tranio will brief him. 4.3 At Petruccio's house Grumio loyally refuses to let Katherine have any food, and assists Petruccio, watched by Hortensio, in rejecting the new cap and gown ordered from a haberdasher and a tailor for Katherine to wear on her bridal visit to her father. Petruccio insists the clothes are not good enough, abuses the tradesmen, and tells Katherine they will go only when she shows complete obedience. 4.4 Tranio presents the Pedant, dressed as Vincentio, to Baptista, and they agree to sign the marriage settlement between Lucentio and Bianca at Tranio's lodgings over supper. 4.5 Biondello, on Tranio's instructions, advises Lucentio to marry Bianca privately while her father is busy over the pretended marriage settlements. 4.6 On their way to Baptista's house, Petruccio makes Katherine humour him by calling the sun the moon, and when they meet the real Vincentio he at first makes her greet him as if he were a young girl. Learning Vincentio's identity, Petruccio congratulates him on his son's marriage to Bianca, news which is confirmed by Hortensio before he leaves to woo the Widow. 5.1 Lucentio and Bianca hasten from his lodging towards their surreptitious wedding. Petruccio and Katherine arrive, bringing Vincentio, who knocks and is answered by the Pedant. The Pedant insists that he is Vincentio, supported by Biondello, who denies having ever seen the real Vincentio before (and is beaten by him), and when Tranio arrives in
Lucentio's clothes, Vincentio becomes convinced that his son has been murdered by his servants. Baptista is trying to have Vincentio taken to prison as an impostor when the newlywed Lucentio and Bianca arrive (at which Tranio, Biondello, and the Pedant flee), and Lucentio confesses all. Petruccio agrees to follow them all and see how the affair turns out on condition that Katherine kisses him in the street: she does so. 5.2 The entire reconciled cast are assembled at Lucentio's banquet, celebrating his wedding to Bianca and Hortensio's to the Widow; after the three brides leave the chamber, each husband bets 20 crowns that his wife will return most obediently when summoned. Bianca and the Widow refuse to come, but Katherine comes immediately, and at Petruccio's bidding fetches the other two wives, throws off her hat, and preaches a long homily on wifely obedience, thereby winning him the wager. A delighted Baptista adds another 20,000 crowns to Petruccio's winnings. (In The Taming of a Shrew, Sly, now asleep, is put back into his own clothes and returned to where the Lord found him: awakened at dawn by a tapster, he says he has had a wonderful dream, and since he now knows how to tame a shrew has no fear of returning home to his wife.) ARTISTIC FEATURES: The Taming of the Shrew is the first of Shakespeare's comedies to hint at his power to pursue a serious idea across a whole range of comic plots and situations, taking up the notions of identity and persuasion initiated by the Induction (which has already modelled the production of an 'ideal' wife through the transformation of Bartholomew), and developing them through each of the intrigues of the play proper. CRITICAL HISTORY: Long dismissed as a simple-minded, robust farce (*Johnson's verdict, though he was impressed by Shakespeare's interlinking of the two main plots, was merely that the play was 'very popular and diverting'), The Taming of the Shrew has been taken ever more seriously since the early 20th century, and not only because that period has seen the emergence of modern *feminism. As with its stage history, the play has divided interpreters between those who wish to excuse or celebrate Petruccio's behaviour towards Kate and those who wish to condemn it—essentially, between those who regard the 'taming' as a benign piece of psychic or social therapy inflicted in the cause of mutual love, and those who see it as simply an expression of the naked power of Elizabethan men over Elizabethan women. Many commentators have related Katherine's speech on *marriage to wider Elizabethan doctrines of authority and social subordination (notably E. M. W. *Tillyard in The Elizabethan World Picture, 1943), but opinion on the play remains profoundly divided as to whether her submission is to be accepted and welcomed at face value or whether the play suggests it is to be viewed with scepticism, irony, or even revulsion. STAGE HISTORY: Partly because of this very controversy over how we are to take Petruccio's triumph, the play has been inspiring adaptations and spin-offs ever since The Taming of a Shrew, around 1611, for example, *Fletcher
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produced a sequel (in which the characters have all miraculously become English), The Woman's Prize; or, The Tamer Tamed, in which Petruccio's second wife Maria proves much less tractable than the now-dead Kate. Although Shakespeare's original was performed at court in the 1630s and in the early 1660s, The Taming of the Shrew was rewritten by John *Lacy in 1667 as Sauny the Scot, a largely prose version of the play, anglicized to match 77?? Woman's Prize, and dominated by Lacy's performance as the caricatured Scottish servant Sauny (Grumio, 'Sander' in A Shrew). Despite two topical rewritings of the Induction (both as The *Cobbler of Preston, 1716) and a 1735 ballad opera (A *Cure for a Scold), this was the version that held the stage until the mid-i8th century, when it was supplanted by David *Garrick's three-act afterpiece * Catharine and Petruchio (1754). Garrick's version, eliminating the Bianca plot and insisting that Petruchio loves Catharine all along and only feigns his various tactical brutalities, was not finally replaced until after Augustin *Daly's production of the original in 1887-8, with Ada *Rehan as Kate, though the original had been revived twice in the 1840s, by Benjamin Webster in 1844 (in a precociously quasi-Elizabethan staging by J. R. *Planche) and by Samuel *Phelps in 1856. The play has enjoyed frequent revivals ever since, with great Kates including Violet *Vanbrugh, Laurence *01ivier (his debut, in a school production, 1922), Edith * Evans, Barbara *Jefford, and Vanessa *Redgrave (at Stratford in 1961, and in London 25 years later). Since feminism's second wave in the 1970s, the tradition of playing Petruccio and Kate as a couple who fall happily in love in between their less happy lines has often given place to more critical productions, which have sometimes overcompensated by rendering Petruccio more brutal: Charles *Marowitz's 1973 adaptation The Shrew has Petruchio (as the role was then known) sodomizing Kate
she becomes Saturninus' Empress while remaining Aaron's mistress; she is able to avenge her son before falling victim to terrible revenge herself. AB
onstage, and in Michael *Bogdanov's 1978 RSC production Jonathan Pryce, a loutish, set-demolishing Sly, burst into the play-within-the-play as Petruchio on a phallic motorbike. He was finally slightly abashed, however, by Paola Dionisotti's submission speech, which many successive actresses have sought to reclaim as an act of perverse defiance. MD O N T H E SCREEN: The earliest film (1908) is of historical interest in being the work of D. W. Griffith. Five silent versions followed before Sam Taylor's adaptation (1929), the first Shakespeare film to have a soundtrack with English dialogue. Two television productions followed, one for B B C TV (1939) by Dallas Bower and George Schaefer's American production (1956) with Maurice Evans as Petruchio. *Zeffirelli's film (1966) filled the screen with colour and captivatingly robust action, with Elizabeth Taylor as Kate and Richard *Burton as a powerful, swaggering, though unsubtle Petruchio. Jonathan *Miller's production for B B C TV (1980), criticized for failing to give Kate sufficient dramatic weight in her own right, tackled the play along surprisingly unorthodox lines, casting John Cleese as a Puritan Petruchio. AD
RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
Ann Thompson (New Cambridge, 1984); H. J. Oliver (Oxford, 1982); Brian Morris (Arden 2nd series, 1981); G. R. Hibbard (New Penguin, 1968) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
French, Marilyn, in Shakespeare's Division of Experience (1982) Nevo, Ruth, in Comic Transformations in Shakespeare (1980) Rose, Mary Beth, in The Expense of Spirit: Love and Marriage in English Renaissance Drama (1980) Rutter, Carol (éd.), Clamorous Voices: Shakespeare's Women Today (1985) Seronsy, C. C , ' "Supposes" as a Unifying Theme in 77?^ Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare Quarterly, 14 (1963)
and an 'ordinary' (eatery), and he had facial deformities considered comic. The woodcut of Tarlton printed with his jest-book was copied from a Flemish model and is no more than a general guide to his appearance, and John Scottowe's copy of this woodcut cramps Tarlton's body to fit it into a prescribed space on the page, introducing deformities which cannot be presumed in the man. One of Tarlton's trademarks was to thrust his head through a curtain at the back of a stage and peer at the audience before the performance, and he was famous too for his *jigs performed after a theatrical performance. GE
Tarlton, Richard (d. 1588), actor (Sussex's Men 1578, Queen's Men 1583-8), jester, and writer. The earliest record of Tarlton is as author of a ballad in 1570 and by the end of the 1570s he was also being alluded to as an actor. In 1585 he wrote The Seven Deadly Sins for the Queen's Men which Gabriel Harvey claimed that Thomas *Nashe plagiarized for his Piers Penniless (1592). Dozens of allusions to Tarlton's Wiles, David, Shakespeare's Clown: Actor comic improvisations survive in Elizabethan Text in the Elizabethan Playhouse (1987) verse and prose and a collection of his so-called 'jests' was published in the late 1590s, although Tarquin. See RAPE OF LUCRÈCE, THE. the earliest surviving edition is from 1611. This jest-book gives a sense of his clowning talents Tate, Nahum (1652-1715), poet and playwright. (which included fencing, verse improvisation, Reviled by early 20th-century critics for daring and playing instruments) and some biograph- to adapt Shakespeare, and successfully at that, ical detail: he performed his clowning at inns Tate was in his own time a highly respected and at court, he was Protestant, he ran an inn writer, made Poet Laureate in 1692: his
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achievements include the libretto for Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (1689) and collaborations with John *Dryden on The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel (1682) and with Nicholas Brady on the New Version of the Psalms (1696). Born in Ireland and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Tate had settled in London by his midtwenties, and was soon writing plays, many based on pre-Restoration originals (including *Jonson's Eastward Ho and The Devil is an Ass and *Webster's The White Devil). Of his three adaptations of Shakespeare, his topical Richard 11 (1680) was banned and The ingratitude of a Commonwealth (a gory version of Coriolanus, 1681) was never popular, but The ^History of and King Lear (complete with happy ending, 1681) held the stage, with some progressive alterations, for a century and a half. Despite this success, however, Tate died in hiding from his creditors. MD Taurus commands Caesar's land force at Actium, Antony and Cleopatra 3.8 and 3.10. AB
TAWYER, WILLIAM
Tawyer, William (d. 1625), musician and actor (King's Men by 1624). Tawyer was apprenticed to John *Heminges and appears in a stage direction in the 1623 Folio text of A Midsummer Night's Dream 5.1 and in a list of King's Men musicians protected from arrest by Henry *Herbert in 1624. GE
William *Davenant, from 'Mr. Taylor of the Black-Fryars Company' who was 'instructed by the Author Mr. Shakespear'. Downes's reference to the playhouse might suggest the Blackfriars Boys (1600-8) rather than the King's Men, in which case Shakespeare instructed the adolescent Taylor in something other than Hamlet. Certainly by the time Taylor joined the King's Men in 1619—between their patent of 27 March, from which he is absent, and their livery warrant of 19 May where he appears— Shakespeare and Burbage were dead. Taylor appears in the 1623 Folio list of players, and he played Ferdinand in Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, Hamlet, Iago, Truewit in Jonson's Epicoene, and Face in Jonson's The Alchemist. After John Heminges's death in 1630 Taylor became a housekeeper of the Globe and the Blackfriars and he and John Lowin took over as joint managers of the King's Men. GE
and considered writing *operas based on Othello and Romeo and Juliet; for the latter there survives an uncompleted duet. IBC Tearsheet, Doll. FalstafFs mistress, she appears in 2 Henry 772.4, a n d ls arrested, 5.4. AB
television. Televised Shakespeare has been performance history's disdained foster-child. Whether broadcast live as in the earliest years or filmed for television from original scripts, cut from big-screen versions or filmed from a stage production, it has rarely achieved the status of large-screen *film (itself something of a stepchild). The reasons are simple: television Shakespeare may be interrupted by commercials, shaped to fit a specific time-slot (particularly in the USA), prepared on the cheap Taylor, Joseph (c.1586-1652), actor (York's without the production values of big-time film, Men 1610, Lady Elizabeth's Men 1611-16, and the victim of small image size, fuzzy conCharles's Men 1616-19, King's Men 1619-42). trast, shallow depth offield,and other defects of Taylor enters the theatrical record with his unauthorized transfer from York's Men to Lady Tchaikovsky, Pyotr (llyich) (1840-93), Russian low-resolution output. In spite of these shortElizabeth's Men in 1610-11 and had established composer. He composed orchestral works based comings, Shakespeare on television has had a himself sufficiently to replace Richard *Burbage on The Tempest (1873) and Hamlet (1888), but is notable past and promises to be even more as the leading King's Man on the latter's death best known for his fantasy overture Romeo and significant in the HDTV and DVD future. More than any other form, TV has brought in March 1619. In his Roscius Anglicanus (1708) Juliet (1869, rev. 1870, 1880), which was first Shakespeare to the millions. No one has made a John Downes claimed that Thomas *Better- choreographed as a ballet in 1937. He also ton's performance as Hamlet was derived, via composed incidental music for Hamlet (1891) film of All's Well That Ends Well, but there have Taylor, John (1580-1653), the 'water poet'. Raised in Gloucester and apprenticed to a London waterman, Taylor was pressed into the navy, but he eventually became a waterman again. In his versified The Price of Hempseed (1620), he cites Shakespeare among thirteen English poets who, through paper's medium, live 'immortally'. PH
Jonathan Miller directing John Cleese as Petruccio in the BBC TV The Taming of the Shrew, 1980.
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been four TV versions, three extant. No excellent film of Antony and Cleopatra exists, but Trevor *Nunn's 1974 adaptation of his RSC production, with Janet *Suzman, Richard Johnson, and Patrick *Stewart, stands out as a splendid performance in any medium. To understand the potential of TV, one must look at its strongest, not its weakest, productions. The BBC broadcast the first full-length Shakespeare in the infancy of television, before the Second World War: Julius Caesar in modern dress, enhanced by newsreel film footage (1938). The BBC broadened its achievement with ambitious series, such as An Age of Kings— Richard n ; 1 and 2 Henry iv; Henry v; 1, 2, and 3 Henry vr, and Richard in—over a period of fifteen weeks in i960. These broadcasts proved that a generous budget, seasoned cast, and intelligent production choices could yield impressive results in made-for-television Shakespeare. The BBC also demonstrated that television could respect the language and the setting of afinestage production, adapting The Wars of the Roses—the *Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of the Henry vi plays and Richard m—into three television productions. Like these two series of history plays, the best received of the 36 BBC Shakespeare plays, broadcast 1978-85, were those rarely seen on stage orfilm,such as, from thefirstseason, All Is True {Henry vin). The spare and symbolic sets and action of the Henry vi plays (1982-3) and Titus Andronicus (1984-5), directed brilliantly by Jane Howell, confirm that television can accommodate diverse scenic styles, from her austere vision to the lushly realistic All's Well That Ends Well (1981) directed by Elijah Moshinsky. Hamlet (1981) and Macbeth (1982) are also creditable thanks to Derek *Jacobi's and Nicol *Williamson's inventive performances in the eponymous roles rather than to production choices. But the series, even at its worst, repays study, with many bright moments. In the *United States, the leading sponsor of early Shakespeare on television was the Hallmark Greeting Card Company, whose Hallmark Hall of Fame productions broadcast Hamlet live in 1953, starring Maurice *Evans, directed by George Schaefer. The pair had produced their 'GI' Hamlet during the Second World War for service personnel overseas; meant for a mass audience, it served as a template for their TV production. The best of the eight Hallmark productions is probably The Tempest (i960), which avoids the problematic side of the play and focuses on pastel delight, with Lee Remick as Miranda, Evans as a kindly but magisterial Prospero, and Richard *Burton as Caliban. NBC-TV had broadcast Hallmark's first Macbeth, with Evans and Judith *Anderson, in colour, but few people had colour sets in 1954. By i960, when the same principals (Evans, Anderson, Schaefer) made Macbeth again, it was
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filmed in colour on location, meant for cinema upon the full production, extracting the gold release as well as for broadcast. One misses the and leaving the dross behind. Multiple video scary immediacy of live performance—a stage- versions of plays like The Taming of the Shrew hand makes an unscheduled appearance in the allow viewers to compare choices as no other 1953 Hamlet. A second Hamlet—filmed in 1970, medium can. with Richard Chamberlain as Hamlet, Richard Often producers separate the filming of a Johnson as Claudius, and directed by Peter play from its editing rather than edit on the spot Wood—marked the end of Hallmark Shake- in the control room. That distance from its speare productions. Chamberlain's was the first stage origin can make for a disappointing Hamlet that Kenneth *Branagh saw, and one translation. But for those who did not have the can recognize in his design for his 1996 film opportunity to see a stage production or who some hints of Peter Roden's television setting, seek to recall details, video is a blessing. Hamlet featuring a large hall dominated by a grand with Richard Burton, directed by John *Gielstairway. Hallmark, of course, was not the only gud, recorded on film during performance American sponsor: Kenneth Rothwell reports (1964) for two cinema screenings but eventually that, between 1949 and 1979, 'nearly fifty tele- made available on video, captures the musicality vised Shakespeare programs appeared in the and variety of Burton's delivery. Michael United States' (1999). *Bogdanov and Michael *Pennington caught Some films fatten their budgets from televi- with multiple cameras during performance at sion connections (the Olivier Richard in, sim- least some of the energy of their postmodern, ultaneously released in cinemas and broadcast seven-part, *English Shakespeare Company Wars of the Roses (Richard 11 to Richard in, in 1956, is a case in point, as is Adrian *Noble's Channel 4 Films screen adaptation of his RSC A 1989-90). Midsummer Nights Dream, 1996-7). And feaMost stage-to-screen productions do not risk ture films are now routinely made available on filming a stage performance but instead shoot it video after their theatrical runs. Celebrated in- in a studio, without an audience. Ian *McKellen dividual productions have been produced spe- and Judi *Dench appear in Trevor Nunn's cifically for television and these too are released powerful version of Macbeth, staged at the on video. In Britain Granada TV produced Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon (1976); adKing Lear, starring Laurence *01ivier, directed apted for Thames Television (1979), it was shot by Michael Elliott (1983), affording viewers an on a sound set. Kevin Kline reconceived for excellent opportunity to see Olivier in a full- television his 1990 performance, as actor and length production when a stage performance director, of Hamlet at the New York Public would have overtaxed him. The prehistoric Theater. These suggest stage while taking adsetting, the King's gentleness at first with Cor- vantage of studio technology. delia, played with tender rectitude by Anna Televised Shakespeare has led to its integraCalder-Marshall, and the chillingly beautiful tion into general consciousness. A 1998 episode Diana *Rigg as Regan, make this a fascinating of the American series Mystery Science Theatre addition to the Lear collection. Ragnar Lyth's 3000 showcases Peter Wirth's Hamlet, starring Hamlet (1984), for Swedish television, is a Maximilian Schell. While the black and white visually striking low-budget adaptation, unfor- production unfolds with its dubbed-in English, tunately not yet available on video. Straight-to- the serial's characters, a human and two robotic video productions need not be listed in detail friends, make snide remarks. Imagine that! A here (see Rothwell, 'Electronic Shakespeare'). A 40-year-old German Hamlet for television commendable example, however, is thefirstand making an almost full-length appearance (80 best of the Bard Series, the 1979 Merry Wives of minutes of the original 127) on a sci-fi show for Windsor, produced by R. Thad Taylor and re- kids. Shakespeare appears everywhere on TV corded on the stage of the Los Angeles Globe (accounting for perhaps 0.01% of allusions); theatre. and with Shakespeare more available on video, a Live staged Shakespeare sometimes appears mass audience may recognize such allusions on TV. The PBS Television broadcast of Wil- whether on The Simpsons or Star Trek. (See also liam Ball's sprightly American Conservatory POPULAR CULTURE.) Theatre of San Francisco Taming of the Shrew Any generalization about the medium can be (1976) releases the play's antic energy. Another overturned by contrary examples, but a few more serious Shrew, filmed with audience in suggest themselves: TV is an intimate medium, view at the Stratford, Ontario, Shakespeare on both sides of the tube. Actors in dialogue are Festival (1981), uses the Sly frame to good ad- apt to be close together; they can whisper; their vantage. Kiss me, Petruchio (1981), a glimpse of a expressions in close-up drive the drama. The performance, stars Raul Julia and Meryl Streep audience is close, alone or with a few others, at as Petruchio and Kate and as themselves back- ease, requiring energy from the screen to focus stage during a performance of The Taming ofthe its attention. Directed by the actors and the Shrew in the Park (the *New York Shakespeare mise-en-scène, the audience will pay careful atFestival, 1978). This documentary improves tention to the language. On the other hand,
'TELL ME, WHERE I S FANCY BRED?' to Bulwer Lytton, The New Timon, and the Poets, appeared in Punch (28 February 1846); the intense elegiac emotion expressed for Arthur Henry Hallam in In Memoriam (1850) is sometimes compared to the Sonnets; and the introspective inactivity of the hero of Maud (1855) is often identified with Hamlet. On his deathbed Tennyson called out for Shakespeare, Bulman, J. C , and Coursen, H. R. (eds.), Shakespeare on Television: An Anthology of Es- and he was buried with a copy of Cymbeline in says and Reviews (1988) his hand. TM Kliman, Bernice W., 'Setting in Television Productions', in Hamlet: Film, Television, and Terence (?I90-?I59 BC), Roman comic dramaAudio Performance (1988) tist, brought to Rome from Carthage as a slave Rothwell, Kenneth S., 'Electronic Shakespeare: but later freed for his literary talents. Like From Television to the Web', in A History of *Plautus, he adapted the Greek New Comedy, Shakespeare on Screen: A Century of Film and specifically the plays of Menander, to produce Television (1999) six plays based on the same stock characters and Rothwell, Kenneth S., and Melzer, Annabelle intrigue plots. Terence's style and plotting were Henkin, Shakespeare on Screen: An International Filmography and Videography (1990) studied in 16th-century grammar schools, where Shakespeare on Film Newsletter, ed. Bernice W. he was also attributed with the invention of the Kliman and Kenneth S. Rothwell (1976-92), five-act structure. Shakespeare's debt to the incorporated since 1992 in the Shakespeare Roman may include echoes from his plays Bulletin Andrian and The Eunuch, in The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labours Lost, and Much Ado 'Tell me, where is Fancy bred?', sung by a JKS member of Portia's train in The Merchant of About Nothing. viewing large scenes on news programmes (the movement of armies, New Year's Eve fireworks) readies audiences for at least occasional panoramas. Though TV partakes of aspects of film, stage, and *radio, televised Shakespeare is not exactly like Shakespeare in any other medium, and its possibilities are enormous. BK
Venice 3.2.63. The known.
original music is unJB
Tempest, The (see page 470) Temple Grafton, one of the 'Shakespeare villages', 5 miles (8 km) west of Stratford. On her marriage, Anne *Hathaway was described as being 'of Temple Grafton'. A conjectured explanation is that the marriage took place there. If so it is likely to have been performed by the vicar John Frith, described in a Puritan survey of 1576 as 'an old priest and unsound in religion' (implying that he was a Catholic), who 'can neither preach nor read well', and whose 'chiefest trade is to cure hawks that are hurt or diseased, for which purpose many do usually repair to him'. SW Temple Shakespeare, a pocket hardback edition for the general reader edited by Israel Gollancz with minimal prefaces and glossaries between 1894 and 1896. The later *New Temple edition preserves the pocket format, but is in other respects quite different. RAF
Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron (known as Alfred, Lord Tennyson) (1809-92), English Poet Laureate. Tennyson, like most eminent literary Victorians, was steeped in Shakespeare from childhood, through reading rather than the stage, although he saw Fanny *Kemble perform at Christmas in 1829 and discussed Hamlet with Henry *Irving after a Lyceum performance in March 1874. He even thought to emulate Shakespeare with Queen Mary: A Drama (1874; abridged and performed 18 April 1876). Among his poems, 'Mariana' (from Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, 1830) is inspired by Measure for Measure; a satirical poem addressed
Viola, Lady Macbeth, Queen Katherine, Cordelia, and Imogen. As the main quality which Ellen Terry brought to these roles, in addition to her beauty, grace, and charm, was a seemingly artless naturalness and spontaneity, her success tended to be in ratio to the congruence between her and the part. Thus Lady Macbeth and Queen Katherine were mistakes, but Henry *James, who had been totally unsusceptible to the charms of Terry's Portia, wrote of her Imogen (1896), 'no part she has played in late years is so much of the exact fit of her particular gifts'. At the Lyceum the display of Ellen Terry's gifts was never the determining factor: that was Irving's role. Thus as Ophelia and Lady Macbeth she had to defer in costume and interpretation (respectively) to Irving's Hamlet and Macbeth, and she never played Rosalind, to whom she was ideally suited.
After her long partnership with Irving ended, Ellen Terry pursued her career elsewhere. In 1902 she appeared as Mistress Page with Beerbohm *Tree and in 1903 she gave a reprise as Beatrice in her son Edward Gordon *Craig's production of Much Ado at the Imperial theatre. Miola, Robert S., Shakespeare and Classical Increasingly subject to poor sight and failing Comedy: The Influence ofPlautus and Terence memory, Ellen Terry devoted herself to her (1992) Shakespeare lectures, which she gave in Britain, Salingar, Leo, Shakespeare and the Traditions of America, and Australia 1910-21. These form the Comedy (1974) basis of her Four Lectures on Shakespeare, published posthumously in 1932. Ellen Terry died at Terry, Dame Ellen (1847-1928), English actress, her home in Smallhythe (Kent), which is now who made her debut under the exacting tutelthe property of the National Trust and houses age of Charles and Ellen *Kean at the Printhe extensive archive which is an indispensable cess's theatre, where (between 1854 and 1859) resource for biographers not only of Ellen Terry she played the Duke of York {Richard in), RF but also of her daughter Edy Craig. Mamillius, Puck, Prince Arthur, and Fleance, attracting the attention of Lewis Carroll. In her Auerbach, Nina, Ellen Terry: Player in her Time early teens Terry alternated engagements in (1987) Craig, Edith, and St John, Christopher (eds.), London and Bath/Bristol, where she was adEllen Terry's Memoirs (1933) mired as Titania and Desdemona. Manvell, Roger, Ellen Terry: A Biography (1968) Although her marriage in 1864 to the artist G. F. Watts deprived the stage of her talents for Tetralogy, First, a term for Shakespeare's first several years, she was not entirely lost to four English history plays—/ Henry vi, The Shakespeare; her husband's several portraits of First Part of the Contention {2 Henry vi), Richard her included one as Ophelia. Ellen Terry's Duke of York {3 Henry vi), and Richard 111— ravishing beauty (in particular her golden when they are discussed as a multi-part narrahair) made her—in W. Graham Robertson's tive and/or performed as a cycle. Though words—'par excellence the Painter's actress', composed first, chronologically they follow the but more significantly it also made her the visual reigns of Richard 11, Henry iv, and Henry v embodiment of ideal femininity during the dramatized in the Second Tetralogy. RWFM apogee of stage pictorialism. In 1875, one year after returning to the stage, she appeared as Portia—'so fresh and charming . . . so fair and gentle . . . it is the very poetry of acting' wrote Clement Scott—in the Bancrofts' scenically innovative revival of The Merchant of Venice with designs by the architect E. W. Godwin, who was the father of her two— illegitimate—children. In 1878 Ellen Terry became Henry *Irving's leading lady at the Lyceum where, beginning with Ophelia (1878) and ending with Volumnia (1901), she also played Portia, Lady Anne, Beatrice, Juliet,
Tetralogy, Second, a term for Richard 11,1 and 2 Henry iv, and Henry Kwhen they are discussed as a group or performed as a cycle: see also HENRIAD.
MD
tetrameter, a verse line of four feet, used by Shakespeare principally (l) as an occasional variation from ^pentameter, ( 2 ) as the basic metre of *songs ('Take, O, take those lips away' {Measure for Measure 4.1.1 ff.) ), (3) for the rhymed and songlike speeches of special kinds of characters: the *fairies sometimes in A
466
John Singer Sargent's celebrated portrait of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, 1889: the dress she wore in the role, still preserved at her house in Kent, is embroidered with the wing-cases of beetles.
Midsummer Night's Dream, the witches in Macbeth, or lovers who are would-be poets {Love's Labour's 10^4.3.99-118). GTW
textual criticism. A. E. Housman famously defined textual criticism as 'the science of discovering errors in texts, and the art of removing them'. The traditional goal of textual criticism is to reconstruct the process by which a text was transmitted to an existing document and to restore that text to its original form. Shakespearian textual critics are primarily interested in the nature of the lost manuscripts that served as printers' copy for the early *quartos and *folios. The principles of modern textual criticism are articulated in W. W. *Greg's 'The Rationale of Copy-Text' (1950). Greg argues that an editor may best approximate an author's finally intended text by adopting as 'copy text' the printed text closest to the author's manuscript and then emending that copy text with any later variants judged to be authorial based upon an understanding of how the error occurred in the transmission of the text. In the case of Hamlet, analysis of textual features in the second quarto (1604/5) suggests that it was set into type from Shakespeare's *foul papers. This hypothesis would explain a number of readings in the Q2 text—such as the spelling 'Gertrad'—as instances in which the compositor misread Shakespeare's handwriting, in the known examples of which the letter a and the letter u are often indistinguishable. In the Folio text of the play, which appears to derive from a theatrical playbook, Hamlet's mother is named 'Gertrude'. Since Q2 represents the text closest to the author's manuscript it might be chosen as the copy text for a critical edition. But an exercise in textual criticism reveals compelling reasons for believing that the name that Shakespeare intended and the name that was spoken onstage was 'Gertrude' and therefore provides an editor with a rationale for emending the quarto text by reference to the Folio variant. ER Greg, W. W., 'The Rationale of Copy-Text', Studies in Bibliography, 3 (19 50-1) Housman, A. E., 'The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism', Proceedings of the Classical Association, 18 (1921)
Thaisa, daughter of King Simonides, marries Pericles. She is thought to have died giving birth to Marina, Pericles11, but survives to be reunited AB with her family, 22.
467
THALIART (THALIARD) dismantle the building and to re-erect the tim-
I ! I
Char. Oh CAuptfr*, thou art takes Qucene* bers as the Globe on a new site south of the GE Cle*. Quick^quickejgood hands* J river. Berry, Herbert, 'Aspects of the Design and Use TV*. Hold worthy Lady^hold : of the First Public Playhouse', in Herbert Berry (éd.), The First Public Playhouse: The Doc not yoarfçlfc fuçh wroqg^ho arc iû this Theatre in Shoreditch 1576-1598 (1979) J Rcleeu'd, but not betraid* ] Lusardi, James P., 'The Pictured Playhouse: Reading the Utrecht Engraving of ShakeI , ClcotWhn of death too that rids our dogs oflanguiih { speare's London', Shakespeare Quarterly, 44 j Pro* Clespérd, do not abufemy Mafters bounty, by | (1993) J "jVvndoing ofyour fclfc : Let the World fee Theatre Museum, London, the national museum of the performing arts in the UK. J HisNoblencfle wcJU&ed, which your dzuh It houses permanent displays and special exJ Will nciier let come fbrtfu hibitions from its own collections of costumes, J Cleo. Where art thou Death? J designs, paintings, photographs, and other I out a mind, the Fanes Coach-makers p & in thisftateflic J gallops night by night,throughLouers braincs : and then i I they dreamc of Loue*On Courtiers knees,that drcame on I ] Curfiesftrait: ore Lawyersfingers^whoftraittdreamt on I Fees, ore Ladies lips, whoftraiton kiflcs dreame, which | f oft athe angry Mab with blifters plaguet, becaufe their 1 breath with Sweet meats tainted are. Sometimeflicgal- j I lops ore a Courtierynofe, & then dreames he of fmelling j out afutc;& foimiroe comes fhe with Tith pigs iale,tick» J J ling a Parfonsnofe as a lies afleepef then he dreames o f j J another Benefice, Sometime file driuetb ore a Souldiers | A textual crux in Antony and Cleopatra (5.2.41): does the Folio text say 'languish' or 'anguish'? What some editors read as an T, others see as an accidental 'inked space', comparable to the one between 'strait' and 'dreamt' on the fourth line of this passage from the same edition's Romeo and Juliet.
Thaliart (Thaliard) is Antiochus' henchman in Pericles 1 and 3. AB Theatre, the first substantial purpose-built London playhouse in England since Roman times, built in 1576 by James *Burbage in the Shoreditch district just north-east of the City and hence beyond the jurisdiction of the antitheatrical Puritan city fathers. Although the *Red Lion was earlier (built 1567), the Theatre appears to have been considerably more substantial than its predecessor and indeed its timbers survived in the form of the *Globe until the fire of 1613. The only contemporary picture of the Theatre is the sketch belonging to Abram Booth now in the University of Utrecht library. This shows an apparently round open-air structure with a superstructural hut like that at the *Swan, but artistic distortion of proportion (especially height) limits this picture's usefulness concerning the Theatre's size. The presence of the superstructural hut does not prove that the Theatre had a stage cover and posts similar to those of the Swan since this might be merely the
top of a 'turret' like that at the Red Lion. Patrons could apparently stand in the yard around the stage and either stand or sit in the galleries which enclosed the yard. When it was built the Theatre was available to any playing company to use and the precise occupancy is largely untraceable before the settlement of 1594 which licensed the '"Chamberlain's Men to use the Theatre and the Admiral's Men to use the Rose. Shakespeare's plays written in the latter half of the 1590s, Love's Labour's Lost, Richard 11, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King John, The Merchant of Venice, 1 and 2 Henry iv, and Much Ado About Nothing, would have been written for the Theatre. The nearby *Curtain playhouse was described as an 'esore' to the Theatre in 1585, which suggests an obscure financial connection which might have involved the Chamberlain's Men playing at the Curtain. The lease on the site expired in 1597, and when negotiations for its renewal stalled and the Blackfriars project was thwarted the Burbages engaged the master carpenter Peter *Street to
memorabilia of the British stage—inevitably, heavily featuring Shakespeare—and makes available its book and archive collections for consultation. SLB http://theatremuseum.vam.ac.uk theatres, Elizabethan and Jacobean. The Romans built amphitheatres in Britain during their occupation, but we know of no purposebuilt theatres erected between their departure and the construction of the open-air galleries and stage of the *Red Lion in Stepney in 1567. More substantial than the Red Lion were James *Burbage's *Theatre in *Shoreditch built in 1576 and Henry Lanham's nearby *Curtain built in 1577, both of which echoed the circular shape of the Roman amphitheatres. Also in 1576 Richard Farrant began to use the Upper Frater of the *Blackfriars Dominican monastery as a playhouse and some time in the 1570s the Paul's playhouse opened. The first playhouse south of the river was probably the one at Newington Butts, about which almost nothing is known, but in 1587 Philip *Henslowe built his open-air *Rose theatre on *Bankside and this was joined by its neighbours the *Swan (1595) and the *Globe (1599). There had long been an animalbaiting ring in the south bank area known as Paris Garden, but the theory that open-air playhouses developed out of the tradition of placing a touring company's portable stage and booth inside a baiting ring is unproven. In truth we do not know where the open-air circular playhouse design came from, other than imitation of the Roman style. In 1599-1600 Henslowe built a new open-air playhouse, the Fortune, north of the river, but broke with tradition in making the gallery ranges in the form of a square. Until 1608, when the King's Men regained the Blackfriars, the indoor theatres were used exclusively by companies of child actors and the open-air playhouses dominated the adult industry. It was customary at the indoor playhouses to divide the performance into five acts and for short musical interludes to fill the intervals, and this practice spread to the outdoor
468
THOMAS OF WOODSTOCK
playhouses with the King's Men's acquisition of the Blackfiiars. The terminology 'public' and 'private' theatre for the open-air and indoor theatres respectively is misleading as both kinds were open to the public, although the considerably higher cost of entrance to the indoor theatres kept out all but the middle and upper classes. In 1616 Christopher *Beeston built the indoor Cockpit theatre in Drury Lane which competed directly with the Blackfriars for the elite market, and a number of new theatres followed before the Civil War. All the theatres were closed by order of Parliament in 1642 as war became inevitable and those which were still structurally sound were converted into dwellings or their timbers stripped for reuse elsewhere. GE
llhaucfromrhcirdsnfinescairdtocttaô I Myprefcntfancies. •*£ Fer. Lée frçeliue here èticry 1 So rare a wondrèd Fatherçand a wife I Makes this place Paradifel « Pro. Sweet noie, fiicrice : I turn and Ceres whifper ferimifly, 1 There's Ibrocthing elfe to doe: hufh, and be mute ] Orelfe owr fpëilïs mart).
\
J
A famous textual crux in The Tempest (4.1.123): 'wise' or 'wife? Is the crucial letter a worn 'f, a long 's', or a long ' s ' mistakenly substituting for an T? (Cf. the specimens of ' s ' and 'f in 'present fancies' at the end of Prospero's
Foakes, R. A., Illustrations of the English Stageprevious speech.) The differing forensic verdicts of successive textual critics have inevitably been influenced by their 1580-1642 (1985)
critical understanding of the line's context and purport.
'Then they for sudden joy did weep', a mis- cluding virtually all his 18th-century succes- Thidias is Caesar's messenger to Cleopatra: MLW Antony orders him to be whipped for kissing quoted mid-i6th-century ballad, sung by the sors. her hand, Antony and Cleopatra 3.13. He is called Fool in The Tragedy of King Lear 1.4.156. F. W. Jarvis, Simon, Scholars and Gentlemen: ShakeThyreus by *Plutarch (*Theobald and many spearian Textual Criticism and Representations Sternfeld's Songs from Shakespeare's Tragedies of Scholarly Labour, 1725-1765 (1995) later editors have followed this spelling). AB (1964) gives a tune from an early 17th-century Jones, Richard Foster, Lewis Theobald: His source. JB Contribution to English Scholarship (1919) Thirlby, Styan (?i686—1753), English theologian Seary, Peter, Lewis Theobald and the Editing ofand critic, whose annotated copy of *Pope's edition of Shakespeare (1723-5), together with a Shakespeare (1990) Theobald, Lewis (1688-1744), English ShakeWalsh, Marcus, Shakespeare, Milton and Eight-list of emendations and a commentary, were spearian editor. In his Shakespeare Restored eenth-Century Literary Editing (1997) used by *Theobald when preparing his edition. (1726), which was a response to the inadequaThirlby's notes were consulted again by Dr cies of Alexander *Pope's edition, and in his 'There dwelt a man in Babylon', the opening *Johnson when he was preparing his own ediown edition of The Works of Shakespeare (1733), of a mid-i6th-century *broadside, 'The Ballad tion: he borrowed them from Edward Walpole, Theobald was the first to bring to Shakespeare of Constant Susanna', quoted or sung by Sir to whom Thirlby had bequeathed his library. methods previously developed and employed in Toby in Twelfth Night 2.3.75. The tune is CMSA classical and biblical editing and commentary. 'Would not good King Solomon', also known Rejecting Pope's free and aesthetic approach to as 'Guerre guerre gay'. JB 'Thisbe'. See FLUTE, FRANCIS. the Shakespearian text, Theobald insisted that, at points of apparent corruption, the editor Thersites inveighs against his fellow Greeks Thomas, Ambroise. See OPERA; SHAKESPEARE must resort in the first place to collation of'the throughout Troilus and Cressida. A cowardlyAS A CHARACTER. older Copies', and avoid imposing alterations figure with a small part in *Homer's Lliad, he Thomas, Friar. See FRIAR THOMAS. on the basis of a modern taste. At the same time does not appear in medieval romances. AB Thomas, Lord Cromwell. Derived from he argued that, where surviving texts were ap*Foxe's Book of Martyrs, this anonymous play is parently irrecoverably corrupt, the editor must Theseus advises Hermia to obey her father tentatively attributed to Wentworth Smith. The resort to a responsible and essentially inter- Egeus in A Midsummer Night's Dream 1.1. He ascription to Shakespeare is not sustainable, pretative process of conjectural textual *emendand his followers find the sleeping lovers in the ation founded upon 'Reason or Authorities'. For wood, 4.1, and he announces that their wed- despite the initials 'W.S.' printed on the 1602 and 1613 quartos. SM such an editorial task Theobald was well dings will be celebrated with his own to qualified by his critical intelligence, professional Hippolyta. In The Two Noble Kinsmen he Thomas of Woodstock, an anonymous play, familiarity with the theatre, acquaintance with unpublished during Shakespeare's lifetime postpones his wedding to Hippolyta in order to secretary hand, and above all by his exceptionmake war on Creon at the three queens' request: though perhaps written c.1592—5, which influally extensive reading in the drama and other enced Richard 11. Woodstock was also known as he imprisons Palamon and Arcite, and eventuwritings of Shakespeare's time. Alexander Pope, The First Part of the Reign of King Richard the ally decrees the terms on which they will constung by the demolition of his own editorial Second and Shakespeare's play has been proclude their rivalry: after a formal combat, the work in Shakespeare Restored, and lacking and winner will marry Emilia; the loser will be posed as Part 2. This theory is based on the fact despising Theobald's knowledge of 'all such that Shakespeare omitted some of the obvious executed. He is a legendary Greek hero, best reading as was never read', constructed in his known for defeating the Minotaur and seducing events of Richard's reign or referred only briefly first Dunciad (1728) a distorted but influential a long series of women. AB to them, in particular the blank charters and picture of Theobald as a dull and pedantic the murder of Gloucester, as if confident that verbal critic. Nevertheless, Theobald's edition 'They bore him barefaced on the bier', sung they were already known to his audience. But was reprinted seven times in its own century, by Ophelia in Hamlet 4.5.165, often to the tune the latter would not have needed to know and his textual and interpretative judgements 'Walsingham'; see 'How should I your true love Woodstock to have filled in these gaps and the have been drawn on by many later editors, in- know'. JB two-part play theory is further problematized (cont. on page 474) 469
The Tempest
P
rinted as the first play in the Folio, The Tempest has always enjoyed a special prominence in the Shakespeare canon. Its first recorded performance took place at James I'S court on i November 1611, and it cannot have been much more than a year old then. The Tempest is indebted to three texts unavailable before the autumn of 1610, namely William *Strachey's True Reportary of the Wrack and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates (completed in Virginia in July 1610, and circulated in manuscript before its eventual publication in 1625), Sylvester *Jourdan's Discovery of the Bermudas (printed in 1610, with a dedication dated 13 October), and the Council of Virginia's True Declaration of the Estate of the Colony in Virginia (entered in the Stationers' Register in November 1610 and printed before the end of the year). An apparently irresistible urge to identify Prospero with Shakespeare (visible since the 1660s) has led many commentators to think of The Tempest as the playwright's personal farewell to the stage, and while this view seems both sentimental and slightly inaccurate (since Shakespeare was yet to co-write Cardenio, All IsTrue {Henry via), and The Two Noble Kinsmen with *Fletcher), this probably was his last unassisted work for the theatre, completed in 1611. Its position in the Folio may reflect his colleagues' recognition of this fact. TEXT: The Folio provides the only authoritative text of the play such as the St Elmo's fire with which *Ariel adorns the play: it was prepared with care, apparently from a literary storm (1.2.197-204), represent the preservation of the surtranscript by the scribe Ralph *Crane. The text's unusually vivors as the work of Providence (just as Gonzalo regards the detailed stage directions were probably elaborated by Crane outcome of the play's story, 5.1.204-16). It may be significant for the benefit of readers from briefer indications in his to the play's depictions of authority and subordination that copy, but they may well reflect his accurate recollections of these texts are almost as interested in the suppression of poseeing the play staged. The Tempest calls for an unusual tential mutiny as they are in the unfamiliar climate and natquantity of *music, and the words of its *songs are preserved ural history of Bermuda, and it is probably relevant to the in a number of 17th-century manuscripts. These all seem to play that before their landing there the mariners had regarded derive from the Folio text, but some may supplement it by the island as a haunt of evil spirits. accurately recording where breaks came between verses and Beyond these local sources, the play is indebted to Shakerefrains. speare's other reading about *travel, trade, and colonialism, SOURCES: The three texts from late 1610 which lie behind notably in Robert Eden's History of Travel (1577), from this play supplied Shakespeare with the story of a much-dis- which he derived the name of Sycorax's god Setebos, and cussed shipwreck in the West Indies. The Sea-Adventure, in *Montaigne's essay 'Of the Cannibals', the source for flagship of a nine-strong flotilla taking 500 colonists from Gonzalo's vision of an ideal commonwealth (2.1.149-74). Plymouth to Virginia, struck the coast of Bermuda in a storm ^Caliban's name may be related to 'Carib' as well as to on 29 July 1609 and was presumed lost, but in May 1610 the 'Cannibal', suggesting that Shakespeare had read early acbulk of its crew and passengers reached Jamestown, having counts of *Caribbean native cultures. Other important debts wintered on Bermuda and built themselves pinnaces. The are to *Ovid's Metamorphoses, from which Shakespeare took accounts Shakespeare read, which gave hints for details in the Prospero's farewell to his magic (5.1.33-57) almost verbatim
470
TEMPEST, T H E
(tellingly, from a speech by the sorceress Medea), and to *Virgil's Aeneidy particularly its depiction of Aeneas' dealings with Dido, Queen of Carthage, whom Shakespeare remembered often during this play about a ship wrecked between Tunis and Italy. The main plot of the play, though— unusually, largely told in retrospect, the play neoclassically confining itself to showing the last few hours of the story in a single location—is Shakespeare's own. SYNOPSIS: I.I Alonso, King of Naples, his son Ferdinand, their ally Antonio, Duke of Milan, and a number of courtiers are returning to Italy from Alonso's daughter's wedding to the King of Tunis when their ship is driven aground in a violent storm, the sailors struggling in vain to preserve it between the interruptions of their aristocratic passengers. All are convinced they are about to drown. 1.2 After the storm, Prospero reassures his daughter Miranda that no one has perished in the shipwreck, which he caused and controlled by magic. For the first time he tells her of how, twelve years earlier, they came to this island. The rightful Duke of Milan, Prospero was usurped by his brother Antonio, who, governing the state while Prospero studied magic, promised that Milan would pay tribute to Naples in return for Alonso's military backing for his coup. Prospero and the 3-year-old Miranda were set adrift far out to sea in a small boat provisioned and supplied with Prospero's books only at the insistence of a humane Neapolitan courtier, Gonzalo. Since then Prospero has brought Miranda up on the island where they came ashore, in ignorance of his royalty, but now his enemies have been brought to the island and their future depends on the next few hours. While Miranda falls into a magically induced sleep, Prospero summons his spirit Ariel, who describes how he executed the storm and how he has left the mariners and passengers, the former asleep on the safely harboured ship, Ferdinand alone, and the rest dispersed around the island. When Ariel reminds Prospero of his promise to free him from his labours, the enchanter reminds him of his twelve-year confinement in a pine at the hands of the banished Algerian witch Sycorax (now dead, though survived by her son Caliban), and threatens to renew such an imprisonment if Ariel complains again. Promising to free him after two days, Prospero commands Ariel to reappear as a sea-nymph, visible only to him. Miranda awakens and Prospero summons their slave Caliban, who Curses them, remembering their kinder treatment when they first came to the island, which he insists is rightfully his. He has been enslaved since an attempt to rape Miranda, which he unrepentantly remembers. Prospero sends him to fetch fuel, threatening him with torments. After Caliban's departure, the invisible Ariel leads Ferdinand to them with the song 'Come unto these yellow sands', confirming the Prince's belief that his father has drowned with another, 'Full fathom five thy father lies'. Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love instantly, and he proposes to her: this is just as Prospero has planned, but he feigns displeasure, offering to imprison Ferdinand, who is magically paralysed when he attempts to draw his sword.
