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Shakespeare and the Apocalypse

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Shakespeare and the Apocalypse Shakespeare and the Apocalypse Continuum Shakespeare Studies Passion, Moderation and Prudence in Shakespearean Drama, Unhae Park Langis Shakespeare and His Authors: Critical Perspectives on the Authorship Question, Edited by William Leahy Shakespeare in China, Murray J. Levith Shakespeare in Japan, Tetsuo Kishi and Graham Bradshaw Shakespeare and Moral Agency, Edited by Michael D. Bristol Shakespeare in the Spanish Theatre, Keith Gregor Shakespeare and the Translation of Identity in Early Modern England, Edited by Liz Oakley-Brown Shakespeare’s Cues and Prompts, Murray J. Levith Shakespeare’s Musical Imagery, Christopher R. Wilson Shakespeare and the Apocalypse Visions of Doom from Early Modern Tragedy to Popular Culture R. M. Christofides Continuum Shakespeare Studies Continuum International Publishing Group A Bloomsbury company 50 Bedford Square 80 Maiden Lane London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10038 www.continuumbooks.com © R. M. Christofides 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. R. M. Christofides has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-7994-4 e-ISBN: 978-1-4411-8322-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Christofides, R. M. Shakespeare and the apocalypse : visions of doom from early modern tragedy to popular culture / R. M. Christofides. p. cm. – (Continuum Shakespeare studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4411-7994-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4411-8322-4 (ebook pdf) – ISBN 978-1-4411-0130-3 (ebook epub) 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616–Criticism and interpretation. 2. Apocalypse in literature. 3. English drama–Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600–History and criticism. 4. English drama (Tragedy)–History and criticism. I. Title. PR3011.C47 2012 822.3’3–dc23 2011046645 Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India For Jodie and Belinda, may our little family always be this happy. vi Contents Acknowledgements viii A Note on Typography ix List of Figures x Preface xii Chapter 1: The Reechy Painting and the Old Church Window 1 Chapter 2: Hamlet and the Living Dead 19 Chapter 3: Masochistic Damnation in Othello 65 Chapter 4: Macbeth and the Angels of Doom 109 Chapter 5: The Promised End of King Lear 149 Chapter 6: The End 185 Bibliography 203 Index 213 Acknowledgements Thanks to the innumerable and unsung custodians of the wall paintings and stained glass I have had the pleasure of seeing in churches throughout England and Wales: their unheralded work not only made a book like this possible but, far more importantly, maintains for public consumption the few remnants of a glorious, but largely overlooked, cultural and artistic heritage. Nascent versions of some of the ideas in Chapter 3 appeared in ‘Iago and equivocation: the seduction and damnation of Othello’, Early Modern Literary Studies, 15:1. Thanks to Catherine Belsey for her exemplary advice and guidance over the years. Thanks to Jodie Matthews for her invaluable comments and suggestions as well as her unstinting support; this book is as much yours as mine. A Note on Typography When using early modern texts, I have modernized ‘i’, which also served for ‘j’. Also, I have replaced the long ‘s’ with the familiar modern version throughout. Where I have maintained the capitalization of theological terms, for example, Doom, Judgement, Judge, Last Judgement and Apocalypse, it is to emphasize their specifically Christian resonance. Moreover, I have also maintained the capitalization of quotations from Shakespeare and the Bible. List of Figures Figure 1.1 Doom painting at Holy Trinity Church, Coventry, Warwickshire 10 Figure 2.1 Christ rising from the dead at St Peter and St Paul Church, Pickering, Yorkshire 34 Figure 2.2 Christ depicted at St Teilo’s Church, Cardiff 43 Figure 2.3 ‘The Three Living and the Three Dead’ painting at St Nicholas’s Church, Charlwood, Surrey 57 Figure 2.4 Detail of the Doom painting at St James the Great Church, South Leigh, Oxfordshire 57 Figure 2.5 Detail of the stained glass Doom at St Mary’s Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire 62 Figure 3.1 The Great West Window of St Mary’s Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire, with a stained glass depiction of the Doom 100 Figure 3.2 Detail of the stained glass depiction of the Doom at St Mary’s Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire, showing a devil carting a soul off to hell 102 Figure 3.3 Detail of the stained glass depiction of the Doom at St Mary’s Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire, showing a snatching devil fended off by an angel 103 Figure 3.4 Detail of the stained glass depiction of the Doom at St Mary’s Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire, showing