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Micriixilms International 300 N INFORMATION TO USERS This reproduction was made from a copy of a document sent to us for microfilming. While the most advanced technology has been used to photograpii and reproduce this document, the quality of the reproduction is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help clarify markings or notations which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or “target” for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is “ Missing Page(s)” . I f it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting through an image and duplicating adjacent pages to assure complete continuity. 2. 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These prints are available upon request from the Dissertations Customer Services Department. 5. Some pages in any document may have indistinct print. In all cases the best available copy has been filmed. UniversiW Micriixilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8513551 Clark, Stephen Kay "A PLACE IN THE STORY": THE PERSPECTIVE OF SHAKESPEARE’S COMMON SOLDIER Middle Tennessee State University D.A. 1985 University Microfilms i nternstionei300 N. zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Copyright 1985 by Clark, Stephen Kay All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "A Place in the Story": The Perspective of Shakespeare's Common Soldier Stephen Kay Clark A dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Arts May, 1985 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "A Place in the Story": The Perspective of Shakespeare's Common Soldier APPROVED : Graduate Committee ; Ma] or Prof^sor Cj y . ( Minor Professor Chairman of the Department of English Dean of tire Graduate School Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Stephen Kay Clark 1985 All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract "A Place in the Story"; The Perspective of Shakespeare's Common Soldier By Stephen Kay Clark Critics who address Shakespeare's depiction of military events tend to view the common soldier as a coward engaging in pillage and rebellion. These critics dismiss as anoma­ lous a scene in Henry V that involves three conscripts ques­ tioning the disguised Henry about a king's obligation to pursue justified warfare. The scene affords the common soldier dignity and a dimension of intelligence, while asserting his right to expect just cause for a war he must fight. Hardly exceptional, the scene reflects a pattern of military performance based on leadership— a patter' begun in Shakespeare's first tetralogy. When provided exemplary leadership and just cause, the common soldier proves coura­ geous; conversely, he responds negatively to ineffective leadership, which frequently accompanies an unjust cause. Chapters One and Two analyze the operation of leader­ ship and performance in the two tetralogies. Throughout the early histories, the common soldier responds positively to proper leadership, such as that offered by Talbot and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Stephen Kay Clark Richmond, while the soldier who suffers under poor lead­ ership becomes a symbol of waste. The second tetralogy points to Shakespeare's growing interest in exposing the recklessness of zealous militarists, for example Hotspur. Falstaff's actions epitomize callous disregard for the conscript's welfare. The pattern reaches its maximum realization through the full disclosure of the commoner's perspective when conscripts argue with King Henry V. Chapters Three and Four analyze leadership and per­ formance and the waste surrounding martialism in Shake­ speare's tragedies. Enobarbus' plight dramatizes the dilemma of all who must follow faulty leaders in fallen causes. Indeed, agony over Antony's declining leadership contributes to Enobarbus' death. The soldier-as-waste emerges powerfully in the suffering imposed by the supreme militarist, Coriolanus. By endorsing the military model for revenge, Hamlet assures his own demise and the unin­ tended deaths of many others. Similarly, Othello reverts to the martial code of duty in murdering Desdemona. In moving from history to tragedy, Shakespeare reminds us that both uncommon and common soldiers can, like Enobar­ bus, "earn a place in the story"— a story whose shape and outcome are deeply influenced by those who lead and those who follow. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Chapter Page I. Introduction to the Basic Patterns Involving the Common Soldier: The First Tetralogy ............................ 1 II. "A Black Matter for the King": The Increasing Significance of the Common Soldier ............................... 37 III. Leadership and Loyalty: Antony, Enobarbus, and Coriolanus ............................... 89 IV. "The Rest is Silence": Further Directions in Leadership/Performance . ............. 133 Works Cited ............................................ 164 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter I Introduction to the Basic Patterns Involving the Common Soldier: The First Tetralogy In Act IV of Henry V , William Shakespeare presents what is perhaps the only non-comic individualization of the common soldier in Elizabethan drama. The scene represents the eve of the Battle of Agincourt; and Henry, disguised as a gentleman of an infantry company, mingles with the troops. Among those he encounters are three common soldiers : John Bates, Alexander Court, and Michael Williams. When the King questions the three concerning the mission, each expresses reservations about the war. Williams engages Henry in a dialectic regarding the King's responsibility to commit troops only in just causes. Eventually Williams asserts that if the cause is not just, "the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make. The dimension of intelligence exhibited by the sol­ diers and the insight provided into the infantryman's William Shakespeare, Henry V , in The Complete Works of Shakespeare, ed. Hardin Craig (Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1961), p. 757 (IV.1.141). Subsequent references to Shakespeare's plays throughout this study are from this edition and are cited within the text. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. reservations about the impending battle afford the common soldier dignity. Scholars who have attended to military subjects in Shakespeare generally, however, dismiss the scene as an anomaly, something unseen in the remainder of the Shakespearean canon. Usually the military commentators are influenced by the historical evidence of the ineptness 2 of conscripts in Elizabeth's army. They believe, there­ fore, that Shakespeare reflects exclusively the miserable side of common soldiers— with the exception, of course, of the aforementioned scene in Henry V . For instance, Paul Jorgensen, the most prolific writer on military subjects in Shakespeare, concedes that the individualization of the infantrymen in Henry V shows Shakespeare's recognition "that all soldiers were not clowns and rogues."^ Yet a clearer indication of Jorgensen's views on the matter is capsuled in the following: On the whole, however, whatever insights Shakespeare achieves into the mentalities of his common soldiers are focused upon their less admirable traits: their reluctance to be drafted, their ridiculous poverty, their 2 Extensive historical accounts on the quality of Elizabethan soldiers are available in the following: Paul A. Jorgensen, Shakespeare's Military World (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1956), pp. 120-68; and C. G. Cruick- shank, Elizabeth's Army, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1966) . ^ Jorgensen, Shakespeare's Military World, p. 168. Reproduced with permission
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