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2.1 Elsewhere on the island, Gonzalo tries to comfort Alonso, who is convinced Ferdinand has drowned: Antonio and Alonso's brother Sebastian, however, ridicule Gonzalo and reproach Alonso for marrying his daughter to an African. Gonzalo, further mocked by Antonio and Sebastian, speaks of the Utopian community he imagines establishing on the island. The invisible Ariel plays music and all sleep except Antonio and Sebastian: Antonio persuades Sebastian he should seize the opportunity to make himself King of Naples by violence, and they both draw swords to kill Alonso and Gonzalo. Ariel, however, rouses Gonzalo with a song, 'While you here do snoring lie', and the whole party awakens, obliging the two would-be assassins to pretend they have drawn because alarmed by a noise as of lions. 2.2 Caliban, seeing the jester Trinculo, thinks he is one of Prospero's tormenting spirits, and lies hiding under his gaberdine: Trinculo, finding him, at first thinks him a monstrous fish whom he wishes he could exhibit lucratively at English fairs, but decides he must be a thunder-struck native. When it begins to rain, he too takes shelter under the gaberdine. Alonso's drunken butler Stefano, drinking sack preserved from the wreck and singing, thinks the gaberdine is a four-legged monster, then a twoheaded one too, before he realizes the truth and is reunited with Trinculo. Caliban, given some of Stefano's sack, thinks him a god, swears allegiance to him, and sings in joy of his deliverance from Prospero's slavery. 3.1 Concealed, Prospero watches with approval as Ferdinand, enslaved and bearing logs for him, speaks with Miranda and the two vow to marry. 3.2 Increasingly drunk, Caliban begins to fall out with Trinculo, a quarrel exacerbated by Ariel, who invisibly simulates Trinculo's voice and contradicts Caliban as he speaks of Prospero. Caliban proposes that Stefano should murder Prospero during his afternoon nap and marry Miranda, a scheme to which he and Trinculo agree. They sing a catch, the tune of which Ariel invisibly plays on a tabor and pipe. Caliban reassures the Italians that the island is full of harmless magical sounds. 3.3 Alonso and his hungry fellows are astonished when spirits lay out a banquet before them, inviting them to dine. As Prospero watches invisibly from above, Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian are about to eat when Ariel appears in the shape of a harpy, makes the banquet disappear, and speaks of the three's sinfulness, reminding them of the banishment of Prospero. Prospero congratulates Ariel on his performance. Alonso, convinced Ferdinand has died in punishment for his own role in Antonio's usurpation, is stricken with guilt. 4.1 Prospero, explaining that Ferdinand's servitude was only a test of his love, blesses his engagement to Miranda, though he warns the Prince severely against premarital sex. To celebrate the occasion, Prospero's spirits perform a masque in which Iris, at Juno's behest, summons Ceres (played by Ariel) to help bless the couple, in the welcome absence of Venus and Cupid. During a dance of nymphs and reapers, however, Prospero remembers Caliban's plot, and hastily terminates the unfinished masque, apologizing to
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Ferdinand for his distraction but pointing out that all the world is as mortal and fragile as was the spirits' performance. After the couple have gone, Ariel tells Prospero how he has led Caliban, Stefano, and Trinculo through thorns and a filthy pool on their way to seek him: at Prospero's bidding he hangs out fancy clothing, and while Stefano and Trinculo are distracted by the task of stealing it—to Caliban's impatience— Prospero and Ariel drive the three of them away to more torment with spirits in the shapes of hunting dogs. 5.1 Prospero, in his magic robes, listens to Ariel's compassionate description of the sufferings of Alonso and his party (imprisoned by magic on Prospero's instructions), and resolves that since they are penitent he will not pursue vengeance against them. While Ariel goes to release them, he draws a circle with his staff, remembering the magnificent achievements of his magic powers but vowing to renounce them. Alonso and his followers are led into the circle by Ariel, still charmed, and Prospero speaks to them. Ariel sings 'Where the bee sucks', a song of his imminent freedom, as he dresses Prospero in his former clothes as Duke of Milan. Alonso, Gonzalo, and the others recover their wits and are astonished to be greeted by Prospero. Prospero forgives Antonio, but demands the restoration of his dukedom, pointing out privately that he knows of the earlier assassination attempt against Alonso. When Alonso speaks in grief about the presumed death of Ferdinand, Prospero says he too lost a child in the recent storm, and draws a curtain to reveal Miranda and Ferdinand playing chess together. Alonso and Ferdinand are happily reunited. Miranda is astonished at the beauty of mankind, and Alonso and Gonzalo bless her engagement to Ferdinand. Ariel brings the Master and Boatswain, who are amazed to report that the ship and crew are perfectly intact. Ariel then brings Caliban, Stefano, and Trinculo, whose conspiracy Prospero describes. Caliban, admitting he was foolish to believe his drunken companions gods, is sent to tidy Prospero's cell while his former confederates return their stolen clothing. Prospero promises he will tell his whole story before they set sail for Italy the following morning, and assures Ariel that he will be free as soon as he has provided a wind which will enable them to catch up with the rest of Alonso's fleet. Alone, Prospero speaks an epilogue, in rhyme, saying that now that he has no magic powers he needs the audience's indulgent applause to free him.
CRITICAL HISTORY: The mysterious qualities of The Tempest—the sense that the play reveals only glimpses of its purposes, quite apart from dramatizing only a few hours of its characters' lives—have given it a richer afterlife in drama, literature, and the other arts than almost any other Shakespeare play, as subsequent writers and artists have sought to explain, supplement, and extend it. Versions of Prospero the master illusionist have haunted the theatre (F. G. Waldron composed the first of several sequels, The Virgin Queen, in 1796) and, especially, film (allusions to The Tempest have, for example, become almost de rigueur in science fiction, from the 1956 outer-space version * Forbidden Planet onwards). The play's interpreters in other media include *Hogarth, *Fuseli (who based his drawings of Prospero on portraits of Leonardo da Vinci), Iris *Murdoch, Aimé *Césaire (anti-colonialist author of Une tempête), and W. H. *Auden, and very nearly included *Mozart. From the Restoration onwards the play was regarded as a display of imaginative liberties not possible (or permissible) for lesser writers: *Dryden, for example, cited both Caliban and Ariel as specimens of Shakespeare's abilities to go beyond nature. His critical observations on the play, though, are perhaps less revealing as comments on it than the adaptation he co-wrote with *Davenant in 1667, The Tempest; or, The Enchanted Island. Davenant, according to Dryden, 'found that somewhat might be added to the design of Shakespeare . . . and therefore to put the last hand to it, he designed the counterpart to Shakespeare's plot, namely that of a man who had never seen a woman'. In the adaptation, which elaborates on the symmetries of Shakespeare's original, Prospero is also responsible for a naive male ward, Hippolito, doomed to die if he ever meets a woman, and Miranda has a sister, Dorinda: in a coyly Edenic scene Dorinda and Hippolito do meet, despite Prospero's prohibitions, and when Hippolito (uninstructed in the monogamous codes of civil society) finds himself just as enthusiastic about Miranda as he is about her sister he is killed in a duel by Ferdinand. Meanwhile Caliban, too, has a sister (confusingly, called Sycorax) whom he pairs off with Trinculo (though she is just as keen on Stefano), and the rival attempts by the mutineers to claim the island by marriage displace their attempted coup against Prospero. Prospero's role, meanwhile, is greatly reduced: he never renounces his magic, which is in the event exceeded by that of Ariel, who is able to provide a magic cure to revive the dead ARTISTIC FEATURES: AS even the above synopsis may Hippolito and permit a happy ending. Davenant and Dryden suggest, The Tempest works less as a straightforward narrative make The Tempest more orderly, and a good deal lighter, but than as a series of rich but profoundly enigmatic images, often their invention of the Hippolito plot makes fully visible the arranged in symmetrical patterns: the parallel servitudes of fears of sexuality, women, and death which seem to trouble Caliban and Ariel, Caliban and Ferdinand; the paired Prospero in the original. younger brothers Antonio and Sebastian; Prospero's magical control of the sea and of the spectacle; Ariel's performances as The identification of Prospero with The Tempest's author sea-nymph, as harpy, and as Ceres. As such it is closer to lyric, is already visible in the prologue to Davenant and Dryden's as well as more crammed with lyrics, than any other Shake- adaptation, and it became a commonplace of 18th-century speare play, a haunting sea-poem in which celebration over poetry and prose about Shakespeare (made fully explicit by what can be restored and sorrow over what must be lost are Thomas Campbell in 1838), which generally regarded the inextricably intertwined. Duke of Milan as afigureof serene wisdom. The 19th century
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in general maintained this view, seeing the play as an autumnal work about a magician who comes to terms with the renunciation of his powers and the marriage of his only child: according to Victor *Hugo, for whom The Tempest was a powerfully mythic text which completed the Bible, this 'last creation of Shakespeare' has 'the solemn tone of a testament' and offers 'the supreme denouement, dreamed by Shakespeare, for the bloody drama of Genesis. It is the expiation of the primordial crime.' Even Hugo, though, had some misgivings about Prospero (calling him 'the master of Nature and the despot of destiny'), and in time the univocally proProspero reading of the play came under pressure, especially from commentators who found Caliban as potentially sympathetic as his master. The play had already come to function for some as an allegory about slavery and colonialism by the 1840s, when the Brough brothers' *burlesque The Enchanted Isle depicted Caliban as a black abolitionist who sings the 'Marseillaise', and Charlotte Barnes hybridized the play (in The Forest Princess, 1844) w i m the story of Pocahontas. During the 20th century this view would be developed by many anti-colonial writers, particularly Octave Mannoni in *East Africa, and would become a commonplace of *cultural materialist and *new historicist criticism from the 1970s onwards. The extent to which the play, though set in the Mediterranean, is in any sense 'about' the New World (and a colonial enterprise which in Shakespeare's time barely existed) has been a contentious question throughout the post-war period (not coincidentally, a period when Shakespeare studies have been increasingly dominated by North American critics). Discussions of the play in recent years have often been dominated by the question of Shakespeare's level of approval for Prospero and the related question of the nature, black or white, of his magic.
Shakespeare's text over the next decade. Frederick *Reynolds's musical version in 1821 was again based on the Dryden-Davenant adaptation, and it was not until 1838 that the original play (though supplemented with lavish special effects) was again restored, by W. C. *Macready. Spectacle characterized subsequent revivals by Charles *Kean (1857), whose production employed 140 stagehands, Samuel *Phelps (1871), and Beerbohm *Tree, whose 1904 production centred on Caliban, played by himself, who was left alone to watch the Italians' ship departing in a wistful final tableau. In the 20th century the play was revived more frequently, with major Prosperos including Robert * Atkins (1915) and, especially, John *Gielgud, who played Ferdinand in 1926 but had already graduated to a Dantesque Prospero at the *01d Vic in 1930 (with Ralph * Richardson as Caliban). Gielgud repeated the role in 1940, in 1957 (for Peter *Brook at Stratford), and in 1973 (for Peter *Hall at the National), and his intellectual, mellifluous, exquisitely spoken rendering of the part (particularly its rhetorical set pieces) has been immensely influential (and, through sound Recordings and the film Prosperos Books, is likely to remain so). Even within Gielgud's performances as Prospero, however, there was an increasing sense that the Duke of Milan could no longer be played as a benign, Father Christmas-like magus: Brook's production stressed Prospero's obsessive brooding, while Hall had Gielgud present him as puritanically vengeful, successfully acting out his plan but not with meditative detachment. These directions have been pursued by others, too: Derek *Jacobi was a young and passionate Prospero in 1983, John *Wood an unpredictably irritable one in Nicholas Hytner's production of 1988, Alec McCowen a frail, patronizing showman finally spat upon by Simon Russell Beale's freed Ariel in Sam Mendes's production of 1993. At the same time STAGE HISTORY: After its court performance in Novem- the play has continued to inspire theatrical adaptations and ber 1611, The Tempestwzs again played for the royal family in variations, among them Philip Osment's This Island's Mine 1613 during the celebrations of Princess *Elizabeth's wedding. (Gay Sweatshop, 1987-8). The further opening up of the No further performances of the original are recorded until the play's text to contemporary questions of gender and power mid-i8th century: from 1667 the play was displaced by visible in recent criticism has continued to expand the theDavenant and Dryden's adaptation (supplied with further atrical possibilities of this haunting, conflicted, and mysteriMD *operatic embellishments in 1674, including a masque of ous play. Neptune and a girlfriend for Ariel), which became the most ON THE SCREEN: Dallas Bower's BBC TV production popular show of its time (popular enough, for example, to be (1939) with Peggy *Ashcroft as Miranda was one of the last wickedly parodied by Thomas *Duffett). Regularly revived at Shakespeare broadcasts before the BBC closed its television Christmas, its cast including an actress as Hippolito, a mid- service for the length of the war. The American Hallmark dle-aged comedian as Sycorax, and Ariel as the perfect good television series produced a memorable The Tempest (i960) fairy, this play is one of the ancestors of English pantomime. with Maurice * Evans (Prospero), Lee Remick (Miranda), and David *Garrick experimented with his own drastically Richard *Burton (Caliban). Michael *Hordern's Prospero for shortened The Tempest: An Opera (1756), but after its failure BBC TV (1979) was judged dignified but undisturbing, he instead revived a conservatively abridged text of Shake- whereas Derek Jarman's The Tempest (1980) aroused fierce speare's original. To 18th-century audiences, however, critical response since it resonates with an underlying agenda Shakespeare's play lacked 'business', and the Dryden- which seeks to subvert heterosexual orthodoxy. Jarman preDavenant version returned, first as the puppet play The sents a dark view of the relationships in the play, Heathcote ^Shipwreck (1780). John Philip *Kemble (a righteously au- Williams's Prospero crushing Caliban'sfingersunderfoot and thoritarian Prospero) restored Hippolito and Dorinda to the Toyah Willcox's Miranda displacing innocent winsomeness stage proper in 1789, though he gradually included more of with brazen and compulsive sexuality. The priorities in this
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film are more readily understood when viewed in the context of the whole Jarman œuvre. Peter Greenaway's Prosperous Books (1991), using highly sophisticated technology, bases a rewriting of the play's action on the books that Gonzalo packs to accompany Prospero in his exile, John Gielgud taking on the multiple personality of Shakespeare, Greenaway, and Prospero, so that the film is essentially about the process of writing, filming, and experiencing simultaneously. The last of the books is Shakespeare's First Folio with blank pages AD waiting for Shakespeare's The Tempest to cover them. RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
Stephen Orgel (Oxford, 1987); Frank Kermode (Arden 2nd series, 1954); Virginia Vaughan (Arden 3rd series, 1999); Anne Barton (New Penguin, 1968) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Berger, Harry, 'Miraculous Harp: A Reading of Shakespeare's Tempest', Shakespeare Studies, 15 (1969)
by the considerable overlap between the plays and their differences in tone and emphasis. Bolingbroke does not appear at all in Woodstock and the representation of Richard is far less sympathetic than that of Shakespeare. Nevertheless, the portrayal of Gloucester as a man of honesty, loyalty, and integrity, in defiance of *Holinshed's Chronicles, is common to both and may have been a source for Gaunt. It is in 2.1, where Gaunt describes Richard's abuses of England, that the verbal correspondences between the two plays are clustered. JKS Thorndike, Dame Sybil (1882-1976), English actress. Brought up in a high Anglican clergyhouse, she spent three years in North America playing out of doors on a far-flung tour of pastoral plays with Ben *Greet. Back in England she worked in pioneering modern drama, marrying Lewis Casson. During the First World War years, as a member of the first regular Shakespearian company at the Old Vic, she played many of Shakespeare's women and (men being at the front) Lear's Fool and Prince Hal. She was admired as a tragedienne, playing in Gilbert Murray's translations from the Greek and Shaw's StJoan but also Queen Katherine in All Is True {Henry VIII), Volumnia to Laurence *01ivier's Coriolanus, and Constance in King John. Early in the Second World War she toured Welsh mining villages as Lady Macbeth, and in the famous *01d Vic seasons at the New Theatre she was Queen Margaret to Olivier's Richard m and Mistress Quickly to Ralph * Richardson's Falstaff. A passionate Christian Socialist and a pacifist, she was made a Companion of Honour and, when her ashes were interred in Westminster Abbey, John *Gielgud described her as the most greatly loved English actress since Ellen Terry. MJ
Cartelli, Thomas, 'Prospero in Africa', in Jean Howard and Marion O'Connor (eds.), Shakespeare Reproduced (1987) Greenblatt, Stephen, 'Learning to Curse', in Fredi Chiapelli (éd.), First Images of America (1976) Hulme, Peter, and Sherman, William H. (eds.), 'The Tempest' and its Travels (2000) Mannoni, Octave, Psychologie de la colonisation (1950; trans, as Prospero and Caliban, 1956) Maus, Katharine Eisaman, 'Arcadia Lost: Politics and Revision in the Restoration Tempest', Renaissance Drama, NS13 (1982) Morse, Ruth, 'Monsters, Magicians, Movies: The Tempest and the Final Frontier', Shakespeare Survey, 53 (2000) Peterson, Douglas, in Time, Tide and Tempest (1973) Shakespeare Survey, 43 {'The Tempest'and after) (1991) Sundelsohn, David, in Shakespeare's Restorations of the Father (1983) Vaughan, Alden and Virginia Mason, Caliban: A Cultural History (1990)
Thorpe, Thomas. See M R W. H.; PRINTING AND P U B L I S H I N G ; S O N N E T S .
three-man songs, simple songs for three voices (see The Winter's Tale 4.3.41). Also known as 'free-men's songs'. JB 'Three merry men be we', a snatch of song quoted in many 17th-century plays and lyrics, including by Sir Toby in Twelfth Night 2.3.73.
JB throne (state). The official chair of a monarch was set on a raised dais under a canopy and the combined property, or either of its components, could be called a throne or state. An ordinary chair placed within a multi-purpose stage booth was the simplest way to represent the state. In 1595 Philip *Henslowe paid carpenters for 'making the throne in the heavens' at the Rose and in the prologue to Every Man in his Humour *Jonson mocked plays in which a 'creaking throne comes down' from above the stage, but in these cases 'throne' means simply 'chair used for descents' rather than the monarchical state which would have been carried or pushed onto the stage. GE
Baudissin's completion of A. W. *Schlegel's translation ('Schlegel-Tieck' Shakespeare, 1825-33). l n novellas he dealt with Shakespeare's life and theatre {Dichterleben, 1826; Der junge Tischlermeister, 1836). He staged an exemplary Midsummer Night's Dream in Berlin (1843). WH Tillyard, E(ustace) M(andeville) W(etenhall) (1889-1962), English academic, long one of the most widely consulted of modern critics. Shakespeare's last Plays (1938), Shakespeare's History Plays (1944), and Shakespeare's Problem Plays (1950) all argue for a pattern of organic relations and development between plays often considered discretely. His The Elizabethan World Picture (1943), once the almost canonical account of commonly held Elizabethan beliefs about man's place in the universe, has recently come under fierce attack, particularly by Cultural materialists, for disguising the scepticism, tension, and equivocation underlying conventional orthodoxy. Its dogmatic stance may be questionable, but its usefulness in transmitting esoteric ideas persists. TM Tilney, Sir Edmund. See CENSORSHIP; MASTER
Throne of Blood. See KUROSAWA, AKIRA.
OF THE REVELS; SIR THOMAS MORE.
Thump, Peter. See HORNER, THOMAS.
Timandra. See PHRYNIA.
Thurio is one of Valentine's rivals for Silvia in Time is a personification who acts as 'Chorus', The Two Gentlemen of Verona. AB The Winter's Tale 4.1, to explain the passing of sixteen years. AB Thyreus. See THIDIAS.
Timon of Athens (see opposite Tieck, Ludwig (1773-1853), German Romantic author. He translated anonymous Elizabethan Tippett, Sir Michael (1905-98), English complays, many of which he ascribed to Shake- poser. Tippett's first major opera, The Midspeare {Alt-Englisches Theater, 1811; Shakespeares summer Marriage (1955), though clearly Vorschule, 1923-9), but his projected 'Book on influenced by A Midsummer Night's Dream in Shakespeare' remained fragmentary. Tieck mood and theme, uses none of Shakespeare's text. The Knot Garden (1970), however, draws Sprigge, Elizabeth, Sybil Thorndike Casson (1971)supervised his daughter Dorothea's and W. von (cont. on page 477) 474
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his bitter, schematic fable of bankruptcy and misanthropy—which enjoys the dubious distinction of being perhaps the least popular play in the Shakespeare canon—shares many concerns, and a good deal of rare vocabulary, with King Lear, and was probably written shortly before it, in 1604-5. It may have been influenced by an anonymous academic play, Timon (acted at one of the Inns of Court c.1602), and by the depiction of Timon found in William *Painter's Palace ofPleasure (1566), a work on which Shakespeare drew for the plot of All's Well That Ends Well (1604-5) • However, there is no external evidence to help date the play, which went unmentioned in any extant document until its appearance in the First Folio in 1623.
It is quite possible that Timon of Athens would have misanthropus (either directly or indirectly, perhaps through been omitted from the Folio had its compilers not experi- the anonymous Timon play), which supplies Timon's disenced last-minute difficulties in obtaining Troilus and Cres- covery of gold during his self-imposed exile in the woods and sida: Charlton *Hinman's study of the Folio's printing its consequences. showed that this play occupies space originally intended for SYNOPSIS: I.I Outside the rich Timon's house a jeweller, a Troilus and Cressida. The reasons for the play's near-exclusion merchant, a mercer, a poet, and a painter cluster in hopes of are not known, but they may relate to its status as a collab- his patronage, and he is visited by senators; the Poet, disoration. The Folio text is a highly unusual one, full of loose cussing all this with the Painter, has composed an allegory ends of plot (notably the virtually irrelevant episode in which warning Timon that Fortune is fickle. Timon, arriving, Alcibiades pleads in vain on behalf of a soldier guilty of speaks courteously to all his suitors, pays his friend Ventidius' manslaughter, 3.6), and anomalies in its lineation and in its debt to free him from prison, and gives his servant Lucilius use of pronouns. Although some commentators have pre- money to enable him to marry an old Athenian's daughter. ferred to think of it as an 'unfinished' work by Shakespeare He accepts the offerings of the Poet, the Painter, and the alone, many editors since Charles *Knight in the 1830s have Jeweller, and welcomes Alcibiades, 20 of his fellow knights, regarded it as a collaborative work, and it is now widely ac- and even the snarling philosopher Apemantus, who rails at his cepted that about a third of the play was composed by the fellow guests as parasites. 1.2 At Timon's great banquet young Thomas *Middleton. Careful independent studies of Apemantus continues to satirize the flatterers around him, language, oaths, spelling, rare vocabulary, and other forensic who shower Timon with gifts but receive larger ones in redetails have identified Middleton's share as 1.2, all of Act 3 turn. A masque of Amazons is performed. Flavius, Timon's except Timon's devastating appearance at his mock-feast in steward, knows his coffers are almost exhausted. 3.7, and the dialogue between Timon and Flavius at the end 2.1 A senator is calculating the sums Timon owes, and of 4.3. It is clear from the Folio text that the play was set hurriedly sends his factor Caphis to call in his own debts from foul papers, with each playwright's share written in his before Timon is bankrupt. 2.2 Flavius is besieged by Timon's own hand and betraying quite different habits with inciden- creditors, on whom Apemantus vents his satirical wit while tals. Flavius is finally able to convince Timon that he has given SOURCES: The principal source for Timon of Athens is a away his entire estate. Timon confidently sends servants to digression in *Plutarch's life of Mark Antony, from which the three of his friends, Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius, in play takes Timon's epitaph almost verbatim. Shakespeare and order to borrow money from them. Flavius reports that the Middleton must also have known *Lucian's dialogue Timon senators have already declined to make such a loan, but TEXT:
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Timon sends him to borrow from Ventidius, who has recently inherited a fortune. 3.1 Lucullus at first assumes Timon's servant has come to bring him another gift, but when he learns he has come for money he attempts to bribe him to tell Timon he has not seen him. The servant throws back the bribe and curses him. 3.2 Lucius, hearing from three strangers of Lucullus' conduct, is indignant on Timon's behalf, but when he is himself asked for money he makes elaborate excuses: the strangers reflect on his hypocrisy. 3.3 Sempronius, too, refuses to lend Timon money, affecting to be too offended at not having been asked first. 3.4 Timon's house is besieged by his creditors' servants: eventually he himself emerges and rants at them. 3.5 The furious Timon tells an uncomprehending Flavius to invite Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius to dinner once more. 3.6 Alcibiades pleads with the senators for the life of one of his soldiers, who has committed manslaughter, and grows so angry at their refusal that they banish him: he vows to rally his troops and attack Athens in revenge. 3.7 Timon's friends, convinced his apparent bankruptcy must have been a test of their loyalty, gather eagerly for the feast. Covered dishes are brought in: Timon recites a satirical grace before their lids are lifted, revealing only stones in lukewarm water. He rants at his guests and beats them, vowing eternal misanthropy. 4.1 Outside Athens Timon curses the city, tearing off his clothes to live in the woods as a beast. 4.2 Flavius bids a poignant farewell to his fellow servants, sharing his remaining money with them: he sets off loyally to find and assist Timon. 4.3 Timon, still cursing mankind, digs for roots but finds gold. When Alcibiades arrives with two courtesans, Phrynia and Timandra, Timon gives them gold, to encourage the women to infect the world with venereal diseases and to help Alcibiades destroy Athens and then himself. After their departure, Apemantus arrives, and in a long philosophical dialogue points out that Timon's extreme misanthropy is merely the inverse of his former pride. After Timon finally drives Apemantus away, three thieves arrive, to whom Timon gives gold in order to sponsor their profession, but his sermon and his money in fact convert them to a love of peace. When Flavius arrives, however, Timon is moved by his fidelity, though he nonetheless insists that he stay away in future. 5.1 The Poet and the Painter also come in the hopes of obtaining gold from Timon: he drives them away with blows and curses. 5.2 Flavius brings two senators to Timon's cave, who beg him to return to Athens in honour and lead their defence against Alcibiades, but he professes indifference to his country's fate and suggests that to avoid death at Alcibiades' hands the citizens should all hang themselves. He says he has been writing his epitaph, and means to be buried between high and low tides on the beach. 5.3 The news of Timon's refusal to help Athens reaches the city. 5.4 A soldier, seeking Timon, finds only a gravestone: unable to read its inscription, he takes an impression of it for Alcibiades to interpret. 5.5 The senators surrender to Alcibiades, who promises to kill only his own enemies and those of Timon. The Soldier brings the
news of Timon's death and seaside burial, and Alcibiades reads the misanthropic poem he composed as his epitaph. Though he knows Timon would scorn his grief, Alcibiades mourns Timon, and enters Athens with promises of peace. ARTISTIC FEATURES: Constructed more as a series of emblems than as a narrative, and falling sharply into two very distinct halves—the first three acts depicting Timon's fall from grace, the last two his invective and death outside Athens— Timon of Athens is more remarkable for its poetry than for its drama, in this, perhaps, resembling the late romances. Timon's final vision of the tide washing his grave (5.4.99-108) certainly suggests a near-religious perspective beyond the reach of an ordinary play—let alone one so cynical about human motivation as this otherwise appears to be. CRITICAL HISTORY: Although Samuel *Johnson valued the play for its clear moral lesson against trusting in false friends, most commentators have found its remorseless insistence on this point crude, and even Johnson felt the play was deficient in structure. *Coleridge, influentially, considered it an 'after vibration' of King Lear, 'a Lear of the satirical drama, a Lear of ordinary life'. *Hazlitt was unusual in his unqualified enthusiasm for the play, which he valued for its unrelenting earnestness, but generally the play has been valued for individual passages rather than as a whole: Karl *Marx, for example, was deeply affected by Timon's moralizing against gold (4.3.25-45), initiating a reading of the play's vision of capitalist economics later developed by Kenneth *Muir. Much discussion of the play has been devoted to explaining its perceived incompetence: around the turn of the 20th century, it became fashionable to attribute the melancholy of the 'problem plays' and tragedies to a personal crisis above which Shakespeare finally rose to produce the romances, and Frank Harris's view that Timon's ranting vents Shakespeare's own 'scream of suffering' (developed in Shakespeare the Man, 1909) was even echoed by E. K. *Chambers, who decided that Shakespeare must have suffered a nervous breakdown while drafting the play and never completed it thereafter. More recent criticism has returned to the play's relations to the other works within the canon, whether the problem comedies, the romances (towards which Timon's sea-poetry seems to reach), or Coriolanus (whose hero's military campaign against his own city is prefigured by that of Alcibiades, while his proud refusal of a reciprocal social contract is anticipated by Timon's absolutist generosity and absolutist misanthropy). The play's most enthusiastic modern champion was G. Wilson * Knight, who regarded it as one of Shakespeare's supreme achievements, and was given to performing Timon's speech of self-exile (4.1) in public lectures, complete with the removal of his clothes. STAGE HISTORY: NO productions of Timon ofAthens are recorded before the première of Thomas Shadwell's adaptation, The History of Timon of Athens, the Man-Hater, in 1678. Shadwell shared the view of the Folio text adopted by many modern critics, declaring in a preface that 'it has the inimitable hand of Shakespear in it, which never made more
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masterly strokes than this. Yet I can truly say, I have made it into a play.' Shadwell's main contribution, filling a deficiency perceived by many readers since, was to add a love plot, extending the play's opposition between loyal servants and false friends by supplying Timon with a loyal mistress, Evandra, and an affected, mercenary fiancée, Melissa. With Thomas *Betterton as Timon and masque music composed by *Purcell, this adaptation established itself in the repertory, frequently revived down to 1745. It was succeeded by another adaptation in 1771, by Richard Cumberland, who deprived Timon of his rival girlfriends (times had changed) and instead provided a virtuous daughter Evanthe, whose amorous complications with Alcibiades and Lucius fill out the plot. Spranger *Barry played Timon in a grand Drury Lane production staged by *Garrick, but it lasted for only eleven performances. A subsequent reworking of Shadwell's adaptation by Thomas *Hull (1786) achieved only one. In 1816 George Lamb attempted to restore Shakespeare's text, though he left some of Cumberland's changes to the ending and cut Alcibiades' mistresses: the result was an all-male Timon of Athens, which succeeded thanks to Edmund *Kean's terrifying passion in the title role. Sporadic 19th-century revivals followed: Samuel *Phelps was successful as Timon (1851, 1856), and Frank *Benson rearranged the play into three acts for a Stratford revival in 1892. Since then, however, it has only occasionally been produced, and has rarely been fully convincing: Nugent *Monck's 1935 production is remembered
heavily on The Tempest: it includes quotations from his Songs from Ariel, written for a production of The Tempest at the Old Vic in May 1962. IBC
chiefly for its incidental music by a 21-year-old Benjamin *Britten, Barry *Jackson's post-war modern-dress production of 1947 for the bomb crater that was the set for the second half. Ralph *Richardson and Paul *Scofield, however, each found an other-worldly quality in the title role, and in 1999 Michael *Pennington played Timon sensitively in Gregory Doran's RSC production. MD O N T H E SCREEN: The only screen version on record is Jonathan Miller's B B C TV production, 1981. The cast included Jonathan Pryce as Timon (who delivered his last speech in a disconcerting upside-down close-up), Norman Rodway, Sebastian Shaw, and Diana Dors. AD
RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
H. J. Oliver (Arden 2nd series, 1963); Gary Taylor, in The Complete OxfordMiddleton (2001); G. R. Hibbard (New Penguin, 1970) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Empson, William, 'Timon's Dog', in The Structure of Complex Words (19 51) Goldberg, Jonathan, in Sodometries: Renaissance Texts, Modern Sexualities (1992) Jackson, MacDonald P., Studies in Attribution: Middleton and Shakespeare (1979) Knight, G. Wilson, in The Wheel of Fire (1930, 1949) Muir, Kenneth, ' Timon of Athens and the Cash Nexus', Modern Quarterly Miscellany, 1 (1947) Soellner, Rolf, Timon of Athens (1949)
madly in love with the first person she sees. This is Bottom, who has an ass's head (also by fairy magic): she takes him to her bower. After obtaining the changeling from her, Oberon takes pity and removes the enchantment. Now distireman, the wardrobe-keeper in a playhouse, gusted by Bottom, she is reconciled to Oberon. Before the Second World War, actresses who responsible for the acquisition and orderly (moth-free) storage of the costumes and for played Titania usually aimed at an ethereal, queenly elegance and beauty. In the last half of repairs and alterations. Like other non-performing hired men, the tireman could be called the 20th century, however, her sexual desires upon for small roles. GE have come under investigation, notably by Jan *Kott who argued that 'The slender, tender and tiring house. Any place concealed from the lyrical Titania longs for animal love. . . . Sleep audience could be used as the actors' dressing frees her from inhibitions. The monstrous ass is being raped by the poetic Titania, while she still (or 'tiring') place, but in the purpose-built keeps on chattering aboutflowers'{Shakespeare playhouses the back wall of the stage (or from scenae), pierced by the stage doors, was also the our Contemporary, 1963). This interpretation influenced Peter *Brook's groundbreaking 1970 front wall of the tiring house. As well as a changing room, the tiring house was a storage production, which started what has almost become a modern stage convention of 'doubling' space for the properties, the costumes, and presumably the playbooks. In de Witt's drawing the actors who play Titania and Oberon with Hippolyta and Theseus, so that sexual issues in of the *Swan the tiring house is labelled 'mimorum aedes' (actors' house) and its roof the mortal world are seen to be reflected in the AB forms the floor of the balcony over the stage dreamlike fairy world. which could be used for playing 'above'. GE Titania, the queen of the *fairies in A Midsummer Nights Dream, refuses to give up a changeling boy she has adopted to Oberon. When asleep, he drugs her so that she will fall
All
title pages were affixed to early Shakespearian *quartos to identify their contents and were often tacked on walls to advertise them. These title pages generally provide the title of the play, the name of the dramatist, and the printer's *device and "Imprint. They also frequently give the name of the acting company and the theatre ('his Majesty's Servants, at the Globe on the Bankside') or details of the play's performance history ('As it was presented before her Highness this last Christmas'), the text's claims to authority ('according to the true and perfect copy'), its publication history ('Newly imprinted and enlarged'), and even a capsule summary ('With the extreme cruelty of Shylock the Jew towards the said Merchant, in cutting a just pound of his flesh: and the obtaining of Portia by the choice of three chests'). ER Titus Andronicus
(see page 478)
Titus Lartius. See LARTIUS, TITUS. Titus' Servant. See HORTENSIUS' SERVANT.
tobacco, made from the dried leaves of the south American plant nicotiana tabacum, was Titinius is sent on a mission by Cassius at first introduced to England in the 1560s. Philippi, Julius Caesar 5.3. Cassius despairs and William Harrison wrote in 1573, 'In these kills himself when he thinks Titinius has been days the taking-in of the smoke of the Indian slain. Titinius kills himself with Cassius' herb called Tobacco, by an instrument formed sword. AB like a little ladle, whereby it passes from the (cont. on page 481)
Titus Andronicus
S
hakespeare's earliest and most notoriously violent tragedy, sensationally popular in his lifetime but only restored to critical favour in the late 20th century, may have had its first run of performances interrupted by plague. *Henslowe's 'Diary' reports that a play called 'titus & ondronicus' was performed by Sussex's Men at the *Rose theatre on 24 January 1594. The play was entered in the *Stationers' Register on 6 February 1594, only a few days after the Rose theatre was closed down following an outbreak of *plague. Recent editors disagree on the exact date of composition. Verbal parallels in The ^Troublesome Reign of King John, published in 1591, and A Knack to Know a Knave, performed on 10 June 1592, along with the listing of three different acting companies on the *title page of the 1594 *quarto, suggest composition around 1590-1. Both internal and external evidence in favour of this early date is, however, easily confuted. The verbal parallels might derive from another play called Titus and Vespacia, which Henslowe recorded as being performed at the Rose on 11 April 1592. Besides, the listing of the three acting companies on the title page of the 1594 quarto might not be meant to be interpreted as a chronology of the play's stage history, as actors from Lord Strange's and *Pembroke's Men were employed by Sussex's Men during the brief 1593-4 winter season. Editors who argue in favour of an earlier date of composition tend to credit an old theory according to which the authorship of Titus Andronicus is collaborative and George *Peele is Shakespeare's most likely collaborator. Conversely, editors who believe that this tragedy was written between late 1593 and early 1594 believe it to be entirely Shakespearian.