a soul whipped to hell by a devil 104 Figure 3.5 Detail of the doom painting at St Nicholas’s Church, Oddington, Gloucestershire, showing a devil driving souls to hell 104 Figure 3.6 Doom painting at Holy Trinity Church, Coventry, Warwickshire, showing a snarling hell-mouth 107 List of Figures xi Figure 3.7 Detail of the doom painting at St Nicholas’s Church, Oddington, Gloucestershire, showing a devil thrusting souls into the hell-mouth 107 Figure 3.8 Detail of the stained glass depiction of the Doom at St Mary’s Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire, showing the devil with a head beneath his shoulders 108 Figure 4.1 Doom painting at St Nicholas’s Church, Oddington, Gloucestershire 140 Figure 4.2 Detail of the Doom painting at St Nicholas’s Church, Oddington, Gloucestershire, showing two ‘trumpet-tongu’d’ angels resurrecting the dead 140 Figure 4.3 Detail of the stained glass depiction of the Doom at St Mary’s Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire, with two trumpet-wielding angels 141 Figure 4.4 Doom painting at St James the Great, South Leigh, Oxfordshire 142 Figure 4.5 Doom painting at St James the Great, South Leigh, Oxfordshire, showing a red angel blasting the damned to hell 142 Figure 4.6 Detail of the doom painting at St Nicholas’s Church, Oddington, Gloucestershire, showing a small, cherubic angel lifting a soul up to heaven as another angel wakes the dead with a trumpet 146 Figure 4.7 Detail of the doom painting at St Nicholas’s Church, Oddington, Gloucestershire, showing a devil driving the wicked into the ‘deep damnation’ of hell, as a striped demon keeps the cauldron fire burning with his bellows 146 Figure 5.1 St George slays the dragon at St Peter and St Paul Church, Pickering, Yorkshire 157 Figure 5.2 Christ stands by the mouth of hell at St Peter and St Paul Church, Pickering, Yorkshire 157 Figure 5.3 Detail of the stained glass depiction of the ‘Prick of Conscience’ at All Saints Church, York, showing the apocalyptic sea-snake 158 Figure 5.4 Doom painting at St James the Great, South Leigh, Oxfordshire, showing a hell-mouth manned by the devil and his dragonish beast 159 Preface I have a recurring nightmare about the end of the world. London’s famous telecommunications tower, a structure that dominated the skyline visible from my childhood home, slowly falls. Meanwhile, in a lecture hall just below, a bullet grazes my shoulder. The violence quickly spreads: panic on panic is deeply redoubled. Shots are fired between colleagues and associates, even friends. A moment later, I am running through a narrow corridor as the ceiling begins to bend and crack. Before the ceiling collapses, before the tower crushes me, I wake up. ‘The problem with the apocalypse’, a friend of mine once told me, ‘is that it never actually arrives’. As this book contends, Shakespeare’s tragedies stage this aspect of eschatology. Apocalyptic imagery was widespread in medieval England and clearer than the oblique messages delivered by the unconscious via dreams: wall paintings that depicted the Doom were commonplace in every pre- Reformation church. Usually found above the chancel arch directly in front of the congregation, these large, vivid images of divine salvation and sulphurous damnation could not be missed. Nor could they be misunderstood. Centrepieces of the church iconography that acted as a mode of religious instruction for the mostly illiterate parishioners, depictions of the Doom warned every man, woman and child of the eternal consequences of their mortal actions. A righteous life would be rewarded with grace on Judgement Day, just like the souls on the wall saved by swooping angels. Alternatively, never-ending fire awaited sinners, thrown into a lizard-like hell-mouth by the array of sinister demons that stared down on the pews with menace. Not only did many of these Catholic images survive the zeal of sixteenth- century Protestant iconoclasts, they also held a firm place in the collective memory of local communities. In a time of mandatory church attendance, their impact was such that Shakespeare, even in the unlikely event that he never encountered one, would have been well aware of the trumpet-blasting angels and snatching fiends that were among the standard elements of Preface xiii Doom paintings. Moreover, that so many of his dramatis personae reference these images suggests that Shakespeare, like the majority of people in early modern England, knew the iconography collectively referred to as the poor man’s Bible just as well as the biblical narratives they illustrated. Most of this iconography was destroyed as part of Reformation decrees to obliterate idolatrous imagery. Adherence to these decrees was far from universal and in many of the compliant churches Doom paintings were simply washed over, present, if not completely apparent, below a thin surface of lime.
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