Shakespeare and Race Edited by Catherine M

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SHAKESPEARE AND RACE

This volume draws together thirteen important essays on the con- cept of race in Shakespeare’s drama. The authors, who themselves reﬂect racial and geographical diversity, explore issues of ethnography, politics, religion, identity, nationalism and the distribution of power in Shakespeare’s plays. The authors write from a variety of perspectives, drawing on Elizabethan and Jacobean historical studies and recent criticism and theory. They pay attention to performances of the plays in dif- ferent ages and places, as well as to the text, and they consider the distinction between authorial intent and subsequent appropriation. An introductory essay describes the Elizabethan understanding of race and sets the context for the ensuing chapters, which reﬂect shifts in scholarship over the last forty years. Most are reprinted from volumes of Shakespeare Survey; others have been specially commissioned. They tackle the ethnic implications of Shakespearian drama in South Africa, the Caribbean, Germany and the Arab world as well as England. A broad range of plays and poems is included, while particular essays focus on Othello, The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest.

catherine alexander is a Lecturer at the Shakespeare Cen- tre, Stratford-upon-Avon and Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. She has written on eighteenth-century appropria- tions of Shakespeare. stanley wells is Emeritus Professor and Director of the Shake- speare Institute, University of Birmingham. He is General Editor of the Oxford Shakespeare, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies (1986), co-author of William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion (1987) and author of Shakespeare: A Dramatic Life (1995).

SHAKESPEARE AND RACE

edited by CATHERINE M. S. ALEXANDER and STANLEY WELLS

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo

Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521770460

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2000

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

Shakespeare and race / edited by Catherine M. S. Alexander and Stanley Wells. p. cm. ISBN 0 521 77046 7 (hardback) – ISBN 0 521 77938 3 (pbk) 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616 – Views on race. 2. Literature and society – England – History – 16th century. 3. Literature and society – England – History – 17th century. 4. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616 – Characters – Blacks. 5. Blacks in literature. 6. Race in literature. I. Alexander, Catherine M. S. II. Wells, Stanley W., 1930– PR3069.R33 S5 2000 822.3´3–dc21 99-089004

ISBN 978-0-521-77046-0 hardback ISBN 978-0-521-77938-8 paperback

Transferred to digital printing 2007

Contents

List of illustrations page vii List of contributors viii Editorial note ix

1 Surveying ‘race’ in Shakespeare 1 Margo Hendricks 2 A portrait of a Moor 23 Bernard Harris 3 Elizabethans and foreigners 37 G. K. Hunter 4 ‘Spanish’ Othello: the making of Shakespeare’s Moor 64 Barbara Everett 5 Shakespeare and the living dramatist 82 Wole Soyinka 6 Shakespeare in the trenches 101 Balz Engler 7 Bowdler and Britannia: Shakespeare and the national libido 112 Michael Dobson 8 ‘Shakespur and the Jewbill’ 124 James Shapiro 9 Wilhelm S and Shylock 139 Laurence Lerner 10 Cruelty, King Lear and the South African Land Act 1913 151 Martin Orkin v

vi Contents 11 Caliban and Ariel write back 165 Jonathan Bate 12 Casting black actors: beyond Othellophilia 177 Celia R. Daileader 13 ‘Delicious traﬃck’: racial and religious diﬀerence on early modern stages 203 Ania Loomba

Index 225

Illustrations

1 Portrait of the Moorish Ambassador to Queen Elizabeth, 1600–01 page 25 (University of Birmingham, UK) 2 Hugh Quarshie as Aaron in Titus Andronicus, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1982 181 (Photo: Shakespeare Centre Library) 3 Hugh Quarshie as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1986 182 (Photo: Shakespeare Centre Library) 4 Hugh Quarshie as Loveless in The Relapse, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1995 185 (Photo: Shakespeare Centre Library) 5 Ray Fearon as Brachiano in The White Devil, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1996 186 (Photo: Shakespeare Centre Library) 6 Ray Fearon as Paris in Troilus and Cressida, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1996 191 (Photo: Shakespeare Centre Library) 7 Ray Fearon as Paris in Troilus and Cressida, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1996 197 (Photo: Shakespeare Centre Library) 8 Evroy Dear as Ferdinand in The Tempest, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1998 197 (Photo: Shakespeare Centre Library)

vii

Contributors

jonathan bate, University of Liverpool celia r. daileader, University of Alabama michael dobson, University of Surrey, Roehampton balz engler, Universität Basel barbara everett, University of Oxford bernard harris, formerly University of York margo hendricks, University of California, Santa Cruz g. k. hunter, Yale University laurence lerner, Vanderbilt University ania loomba, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign martin orkin, University of Haifa james shapiro, Columbia University wole soyinka, Emory University

viii

Editorial note

In exploring Shakespeare and Race the essays in this volume consider a range of plays and are written from a variety of perspectives by authors who themselves represent racial and geographical diversity. The chapters by Margo Hendricks and Celia R. Daileader have been specially commissioned: the remainder are reprinted from volumes of Shakespeare Survey. All reﬂect changing perceptions of the understanding and interpretation of ‘race’, revealing, through their diﬀerence of style and approach, some of the complexity and breadth of the subject. These essays draw on history, criticism, theory, reception and per- formance, to explore ethnography, politics, religion, the creation of identity, nationalism and the distribution of power, and to grapple with the distinction between authorial intent and subsequent appropriation. We believe that they provide an informative and sometimes provocative collection which will enhance the study and understanding of Shakespeare’s text.

catherine m. s. alexander stanley wells