The first quarto edition of Titus Andronicus was published in 1594, followed by two reprints in 1600 and 1611. Qi was typeset from Shakespeare's foul papers, as suggested by the lack of essential *stage directions, the irregularity of the *speech-prefixes, and occasional false starts and second thoughts. The second and the third quartos emended obvious compositorial mistakes and introduced new ones, which were then inherited by the 1623 *Folio edition, set from an annotated copy of Q3. The main alterations introduced into the 1623 edition, including more extensive stage directions, *act division, normalized speech-prefixes, and a whole new scene, the socalled fly-killing scene in Act 3, clearly derive from a *promptbook. Although most editors choose Qi as their copy text, because of its direct link to the author's holograph, most of the *Folio variants are added to it, as they reflect original staging practices and conventions. TEXT:
The fortunate discovery of the only extant copy of Qi in Sweden in 1904 allowed 20th-century editors to realize that the ending as it appears in Q2 and the later editions was a compositorial mistake. The *compositor of Q2 must have attempted to replace the missing lines from the last two pages in his copy of Qi, which had been accidentally damaged. SOURCES: Titus Andronicus has no direct sources. The play has often been connected to a narrative which, although surviving only in an 18th-century chapbook, was believed to derive from a much earlier version of the Titus story which Shakespeare dramatized. This theory has recently been discredited in favour of an alternative hypothesis according to which Shakespeare modelled the character of Lavinia on *Ovid's Philomel {Metamorphoses, book 6). It is however generally agreed that instead of borrowing from specific sources, Shakespeare turned to popular dramatic precedents,
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such as *Kyd's adaptation of Senecan *revenge tragedy, and other Elizabethan tragedies of blood. SYNOPSIS: I.I Saturninus and Bassianus, the sons of the late Emperor of Rome, claim the right to succeed their father, but Marcus Andronicus, a tribune of the people, offers the crown to his brother Titus, as a reward for his victorious military campaigns against the Goths. The issue of the succession is temporarily postponed while Titus, who has lost 21 of his 25 sons in the recent wars, grants his eldest son Lucius permission to give proper burial to his brothers and appease their souls by sacrificing the eldest son of Tamora, the Queen of the Goths. Tamora and her two surviving sons, Chiron and Demetrius, plan to avenge his death. When offered the crown, Titus declines it and bestows it on Saturninus, who asks and obtains the hand of his daughter Lavinia. Bassianus, who is already engaged to Lavinia, reclaims his betrothed with the help of Titus' sons. Enraged by their disobedience, Titus kills his youngest son Mutius. Instead of helping Titus rescue Lavinia, Saturninus turns his back on his benefactor and obtains Tamora's consent to marry him. Betrayed by his sons and his Emperor, Titus finally agrees to give Mutius an honourable burial. Tamora, the new Empress, persuades Saturninus to put up with the Andronici, who have the support of the people of Rome, and wait patiently for the day when they can safely 'massacre them all'. Aaron, Tamora's black servant and lover, settles a dispute between Chiron and Demetrius over Lavinia, by suggesting that they should both rape her in the woods. 2.1 Titus organizes a royal hunt to celebrate the Emperor's wedding. 2.2 Aaron and Tamora meet in the woods and Aaron discloses his plans to have Lavinia raped and Bassianus killed. Tamora tells her sons that Bassianus and Lavinia have been threatening to take her life. Prompted by Tamora, Chiron and Demetrius kill Bassianus and rape Lavinia. Aaron lures Titus' sons Quintus and Martius into the pit where Chiron and Demetrius have thrown Bassianus' body and forges a letter in order to blame Titus' sons for Bassianus' murder. 2.3 Marcus stumbles upon Lavinia, who has been raped and mutilated. 3.1. Titus pleads for his sons' lives in vain and Lucius is banished for attempting to set them free. Lavinia is brought before Titus and the sight of her mangled body triggers Titus' maddened despair, which is only momentarily relieved by Aaron's offer to release his sons in exchange for Titus' right hand. Lucius and Marcus step in and offer to sacrifice their own right hand in order to spare Titus. Titus pretends to accept their offer but then asks Aaron to cut off his hand, while Lucius and Marcus are looking for an axe offstage. After Titus' selfless sacrifice, Marcus urges him not to give way to despair, but Marcus himself gives in to it, when a messenger returns Titus his mutilated hand and the severed heads of his two sons. The climax of Titus' distress is marked by a sublime, heart-rending bout of hysterical laughter. Titus' laughter ushers in the second movement of the tragedy, which is entirely devoted to Titus' attempts to avenge himself on his
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enemies. Lucius is sent to the Goths to seek their help. 3.2 Titus' lament is interrupted when Marcus kills a fly. Titus is outraged by Marcus' cruelty and is ready to disown him for causing pain to the fly and its relations. Marcus humours Titus' madness by pointing out that he killed the fly because it was as black as Aaron. Titus is pacified but then admits that the whole episode is absurd. 4.1 Lavinia manages to disclose the identity of her attackers by pointing to the Philomel story in a copy of Ovid's Metamorphoses and by drawing their names on the sand. The Andronici vow to carry out their revenge against Tamora and her associates. 4.2 Titus sends Chiron and Demetrius a bundle of weapons as a gift. The latter fail to decipher the real meaning of the Horatian maxim which Titus attaches to the gift. Aaron, however, realizes that Chiron and Demetrius have been detected. A nurse enters bearing Tamora and Aaron's baby. Because of its dark complexion, Tamora wants Aaron to dispatch it. Aaron however praises the beauty of the baby's dark skin, and plans to have it raised by a Goth and have the Goth's own newly born baby raised as the Emperor's son. 4.3 Titus indulges his maddened sorrow and shoots arrows bearing his pleas for justice into the sky. The Clown is sent to the Emperor with one of Titus' messages and is executed as a result. 4.4 The Goths led by Lucius are marching towards Rome. Tamora reassures Saturninus and explains how she will get Titus to agree to summon his son Lucius to Rome and arrange a parley with him. 5.1 Aaron is captured by Lucius and boasts about his evil deeds; he is unrepentant and unabashed by the prospect of death. 5.2 Tamora disguises herself as Revenge and visits Titus accompanied by her two sons, who are themselves disguised as her ministers, Murder and Rape. Tamora believes Titus to be mad as a result of his sorrows, but Titus sees through her disguise. He pretends to comply with Tamora's request and summons his son Lucius to his house, but he also offers to arrange for a banquet to entertain his guests. As soon as Tamora leaves, Titus kills her sons and bakes a pasty for the banquet with their blood and bones. 5.3 In the final scene, Titus welcomes his guests. After asking Saturninus' advice on what a father should do when his daughter has been violated, he slays Lavinia. When asked who raped Lavinia, Titus reveals the ingredients of the pasty which the Emperor and Empress have just fed on. Titus then stabs Tamora and is killed by the Emperor. Lucius finally slays the Emperor and, after reflecting on the lessons to be learned from such bloody excesses, he is unanimously elected as the new Emperor of Rome. ARTISTIC FEATURES: Titus Andronicus is a sophisticated revenge tragedy, where the binary oppositions of good and evil, Roman and Goth, civilization and barbarism are systematically questioned. The aftermath of the unrelenting deconstruction of Roman values leaves Titus stranded in a nightmare world, where Lavinia's body becomes his new 'map of woe' and her speechless complaint a new alphabet. The first act of Titus Andronicus, which was often attributed to George *Peele because of the un-Shakespearian quality of
TITUS ANDRONICUS
its dramatic diction, is now regarded as one of Shakespeare's most daring experiments with contemporary stage conventions. Particularly impressive is Shakespeare's use of the upper stage as the Senate House in Act i, as a result of which those in power constantly overlook the powerless and the opposing parties confronting each other on the main stage. Similarly versatile is the use of the *trapdoor leading to the cellar underneath the main stage, which after serving as the entrance to the tomb of the Andronici in Act i becomes the 'subtle pit' in Act 2. CRITICAL
HISTORY:
The
question
of authorship
has
dominated the critical history of Titus Andronicus well into the 20th century. Although Francis *Meres included Titus Andronicus in the list of Shakespeare's plays in his Palladis Tamia (1598), his attribution was repeatedly contested. In 1687, Edward Ravenscroft claimed that 'some anciently conversant with the stage' told him that Shakespeare 'gave some master-touches to one or two of the principal parts or characters' in a play written by a 'private author'. Ravenscroft described the play as a 'most incorrect and undigested piece . . . rather a heap of rubbish than a structure'. It is however likely that his views were at least partly prompted by a wish to justify his 1678 adaptation, called Titus Andronicus; or, The Rape of Lavinia, which is even more gruesome than the original. *Gildon perpetuated Ravenscroft's views by expressing his dislike for the play and by arguing that Titus Andronicus is 'none of Shakespeare's plays'. Most of the 18th-century editors of Shakespeare followed suit. *Capell however advanced the hypothesis of an early date of composition and accounted for Shakespeare's indulgent representation of violence on stage by relating the play to the popularity enjoyed by the 'blood tragedies' written in the late 1580s and early 1590s. In 1785 *Malone ascribed the play to Marlowe, Shakespeare's main rival at the beginning of his career. Only towards the middle of the 20th century did critics start to overlook the vexed question of authorship in order to establish the intrinsic qualities of the play itself. Peter *Brook's cornerstone production at Stratford in 1955 triggered off an unprecedented number of critical articles, although hardly any full-length study of the play appeared before the 1980s. The play is currently very popular thanks to the advent of critical and cultural theories and the greater attention devoted to issues of gender, *sexuality, and race. Critics now tend to regard Titus Andronicus as at very least an interesting precursor of the mature tragedies. S T A G E HISTORY: The Henry *Peacham drawing, representing key moments from Acts 1 and 5, is the only surviving
illustration of the contemporary staging, if not of an actual performance, of a Shakespearian play. Titus Andronicus was very popular on the Elizabethan stage and was revived unaltered after the Restoration, as John Downes reports in his Roscius Anglicanus (1708). Ravenscroft adapted Titus Andronicus m 1678 and his version enjoyed a successful revival in 1720, thanks to James *Quin's virtuoso performance as Aaron. Aaron remained the leading role in the only major 19th-century revival, when the black American actor Ira *Aldridge played him in a heavily adapted version of the original, which turns Shakespeare's villain into a noble and dignified character. Robert * Atkins was the first 20th-century director to restore Shakespeare's original to the stage in his 1923 production at the *01d Vic. Members of Atkins's audience fainted as a result of his attempt to stage the Shakespearian original as faithfully as possible. In his memorable 1955 production at Stratford-upon-Avon, starring Laurence *OHvier as Titus, Vivien *Leigh as Lavinia, and Anthony *Quayle as Aaron, Peter Brook opted for a stylized rendition of violence, which lent an almost mythical dimension to both characters and action. In her shockingly realistic 1985 production at the Swan in Stratford-upon-Avon, Deborah *Warner reversed the tendency towards stylization initiated by Brook in the 1950s. Warner's Lavinia, played by Sonia Ritter, was horribly disfigured and Brian Cox's wilful and senile Titus was also remarkable for his psychological veriSM similitude. O N T H E SCREEN: Jane Howell directed the imaginative BBC TV production, with Trevor Peacock in the title role (1985). By making Young Lucius the observer of the action, she raised the question of how horrific acts of violence affect child witnesses. In this her production was imitated by Julie Taymor's impressive and eclectic Hollywood film (2000), with Anthony Hopkins as Titus. AD RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
E. M. Waith (Oxford, 1984); J. Bate (Arden 3rd series, 1995); J. Berthoud with S. Massai (New Penguin 2001) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Dessen, A. C , 'Titus Andronicus': Shakespeare in Performance (1989) James, H., 'Cultural Disintegration in Titus Andronicus: Mutilating Titus, Virgil and Rome', in James Redmond (éd.), Themes in Drama (1991) Kolin, P. C. 'Titus Andronicus': Critical Essays (1995). Waith, E. M. W., 'The Metamorphosis of Violence in Titus Andronicus', Shakespeare Survey, 10 (1957)
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TRAGEDY
mouth into the head and stomach, is greatly to Shakespeare's time, but in this case without the example set by Thomas Sackville and taken-up and used in England.' any link between lyrics and tune title. JB Thomas Norton's Gorboduc (1565) and Thomas Sir Walter *Ralegh is credited with popu*Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (1592). Imitation of Tooley, Nicholas {htfxl 5-16x5), actor (King's larizing the smoking of tobacco at the English classical models was however never slavish or Men by 1605 to 1623). If Edmond's identificacourt, and it is enthusiastically recommended in pedantic. In his Apology for Poetry, the classicist tion is correct, Tooley was a wealthy Anglohis protege Edmund *Spenser's The Faerie Sir Philip *Sidney praised Gorboduc for Flemish orphan whose Warwickshire relatives Queene. References to tobacco, and depictions 'climbing the heights of Seneca's style', but reShakespeare would have known from childof smoking (generally, using clay pipes), occur gretted the interference of native influences hood. In his will Tooley thanked Cuthbert in the writings of several playwrights, including which spoil the formal purity of the original. *Burbage's wife for her 'motherly care' of him. Ben *Jonson ('He does take this same filthy The main influences Sidney had in mind are the Augustine *Phillips in his will called Tooley his roguish tobacco, the finest, and cleanliest!', English *morality play and the de casibus trad'fellow', which indicates that Tooley was by Every Man in his Humour 1.4): *Middleton and ition, a typically medieval form best exemplified then a sharer in the King's Men. A surviving *Dekker's The Roaring Girl even puts a tobacby the tragic narrative accounts of the fall of annotated cast list indicates that Tooley played conist's shop on the stage. The Shakespeare illustrious men collected in The ^Mirror for Ananias in Jonson's The Alchemist ana Corvino canon, however, is strictly a non-smoking area: Magistrates, one of the most popular sources of in Jonson's Volpone. The 1619 King's Men pathere are no occurrences of the word 'tobacco' tragic plots used by Shakespeare and his content names Tooley after *Heminges, Burbage, in Shakespeare's works, nor appropriate usages temporaries. Condell, and *Lowin and the 1623 Folio, pubof the allied terms 'smoke', 'smoking', or 'pipe'. Shakespeare was affected by both the classic lished after his death, names him as principal Numerous late 16th-century woodcuts and and the native traditions, but he consistently actor. GE paintings portray pipe-smoking, but the widedeparted from received conventions and aimed Edmond, Mary, 'Yeomen, Citizens, Gentlemen spread use of tobacco had many opponents, the for a more sophisticated realism by 'suit[ing] and Players: The Burbages and their Con- the action to the word, the word to the action' first important English book against it being nections', in R. B. Parker and S. P. Zitner Opinions of the Late and Best Physicians Con{Hamlet 3.2.17-18). Shakespeare notoriously (eds.), Elizabethan Theater: Essays in Honor of cerning Tobacco (1595). The most notable antidisregarded the Aristotelian doctrine of the S. Schoenbaum (1996) tobacconist was King *James who, in A Counthree unities of time, space, and action. He also terblast to Tobacco (1604), called smoking 'a Topsell, Edward (1572-C1625), cleric and put more emphasis on character than on fate by custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the writer on natural history. He compiled The reducing the omnipresent gods of classical traHistory of Four-Footed Beasts (1607) and The gedy to significant but relatively rare manifestnose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the History of Serpents (1608). These exhaustive ations of the supernatural, such as the * ghost in lungs and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke accounts of prevailing zoological traditions Hamletov the * witches in Macbeth. The gods are provide much of the beast lore found in of the pit that is bottomless'. invoked but they remain silent. Unlike classical Shakespeare's plays, along with illustrations of tragedy, Shakespearian tragedy often denies its In 1614 the Star Chamber imposed a tax on tobacco and in 1619 the Privy Council forbade *monsters, half-man, half-beast, akin to Cali- audience cathartic relief. In Shakespeare's traCS gedies, recognition is not necessarily followed its planting in England, to safeguard the mon- ban's description in The Tempest. by redemption. *Johnson famously claimed to opoly of the Virginia colonists. MM 'To shallow rivers, to whose falls', sung by Sir find Cordelia's death at the end of King Lear Tolstoy, Count Leo (Lev) Nikolayevich (1828- Hugh Evans in The Merry Wives of Windsor unbearable and to prefer the happy ending de5.1.16, misquoting part of *Marlowe's song 1910), Russian novelist, frequently compared to vised by Nahum *Tate for its 1681 adaptation. 'Come live with me and be my love'; the lyrics Shakespeare for his universality, invention of Shakespeare departed as radically from the de have been wrongly attributed to Shakespeare character, steadiness of vision, breadth of life casibus tradition as from his classical models. represented, and devotion to truth. Yet Tolstoy because of their inclusion in The ^Passionate Far from exemplifying the medieval notion of Pilgrim. The original tune survives, and was is probably the most implacable dissenter to the 'Wheel of Fortune', which denies human used for several *broadside ballads. JB Shakespeare's reputation in modern times, agency, Shakespeare's tragedies suggest that complaining (in Shakespeare and the Drama, Tottel, Richard (d. 1594), author of an anthol- catastrophe ultimately proceeds from his char1904) of his unnaturalness, implausibility, ogy of poetry called Songs and Sonnets popularly acters' actions. Psychological realism is therecheap theatricality, aristocratic sympathies, known as TotteTs Miscellany, published in 1557. fore heightened at the expense of tragic irony. moral indifference, and hyperbolic language— It included work by *Chaucer, Wyatt, and Sur- The result of Shakespeare's highly experimental preferring, for example, the source play King rey and was obviously familiar to Shakespeare. use of earlier dramatic conventions is a corpus Leir to Shakespeare's. G. Wilson * Knight's The Gravedigger's song in Hamlet derives from of tragedies as diverse as Titus Andronicus and Shakespeare and Tolstoy (1934) considers the a poem in the Miscellany, and Slender refers to it Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet and Coriolanus, or objections, while George Orwell's essay 'Lear, as the 'Book of Songs and Sonnets' in The Merry as innovative as Othello, a domestic tragedy Tolstoy, and the Fool' (1947) argues for a degree Wives of Windsor (1.1.181-2). JKS featuring the first black tragic hero in English of identification on Tolstoy's part. It is ironic dramatic literature. that Tolstoy's ownfinalflightwith his daughter Touchstone is a court jester who follows Shakespeare's mature tragedies are often inAlexandra (Sasha) and death in a stationmasRosalind and Celia to the forest of *Ardenne in terpreted as the dramatist's response to the ter's cottage in Astopovo resemble nothing As You Like It. AB political unrest and ideological uncertainties more than the tragic fate of Lear and Cordelia. tragedy. The rise of modernity coincided with which characterized the last years of *Elizabeth TM I'S reign and the period following *James I'S the enthusiastic rediscovery of the classics and a accession to the throne of England. The radical 'Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's da/, sung by renewed interest in tragedy, the most theorized Ophelia in Hamlet 4.5.47. As with *'How and admired dramatic form since Aristotle quality of Shakespeare's tragic imagination is should I your true love know', a tune trad- identified its main structural features in his particularly evident in King Lear, where the itionally sung at Drury Lane in the late 18th Poetics. *Seneca was the most widely imitated King's painful and gradual realization of his fallibility and frailty represents a clear challenge model among early English playwrights, after century ('The Soldier's Life') can be traced back
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to the basic tenets of absolutism and the doctrine of the divine right of kings, as expounded by James i in Basilikon Down (pub. 1599). SM
tries. Hence Shakespeare translation has not only (l) linguistic but also (2) theatrical and cultural—even political—aspects. As translations multiply throughout the world, each language offers its own resistance or adaptability Dollimore, J., Radical Tragedy (1984) to Shakespeare's ways with his native lanMiola, R., Shakespeare and Classical Tragedy (1992) guage; and each country, as part of its cultural programme, has its own history of Shakespeare Tragedy of King Lear, The. See KING LEAR. translation. Within that context, each individTragical History of King Richard /#/, The. See ual translator becomes an interpreter of ShakeRICHARD HI. spearian texts, with results which vary from faithful imitation to radical *adaptation. tragicomedy is a Renaissance invention. Aris1. Shakespeare explored and exploited to the totle never mentioned it in his Poetics and Cifull the potentials of the English language of his cero expressed his disapproval of any 'mixedtime, coining new words and bending grammar mood' dramatic form in his famous maxim and syntax to serve his poetic and dramatic l turpe comicum in tragedia et turpe tragicum in ends. This exacerbates the problems already comedia ' (the comic is abhorrent in tragedy and inherent in any interlingual translation of litthe tragic is abhorrent in comedy). erary texts: how, Victor *Hugo asked, do you *Cinthio (1504-73) and Giovanni Battista translate 'unsex me here' {Macbeth 1.5.40), or Guarini (1538-1612) first theorized tragicomedy 'we have kissed away I Kingdoms and provinces' in connection with the pastoral tradition. Some {Antony and Cleopatra 3.10.7-8)? English is a English dramatists retained the pastoral setting: hybrid language, and the effects Shakespeare see, for example, *Fletcher's The Faithful Shepgains from combining and contrasting words of herdess (1609-10), Samuel *Daniel's Hymen's Germanic and of Romance origin—as in Triumph (1615), or Ben *Jonson's Sad Shepherd Macbeth's feeling that the blood on his hands (1629). Others, however, concentrated on the will 'The multitudinous seas incarnadine, I double structure of tragicomedy, which often Making the green one red' (2.2.60-1)—resist stretches the plot to the limits of verisimilitude reproduction in the more homogeneous Euroby hinging on a sudden change of fortune which pean languages. The further the language sysleads to the comic resolution of a potentially tem is from that of English, the greater the tragic situation. challenge: how do you translate Hamlet's most Despite adverse criticism, such as *Sidney's, famous soliloquy into Japanese, a language who dismissed 'mongrel tragicomedy' as a corwhich has no verbal equivalent of 'To be'? ruption of the formal purity of the classical Whatever the target language, the translator forms, Shakespeare 'flirted' with both forms of faces formidable problems in attempting to do tragicomedy. In The Winter's Tale, the comic justice to Shakespeare's associative imagination resolution of a potentially tragic situation takes which compacts *metaphor with metaphor, place against the backdrop of pastoral Bohemia. packs many different meanings into a word or In Measure for Measure, on the other hand, phrase, and excels in puns and other forms of Shakespeare retains the double structure of wordplay. How, if he aims for fidelity, does the tragicomedy but dispenses with the pastoral translator of the plays or the poems avoid exsetting. SM plicating that which in the original is implicit or McMullan, G., and Hope, J., The Politics of suggested? Add to this the fact that ShakeTragicomedy (1992) speare's lines were written by an actor and to be Tranio, Lucentio's servant in The Taming ofthe spoken and acted, their sounds and rhythms Shrew, takes on his master's identity at his re- crucial to the dramatic experience but more or quest (see 1.1.196-215). AB less difficult to reproduce in another language, and it is all the more remarkable that language transcripts. Shakespeare's original *'foul has not proved a barrier to the spread of paper' manuscripts would probably have been Shakespeare, whether read or performed. The transcribed, either by the playwright or by a journal which was founded by Toshikazu professional scribe, to provide a 'fair copy' of Oyama in the early 1970s as Shakespeare Transthe play for use in the playhouse. Other lation, and devoted its early issues to language manuscript copies may also have been in cir- problems such as those outlined above, significulation. The publisher Humphrey *Moseley cantly changed its title in the mid-1980s to speaks of the seemingly common practice of Shakespeare Worldwide. plays being 'transcribed' by the actors for their 2. Worldwide now, Shakespeare translation 'private friends'. ER first began in earnest in 18th-century Europe. translation, the rendering of Shakespeare texts Since then, as Shakespeare texts have been meinto another language, is inalienably part of the diated through the particular poetics and politics of various cultures, translations have found process whereby Shakespeare has been, and is being, received in non-English-speaking coun- their place on a sliding scale between faithful-
ness and adaptation. Across the European continent, Shakespeare was 'discovered' through translations into the two culturally dominant languages, French and German, and well into the 19th century was often translated from these, at second hand. In Poland the earliest translations were from the German prose adaptations by *Schroder who, to make Shakespeare acceptable in the German theatre, had cut and restructured Hamlet from political tragedy to domestic intrigue with a happy ending for the Prince. Early Russian translations were based on French neoclassical versions, including those of Ducis who, though he knew no English, was the author of acting versions in rhyming alexandrines which brought Shakespeare to the Parisian stage as well as to other parts of Europe. By the early 19th century a gap was perceived between (adapted) Shakespeare as theatre and ('genuine') Shakespeare as literature, famously articulated by *Goethe who came to believe Hamlet stageable only in adaptations like Schroder's and that Shakespeare was a dramatist only for the inner eye of the reader. Meanwhile the German Sturm und Drang movement had initiated the worship of Shakespeare as a natural genius whose works were the supreme antidote to the values of *neoclassicism with its restrictive aesthetics and social hierarchies. On the one hand, this promoted faithful renderings of the original texts, culminating in the great translation of all the plays of Shakespeare which was begun by *Schlegel in 1797 and completed under the supervision of *Tieck in 1833, and which itself became a model and part-source—Shakespeare 'reborn'—for a number of other European translations. On the other, it made Shakespeare translation the prime site of the struggle between French neoclassicism and German *Romanticism for cultural hegemony in Europe. In the 20th century the Schlegel-Tieck translation was to be anathematized as lumpy, monumental, and philistine by *Brecht, who made his own translation and stage adaptation of Coriolanus—one example, among countless others, of translation as ideologically motivated rewriting of Shakespeare. For, while in many countries mid-i9thcentury translations became canonized as part of the national literary heritage, Shakespeare translation as a phenomenon has never solidified: new translations have both formed and been formed by the ideological concerns and theatrical tastes of new generations. Transplanted Shakespeare was functional in the evolution of *Arab drama, and in 1901 the director of Tanyus Abduh's Ducis-inspired version of Hamlet also drew on indigenous tradition, making the Prince sing a soliloquy. In modern Japan, directors like *Ninagawa and *Suzuki have tapped the energies underlying theatrical traditions of Noh and Kabuki to make Shakespeare texts seem both contemporary and
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TRAVEL, TRADE, AND COLONIALISM counts by the 14th-century Sir John Mandeville, still treated as authoritative well into the 16th century, while the story told by the First Witch about the woman whose 'husband's to Aleppo gone, master o'the Tiger' {Macbeth 1.3.6) might well refer to public awareness of the tribulations of the sailors on a vessel of that name that had sailed for Aleppo in December 1604 and had returned in June 1606. Tales are also discounted. At the sight of strange shapes bringing in a banquet, Sebastian observes that he will from now on believe in unicorns as well as that there is in Arabia a tree Delabastita, D., and D'hulst, L. (eds.), European in which a phoenix reigns—to which Antonio, the usurping Duke of Naples, responds: 'TravShakespeares (1993) Shakespeare Survey, 48: Shakespeare and Cultural ellers ne'er did lie, I Though fools at home Exchange (1995) condemn 'em' {The Tempest 3.3.26-7): itself, Shakespeare Translation! Shakespeare Worldwide perhaps, an echo of the saying later collected in (Tokyo, 1974- ) Camden's Remains (1614): 'Old men and travellers may lie by authority.' trapdoors. Access to the understage 'hell' was The majority of references to voyages highprovided by a trapdoor set in the floor of the light the benefits, notably the economic. Egeon stage, probably near the centre. Hellish chartells the Duke of Ephesus that 'Our wealth inacters ascended and descended through this creased I By prosperous voyages I often made' trapdoor, most easily by provision of a ladder {The Comedy of Errors 1.1.39-40); Titania replaced underneath the hole, although the techfuses to hand over the changeling boy to Obnology for a mechanical elevator platform was eron because the child's dead mother would available. Left open, the trapdoor could also sometimes return to her with goods 'As from a make a useful grave such as that needed for voyage, rich with merchandise' {A Midsummer Ophelia's burial in Shakespeare's Hamlet 5.1. Night's Dream 2.1.134). Panthino criticizes his GE master because he lets his son stay at home while travel, trade, and colonialism. Travel tales of 'other men of slender reputation I Put forth their sons to seek preferment' by sending them voyages constituted one of the largest categories 'to discover islands far away' ( The Two Gentleof popular reading of Shakespeare's period. To men of Verona 1.3.6—9). When Falstaff woos Richard *Hakluyt's Principal Navigations (1 both Mistress Page and Mistress Ford he is vol., 1589; 3 vols., 1599-1603), with its title page candid about his objectives: 'I will be cheaters to announcing the intention of celebrating the them both, and they shall be exchequers to me. 'navigations, voyages, trafiques and discoveries They shall be my East and West Indies, and I of the English nation', can be added those by will trade to them both' ( The Merry Wives of William Biddulph (1609), John Cartwright Windsor 1.4.62-5). (1611), Anthony Sherley (1613), and William Lithgow (1614) to the Orient, North Africa, and References to trade should be read in the Asia, and by Sir John Hawkins (1569), Thomas context of the emergence, in England, of arguHariot (1588), Walter *Ralegh (1596), and John ments in favour of mercantilism and for a break Smith (1608) to the New World. Works by the with the times of Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins, Frenchman Cartier (1580), the merchant of Ralegh, and others, several of whom were Venice Cesare Federici (1588), and the Dutchkeener on shipping slaves to New World colman Jan Huyghen van Linschoten (1598) were onies of other European nations than in tradavailable in translation. ing. Profit, for them, was in plunder and in privateering—often at the patriotic expense of Shakespeare's plays abound with references other Europeans. to travel literature. The tale related by Othello is a superb encapsulation of many of the key That central difference thus calls into queselements of the genre, including 'Of being tion the validity of speculations concerning the taken by the insolent foe I And sold to slavery, of playwright's views on colonialism. England, in my redemption thence, I And portance in my Shakespeare's lifetime, was not a colonial traveller's history . . . and of the cannibals that power. More importantly, there was no desire, at that time, to embark on such a project. Even each other eat, I The Anthropopaghi, and men whose heads I Do grow beneath their shoulders' though Grenville had (1574) proposed that {Othello 1.3.136-44). The prediction made by South America be colonized, England had only the host of the Garter Inn that Falstaff will one colony—Bermuda (1609) in the West In'speak like an Anthropophaginian unto thee' dies. Attempts on the North American main( The Merry Wives oj"Windsor 4.5.8) can be traced land at Roanoke (1587) had failed and the back to the dubious but much-read travel acsettlement at Virginia (1607) did not begin to international. Even when not thus mediated, translated texts have proved capable of carrying new significance as needed: culturally prestigious on the surface and politically subversive underneath. Newly independent African states have found Julius Caesar strangely contemporary. Altogether, the history of Shakespeare translation supports Ben *Jonson's verdict, 'not of an age, but for all time', in that it shows Shakespeare's texts not to be so closely bound within the limits of one language and culture that translation becomes radically impossible. I-SE
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take root until 1612. While the Levant Company had a presence in Constantinople and in cities such as Aleppo, and the English East India Company in Agra, the ambassadors sent to the Ottoman, Persian, and Mughal rulers went there not as dispossessors but as supplicants begging for permission for the right to trade—often in contest with other Europeans. The plays mirror that imperative of being able to discriminate: not only between persons—'Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?' {The Merchant of Venice 4.1.172)—but also between categories (Amazons; pagans; cannibals; savages; etc.) and geographical spaces (Africa; the Orient; India; the New World; the Antipodes). It is more likely that the origins of the stories about these categories are in the Greek and Roman classics (themselves infused with Arabic elements) rather than directly traceable to the travel accounts. References to Africa illustrate the reliance on antecedent classical sources. Egypt is known because of the Nile, the pyramids, and serpents. Then there are the 'black Ethiopes'—a favourite image for making comparisons between women: Sylvia's fairness 'Shows Julia but a swarthy Ethiope' ( The Two Gentlemen of Verona 2.6.26); the sonnet written by Dumaine: 'Thou for whom great Jove would swear I Juno but an Ethiop were' {Love's Labour's Lost 4.3.115-16). But if Rosalind's charge that she is being defied 'Like Turk to Christian. Women's gentle brain I Could not drop forth such giant-rude invention, I Such Ethiop words, blacker in their effect I Than in their countenance' {As You Like It 4.3.34-7) is the often-cited view, then recall that Thaisa describes to King Simonides 'A knight of Sparta . . . I And the device he bears upon his shield I Is a black Ethiop reaching at the sun' {Pericles 6.18-20). The distinctions, as well as the consequences which follow, are clearest with regard to the Indies. The 'dead Indian' the English will pay tenfold to see yet 'will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar' {The Tempest 2.2.30-3) and Othello's 'base Indian' who 'threw a pearl away I Richer than all his tribe' {Othello 5.2.356-7) are probably from the New World. Their subcontinental counterpart is seen as much more dangerous: the image of 'the rude and savage man of Ind I At the first op'ning of the gorgeous east, I Bows . . . his vassal head and, strucken blind, I Kisses the base ground with obedient breast' {Love's Labour's Lost 4.3.223). Still, against cultural and religious difference is ranged the tangible wealth of 'metal of India' {Twelfth Night 2.5.12) that makes trade worthwhile: Troilus casts himself in the role of 'merchant' who will negotiate with Pandarus in order to succeed with Cressida, whose 'bed is India; there she lies, a pearl' ( Troilus and Cres-
TRAVELLERS sida 1.1.103,100). Finally, not only can the Duke of Norfolk claim that, in their triumphant splendour at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the English had 'Made Britain India'; there is also the observation that, having married Anne Boleyn, 'Our King has all the Indies in his arms' {All Is True {Henry via) 1.1.21, 4.1.45). Then there are the differences between Indians and Turks. Turks are the common enemy of Christians. The Bishop of Carlisle reminds that 'banished Norfolk fought I For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field, I Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross I Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens' {Richard 114.1.83-6). Henry hopes that the son born from his marriage with Catherine will 'compound a boy, half-French, half-English, that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by the beard' {Henry v 5.2.205-7). Indeed he can already, as the newly crowned King at the end of 2 Henry iv, confidently forget how his father had acquired the crown by observing: 'This is the English not the Turkish court; I Not Amurath [Murad] an Amurath succeeds I But Harry Harry' (5.2.47-9). While Turks, in Shakespeare's texts, are never once referred to by the epithet of 'the terrible Turk' that will later become common, there is at least one reference to a predecessor view, that of the Turk as liar. Iago defends his lie to his wife Emilia: 'Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk' {Othello 2.1.116). All in all, it is the complexity of the differences that matter. The Christian Duke of Venice can, when it suits him, require a 'gentle answer' from that alien Other, Shylock the Jew. Such behaviour is not to be expected 'From stubborn Turks and Tartars never trained I To offices of tender courtesy' {The Merchant of Venice 4.1.31-2). It is fascinatingly fitting, then, that it is a differently placed Other, that inbetween figure the *Moor, without whose military skill Venice would be in peril, who can ask the brawlers Iago and Cassio: 'Are we turned Turks, and to ourselves do that I Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites? I For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl' {Othello 2.3.163-5). KP
Travers gives Northumberland the first news of his son Hotspur's death, 2 Henry /vi. 1.34-48. AB
Trinculo is Alonso's jester in The Tempest. He and Stefano (Alonso's butler) are separated from the rest of the royal party when they are shipwrecked. They become drunk and plot against Prospero with Caliban. AB
Trebonius is one of the conspirators in Julius Caesar, based on Caius Trebonius, consul in 45 BC. AB trochee, a metrical unit ('foot') comprising one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed Tree, Sir Herbert Beerbohm (1853-1917), syllable. Shakespeare's trochaic verse appears in English actor-manager, in whose early career many dramatic songs and in 'The Phoenix and Shakespeare barely featured, but whose sixteen Turtle', e.g. 'Hearts remote yet not asunder'. sumptuous Shakespearian revivals were the Trochees are often used as a variation in iambic centrepiece of his management at Her/His verse, especially in the first foot or after a midMajesty's theatre (1897-1915). line break in syntax: 'Spur them I to youthful Tree defended his principles of Shakespearwork, I rein them I from ruth' {Troilus and ian production in 'The Living Shakespeare: A Cressida 5.3.48). CB/GTW Defence of Modern Taste' (in Thoughts and After-Thoughts, 1913): historically accurate Troilus and Cressida (see opposite page) spectacular theatre achieved with all the resources and care lavished on modern plays. Troublesome Reign of King John, The, a Thus Tree engaged antiquarians, Academicians chronicle play, published anonymously, in two (Alma-Tadema), scenic artists (Joseph Harker), parts, in 1591. The original title pages give some pageant masters (L. N. Parker), and crowdidea of how closely Shakespeare followed this commandants (Louis Calvert) to achieve some drama when composing his own King John, of the most spectacular revivals of Shakespeare promising 'the discovery of King Richard ever. Though vulnerable amongst so much Cceur-de-Lion's base son (vulgarly called the 'scenic embellishment', Tree upheld the imBastard Falconbridge)' and 'the death of Arthur portance of'all-round casts' and in productions Plantagenet, the landing at Lewes, and the such as Julius Caesar (1898), with himself as poisoning of King John at Swinstead Abbey'. Mark Antony, Louis Calvert as Casca, Lewis Confusion as to the relation between this drama Waller as Brutus, and Frank McLeay as Cassius, and Shakespeare's began early: the two parts of he achieved an effective synthesis of all the The Troublesome Reign were published together theatre arts. Elsewhere he erred—far—on the in a 1611 edition which credits them to 'W. Sh.', side of excess. The interpolation of 'The Signand a 1622 reprint spells this attribution out, ing of Magna Carta' in KingJohn (1899) was not claiming the plays were 'Written by W. without precedent and could be forgiven; ShyShakespeare'. Some early editors, including lock's extended—room by room—search of his *Pope, accepted this attribution, regarding The house for his missing daughter and Malvolio's Troublesome Reign as a first draft of King John, entourage of four miniature, aping Malvolios but it is now more usually attributed to George could not be. *Peele. E. A. J. Honigmann's view that The For Tree public taste was the ultimate arbiter Troublesome Reign is in fact an imitation of and he pointed to the long runs and huge atShakespeare's play has met with little support. tendances {Julius Caesar 240,000, King John The Troublesome Reign of King John is first 170,000, and A Midsummer Night's Dream and foremost an anti-Catholic play. Although 220,000 in London alone). Not that Tree was Shakespeare follows much of its structure he indifferent to the higher claims upon him as a omits, for example, a comic scene in which the leader of his profession; he undertook tours of Bastard, looting a monastery,findsa nun hiding Germany (1907) and America (1915-16) and in Canny, Nicholas (éd.), The Origins of Empire: 1905 inaugurated his annual Shakespeare Festi- there, and he makes John's death appear to have far less to do with his anticipation of the RefBritish Overseas Enterprise to the Close of the val in which six plays were performed in six ormation. In The Troublesome Reign the monk Seventeenth Century (1998) days, including productions by *Benson and who kills John has a soliloquy explaining his Fuler, Mary C, Voyages in Print: English Travel *Poel. A brief excerpt of Tree's King John, the motives (vengeance for the ransacked monasin America, 1576-1624 (1995) first Shakespeare film, is included in Silent teries), the poisoning takes place on stage (the Gillies, John, Shakespeare and the Geography of Shakespeare (BFI, 1999). The Tree archive at the monk dies too, having been obliged to taste Difference (1997) Knapp, Jeffrey, An Empire Nowhere: England,University of Bristol is a major resource. RF from the fatal wassail cup first), and the Bastard America and Literaturefrom'Utopia'to 'The subsequently kills the abbot who granted the Tempest' (1992) tribunes, Roman. They receive orders from monk absolution for his intended crime. Loomba, Ania, 'Shakespeare and Cultural Rome, Cymbeline^.j. AB Shakespeare's toning down of all this may have Difference', in Terence Hawkes (éd.), Alternative Shakespeares 2 (1996) trimeter, a verse line of three feet, used by something to do with the later date of his own King John— The Troublesome Reign probably Shakespeare as an occasional variation from dates from the time of the Spanish Armada inpentameter, or occasionally in songs or the bad travellers are robbed by Sir John and his verse of lovesick characters {Hamlet 2.2.116-19). vasion scare of 1588, when anti-Catholic feeling AB companions, / Henry IV2.2. GTW ran especially high—but the difference between (cont. on page 488) 484
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hakespeare's tragicomedy of an aimless love in the midst of a futile war may be the last play he wrote before the death of Queen Elizabeth. It was entered in the Stationers' Register in February 1603, and must have been written after 1598, when one of its sources, George *Chapman's Seven Books of the Iliads of Homer, was published: its armed Prologue is probably an allusion to Ben *Jonson's Poetaster, acted in 1601, and since metrical tests place it after Hamlet una Twelfth Nightbut before Measure for Measure and Othello its likeliest date of composition is 1602. TEXT: This ambiguous play has a thoroughly ambiguous textual history. Despite its 1603 entry in the *Stationers' Register, the play appeared in *quarto only in 1609, in an edition (set from Shakespeare's *foul papers) which exists in two contradictory states: one promises on its title page that it prints Troilus and Cressida 'As it was acted by the King's Majesty's servants at the Globe', while the other not only omits this claim but adds an epistle to the reader which instead states that the play has never been acted at all ('you have here a new play, never staled with the stage, never clapperclawed with the palms of the vulgar'). This circumstance has led to a profusion of hypotheses about the play's early history, including the theory that it was written for private performance, perhaps at one of the Inns of Court, and a conjecture that performance was forbidden because Shakespeare's portrait of Achilles was perceived as a reflection on the Earl of *Essex. It is always possible, however, that whoever wrote the 1609 epistle to the reader had merely been misinformed about a play acted seven years earlier, or was deliberately lying in the hopes of selling a play which had been acted at the Globe but had not been popular. The circumstances in which the play reappeared in the *Folio are no less striking: the play was to be reprinted from the quarto, but was apparently withdrawn due to difficulties in securing the copyright (and its intended place in the volume was filled by Timon of Athens). However, at the last minute (too late for it to be listed on the Folio's contents page) clearance was obtained for Troilus and Cressida, and so was a theatrical manuscript of the play, and it was squeezed into the volume, its text set from a copy of the quarto annotated by reference to this promptbook. The very existence of such a manuscript shows that the play had been acted, by
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1623 at least, though the more than 500 substantive changes between quarto and Folio texts suggest that at some time Shakespeare had a number of second thoughts, including the addition of a prologue and the deletion of Pandarus' epilogue (reproduced from the quarto, though apparently marked for omission). Although the quarto calls it the 'History' or 'Famous History' of Troilus and Cressida, and its prefatory epistle describes it as a witty comedy, the Folio prints it among the tragedies: commentators have been puzzling over how to understand the play's tone and genre ever since. SOURCES: Shakespeare's chief source for the love plot was *Chaucer's masterpiece Troilus and Criseyde, his reading of it perhaps coloured by Robert Henryson's sequel The Testament of Cresseid, in which Cressida, deserted by Diomedes, becomes a leprous beggar (mistakenly attributed to Chaucer in Thynne's 1532 edition of his collected works). The play's depiction of the Trojan War freely blends and modifies elements from a number of different accounts: George Chapman's translation Seven Books of the Iliads of* Homer (from which Shakespeare drew the character of Thersites, though not his actions); William Caxton's Recuyell of the Histories of Troy (1475) and John Lydgate's Troy Book (c.1412-20), both derived from a common Italian original (these supplied material for most of the play's battle scenes and the debate in Troy, among much else); and *Ovid's Metamorphoses (from which Shakespeare derived his opposition between the intelligent Ulysses and the 'blockish' Ajax, adding this dimension of Ajax's character to what is already a compound of two quite different figures in Lydgate, the ill-spoken Oyleus Ajax and the pride-hating Thelamonyous Ajax). Beyond these major sources, Ulysses' speech on degree (1.3.74-137) draws on Sir
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
Thomas *Elyot's The Governor (1531), and details of Shakespeare's depiction of the truce (and Hector's view of his fellow Trojan princes as unfit for moral philosophy, 2.2.162-6) show the influence of Robert *Greene's Euphues his Censure to Philautus (1587). SYNOPSIS: An armed prologue explains that the play begins in the middle of the Trojan War, briefly recounting its cause, Paris's theft of Menelaus' wife Helen. 1.1 In Troy, Troilus is impatient with the slow progress of the dilatory and petulant Pandarus, who is supposed to be wooing his niece Cressida on Troilus' behalf: at first languishing in love-sickness, Troilus eventually goes with Aeneas to join the fighting outside the city walls. 1.2 Pandarus speaks at length of Troilus' virtues to Cressida, though she feigns indifference: together they watch the Trojan warriors filing back into the city, Pandarus eagerly pointing out Troilus. After Pandarus leaves, Cressida admits in soliloquy that she already loves Troilus but is holding off to increase his sense of her value. 1.3 In the Greek camp Agamemnon, Nestor, Ulysses, Diomedes, and Menelaus discuss the failure of morale which has prevented them from achieving victory despite seven years besieging Troy: Ulysses diagnoses that the Greek army has lost its sense of hierarchy, imitating Achilles, who remains in his tent with Patroclus making sarcastic jokes at the leadership's expense. Aeneas brings a message from Troy: Hector challenges any Grecian willing to vouch for his mistress's worth to single combat, a challenge clearly intended for their pre-eminent warrior Achilles. Ulysses convinces Nestor they should rig a lottery to ensure that Ajax fights Hector rather than Achilles, partly so that morale may not be further damaged by the possible defeat of their best fighter, but partly to humble Achilles' pride. 2.1 The illiterate Ajax beats Thersites for refusing to read him a proclamation about Hector's challenge: Achilles and Patroclus intervene, enjoying Thersites' satirical ranting against Ajax until he turns on them. Achilles affects indifference about Hector's challenge. 2.2 In Troy King Priam and his sons Hector, Troilus, Paris, and Helenus debate the ethics of keeping Helen: Hector argues that she is not worth the casualties the war has already caused, but Troilus insists that they should remain constant to their original purpose. Their sister Cassandra arrives, prophesying the destruction of Troy unless Helen is restored to the Greeks. Troilus, however, is unmoved, and Paris wishes to keep his abducted partner. Hector, though unpersuaded by their arguments, concedes that he too means to maintain the quarrel for the sake of Troy's prestige, and tells them of the challenge he has sent the Greeks. 2.3 Thersites, still furious at his beating from Ajax, amuses Achilles and Patroclus with his railing. When the other Greek commanders arrive, with Ajax, Achilles withdraws into his tent and refuses to speak with them: meanwhile the commanders flatter Ajax, who grows increasingly proud, to their concealed amusement. 3.1 Pandarus calls privately on Paris, at home at Helen's insistence, to ask him to excuse Troilus' impending absence
from supper: Paris guesses Troilus has an assignation with Cressida. Helen insists that Pandarus should sing a song, and he does, 'Love, love, nothing but love'. Helen and Paris go to help unarm Hector after his day's combat. 3.2 Troilus waits in the orchard while Pandarus fetches Cressida, giddy with anticipation: Pandarus embarrassingly brings the couple together, encouraging their kisses. Before Pandarus takes them indoors to a bedchamber, each of the three makes a promise: Troilus that faithful lovers shall in future be called 'as true as Troilus', Cressida that if she be false to him faithless women shall be called 'as false as Cressid', and Pandarus that all goersbetween shall be called 'panders' after him. 3.3 In the Greek camp Cressida's father, the defector Calchas, requests that Cressida should be brought from Troy in exchange for a Trojan prisoner, Antenor: Agamemnon agrees. The Greek lords process past Achilles' tent, pretending not to be interested in him: after their departure Ulysses lectures Achilles about humanity's disregard for past achievements compared to its enthusiasm for present deeds, however trifling by comparison, and reveals that the commanders know that the reason he has been refusing to fight is a liaison with one of Priam's daughters, Polyxena. After Ulysses leaves his arguments are seconded by Patroclus: a troubled Achilles sends Thersites to request that Hector should be invited to visit his tent after his combat with Ajax. 4.1 Early in the morning Diomedes arrives in Troy to fetch Cressida and is conducted towards her lodging by Aeneas and Paris. 4.2 Troilus and Cressida, tenderly parting, are interrupted first by a coyly mocking Pandarus and then by the arrival of Aeneas, who privately tells Troilus that Cressida must go to the Greeks. 4.3 Pandarus tells a distraught Cressida the news. 4.4 Troilus is sent to fetch Cressida. 4.5 Troilus and Cressida say their private farewells in haste and distress, Troilus upsetting Cressida further by telling her to be true; they exchange tokens, a glove and a sleeve, before Diomedes arrives with Paris and Aeneas. Diomedes offends Troilus by offering to be Cressida's protector as the party sets out for the city gate. 4.6 The Greek lords await Hector's arrival to fight with Ajax: when Diomedes brings Cressida, they each try to kiss her in turn, though she refuses Menelaus and also Ulysses, who after her departure accuses her of sluttishness. The Trojan party, including Troilus, arrives. 4.7 Hector breaks off his combat with Ajax on the grounds that they are cousins. He is formally introduced to each of the Greek leaders: Achilles insolently says he is considering where he will mortally wound Hector, and promises to fight with him the following day. Agreeing that their truce will last until then, all leave for Agamemnon's tent except Troilus and Ulysses: Troilus asks Ulysses to take him later to Calchas' tent. 5.1 Achilles reads a letter from Polyxena forbidding him to fight the following day while Thersites accuses Patroclus of being Achilles' catamite. After supper Hector is brought to Achilles' tent by the Grecian lords: Ulysses and Troilus follow Diomedes towards Calchas' tent, and Thersites in turn, anticipating mischief, follows them. 5.2 Concealed with Ulysses,
486
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
Troilus watches in horror as Cressida flirts uneasily with an that it is as affected as it is obscure', and his equal objections to insistent Diomedes, to whom she eventually gives the sleeve the play's characterization and plotting are made clear by his Troilus gave her: after Diomedes leaves she speaks in dismay alterations to them: his Troilus resists Cressida's removal to at her own inconstancy. Unseen, Thersites comments cynic- the Greek camp, and his misunderstood Cressida (though she ally on the whole interview. After Cressida departs, Troilus humours Diomedes) is faithful to him throughout, eventually rages, unable at first to accept the truth of what he has seen, killing herself to prove it. Dr *Johnson had little sympathy for and vows to kill Diomedes in the next day's battle. 5.3 The either Cressida or Pandarus, whom he thought 'detested and following morning Andromache, joined by Cassandra and contemned' by all readers, and his views were echoed by 19thlater Priam, begs her husband Hector not to fight, convinced century commentators horrified by the play's cynicism and he will be killed: he himself tries to persuade Troilus to stay in sexual indelicacy: as late as 1924 Agnes Mure Mackenzie (in Troy, but both men leave for the battle, Troilus after tearing The Women in Shakespeare's Plays) could describe Troilus and up a love letter from Cressida delivered by the ailing Pan- Cressida as 'the work of a man whose soul is poisoned with darus. 5.4-9 In the battle, punctuated by Thersites' com- filth'. Mackenzie is one of several early 20th-century critics mentary, Troilus fights Diomedes: Nestor sends the body of (among them *Chambers and Frank *Harris) who attempted the slain Patroclus to Achilles: and Achilles at last rejoins the to explain the play, like Timon of Athens and the other fighting, determined to kill Hector. After Troilus drives back *'problem plays', as the morbid symptom of a personal crisis, both Ajax and Diomedes at once, Achilles and Hector duel: while others tried to excuse it as Shakespeare's contribution to Hector bests Achilles, who leaves. Hector pursues and kills a the ill-natured *'War of the Theatres'. By the 1930s, however, splendidly armed Greek while Achilles instructs his Myrmi- these approaches were already giving place to a very different don troops to surround and kill Hector. Thersites' enjoyment estimate of the play's artistic success. In the era of high of a duel between Paris and Menelaus is interrupted by *modernism the play's difficulty, intellectuality, and frank, Margareton, a bastard son of Priam, whom he flees. As it Donne-like concern with sexuality made it a favourite with grows dark, Hector unarms, alone: Achilles has his Myrmi- academic critics, among them George Wilson *Knight and dons kill him, and they leave to tie Hector's body behind Una Ellis-Fermor, and its depiction of a pointless but apAchilles' horse and drag it around the battlefield. 5.10 The parently unstoppable war helped preserve its position in the Greeks, learning Achilles has killed Hector, are convinced academic canon through the era of Vietnam. Its reflections on their ultimate victory is inevitable. 5.11 Troilus brings Paris, time and the mutability of personal identity have been much Aeneas, and others the news of Hector's death, consoled only studied, while *feminist criticism has been particularly by thoughts of vengeance. (In the quarto he is then accosted interested in Cressida, a heroine who seems to transact her by Pandarus, whom he shuns, and Pandarus speaks an epi- own personal life outside the normative categories of 'maid, logue, lamenting how bawds are reviled by their post-coital widow, or wife'. customers: he anticipates his own imminent death from venSTAGE HISTORY: NO records survive of pre-Restoration ereal diseases, which he proposes to bequeath to the audience.) performances, and though Shakespeare's original may have ARTISTIC FEATURES: Troilus and Cressida has an un- been revived at *Smock Alley in Dublin in the 1670s, in usually arcane and learned vocabulary (some of it legal), and a England the play would only be seen in Dryden's tidy version penchant for set-piece displays of rhetoric, which have (performed with reasonable frequency between 1679 and sometimes been adduced in support of the theory that it was 1734) before the 20th century. Even Dryden's version was written for the Inns of Court. The play's scepticism about all most praised for its new scenes, notably a quarrel and recforms of chivalric idealism, most obviously expressed by the onciliation between Troilus and Hector and a rhetorical cynical Thersites (who reduces the epic of Troy and the love confrontation between Troilus and Diomedes. The original of Troilus and Cressida to 'wars and lechery'), has led some to was first revived in Munich in 1898 (played, by an all-male see it as merely a satirical, anti-heroic burlesque, but Shake- cast, as a blackly comic skit on Homer) and other German speare's compassion for his characters—most obviously the productions followed. The play was at last revived semilovers, who for all their failings are given one of the most professionally, to an unconvinced London audience, in 1907, moving valediction scenes in the canon—remains as evident and a similar venture by William *Poel in 1912-13 is remembered only for the young Edith * Evans's coquettish Cressida. as always. CRITICAL HISTORY: Although Ulysses' speeches on de- The *Marlowe Society produced the play in Cambridge in gree, and on the need for perseverance ('Time hath, my lord, I 1922, where its perspective on war was received sympathetA wallet at his back ...', 3.3.139-84), were often anthologized ically by the First World War veterans in its audience, but the among Shakespeare's beauties (and are still sometimes first fully professional English production, at the *01d Vic the quoted, misleadingly, as unmediated expressions of Shake- following year, was a critical failure. More successful, howspeare's own views), the play as a whole was generally re- ever, was a modern-dress revival at the Westminster theatre garded with baffled dislike until the middle of the 20th in 1938, and since the Second World War the play has century. *Dryden, prefacing his 1679 adaptation, laments that been revived frequently, becoming something of a directors' Shakespeare's style is 'so pestered withfigurativeexpressions favourite. Tyrone *Guthrie's 1956 Old Vic production was
487
T R U E TRAGEDY OF RICHARD MI, T H E the first o f m a n y to costume the play on the eve o f the First
production (1966), a n d J o n a t h a n Miller's classically dressed
W o r l d W a r , with cavalry sabres about to give place to m a -
B B C T V production (1981).
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chine g u n s : a notable successor in this respect was the 1985 RSC
production,
with Juliet Stevenson as a sympathetic
Cressida m o r e betrayed by A n t o n Lesser's T r o i l u s than vice versa. D o r o t h y *Tutin h a d played the role far m o r e flirtatiously in Peter *Hall a n d J o h n * B a r t o n ' s l e g e n d a r y i 9 6 0
RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
Kenneth Muir (Oxford, 1984); Kenneth Palmer (Arden 2nd series, 1982); David Bevington (Arden 3rd series, 1998) S O M E REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM:
version at Stratford, with M a x A d r i a n as P a n d a r u s a n d
Bayley, John, 'Time and the Trojans', Essays in Criticism, 25
D e n h o l m Elliott as T r o i l u s : other important revivals include
(i975) Dollimore, Jonathan, in Radical Tragedy (1984) Ellis-Fermor, Una, in The Frontiers of Drama (1945) Knight, G. Wilson, in The Wheel of Fire (1949) McAlindon, T., 'Language, Style and Meaning in Troilus and Cressida, Publications of the Modern Language Association, 84 (1969) Thompson, Ann, in Shakespeare's Chaucer: A Study in Literary
S a m M e n d e s ' s R S C p r o d u c t i o n of 1991, with A m a n d a R o o t as Cressida, R a l p h F i e n n e s as a neurotically insecure Troilus, a n d S i m o n Russell Beale as the most wonderfully repulsive Thersites in living m e m o r y .
MD
O N T H E S C R E E N : It is a sign o f the play's return to favour since the S e c o n d W o r l d W a r that three television adaptations have been m a d e , the first in 1954, a N a t i o n a l Youth Theatre
the two plays has encouraged speculation about Shakespeare's own *religion. MD Jones, Emrys, in The Origin of Shakespeare (1977) Smallwood, Robert, in his New Penguin edition of King John (1974) True Tragedy of Richard in, The, an anonymous play, probably performed first in 1591, of which only the debased printed text of 1594 remains. That Shakespeare knew the True Tragedy is apparent from a single line in Hamlet, 'The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge' (3.2.241-2), a paraphrase of two lines from the play. That Shakespeare borrowed from the True Tragedy when writing Richard in is less apparent. Nevertheless, there are similarities between the two plays in, for example, their use of chronicle history. Both diverge from their sources in comparable ways. Moreover, some of the surprising omissions in Richard in might be explained by Shakespeare's familiarity with the True Tragedy. The downfall of Jane Shore and the murder of the princes are major events in the chronicles and in the True Tragedy that barely feature in Shakespeare's play. Perhaps the dramatist was unwilling to repeat material recently enacted in the True Tragedy. Another link between the two plays might be their Senecanism, in particular their use of ghosts. The True Tragedy begins with the ghost of Clarence calling for revenge and ends with ghosts who accuse Richard in a dream before the battle of Bosworth. Nevertheless, this kind of revenge structure was very popular at the time and the Mirror for Magistratesalso features Clarence's ghost. The evidence for a direct connection between the plays remains unconvincing. JKS True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York and the Good King Henry the Sixth, The. See RICHARD DUKE OF YORK.
Origins (1978)
trumpet. The word is used as a stage direction to indicate various kinds of *fanfare or signal. The instrument itself is associated with royalty or high rank in a ceremonial context, and with cavalry in a military context (*drums indicate infantry). Trumpets were also played in the *soundings. JB Trundell, John. See PRINTING AND PUBLISHING.
Tsubouchi, Shoyo (18 59-193 5), Japanese writer. The pioneer of the modern theatre movement in Japan, whose real name was Yuzo Tsubouchi, studied at the University of Tokyo. In many ways he represented the contradictory nature of the so-called modernization of Japan, because while he advocated modern realism in literature he was at the same time irresistibly attracted to traditional Japanese theatre, especially Kabuki and Bunraku. In 1906 he established the Literary Society in order to train actors intelligent enough to cope with European drama, and the society produced Shakespeare as well as other Western playwrights before it was disbanded in 1913. Tsubouchi eventually translated the complete canon of Shakespeare. His translations retain a strong flavour of Kabuki, and while they are highly regarded for their literary merit, they are hardly used for stage productions any more as they sound rather archaic. He was an influential critic and novelist as well as a playwright in his own right, and many of his plays are still performed regularly, especially by Kabuki actors. He served for many years as a professor of English at Waseda University in Tokyo, which has a theatre museum named after him. TK
tended musical example is the opening to Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607), in effect a tucket for his patrons, the Gonzagas. JB Tudor Shakespeare. The Complete Works, ed. Peter *Alexander (London: Collins, 1951), offered a simple, compact collection of the plays and poems, excluding The Two Noble Kinsmen and other works since attributed to Shakespeare. The editor provided a brief general introduction, a plain text in double columns per page, and a glossary at the end. The edition established at once a deserved reputation for good textual scholarship. Its modest size, weight, and price ensured that it became very popular, and was widely used by students and teachers. By the time of its twelfth reprint in 1966, Collins's boasted 'clear type' had worn here and there rather badly, and some features, such as the retention of scene locations introduced in the 18th century, seemed old-fashioned. It was reissued in 1994 with additional brief introductory material by Germaine Greer, Anthony *Burgess, and Alex Yearling, and prefaces to individual plays contributed by faculty at Glasgow University, where Peter Alexander taught. RAF Turgenev, Ivan (1818-83), Russian novelist and critic. His 'Hamlet of the Schigrovsky District' (1849, in A Sportsman's Sketches) offers a provincial version of the 'superfluous man'. Don Quixote and Hamlet (i860) contrasts two prevailing Russian character types: the one of ideals, faith, and conviction; the other sceptical, rational, and ironic. TM Turks. See TRAVEL, TRADE AND COLONIALISM.
Tubal, a Jew, brings Shylock mixed news, The Merchant of Venice 3.1. AB
Turner, William, (l) (d. 1568), physician, author of an ever-expanding Herbal, published in parts from 1551 to 1568, which records botucket, a stage direction indicating a *trumpet tanical knowledge displayed in plays such as call associated with an individual of high rank, as in The Merchant of Venice .i.izz. An ex- The Tragedy of King Lear and Love's Labour's
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of Henry *Irving and Beerbohm *Tree, the common method of Victorian production continued well past 1900. The plays were interpreted as historical stories, and were illustrated with lavish costumes, settings, and striking ceremonies with large numbers of Tutin, Dame Dorothy (b. 1931), British actress. supernumerary actors, all of which forced severe Tiny and husky-voiced, she had already acted cutting and rearrangement of the texts. The several of Shakespeare's young women when in actor-manager ruled the company and took 1953 she enjoyed a great London success as the centre stage, often disregarding the value of vulnerable young girl in Graham Greene's The smaller roles. Audiences delighted in the display Living Room. She went on to Stratford where of the star as well as in material stage display, from 1958 she played, often under Peter *Hall's and Shakespeare's work—with its opportunities direction, romantic heroines: Viola, Juliet, for grandiloquent playing, its classic status, and Ophelia, Portia, Rosalind—and a sultry Cresits exotic locales—seemed well suited to such sida. In 1977 as Cleopatra for Prospect Pro- spectacular expression. The challenges to this ductions she seemed miscast. Her later mode appeared early in the century through the Shakespearian parts were Lady Macbeth at the work of the newly defined stage director, were *01d Vic and Queen Katherine in Henry VIII at affected by calls for aesthetic and social reno*Chichester. M] vation from European modernism, and applied to Shakespeare first through the work of EdTutor, Rutland's. See RUTLAND'S TUTOR. ward Gordon *Craig. Though he directed few Twain, Mark (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) productions, Craig's designs and theoretical (1835-1910), American writer, journalist, and writings from 1903 forward proposed a Shakelecturer. Twain specifically exploits Shakespeare speare uncluttered by realism; instead of localin pieces such as his fragmentary *burlesque ized settings the stage would convey ideas and of Hamlet (1881), in which a travelling book- impressions through abstract means. salesman, Basil Stockmar, attempts to present Max *Reinhardt in Berlin was the Shakethe Ghost with a sample copy; his pornographic speare director first affected. His spectacular, pseudo-diary of a court cup-bearer I6OI\ or, realist productions of plays like A Midsummer Conversation, as it Was by the Social Fireside, in Night's Dream (1905 on) and The Tempest (1915) the Time of the Tudors (1882), including a were balanced by smaller-scale versions of The character called 'Master Shakspur'; and Is Winters Tale (1906) and King Lear (1908) that Shakespeare Dead? (1909), a reflection upon art were Craigian in their visual approach. Reinand immortality, driven by uncertainty that hardt's work, widely admired in Europe, was either Shakespeare or *Bacon could ever have seen by Harley *Granville-Barker, who took produced the works. Twain read Shakespeare's some of its profit back to London in three plays in preparation for The Prince and the famous productions at the Savoy theatre, the Pauper (1881), and The Adventures of Huckle- first major examples of modernist Shakespeare berry Finn (1884) contains incidents and char- in Britain. The Winters Tale and Twelfth Night acters deliberately reminiscent of Romeo and in 1912 used simplified and abstract settings, a Juliet, Hamlet, and King Lear. TM modified stage arrangement influenced by Poel, bright frontal lighting, nearly complete texts, Twelfth Night; or, What You Will (see opposite and sought speed in the verse and the flow of page) scenes. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1914) twentieth-century Shakespearian produc- pushed Barker's methods even further; the fairies were fantastic creatures all in gold who tion. Though Shakespeare's fame had grown steadily since about 1750, in the 20th century he looked like gods or fetishes from India and moved with choreographed swiftness. became the dominant writer for the stage for much of the world. Performance of his plays Though Barker and Craig both retired from vastly increased in frequency and varied in style, directing after the war, modernist productions intention, and reception. Two issues seem gained force in Central and Eastern Europe paramount for a summary account: the reunder their influence, often using political inplacement of the star actor by the director as the terpretations of the plays to comment on conchief aesthetic force, and alterations to the temporary events, with directors such as architecture of the theatre and the design of the Leopold Jessner in Berlin, Leon Schiller in stage under the influence of *modernism. Warsaw, or Jiri Frejka in Prague. Shakespeare in Britain tended to be much more conservative; 1900-45 The century began with the historiindeed there was a notable return to the older cist mode triumphant in Britain and elsewhere. mode with stars such as John *Gielgud, LaurDespite the work of William *Poel, who sought ence *01ivier, and Ralph *Richardson often to recover the Elizabethan theatrical condition of the plays, and the complaints made by *Shaw directing their own productions between the and others against the over-literal Shakespeare wars like Victorian actor-managers. Nonethe-
less the influence of the director continued to be felt, as witnessed by the success of inventive artists like Tyrone *Guthrie and Theodore *Komisarjevsky who relied on the institutional theatres of the *01d Vic and the *Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford to insulate their work from the hit-or-flop acerbity of the commercial theatre. The regional repertory theatres, which had spread throughout Britain after the war, were often adventurous. Barry *Jackson of the Birmingham Rep brought the first moderndress Shakespeare to London {Hamlet in 1925), while Terence *Gray of the Cambridge Festival Theatre copied continental avant-garde methods in an expressionist Richard m oï 1928. In New York a pattern of commercial production similar to London's was spiced by the modernist work of the designer Robert Edmond Jones (for the actor John *Barrymore in the 1920s), while the exotic and modern-dress experiments of Orson *Welles (a 'voodoo' Macbeth and an anti-fascist Julius Caesar, 19367) brought cinematic devices to the stage, preparing the way for the ShakespearefilmsWelles and Olivier would make shortly thereafter. 1945-80 The two major developments after the Second World War were also institutional in nature and demonstrated the ascendancy of the director. The first was the creation of the Stratford Shakespearian Festival in a small town in Ontario in *Canada, far removed from the traditional centres of Shakespeare activity. Here in 1953 Guthrie designed a stage with a fixed background in mock 16th-century style, and placed it in the middle of a large tent with a semicircular seating arrangement. (A permanent theatre was built in 1956.) The idea, indebted to Poel, was to recapture the spirit of the Elizabethan theatre by architectural means, though the audience configuration owed more to the ancient theatre at Epidaurus than to the Globe. Guthrie developed a fluid form of playing that centred the actor on a relatively bare platform, with spectators as visible collaborators in a non-illusionist environment. His achievements were widely admired and the basic shape of theatre was copied through the 1960s and 1970s. Summer festivals dedicated in whole or part to Shakespeare sprang up swiftly, particularly coast-to-coast in the USA, often using open stages (like the *New York Shakespeare Festival and the Ashland Shakespeare Festival in Oregon). The second major development took place in the original Stratford. Following some remarkable productions by the young Peter *Brook after the war (including a revelatory Titus Andronicus with Olivier in 1955), another young man, Peter *Hall, was invited to manage the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in i960. Hall quickly transformed it into the *Royal Shakespeare Company, a theatre ensemble along European lines with a semi-permanent (cont. on page 494) 490
Twelfth Night; or, What You Will
O
ne of Shakespeare's best-loved comedies, encompassing a formidable range of moods and dramatic styles, Twelfth Night is first mentioned in the diary of a law student, John *Manningham, who saw it performed in the hall of Middle Temple on 2 February 1602. The play was probably at most a few months old at the time, as a number of details in the text suggest. Maria mentions 'the new map with the augmentation of the Indies' (3.2.74-5), usually identified as one first published in Richard *Hakluyt's Voyages in 1599; 2.3 quotes from a number of songs first published in 1600 (in Robert *Jones's First Book of Songs and Airs); while Feste's view that the phrase 'out of my element' is 'overworn' (3.1.57-8) alludes to a running joke against the expression in Thomas *Dekker's Satiromastix, premiered by Shakespeare's company in 1601. The *Chamberlain's Men performed an unnamed play on Twelfth Night in 1601 before Elizabeth's court and her guest of honour Don Virginio Orsino, Duke of Bracciano: despite Leslie *Hotson's strenuous arguments, this is unlikely to have been Twelfth Night, though Shakespeare's choice of the name Orsino for the play's duke when he wrote his play later in 1601 may have been influenced by recollections of the occasion. TEXT: The play was first printed in the *Folio in 1623, in a good text derived from a literary transcript of the play prepared by a scribe (possibly especially for this purpose). The view that the text shows signs of post-performance revision is no longer widely accepted. SOURCES: TWO or even three of the play's sources were recognized very early: Manningham commented that the play was 'much like the Comedy of Errors or Menaechmi in Plautus, but most like . . . that in Italian called Inganni'. The resemblances between Twelfth Night and *Plautus' Menaechmi, the source for Shakespeare's earlier play about identical *twins, are clear ( The Comedy of Errors similarly sets its comedy of mistaken identity within a poignant framework of separation and reunion), though its debts to an Italian play are more complicated. By Inganni, Manningham meant the anonymous GTingannati (The Deceived, 1531), which indeed provided the ultimate source for the relationships between the characters whom Shakespeare rechristened Orsino, Olivia, Viola, and Sebastian. Shakespeare, however, probably knew GTingannati only at second or third hand, via prose versions in *Bandello's Novelle (1554) and *Belleforest's Histoires tragiques (1571) which were themselves adapted by Barnabe *Rich in 'Apollonius and Silla', the second story in his Fare-
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well to Military Profession (1581). The sub-plot of the gulled steward, however, has no such literary source, and attempts to identify Malvolio as a hostile portrait of a particular Elizabethan courtier have been uniformly unconvincing. SYNOPSIS: I.I Orsino, duke of *Illyria, listens to music as he languishes for the love of Countess Olivia: when Valentine reports that Olivia refuses his suit, vowing to mourn her dead brother for seven years, he comforts himself with the reflection that a woman capable of such emotion for a mere brother will in due course love passionately. 1.2 Viola, washed up in Illyria after a shipwreck in which she fears her twin brother Sebastian has perished, learns from the ship's Captain of Olivia's vow and Orsino's suit: with his help she intends to disguise herself as a eunuch and enter Orsino's service. 1.3 At Olivia's house her dissolute uncle Sir Toby Belch detains the rich but foolish Sir Andrew Aguecheek, another hopeful suitor to Olivia: Sir Andrew's ineptitude is demonstrated by his incompetent repartee with the witty servant Maria. 1.4 Viola, disguised as 'Cesario', has become such a favourite of Orsino that he sends her to court Olivia on his behalf, an errand she accepts reluctantly, confessing in an aside that she herself loves Orsino. 1.5 The clown Feste has incurred Olivia's displeasure by a long absence, but contrives to regain her
TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL
favour by riddling that she is more foolish than he for mourning that her brother is in Heaven. Her steward Malvolio, however, remains Feste's adversary, and is gently rebuked by Olivia for his ungenerosity of spirit. Olivia sends Feste to look after Sir Toby, who is already drunk. Viola, after refusing to be put off by a baffled Malvolio, is eventually admitted to Maria and Olivia: besting Maria's wit, she secures a private interview with Olivia, whom she rebukes for her pride, though she acknowledges her beauty. Olivia dismisses Orsino's suit but grows increasingly interested in 'Cesario', who she hopes will come again: after Viola leaves, she sends Malvolio after her with a ring she claims was left as an unwanted gift from Orsino. 2.1 Sebastian tells his devoted friend Antonio of Viola, whom he believes to have drowned. Antonio, though he has mortal enemies at Orsino's court, decides to follow Sebastian there. 2.2 Malvolio gives Viola the ring Olivia claimed she had left as a present. Alone, Viola realizes that Olivia has fallen in love with Cesario, and wonders how this complicated situation will resolve itself. 2.3 After midnight, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew have Feste sing a song, 'O mistress mine', and join him in singing catches: Maria warns them they are too loud, and Malvolio arrives to rebuke them for disturbing the household, threatening Sir Toby that Olivia's displeasure may result in his banishment from it. Sir Toby is affronted at this check from a mere servant, and, after Malvolio leaves, Maria, with his eager encouragement, plots revenge: she will forge a letter from Olivia to trick the steward into thinking his mistress is in love with him. 2.4 Orsino speaks of love with Viola: they listen to Feste sing 'Come away, come away death'. Defending women against the charge of being less constant than men, Viola speaks of her own feelings and predicament under cover of describing a sister who pined away through concealing her love. Orsino sends her again to woo Olivia. 2.5 Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Maria, and another servant, Fabian, hide in the garden and watch Malvolio approach the forged letter Maria has placed in his path. Malvolio is already imagining becoming Count through marriage to Olivia and lecturing Sir Toby when he finds it. Despite the letter's obscure anagram of 'M.O.A.I.' and its refusal actually to name either its addressee or its feigned author, its purport is clear: a confession of love from Olivia in which she urges Malvolio to spurn Sir Toby, smile, and wear yellow stockings, cross-gartered. Malvolio, completely taken in, is overjoyed, and hastens to comply. Maria hurries her confederates towards Olivia to watch for Malvolio's transformation. 3.1 Viola, also on her way to Olivia, meets Feste, who wittily begs money: she also meets Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, who is impressed with the courtliness with which Viola greets Olivia. When they are alone, Olivia confesses her love: when Viola says she can only pity her, Olivia feigns that she might yet love Orsino, in the hopes of inducing Viola to come again on his behalf. 3.2 Sir Andrew, about to leave on the grounds that Olivia obviously prefers Cesario to himself, is persuaded
by Sir Toby and Fabian that Olivia is deliberately offering him a chance of proving his valour, and he leaves to write a challenge to Cesario. Maria fetches the others to see Malvolio, who has already changed his stockings. 3.3 Antonio, in danger because of his former participation in a sea-fight in which he helped to plunder Orsino's galleys, gives the sightseeing Sebastian his purse, arranging to meet him discreetly at an inn later. 3.4 Olivia has sent after Viola once more, but is distracted from her own affairs by the appearance of the crossgartered Malvolio, whose smiling quotations from the forged letter convince his mistress he has lost his wits. After she leaves to see Viola, Sir Toby, Fabian, and Maria speak to Malvolio as if they believe he is possessed: he leaves, still confident of Olivia's love. Sir Andrew has written an incompetent and cowardly challenge for Cesario, which Sir Toby resolves not to deliver, preferring to challenge Cesario in person. Olivia and Viola enter, Viola once more asking Olivia to bestow her love on Orsino rather than on herself: after Olivia's departure, Sir Toby tells Viola that Sir Andrew means to duel with her, convincing Viola of his implacable and expert rage. Sir Toby then persuades Sir Andrew that Viola is equally furious and deadly: their mutually terrified sword-fight, however, is interrupted by the arrival of Antonio, who mistakes Viola for Sebastian. Antonio is about to fight with Sir Toby when officers arrive to arrest the newcomer: he asks Viola for the return of his purse, and is shocked when she denies receiving it, leaving heartbroken for prison. Viola begins to hope her brother may still be alive. Sir Andrew, now convinced of Viola's cowardice, follows her to renew his challenge. 4.1 Sebastian meets Feste, who is offended not to be recognized by him: Sir Andrew arrives and strikes Sebastian, who is quick to avenge the blow, andfindshimself at drawn swords with Sir Toby when Olivia arrives and similarly takes Sebastian for Cesario. Sebastian is at once puzzled and delighted by her tender attention, and departs with her. 4.2 Malvolio, presumed mad, is locked up in darkness: Feste pretends to be Sir Topas, a curate sent to examine his alleged demonic possession, but eventually agrees to bring Malvolio ink, paper, and a light that he may write to Olivia. 4.3 Sebastian, though still bewildered, is delighted by Olivia's love, and agrees to go with her and a priest to be married. 5.1 Feste refuses to let Fabian see the letter he has promised to give Olivia from Malvolio, and begs money from Orsino, who arrives with Viola and other attendants. Antonio is brought before them: Orsino remembers his valour despite regarding him as a pirate, but counters his renewed accusations of falsehood against Viola by witnessing that Viola has been at his court for the last three months rather than in Antonio's company as he alleges. This discussion is cut short by the arrival of Olivia. Orsino says he knows his rightful place in her heart has been usurped by Cesario, whom he threatens to kill: when Viola promises she loves Orsino above all else, and means to leave with him come what may, Olivia produces the priest, who bears witness that Cesario and Olivia are married. Sir Andrew arrives, followed by Sir Toby, who
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has been wounded in a fight they have provoked with Sebastian: they are shocked to find Viola there. Sebastian now arrives, to apologize to his newly married wife for hurting her kinsman: as the onlookers marvel at seeing him and Viola at once, he is at first overjoyed to see Antonio again before he sees his disguised sister. The twins tentatively question one another to confirm each other's identities: Viola explains that if her male clothes hinder his recognition, she can reclaim her own from the Sea Captain. It becomes clear how Olivia has come to marry Sebastian after falling in love with Cesario, and Orsino realizes that Viola, disguised, has often confessed that she loves him. The Sea Captain who has her clothes, however, has been arrested at Malvolio's suit, so Malvolio is summoned: meanwhile Fabian reads Olivia his evidently sane letter (replacing Feste, who insists on reading it in too mad a voice). Orsino agrees to marry Viola in a double celebration at Olivia's house. Malvolio arrives and confronts Olivia with the letter he found in the garden: she explains that it is forged, and Fabian and Feste confess their trick (Fabian revealing that Sir Toby has married Maria as a reward for her wit, Feste saying he took part in order to avenge Malvolio's criticism of his fooling). Malvolio leaves, vowing revenge on them all. Orsino sends after him, in order that Viola's female clothes can be retrieved for her wedding: meanwhile he will continue to call her Cesario. Feste is left alone to sing a song as an epilogue, 'When that I was and a little tiny boy'. ARTISTIC FEATURES: Rich in songs—provided for Robert *Armin, the original Feste, who had replaced the less intellectual and melodious fool Will *Kempe in 1599—and peopled by characters who are given to reflecting eloquently but passively on their imprisonment within their own and one another's fantasies, Twelfth Night'is the most lyrical of the mature comedies. At the close of its at once atrociously cruel and exquisitely funny sub-plot, one of Shakespeare's most Jonsonian, even the puritanical Malvolio rises to the dignity of blank verse. CRITICAL HISTORY: Although apparently highly regarded in Shakespeare's time and thereafter—Leonard *Digges's dedicatory verse in Benson's 1640 edition of Shakespeare's poems includes the couplet 'The Cockpit galleries, boxes, all are full I To hear Malvolio, that cross-gartered gull'—the play fell from favour for 80 years after the Restoration, its Italianate intrigues and fancies dismissed as unrealistic. As late as 1765 Dr *Johnson, who called the play 'elegant and easy, and in some of the lighter scenes exquisitely humorous', objected that the winding-up of the main plot 'wants credibility and fails to produce the proper instruction required in the drama, as it exhibits no true picture of life'. The play was valued more highly by * Romantic critics such as *Schlegel, who singled out the importance of both music and the concept of 'fancy' to the play in his Course of Lectures on Dramatic Literature (1809-11), while *Hazlitt considered it 'one of the most delightful of Shakespeare's comedies . . . perhaps too good-natured for comedy'. In the 19th century Viola, the most acceptably bashful and passive of Shakespeare's comic hero-
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ines, was a favourite of moralist critics, and her imaginary youth is described with particular enthusiasm in Mary Cowden *Clarke's The Girlhood of Shakespeare s Heroines (1850-1). In academic criticism she has often been upstaged, however, by two other characters. Charles *Lamb was one of the first commentators to speak in favour of Malvolio, and Lamb's contemporaries also singled out another figure often seen as providing the play's keynote, Feste, later the subject of an important essay by A. C. *Bradley. Twentieth-century criticism has treated both of these characters ever more seriously, as perceptions of the play's happy comedy have increasingly given place to a sense of its social tensions and sexual undercurrents: recent discussions have related it to the *'problem plays' as often as to what might otherwise seem its more natural companion piece, As You Like Lt. Malvolio has been viewed as a comic antagonist whose potentially tragic dignity approaches that of Shylock: Feste has been identified as a detached, ironic commentator on the play whose freelance status and penchant for puns mirror the elusiveness of language and desire themselves. Since the Second World War Twelfth Night has provided fertile ground for anthropologically inclined critics who have pursued its title's allusion to seasonal rituals of misrule and inversion, and its intrigues have been equally attractive to *Marxists interested in the social cross-dressing of Malvolio and to *feminists and queer theorists interested in the gender cross-dressing of Viola and the hints of homoeroticism which inform her relations with Orsino and Olivia, not to mention Antonio's adoration of Sebastian. STAGE HISTORY: A similar trajectory—from unfashionably whimsical trifle to happy romantic comedy to bittersweet drama of social and sexual identity—informs Twelfth Night's post-Restoration stage history. The play was evidently popular down to the Civil War, as Digges's poem suggests: a court performance is recorded in 1622 as 'Malvolio' (a title by which *Charles 1 would also call the play, in a note on the contents page of his copy of the Folio). Doubtless remembering the play's earlier success in court circles, *Davenant revived it in the early 1660s, the role of Viola now transformed by the arrival of professional actresses into a breeches part, but the play was laid aside after 1669, when *Pepys, who had earlier dismissed it as 'but a silly play', described it as 'one of the weakest plays that ever I saw on the stage'. The extent to which its lyricism had gone out of fashion is vividly suggested by a short-lived, largely prose adaptation, Love Betrayed; or, The Agreeable Disappointment (1703), which, as its author William Burnaby candidly admitted in a preface, rejected most of Shakespeare's poetry and much of his plotting entirely: 'Part of the tale of this play, I took from Shakespeare, and about fifty of his lines.' The original was restored, however, in 1741, performed at Drury Lane by the company who revived The Merchant of Venice and As You Like It during the same season: Charles *Macklin was Malvolio, Hannah *Pritchard played Viola, and Kitty *Clive Olivia. Since then, the play's popularity has never waned, with the role of
TWENTIETH-CENTURY SHAKESPEARIAN PRODUCTION
Malvolio attracting star actors and actor-managers from Richard Yates through Samuel *Phelps, Henry *Irving, and Beerbohm *Tree down to Donald *Wolfit, Laurence *01ivier, and Donald *Sinden. Viola has been an equally important role for actresses (her soliloquy in 2.2, 'I left no ring with her. What means this lady?', has long been the most familiar of audition pieces), offering in the 18th and 19th centuries an irresistible combination of professed modesty with the titillation provided by male costume's display of her figure. Dorothea *Jordan was a sensation in the 1790s, and Leigh *Hunt's account of the part is dominated by his attention to Ann Maria Tree's limbs: 'It is impossible not to be struck . . . with a leg like this. It is fit for a statue: still fitter for where it is.' Equally appealing successors in the part included Charlotte *Cushman, Ada *Rehan, and Ellen *Terry. Increasing decorative elaboration in the 19th century led to frequent transpositions of scenes, a tendency which culminated in Beerbohm Tree's 1901 production, where most of the scenes in Olivia's garden had to be run consecutively, as its set's real grass and fountains could not be changed during the performance. The way forward, however, was more accurately pointed by Harley *Granville-Barker's revival at the Savoy in 1912: its styling was influenced by William *Poel's experiments with neo-Elizabethan open stages, its Malvolio, Henry Ainley, was heartbreakingly overwrought in the prison scene, and its Feste, Hayden Coffin, was the most melancholy for many years. Since then the play's ever more frequent productions have, in general, become progressively more autumnal: major revivals have included Tyrone *Guthrie's (1937, with Olivier as Sir Toby, Alec *Guinness as Sir Andrew, and Jessica Tandy confusingly doubling Viola and Sebastian), John *Gielgud's (1955, with Olivier as Malvolio and Vivien *Leigh as Viola), and John *Barton's delicately Elizabethan RSC production of 1969 (with Judi *Dench as Viola). Two memorable productions of the 1980s instructively paralleled contemporary trends in criticism: Ariane *Mnouchkine staged an exotic, ambiguous Illyria in her Theatre du Soleil production of 1982, while *Cheek by Jowl's 1985 touring production stressed the play's homoeroticism, eventually pairing off Feste with Antonio. MD
O N T H E SCREEN: The earliest film of Twelfth Night was a silent version made in America in 1910. No fewer than five television versions have been made for the BBC, culminating in the 1980 production with Alec McCowen as Malvolio and Felicity Kendal as Viola. An American TV production (1957) with Maurice *Evans, Denholm Elliott, and Max Adrian was well received. Especially memorable was John Dexter's production for British commercial television (1970) with Alec Guinness (Malvolio), Tommy Steele (Feste), Ralph * Richardson (Sir Toby Belch), and Joan Plowright (Viola). A brooding production directed by Judi *Dench for Kenneth *Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company, with music by Paul McCartney, is also preserved on videotape, directed by Paul Kafno (1990). Only two cinema films provide a full treatment of the play. The 1955 Russian film directed by Yakow Fried balances boisterous comedy with subtle characterization, and Trevor *Nunn's Twelfth Night (1996), filmed in Cornwall, stresses visually the play's recurrent sea imagery. Nunn's strong cast—including Nigel Hawthorne as Malvolio, Imogen Stubbs as Viola, and Ben *Kingsley as Feste—capture both the play's poignancy and its fun. AD RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
Roger Warren and Stanley Wells (Oxford, 1994); Elizabeth Story Donno (New Cambridge, 1985); J. M. Lothian and T. W. Craik (Arden 2nd series, 1975) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Barber, C. L., in Shakespeare's Festive Comedy (1959) Booth, Stephen, ' Twelfth Night, 1.1: Malvolio as Audience', in Paul Erickson and Coppélia Kahn (eds.), Shakespeare's 'Rough Magic': Essays in Honour ofC. L. Barber (1985) Bradley, A. C , Teste the Jester', in Israel Gollancz (éd.), A Book of Homage to Shakespeare (1916) Callaghan, Dympna, in Shakespeare without Women (2000) Greenblatt, Stephen, in Shakespearean Negotiations (1988) Hotson, Leslie, The First Night of'Twelfth Night'(1954) Jardine, Lisa, in Reading Shakespeare Historically (1996) Leggatt, Alexander, in Shakespeare's Comedies of Love (1974) Orgel, Stephen, in Impersonations (1996) Salingar, L. G., 'The Design of Twelfth Night', Shakespeare Quarterly, 9 (1958)
company of actors, directors, and designers. He istic directorships of Trevor *Nunn and Terry Europe, while Brecht wasfollowedfrom the late also acquired the Aldwych theatre as a London *Hands in the 1970s, the RSC lost some of its 1950s by directors like Roger *Planchon in Lyon base and set about gaining the public funding socially engaged posture but consolidated itself and Giorgio *Strehler in Milan, who made sothat permitted rapid expansion. The new order as a major international theatre, especially with cialist commentary out of Shakespeare. Strehler made it possible to develop a social attitude to grand ventures like Nunn's staging of the was one of the most consistently inventive of Shakespeare's work, to keep productions in the Roman plays in 1972 and Hands's almost-uncut interpreters, his work culminating in a rerepertory for extended periods, bring them to Henry vi (1977). Some of the most powerful markable Tempest in 1978. In the Soviet Union London, and tour them regularly. The com- productions of this time were directed by John and in the Eastern Bloc Shakespeare grew in pany's international visibility rose dramatically, *Barton ( Troilus and Cressida of 1968, Richard 11 official importance, though after 1968 approved most notably with Brook's King Lear in 1962 of 1973), or by Nunn in a chamber venue called productions frequently vied with 'dissident' and Hall's The *Wars of the Roses (1963-4), a the Other Place that sat about 140 {Macbeth, ones—often indebted to Kott—that tended to seven-part adaptation of the history plays which 1976). use Shakespeare's texts as coded messages about established a company style: excellent verseThe influence of Jan *Kott's Shakespeare our regimes that could not be criticized openly. Yuri speaking combined with a rough and even Contemporary was behind much of the RSC's Lyubimov's Hamlet (Moscow, 1971) is reprebrutal form of physical playing. Under the art- best work in the period and was heavily felt in sentative of the same trend in the Soviet Union,
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Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh as the Macbeths in Glen Byam Shaw's production, Shakespeare Mémorial Theatre, 1955.
TWINE, LAURENCE a production in which a travelling curtain, like the forces of history, swept all before it into the grave. 1980-2000 Around the end of the 1970s, as the Cold War receded and new concerns occupied artists internationally, Shakespeare performance became more varied and less predictable. Directors in the period retained most of their power, though often it was modulated by the growing importance of designers for productions that returned to the spectacular mode. In a male-dominated profession women directors like Ariane *Mnouchkine in France, Deborah *Warner in England, and Karin Beier in Germany brought new ideas and approaches, while actors like Alan *Howard and Helen *Mirren established international reputations through Shakespeare. The RSC remained important but no longer held the dominant artistic position as Shakespeare spread around the globe in a mélange of fashions. Productions at Stratford by Michael *Bogdanov, however (e.g. The Taming of the Shrew in 1978 and Romeo and Juliet in 1986), were consistently stimulating and often attracted young audiences. With the actor Michael *Pennington, Bogdanov went on to found the ""English Shakespeare Company as a touring organization, and their marathon rendition of the history plays, The Wars of the Roses (1987-8), was an exciting experiment that used postmodern strategies of crossing time periods. Warner's work with the RSC and the *National Theatre was particularly gripping, from powerful versions of Titus Andronicus and King Lear (1987 and 1990, with Brian Cox acting in both) to Richard n (1995) with Fiona Shaw playing the King in a gender-neutral manner. One of the continuing troubles of the RSC lay in its theatres. London operations were transferred in 1982 to the *Barbican Arts Centre, an uninviting building with a main house even more unsuited for Shakespeare than the large theatre in Stratford. A smaller space with an open plan, the Swan (1986) has been a godsend at Stratford; this and the remodelled Other Place were sites for much of the company's most valuable work. Some mainstream British productions suffered from a connection to 'heritage' made during the Thatcher-Major years, a movement that stressed the high art or ancestral merit in Shakespeare and was in opposition to the contemporary values ascribed to the plays in the earlier post-war period. A battle for the ownership of the national dramatist was taking place and spread beyond the academy onto the pages of the popular press, with members of the royal family entering the fray. Theatres, suffering declining subsidies in the same period, were often forced to rely on an appeal to cultural tourism to fill their seats. This was most apparent in the construction of 'Shakespeare's Globe' in London, a project begun by the
American actor Sam Wanamaker in the 1970s and completed in 1997 after his death. Controversy has surrounded both the cultural intent of the project and its claim to architectural authenticity, though few deny the powerful effect of watching a play while standing in the yard of the open-roofed space. The productions staged there in the summers have yet to reach first-class status but have returned audiences to a central role in Shakespeare performance. Shakespeare became in these years dramatic currency for much of the world. The long German tradition of innovative performance continued; older directors like Peter *Zadek and Peter *Stein were still active in the 1990s, while younger ones brought unexpected ideas for a post-Cold War world, like Karin Beier's 'Euro-Shakespeare'—a rendition of A Midsummer Nights Dream (1995) that used fourteen actors from nine countries, all speaking their native languages. Some Paris performances relied upon the intercultural method of crossing Shakespeare with Kabuki or Kathakali (Mnouchkine's history plays, 1981-4), or seeing The Tempest through Indian and African styles (Brook, 1990), while Daniel Mesguich showed a series of plays influenced by the cultural theories of Derrida and Lacan. The Québécois director Robert *Lepage, in productions in English and French (and sometimes in both), added to the growing interest of seeing Shakespeare's work as related to colonial formations and globalized or postcolonial circumstances. In Tokyo the remarkable direction of Yukio *Ninagawa combined Japanese traditional ideas with Western styles {Macbeth and The Tempest m the 1980s, A Midsummer Nights Dream and Hamlet in the 1990s, all touring to the UK), and Hideki Noda transposed the plays into modern Japanese environments (his 1990 Much Ado About Nothing, for example, was set in the world of sumo wrestling). After the disruptions of the Cultural Revolution even *China staged Shakespeare festivals in the period. If all the world had not yet been conquered by a 400-year-old dead white male dramatist, much of it found Shakespeare's work rich enough to appropriate again and again. DK
Shakespeare's Pericles. Twine took his story of a wandering protagonist called Apollonius of Tyre, a riddle concerning incest, and an innocent girl in a brothel from a Latin collection of stories called Gesta Romanorum. The Pattern may have been published as early as 1576 but also appeared in editions of 1594 and 1607. It was probably the latter that Shakespeare read and that he drew upon for Marina's scenes. JKS twins feature prominently in two of Shakespeare's plays, The Comedy of Errors (which complicates its source play, *Plautus' The Menaechmi, by adding a second pair of identical brothers, the Dromios, as servants to Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus respectively) and Twelfth Night (which depends on the biologically impossible resemblance between Viola and her brother Sebastian: in nature identical twins are always of the same sex). Many have been tempted to find autobiographical resonances in these scenes, particularly in the latter play, since Shakespeare was himself the father of Hamnet and Judith, born 26 May 1583 (see SHAKESPEARE, HAMNET;
SHAKESPEARE, JUDITH). Hamnet had died in
August 1596: Twelfth Night (1601) perhaps poignantly entertains the notion that a dead twin brother might remain alive in the likeness of his surviving sister ('I my brother know I Yet living in my glass', observes the disguised Viola, 3.4.371-2). MD Two Gentlemen page)
of Verona, The (see opposite
Two Noble Kinsmen, The (see page 500) Tybalt is the hot-tempered nephew of Capulet's wife. He kills Mercutio and is himself killed by Romeo, Romeo andJuliet 3.1. AB
Tyler, Richard (1566-1636), friend, probably schoolmate, of Shakespeare, who left him a ring in the first draft of his will. He was replaced by Hamnet *Sadler, possibly because in the meantime he had been accused of misappropriating funds raised for victims of the great Stratford *fire. He had a son called William, Beauman, Sally, The Royal Shakespeare Company and two of his daughters bear the same names as (1982) Shakespeare's, but Tyler's wife, too, was SuBerry, Ralph, On Directing Shakespeare (1989) sanna. He signed a deed of 1617/18 relating to Holland, Peter, English Shakespeares (1997) Hortmann, Wilhelm, Shakespeare on the Ger- the transfer of the *Blackfriars Gatehouse. SW man Stage (1998) Kennedy, Dennis (éd.), Foreign Shakespeare Tyler, Thomas (1826-1902), English scholar, a (1993) Kennedy, Dennis, Looking at Shakespeare founding member of the New Shakespeare So(1993) ciety (1873). On 13 June 1884 (and later on 11 Speaight, Robert, Shakespeare on the Stage October 1889) he was the first to propose, (i973) against some resistance, Mary Fitton, the Queen's maid of honour, as the *'Dark Lady' of Twine, Laurence (fl. 1564-76), prelate and TM the Sonnets (see his edition, 1890). translator. Twine's romance The Pattern of Tymandra. See PHRYNIA. Painful Adventures is one of the sources for (cont. on page $03) 496
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
T
his perennially fresh and pleasantly fallible comedy may be Shakespeare's first work for the professional stage, probably composed around 1590. The first of the six Shakespearian comedies mentioned by Francis *Meres's Palladis Tamia in 1598, its dramatic technique suggests inexperience, and its tone is far closer to that of the courtly comedies of the 1580s (such as *Lyly's Midas, 15889, which at one point it echoes) than is that of any other Shakespearian comedy. Certain scholars have placed The Two Gentlemen of Verona in the mid-i590s, sometimes on the grounds that its debts to Arthur *Brooke's poem Romeus and Julietsuggest a date closer to that of the infinitely more accomplished Romeo and Juliet, but allusions in Richard Duke of York (3 Henry vi) show that Shakespeare already knew Brooke's poem much earlier. While others have evolved theories of piecemeal revision that would date certain passages as late as 1598, no modern scholar has placed the bulk of its composition any later than 1594, and recent studies have tended to place it earlier in the canon rather than later.
TEXT: The play is printed as the second play in the First *Folio, 1623: there is no evidence of any earlier attempt to publish it. The Folio text, which is for the most part a reliable one (though unusually short), seems to derive from a transcript by the scribe Ralph *Crane: it displays characteristic features of his work such as the listing at the head of each scene of all the characters who will appear in it, and the omission of all stage directions except exits. Various inconsistencies may suggest that Crane was transcribing Shakespeare's own *foul papers, an authorial draft which retained a high proportion of loose ends, but the text's consistency with *speech-prefixes (unusual even for Crane) may suggest that he was working from a fair copy prepared for theatrical use, in which case its brevity may result from abridgement for some specific performance. The small amount of profanity in The Two Gentlemen of Verona as it stands, which distinguishes it sharply from the other early comedies, supports this latter possibility, suggesting that the play had been expurgated for a revival since the *Act to Restrain Abuses of Players, 1606. SOURCES: Jorge de *Montemayor's prose romance La Diana enamorada (1559) provided the outline of the Proteus and Julia plot, perhaps in Bartholomew Yonge's translation (1582, printed 1598), but more probably via the lost play * Felix andPhiliomena (performed at court in 1585). A parallel to the Proteus-Valentine-Silvia situation is found in the story of
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Titus and Gisippus in *Boccaccio's Decameron, retold in Sir Thomas *Elyot's The Governor (1531), which Shakespeare may echo in his last scene. Other details are drawn from *Ovid, from *Lyly's Sapho and Phao (1584), and from Brooke's Romeus and Juliet (1562): some of the play's minor confusions as to whether the action is taking place in Verona, Mantua, or Milan may result from Shakespeare's alternation between different sources. Only the Lance and Crab scenes seem entirely original. SYNOPSIS: I.I Valentine parts from his friend Proteus, whom he mocks for being in love with Julia, in order to travel to Milan. His servant Speed, who has just delivered a love letter to Julia for Proteus to no apparent effect, follows him. 1.2 Julia receives Proteus' letter from her maid Lucetta, who speaks in his favour: she appears to be angry, and tears the letter up, but cannot subsequently resist the temptation to reassemble such pieces as she can. 1.3 Proteus' father resolves to give Proteus the same opportunities Valentine is enjoying by sending him, too, to the Milanese court: surprised while reading his first love letter from Julia, Proteus, in part as a result of feigning that the letter is from Valentine, is compelled to agree to this course of action. 2.1 In Milan, Valentine has fallen in love with Silvia. She has commissioned Valentine to write a letter for her to 'one she loves', and when she inspects what he has written he
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cannot understand what she means by telling him to keep it; Speed has to explain that Valentine is himself the object of her love. 2.2 Exchanging rings with vows of mutual fidelity, Proteus and Julia part. 2.3 Proteus' servant Lance and his dog Crab are also off to Milan: deploring the dry-eyed callousness of his dog, Lance comically re-enacts his lachrymose parting from his family. 2.4 Valentine bickers with his rival for Silvia's love, Thurio, until her father the Duke announces the imminent arrival of Proteus. Valentine presents his friend to Silvia, and, when Silvia and Thurio have departed, reveals his plan to elope with her, in which he enlists Proteus as an accomplice. Left alone, Proteus confesses that he has himself fallen in love with Silvia. 2.5 Speed welcomes Lance to Milan, and they joke about their masters' loves. 2.6 Proteus decides to reveal Valentine's planned elopement to the Duke, so as to ensure Valentine's banishment and leave only the dim-witted Thurio as a rival. 2.7 The lovelorn Julia instructs Lucetta to provide her with a male disguise in which she can safely follow Proteus to Milan. 3.1 Proteus betrays the imminent elopement of Silvia with Valentine to the Duke, who finds Valentine already equipped with the rope ladder by which he means to effect it. The Duke immediately banishes Valentine, who receives hypocritical comfort from Proteus. Lance detains Speed for a pragmatic discussion about a milkmaid whom he is proposing to marry. 3.2 Ostensibly only at the Duke's insistence and in the interests of Thurio, whose suit the Duke favours, Proteus agrees to slander Valentine to Silvia, and to help Thurio woo her with poetry and music. 4.1 Valentine and Speed are ambushed by outlaws, who, impressed by Valentine's eloquence, offer him the choice of being killed or becoming their leader: he chooses the latter. 4.2 Proteus reflects on his falsehood, and the reproaches with which Silvia has so far repaid his courtship, before Thurio arrives with musicians, who perform the song *'Who is Silvia? What is she?' beneath her window. Meanwhile, conducted by her host, Julia has arrived, disguised as a page, and she watches both the serenade and, after Thurio's departure, Proteus' continuing attempts to woo Silvia. 4.3 Silvia enlists the help of Sir Eglamour to follow Valentine into exile. 4.4 Lance laments the misbehaviour of Crab, whom he has offered as a gift to Silvia in place of a lapdog from Proteus which he has lost, describing how he has often been forced to assume responsibility for Crab's unhygienic misdemeanours. Proteus arrives with the disguised Julia, whom, as 'Sebastian', he unwittingly takes into his employment as a worthier messenger than Lance has been: he entrusts her with the very ring she herself gave him at parting as a gift for Silvia. Horrified at her situation, Julia nonetheless goes to perform this errand, though Silvia refuses the ring: the two women fall into conversation about the supposedly absent Julia, whom Silvia pities. 5.1 Sir Eglamour and Silviaflyfrom Milan and towards the forest. 5.2 The Duke brings the news of their flight to Proteus, Thurio, and Julia, who each agree to follow him in his pursuit
of them. 5.3 In the forest, three outlaws have captured Silvia while others chase the fleeing Sir Eglamour. 5.4 Valentine reflects on the suitability of the forest as a setting for his solitary yearning for Silvia: hearing the sounds of a struggle, he hides, and sees Proteus, still followed by the disguised Julia, arrive with Silvia, whom he has rescued from the outlaws. Both Julia and Valentine watch in dismay as Proteus courts the resolute Silvia with increasing aggression until he actually attempts rape, at which Valentine confronts him with his treachery. On Proteus' repentance, Valentine accepts him once more as a friend, and abruptly resigns Silvia to him. At this Julia faints, and when her identity is discovered a yet more penitent Proteus disavows his preference for Silvia. Valentine joins their hands. The outlaws arrive with the Duke and Thurio as captives, and when the cowardly Thurio, threatened by Valentine, renounces his own claim on Silvia, she is bestowed by the Duke on Valentine. Valentine successfully requests the Duke to repeal the outlaws' banishment along with his own, and with the double marriage of Valentine and Silvia, Proteus and Julia in prospect, all set off back towards Milan. ARTISTIC FEATURES: The play shows a reliance on soliloquy, asides, and duologues unique in the canon: one of the reasons the famous serenade scene, 4.2, stands out so vividly is that it is one of the play's only fully successful scenes involving more than three characters at a time. The play shows unusual carelessness (the Duke is sometimes referred to as 'the Emperor', and Shakespeare often appears to forget that his two Veronese gentlemen are not at home at his court in Milan), but its verse, though sometimes lame, can rise to moments of genuine and unexpected lyricism (as in Proteus' advice to Thurio, 3.2.72-86), and the supple comic prose of Lance's monologues has rarely been excelled. CRITICAL HISTORY: Neglected for two centuries after Shakespeare's death (with Upton refusing to believe it was authentically Shakespearian, and *Johnson's praise confined to individual passages at the expense of its structure), the play has frequently suffered from being read solely as an unsuccessful anticipation of the later comedies, particularly Twelfth Night, and discussions of The Two Gentlemen of Verona in its own right are still comparatively rare. Along with the other early comedies, it has often been dismissed as apprentice work, and most commentators have found Valentine's attempt to give away Silvia to the man who has just tried to rape her profoundly objectionable. Much modern writing about the play has concentrated on attempting to explain this gesture, whether in terms of Renaissance views on the relative claims of friendship, love, and gratitude, or in terms of the literary conventions of courtly romance. It is noticeable that the play has been consistently more highly regarded on the Continent than in Britain, with G. G. *Gervinus among its few 19th-century advocates (drawing attention, in Shakespeare, 1849—50, to its sophisticated use of parallelism, a subject taken up a century later in an important essay by Harold F. Brooks). H. B. Charlton, in his influential account of
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Shakespearian comedy (1938), claimed that the play was an artistic failure, its aspirations towards romance producing only ludicrous bathos, and while subsequent critics (such as Alexander Leggatt) have been less inclined to regard all an audience's laughs at the central characters' expense as unintended by Shakespeare, the notion that certain figures in the play (notably Julia) are fatally out of drawing with the play's Lylyan genre remains a prevalent one in recent discussions. STAGE HISTORY: The Folio's text may suggest that the play was still in use by Shakespeare's company as late as 1606, but since the Renaissance it has been one of his least successful plays in the theatre: in England only Love's Labour's Lost was slower to be revived as Shakespeare's comedies increased in status and popularity down the 18th century. The earliest recorded performances of The Two Gentlemen of Verona did not take place until 1762, at *Drury Lane, in a version adapted by the minor playwright Benjamin Victor, who tried to lighten the last act by adding new material for Lance, Crab, and Speed and removing Valentine's renunciation of Silvia to Proteus (a cut often repeated over the ensuing years as the romantic celebration of male friendship over love grew ever less usual in the culture at large). The play was revived briefly at *Covent Garden in 1784, and by J. P. *Kemble in 1790 and 1808, but its only really popular British production before the mid-20th century was in 1821, when Frederick *Reynolds initiated a recurrent strand in its stage history by drastically adapting it as a *musical.
The play's post-war fortunes in the English-speaking theatre have been more mixed. At Regent's Park in 1949 it was heavily abridged by Robert * Atkins to share a bill with The Comedy of Errors, but within ten years came two far more lavish, and highly successful, productions at the *01d Vic, one (by Denis Carey, transferring to London from Bristol) in the style of a Renaissance masque (1952, with John *Neville as Valentine), and one (by Michael Langham, 1957) in a Regency setting (with Barbara *Jefford as Julia). Both added a great deal of incidental music. Attempts to supplement the appeal of music and decor by resort to post-Freudian psychology have generally been unsuccessful: Robin Phillips's incipiently camp 1970 production for the RSC (which set the play in an adolescent, beach-oriented world reminiscent of body-building advertisements) pleased few, and John *Barton's harshly satiric abbreviation of 1981 (on a double bill with an equally truncated Titus Andronicus) few more. The most successful English-language productions of the play have continued to be musical adaptations, notably Joseph Papp's 1971 revival in New York, and David Thacker's 1994 RSC production at the Swan, given a 1930s setting and supplied with additional songs from the works of Cole *Porter and his contemporaries. For directors such as these the poor esteem in which the play has generally been held, licensing inventive stage-business and making the play's naive charm always come as something of a pleasant surprise, seems to have been positively liberating. MD
In common with subsequent 19th-century productions, this version idealized Valentine, who is presented as afigureof perfect chivalry in the only well-known painting derived from this play, the *Pre-Raphaelite Holman Hunt's Valentine Rescuing Silvia from Proteus (later renamed 77?^ Two Gentlemen of Verona), 1851. The play was a failure successively for William Charles *Macready (1841), Charles *Kean (1846 in New York, 1848 in London), Samuel *Phelps (1857), Osmond Tearle (Stratford, 1890), Augustin *Daly (1895, with Ada *Rehan as Julia), and Harley *Granville-Barker (1904), and while William *Poel's 'Elizabethan' production at His Majesty's theatre (1910) attracted some attention, sporadic revivals in Stratford and London during the inter-war years still failed to establish the play in the British public's imagination. In theatrical circles the play even acquired the derisive nickname 'The Walking Gentlemen' ('walking gentleman' is stockcompany slang for a wholly undistinguished minor male role). The play was more popular with French and German audiences (Theodore Fontane, seeing Phelps's revival, had clamoured for a Berlin production as early as 1857), enjoying a major production at the Odéon in 1902, and proving immensely popular in Weimar Germany in Hans *Rothe's free translation (1933): it has held the stage in Europe since the Second World War in productions such as that of Gundalf Griindgen (Diisseldorf, 1948).
O N THE SCREEN: The Two Gentlemen of Verona has yet to tempt Hollywood, though various glimpses of it appear in the popular Shakespeare in Love (1998). The one extant fulllength production on video is the BBC TV version, 1978, which cast convincingly young but disappointingly inept performers in the leads but boasted a strong Lance in Tony Haygarth. AD
RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
Clifford Leech (Arden 2nd series, 1969); Kurt Schlueter (New Cambridge, 1990) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Brooks, Harold F., 'Two Clowns in a Comedy (to Say Nothing of the Dog) : Speed, Launce (and Crab) in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Essays and Studies (1963) Charlton, H. B., in Shakespearian Comedy (1938) Dobson, Michael, 'A Dog at All Things: The Transformation of the Onstage Canine, 1550—1850', Performance Research International, 5/2 (2000) Hamilton, A. C, in The Early Shakespeare (1967) Leggatt, Alexander, in Shakespeare's Comedy of Love (1974) Schlueter, June (éd.), The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Critical Essays (1996) Tillyard, E. M. W., in Shakespeare's Early Comedies (1965) Wells, Stanley, 'The Failure of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Shakespeare Jahrbuch, 94 (1963)
The Two Noble Kinsmen
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his bitter-sweet tragicomedy of love and death, co-written with John *Fletcher, includes what was almost certainly Shakespeare's last writing for the stage. Excluded from the *Folio, presumably because of its collaborative authorship, the play was not published until 1634: both the *Stationers' Register entry and the quarto's title page attribute it to 'William Shakespeare and John Fletcher'. The play borrows its *morris dance (3.5) from Francis *Beaumont's Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray s Inn (February 1613), while its prologue's reference to 'our losses' almost certainly alludes to the burning down of the *Globe (June 1613). Probably composed during 1613-14, The Two Noble Kinsmen may well have been the first play to appear at the rebuilt Globe on its opening in 1614: certainly two sarcastic allusions to 'Palamon' in Ben *Jonson's Bartholomew Fair (premiered in October 1614) suggest that Jonson expected this play to be fresh in his spectators' minds.
TEXT: The 1634 quarto provides the only substantive text of The Two Noble Kinsmen, and its various inconsistencies— including variant spellings, such as 'Perithous' and 'Pirithous', 'Ialor' and 'Iaylor'—suggest that it was set from *foul papers in the hands of both playwrights, though these had probably been annotated with reference to later performances (some stage directions, for example, accidentally mention the actors Curtis Greville and Thomas Tuckfield, who were both members of the King's Company only between 1625 and mid-1626). The general scholarly consensus, based on variant spellings in the text and, especially, considerations of style, metre, and vocabulary, is that Shakespeare wrote Act 1, 2.1, 3.1-2, and most of Act 5 (excluding 5.4), and Fletcher the rest (including the Prologue and Epilogue). Although both playwrights presumably agreed on the overall structure of the play, it appears from minor discrepancies between their respective shares that they wrote independently of one another, Shakespeare concentrating on the Theseus frame-narrative and the establishment and closure of the Palamon—Arcite plot, Fletcher on the intervening rivalry between Palamon and Arcite and the sub-plot of the Jailer's Daughter.
by Richard Edwards as Palaemon and Arcyte (performed before Queen Elizabeth at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1566, but never printed) and once as another lost play with the same title, acted in 1594. Surviving eyewitness accounts of Edwards's play suggest that Shakespeare and Fletcher may have remembered it at some points (their Palamon, for example, recalls at 5.6.44-5 that he has said Venus is false: in fact he has not done so, though his counterpart in Edwards's play did). Shakespeare and Fletcher may also have known Chaucer's source, *Boccaccio's Teseida (in which Arcite's horse falls backwards onto him, as in the play, rather than pitching him off forwards as in Chaucer). Their chief alterations to Chaucer are the addition of the three queens and their interruption to Theseus' wedding procession (itself influenced by Shakespeare's earlier treatment of Theseus' wedding preparations in A Midsummer Nights Dream), the stipulation that the loser of the Palamon—Arcite duel must die, and the added sub-plot of the Jailer's Daughter. This subplot itself recalls earlier motifs in the Shakespeare canon: most obviously her madness recalls Ophelia and Desdemona's remembered maid Barbara, but her position as lovestruck helper of her father's prisoner (and her obsession with storms at sea) also recalls Miranda's role in The Tempest 3.1.
SOURCES: The play is primarily a dramatization of Geoffrey *Chaucer's Knight's Tale, the first and one of the most highly regarded of The Canterbury Tales: this wellSYNOPSIS: A prologue, comparing new plays to maidenknown work had already been dramatized at least twice, once hoods, boasts that this one derives from Chaucer and ought to
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please, I.I Preceded by a boy who sings an epithalamium, 'Roses, their sharp spines being gone', Theseus and his bride Hippolyta pass towards their wedding, accompanied by Theseus' comrade Pirithous and sister Emilia: they are stopped, however, by three mourning queens, whose husbands, killed fighting against the evil Creon of Thebes, have been denied burial. Their kneeling plea that Theseus should postpone his wedding until he has defeated Creon is seconded by Hippolyta and Emilia, and Theseus complies. 1.2 In Thebes, the inseparable cousins Palamon and Arcite, though anxious about the vicious state of their uncle Creon's regime, prepare to fight against Theseus. 1.3 Pirithous parts from Hippolyta and Emilia in order to rejoin Theseus. The women discuss the rival claims of same-sex friendship and love, Emilia tenderly remembering her dead friend Flavina. 1.4 The three queens bless Theseus for defeating Creon. Seeing the wounded and unconscious Palamon and Arcite, who have fought nobly, he orders they should be tended but kept prisoner. 1.5 The three queens process towards the separate funerals of their husbands to the dirge 'Urns and odours, bring away', and bid one another a solemn farewell. 2.1 A wooer talks with the Jailer about his projected marriage to the Jailer's Daughter, who speaks enthusiastically about the prisoners Palamon and Arcite. 2.2 Palamon and Arcite are consoling one another for their lost liberty with promises of eternal friendship when Palamon sees Emilia from the window, gathering flowers with her woman in the garden beneath. He falls in love with her, as does Arcite, and the two immediately quarrel as rivals for her. The Jailer takes Arcite away, released by Theseus but banished to Thebes, and takes Palamon to a cell with no view of the garden. 2.3 Arcite resolves to disguise himself so that he may remain near Emilia: learning from some countrymen of a sporting contest before Theseus, he decides to compete in it. 2.4 The Jailer's Daughter, in love with Palamon, decides to arrange his escape in the hope of earning his love. 2.5 The disguised Arcite is victor in the wrestling before Theseus, and Pirithous makes him master of horse to Emilia. 2.6 The Jailer's Daughter has freed Palamon and is about to run away from her father's house to meet him in the woods with food and a file to remove his manacles. 3.1 Arcite, who has followed Theseus, Emilia, and their party into the woods on their May morning hunt, is reflecting on how Palamon would envy him his position when Palamon, overhearing him, emerges from a bush. They agree that Arcite will fetch food and a file, and duel with Palamon when he has recovered his strength. 3.2 Sleepless and hungry, the Jailer's Daughter has failed to find Palamon, who she imagines has been eaten by wolves: full of self-reproach, she is beginning to lose her wits. 3.3 Arcite brings Palamon food: as he eats, the rivals reminisce about each other's past loves. 3.4 The Jailer's Daughter, mad, imagines a shipwreck. 3.5 Gerald the schoolmaster is rehearsing five countrymen, five countrywomen, and a taborer in the morris dance they are to
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Imogen Stubbs as the Jailer's Daughter in Barry Kyle's production of The Two Noble Kinsmen, which opened the RSC's new Swan theatre in Stratford, 1986.
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perform before Theseus when they realize they are a woman short: however, they recruit the mad Jailer's Daughter, and when Theseus and his party arrive they perform their elaborate dance, prefaced by Gerald's rhyming oration, as planned. 3.6 Arcite brings Palamon sword and armour: they arm each other carefully, but their duel is interrupted by the arrival of Theseus, Hippolyta, Emilia, and Pirithous. Learning of their identities and purposes, Theseus sentences both to death, but they are reprieved at the suit of Hippolyta and Emilia. However, they refuse Emilia's offer of peaceable banishment, refusing to renounce their quarrel over her, and when Emilia will not choose between them Theseus finally agrees that their mortal duel must resume. In a month's time each is to return with three knights: the winner of the contest will marry Emilia, the loser will be executed along with his three seconds. 4.1 The Jailer is relieved to learn that Palamon has cleared him of treason by explaining that it was his daughter who let him out of prison, but the Wooer brings the news of the Jailer's Daughter's madness, narrating how he found her wandering and singing and had to rescue her from drowning in a lake. She arrives herself with the Jailer's Brother, full of mad tales of Palamon's potency, and imagines sailing a ship to find Palamon in the woods: they do what they can to humour her. 4.2 Emilia, studying portraits of Arcite and of Palamon, is still unable to prefer one to the other. Theseus and Pirithous speak admiringly of the knights with whom the two rivals have returned to fight for Emilia. 4.3 A doctor, summoned by the Jailer and the Wooer, interviews the Jailer's Daughter, and prescribes that the Wooer should pretend to be Palamon. 5.1 Palamon and Arcite, accompanied by their seconds, bid a solemn farewell. Arcite prays at the altar of Mars for success in the combat, and is encouraged by a sound of thunder and arms. 5.2 Palamon prays at the altar of Venus for success in his quest for Emilia, and is encouraged by music and fluttering doves. 5.3 Emilia prays at the altar ofDiana that if she is not to remain a maid she should be won by the contender who loves her best or has the truest title to her. A rose falls from the tree on the altar. 5.4 Despite the Jailer's misgivings, the Wooer, impersonating Palamon, takes the Doctor's advice to lead the Jailer's Daughter away to bed. 5.5 Emilia cannot bear to watch the combat, but hears its progress by offstage shouts and the reports of a servant: Palamon almost wins, but is defeated by Arcite. The victorious Arcite is presented to her by Theseus, who speaks regretfully of the doomed Palamon's valour. 5.6 Palamon and his three knights are about to be executed: Palamon bequeathes the Jailer his money as a wedding portion for his daughter. Pirithous arrives just in time to halt the execution, reporting that in the midst of his triumphal entry into Athens Arcite has been fatally injured, his horse rearing up and falling backwards onto him. Theseus, Hippolyta, and Emilia return, with the dying Arcite carried in a chair. Arcite bequeathes Emilia to Palamon. Theseus reflects on the ambiguous justice with which the gods have fulfilled their
omens, and on humanity's restless impatience with what it has in favour of desire for what it lacks. An epilogue wonders anxiously how the audience have liked the play, assuring them it was intended only to please. ARTISTIC FEATURES: Shakespeare's sections of the play share their densely figured, knotty syntax and imagery with his other late romances, and display a similar interest in spectacularly rendered ritual. The play's stagecraft suggests it was composed with the *Blackfriars theatre in mind, and as a large-cast play with a classical-cum-medieval setting which makes extensive use of music it has much in common with other plays in the King's Company's Jacobean repertoire, not only Pericles but Thomas *Heywood's The Golden Age, The Silver Age, and The Brazen Age. CRITICAL HISTORY: Although some 19th-century critics accepted the quarto's attribution, The Two Noble Kinsmen was generally accepted into the Shakespeare canon only in the 20th century, and much critical writing about it continues to be preoccupied with the question of its authorship. Its restoration to the Shakespeare corpus, however, coincided with *modernism's high valuation for the complexities of Shakespeare's later style and with the ritual elements of drama. It coincided, too, with a *Freudian interest in the representation of *sexuality, and in recent years the Jailer's Daughter's 'green-sickness' and the controversial therapy applied to it have attracted a good deal of attention, as has the juxtaposition between the kinsmen's homosocial rivalry and the nearlesbianism of Emilia's passionate championing of female friendship. STAGE HISTORY: The play reappeared after the Restoration as *Davenant's cheerful adaptation The ^Rivals (1664), its action transferred to a harmless Arcadia in which Celania (the Jailer's Daughter) marries Philander (Palamon) and Arcite survives to marry Heraclia (Emilia). This version influenced two later 18th-century rewritings, the much darker Palamon and Arcite; or, The Two Noble Kinsmen by Richard Cumberland (1779), and a musical, Midsummer Nights Dream-like version by F. G. Waldron, Love and Madness; or, The Two Noble Kinsmen (1795). The play was not revived professionally again until an *01d Vic production in 1928, designed to suggest a pretty homage to a Chaucerian Merry England. Despite many student productions it then disappeared from the professional stage until a more symbolic, morris-dance-free revival at the *Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park in 1974. Since then The Two Noble Kinsmen has been successfully revived at, among other venues, the Los Angeles Globe Playhouse (1979), the Edinburgh Festival (in a highly sexualized all-male production by the Cherub Theatre, 1979), the Centre Dramatique de Courneuve (also 1979), the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1994), and the reconstructed *Globe (2000), but its most celebrated modern production remains Barry Kyle's, which opened the RSC's Swan auditorium in 1986. The main plot was given a stylized, samurai look, the rituals were impressive, and as the Jailer's Daughter Imogen Stubbs morris-danced away with the entire show, as
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performers in that challenging but wonderfully showy role often do. The play has yet to be filmed. MD RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
E. M. Waith (Oxford, 1989); G. R. Proudfoot (Regents Renaissance Drama series, 1970); N. Bawcutt (New Penguin, 1977); Lois Potter (Arden 3rd series, 1997) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Bertram, Paul, Shakespeare and 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' (1965) Bruster, Douglas, 'The Jailer's Daughter and the Politics of Madwomen's Language', Shakespeare Quarterly, 46 (1995)
Tynan, Kenneth (1927-80), British journalist and man of the theatre. A stage-struck, selfpublicizing wit and dandy, he descended on London from Oxford and quickly dislodged the incumbent drama critic on the Observer. In He that Plays the King (1950) and subsequent books he vividly conjured up in print Shakespearian performances and productions. As literary manager in the early days of the *National Theatre he influenced the choice of plays and
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Foakes, R. A., 'Tragicomedy and Comic Form', in A. R. Braunmuller and J. C. Bulman (eds.), Comedy from Shakespeare to Sheridan (1986) Frey, C. H. (éd.), Shakespeare, Fletcher and 'The Two Noble Kinsmen ' (1989) McMullan, Gordon, and Hope, Jonathan (eds.), The Politics of Tragicomedy: Shakespeare and After (1992) Magnusson, Lynne, 'The Collapse of Shakespeare's High Style in The Two Noble Kinsmen', English Studies in Canada, 13 (1987) Thompson, Ann, in Shakespeare's Chaucer: A Study of Literary Origins (1978)
directors by the founder Laurence *01ivier, whose biography he aspired to write. MJ
Tyrrel, Sir James. Ordered by Richard to kill the princes in the Tower, Richard in 4.2, he suborns Dighton and Forrest to commit the murders. Guilty or not, the real Tyrrel died in 1502. AB
Tyrwhitt, Thomas (1730-86), a scholar and critic whose Observations and Conjectures upon Some Passages of Shakespeare (1766) was largely concerned with textual emendation. Other observations contributed to *Steevens's 1778 edition of Shakespeare and *Malone's Supplement of 1780. He was the first to draw attention to the list of Shakespeare's plays in *Meres's Palladis Tamia and to Robert *Greene's reference to Shakespeare on stage. CMSA
Ulrici, Hermann (1806-84), German academic. plays performed (including the *DavenantShakespeares dramatische Kunst (1839; Shake- Dryden adaptation of The Tempest, performed speare's Dramatic Art, 1876) is an attempt, in Philadelphia during the 1784 discussions of leading later to the work of Edward *Dowden, the constitution). John * Adams quoted extento trace the growth and development of sively from Shakespeare's works, often in a Shakespeare's dramatic art. He accepts James context of political reflection on the instituBoaden's 1837 identification of *'Mr W.H.' as tions of government. In the Discourses on Davila William Herbert, 3rd Earl of *Pembroke. (1790-1) he used passages from Troilus and Cressida to support arguments for class disTM tinctions based on true merit within the social Ulysses is one of the Greek commanders in structure of the new American democracy. Troilus and Cressida, based on the character of Abigail Adams attended plays with her husthe same name from *Homeric legend. AB band, and frequently quoted from Shakespeare's Underbill, William (1555-97), recusant. He works in her private correspondence. There are numerous quotations from Shakespeare in the inherited *New Place in 1570 and sold it to commonplace books of Thomas Jeffierson, who Shakespeare in 1597. His son Fulke was exethought the plays valuable as moral instruction. cuted at Warwick in 1598-9 for poisoning him. In 1786 Adams and Jeffierson made a visit to His second son Hercules (b. 1581) confirmed Shakespeare's ownership of New Place. SW Shakespeare's *birthplace in *Stratford-uponAvon. In a diary entry for that day, Adams 'Under the greenwood tree', sung by Amiens laments the apparent indiffierence of Stratford in As You Like It 2.5.1. The earliest surviving residents to the historical importance and the setting is by Thomas *Arne (1741). Among originality of Shakespeare's achievement. many 20th-century settings are those by Coates, The great theorist of Shakespeare's originalGurney, Howells, Jacob, Moeran, Parry, and ity is Ralph Waldo *Emerson, who provides a Quilter. The 'greenwood song' had been a genre fully elaborated account of the poet in Reprein English verse long before Shakespeare; exsentative Men (1850). Emerson maintains that amples survive from the late Middle Ages. JB 'the great Shakespeare' was unknown to the men and women of Elizabethan England. The Underwood, John (f.1588-1624), actor (Blackoriginality of his work is a 'discovery' of modern friars Boys 1601-8, King's Men 1608-24). culture. Although he acknowledges that other Underwood first appears in the Blackfriars Boys countries have a certain capacity for appreciatcast lists for *Jonson's Cynthia's Revels and ing the bard—he nominates Shakespeare the Poetaster and he was one of the 'boys growing 'father of German literature' through transup to be men' (the others were William *Ostler lations by *Wieland and *Schlegel—Emerson and Nathan *Field) who joined the King's Men maintains that the 'wisdom of life' revealed in when the Blackfriars reverted to the Burbages in Shakespeare's work can be most powerfully felt 1608. Underwood's name occurs in 22 King's in the United States: 'He wrote the text of Men's cast lists (including the 1623 Folio), almodern life; the text of manners: he drew the though his only known roles are as Delio in man of England and Europe; the father of the *Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, Dapper in man in America.' Shakespeare's works are a Jonson's The Alchemist, and Bonario in Jonson's powerful medium of tuition for the autonoVolpone. His will indicates that he owned shares mous or self-governing citizen of democracy. in the *Curtain, *Globe, and *Blackfriars playFor this reason Shakespeare and America have a houses. GE strong elective affinity, for it is in America, according to Emerson, that the social aims of inUnited States of America. There is no record dividuality and self-reliance will be most fully of any performance of Shakespeare's work in realized. the early American colonies—understandably, given their Puritan leanings—nor do his works Emerson's idealization of Shakespeare was appear to have been widely read in North not universally accepted by his contemporaries, America during this period. In 1752 a producincluding his occasional tenant Henry David tion of Richard in was mounted in New York Thoreau, who admired the 'wildness' he found by Thomas Kean and Walter Murray, probably in Hamlet, but in general felt that America had the first full-scale production of any play by no genuine need for the bookishness of EuroShakespeare to be performed in what eventually pean literature, Shakespeare included. Walt became the United States of America. Shake- Whitman, though he respected Shakespeare's speare's works were well known to the founding talents as a poet, felt the works were 'poisonous fathers. George Washington owned a one-vol- to the idea of the pride and dignity of the ume edition of Shakespeare's works, though he common people, the life-blood of democracy'. makes no significant reference to any of the Mark *Twain had a much more radically scepplays in his extensive writings and personal patical view of Shakespeare's writings, especially pers. He also regularly attended the theatre and vis-à-vis their relationship to their author. In undoubtedly saw a number of Shakespeare's one of his last books, Is Shakespeare Dead?
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A Shakespearean Map of the U. S. A. Othello
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This 1998 novelty postcard, which assumes a thorough familiarity with the Shakespeare canon, attests to the continuing presence of Shakespeare in American popular culture. (1909), he maintains that William Shakespeare is not in fact the author of the works that bear his name. Twain originally became interested in the question of Shakespeare's authorship with the publication of Delia *Bacon's Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded m 1857. This interest was fuelled by the publication of works such as Nathaniel Holmes's Authorship of the Plays Attributed to Shakespeare (1866) and Ignatius Donnelly's The Great Cryptogram (1888). Twain's own scepticism about Shakespeare's authorship was prompted by his observation that the technical discourse of seamanship and other trades in the plays was unconvincing. He found evidence, however, of expert handling of the vocabulary of the law courts. The real Shakespeare, therefore, must have been a lawyer. William Shakespeare of Stratford is a 'false claimant' who could not have been the author of 'Shakespeare's' works. Twain's brilliant pastiche of quotations from Hamlet and Macbeth in Huckleberry Finn (1885) suggests the various ways Shakespearian drama was democratized in the United States during the 19th century through its close and familiar engagement with American popular cultural
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forms. Audiences who preferred their Shakespeare 'straight' could enjoy the work of touring companies, both English and home-grown, that performed the plays in cities and towns from east to west during the 19th century. Edwin *Booth, son of the British actor Junius Brutus *Booth, managed the Winter Garden theatre in New York where many of Shakespeare's plays were performed. Edwin's brother John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin, was himself a wellknown actor of Shakespearian roles. Thefirstof the great American-born actor-managers was Edwin *Forrest, who was especially popular for his renditions of Othello and King Lear. But Shakespeare was also performed by many itinerant companies on the American frontier, where the plays were often combined with circus acts and other forms of popular entertainment. There is also a large body of Shakespeare parody, *burlesque, * adaptation, and other derivative forms extant from this period. At times the plays were extensively adapted with a view to making them more immediately topical. Public tensions between traditional and more populist approaches to Shakespearian performance eventually broke out in a bloody riot
in May 1849 at the Astor Place Opera House in New York City. The provocation for this incident arose from antagonism between the American actor Edwin Forrest and his British rival William Charles *Macready. Macready was disliked for his affiliation with the wealthier and more privileged theatre-goers. He was driven from the stage by a crowd of working men who supported Forrest, both for his acting style and for his strongly nativist approach to Shakespearian drama. Discussion of Shakespeare's plays frequently took place in organized clubs. Shakespeariana (1883-93) w a s a magazine created in response to the burgeoning American interest in Shakespeare. Its content ranged from debate over textual cruces to the latest developments in *Baconian theory, and it took a particular interest in Shakespeare clubs. In 1888, the magazine published a list of about 100 Shakespeare societies unearthed by the editorial department. The smallest, 'the club of two', carried on its proceedings entirely by correspondence. One of the most prestigious, the Shakespeare Society of *New York, had a library which comprised 2,000—3,000 volumes. Through these clubs,
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA members acquired speaking, organization, and leadership skills that enabled them to develop and express their ideas in a public forum. Shakespeare societies cultivated self-reliance in forming opinions along with behaviours promoting civil group interaction. Willingness to consider alternative positions and to develop effiective means of resolving conflicts were elements critical to the successful function of the public sphere. Engagement with the works of Shakespeare proved particularly useful to this end. Because of the dramatic nature of the material, members were often encouraged to assume roles during club readings, a practice that helped to enrich empathetic identification with alien viewpoints. Shakespeare societies were both gender-specific and mixed, and generally had between twelve and 30 members. They were instrumental in training women for public life in an atmosphere of public debate which, in the first half of the 19th century at least, consisted primarily of boisterous, white, male voices. Although clubs diffiered in areas of interest and levels of sophistication, proceedings were generally characterized quite seriously as 'work'. The Philadelphia Shakespeare society, formed in 1851 by four young lawyers, was initially more of a lark than a serious endeavour. 'Chance or fancy at the meeting' determined the play to be read, according to founding member Garrick Mallery. By the sixth year the membership had swelled to fifteen and at the meetings there was 'an infinity of good eating and drinking, but an infinitesimal amount of Shaksper, discussed. Indeed, on one occasion, the Society was disgraced by the omission to read or even quote a single line of the Poet.' By the following year, however, a more systematic study had begun, including plans for a library. When Horace Howard *Furness joined in i860, members had agreed to prepare papers for each meeting. Horace Howard Furness and his associates in the Philadelphia Shakespeare Society worked from the *Variorum edition of 1821, supplemented by an extensive reference library of commentary and philological scholarship. In order to eliminate this cumbersome physical apparatus Furness conceived the idea of a *new Variorum edition, the first volume of which was published in 1871. Furness was later instrumental in founding the first English department at the University of Pennsylvania. His extensive personal collection of early editions and other Shakespeariana forms the basis for the Furness collection at that university. An even more ambitious collection of rare books and manuscripts was assembled at around the same time by Henry Clay Folger, President of the Standard Oil Company. Folger's initial interest in Shakespeare was stimulated by a lecture given by Ralph Waldo Emerson at Amherst College, when Folger was an undergraduate. Folger's
wife Emily Clara Jordan studied English literature at Vassar College and wrote her Master's thesis on Shakespeare's First Folio. Together the Folgers built up a massive collection of early *quartos, along with some 80 copies of the First *Folio. The site for the *Folger Library was chosen carefully so that the study of Shakespeare would dovetail neatly with existing American institutions. The library was built along the extension of a line joining the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the US Capitol, the Library of Congress, and the Supreme Court. The Folger Library is now one of the world's major institutional and archival resources for the study of Shakespeare's plays. Important 19th-century editions of Shakespeare were compiled by Henry *Hudson (18801), Richard Grant White (1857-66), and Joseph Crosby. E. E. Willoughby completed his Printing of the First Folio in 1932. Since its opening in 1932, the Folger Collection has been used by American editors of Shakespeare, most notably Charlton *Hinman, who began the laborious work of collating the various extant copies of the First Folio. Other important American editors of Shakespeare's works have included J. G. *McManaway, Fredson *Bowers, W. A. Neilson (1906), George Lyman *Kittredge (1936), Hardin Craig (1951), and David *Bevington (1973). American scholars such as Hardin Craig, Alfred *Harbage, and Louis B. Wright pioneered the critical exegesis of Shakespeare's plays read in their historical context. A number of gifted women scholars, including Lily Bess Campbell, Madeleine Doran, and Rosalie Colie, contributed significantly to this research programme. From about 1980 a major renovation of historical scholarship has developed, taking its inspiration from the work of Stephen Greenblatt. The vernacular tradition of Shakespeare criticism that traces its origins back to the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson continues in the voluminous writings on Shakespeare by Harold Bloom. Shakespeare continues to figure prominently in American mass culture at the beginning of the 21st century. Max *Reinhardt's film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) established Shakespeare's commercial and artistic viability in mass media. In the late summer of 1938, the CBS and NBC networks produced competing cycles of Shakespearian works for the * radio. CBS used a number of contemporary film stars, such as Humphrey Bogart (Hotspur) and Edward G. Robinson (Petruchio), while NBC leaned almost exclusively on the then-fading talent of John *Barrymore. Orson *Welles, who played Sir Toby Belch for CBS, also produced, directed, and starred in notable film versions of Macbeth (1948) and Othello (1952). American film-makers have also adapted Shakespeare's works extensively by grouping large, recognizable fragments of works by
Shakespeare into new, often contrasting, stories. Welles's Chimes at Midnight (1965) is a comprehensive reworking of Shakespeare's Lancastrian tetralogy told from the point of view of Falstaffi. There is a large group of works in which the production of one or more plays by Shakespeare provides the background for a story about the 'real life' of one or more actors. These works are often preoccupied with the interpénétration of artistic representation and ordinary reality. In George Cukor's A Double Life (1947), Ronald Colman appears as an actor whose performance in Othello provokes him to murder his own wife. Pastiche has become increasingly important in contemporary films such as Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho (1991), which includes extensive quotation and paraphrase of the two parts of Shakespeare's Henry iv. Looking for Richard(1996) is filmed as a 'documentary' that follows the effiorts of a group of well-known American actors, led by Al Pacino, to make a film version of Richard in. Part of the point of this film is to demonstrate the effiectiveness of American speech rhythms and intonation in speaking Shakespearian blank verse. Cole*Porter's Kiss Me Kate (19 51), and Jerome Robbins's and Leonard Bernstein's * West Side Story (1957) are durable favourites as ^musicals on the stage, as well as in their cinematic iterations. Shakespeare's familiarity is perhaps most vividly apparent in Shakespearean Spinach, a 1940 animated cartoon version of Romeo and Juliet with Popeye and Olive Oyl in the lead roles. A Witch's Tangled Hare, a 1959 Warner Brothers cartoon, offiers Bugs Bunny and Witch Hazel in a pastiche of selections from Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet. Shakespearian parody has been featured in episodes of Happy Days, Gilligan 's Island, The Andy Griffith Show, and Moonlighting. In the early 1950s comicbook (see STRIP-CARTOON SHAKESPEARE) ver-
sions ofHamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream were published by Classics Illustrated (a series later revived). Each of these condensed texts concludes with the following suggestion: 'Now that you have read the Classics Illustrated edition, don't miss the added enjoyment of reading the original, obtainable at your school or public library.' The contemporary vitality of Shakespeare's role in American *popular culture is perhaps most dramatically manifested in a series of comicbooks 'suggested for mature readers' by the British author Neil Gaiman, published by DC comics. In this series, Shakespeare's genius as a poet is closely tied to his ordinariness as a man. His art records the various fragments of his own day-to-day experience, ranging from his feelings for his daughter Judith to his encounter in a local inn with two drunken sailors. These and similar incidents provide materials for The Tempest. In The Sandman comics, the story of
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URSWICK, CHRISTOPHER Shakespeare's life is articulated as a modern myth of self-realization. According to this highly American, democratic vision, Shakespeare's genius is nothing more than the ability to feel more keenly and to record one's own experience more vividly than other people do. MB Bristol, Michael, Shakespeare's America/ Americas Shakespeare (1990) Cartelli, Thomas, Repositioning Shakespeare: National Formations, Postcolonial Appropriations (1999) Dunn, Esther Cloudman, Shakespeare in America (1939) Gayley, Charles Mills, Shakespeare and the Founders of Liberty in America (1917) Kuhl, E.P., 'Shakespeare and the Founders of America: The Tempest', Philological Quarterly, 41 (1962) Levine, Lawrence, Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (1988) Rawlings, Peter (éd.), Americans on Shakespeare, 1776-19H (i999) Thaler, Alwin, Shakespeare and Democracy'(1941) university performances. Dramatic performance and rhetoric were taught at Oxford and Cambridge as part of a classical humanist *education and from the mid-i6th century plays in English were performed by the academic amateurs alongside plays in Latin. By the early 17th century the London theatre industry's effiect was being felt. The *Parnassus plays written between 1598 and 1602 and performed at St John's College, Cambridge, made direct reference to the *Chamberlain's Men, Shakespeare, and *Jonson, and The Tragedy of Caesar and Pompey, 'Privately acted by the Students of Trinity Colledge in Oxford' according to the 1607 title page, was clearly influenced by the professional theatre's output. The universities could also be ahead of the industry: in 1605 *James I was entertained at Christ Church, Oxford, by Latin plays performed on a stage
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designed by Inigo *Jones using Sebastiano Serlio's principles of perspective foreshortening, a precursor of post-Restoration staging. GE Boas, Frederick S., University Drama in the Tudor Age (1914)
'University Wits', a group of university-educated playwrights who are often credited with transforming English drama in the 1580s from the form it had taken for much of the 16th century—the didactic allegorical interlude, written in monotonous, metrically clumsy verse—into the richly various forms it assumed in the 1590s, full of action and versatile poetry. This is not, perhaps, quite fair to the earlier English drama, which is sometimes clever and entertaining—nor to the many writers of the 1580s who did not attend university, such as Thomas *Kyd—but there is no denying the extraordinary theatrical metamorphosis that took place between 1580 and 1590, nor the University Wits' involvement in it. They were Thomas *Lodge, John *Lyly, and George *Peele from Oxford, and Robert *Greene, Christopher *Marlowe, and Thomas *Nashe from Cambridge. One striking thing about these writers is the sheer diversity of their achievements: with the exception of Marlowe and Peele, they all wrote prose as well as poetry and plays, and their influence on Shakespeare and his contemporaries was equally powerful in all three literary modes. Their learning, their ambition, and the pleasure they took in displaying their skills are evident in nearly everything they wrote. RM
'Upon the King7, a four-line poem printed, anonymously and without title, beneath the engraving of King *James I on the frontispiece of the King's Works, edited by James Mountague, Bishop of Winchester, and published in 1616. It is ascribed to Shakespeare in
two early manuscripts now in the *Folger Library. SW ur-Hamlet, the name given to a play now lost, of unknown authorship, which may have been the main source for Shakespeare's Hamlet. The earliest reference to such a play is found in Thomas *Nashe's preface to Menaphon by Robert *Greene (1589) wherein he condemns those writers who plunder *Seneca for 'whole Hamlets—I should say handfuls—of tragicall speeches'. In 1594 a play called Hamlet, apparently old, was performed at Newington Butts. It may have been this play that Thomas * Lodge saw, inspiring the comparison in Wit's Misery and the World's Madness (1596) between a devil and 'the ghost, which cried so miserably at the Theatre, "Hamlet, revenge" '. The most likely author of the ur-Hamlet is *Kyd, whose name is punningly associated with the play in Nashe's preface. This would also explain the similarities between The Spanish Tragedy and Hamlet. Something about the nature of the ur-Hamlet may be glimpsed in the differences between the first and second quartos of Shakespeare's tragedy. Qi (1603), probably a memorial reconstruction, gives Gertrude a greater part in the action and refers to Hamlet actually landing on English soil. In producing his text of Shakespeare's play, the author might have deliberately or accidentally borrowed these features from the ur-Hamlet. fKS 'Urns and odours, bring away7, sung by an unspecified person or persons at the entrance of the three queens, with attendants, in The Two Noble Kinsmen 1.5.1. The original music is unknown. JB Ursula is one of Hero's waiting-gentlewomen in Much Ado About Nothing. AB Urswick, Christopher. See CHRISTOPHER, SIR.
vagrancy was not a problem peculiar to Elizabethan England: Acts of Parliament forbidding the movement of beggars from one place to another date from 1388. But the situation was exacerbated by the suppression, in the 1530s and 1540s, of those religious houses which had hitherto provided poor relief. The resultant increase in the number of beggars led to a series of measures confirming the illegality of vagrancy and seeking to make individual parishes responsible for their own poor, culminating in the great Poor Law of 1601 which defined exactly how this responsibility should be established. This did little, however, to solve the problem and the seeking out, arrest, and removal of vagrants to their parish of 'legal' settlement remained a preoccupation of parish and borough officials for many years; hence Dogberry's instruction to the watch to 'comprehend all vagrom men' {Much Ado About Nothing 3.3.32). RB
Valverde, José Maria (1926-96). Spanish professor, poet, and translator of Shakespeare. He translated all the plays in prose (1967), but, unlike Luis *Astrana, he used natural, straightforward contemporary Spanish. He confessed that his were failed translations, as he should have rendered Shakespeare in verse, but did not have the time to do so. ALP Vanbrugh, Violet (1867-1942), British actress. In 1892 she understudied Ellen *Terry and played Anne Boleyn in Henry *Irving's production of All Is True {Henry vin) in which she later acted Queen Katherine with Beerbohm T r e e . Other strong parts were Lady Macbeth, and Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, often with her sister Dame Irene Vanbrugh as Mistress Page. Like their brother Sir Kenneth Barnes, principal of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for 46 years, they greatly advanced the status of the acting profession. MJ
Tate, W. E., The Parish Chest (3rd edn. 1983) Valentine, (l) He is in love with Silvia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, but has to contend with his rivals Proteus and Thurio. ( 2 ) One of Titus' kinsmen, he helps restrain Chiron and Demetrius, Titus Andronicus 5.3. (3) He is one of Orsino's attendants in Act 1 of Twelfth Night. AB Valeria brings news of the war to Volumnia and Virgilia, Coriolanus 1.3; joins in welcoming Coriolanus, 2.1; and accompanies the other women to the Volscian camp, 5.3. AB Valerius, a Theban, tells Palamon and Arcite of Theseus' campaign against Thebes, The Two Noble Kinsmen 1.2. AB Valerius, Publius. He is mentioned in the ArAB gument of The Rape of Lucrèce. Valk, Frederick (1901-56), German actor. Born in Hamburg of Portuguese-Jewish extraction, he became leading man of the German-speaking theatre in Prague, where he played many of Shakespeare's protagonists. An actor of great emotional and physical power, he arrived in 1939 as a refugee in England, where on account of his guttural accent he was allowed to play only two of his Shakespearian roles—the outsiders Shylock and Othello. In 1955 he was invited to play Shylock at Stratford, Ontario, by Tyrone *Guthrie, who always regretted Valk never played Lear in Britain. He died suddenly at 55 shortly after playing his last Othello in Toronto. MJ Valk, Diana, Shylock for a Summer (1958) Valtemand (Voltimand) and Cornelius are sent with a message from Claudius to Norway, Hamlet 1.2.41, and bring a reply, 2.2.60-80. AB
Variorum Shakespeare. The idea of a variorum edition that would include a full range of information about Shakespeare, his stage, as well as texts annotated with the 'corrections and illustrations of various commentators' (title page, 1803, 1813, 1821) grew out of the work of Dr *Johnson, George *Steevens, and Edmond *Malone. Dr Johnson's edition of Shakespeare appeared in 1765 and provided a basis for the more scholarly edition by Steevens in 1773. This edition was reissued in ten volumes in 1773, and again in 1778-80, and 1785. A fourth edition, expanded to fifteen volumes, appeared in 1793, and this was followed in 1803 by a fifth edition in 21 volumes, revised and augmented by Isaac *Reed. This edition, which incorporated Malone's final researches on the English stage and on the chronology of Shakespeare's plays, is generally regarded as the first Variorum edition. Steevens disliked Shakespeare's poems, and omitted them from editions under his sway, so that they do not appear in 1803 or in the reprint of this edition in 1813. The first full Variorum edition therefore is that of 1821, also in 21 volumes, sometimes called the Boswell-Malone edition, because James Boswell, the son of Dr Johnson's biographer, oversaw it and relied on the superior text of Malone's edition of 1790. The first volume contains prefaces from earlier editions, commendatory verses, and an essay on metre; the second, a life of Shakespeare and Malone's reconsideration of the chronology of the plays; and the third presents an extended version of Malone's history of the English stage. In the remaining volumes, the works are heavily annotated on the page, and for the first time dated in an order close to that now generally accepted. This edition provided a basis for later scholarly editions of Shakespeare, and for *Furness's *New Variorum, begun in 1871. RAF
VERNON, ELIZABETH
Varrius. (l) He is greeted by Duke Vincentio, Measure for Measure 4.5, and is present, 5.1 (mute part). (2) He delivers news to Pompey, Antony and Cleopatra 2.1. AB Varro. (l) See VARRO'S SERVANT. (2)
See
VARRUS.
Varro's Servant and Isidore's Servant appear in Timon of Athens 2.2 to collect their masters' debts from Timon. Two of Varro's servants also try to claim debts, 3.4 (one of them is addressed by the name Varro). AB Varrus (Varro) and Claudio are attendants who sleep as the ghost of Caesar appears to Brutus, Julius Caesar 4.2. AB Vaughan, Sir Thomas. He is executed with Rivers and Gray, Richard in 3.3, and his ghost appears to Richard at *Bosworth, 5.5. AB Vaughan Williams, Ralph (1872-1958), English composer. Vaughan Williams's interest in placing his work in an English musical tradition traced particularly to the 16th century encouraged a lifelong engagement with Shakespeare. He set lyrics from the plays throughout his career (some, such as *'Orpheus with his lute', 1901, 1925, more than once), composed incidental music for Richard 11 and / Henry iv (1913), and dared to take on * Verdi by writing his own operatic treatment of The Merry Wives of Windsor, Sir John in Love (1924-8). Appropriately, one of his last film scores was for The England of Elizabeth (1955). IBC Vaux, (l) He brings Margaret the news that Cardinal Beaufort is dying, The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry vi) 3.2.372-82. (2) Sir Nicholas Vaux is put in charge of Buckingham before his execution, All Is True (Henry vm) 2.1. AB Venice, in Shakespeare's day the pre-eminent city in Italy for commerce, arts, and politics, is the setting for much of The Merchant of Venice and Act 1 of Othello. AB Venice, Duke of. (l) He presides over the court in The Merchant oj Venice 4.1. (2) He presides over the senators who send Othello to Cyprus and acquits him of bewitching Desdemona, Othello 1.3. AB ventage, the finger hole of a wind instrument (see Hamlet 3.2.345). JB Ventidius (l) He is very grateful for Timon's generosity, Timon of Athens 1.2, but refuses to help him later in the play. (2) He rejects Silius' suggestion that he should continue his campaign in Parthia after defeating Pacorus, Antony and Cleopatra 3.1 (based on *Plutarch's account of Publius Ventidius Bassus). AB Venus and Adonis (see page 510)
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Verbruggen, Susannah (1667-1703), leading actress with *Betterton's company. She was a comedienne and breeches role specialist. Her first husband, the actor William Mountfort, was murdered. Her second husband, John Verbruggen, played Cassius to Betterton's Brutus in 1707. CMSA Verdi, Giuseppe (1813-1901), Italian composer. Verdi composed three Shakespearian operas, Macbeth (1847), Otello (1887), and Falstajf (1893), of which the last two are widely regarded as among the finest Shakespearian operas ever written. Verdi was attracted by the strong emotions and sense of drama in Shakespeare's plays, with which he became acquainted through French and Italian verse and prose translations rather than through the stage. As early as 1843 he toyed with the idea of setting King Lear, but the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, for which he was to compose the opera, lacked the first-rate bass or baritone that Verdi would have required, and the idea was shelved. Macbeth, Verdi's first Shakespearian work, marks a departure in Verdi's approach to opera. It was unusual at the time to set such a dark, tense subject with no love interest. Verdi was intensely involved in all aspects of the opera's production. He worked closely with the librettist Francesco Maria Piave (some lines were added by Andrea Maffei), supervised the rigorous rehearsals, and paid much attention to such matters as the historical accuracy of the settings, the lighting, and the actions of the singers. The opera is in four acts and presents a concentrated version of Shakespeare's play. It received its première at the Teatro della Pergola, Florence, on 14 March 1847, with Marianna Barbieri-Nini as the powerful Lady Macbeth, supported by Felice Varesi in the somewhat weaker role of Macbeth. The opera was an instant success. Many years later, at the request of Léon Escudier, Verdi revised the work for the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris (translated by Charles Nuitter and Alexandre Beaumont), where it was performed on 21 April 1865. The revisions include Lady Macbeth's chilling aria 'La luce langue'. The Paris performance was a failure, although this is the version generally staged today. The murderers' chorus in the second act was parodied by Arthur *Sullivan in The Pirates ofPenzance. In 1850 Verdi again contemplated a King Lear opera. Despite a completed libretto by Antonio Somma a few years later (he hadfirstworked on it with Salvatore Cammarano, who died in 1852) the project faltered once more. Verdi returned to it periodically for the rest of his life, but was unable to realize it as an opera. Around this time he was also offered a Hamlet libretto by Giulio Carcano and invited to compose a Tempest opera, both of which he declined.
Verdi's final two masterpieces, Otello and Falstajf, were the result of inspired collaborations with the librettist Arrigo Boito. Otello, which received its première at La Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887, with Victor Maurel as Iago, Francesco Tamagno as Otello, and Romilda Pantaleone as Desdemona, was Verdi'sfirstnew opera for fifteen years. It was a long time in preparation: the idea was first suggested in 1879 but most of the composing took place between 1884 and 1886. Boito reduced Shakespeare's play from over 3,000 lines to 800, omitting the opening scene but otherwise following the original closely. Verdi's response to the text was noticeably more Germanic than his previous works, with few set pieces, more use of throughcomposed techniques and leitmotifs, and a greater sensitivity to the text, resulting in a more complete fusion of music and drama than before. The opera was a resounding success, and is regarded today by some as Verdi's most perfect opera. For the Paris première at the Théâtre de l'Opéra in 1894 Verdi added a *ballet scene to the third act, though this is rarely played today. In FalstaffVerdi continued his move away from great singable tunes and rousing choruses to a more intricate, endless flow of music with virtuosic orchestral tone-colouring and almost symphonic development of musical material; the opera ends with a magnificent comic fugue. With Victor Maurel in the title role, Falstaffwas first performed at La Scala on 9 February 1893 to the inevitable rapturous reception, though its musical style later puzzled its listeners. Based on The Merry Wives of Windsor, but also including material from both parts of Henry iv, it was the 80-year-old Verdi's first comic opera for over 50 years. Unlike previous works, this opera was written not to a commission but simply out of fascination with the character of Falstaff. Verdi revised the opera extensively in March 1893 and January 1894 before its French première. IBC Vere, John de. See OXFORD, EARL OF.
Verges is the headborough (petty constable) who apprehends and interrogates Borachio and Conrad with Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing. AB Vernon, (l) See BASSET. (2) Sir Richard Vernon is one of the rebels in / Henry iv, condemned to death after the battle of Shrewsbury, 5.5. AB Vernon, Elizabeth (fl. 1595), one of *Elizabeth I'S ladies-in-waiting, and the mistress of Henry Wriothesley, Earl of *Southampton. He married her in 1595, after she became pregnant, a covert marriage which angered Elizabeth, and earned them both a brief spell of imprisonment in the Fleet. Those who identify Southampton as the *Fair Youth of the Sonnets have sometimes considered Shakespeare's poetic advice in (cont. on page $12)
Venus and Adonis
T
his exuberant erotic poem, at once funny and compassionate, was Shakespeare's most popular published work in his own time, running through at least ten editions between its first appearance in 1593 and its author's death in 1616, with another six published by 1636. It remains one of the few major works in world literature to depict the passionate pursuit of a male object by a female subject. Shakespeare's auspicious debut in print may owe its existence to the outbreak of *plague that closed the London theatres for nearly two years in July 1592, during which the young playwright apparently turned to an alternative career, as a poet, and to an alternative source of income, a patron. Shakespeare's dedication of Venus and Adonis to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of *Southampton, calls it the 'first heir of my invention', implicitly contrasting this legitimate venture into verse on a classical subject with Shakespeare's 'illegitimate' earlier work for the stage: as a bid for literary respectability, the poem's composition in 1592-3 may in part have been spurred by the attack Robert *Greene had made on the 'upstart crow . . . Shake-scene' in Greenes Groatsworth of'Wit (1592).
The 1593 first quarto of Venus and Adonis was so popular that it survives in only one copy, now in the *Bodleian Library: all the rest were presumably read to death. It was entered in the *Stationers' Register on 18 April, and a letter from the deranged William *Renoldes (who construed its publication as a love letter to him from Queen Elizabeth) shows that it was on bookstalls by 21 September. It was printed by Richard Field (printer, too, of its successor, The Rape of Lucrèce), who was born in Stratford only two years before Shakespeare and may have been at school with him. (Innogen's passing reference to 'Richard du Champ' in Cymbeline— the name she invents for her dead 'master' at 4.2.379—may be a private joke between them). Field did his job well, apparently working from Shakespeare's own manuscript: unusually, Shakespeare may even have corrected the proofs, making this one of the most reliable of all his printed texts. SOURCES: The story of Venus and Adonis is told in book 10 of *Ovid's Metamorphoses, which Shakespeare consulted both in the original Latin and in Arthur Golding's English translation (1565-7). Shakespeare greatly elaborates on Ovid's account (a mere 75 lines long compared to the 1,194 of Shakespeare's poem), and as well as supplying rhetorical expansion and additional detail (such as the incident in which Adonis' stallion frustrates his escape attempt by running off TEXT:
with a mare) he fundamentally alters its drama. In the original, Venus' passion for the mortal Adonis (inadvertently caused by Cupid, as the narrator Orpheus explains) is reciprocated, and they hunt together (though Venus advises her lover to pursue only fairly harmless animals, telling a cautionary tale which Shakespeare omits): she leaves for Cyprus, but returns after Adonis has been mortally wounded, metamorphosing him into an anemone. Shakespeare transforms the story by making Adonis into a reluctant and prudish adolescent, who appears to join the boar-hunt primarily as an excuse to avoid a renewal of Venus' undesired assaults. Shakespeare's solicitous goddess, powerless to overcome his reluctance, stays nearby to wait anxiously lor Adonis, and his metamorphosis is also outside her agency: she is left to pick a flower which spontaneously springs up where his miraculously melted body lay, placing an eternal curse on love as she makes her at once heartbroken and petulant departure towards Cyprus. Shakespeare's alterations to his material are influenced in part by other stories in Ovid (principally those of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, and Echo and Narcissus, the latter cited by Venus at 1. 161), and in part by a growing fashion for the Ovidian 'erotic epyllion' (miniature epic on an amorous theme) which had begun with the publication of Thomas
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*Lodge's Scilla's Metamorphosis in 1589 (written in the same six-line stanzaic form Shakespeare adopts here, rhyming ababcc). This vogue would find its most famous expression in *Marlowe's Hero and Leander, not published until 1598 but composed at around the same time as Venus and Adonis (shortly before Marlowe's murder in May 1593). Shakespeare's poem shares with these other examples of its genre the combination of passionate and sensual subject matter with a wry and urbane narrative voice. SYNOPSIS: A Latin motto, from Ovid's Amores (1.15), declares Shakespeare's poetic ambition: in Marlowe's translation it runs 'Let base-conceited wits admire vile things, I Fair Phoebus lead me to the Muses' springs.' A dedication to the Earl of Southampton promises 'some graver labour' if these 'unpolished lines' prove acceptable. As young Adonis, who prefers hunting to love, is going hunting in the afternoon, Venus hurries to accost him (11.1-6). Imploring a kiss, Venus pulls Adonis from his horse, which she tethers to a tree, and pushes him to the ground, silencing his protests with kisses (11. 7-48). Despite Adonis' objections to her immodest behaviour, Venus will not let him go, kissing him hungrily: eventually she promises to release him if he will give her one kiss in return (11. 49-90). This he promises, but in the event refuses to provide (11. 49—90). Venus makes a long and eloquent wooing speech, using all the arguments she can muster, including the accusation that Adonis is too proud of his own beauty (like Narcissus), which he ought to transmit to posterity through procreation (11. 91174). Unmoved, Adonis complains that he is getting sunburned and wishes to leave (11. 175-86). Venus rails petulantly at his indifference (11. 187-216). Temporarily overcome by tears, Venus is unable to speak further, and when she renews her amorous pleading Adonis merely smiles scornfully, his dimples making him more beautiful than ever (11. 217-52).
713). Venus renews her pleading for love, explaining that the night is dark to reproach Adonis' coldness and encourage prodigality (11. 715-68). Adonis refuses Venus, accusing her of miscalling lust by the name of love, and at last makes his escape (11. 769-816). Alone, Venus wanders lost in the dark: noticing how her moans echo, she spends the night extemporizing an echoing song about the sorrows of love (11. 829-40). At daybreak she hurries to a myrtle grove and listens for the sounds of Adonis' hunt (11. 817-70). The anxious Venus can hear that a boarhunt is in progress, and hears that the hounds are afraid: to her horror she sees the boar, its mouth stained with blood (11. 871-912). Finding a series of wounded dogs, she fears Adonis must have been killed, and exclaims against death (11. 913-54). Weeping, she hears the huntsmen again and, convinced Adonis is alive, reproaches herself for being so fearful (11. 9551026). Venus is stunned to find Adonis killed by the boar (11. 1027—68). She speaks an elegy for Adonis, imagining that the boar (which has killed him by sinking its tusks into his groin) was only kissing him as she would have liked to, and falls weeping on his body (11. 1069-122). Venus looks into Adonis' dead eyes (11. 1123-34). She prophesies that since her beloved Adonis is dead love will hereafter always be attended with sorrows, which she enumerates (11. 1135-64). Adonis' body has melted away and a purple flower has sprung in its place, which Venus vows to cherish in her breast (11. 1165-88). Venus returns to Cyprus in her dove-drawn chariot, intending to mourn in seclusion (11. 1189-94). ARTISTIC FEATURES: The poem's set-piece displays of rhetoric alternate with vivid, sensual evocations of a mythological world whose freshness matches that of Ovid's original, a world which exists purely to provide the appropriate setting for Venus' attempted seduction and whose every detail can Adonis breaks away and makes for his horse, but a young reflect her desires and her experience (from the behaviour of mare emerges from a nearby copse and Adonis' stallion Adonis' horse to the vulnerable snail to which her con(which is lovingly described, 11. 289-300) breaks his reins and sciousness' stunned temporary retreat is likened on finding eagerly joins her. Ignoring Adonis' attempts to recapture the his body, 11. 1033-44). stallion, the two horses run away into the wood (11. 253-324). CRITICAL HISTORY: The immense success of Venus and Adonis sits sullenly: Venus approaches again, takes his hand Adonis in its time is attested not only by its profusion of and renews her suit, urging him to follow his horse's example editions but by a number of contemporary comments: by (11. 325-408). Adonis insists that her wooing is futile and *Meres in 1598 ('the sweet witty soul of Ovid lives in melmisplaced, since he is unripe for love (11. 409-26). Un- lifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare, witness his Venus deterred, Venus continues to plead, but seeing Adonis is and Adonis), by *Barnfield in the same year, by *Weever in about to reproach her again she faints. Alarmed, Adonis at- 1599, and by Gabriel *Harvey in 1600 ('the younger sort takes tempts to revive her, eventually resorting to kisses (11. 4 2 7 - much delight in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis'). The poem 80). Venus, reviving, speaks of her joy (11. 481-522). Adonis, is cited repeatedly and with particular enthusiasm in the however, still points out that he is too young for love, and that *Parnassus plays (Til worship sweet Master Shakespeare, and it is growing late, but he promises and gives a farewell kiss (11. to know him will lay his Venus and Adonis under my pillow'), 523-40). Inflamed with desire, Venus renews her kissing, and to judge from quotations within other contemporary though Adonis refuses to meet her again the following day, plays, passages from it became part of the common lexicon of saying he will be hunting the boar. She pulls him down on top attempted seduction: it is even specifically mentioned by of her, but to no avail (11. 541-612). some disapproving moralists. After the last reprint of the Venus warns Adonis against the perils of boar-hunting, quarto in 1675, however, the poem fell from favour (along urging him instead to hunt only hares, foxes, or deer (11. 613- with The Rape of Lucrèce and the Sonnets), and it was left out
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VERONA
of most 18th-century editions of Shakespeare. Although *Malone guardedly remarked in 1780 that it was not 'so entirely devoid of poetical merit as it has been represented' it was not until the Romantic period that Venus and Adonis inspired any renewed enthusiasm, notably from *Coleridge and *Keats (though *Hazlitt, in common with many others, still found it repellently artificial). Both its subject matter and its delight in rhetorical display alienated many Victorians, and it is only in the self-consciously 'liberated' post-war period that Venus and Adonis has generated a significant critical literature, much of it, however, determined to explain or even excuse the poem by placing it in its original literary context. MD
RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
In Hyder Rollins, The Poems (New Variorum, 1938); The Poems, éd. F. T. Prince (Arden 2nd series i960); The Narrative Poems, ed. Maurice Evans (Penguin, 1989); The Poems, ed. John Roe (New Cambridge, 1992) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Bradbrook, M. C , in Shakespeare and Elizabethan Poetry (1951) Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, in Biographia literaria (1817) Hulse, Clark, Metamorphic Verse: The Elizabethan Minor Epic (1981) Keach, William, Elizabethan Erotic Narratives (1977) Smith, Peter J., 'A "Consummation Devoutly to be Wished": The Erotics of Narration in Venus and Adonis', Shakespeare Survey, 53 (2000)
favour of procreation as a contributory factor. SW
image of a murder done in Vienna' {Hamlet
Verona, in northern Italy, is the scene of some of The Two Gentlemen of Verona and nearly all of Romeo and Juliet. Petruccio in The Taming of the Shrew is a gentleman of Verona. AB
Vigny, Alfred de (1797-1863), French poet and dramatist. Vigny translated Othello, adapted The Merchant of Venice, and turned toward Shakespeare for inspiration in composing his own historical drama La Maréchale d'Ancre. Here Shakespeare's histories were adopted as a model by a Romantic determined to place subjects from French national history onto the French stage. Presented at the *ComédieFrançaise in 1840, La Maréchale d'Ancre introduced audacious innovations into French theatre, unabashedly presenting the supernatural and using an unclassically complicated plot. Although Vigny's pioneering spirit was a source of motivation for many playwrights of his time, his elaborate post-Shakespearian stage compositions drew disapproval from dramatic critics who found them too unwieldy for the French stage. In later life, he withdrew to what Sainte-Beuve famously called his tour d'ivoire (ivory tower). AC
Verona, Prince of.
See ESCALUS, PRINCE OF
VERONA.
Versification. See METRE. Vestris, Madame Elizabeth (1797-1856), English actress, dancer, singer, and manageress, who made her stage debut—in opera—with her first husband (Armand Vestris) in 1815. Her early successes were in 'breeches' parts (she excelled as Macheath) in which her renowned legs were displayed to advantage. In 1824 she appeared as Rosalind and Mistress Ford at Drury Lane, but it was not until she and her second husband Charles Mathews assumed the management of Covent Garden in 1839 that Shakespeare figured prominently in her career. Their first choice was Love's Labour's Lost, not performed since Shakespeare's time and, though there were cuts (little regretted in the comic scenes) and transpositions, it was by the standards of the day remarkably faithful to Shakespeare's text. Madame Vestris was well suited to Rosaline, but the correct and gorgeous costumes and the imaginative stage arrangements—in both of which *Planché had a hand—attracted most attention and praise. For A Midsummer Night's Dream (1840) Planché prepared the acting version—nothing but Shakespeare—the historically accurate (Athenian) costumes, furnishings, and architecture and created—through the artistry of Thomas Grieve—a spell-binding finale. Few, least of all *Macready, would have expected Vestris to distinguish herself as a producer of Shakespeare, but she did so with influential effect. RE Vienna is the scene of Measure for Measure. Hamlet tells us that 'The Mousetrap' is 'the
3.2.227).
AB
Partridge, Eric, The French Romantics' Knowledge of English Literature (1820-48) (1924) Vilar, Jean (1912-71), French actor and director. He founded the Avignon Festival (1947) and was first manager of the Théâtre National Populaire (1951), where he promoted a demanding art, after *Copeau, for vast audiences. He opened the Avignon Festival in the title role for Richard iTs, French première (1947), and played Macbeth in 1953. IS G Vincentio (l) He is the father of Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew. ( 2 ) Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna in Measure for Measure, having resigned his power to Angelo, poses as 'Friar Lodowick' to observe ensuing events incognito. AB viol, a bowed instrument in three main sizes held on the lap or between the legs, with six strings tuned similarly to the *lute, popular for domestic music-making in consort and with a
fine surviving repertoire by *Byrd and others. In Italian called the viola da gamba, hence Sir Andrew Aguecheek's 'viol-de-gamboys' in JB Twelfth Night 1.3.23. Viola. See TWELFTH NIGHT.
Violenta, a friend of Widow Capilet, appears but does not speak in some editions of All's Well That Ends Well 3.5. AB violin. In Shakespeare's time the violin had a lower status than now; it was played mainly by professionals for dance. See FIDDLER; REBEC.
JB Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) (70-19 BC) was the most famous Latin poet. He wrote *pastoral verse {Eclogues and Georgics) before embarking on his masterpiece, the Aeneid, a grand epic about the foundation of Rome and its culmination in the imperial pax Augusta. The poem was profoundly influenced by *Homer's two epics. Shakespeare frequently echoes the first six books of the Aeneid, as in the painting of the siege of Troy in The Rape of Lucrèce {Aeneid 1.456-93); and he boldly rewrites Aeneid 6.456— 76 when in Antony and Cleopatra Antony refers to Dido and her Aeneas wanting troops to match his and Cleopatra's. RW Baldwin, T. W., William Shakespere's Small Latine & Lesse Greeke, ii (1944) Bono, Barbara, Literary Transvaluation from Vergilian Epic to Shakespearian Tragicomedy (1984) Gransden, K. W., Virgil: The Aeneid (1990) Griffin, Jasper, Virgil (1986) Martindale, Charles (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Virgil (1997) Virgilia, Coriolanus' wife, accompanies the other women to the Voscian camp to appeal to AB him, Coriolanus 5.3. virginal(s), in Shakespeare's time, the generic term for plucked string keyboard instruments, as 'harpsichord' is now; later it came to refer more specifically to the smaller rectangularshaped instrument. 'Virginalling' {The Winter's
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VOLTAIRE
IT%*-7J
ï
A reluctant Sir John is concealed in the buck-basket in Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff (1893-4), based on The Merry Wives of Windsor. Gabriella Tucci as Mistress Ford, Regina Resnik as Mistress Quickly, Rosalind Elias as Mistress Page, and Anselmo Colzani as Falstaff, Metropolitan Opera, New York, 1964.
Tale 1.2.127) refers to the finger action in play-
ing.
JB
Visconti, Luchino (1906-76), Italian film and theatre director. His Shakespeare productions included As You Like It in Rome in 1948, designed in surrealist style by Salvador Dali, and a lavish Troilus and Cressida in the Boboli Gardens in Florence in 1949, designed by Franco *Zeffirelli. DK Vitez, Antoine (1930-90), French actor, translator (from Russian and Greek), director (Theatre d'lvry, 1972-81, Theatre National de Chaillot, 1981-8, *Comédie-Française, 198890), drama teacher (Lecocq school of mime, Conservatoire National de Paris, 1968-81, and in the schools of drama he ran at Ivry and Chaillot), and theorist. He reappraised the musicality of the classical French *alexandrine and the use of sober sets. In his six-hour Hamlet (1982, Lepoutre's translation), a passionate Claudius was Hamlet's age, the unspecified costumes recalled *Craig and *Copeau, and the
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white setting offered a broken perspective full of ISG dark corners. vocabulary. A salient feature of 16th- and 17thcentury English was the dramatic expansion of vocabulary which occurred in Shakespeare's lifetime. It was manifested largely in two ways; first by the incorporation into English of words borrowed from foreign languages and secondly, by the creation, often by poets and dramatists, of numerous neologisms. This extraordinary increase in vocabulary provided Shakespeare with several artistic possibilities. Latinate diction, for example, enabled him to create a 'grand style' (as it was termed by rhetoricians) to characterize the language of royalty and the nobility, as exemplified in the speech of Ulysses. Its excessive use, on the other hand, enabled Shakespeare to satirize the speech of affected courtiers like Osric and Armado; while its misuse, when the speaker mistook either form or meaning, was derided, somewhat unkindly, in the speech of working men and women. The
alternative source of lexical expansion was the creation of neologisms by various means such as by the addition of affixes to existing words, the use of a word in a different grammatical function, as in 'to lip a wanton' where a noun functions as a verb, and compounding two or more words to create new ones. VS volta, la, an energetic turning dance derived from the *cinquepace, disapproved of by some because the man had to hold the woman more closely than usual, in order to help her execute a high jump in each measure. References in Henry v 3.5.33 and Troilus and Cressida 4.5.87 imply that it was a fashionable accomplishment C.1600. JB Voltaire (François Marie Arouet) (16941778), French writer and philosopher. Voltaire epitomizes the academic attitude of the great majority of French playwrights and translators who hoped to make Shakespeare accessible to the French public by adapting his works to classical taste. Like most French authors,
VOLTIMAND
Voltaire takes a Pygmalion approach to the English playwright by breathing the spirit of the 'grand siècle' into the Renaissance model. Voltaire's popularity as an Enlightenment playwright was partially due to the influence of Shakespearian drama. Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and Othello served as blueprints for Voltaire's most famous tragedies: La Mort de César (1743), Zaïre (1732), and Sémiramis (1748). These three historical tragedies display the French taste for simplicity and respect for classical decorum, thus diverging greatly from the original Shakespearian model. The revolutionary objective of Voltaire's dramatic project, founded on the tenets of historical realism, scarcely escaped the academic limitations of his age which necessitated radical changes in Shakespeare's works, thus resulting in audacious expurgative measures and plagiarism. This rationalist reflex, typical of French authors and translators, highlights the attempt to submit Shakespeare's plays to the antiquated taste of their forefathers. In order to break free from the French tradition Voltaire looked to foreign theatre for inspiration. It was during his exile in London that he first tasted the stimulating effects of exotic local colour. The contrast of Christian and Islamic customs in Zaïre, of Babylonian traditions in Sémiramis, and the evocation of historical events such as the overthrow of the Roman Republic under Caesar in La Mort de César all testify to his desire to adapt themes from national history for the French stage. Julius Caesar, which Voltaire reworked in alexandrines under the title of La Mort de César (1743), amplifies the patriotic and republican spirit of the Roman Emperor. In this way Voltaire paid tribute to the moral and philosoph-
ical overtones of the Enlightenment thinkers. In the end, the 18th-century playwright and propagandist proved to be an inveterate defender of French theatrical traditions. Although he looked to Shakespeare for inspiration that would enable him to master monumental historical stage scenes, he remained, in fact, acutely attentive to the 'bienséances', thus diluting the powerful effects of theatrical realism by suppressing historical scenes of bloodshed, eliminating sub-plots such as love intrigues, and virtually suppressing feminine roles. In his later writings Voltaire considers the Shakespearian theatre, with its unclassical hospitality to onstage deaths, 'barbaric', and despite his various attempts to emulate Shakespeare he came to personify a hostile French classicism to generations of patriotic English bardolaters. AC
produced by Thomas *Sheridan, its title signifying the prominence accorded to the role of Coriolanus' mother. Volumnia remains one of the few major roles for older women in Shakespeare: great interpreters have included Edith *Evans, Irene *Worth, Barbara *Jeffbrd, and Judi *Dench. Though in the 20th century a greater interest in the class politics of the play tended to diminish her importance, an increased awareness of gender issues emphasized her part in creating Coriolanus' destructive and self-destructive masculinity. She sees him as her product—'Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'st it from me' (3.2.129)—but, as Janet Adelman has influentially argued in her psychoanalytic reading of the play, having 'fed' his fantasies of omnipotence and uncompromising independence, it is she who asks him to give Draper, F. W. M. The Rise and Fall ofthe Frenchthem up at the end of the play, resulting in his death. AB Romantic Drama (1923) Voltaire, 'Introduction a Sémiramis', in Œuvres Adelman, Janet, ' "Anger's my Meat": Feeding, complètes (1828) Dependency, and Aggression in Coriolanus', Voltaire, 'Lettres sur la tragédie' (18), in Lettres in Murray M. Schwartz and Coppéiia Kahn philosophiques (1988) (eds.), Representing Shakespeare: New Psychoanalytic Essays (1980)
Voltimand. See VALTEMAND.
Volumnia exults in her son's military prowess Volumnius. See STRATO. and encourages his political ambitions, advising him to conceal his disdain for the plebians Vortigern and Rowena. See FORGERY. (Coriolanus 3.2) in order to become consul. After Coriolanus' banishment and his defection to the Volsces, she leads his wife Virgilia, son Voss, Johann Heinrich (1751-1826), German Martius, and friend Valeria to intercede for the poet, translator of *Homer (1781). His metrical Romans, successfully appealing to his personal translation of Shakespeare's complete plays loyalties. (1818-29), undertaken in collaboration with his sons Heinrich and Abraham Voss, kept closer to In the mid-i8th century, a version of Shakethe peculiarities of the original than that of speare's play, incorporating revisions made some years earlier by James Thomson and en- A. W. *Schlegel, with which it competed. titled Coriolanus; or, The Roman Matron, was WH
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Wagner, Richard. See OPERA. Wales. Though Frederick J. Harries contended that Shakespeare was of Welsh descent, musing on the possibility that 'the Celtic strain in [his] blood may be held to account for the sporadic appearance of genius in an unremarkable middle-class family' {Shakespeare and the Welsh, 1919), and W. J. Hughes proposed that the *'lost years' were spent in Brecon ( Wales and the Welsh in English Literature, 1924), Shakespeare's presence in Wales should not be understood literally, but rather analysed in the context of English-Welsh cultural interactions, particularly in relation to performance and education. Shakespeare's histories display considerable interest in the assimilation of Wales to the interests of the London-based Tudor nationstate, most obviously in their depiction of Glyndwr in / Henry iv, a process in which the plays have continued to participate. Shakespeare has been one of the instruments of English cultural influence in Wales, particularly insofar as the teaching of his plays is implicated in the high prestige with which the Welsh have traditionally endowed an English education. Thus despite the bilingualism of Welsh society, there has been little call for Shakespeare to be translated into Welsh, although fragmentary MS translations of Macbeth and Hamletexist, as well as a complete version by loan Pedr of 1 Henry iv, made for the Bangor Eisteddfod Genedlaethol (national arts festival) of 1874. Since the visit of the Prince's Men to Hereford in 1609, travelling companies of English players, with plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries—or extracts from them—in their repertoire, have been regular visitors to Wales, as well as to the border towns like Hereford and Ludlow that made an important contribution to Welsh cultural life. In the latter part of the 18th century, the Welsh gentry that formed the mainstay of the touring companies' audiences eagerly embraced the fashion for private theatricals: the outstanding exponent was Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, who built a costly small theatre at his estate at Wynnstay, in north-east Wales. Eleven of Shakespeare's plays were performed there, including Cymbeline and The Merry Wives of Windsor, works which have a certain Welsh interest. Once fixed commercial theatres were established at towns such as Brecon and Cardiff, Shakespeare was as much of a popular staple there as in other British provincial cultural centres: the oldest extant bill from such a theatre advertises a production of another play with crucial Welsh aspects, / Henry iv, at Holyhead in 1787. Since then, the centrality of Shakespeare to the literary curriculum in Welsh as much as English *schools has underwritten his cultural presence in Wales and helped to ensure regular performances of his plays at regional repertory
theatres such as Theatr Clwyd in Mold, while more experimental companies like Swanseabased Volcano have fashioned a distinctive Welsh vision of the Shakespearian canon, in performances based on the Sonnets and Macbeth. KC Walker, Henry (d. 1616), a musician of London, born in Herefordshire, who sold ShakeSW speare the *Blackfriars Gatehouse in 1613. Walker, William (1608-80), son of Henry Walker, a Stratford alderman. Shakespeare stood godfather to him on 16 October 1608 and left him zos. in gold. He became bailiff of SW Stratford in 1649. Walkley, Thomas. See PRINTING AND PUBLISHING.
'Wall' See SNOUT, TOM. Wallace,
Charles
William
(1865-1932),
American academic. He and his wife made important documentary discoveries about shareholdings at the Globe and Blackfriars theatres {Keysar v. Burbage, 1610; Ostler v. Heminges, 1615; Witter v. Heminges and Condell, 1619). In 1909, among Belott v. Mountjoy papers, he discovered a deposition signed by Shakespeare. TM Walley, Henry. See PRINTING AND PUBLISHING.
Walton, Sir William (1902-83), English composer. A youthful setting of 'Tell me, where is Fancy bred?' ( The Merchant of Venice) dates from 1916, and he apparently also set 'Where the bee sucks' (The Tempest), though this is no longer extant. However, Walton is most remembered for his splendid scores for films starring Laurence *01ivier. The first of these was As You Like Lt (1936), from which was published separately *'Under the Greenwood Tree'. The later Shakespearian film scores, all directed and produced by Olivier, were Henry v (1943-4), Hamlet (1947), and Richard m (1955). Walton also composed incidental music for a production of Macbeth (first performed at the Opera House, Manchester, on 16 January 1942). His opera Troilus and Cressida (1954, and later revisions) is based on *Chaucer rather than Shakespeare. IBC war. England was at war for more than half of Shakespeare's adult life: Queen *Elizabeth I'S foreign policy could not avert conflict with Spain, and there were also early colonial wars in *Ireland. Both of these contributed to England's economic difficulties in the period, but they had relatively little direct effect on the life of the country: though threatened with invasion by four Spanish Armadas between 1588 and 1601, the country was never actually occupied by a hostile foreign power, and battles fought on English soil were part of the medieval past dramatized in the history plays and King Lear.
WARBURTON, WILLIAM In late 16th-century England, to go to war was to travel overseas. There was no standing army at this time: every able-bodied Englishman between the ages of 16 and 60 was liable for conscription. Attitudes to this opportunity were divided. Many did not wish to go (for the chances of returning alive and uninjured were not good), and in practice some local justices of the peace would offer recruiting officers, as Justice Shallow does in 2 Henry iv, a pool of men selected with a view to clearing the district of its least desirable residents. Yet for a society whose noblemen played at battle in the annual jousting contests on the Queen's accession day, warfare was also a focus of national pride and chivalric mythology. Shakespeare typically evokes both sides of the question: there is patriotism in the treatment of the French campaigns of 1 Henry vi and Henry v, but the plays also never lose sight of the bloody, destructive realities of battle.
expressed his sense, probably because interest in Shakespeare was growing, that he should learn more about him and his works: 'Remember to peruse Shakespeare's plays and be versed in them, that I may not be ignorant in that matter.' He noted, 'I have heard that Mr Shakespeare was a natural wit, without any art at all; he frequented the plays all his younger time, but in his elder days lived at Stratford, and supplied the stage with two plays every year, and for that had an allowance so large that he spent at the rate of f 1,000 a year, as I have heard.' And he is the source of the story of Shakespeare's death: 'Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted.' Drayton was a frequent visitor to *Clifford Chambers, near Stratford, but there is no evidence that Jonson was ever in the neighbourhood.
Ward also made a note that he should 'see Quiney'—presumably Shakespeare's Mrs Hale, John R., The Art of War and Renaissance daughter Judith, widow of *Thomas. She might well have passed on invaluable information England (1961) Jorgensen, Paul A., Shakespeare's Military World about her father, but the meeting seems not to (1956) have taken place; she died early in 1662 aged 77. Somogyi, Nicholas de, Shakespeare's Theatre of SW War (1998) MW
Warburton, William (1698-1779), Bishop of Gloucester, theologian, controversial writer, and Shakespearian editor. The learned and brilliant Warburton was not best qualified as a Shakespearian scholar, and his eight-volume edition of the dramatic works (1747) has been notorious as an example of obtuseness in interpretation and wilfulness in textual conjecture. MLW
Warner, David (b. 1941), British actor. He made an impact as a tall, gangling, saintly Henry vi in the cycle The *Wars of the Roses at the *Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1962 (televised 1965). His Richard 11 was less impressive, but in Peter *Hall's Hamlet (1965), a production which emphasized generational conflict, his Prince, trailing a college scarf, seemed to embody the student disaffection and alienation of the 1960s. MJ
Jarvis, Simon, Scholars and Gentlemen: Shakespearian Textual Criticism and Representations Warner, Deborah (b. 1959), British director. of Scholarly Labour, 1725-1765 (1995) Having trained as an actress, she founded in 1980 Kick Theatre for which she mounted in Ward, Dame Genevieve (1838-1922), Ameritiny spaces four plays by Shakespeare. In 1987 can-born actress who, when voice problems she staged an extraordinary Titus Andronicus, forced her to abandon her career as an opera poised on a knife edge between horror and singer, became letter-perfect in fourteen stage farce, at the Swan theatre, Stratford, later roles, five of them Shakespeare, within six mounting a vivid King John at The Other Place. months. In her debut as Lady Macbeth at the At the *National she staged King Lear with Theatre Royal, Manchester, in 1873 she disBrian Cox, her Titus, on the big Lyttelton stage; played the—operatic—qualities of powerful more challengingly she directed her frequent voice, expressive features, and graceful gestures collaborator Fiona Shaw as Richard 11 in the which were to thrill audiences the world over. smaller Cottesloe. MJ High points included Lady Macbeth in French (Paris, 1877) and the Queen in Cymbeline with *Irving (1896), who restored Queen Margaret {Richard in, 1896) for her, a role which she repeated with *Benson, for whom she also played Volumnia, and Martin Harvey. In 1921 she was made DBE, the first actress to receive the honour. RF Ward, John (1629-81), vicar of Stratford, 166281, formerly a medical student. His voluminous notebooks record information and anecdotes about Shakespeare. Writing around 1661-3 he
Warner, William (c.1558-1609), historian and translator. Warner produced the first English translation of Plautus' Menaechmi, one of the sources of The Comedy of Errors. Unpublished until 1595, the translation was written for the perusal of Warner's private friends. Since Warner's patron was Henry Carey, Lord *Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain and patron of Shakespeare's company, it is possible that Shakespeare saw the manuscript, though the verbal correspondences are few. Warner was
also the author of Albion's England, a popular verse chronicle that dealt with the origins of the English nation. When he published this work in 1584 it consisted of four volumes. This number had risen to sixteen through a process of continual revision and expansion by the time of its republication in 1606. Here, Shakespeare could have found the legends of Lear and Macbeth. The account of Lear is brief, describing Gonoril's attempt on the King's life but omitting any reference to Cordelia's fate. The Macbeth narrative focuses on Fleance and the foundation of the Stuart line but also refers to the prophecy of 'Weird-Elves' and the murder of Banquo. In this narrative, Warner may well JKS have been influenced by Shakespeare. 'War of the Theatres'. Between 1599 and 1602 three playwrights directed personal satire at each other in their plays: *Jonson in his Every Man out of his Humour, *Marston in his Histriomastix, Jack Drum and What You Will, and *Dekker and Marston in their Satiromastix. This poets' quarrel (or 'poetomachia') may be symptomatic of conflict between the open-air playhouses (occupied by adult actors) and indoor playhouses (occupied by * children's companies) which is also reflected in Rosencrantz's reference to the 'little eyases' (child actors) who 'berattle the common stages' {Hamlet 2.2.343). However, the entire 'war' may simply have been a publicity-seeking fabrication and the 'little eyases' passage written later than 1602. GE Knutson, Roslyn L., 'Falconer to the Little Eyases: A New Date and Commercial Agenda for the "little Eyases" Passage in Hamlei, Shakespeare Quarterly, 46 (1995) Small, Roscoe Addison, The Stage-Quarrel between Ben Jonson and the So-Called Poetasters (1899) Wars of the Roses (1964). See BARTON, JOHN; HALL,
PETER; ASHCROFT,
DONALD;
ROYAL
PEGGY;
SHAKESPEARE
SINDEN,
COMPANY.
(1986). See ENGLISH SHAKESPEARE COMPANY; BOGDANOV,
MICHAEL;
PENNINGTON,
MI-
CHAEL.
Wart, Thomas. He is one of Falstaff s recruits, 2 AB Henry iv$.z. Warton, Joseph (1722-1800), English critic and poet. He opposed the literary concept of 'correctness', praising Shakespeare's 'warblings wild' over Addison's 'coldly correct' poetry ('The Enthusiast'). Warton wrote a variety of critical essays including commentaries on Shakespeare for Samuel *Johnson's periodical the Adventurer and a lengthy study of the works of Pope. JM Warwick, Earl of. (l) In 2 Henry ivhe comforts King Henry (3.1) and defends the character of Prince Harry (4.3). Henry erroneously calls him Neville, 3.1.61, but the character is based on Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick 1382-
5i6
WEST AFRICA 1439. (Neville, the Earl of Warwick who appears in The First Part of the Contention {2 Henry vi) and Richard Duke of York (3 Henry vi), inherited Beauchamp's title of Earl of Warwick by marrying his daughter Anne.) In Henry v, though present as part of the English army in 4.7 and 5.2, he speaks only one line, 4.8.20. In / Henry vi he plucks a white rose (2.4.36), helps Plantagenet to recover his title of Duke of York (3.1), and condemns Joan la Pucelle (5.6). ( 2 ) In The First Part of the Contention he quarrels with Suffolk (1.3 and more seriously 3.2) and Old Lord Clifford (5.1). He joins the Yorkists with his father (2.2) and helps to win the first battle of St Albans (5.2-3). In Richard Duke of York he continues to support York, and has York's son crowned Edward iv, but when he discovers the latter has married Lady Gray he captures him (4.3) and returns the crown to Henry vi. He is mortally wounded at Barnet (5.2). He is based on Richard Neville (1428-71), son-in-law of the preceding Warwick, son of the Salisbury of The First Part of the Contention, and maternal grandfather of Clarence's son (Warwick (3) ). After his death he was known as 'the
anti-fascist Julius Caesar when he was only 22. Among the many uncompleted projects of his post- Citizen Kane years were three Shakespeare films. Macbeth (1948), scorned by Shakespeare lovers, attracted excited and enthusiastic critical Bradbrook, M. C , John Webster: Citizen and comment from cinéastes, especially in France. His Othello (made in fits and starts on a shoeDramatist (1980) Luckyj, Christina, A Winter's Snake: Dramatic string budget) was released in 1952, followed by Form in the Tragedies of John Webster (1989) a restored version in 1993. Chimes at Midnight (1966), adapted from the Henry iv plays, was Webster, Margaret (1905-72), British director. appropriately released in some countries under Born into a theatrical dynasty about which she the name of the character Welles played, as wrote in The Same Only Different (1969), she Falstajf. Although it arguably distorts the priacted at the *01d Vic in London but found her orities in the Henry iv plays, it is considered not true vocation in the 1930s when she directed only Welles's Shakespearian masterpiece, but Maurice *Evans as Richard 11 and Hamlet in one of the most powerful Shakespeare films. New York. In 1943 she was acclaimed for her AD direction of Paul *Robeson, the first black American to play Othello in New York. Much Wesker, Arnold (b. 1932), English playwright. later as a liberal she found it hard to get work in His Birth of Shylock and Death of Zero Mostel the States and undertook guest productions at (1997) chronicles the failed 1977 Broadway the Old Vic and Stratford. Her straightforward production of his play Shylock (originally The directorial approach is summed up in her Merchant, 1976). Wesker, reacting against Shakespeare without Tears (1942). MJ Laurence *01ivier's mannered interpretation of
Kingmaker'. (3) See CLARENCE'S SON.
Hymen in As You Like It 5.4.139; the original JB music is unknown.
AB
Wayte, William. See GARDINER, WILLIAM.
w e a k ending, the use of an unstressed syllable at the end of a line where a stressed syllable should be found; thus as the tenth syllable of an CB iambic pentameter. Weaver, Smith the. Cade's sarcastic follower appears in The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry vi) 4.2 and 4.7. AB Webster, John (f.1579-1634), dramatist. The son of a coachmaker, he probably went to the *Merchant Taylors' School, then to the Inns of Court. He worked for several companies, including the King's Men and the Children of Paul's—for whom he composed two satirical comedies, Westward Ho (1607) and Northward Ho (1607), in collaboration with Thomas *Dekker. He also wrote an intriguing tragicomedy, The Devil's Law-Case (f.1619), and prose essays: in 1615 he added 32 new Characters to Sir Thomas Overbury's Theophrastic collection, New and Choice Characters of Several Authors. But Webster is best known for writing two of the greatest Jacobean tragedies, The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1613). These are astonishingly bleak investigations into the corrupt system of 'courtly reward and punishment' which both sustains and devastates the European aristocracy. Central to the tragedies are two character types: the cynical gentleman-servant, closely related to the hero of John *Marston's tragicomedy The Malcontent (1604), who comments on and participates in the murderous plots of his aristocratic masters; and the woman of 'great spirit', who fights to establish her independence against all the social
517
and physical constraints imposed on her by patriarchal custom. These plays are among the most powerful poetic representations of entrapment and resistance in early modern litRM erature.
'Wedding is great Juno's crown', sung by
Weelkes, Thomas (1576-1623),
composer
noted for his fine church music and madrigals. His career was at times turbulent, including dismissal from Chichester cathedral for drunkenness and profanity in 1617. JB Weever, John (1586-1632), poet. Born in Lancashire and educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, Weever neatly imitated the form of a Shakespearian sonnet in 'Ad Gulielmum Shakespear', printed in his Epigrams (1599). Perhaps he had seen unpublished Shakespeare sonnets, or had noticed the interpolated sonnets PH in Romeo and Juliet (1597). Welcombe, a small village about a mile and a half (2.4 km) from Stratford. In 1605 Shakespeare paid £440 for the tithes on land here and nearby. He became involved in the controversial plans to subject the land to *enclosure in 1614. SW Welcombe enclosure. In 1614 procedures were instigated to *enclose land at *Welcombe in which Shakespeare had an interest as a titheholder, and possibly also as a copyholder. He and Thomas *Greene were to be compensated for loss. Stratford's corporation opposed the scheme. A number of Greene's notes about it have survived. Shakespeare's attitude is unclear. He may have favoured it, as is suggested in Edward *Bond's play Bingo (1973). SW Welles, Orson (1915-85), American actor and director. A precocious star performer and director at the Mercury theatre in pre-war New York, he produced an influential modern-dress,
Shakespeare's character, presents an alternative Shylock: intelligent, compassionate, and deeply TM moral. West Africa. Shakespeare is said to have first reached African waters on board a ship, anchored off Sierra Leone in 1607, where performances of Hamlet and Richard n were given. As was the case in *East Africa, missionary and colonial activity from the 19th century on ensured the presence of Shakespeare in various educational and cultural practices. The Church Missionary Society established the Grammar School for Boys in Freetown, Sierre Leone, in 1849; Lemuel Johnson, who attended the school in the 20th century, recalls studying Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, 1 Henry iv, Henry v, and King Lear. Dependence on Cambridge University School and Higher School Certificate requirements during the colonial period and beyond ensured the continuing influence of Shakespeare. E. T. Johnson translated Julius Caesar into Yoruba in the 1930s and G. E. Hood of Achimota College, Accra, records performances at his school of Twelfth Night'm the 1930s. Performances of Shakespeare in West Africa include a screen adaptation of Hamlet, shot in Ghana and shown at a Commonwealth Arts Festival, and, during the colonial period, visits by performers of Shakespeare arranged by the British Council. In 1954 Molly Mahood delivered her Inaugural Lecture at the University of Ibadan. Both she and Eldred Jones (Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone) have made significant contributions to Shakespeare studies, Jones contributing as well to the study of local literatures. Michael Echeruo (Nigeria) and Lemuel Johnson (Sierra Leone), who have also worked on Shakespeare, now work in the United States.
WEST S I D E STORY In an essay that has since become a 'classic' of cultural anthropology, Laura Bohannan gives an account of her attempt to impart Hamlet to the Tiv; the essay provides an example of the misrecognitions that may occur for all the participants in any cultural encounter or clash. However, in comparison with East, Central, and *Southern Africa, the reception of Shakespeare in West African countries appears markedly less interrogative of the problematics of a colonial Shakespeare. Hints of potentially complex views of the Shakespeare text are to be found in Ben Okri's response in 1987 in the journal West Africa to an RSC production of Othello with Ben *Kingsley in the title role as well as in Lemuel Johnson's recent work and in his appropriation in the 1970s of the figure of Caliban, relocated in Freetown and presented as victim of neocolonialism. Even so, as late as the early 1990s Shakespeare was still a compulsory text at secondary level in Sierra Leone, prompting Handel Kashope Wright to wonder, rather belatedly in comparison with the debate in other parts of Africa, why this continues at the expense of local literatures. As in other parts of Africa, the reception of Shakespeare has involved politicians and cultural activists as well as writers. James Kwegyir Aggrey, who left the Gold Coast for the United States, cited Shakespeare as an important influence; a pamphlet in 1952 salutes Kwame Nkrumah by means of Shakespeare allusion; and in i960 Nigeria's Chief Awolowo insisted that 'some of the mighty lines of Shakespeare must have influenced my outlook on life'. The specific influence of Shakespeare on a number of West African writers has also been remarked upon. Wole *Soyinka read English under George Wilson *Knight and the influence of Shakespeare on his work has been noted, especially that of A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as of Macbeth on A Dance in the Forests. Soyinka himself has noted that between 1899 and 1950 some sixteen plays of Shakespeare had been translated or adapted by *Arab poets and dramatists. The Nigerian playwright John Pepper Clark argues for the example of Shakespeare as model, taking up the instance of Caliban to advocate a variety of registers within African writing. Shakespeare's influence has been detected too in the work of other Nigerians including the Onitsha Market Pamphleteers. MO West Side Story, Broadway musical (1957) and Hollywood film (1961), with the story of Romeo and Juliet transposed to fit young immigrant groups on New York's waterfront. Invigorating adaptation (Arthur Laurents), choreography (Jerome Robbins), and songs (Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim) make this the most successful modern *adaptation of Shakespeare. TM
Westminster. The burial place of Edward the Confessor, there may have been a church on the site of Westminster Abbey as early as the late 8th century. The abbey became a centre for royal ceremonial from the 13th century and emphasis on the abbey led to Westminster Hall, built by William 11 in 1097/9, becoming the centre of royal administration: as such it features crucially in Shakespeare's histories, notably the Henry iv plays. The abbey became the resting place of poets as well as monarchs after *Spenser was buried near *Chaucer in 1599: Ben *Jonson, who would himself be added to what has become known as 'Poets' Corner' in due course, comments on Shakespeare's burial in Stratford instead of in the abbey in his dedicatory poem to the First *Folio. Shakespeare received an honorary ^monument in the abbey in 1741, a statue by *Scheemakers funded by public subscription. RSB Inwood, S., A History of London (1998)
'When daffodils begin to peer', sung by Autolycus in The Winter's Tale 4.3.1. The original music is unknown; an anonymous tune was published by Joseph Ritson (1783), and a setting attributed to William Boyce (long after his death) was brought out by William Linley (1816); 20th-century settings include those by Ireland, Quilter, and Warlock. JB 'When daisies pied', sung by Spring at the end of Love's Labour's Lost, and followed by Winter singing 'When icicles hang by the wall'. The earliest surviving music for the two songs is by Richard *Leveridge (f.1725); this was followed in the mid-i8th century by the more familiar *Arne versions. Twentieth-century settings include those by Finzi, Moeran (both songs), Stravinsky, Warlock ('When daisies pied'), Quilter, and *Vaughan Williams ('When icicles hang by the wall'). JB 'When griping grief the heart doth wound'. See EDWARDS, RICHARD.
Westminster, Abbot of. He plots against Bolingbroke with Aumerle and the Bishop of Carlisle at the end of Act 4 of Richard 11. His AB death is announced, 5.6.19-21. Westmorland (Westmoreland), Earl of (1) As one of King Henry's supporters he is angry when Henry makes York his heir, Richard Duke of York (3 Henry vi) 1.1. Historically, Ralph Neville (d. 1484), the 2nd Earl of Westmorland, supported neither Henry nor York. ( 2 ) In / Henry iv he leads the King's forces against the rebels (see 3.2.171, 4.1.88-9, 5.4, and 5.5.36-9) and in 2 Henry iv he is Prince John's right-hand man against the rebels. In Henry vhe accompanies King Harry at Agincourt (unhistorical). He was the grandfather of the preceding Westmorland and was also called Ralph Neville (1364-1425), the 1st Earl of Westmorland. AB 'What shall he have that killed the deer?', sung by the two Lords in As You Like Lt 4.2.10. A round published by John Hilton (1652) may possibly be a version of the original music. JB
'When icicles hang by the wall'. See W H E N DAISIES P I E D ' .
'When that I was and a little tiny boy', sung by Feste at the end of Twelfth Night, the original music is unknown. The tune traditionally used comes from a setting composed by the singer Joseph Vernon, published c.ijjz. It is possible that Vernon arranged a melody already familiar for the song. More recent settings include those by Dankworth, Korngold, Quilter, Schumann, Sibelius, and Stanford. JB
'Where is the life that late I led?', fragment of a lost ballad, sung by Petruccio in The Taming of the Shrew 4.1.126, and quoted by Pistol in 2 Henry iv 5.3.139; it formed the basis for a song in Cole *Porter's Kiss Me Kate. The original music is unknown. JB 'Where the bee sucks', sung by Ariel in The Tempest 5.1.88. The setting by Robert *Johnson may well have been used in an early production during Shakespeare's life (see 'FULL FATHOM FIVE'), although it is not
Whately (Whateley), Anne, the name of Shakespeare's bride according to his marriage licence (see HATHAWAY, ANNE). Though almost certainly the result of clerical error, it has stimulated fantasies. In The Man Shakespeare (1909), Frank *Harris (of whom Oscar *Wilde wrote in a letter of 1899 that he was 'upstairs, thinking about Shakespeare at the top of his voice') supposed that Shakespeare was persuaded to jilt a woman of this name in favour of Anne Hathaway; Ivor Brown and Anthony *Burgess are among those who followed suit. SW 'When Arthur first in court', the opening of a *broadside ballad sung by FalstafF in 2 Henry iv 2.4.32. The tune is 'Flying fame'. JB
now
as
fa-
miliar as *Arne's version from the mid-i8th century. There is a later 17th-century setting by Humfrey; 20th-century composers include ArJB nold, Martin, Moeran, Quilter, *Tippett. Whetstone, George (?i544-?i587), author, adventurer, and soldier who fought at the battle of Zutphen at which *Sidney was killed. Whetstone's works include The Rock of Regard, published in 1576, consisting of 68 pieces of prose and verse, many drawn from Italian novelle. Among these tales is 'Cressid's Complaint', Whetstone's contribution to the growing condemnation of Cressida in the 16th century, which offered her story as a fable warning against wantonness. However, Whetstone's most popular work was the two-part play
518
WILL, SHAKESPEARE'S Promos and Cassandra, published in 1578 though never acted. The play is based on a story in *Cinthio's Hecatommithi about a woman who is offered the choice of losing her virginity to the magistrate who has condemned her brother to death, thereby saving him, or letting her brother die. Whetstone returned to this story in 1582 when he adapted it into a novella, in the Heptameron of Civil Discourses (reprinted as Aurelia in 1593). Shakespeare certainly drew upon the tragicomedy Promos and Cassandra for Measure for Measure. He may also have had recourse to Whetstone's prose version. JKS
cifically. Many commentators agree on Proteus, although some have assumed the performer to be one or more of the musicians present during the scene. The original music is unknown; the earliest to survive is by *Leveridge (1727), but the best-known setting is *Schubert's 'An Sylvia' (1826). More recent composers include Coates, Dankworth, Finzi, German, Howells, JB Quilter, Rubbra.
While you here do snoring lie', sung by Ariel
w i d o w s , (l) A widow marries Hortensio, appearing in The Taming of the Shrew 5.2. ( 2 ) Widow Capilet (Capulet), is the keeper of the hostel of St Francis in ^Florence. She and her daughter Diana assist Helen with her marital AB problems in All's Well That Ends Well.
in The Tempest 2.1.302; the earliest surviving setting is by *Arne, from the mid-i8th cenJB tury. White, William. See PRINTING AND PUBLISH-
'Whoop, do m e no harm, good man', a "'ballad tune title quoted by the Old Shepherd's JB servant in The Winters Tale 4.4.199.
ING. Whitefriars
theatre.
See CHILDREN'S COM-
PANIES; FIELD, NATHAN.
Whitehall, formerly a property known as York Place and in the ownership of the Archbishop of York until the Henrician dissolution: after Wolsey's fall the land went to the King, with the name later applying to the whole street (see All Is True {Henry vni) 4.1.94-101). Whitehall became the main royal residence until 1698 and is the location of Inigo *Jones's Banqueting House, built 1619-25 for the performance of *masques: a wooden hall on the same site had already been an important venue for court RSB theatrical performances. Inwood, S., A History of London (1998) Whiter, Walter (1758-1832), English philologist. His Specimen of a Commentary on Shakespeare (1794) is regarded as a precursor of 20thcentury *'imagery' criticism. Influenced by John Locke's psychological doctrine of the association of ideas, Whiter demonstrated several such recurrent clusters—for example, flatterers, dogs, and sweetmeats—in Shakespeare's language. TM Whitmore, Walter. He is Suffolk's murderer, The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry vi) 4.1. AB Whittington, Thomas, a shepherd employed by Anne *Hathaway's parents. In his will dated 25 March 1601 he left 'unto the poore people of Stratford 40 s . that is in the hand of Anne Shaxspere, wyf unto M r Willyam Shaxspere, and is due debt unto me, beyng payd to myne Executor by the sayd Wyllyam Shaxspere or his assigns'. Anne's brothers also owed him money; probably his employers acted as his bankers. SW *Who is Silvia?', song in The Two Gentlemen of Verona 4.2.38; the singer is not identified spe-
519
Wieland, Christoph Martin (1733-1813), German poet. His prose translation of 22 plays (IJ66-J) first acquainted the German reading public with Shakespeare's work. For A Midsummer Night's Dream he used verse; it also inspired his poem Oberon (1780). WH Wilde, Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Wills) (18 54-1900), Irish playwright and author. Wilde's Portrait of Mr W.H (1889), in which 'homoerotic fantasy successfully masquerades as fiction and criticism' (*Schoenbaum), identifies the 'onlie begetter' of the Sonnets as William or Willie Hughes, a boy-actor playing women's parts, a first name which is certainly punned on in Sonnets 135-6,143, and a last which may be in Sonnet 20, 'A man in hew all Hews in his controwling'. The fiction's use of a hanging portrait of *Mr W.H. seems almost analogous to Wilde's other corrupted portrait, that of Dorian Gray (1891). Wilde's citation of Shakespeare's Sonnets during his notorious trial in 1895 had a permanent impact on popular views of Shakespeare's ^sexuality. TM
Wilkins, George (fl. 1603-8), playwright. Little is known about Wilkins's life. Among other things, he wrote a popular domestic tragedy based on a real murder case, The Miseries of Enforced Marriage, performed by Shakespeare's company, which went through four editions between 1607 and 1637. He also wrote a piece of prose fiction, The Painful Adventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre (1608). This steals passages from a version of the story by Laurence *Twine, written in the 1570s and reprinted in 1607. Twine's narrative is a source of Shakespeare's Pericles, and Wilkins's fiction also incorporates passages from the play. Many scholars, including the editors of the Oxford Shakespeare (1986), contend that Wilkins co-wrote Pericles with Shakespeare, and that some of the passages he quotes in The Painful Adventures may be more
accurately recorded there than in the corrupt first edition of the play (1609). RM will, Shakespeare's. Shakespeare seems to have drafted his will in January 1616, shortly before his daughter Judith was to be married. The final draft (no fair copy survives) is dated 25 March 1616. From time to time it is claimed to be in his own hand, but Mark Eccles, who worked extensively and intensively on the Stratford records, is one of many scholars who believe it to have been drafted and written by the lawyer Francis *Collins (d. 1617), who had drawn up the indentures for Shakespeare's purchase of tithes in 1605, since 'the handwriting matches exactly his handwriting in the Council Book'. Others dispute this, arguing that it was drawn up by a clerk employed by Collins. It is a formal document, obviously phrased by a lawyer; but it clearly reflects Shakespeare's considered, and reconsidered, intentions. The first sheet, recopied from an earlier draft, is dated 'Januarij', which has been corrected to 'Martij'. This page is mostly concerned with Judith *Shakespeare, and the recopying was probably necessitated by changes following her marriage to Thomas *Quiney and the scandal of his liaison with the unfortunate Margaret Wheeler. The second and third sheets are not recopied but contain a number of changes and additions. Each sheet bears Shakespeare's *signature, that on the last page preceded by the words 'By me'. They are in a different hand from the will, but D. Thomas, in Shakespeare in the Public Records (1985), claimed that even these were written by a clerk. The will opens with a formulaic declaration of faith. Shakespeare's principal bequests are as follows: 1. To his daughter Judith, f 100 as a marriage portion and £50 more on condition that she surrender to her sister Susanna her rights in a cottage in *Chapel Lane; the interest on another £150 was to go to her or, if she had died, to her children three years after the date of the will, and she would continue to receive the interest for as long as she was married. Her husband could claim the £150 only if he settled lands of equal value on her. She was also to have her father's silver-and-gilt bowl. 2. To his sister *Joan (Hart), £20, all his wearing apparel, and the house in which she was living in Henley Street for as long as she lived, at an annual rent of nd. 3. To Joan's three sons, £5 each. 4. To his granddaughter Elizabeth *Hall (then 8 years old), all his plate except the bowl left to Judith. 5. To the poor of Stratford, £10. 6. To Thomas *Combe, his sword. 7. To Thomas *Russell, £5. 8. To Francis Collins, £13 6s. Sd.
WILLIAM
9. To Hamnet *Sadler, 26s. Sd. to buy a ring (replacing what had apparently been a similar bequest to Richard Tyler the elder). 10. To William Reynolds, 26s. Sd. to buy a ring. 11. To his 7-year-old godson William *Walker, 20s. in gold. 12. To Anthony *Nash, John *Nash, and to his 'fellows' John *Heminges, Richard *Burbage, and Henry *Condell, 26s. %d. to buy them rings. 13. To his daughter Susanna (Hall), *New Place, two houses in Henley Street, all his 'barnes stables Orchardes gardens landes tenementes & hereditamentes' in the Stratford area along with the *Blackfriars Gatehouse, all in entail to Susanna and her heirs male, his daughter Judith and her heirs male, and 'for default of such issue' to his 'Right heires'. 14. To his wife his 'second best bed with the furniture' (this is an added bequest). 15. To John and Susanna Hall, all his remaining property. The Halls were the executors, and Thomas Russell and Francis Collins the overseers. Five witnesses signed the will: Francis Collins, July Shaw, John Robinson, Hamnet Sadler, and Robert Whatcott. The will is preserved in the Public Record Office, London. Its existence was known by October 1737, when George Vertue noted that a copy was also owned by Shakespeare Hart, owner of the *Birthplace and a descendant of Shakespeare's sister Joan. It seems to have been first printed in the posthumous third edition (1752) of ""Theobald's edition. It has been the subject of endless interpretation and speculation, especially in relation to the bequest to Anne of the second-best bed and to the absence of reference to books and papers, which are likely however to have been listed in an inventory which has not survived. They probably passed to John *Hall, whose will lists a 'Study of Bookes' bequeathed to Thomas Nash. It may also be noted that the will does not mention Shakespeare's patron of his younger days, the Earl of *Southampton, his 'cousin' Thomas *Greene, his alleged bastard William *Davenant, or any member of his wife's family, although Anne's brother Bartholomew lived in Shottery with his wife and four children. SW
revived. He staged a controversial all-male As You Like Lt at the *National Theatre in 1967 and has also directed abroad. MJ
confided his love to 'his familiar friend, W.S.', recently recovered from a similar passion. W.S. 'in viewing afar off the course of this loving comedy . . . determined to see whether it would sort to a happier end for this new actor than it did for the old player'. Willobie was related by marriage to Shakespeare's friend Thomas *Russell. Shakespeare may be 'W.S.' SW
Williams, Harcourt (1880-1957), actor and director. Having gone on the stage at 17 he had experience with Ellen Terry and Beerbohm *Tree and played Macbeth at the Birmingham Repertory in 1915. His influential contribution to the staging of Shakespeare came when he was Willoughby, Lord. He is one of Bolingbroke's unexpectedly engaged as a director of produc- supporters in Richard 11, based on William de tions at the *01d Vic. He was determined to Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby de Eresby (d. 1409). AB break away from the slow deliberation of the Shakespeare voice and to give speed and pace to Willow song, sung by Desdemona in Othello his productions, along the lines recommended 4.3.38. Not included in the quarto text (1622), it by *Granville-Barker in his Prefaces. He enis one of many additions made to the *Folio gaged promising actors like John *Gielgud, edition (1623). Desdemona says that the song is Donald *Wolfit, and Peggy *Ashcroft and, 'an old thing', and it survives in various manuwithin the financial limits imposed by Lilian script versions from the period, with additional *Baylis, greatly improved the visual design. He stanzas and textual variants, as well as two continued acting into old age and can be seen as different melodies. Later composers include the King of France in *01ivier'sfilmof Henry v. Humfrey (17th century); Giordani, Hook (18th MJ century); and Coleridge-Taylor, *Parry, SulliWilliams, John (d. '1634), unsuccessful theat- van, *Vaughan Williams (late 19th and early 20th century). JB rical entrepreneur and possibly a musician. Together with John Cotton and Thomas Will you buy any tape', sung by Autolycus in Dixon, John Williams was granted a licence to The Winters Tale4.4.313. The original music is built an amphitheatre for 'martial exercises, and unknown; thefirstfour lines fit the tune of *'Jog extraordinary shows', but King *James wrote to on', sung previously by Autolycus. JB the Privy Council revoking this licence on 29 September 1620. On 28 September 1626 another Wilmcote is a village about two and a half miles attempt by Cotton and Williams to build an (4 km) from Stratford, home of Shakespeare's amphitheatre was blocked. This John Williams mother Mary *Arden, and location of *Mary might have been the musician to the King bur- Arden's House. There her father owned the ied in St Peter's, Paul's Wharf, in 1634. GE estate known as *Asbies which he willed to her in 1556. SW Williams, Michael, (l) A soldier at Agincourt, he falls victim to King Harry's practical joke, Wilmot, James. See BACONIAN THEORY. Henry K4.1, 4.7, and 4.8. (2) The versatile and Wilson, John (1595-1674), composer and luaccomplished *RSC actor of the same name tenist. Settings of Shakespeare songs appear in (1935-2001), ingeniously cast in the role in his publications. Some of these are now attribKenneth *Branagh's film (1989). AB uted to Robert *Johnson (e.g. *'Full fathom five'). There has also been confusion with an Williams, Raymond. See CULTURAL MATERactor and singer named as Jacke Wilson in a IALISM. stage direction (First Folio) for Much Ado About Williamson, Nicol (b. 1938), Scottish actor and Nothing, shortly before *'Sigh no more, ladies'. director. Noted for playing self-destructive antiJB heroes, Williamson shocked audiences in 1969 by playing Hamlet as, in his words, 'a fright- Wilson, John Dover (1881-1969), English acaening man, an unpleasant man'. In 1982, he demic, editor, and critic. His vast learning, directed and starred in an exceedingly dark liberal sensibility, and critical vigour were Macbeth for the Circle in the Square theatre, widely diffused in the volumes of the New Schoenbaum, S., William Shakespeare: A DocuNew York. BR *Cambridge edition of Shakespeare, which he mentary Life (1975, compact edn. 1977) edited (with Sir Arthur *Quiller-Couch and William, Touchstone's rival for Audrey, is Willobie his Avisa, a poem by Henry Willobie others) 1921-66. His 1936 edition of Hamlet, its AB (b. c.1575) printed in 1594. Commendatory text based on the then unfashionable second warned off by him, As You Like Lt 5.1. verses include the first literary reference to quarto of 1604/5, w a s prepared for and justified William, Lord Hastings. See HASTINGS, LORD. Shakespeare by name: in The Manuscript of Shakespeare's Hamlet' Yet Tarquin plucked his glistering grape, (1934), as were its 'Elizabethan' interpretations Williams, Clifford (b. 1926), British director. A And Shakespeare paints poor Lucrèce' rape. of the play (particularly respecting the Ghost former actor with a special interest in mime, he joined the *Royal Shakespeare Company at The deliberately enigmatic poem tells how and the dumb show) in What Happens in Hamlet' (1935). His characteristic combination Stratford in 1963 where he directed a brilliantly Avisa, an innkeeper's wife, rejected many of insight and enthusiasm are equally apparent farcical Comedy of Errors, which was frequently suitors, including 'Henry Willobego', who
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WOFFINGTON, MARGARET ( P E G ) in: The Essential Shakespeare (1932), 'a biographical adventure'; The Fortunes of Falstaff (1953); and Shakespeare's Happy Comedies (1969). An edition by A. L. *Rowse of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1963), in which Rowse claimed that only a 'true historian' could solve the relevant biographical problems, provoked a vigorous polemic in which Dover Wilson's urbane introduction for the New Cambridge Sonnets was separately printed with a predictably provocative subtitle An Introduction for Historians and Others (1963), just in time for the quatercentenary celebrations. His vivid and varied compilation of Elizabethan prose, Life in Shakespeare's England (in print since 1911), has remained a popular student companion. TM Winchester, Bishop of. (l) See BEAUFORT, CARDINAL. (2) See GARDINER.
Winchester House, or Palace, was built by Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester and brother of King Stephen, in the mid-i2th century. It was the London home of the bishops and the seat of their jurisdiction over the *Liberty of the *Clink. The west wall and its rose window still stand. RSB Carlin, M., Medieval Southwark (1996) Wincot. In The Taming of the Shrew, Christopher Sly mentions 'Marian Hacket, the fat alewife of Wincot' (Induction 2, 20). This could be an alternative name for *Wilmcote, or for Willicote or Little Wilmcote, other small villages close to Stratford. SW Windsor, or the countryside nearby, is the scene of The Merry Wives of Windsor, and is mentioned in / and 2 Henry iv and / Henry vi. AB Winter's Tale, The (see page 522) Wise, Andrew. See PRINTING AND PUBLISHING.
witchcraft. 'Witch' is a term so slippery that whole law-books were devoted to defining it. Very generally, for most ordinary English people in Shakespeare's day, a witch was someone with the power of doing harm, either through her own body or will, or through the use of magic, but for learned demonologists a witch was a person who had exchanged his or her soul for the power to summon the devil to do harm on his or her behalf. The second definition gradually displaced the first during the reigns of first Elizabeth and then James, but this made little impact on popular belief. What did make a growing impact was scepticism: beginning with Reginald *Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft (1584) and continuing with Samuel *Harsnett's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603), elite disbelief in witchcraft gathered pace until even *James 1 was unmasking pretended demoniacs rather than endorsing
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their fantasies. Witch prosecutions declined under James, having peaked during the years of the Armada panic, and declined still more sharply under *Charles, who sent his own personal physician to prove that a group of women condemned in Lancashire in 1633 were innocent. It was for this sceptical audience that Shakespeare produced Macbeth (and for which *Middleton supplied its later Hecate passages), responding to a vogue for witch plays created by Ben *Jonson's Masque of Queens: it includes many more witches than its sources, but uses almost entirely sceptical materials as its sources, principally Scot. Like Scot, the play displays what it takes to be popular witch-beliefs to an audience that has parted company with them. (Similarly, demoniac possession in King Lear is based on Harsnett, and is here explicitly fraudulent.) Macbeth in its Folio form contains transplanted material from Middleton's grossly comical The Witch, which may be more closely related to the Overbury poisoning scandal than to popular witch beliefs, about which neither he nor Shakespeare may have had any knowledge independent of Scot. By contrast, witchcraft in The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry vi) is explicity related to Catholicism and treason against England in the person of Joan la Pucelle, who when declared to be a witch appears to owe more to the witches in book 3 of *Spenser's The Faerie Queene than to anything that might be found in the countryside. In Richard m, by contrast, Richard's accusations of witchcraft against his political enemies are the paranoid fictions of an unstable tyrant, while in The Merry Wives of Windsor the 'witch' of Brainford does not exist: she is simply Falstaff in disguise. This play, in which Mistress *Quickly makes a splendidly sceptical queen or quean of the *fairies, is a sophisticated comic riposte to what its author took to be popular credulity, and in it one sees the Shakespeare who befriended Ben Jonson, the arch-sceptic. In this play Mistress Quickly and Anne Page owe a little to the clever, matchmaking, cunning-woman of *Lyly's Mother Bombie, a character later revived by *Heywood in his Wise Woman ofHogsden. It is ironic, therefore, that most people's ideas about early modern witchcraft are based at least in part on the words of a man who profoundly disbelieved in what he wrote. Though Shakespeare's Weird Sisters were eventually triumphant, they were in their time at variance with the use of witches as characters in domestic tragicomedies such as The Witches of Lancashire and The Witch of Edmonton, which sought explicitly to defuse what they took to be popular DP superstition by mockery and biting satire. Briggs, Robin, Witches and Neighbours (1996) Purkiss, Diane, The Witch in History (1996) Roper, Lyndal, Oedipus and the Devil (1994) Willis, Deborah, Malevolent Nurture (1996)
witches, three. They meet again to make equivocal predictions with disastrous consequences, Macbeth 1.1 ff. AB
Wits, The, title page. The Wits (1662) is a collection of 'drolls' or comic episodes from popular plays adapted for independent performance, and it has a title-page engraving (probably by John Chantry) showing seven figures together on a stage, including Sir John Falstaff and a Hostess (originally from Shakespeare's 1 Henry iv), and a 'Changling', presumably Antonio from Middleton and Rowley's play The Changeling. A second, enlarged, edition of The Wits, printed in 1672-3 with a coarse copy of the original title-page engraving, contains Francis Kirkman's preface which associates the drolls with Robert *Cox and the Red Bull playhouse, but the engraving is of little theatrical interest, being derived from nonGE theatrical sources. (See page 118.) Astington, John H., ' The Wits Illustration, 1662', Theatre Notebook, 47 (1993) Witter, John (fl. c. 1600-20), a Londoner who married the actor Augustine *Phillips's widow in 1606. By remarrying she forfeited her husband's share in the *Globe, but five years later John *Heminges, who had succeeded her as executor, leased it back to the couple. When the Globe burned down they were unable to meet their share of the cost of rebuilding, so their rights passed back to Heminges, who gave half of them to *Condell. In April 1619 Witter, who had abandoned his now-dead wife, sued Heminges and Condell. The court case, which Witter lost, provides important information about the company's organization. SW Wallace, C. W., 'Shakespeare and his London Associates . . .', Nebraska University Studies, 10 (1910)
Woffington, Margaret (Peg) (?i7i7-i76o), actor, singer, and dancer, probably born in Dublin where her successful career began as a child performer with the gymnast Signora Violante. She progressed to a singing and dancing Dorinda in The Tempest; or, The Enchanted Island and Ophelia, and achieved huge popularity in breeches roles, most famously as Sir Harry Wildair in The Constant Couple. She triumphed as Cordelia at *Covent Garden in 1740 and quickly became a fashionable beauty and wit, painted by *Hogarth, Hudson, and *Zoffany. She was not considered to have a great voice but had a broad Shakespearian repertoire including Rosalind, Adriana, and Nerissa at *Drury Lane from 1741. In 1742 she performed in Dublin with *Garrick (with whom she had an affair) playing Cordelia to his Lear and Lady Anne to his Richard in. She played Viola in the 1745 Drury Lane revival of Twelfth Night. In much demand as a leading lady she also played Desdemona to *Quin's (cont. on page 525)
The Winter's Tale
A
lthough it clearly belongs among the late romances—with its artful structure and almost insolent mastery of complex narrative and characterization—The Winter s Tale is difficult to date with precision. A dance of satyrs in Act 4 (4.4.340-1) seems to be borrowed from Ben *Jonson's Masque ofOberon, acted at court on 1 January 1611, but its irrelevance there and the awkwardness with which it is introduced by the surrounding dialogue suggests that this may be a late interpolation, indicating that the play was written before Jonson's masque rather than after it. In any event The Winters Tale had been completed by May 1611, when Simon *Forman saw it at the Globe: his journal entry describing the performance supplies the only reliable external evidence for the play's date of composition. Internal evidence is more ambiguous. Autolycus' grisly account of the torments allegedly in store for the Clown (4.4.784-92) derives from the same material in *Boccaccio that Shakespeare uses in Cymbeline: this suggests that the two plays are close in date but cannot reveal which was writtenfirst.A number of minor debts to *Plutarch, however (principally characters' names), suggest that The Winters Tale may be the closer in date of the two to Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, and most stylistic tests place it closer to Shakespeare's sections of Pericles (1607) than is Cymbeline. It was probably composed just before Cymbeline, in 1609-10. TEXT: The playfirstappeared in the *Folio in 1623, as the last of the comedies: the copy for it seems to have arrived late (in December 1622 at the earliest), when the next section of the book was already in production. The text's idiosyncrasies of spelling, its paucity of stage directions, its heavy punctuation, and its habit of listing all the characters who are to appear in a scene at its opening indicate that it was set from a transcript prepared by the scribe Ralph *Crane, though Crane's customary willingness to intervene in the interests of tidiness make it difficult to deduce the nature of the copy he was transcribing. If the satyr dance in Act 4 is indeed a late interpolation Crane was probably transcribing a promptbook. SOURCES: The Winter's Tale is primarily a dramatization of Robert *Greene's prose romance Pandosto (subtitled The Triumph of Time, and also known as 'The History of Dorastus and Fawnia'), which had first appeared in 1588 and had gone through five editions before Shakespeare composed The Winter's Tale. Shakespeare had probably known this work for some time: in any case he was not working from its most recent edition, printed in 1607, since this text alters the
wording of the oracle's declaration, and the play here follows the earlier editions verbatim. Shakespeare changes the principals' names (Pandosto becomes Leontes, Bellaria becomes Hermione; Egistus becomes Polixenes; Dorastus and Fawnia become Florizel and Perdita), exchanges the places of *Bohemia and Sicilia (though even in Greene Bohemia is miraculously provided with a coast), and drastically alters the story's tragic ending. The statue scene is entirely Shakespeare's invention (though it draws in part on the story of Pygmalion and Galatea, told in *Ovid's Metamorphoses): in Pandosto, Bellaria is genuinely and finally dead after the trial scene, and when years later Fawnia is brought to Pandosto's court he falls in love with her. After learning of her identity, he commits suicide. The play has no other major sources, though it derives incidental details from a number of texts (besides Plutarch and Boccaccio). Polixenes' defence of art (4.4.89-97) borrows from a similar passage in *Puttenham's Art of English Poesy (1589), while Shakespeare's knowledge of *Giulio Romano (5.2.96) probably derives, whether at first or second hand, from Giorgio Vasari's Vite de' piu eccellenti
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pittori, scultori, e architettori (1550). The scene of the mother's statue in Paulina's gallery may have been influenced, too, by *James I'S commissioning of painted memorial sculptures of his predecessor *Elizabeth 1 (completed in 1607) and of his mother Mary Stuart (completed before 1612), both in *Westminster Abbey. SYNOPSIS: I.I Camillo, a courtier to Leontes, King of Sicilia, exchanges courtesies with Archidamus, who is visiting in the train of Leontes' childhood friend Polixenes, King of Bohemia. They speak enthusiastically of Leontes' young son Mamillius. 1.2 Polixenes has been in Sicilia nine months, and plans to embark for Bohemia the following day. Leontes implores him to stay another week, and when his pregnant Queen Hermione adds her own entreaties Polixenes finally relents. Leontes becomes convinced that Polixenes and Hermione are conducting an affair: he talks aside with Mamillius, watching them together. After Polixenes and Hermione have gone and Mamillius has been dismissed, Leontes calls Camillo and tells him of his conviction about Hermione: overruling Camillo's insistence that the Queen is innocent, he commands him to poison Polixenes. Alone, Camillo reflects in horror on his situation, and when Polixenes arrives he tells him everything and agrees to help him make his escape. 2.1 Mamillius is about to tell his mother a horror story suitable for winter when Leontes arrives with a courtier, Antigonus: Polixenes' reported flight with Camillo seems to confirm all his suspicions. Dismissing Mamillius, he accuses Hermione of being pregnant by Polixenes, and despite her protestations of innocence has her taken to prison. When his courtiers take her part, he tells them he has sent Cleomenes and Dion to consult Apollo's oracle at Delphi for confirmation of Hermione's guilt. 2.2 Antigonus' wife Paulina calls at the prison and learns from Hermione's attendant Emilia that she has given birth to a daughter: reassuring the Jailer that the child is not included in the warrant against Hermione, Paulina proposes to show the baby to Leontes in the hope of restoring him to sanity. 2.3 A sleepless Leontes learns further of Mamillius' illness since the imprisonment of his mother. Paulina confronts him with his child, hoping to persuade him of its legitimacy by its resemblance to him: refusing to believe her, he finally has her dismissed, and then commands her husband Antigonus to take the baby and abandon it in some wilderness beyond his country's borders. When news arrives that the messengers are on their way from the oracle, preparations are instigated for Hermione's trial. 3.1 Cleomenes and Dion reflect with satisfaction on their experiences at Apollo's oracle. 3.2 Before Leontes, Hermione is formally accused of treasonous adultery with Polixenes: she eloquently denies the charge, and refers her innocence to the oracle. Cleomenes and Dion swear they have faithfully brought the oracle's written declaration, sealed and unread. Unsealed, the scroll declares that Hermione is innocent and her daughter truly begotten, and adds that 'the King shall live without an heir if that which is lost be not found'. Leontes at
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first refuses to believe this, but after a messenger brings the news that Mamillius has died, on which Hermione collapses and is taken away by Paulina and her attendants, he accepts the truth of the oracle. He is already repenting when Paulina returns and tells him Hermione too has died: welcoming her bitter reproaches, he promises to mourn his dead wife and son perpetually. 3.3 Antigonus has dreamed of Hermione's ghost, who told him to call the baby Perdita and leave it in Bohemia, prophesying that Antigonus would never see Paulina again. Believing the child must really be Polixenes', he has been brought to the Bohemian coast by ship, and as the weather worsens he leaves Perdita there, with a scroll explaining her name and identity and a box containing gold. He is chased away by a bear. An old shepherd arrives and finds the child: he is joined by his son, the Clown, who recounts seeing the bear eating Antigonus and his ship being wrecked in the storm with all hands. They open the box and set off home with Perdita, the Clown proposing to bury the remains of Antigonus on his way. 4.1 The figure of Time speaks a chorus, explaining that the play now skips sixteen years, during which Leontes grieves in seclusion, and will resume in Bohemia, where Perdita has grown up as a shepherdess. 4.2 Polixenes persuades Camillo to postpone his longed-for return to Sicilia in order to help him investigate his truant son Florizel's reported passion for a beautiful shepherdess: they will disguise themselves and visit her father's cottage. 4.3 Autolycus, a courtier-turned-pedlarcum-confidence trickster, sings 'When daffodils begin to peer': when the Clown arrives, on his way to buy ingredients for the sheep-shearing feast over which his supposed sister Perdita is to preside, Autolycus pretends to have been beaten and robbed, and picks his pocket. Singing 'Jog on, jog on, the footpath way', Autolycus sets off for the sheep-shearing in quest of further prey. 4.4 Florizel, disguised as the rustic 'Doricles', congratulates Perdita on the robes she is wearing as Queen of the Feast, and reassures her of his honourable determination to marry her despite their difference in rank. The Old Shepherd brings the occasion's guests, among them the Clown, the countrywomen Mopsa and Dorcas, and the disguised Polixenes and Camillo: Perdita distributes flowers among them, disagreeing courteously with Polixenes as she does so about the ethics of artificially cross-breeding cultivated flowers. The young people dance, and a servant brings news of the approach of a pedlar, who is admitted. The Clown does not recognize Autolycus as the thief who robbed him earlier, and after Autolycus advertises his wares with the song 'Lawn as white as driven snow' the Clown is squabbled over by Mopsa and Dorcas, who have both been hoping for love tokens from him. Autolycus sells them improbable ballads and sings a song in a trio with Mopsa and Dorcas, 'Get you hence, for I must go': after their departure he further proclaims his wares with the song 'Will you buy any tape'. Dancers arrive and perform a dance of twelve satyrs. Polixenes, meanwhile, has been speaking with the Old Shepherd, who thoroughly approves of 'Doricles' ' courtship
WINTER'S TALE, T H E
of Perdita, and when he and Camillo ask Florizel about it the Prince, refusing to explain why his father should not be told of the matter, invites them to witness his engagement to Perdita. Polixenes furiously reveals his identity and accuses his son of betraying the throne, condemning the Old Shepherd to death for treason (but then withdrawing the sentence) and threatening Perdita with torture if she ever sees Florizel again: he storms off alone. The grieved Old Shepherd reproaches Florizel and Perdita for concealing the Prince's identity from him, and leaves convinced he is undone. Perdita believes her romance with Florizel is now over, but the Prince insists that his father's displeasure has not affected his determination to marry her. Camillo persuades them to run away to Sicilia, where they may marry and live until Polixenes is reconciled to the match. Florizel disguises himself by exchanging clothes with Autolycus, who has sold all his wares, and he and Perdita hurry away. Camillo, however, means privately to inform Polixenes of the couple's escape, and to return to Sicilia with him when he pursues them. Autolycus, left alone, is delighted with the money he has received for agreeing to wear a better suit of clothes, and when the dismayed Old Shepherd and the Clown arrive, hoping to present the proofs of Perdita's true identity to Polixenes in order to escape punishment for treason, he impersonates a courtier and accepts a bribe for his supposed assistance. Deciding to assist his former master Florizel, Autolycus leads them not to Polixenes but towards the ship on which Florizel and Perdita are embarking for Sicilia.
statue move and speak, without recourse to black magic. With his encouragement, and to the sound of music, she calls the statue from its pedestal. Taking its warm hand, Leontes realizes that this is indeed Hermione. She embraces him and greets her long-lost daughter, explaining that she has kept herself alive because the oracle's pronouncement gave her hope of seeing her child again. Leontes matches Paulina with Camillo, and asks pardon from Polixenes and Hermione for his former suspicions. ARTISTIC FEATURES: The play is perhaps most remarkable for its almost programmatic movement through the tragedy of Acts 1 to 3 to the pastoral comedy of Act 4 (pivoting on the immortal stage direction, 'Exit, pursued by a bear', at once catastrophic and farcical) and finally into the tentative, fragile tragicomedy of Act 5, its final scene at once wholly implausible and irresistibly moving. CRITICAL HISTORY: Though the play was popular before the Civil War, this calculated mix of genres has made it controversial ever since: *Dryden dismissed it in 1672 (along with Measure for Measure and Love's Labours Lost) as 'grounded on impossibilities, or at least, so meanly written, that the comedy neither caused your mirth, nor the serious part your concernment'. Ben *Jonson had already ridiculed Shakespeare's depiction of a Bohemian coast in conversation with Drummond of Hawthornden in 1619 (though the idea of a sea coast of Bohemia seems to have been a proverbial joke before the play was written, incorporated as a knowing gesture, like the play's title, Mamillius' interrupted story, or 5.1 Cleomenes and Dion wish that after his years of peni- Autolycus' impossible ballads, towards the play's fairy-tale tent mourning Leontes would remarry and beget an heir, but basis). Such deviations from plausibility—whether with rePaulina reminds him of Hermione's virtues and the King gard to its geography, its only partly explained sixteen-year agrees to marry only by her direction. When Florizel and concealment of Hermione, or its depiction of Leontes' unPerdita arrive, giving out that they are already married, provoked jealousy—provoked further objections over the Leontes welcomes them eagerly, struck with Florizel's re- course of the 18th and 19th centuries, most virulently from semblance to his father and with Perdita's beauty: but when Charlotte * Lennox, who thought the statue scene 'a low .. . news arrives that Polixenes and Camillo have arrived in contrivance'. Though the play still had its admirers (among pursuit, Florizel admits that he and Perdita are not married them Victor *Hugo and Thomas Campbell) it only came into and that she is not, as he earlier claimed, a princess. Leontes its own in mainstream criticism during the 20th century, undertakes to try to reconcile Polixenes to their marriage. 5.2 partly as a result of *modernism's enthusiasms for verbal Autolycus hears from three gentlemen of the extraordinary difficulty (with which this play abounds) and for the links emotional scene that has taken place when the Old Shepherd between drama and seasonal ritual (which the play's highly opened the box with which he found Perdita, revealing her conscious movement from winter to summer, tragedy to true identity to Leontes, Polixenes, Florizel, and Perdita. The comedy, carefully underlines). Among the romances, it has royal party have now gone to Paulina's house to see a won- attracted more attention than Cymbeline, though less than the derfully lifelike statue, by Giulio Romano, of the dead Her- perennially popular and controversial The Tempest: in recent mione. Autolycus is patronized and forgiven by the Clown criticism The Winter's Tale has figured importantly in disand the Old Shepherd, newly elevated to the gentry for their cussions of Shakespeare's handling of genre, his thinkpart in the Princess's upbringing and restoration. 5.3 Paulina ing about art and artifice, his depictions of *marriage and draws a curtain to reveal Hermione's statue: a moved Leontes the family, and his understanding (and manipulation) of is particularly impressed that the sculptor, as Paulina explains, wonder. has aged the likeness to show Hermione as she would look STAGE HISTORY: When Simon Forman saw the play at the were she still alive. Perdita kneels before her mother's image. Globe in May 1611 he was struck by its plot (if not by the Camillo and Polixenes urge Leontes to abandon his sorrows, statue scene, which he does not mention) and especially by but he insists he would rather stay staring at the statue. Autolycus ('the rogue that came in all tattered like colt-pixie Paulina tells Leontes that she could if he wished make the . . . Beware of trusting feigned beggars or fawning fellows').
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Whatever features of the play pleased contemporaries, it was well liked at court, where it was acted in November 1611, during the celebrations of Princess * Elizabeth's wedding over Christmas 1612-13, in 1618, possibly 1619, in 1624, and in 1634. After this, however, it fell from favour (though it may have formed the basis of a *droll called *Dorastus and Fawnid), and when it was revived in the 18th century it generally appeared only in truncated pieces. The play was performed whole, briefly, at both the semi-legal *Goodman's Fields theatre and at *Covent Garden during the 'Shakespeare boom' of 1741, but thereafter was usually reduced to its pastoral scenes, with more or less of the fifth act grafted hastily on as an ending: Macnamara Morgan produced the first such adaption of the second half of the play as The Sheep-Shearing; or, Florizel and Perdita (1754), which excludes Leontes and has the Old Shepherd turn out to be Antigonus after all. He was successfully emulated by David *Garrick, whose popular afterpiece Florizel and Perdita: A Dramatic Pastoral (1756) restores both Leontes and much of the ending: the Sicilian King is washed up in Bohemia after a shipwreck, where he helps Florizel and Perdita, and the statue scene is conducted by an expatriated Paulina. Attempts to reclaim the whole play (by Charles Marsh, whose 1756 adaptation was never acted, and by Thomas *Hull in 1771) were less popular, and it was only restored by *Kemble in 1802 (who still used Garrick's ending until 1811). The play was little revived in the 19th century, though *Macready, *Phelps, and (briefly) "Irving all experimented with the role of Leontes: two conspicuous productions, however, were those of Charles *Kean and Mary *Anderson. Kean adopted *Hanmer's long-discredited emendation of 'Bohemia' to 'Bithynia', setting this most historically eclectic of plays in a consistent ancient Greek period, his 1856 production decorated by meticulous reference to artefacts in the British Museum. This revival was vividly and meticulously *burlesqued by the Brough brothers' Perdita; or, The Royal Milkmaid (1856). In 1887 Mary Anderson drew notice by doubling Hermione and Perdita (a distracting trick which would be repeated by Judi *Dench in Trevor *Nunn's production of 1969). Ellen *Terry played Hermione in Beerbohm
Othello and Lady Macbeth to his Macbeth (Covent Garden, 1748-9), Queen Elizabeth to Thomas *Sheridan's Richard 111 (Dublin, 1752), and the Queen to *Barry's Hamlet (Covent Garden, 1757). CMSA Wolf it. Sir Donald (1902-68), the last of the actor-managers. Coming from yeoman stock, he learned his craft in the provinces. At the *01d Vic in 1929-30 he played Tybalt, Lorenzo, Cassio, Touchstone, Macduff, and a strong Claudius. From 1936 he acted a dozen roles during two summer seasons at the Memorial Theatre at Stratford, including Hamlet. In the
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*Tree's condensed three-act production of 1906: *GranvilleBarker's attempt to restore a full text in 1912 was a critical failure. It would still be hard to name a stage production that had been genuinely popular rather than not discreditable, or that had done equal justice to the play's elements of tragedy and of comedy, though Peter *Brook's production of 1951, with John *Gielgud as Leontes, impressed many critics, as did Declan Donellan and Nick Ormerod's production for the Russian Maly company in 1999. Notable performers as Leontes have included Patrick *Stewart (icily obsessive, 1983), Jeremy Irons (relapsing into infantile insecurity, 1986), and Antony *Sher (pathologically jealous as if for medical reasons, 1998). MD ON THE SCREEN: The earliest film recorded is a tenminute American silent version (1910), followed by Italian (1913) and German films (1914). A now-scarce film of The Winter's Tale was made in i960, with Laurence Harvey as Leontes, and there was a BBC TV production two years later, but Jane Howell's production (1980) for the BBC series remains its most satisfactory screen incarnation: for its time it was adventurous in its use of the medium, with stylized settings and considerable use of close-up asides to camera. AD RECENT MAJOR EDITIONS
Stephen Orgel (Oxford, 1996); J. H. P. Pafford (Arden, 1963); Ernest Schanzer (New Penguin, 1969) SOME REPRESENTATIVE CRITICISM
Barber, G L., in Shakespeare's Festive Comedy (1959) Bartholomeusz, Dennis, 'The Winter's Tale' on the Stage in England and America, 1611-1976 (1982) Belsey, Catherine, in Shakespeare and the Loss of Eden (1999) Bishop, T. G., in Shakespeare and the Theatre of Wonder (1996) Bristol, Michael, 'In Search of the Bear', Shakespeare Quarterly, 42 (1991) Cavell, Stanley, in Disowning Knowledge (1987) Coghill, Nevill, 'Six Points of Stage-craft in The Winters Tale, Shakespeare Survey, 11 (1958) Morse, William R., 'Metacriticism and Materiality: The Case of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale\ English Literary History, 58 (i99i) Wilson, Harold S., 'Nature and Art in The Winters Tale\ Shakespeare Association Bulletin, 18 (1943)
autumn of 1937 he decided to become an actormanager. Thereafter for fourteen seasons (with appearances in London and abroad) he toured provincial towns. There was a different play most nights; and the supporting actors were seldom well rehearsed. Wolfit, with his tireless voice and Elizabethan gusto, was always centre stage as Hamlet, Macbeth, Shylock, Petruchio, Richard in, Malvolio, Jonson's Volpone, and *Massinger's Sir Giles Overreach. He was reckoned the greatest Lear of his time. But for him many Britons would never have seen Shakespeare staged. In 1955 Tyrone *Guthrie invited him to the *01d Vic, but after a towering
success in *Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great, Wolfit quarrelled with the management. Ronald Harwood evoked him and a vanished era in The Dresser, successful as both a play and a film. MJ Harwood, Ronald, Sir Donald Wolfit CBE: His Life and Work in the Unfashionable Theatre (1971) Wolsey, Cardinal. Thomas Wolsey (c.14751530) helps secure the execution of Buckingham and the divorce of Katherine, but opposes King Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn before
Sir Donald Wolfit in his greatest role, King Lear, as photographed by Angus McBean.
WROXALL meeting his downfall in All Is True {Henry viii) 3.2. AB Woman's Prize, The; or. The Tamer Tamed. See FLETCHER, JOHN; TAMING OF THE SHREW,
for all of Shakespeare's plays. His setting of The Comedy of Errors (1976, dir. Trevor *Nunn) IBC won two major awards. W o o l s h o p . See MAIDENHEAD INN.
THE.
Wood, Anthony à (1632-95), a notoriously illtempered antiquary whose collection Athenae Oxonienses included anecdotal material about Sir William *Davenant contributed by John *Aubrey. CMSA
Worcester, Earl of. Brother of Northumberland, and Hotspur's uncle, his rebellion is eventually defeated, and he is executed, / Henry iv 5.5.14 (based on Thomas Percy (c.1344— 1403)). AB Worcester's
Wood, John (b. 1930), British actor. Having acted at Oxford from 1954 and with the *01d Vic he came into his own with his idiosyncratic, intelligent playing of varied parts at the * Royal Shakespeare Company; his Brutus (1973), Don Armado (1990), Prospero (1988), and King Lear (1990) were critically acclaimed. He has also excelled in plays by Tom *Stoppard. MJ Woodville, Lieutenant of the Tower of London who refuses Gloucester entry to the Tower, / Henry vi 1.4 (based on Richard Woodville (Widvill), father of Rivers and Lady Gray). AB Woodward, Henry (1717-77), English actor. He began his stage career as a child actor, became a dancer and mime at *Covent Garden, and from 1738 was the most famous Harlequin and comic at *Drury Lane, playing Mercutio, Touchstone, Lucio, Polonius, and a combative Petruchio to Kitty *Clive's Catharine in '"Garrick's adaptation. He returned to London after unsuccessful management in Dublin and made his final appearance as Stephano in 1777. CMSA Wooer. Under the Doctor's instructions he has sex with the Jailer's Daughter in The Two Noble Kinsmen to cure her of her madness. AB
Woolf, (Adeline) Virginia (1882-1941), English novelist and critic. Woolf s influential essay in * feminist criticism A Room of one's Own (1929) speculates on the obstacles that might have confronted Shakespeare's sister had she been as talented as the Bard. More comically her mockhistorical novel Orlando (1928) draws on As You Like It, depicting an immortal Elizabethan courtier and admirer of Shakespeare who, Ganymede-like, becomes a woman. NJW Woolfenden, Guy (b. 1937), English composer. He joined the *Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1961 and was its principal composer from 1963 until 1998. In this role he composed over 150 scores, including music
527
uncle Mr Richard Weeks, of Somersetshire, also referred to All Is True as 'new', but added that 'it had been acted not passing 2 or 3 times before'. PH
Men.
See
STRATFORD-UPON-
AVON, ELIZABETHAN, AND THE THEATRE.
Wordsworth, William (1770-1850), English poet. No less than his verse drama The Borderers (1J96—J), Wordsworth's great autobiographical poem The Prelude (1805/1850) resonates with echoes of Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello, here associated both with Wordsworth's childhood guilts and with his adult anxieties about the ambition, usurpation, and regicide enacted by the French Revolution. In 'Scorn not the sonnet' (1827) Wordsworth influentially cited the Sonnets as themselves autobiographical, claiming that 'with this key I Shakespeare unlocked his heart'. NJW World Shakespeare Congress. See INTERNATIONAL SHAKESPEARE ASSOCIATION.
Worth, Irene (b. 1916), American actress. Born in Nebraska, she trained with the English elocutionist Elsie Fogerty. Her distinguished career as a Shakespearian began with the *01d Vic Company in 1951. At the first Shakespeare Festival at Stratford, Ontario, under Tyrone *Guthrie in 1953 she appeared as Helena in All's Well That Ends Well and Queen Margaret in Richard in, returning in 1959 to star as Rosalind. She was a leading presence in the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1962, playing challenging modern parts as well as Goneril in Peter *Brook's revelatory King Lear, a part she repeated in his film. She played Gertrude in Hamlet at Greenwich (1974) and Volumnia in Coriolanus at the *National (1984), a part she has also played for BBC television. MJ Wotton, Sir Henry (1568-1639), diplomat. In a letter of 2 July 1613 to Sir Edmund Bacon, Wotton described how the Globe theatre burned down on 29 June 1613 during a performance of All Is True {Henry VIII), then a 'new play'. Wotton may mean that the play was then relatively new; it could have had two or three earlier stagings. A young London merchant named Henry Bluett, writing on 4 July to his
Wright, James (1643-1713), antiquary and author of the anonymous Historia histrionica: An Historical Account of the English Stage (1699). Written as a dialogue between Lovewit and an old cavalier, it is a useful source of information on early 17th-century plays, players, and playhouses and includes references to Hamlet and Othello. CMSA Wright of Derby, Joseph (1734-97), English painter. Wright's contribution to the *Shakespeare Gallery was plagued by his problematic relationship with John *Boydell. The painter had acquired fame through his paintings of modern subjects, which depicted polite and informed members of the community of taste engaged in activities that reflected or contributed to advances in science, learning, and art. Wright's conception of painting was, arguably, too grand for Boydell's purposes. The artist's Prospero in his Cell with Ferdinand and Miranda, completed in 1789, was criticized for its treatment of figures, particularly that of Ferdinand, who, as one critic stated, was 'not sufficiently historical or practical for the rest of the picture'. Wright evidently failed to assign sufficient importance to narrative in his works for the Shakespeare Gallery. Boydell turned down two paintings by Wright: the first, The Winter's Tale (now lost), depicted an overdominant coastal landscape; the second, Juliet in the Tomb (now lost), was shown, instead, at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1790. CT
Wright, W(illiam) Aldis (1836-1914), English academic and editor, with W. G. Clark and J. Glover, of the first *Cambridge edition of Shakespeare (9 vols., 1863-6). Its textual apparatus included variant readings from all early and some later editions. Its one-volume version, the Globe (1864), created a reference standard for almost a century. TM Wroxall is a small village about 12 miles (19 km) north of Stratford and close to Rowington, where Shakespeare's ancestors may have come from. The name Shakespeare was common in the neighbourhood during the 16th century. Wroxall had a priory where an Isabel Shakespeare was prioress in 1501 and a Jane ShakeSW speare subprioress in 1525.
X, Malcolm. See JAMES I THEORY.
Yale Elizabethan Club, a literary and social club for Yale University undergraduates, founded in 1911 with the support of Alexander Smith Cochran, who donated the nucleus of a library of Tudor and Stuart literary texts, including the entire collection of Shakespeare folios, *quartos, and * apocryphal plays formerly owned by Alfred Huth. SLB Yale Shakespeare. This American pocket edition of the individual works started to appear in 1918, and a revised series was issued beginning in 1954. It was advanced for its time in featuring texts based where possible on the early quartos, and in adding no stage or scene divisions not in the original texts. It also preserved original lineation and punctuation as far as was practicable in a modernized edition. RAF yard, the uncovered space around the stage at the open-air Renaissance playhouses. Spectators who stood in the yard paid the least to enter (usually 1 penny) and, at the cost of tired legs, had the best view. If rain started during a performance those in the yard were probably allowed to enter the galleries for the usual additional penny. Puns on the yard's occupants and their intelligence are common, ranging from the mild 'understanders' to Hamlet's ""groundlings' (3.2.11) which, as well as referring to the fact that they stand on the ground, may intentionally liken them to the ground-feeding fish of the same name which have large mouths and small bodies. GE
Yeats, William Butler (1865-1939), Irish poet and playwright, 'the voice of Irish cultural consciousness coming to maturity' (Roy Foster). The most obvious immediate influences on Yeats's poetry are Blake, Maeterlinck, and the French symbolists; and on his plays the Noh tradition of Japan. But his attempt, with Lady Gregory and others, to establish an Irish Literary (later National) Theatre in Dublin, 1899, with Irish plays on Irish subjects, seems to reproduce something of Shakespeare's patriotic creation of a similar English national identity through the use of native history, legend, and folklore. Yeats's painter father read to him from boyhood, including Shakespeare, and he learned 'to set certain passages in Shakespeare above all else in literature'. In his own essays on a literature beyond realism (a literature of symbolism, myth, and allegory), Yeats frequently takes Shakespeare as illustration and touchstone, as in 'At Stratford-on-Avon' (1901), where Yeats refers to what he calls 'Shakespeare's myth': 'a wise man who was blind from very wisdom, and an empty man who thrust him from his place, and saw all that could be seen from very emptiness'. Yeats's earlier poems frequently echo Shakespearian phraseology, as well as receiving from the tragedies a series of fatalistic gestures in the face of heroic death; later poems of rage and madness in old age (much information about which comes from unpublished letters to his close woman friend Mrs Olivia Shakespear) certainly conjure images reminiscent of King Lear and the Fool. TM Yonge, Bartholomew. See MONTEMAYOR, JORGE DE.
Yorick is the name of the late King of DenYates, Dame Frances Amelia (1899-1981), mark's long-deceased jester, whose skull HamEnglish academic, author of a long series of let picks up, Hamlet 5.1.179. His much-quoted learned studies of the English and European line on doing so, 'Alas, poor Yorick Renaissance, particularly in areas of secret, oc(5.1.180), has made this the most famous postcult, and recondite knowledge, such as The humous bit-part in world literature: one Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age (1979). bardolater (André Tchaikowsky, a distinOther works throw new light on the intellectual guished composer and pianist) even bequeathed and philosophical background to Shakespeare's his own skull to the RSC in the hopes of playing plays, including theories of the Elizabethan it after death. AB stage: New Light on the Globe Theater (1966); The Art of Memory (1966); The Theatre of the York, Archbishop of. (l) Richard m. See World (1969); Astraea (1975); and Shakespeare's CARDINAL; ROTHERHAM, THOMAS. (2) In / Last Plays (1975). TM Henry iv he joins Northumberland's rebellion, but in 2 Henry iv he is tricked by Prince John Yates, Mary Ann (1728-87), English actress. into dismissing his forces (4.1) and executed She first acted at *Drury Lane with *Garrick in (based on Richard le Scrope (c.1350-1405) ). 1753 and subsequently played many ShakeAB spearian heroines including Portia, Rosalind, Viola, Imogen, and Cleopatra, and Julia to her York, Duchess of. (l) Cicely Neville (1415-95) comedian husband's Lance in Benjamin Vic- grieves for her sons Clarence and Edward iv tor's adaptation of The Two Gentlemen of Ver- {Richard HI 2.2), but curses her other son King ona (1762). Famed for her dignified playing, she Richard 4.4.184-96. (2) She pleads for the life was painted as the Tragic Muse by *Romney, of her son Aumerlefirstwith her husband York, and as Volumnia for *Bell's Shakespeare. Richard 11 5.2, and then with King Henry, 5.3 AB CMSA (unhistorical).
ZUCCARO, FEDERICO York, Duke of. (l) For Richard Plantagenet (1411-60), 3rd Duke of York, see HENRY VI PART I; T H E FIRST PART OF THE CONTENTION; RICHARD DUKE OF YORK. ( 2 ) See EDWARD, EARL
OF MARCH.
(3)
Edward
Plantagenet
(1373-1415), elder brother of Richard, Earl of Cambridge, and uncle to the Duke of York of the Henry vi plays, appears under the name of Duke of Aumerle in Richard 11. As Duke of York in Henry v he is given the honour of leading the vanguard at Agincourt (4.3.130-2) but dies on the field (4.6.3-8). ( 4 ) Edmund de Langley (1341-1402) is depicted as an old man who finds his responsibilities as regent in Richard 11 burdensome. His support for Richard dwindles and it is he who announces his abdication and first hails Bolingbroke as King Henry (4.1.98-103). Despite the protestations of his wife the Duchess of York, he denounces his son Aumerle to King Henry, 5.3. (5) for Richard (1472-83), see EDWARD, PRINCE.
AB
York, Mayor of. See MAYOR OF YORK.
Yorkshire Tragedy, A, a tragedy based on reallife murders committed in Yorkshire in 1605, which was included (among other *apocryphal works) in the Third *Folio, probably because Pavier and *Jaggard had published it as Shakespeare's in 1608 and 1619. It is now attributed to Thomas *Middleton. SM
Young, Charles Mayne (1777-1856), English actor, less majestical than J. P. *Kemble, less passionate than Edmund *Kean, who made an impressive London debut as Hamlet (1807). Equally accomplished in comedy and tragedy, he played Falstaff, Cassius, Iago, and Macbeth. RF Young Cato. See CATO, YOUNG.
Young Lucius. See Lucius, YOUNG. Young Siward. See SIWARD, YOUNG.
Your Own Thing (1968), American rock M u sical based on Twelfth Night; book by Donald
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Driver; music and lyrics by Hal Hester, and lyrics by Hal Hester and Danny Apolinar. This curious specimen of psychedelic kitsch includes twelve numbers, some, such as 'Coming Away, TM Death', directly from songs in the play. 'You spotted snakes', the lullaby sung by the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream 2.2.9. The original music is unknown; the only wellknown setting is *Mendelssohn's 'Bunte Schlangen' (1843), from his incidental music to the play. JB
Zadek, Peter (b. 1926), German director. From 1933 to 1958, Zadek lived in England, where he studied Shakespeare at Oxford and directed extensively. Returning to Germany, he joined with designer Wilfried Minks to develop the Bremen style of theatre. Untraditional, antiintellectual, and deliberately shocking, Zadek's productions emphasize non-verbal communication over speech, a priority exemplified by his visceral production of Measure for Measure (1967). Although Jewish himself, Zadek directed The Merchant of Venice (1973) with Hans Mahnke as an extremely unsympathetic Shylock. His famous 'clown show' King Lear (1974) was developed through improvisation and intensive ensemble work, a technique he also used for Othello (1976) and Hamlet (1977). His later Hamlet, with Angela Winkler in the title role, was highly acclaimed at the Edinburgh Festival
in 2000.
BR
Zeffirelli, Franco (b. 1923), prolific Italian theatre and film director. Zeffirelli directed a visually stylish Romeo and Juliet at the Old Vic in i960 (with Judi *Dench as Juliet), and his subsequent film version (1968), in which he used young actors and employed a rapid-paced cinematographic style for the fight sequences, was an immediate box-office success. Less widely admired, but no less effective as access-
ible Shakespeare, was his The Taming of the Shrew (1966), with Richard *Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. His equally mainstream Hamlet (1990), with Mel Gibson, attracted interest and generally favourable response rather than acclaim. AD Zhu Shenghao (1912-44), a major Chinese translator of Shakespeare, who began his translation in 1935. Although poverty-stricken and constantly haunted by illness, Zhu managed to render 31 plays before his death: 27 of them were published in 1947. His translation was used as the basis for The Complete Works HQX published in 1978 in Beijing. Z offany, Johann (1735-1810), German painter. Zoffany painted numerous portraits of David *Garrick and his contemporaries. Garrick appeared almost annually in Zoffany's submissions to exhibitions held by the Society of Artists between 1762 and 1766. These portraits, depicting Garrick 'in character', were central to the actor's self-styling as a stage hero. Later portraits such as Mr and Mrs Garrick before the Temple of Shakespeare, 1763 (depicting the couple at their estate in Hampton, Middlesex), characterize the actor as a gentleman of taste and refinement. As upwardly mobile as Garrick, Zoffany went on to win several commissions from the royal family. Many of Zoffany's 'stage' portraits from productions of Shakespeare were engraved and entered mass circulation: these include Garrick and Mrs Pritchard in Macbeth (made into a mezzotint, 1776) and Mr Powell as Posthumus (mezzotint, 1770). CT
Zuccaro, Federico (1543-1609), Italian painter. Zuccaro was active in England in 1573-4, where he painted *Elizabeth and a number of her courtiers: the fact that Shakespeare was a child at the time did not deter certain 19th-century critics from identifying one of Zuccaro's English portraits as a likeness of the playwright. CT
English Histories 2. Angers {King John 2.1)
37. Paris (reported lost / Henry vi 1.1.61; Henry vi crowned there / Henry vi 3.8, 4.1; reported lost again The First Part of the Contention {2 Henry vi) 1.1.215)
3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
38. Pleshey {Richard 111.2.66, 2.2.120) 39. Poitiers/Poitou {King John I.I.II, 2.1.28-9; reported lost / Henry vi 1.1.61, 4-3-45-6) 40. Pomfret (Pontefract) Castle {Richard 11 5.1.51-2, 5.5) 41. Ravenspurgh {Richard 11 2.1.298, 2.2.49-51, 2.3.8-12; / Henry iv 1.3.245, 3.2.93-6, 4.3.79; Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi)
i. Agincourt, battle of, 1415 {Henry v 4) Barnet, battle of, 1471 {Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 5.1-3) Berkeley {Richard 11 2.2.119, 2.3) Bordeaux (/ //(?«ry vi 4.2, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7) Bosworth, battle of, 1485 {Richard 1115.3-7) Bramham Moor, battle of, 1408 (reported 2 Henry iv 4.4.97-9) Brecon (Brecknock) {Richard 111 4.2.124-5)
9. Bridgnorth (1 //éTzry /v 3.2.175-8) 10. Bristol Castle {Richard 11 2.2.135-40, 2.3.162-6, 3.1, 3.2.137-8) 11. Calais (Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, put to death there; Mowbray accused of the crime and of embezzlement Richard 11 1.1.87-141; Henry v embarks for England after Agincourt, Henry v4.8.125-6, 5.0.6-7; Henry vi embarks from there / Henry vi 4.1.169-73; Warwick governs Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 1.1.239)
5-8-7-9) 42. Rheims (reported lost / Henry vi 1.1.60—1) 43. Rouen (/ Henry vi 1.1.60—1, 3.2—7) 44. Ruge-mont Castle (Exeter) {Richard m 4.2.105-9) 45. Saint Albans (1st battle of, 1455 The First Part of the Contention {2 Henry vi) 5.1-5; 2nd battle of 1461 Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 1.111-136)
23. Guyenne (reported lost / Henry vi 1.1.57—61) 14. Hames Castle {3 Henry vi 5.5.1-4)
46. Saint Edmunsberry or bury (Bury St Edmunds) {King John 5.2-5; The First Part of the Contention {2 Henry vi) 2.4.71-2, 3.1, 3.2) 47. Salisbury {Richard m 4.4.3802; All Is True {Henry vm) 1.2.194-9) 48. Sandal Castle (Wakefield) {Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 1.2) 49. Scotland {Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 3.3.23-9; Richard m 3.7.15-22; / Henry vi 1.3.255—62) 50. Severn, River (/ Henry iv 1.3.92-111, 3.1.61-4, 69-76) 51. Shrewsbury, battle of, 1403 (/ Henry iv 5) 52. Somme, River {Henry K3.5) 53. Southampton (Henry v embarks for France Henry v 2.0, 2.2) 54. Swineshead (Swinsted) {King John 5.3, 5.7) 55. Tewkesbury, battle of, 1471 {Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 5.3.18-19, 5.4-5; remembered Richard 1111.2.225-8) 56. Touraine (claimed King John 2.1.151-3) 57. Tours (lost J Henry vi 4.3.45-6; wedding ceremony remembered The First Part of the Contention {2 Henry vi) 1.1.1-16, 1.3.53-7)
24. Harfleur (besieged by Henry v, 1415 Henry v 3.0-3) 25. Harlechly (Harlech or 'Barkloughly') Castle {Richard 11 3.2)
58. Towton, battle of, 1461 {Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 2.2-6) 59. Trent, River (7 Henry iv 3.1.69-136)
26. Ha'rfordwest (Haverford West) {Richard 111 4.5.6-7) 27. Holmedon (Homildon Hill), battle of, 1402 (/ Henry iv 1.1.49-
60. Troyes (historically, setting of the negotiations depicted in Henry v
12. Chertsey {Richard m 1.2.29, 2°2> 2I 3) 13. Ci'cester (Cirencester) {Richard 11 5.6.1-4) 14. Coventry {Richard 111.1.196-9, 1.2.44-6, 56, 1.3; Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 4.9.32, 5.1; / Henry iv 4.2) 15. Doncaster (mentioned / Henry iv 5.1.41—71) 16. Dover {King John 5.1.30-1; / Henry vi 5.1.49-50; see also King Lear 8 (3.1), 13 (3.6), 14 (3.7), 15 (4.1), 20 (4.5)) 17. Dunsmore {Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 5.1.1-3) 18. Dunstable {All Is True {Henry vni) 4.1.24-38) 19. Flint Castle {Richard 11 3.3) 20. Gads Hill (Gadshill) {1 Henry iv 1.2.123-31, 2.2-3) 21. Gisors (reported lost / Henry vi 1.1.57—61) 22. Gualtres Forest {2 Henry iv 4.1-2)
75) 28. Kenilworth Castle {The First Part of the Contention {2 Henry vi) 4.4.38-44) 29. Lincoln Washes {King John 5.6.40-3) 30. Lynn (King's Lynn) {Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 4.6.20-2) 31. Maine (claimed for Arthur King John I.I.II; lost, with Anjou, to England / Henry vi 4.3.45-6; claimed by René / Henry vi 5.5.107125.3; duly ceded to René The First Part of the Contention {2 Henry vi) 1.1.48-59, 4.1.86, 4.2.158-9, 4.7.64) 32. Milford (Haven) (Richmond lands there Richard 1114.4.463-5; see also Cymbeline 3.2.43-5 et seq., 3.4.27-8, 142-5, 3.5, 3.6, 4.2) 33. Monmouth (birthplace of Henry v Henry V4.7.11-51) 34. Mortimer's Cross, battle of, 1461 (traditionally the site of the portent of three suns depicted in Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 2.1) 35. Northampton {Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 4.9.15; Richard m 2.4.1) 36. Orléans (/ Henry vi 1.2)
5-2) 48. Wakefield, battle of, 1460 {Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 1.3-4) 61. Wales (mentioned many times; scene of Richard 11 2.4 and see Flint, Harlechly: see also Milford Haven / Henry iv 3.1) 62. Wye, River {1 Henry iv 3.1.61—4; Henry v 4.7.21-51) 63. York (mentioned many times; scene of The First Part of the Contention {2 Henry vi) 1.3; Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 2.2, 4.8)
Macbeth 64. 65. 66. 67.
Birnam Wood (4.1.106-10, 5.2, 5.3, 5.5, 5.4, 5.10) Colmekill (Iona) (2.4.34-6) Dunsinane Castle (4.1.106-10, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5-n) Glamis Castle (traditionally the scene of Duncan's murder, though the play places it at Inverness) (1.5-2.3) 68. Saint Colum's inch (Inchcolm Island) (1.2.60-2) 69. Inverness (1.4.42-3, 1.5-2.3) 70. Stratford-upon-Avon
Shakespeare's life, works, and reception: a partial chronology, 1564-1999 The conjectural dates of composition supplied here for the plays are based on the 'Canon and Chronology' section in William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion, by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, with John Jowett and William Montgomery (1987), where more detailed information and discussion may be found. 1564 1582
26 Apr.: Shakespeare baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon 28 Nov.: marriage licence issued for William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway 1583 26 May: baptism of Susanna, their daughter 1585 2 Feb.: baptism of Hamnet and Judith, their twin son and daughter ci590 The Two Gentlemen of Verona c.1591 The Taming of the Shrew; The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry vi); Richard Duke of York {3 Henry vi) 1592 Robert Greene refers to Shakespeare as an 'upstart crow'. 1 Henry vi ; Titus Andronicus c.1593 Richard 111 1593 publication of Venus and Adonis 1594 Comedy of Errors; publication of The Rape of Lucrèce r.1594-5 Love's Labours Lost 1595 Richard 11; Romeo and Juliet; A Midsummer Nights Dream 1595 15 Mar.: Shakespeare named as joint payee of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, founded in 1594 1596 King John 1596 11 Aug.: burial of Hamnet Shakespeare in Stratford-uponAvon 1596 Oct.: draft of the grants of arms to John Shakespeare 1596-7 The Merchant of Venice; 1 Henry iv i^j 4 May: Shakespeare buys New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon c.1597-8 The Merry Wives of Windsor; 2 Henry iv 1598 Shakespeare listed as one of the 'principal comedians' in Jonson's Every Man in his Humour. Much Ado About Nothing. Mention of Shakespeare in Francis Meres's Palladis Tamia f.1598-9 Henry V 1599 building of the Globe: Julius Caesar f.1599- As You Like It 1600
1605
C.1600-1 Hamlet; Twelfth Night 1601 8 Sept.: burial of John Shakespeare in Stratford-uponAvon C.1602 Troilus and Cressida 1602 2 Feb.: John Manningham notes performance of Twelfth Night at the Middle Temple 1602 1 May: Shakespeare pays £320 for land in Old Stratford 1603 Measure for Measure. Shakespeare named among the 'principal tragedians' in Jonson's Sejanus 1603 May: Shakespeare named in documents conferring the title of King's Men on their company c.1603-4 composition of A Lover's Complaint; Sir Thomas More 1604 Othello 1604-5 All's Well That Ends Well
533
24 July: Shakespeare pays £440 for an interest on the tithes in Stratford. Timon ofAthens 1605-6 King Lear 1606 Macbeth; Antony and Cleopatra 1607 Pericles 1607 5 June: Susanna Shakespeare marries John Hall 1608 the King's Men take over the indoor Blackfriars theatre. Coriolanus 1608 9 Sept.: burial of Shakespeare's mother in Stratford 1609 publication of the Sonnets (composed c.1593-1603). The Winter's Tale 1610 Cymbeline 1611 The Tempest 1612 Shakespeare testifies in the Belott-Mountjoy case 1613 Globe burns down during a performance of All Is True {Henry vin) 1613 10 Mar.: Shakespeare buys the Blackfriars Gatehouse 1613-14 The Two Noble Kinsmen 1614 Sept.: Shakespeare involved in enclosure disputes in Stratford 1616 10 Feb.: Judith Shakespeare marries Thomas Quiney 1616 25 Mar.: Shakespeare's will drawn up in Stratford 1616 25 Apr.: Shakespeare buried in Stratford (the monument records that he died on 23 Apr.) 1623 8 Aug.: burial of Anne Shakespeare in Stratford 1623 publication of the First Folio 1632 publication of the Second Folio 1642 (start of Civil War) A parliamentary edict temporarily forbids performance of plays: the Globe closed down 1644 15 Apr.: the Globe demolished 1649 16 July: burial of Susanna Hall in Stratford 1660 Charles 11 restored to the throne in May. He grants warrants for two playing companies and theatres in August. The first actress appears on the English stage, possibly as Desdemona 1662 Judith, Shakespeare's last surviving child, dies 1663 Third Folio published 1664 second edition of the 1663 Folio of Shakespeare's plays published with seven plays not collected before 1664 Margaret Cavendish writes the first critical prose essay on Shakespeare 1670 Shakespeare's only grandchild dies 1681 Nahum Tate's King Lear first performed 1685 Fourth Folio published 1688 (Glorious Revolution)
1709
Jacob Tonson publishes Nicholas Rowe's edition of The Works of Mr. William Shakespeare, including a biographical preface; lists of dramatis personae given for the first time
A PARTIAL CHRONOLOGY 1709 1711 1725 1733 1733 1736 1741 1741 1745 1747 1747 1750 1751 1752 1753
1756 1758 1761 1765 1769 1769 1772 1774
1776
1777 1778
1780 1785
1787 1789
1790
1797
Betterton plays Hamlet for the last time (first time in 1660) Thomas Johnson begins issuing pocket-size editions of the plays Alexander Pope's edition of Shakespeare's plays published Theobald's edition of Shakespeare's plays published Voltaire writes the first French translation of Shakespeare's work (the 'To be or not to be' soliloquy) 'Shakespeare Ladies Club' established in London in a boom season on the London stage Charles Macklin plays Shylock and Garrick makes his debut Shakespeare first translated into German (C. W. von Borck's Julius Caesar) (Second Jacobite rising) Warburton's edition of Shakespeare's plays published David Garrick takes over Drury Lane Theatre Colley Cibber's (1699) adaptation of Richard m opens in New York City William Hawkins, professor of poetry at Oxford, begins lectures in Latin on 'Shakesperio' William Dodd's anthology The Beauties of Shakespear published Charlotte Lennox publishes her three-volume Shakespear Illustrated: the first full-length book on Shakespeare by an American-born critic and the first collection and analysis of Shakespeare's sources, with an introduction by Samuel Johnson the first known Italian translation of a Shakespeare play {Julius Caesar) published by Domenico Valentini Roubiliac's statue of Shakespeare, commissioned by Garrick, is placed in his 'Temple' The Tempest and King Lear are the first Shakespeare plays to be printed in North America (New York City) Johnson's edition of Shakespeare's plays published Elizabeth Montagu's Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare published Garrick mounts his 'Shakespeare Jubilee' at Stratford-uponAvon; the tourist industry at Stratford begins the first Spanish translation of Shakespeare is staged {Hamlet by Ramon de la Cruz, based on a French version) William Richardson, professor of humanity at Glasgow University, publishes A Philosophical Analysis and Illustration of Some of Shakespeare's Remarkable Characters (Declaration of Independence) Pierre Le Tourneur begins publishing the first complete French translation of Shakespeare's plays Maurice Morgann publishes An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff Malone publishes the first conjectural chronology of Shakespeare's works, based partly on numerical assessments of style Malone publishes the first critical edition of Shakespeare's sonnets Eusebio Luzzi's Romeo and Juliet (Venice) and Charles le Picq's Macbeth (London) are the earliest complete ballets based on Shakespeare's work Hamlet first performed in Swedish in Gothenburg (French Revolution) Alderman John Boydell presents his exhibition of specially commissioned paintings of scenes from Shakespeare's plays Malone publishes his edition of The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare, including the poems (which become an integral part of the Shakespeare canon) and a chronology.
1800
A. W. von Schlegel publishes his translation of sixteen plays into German, finished by Ludwig Tieck and others in 1832
a playbill for Henry iv at Robert Sidaway's theatre is the earliest known evidence for performance of Shakespeare in Australia 1807 Henrietta Maria Bowdler anonymously publishes a collection of 20 plays in The Family Shakespeare, credited to her brother Thomas Bowdler in the second edition of 1818 (true attribution discovered in 1966) 1807 Mary Lamb publishes Tales from Shakespear, 20 prose stories based on the plays, six of which were written by her brother Charles Lamb; Mary Lamb's contribution was not acknowledged until 1838 1815 (Battle of Waterloo) 1816 Rossini composes the opera Otello. 1823 Stendhal's Racine et Shakespeare published, expanded 1825 Peter Foersom's Danish translations of ten of Shakespeare's 1825 plays (1807-18) are augmented by P. F. Wulff. Edvard Lembcke later adds to the Foersom-Wulff translation to produce a Collected Dramatic Works (1861-73). 1825 America's first theatre riot begins when Edmund Kean refuses to perform Richard in 1826 Mendelssohn composes an orchestral overture to A Midsummer Nights Dream 1828 Mikhail Vronchenko's Hamlet is the first attempt at a faithful translation of a Shakespeare play into Russian 1837 (accession of Victoria) 1839 Berlioz's choral symphony Roméo et Juliette performed in Paris 1843 Mendelssohn composes incidental music for Ludwig Tieck's production of A Midsummer Nights Dream, including the 'Wedding March' 1844-7 Julian Verplanck's New York edition of Shakespeare's plays published 1847-93 Verdi composes operas based on Macbeth (1847), Othello (1887), and Falstaff (1893) 1848 (year of revolutions in Europe) Anasztâz Tomori finances the translation of Shakespeare's works into Hungarian, coordinated by Jânos Arany 1849 31 people are shot dead at the 'Astor Place Riot' after a performance of Macready's Macbeth, New York City 1851 Philadelphia Shakespeare Society established 1852 Bhanumati Chittavilasa, a Bengali version of The Merchant of Venice, is one of the earliest Indian adaptations of any foreign play 1855 Iakovos Polylas's prose version of The Tempest is the earliest known translation of Shakespeare into Greek 1857 Delia Bacon publishes The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded, arguing that his plays had been written by Francis Bacon 1862 Berlioz composes his last work inspired by Shakespeare, Béatrice et Benedict, a comic opera 1863-6 'Cambridge Shakespeare' first published, edited by William George Clark, John Glover, and William Aldis Wright; they number the lines within each scene to facilitate reference for the first time 1864 Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft founded in Weimar and begins publishing Shakespeare Jahrbuch in 1865 1864 Globe edition of Shakespeare's works published (it continued to be reprinted until 1978) 1865 (end of American Civil War) 1868 Ambroise Thomas composes a tragic opera based on Hamlet
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A PARTIAL CHRONOLOGY
1868 1868
Birmingham Shakespeare Library opens earliest known performance of Shakespeare in Bulgaria takes place (an amateur performance of Romeo and Juliet) 1871 Horace Howard Furness begins to publish the first series of variorum editions of individual plays 1873 Russian Shakespeare Society founded 1874 Frederick James Furnivall establishes the New Shakspere Society; first volume of The New Shakspere Society's Transactions published 1874 earliest known Hebrew translation of a Shakespeare play published by Isaac Edward Salkinson {Romeo and Juliet) 1874 loan Pedr translates 1 Henry iv into Welsh 1875-7 complete works translated into Polish 1879 Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opens on 23 April 1880 A. S. Kok publishes the first complete Dutch translation of Shakespeare's works 1881 William Poel's production based on the 1603 Hamlet staged 1886 first Yiddish translation of Shakespeare published (Julius Caesar) 1894 John Bartlett publishes the New and Complete Concordance of the Dramatic Works and Poems of Shakespeare 1899 Sarah Bernhardt plays Hamlet 1899 Beerbohm Tree performing the dying moments of King John is the earliest preserved film of Shakespeare being acted
1935
1935 1937
1939 1944 1949 1951 1951 1953 1954 1957 i960 1963 1964 1965
1904 1906 1911 1913 1914 1922 1923 1923 1929
1930 1932 1934
A. C. Bradley's Shakespearean Tragedy published a musical Arab version of Romeo and Juliet is produced by the Egyptian actor and producer Cheik Salama El Higazy Julius Caesar translated into Scots Gallic by U. M. MacGilleamhoire Sigmund Freud publishes an essay on 'The Theme of the Three Caskets', pioneering psychoanalytic readings (start of First World War) Liang Shiqui begins his translation of Shakespeare into Chinese (completed and published in Taiwan, 1967) the first full production of Troilus and Cressida staged since the 17th century Barry Jackson's Birmingham Repertory Theatre produce Cymbeline in modern dress Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford appear in a version of The Taming of the Shrew, the first Shakespeare film with sound The Merchant of Venice staged in Shanghai: the earliest known performance of Shakespeare in China new Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (now Royal Shakespeare Theatre) opens in Stratford René-Louis Piachaud's production of Coriolan leads to riots in Paris
535
1965 1970 1976 1979 1984 1986 1986 1986 1989 1989 1990 1993 1993 1996 1997 1999
Bolshoi theatre (Moscow) commissions Sergei Prokofiev's ballet score to Romeo and Juliet (rejected by the Bolshoi and first staged in Czechoslovakia in 1938) Max Reinhardt's film of A Midsummer Nights Dream appears in Orson Welles's production of Julius Caesar at the Mercury Theatre in New York City, Caesar's supporters wear the brown shirts of Mussolini's supporters (start of Second World War) Laurence Olivier's film of Henry v produced; his film of Hamlet comes out in 1948 Bertolt Brecht helps to form the Berliner Ensemble Cole Porter's musical Kiss Me Kate opens, based on The Taming of the Shrew Shakespeare Institute founded by Allardyce Nicoll (coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11) Tyrone Guthrie founds the Stratford Festival, Ontario Joseph Papp founds the New York Shakespeare Festival Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein's musical West Side Story (based on Romeo and Juliet) opens in New York Royal Shakespeare Company founded under artistic directorship of Peter Hall Shakespeare Society of Korea established Grigori Kozintsev's film of Hamlet produced; his film of King Lear comes out in 1969 Cultural Revolution bans all translation, production, and criticism of Shakespeare in China Orson Welles's film Chimes at Midnight produced Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Nights Dream performed by the RSC Edward Bond's Bingo performed by the RSC BBC begins its series of productions of Shakespeare's plays for television the Shakespeare Society of China founded Beijing-Shanghai Shakespeare festival in April stages 28 different productions of Shakespeare's plays Oxford Shakespeare published Swan Theatre opens at Stratford Rose Theatre excavated Kenneth Branagh's film of Henry v released (resignation of Margaret Thatcher) an annual international Shakespeare Festival is established in Gdansk Shakespeare Society of the Low Countries founded Shakespeare's Globe (a conjectural reconstruction of the original theatre) opens in London the first Australian Shakespeare Festival held at Bowral the film Shakespeare in Love wins 7 Oscars at the Academy Awards
Further reading
T
resource, and that of the *Folger Shakespeare Library, at the time of going to press, had not been wholly replaced by its online catalogue at http://www.folger.edu. Other important Shakespearian holdings which can be readily searched via computer include those of the *British Library (at http:// www.bl.ac.uk) and those of the immense Widener Library at Harvard (at http://www.hollisweb.harvard.edu). Useful general reference works on Shakespeare include The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, edited by Margreta de ^ G E N E R A L INTRODUCTORY OVERVIEWS Grazia and Stanley Wells (2001), which supplies up-to-theminute essays on important topics within the academic study The increasing specialization and professionalization of the of Shakespeare. It is in general more immediately readable academic world has led, regrettably, to the virtual extinction of than David Scott Kastan's A Companion to Shakespeare (1999), up-to-the-minute books describing and interpreting Shakewhich is principally aimed at North American postgraduate speare's oeuvre for a non-student readership. Among the small students. Less oriented towards the university market, and still crop published during the 1990s, Harold Bloom's best-selling Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), every bit as valuable despite having been in some areas overtaken by fresh research and changing intellectual priorities, are two comprehyperbolic and bardolatrous as its title implies, cannot be recommended, and Maynard Mack's Everybody's Shakespeare hensive encyclopaedias, F. E. *Halliday's A Shakespeare Companion (last revised in 1964) and Oscar Campbell and Edward (1993), largely confined to the tragedies, seems a little dated. Quinn's much larger A Shakespeare Encyclopaedia (1966). Both, The most attractive exceptions to this trend are Jonathan however, are now out of print, and the former has been in part Bate's patchy but highly readable The Genius of Shakespeare replaced by Stanley Wells' less compendious but much prettier (1997), which is particularly good on the development of Shakespeare's reputation, and Stanley Wells' Shakespeare: the Shakespeare: An Illustrated Dictionary (1978, revised 1985, and Poet and his Plays {1997, a revision of Shakespeare: A Dramatic revised again, with fewer illustrations but considerable updating, as The Oxford Dictionary of Shakespeare, 1998). Life, 1994). Another lively general survey of Shakespeare's output reached print rather belatedly at the dawn of the twenty-first century, namely W. H. *Auden's introductory 1? S H A K E S P E A R E ' S L I F E course on Shakespeare, given in New York in 1946-7, and Further reading on this subject can be found after the entries published as Lectures on Shakespeare, ed. Arthur Kirsch (2000). on *biographies, on William *Shakespeare, on *education and he sheer volume and diversity of writing about Shakespeare defies all attempts at compiling a representative short reading list. The following is intended primarily to supplement the bibliographies appended to entries in the body of this Companion by pointing to a few accessible, introductory studies for the general reader, and by indicating some standard reference works from which to obtain further suggestions.
^ J O U R N A L S AND R E F E R E N C E WORKS The major Shakespearian periodicals are described elsewhere under journals and in their own individual entries. The three most important are the German ^Shakespeare Jahrbuch (1864-), the British *Shakespeare Survey (annual, 1948-), and the American *Shakespeare Quarterly (19 50-): the latter produces the annual World Shakespeare Bibliography, now also available as an immense and ever-growing set of CD-Roms. Further electronic resources for the study of Shakespeare, including Shakespearian websites, are described under *electronic media. The ease and sophistication with which catalogues of books and journals can now be stored on computers is beginning to make even the most reliable of printed bibliographies—such as Stanley Wells' Shakespeare: A Bibliographical Guide (1990)— look in danger of obsolescence, but the printed catalogue of the *Birmingham Shakespeare Library remains a valuable
537
on *Stratford-upon-Avon: those with a taste for the pathological may also want to consult some of the titles listed under *Authorship Controversy. On all of these topics the work of Samuel *Schoenbaum is especially recommended, notably William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life (1977): the most reliable biography since is Park Honan's Shakespeare: A Life (1999). 1P C R I T I C I S M ON T H E PLAYS AND P O E M S The short lists of representative critical reading appended to the entries on each of Shakespeare's works in this Companion are necessarily highly selective. Outside the bibliographies cited above, the best place to start looking for a wider range of criticism on any given Shakespearian text is usually in the introduction to a good single-work edition of it, in a series such as the *Oxford, the *Arden, or the *New Cambridge. Major trends in Shakespeare criticism since his own time are
FURTHER READING
described in the entry on *critical history, and in the separate Standard works in this field include G. E. Bentley's The entries cross-referenced from it. A helpful anthology of the first Jacobean and Caroline Stage (7 vols, 1966), E. K.*Chambers' two centuries of Shakespeare's critical reception is provided by The Elizabethan Stage (4 vols, 1923), and, more recently, AnBrian Vickers' six-volume Shakespeare: the Critical Heritage, drew Gurr's The Shakespearian Stage (3rd edition, 1992) and Andrew Gurr and Mariko Ichikawa's Staging in Shakespeare's 1623-1801 (1974-81); the crucial three decades which followed are admirably cherry-picked in Jonathan Bate's The Romantics Theatres (2000): Gurr's work incorporates, among much else, on Shakespeare (1992). A very useful and attractive survey of the the findings from the partial excavations of the *Rose and last hundred years' contributions to the understanding of *Globe theatres carried out in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Shakespeare's works is provided by Michael Taylor's ShakeSurviving visual evidence about the Shakespearian theatre is speare Criticism in the Twentieth Century (2001). usefully collected in R. A. Foakes, éd., Illustrations of the English Stage, 1580-1642 (1985). ^ S H A K E S P E A R E ' S LANGUAGE 1P S H A K E S P E A R E ' S T I M E S Further reading on this subject can be found listed after the entry on *English. Standard reference works include Marvin As with literary criticism, the writing of history, too, has beSpevack's The Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare (1973) and come increasingly professionalized over the last few decades, C. T. Onions' much-reprinted A Shakespeare Glossary (1911); a and up-to-date introductions to Shakespeare's period and its good starting-point is provided by N. F. Blake's Shakespeare's culture aimed at the non-specialist are comparatively few. Language: An Introduction (1983). Other accessible studies inW. R. Elton's Shakespeare's World: Renaissance Intellectual clude M. M. Mahood, Shakespeare's Wordplay (1957); R. A. Contexts (1970) is still useful, as are Julia Briggs' This Stage-Play Lanham, The Motives of Eloquence (1976); and Marion World (1983, revised 1997) and Keith Thomas's Religion and the Trousdale, Shakespeare and the Rhetoricians (1982). Decline of Magic (1971). A useful reference work combining perspectives on the English Renaissance with information on 1P S H A K E S P E A R E ' S L I T E R A R Y CONTEXT the writing of the period is Michael Hattaway's A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture (2000). For furAs the entries on *sources and on *education suggest, the most ther suggestions, see the reading lists appended to the entries important reference books on Shakespeare's reading remain T. W. Baldwin's Shakespeare's Smalle Latine andLesse Greeke (2 listed under 'Historical, social and cultural context' in the Thematic listing of entries. vols, 1947) and Geoffrey *Bullough's Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare (8 vols, 1957-75). Other important 1 ? T H E T R A N S M I S S I O N OF S H A K E S P E A R E ' S studies in this field include Emrys Jones' The Origins of TEXTS Shakespeare (1976), Robert S. Miola's two books on Shakespeare's debts to ancient drama {Shakespeare and Classical On this topic, see particularly the reading lists appended to the Comedy and Shakespeare and Classical Tragedy, 1992) and his entries on *editing, on *printing and publishing, on *folios, wider-ranging Shakespeare's Reading (2000), Steven Marx's and on *quartos. An excellent introduction to the subject is Shakespeare and the Bible (2000), and Kenneth Muir's The provided in the *Oxford edition of Shakespeare's works (edited Sources of Shakespeare's Plays (1975). On Shakespeare's literary by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, 1986), and it is handled in relations with his dramatic contemporaries, particularly greater depth and detail by Stanley Wells et al, William readable discussions include James Shapiro's Rival PlayShakespeare: A Textual Companion (1987). wrights: Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare (1991) and Martin Wiggins' Shakespeare and the Drama of his Time (2000). A 1? S H A K E S P E A R E ON STAGE AND SCREEN useful introduction to the whole period is provided by chapters Many of the most important works on the performance of 2 to 4 of The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature, Shakespeare since his own time are listed after the entries on edited by Pat Rogers (1987); chapter 3, by Philip Edwards, *Restoration and eighteenth-century Shakespearian producprovides a good short introduction to Shakespeare's achievetion, *nineteenth-century Shakespearian production, *twentiment and its place in the context of Renaissance drama as a eth-century Shakespearian production, *Shakespeare on sound whole. film, *silent films, and television. An attractive introduction to the history of Shakespeare's interpretation and reinterpretation in the theatre is provided by Jonathan Bate and Russell Jackson, eds., Shakespeare: An Illustrated Stage History (1996), while the most up-to-date authoritative surveys of the interpretation of Shakespeare in the cinema are offered by Ken Rothwell's A History of Shakespeare on Screen (1999) and Russell Jackson, éd., The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film
1? S H A K E S P E A R E ' S T H E A T R I C A L CONTEXT For further works discussing the theatrical world within which Shakespeare worked, see particularly the reading lists appended to the entries on Elizabethan *acting, on the *acting profession, on the *Chamberlain's/King's Men, on Elizabethan and Jacobean ^theatres, on Philip *Henslowe, and on *censorship.
538
FURTHER READING
(2000). One particularly appealing and original perspective on the whole question of the stagecraft of Shakespeare's plays and the ways in which it has been realized is offered by M. M. Mahood's Playing Bit Parts in Shakespeare (1998, a revision of Bit Parts in Shakespeare's Plays, 1992).
W. Moelwyn Merchant's Shakespeare and the Artist (1959). The catalogues of the art collection at the Folger and of the *RSC Collection and Gallery at Stratford are important resources in this field. 1? S H A K E S P E A R E AROUND T H E GLOBE
1P S H A K E S P E A R E AND T H E O T H E R ARTS On Shakespeare's posthumous involvement in art-forms outside poetry and the theatre, see especially the reading lists appended to the entries on *ballet, *dance, *fiction, *painting, *music, *opera, and *songs in the plays. The most comprehensive reference work on Shakespeare in music is A Shakespeare Music Catalogue, edited by Bryan Gooch and David Thatcher (5 vols, 1991), while the most wide-ranging general book on Shakespeare in the visual arts remains
539
See the reading lists appended to entries on individual countries and regions and, especially, the entry on translation. A worthwhile collection of recent essays on Shakespeare's participation in cultures beyond the British Isles is provided by John Joughlin, éd., Shakespeare and National Culture (1997); see also Michael Hattaway, Boika Sokolova, and Derek Roper, eds., Shakespeare in the New Europe (1994), and Ania Loomba and Martin Orkin, eds., Postcolonial Shakespeares (1998). MD
Picture acknowledgements The publishers wish to thank the following who have kindly given permission to reproduce illustrations as identified by the page numbers. While every effort has been made to secure permissions, we may have failed in a few cases to trace the copyright holder. We apologise for any apparent negligence. 150 © The British Museum, London
376 The British Library (C34 I.16 D4V-E)
14 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
4 Ford Motor Company
152 Agnès Varda/Agence Enguérand, Paris
378 © Public Record Office (AO 3/908/13)
18 Oldham Art Gallery, Lancashire/Bridgeman Art
157 Mary Evans Picture Library
382 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
Library, London
165 Hulton Getty
(photo: Joe Cocks Studio Collection)
22 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
169 © Woodmansterne Limited, Watford
23 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
170 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
24 © Nobby Clark
171 © The Board of Trustees of the Victoria & Albert
32 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
Museum, London
386 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon (photo: Reg Wilson) 394 The British Library (C57 b.55) 398 The Moviestore Collection
36 SCR Photo Library
178 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
411 PA News Photo Library
38 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
189 BFI Films: Stills, Posters and Designs
413 Shakespeare Cenrre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
39 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
203 Hulton Getty
415 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
42 From the RSC Collection with the permission of the
206 Reproduced by kind permission of the Winn Family
420 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
Governors of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre 43 Mary Evans Picture Library
and the National Trust
421 Shakespeare Centre Library, Strarford-upon-Avon
209 From Shakespeare's England: An Account of the Life and 430 Louvre, Paris/Perer Willi/Bridgeman Art Library,
44 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
Manners of his Age, edired by Sidney Lee, 1916,
47 © Woodmansterne Limited, Watford
Clarendon Press, Oxford
London 432 © Public Record Office
49 © Tate Gallery, London 2001
212 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
434 British Library (MS Harl.7368 f.9)
56 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
216 Hulton Getry
436 From the RSC Collection with the permission of the
(photo: David Farrell) 57 By permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery
221 By courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London 222 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Neg.
Governors of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre 443 By kind permission of His Grace the Duke of Buccleugh and Queensberry, K.T.
No. BB64/444)
59 The British Library (2304b.17)
226 By courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London
447 Elizabethan Club of Yale University
63 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
234 The Illustrated London News Picture Library
448 Novosti c/o SCR photo Library
65 © Stratford Shakespeare Fesrival Foundation of
235 © The British Museum, London
450 Worshipful Company of Stationers
Canada (photo: Robert C. Ragsdale) 67 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
236 © The Board of Trustees of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London
69 Oxford University Press
238 The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
73 By courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London
243 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
75 © John Haynes 81 Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University 94 From the RSC Collection with the permission of the Governors of the Royal Shakespeare Theatte 100 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C. 109 © John Haynes/Royal National Theatre Archive
451 The Kobal Collection 453 Whitbread Beer Company
(photo: Angus McBean) 254 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon (photo: Angus McBean)
455 Copyright © 1990 by The Berkley Publishing Group and First Publishing Inc. All righrs reserved. 457 From Shakespeare's England: An Account of the Life and Manners of his Age, edited by Sidney Lee, 1916, Clarendon Press, Oxford
257 © Guildhall Library
464 © BBC
260 Marquess of Bath, Longleat House, Warminster,
467 © Tare Gallery, London 2001 468 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
Wiltshire 276 The Kobal Collection
468 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washingron, D.C.
in Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
278 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
469 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washingron, D.C.
117 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
282 Shakespeare Centre Library, Strarford-upon-Avon
489 Shakespeare Cenrre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
118 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
301 © Gamma/Michèle Laurent/Frank Spooner Pictures
126 By courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London
317 The British Library (MS Portland Loan 29/246, p.18)
(phoro: Angus McBean) 495 Shakespeare Centre Library, Strarford-upon-Avon
131 By courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London
325 BFI Films: Stills, Posters and Designs
132 © The Board of Trustees of the Victoria & Albert
326 © Anne Kirchbach/Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich
501 © Donald Cooper/Photo.ftagf
340 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
505 © 1998 David Jouris/Hold the Mustard Productions
Museum, London
(photo: Angus McBean)
134 The National Gallery of Scotland
354 © Tate Gallery, London 2001
513 Metropoliran Opera Archives, New York
136 Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon
355 By permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard
526 © The Board of Trustees of the Victoria & Albert
144 From the RSC Collection with the permission of the Governors of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre 146 The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C. 147 From Bowles & Carver, Old English Cuts and Illustrations for Artists and Craftspeople (Dover Publications, Inc., New York 1970)
University
Museum, London
362 Henry E. Hunrington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California 363 Elizabethan Club of Yale University 371 Shakespeare Centre Library, Strarford-upon-Avon (photo: Angus McBean)
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