Connotations 12.2-3 (2002/2003)
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Connotations A Journal for Critical Debate Volume 12 (2002/2003) Numbers 2-3 Waxmann Munster / New York Connotations - A Journal for Critical Debate by the Connotations Society is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate Published by Connotations: Society for Critical Debate EDITORS Inge Leimberg (Munster) and Matthias Bauer (Tubingen) ASSOCIATE EDITORS Lothar Cerny, Michael Steppat, Burkhard Niederhoff, and Christiane Lang Secretary: Uli Fries Editorial Assistants: Angelika Zirker / Carmen Adam EDITORIAL ADDRESS Professor Matthias Bauer, Eberhard-Karls-Universitiit Tubingen, Department of English, Wilhelmstr. 50, 72074 Tubingen, Germany Email: [email protected] http://www.connotations.de EDITORIAL BOARD M. H. Abrams, Cornell University Christiane Bimberg, Universitat Dortmund John Russell Brown, Middlesex University Ursula Brumm, Freie Universitat Berlin Paul Budra, Simon Fraser University Eleanor Cook, University of Toronto Elizabeth Story Donno, The Huntington Library Judith Dundas, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign William E. Engel, Nashville, Tennessee A. C. Hamilton, Queen's University, Ontario John P. Hermann, University of Alabama John Hollander, Yale University Lothar Honnighausen, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn Arthur F. Kinney, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Frances M. Malpezzi, Arkansas State University J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine Martin Procha.zka, Charles University, Prague Dale B. J. Randall, Duke University Alan Rudrum, Simon Fraser University John M. Steadman, The Huntington Library Leona Toker, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem John Whalen-Bridge, National University of Singapore Joseph Wiesenfarth, University of Wisconsin-Madison Waxmann Munster / New York ~ Connotations wants to encourage scholarly communication in the field of English Literature (from the Middle English period to the present), as well as American and other Literatures in English. It focuses on the semantic and stylistic energy of the language of literature in a historical perspective and aims to represent different approaches. Each issue consists of articles and a forum for discussion. The forum presents, for instance, research in progress, critical hypotheses, responses to articles published in Connotations and elsewhere, as well as to recent books. As a rule, contributions will be published within five months after submission so that discussion can begin without delay. Articles and responses should be forwarded to the editors. Articles should not exceed 12,000 words and follow the MLA Handbook. Responses should be limited to 4,000 words. If possible, all contributions should be submitted bye-mail or on diskette (preferably in a Windows format), accompanied by a hard copy; they should be in English and must be proofread before submission. Manuscripts and disks will not be returned. Connotations is published three times a year. Private subscribers are welcome to join the Connotations Society for Critical Debate. Members receive the journal as well as invitations to the Connotations symposia. The suggested annual fee is € 40; reduced rate (e.g. for students) € 20. Please write to: Connotations, Eberhard-Karls-Universitat Tiibingen, Department of English, Wilhelmstr. 50, 72074 Tiibingen, Germany. Email: [email protected]. Libraries and other institutional subscribers write to: Waxmann Verlag, Steinfurter Str. 555,48159 Miinster, Germany; or: Waxmann Publishing Co., P.O. Box 1318, New York, NY 10028, U.S.A. Email: [email protected]. Annual subscriptions are in Europe € 40, in the U.S. and all other countries $ 60, including postage. A selection of articles and responses is freely available on the internet (http://www.connotations.de). © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, Miinster /New York 2004 All Rights Reserved Printed in Germany ISSN 0939-5482 Connotations is a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals. Contributions are indexed, for example, in the MLA Bibliography, the World Shakespeare Bibliography and the 1BZ/1BR. Connotations A Journal for Critical Debate Volume 12 (2002/2003) Numbers 2-3 Sympathetic Parody (II) Shakespeare's Falstaff as Parody ARTHUR F. KINNEY 105 Parody, Satire and Sympathy in Don Quixote and Gulliver's Travels DAVID FISHELOV 126 Parody as Cultural Memory in Richard Powers's Galatea 2.2 ANCARosu 139 Other ARTICLES and RESPONSES "The most important subject that can possibly be": A Reply to E. A. J. Honigrnann HILDEGARD HAMMERSCHMIDT-HUMMEL 155 "Grace beyond a curled lock:" Further Thoughts on Henry Vaughan's "Isaac's Marriage" GLYN PURSGLOVE 167 Unsexing Austen: A Response to Leona Toker AMANPAL GARCHA 183 Wuthering Heights and The Secret Garden: A Response to Susan E. James ANNA KRUGOVOY SILVER 194 The Making of a Goddess: Hardy, Lawrence and Persephone ANDREW RADFORD 202 Dracula and the Cultural Construction of Europe JAsoNDmMER 233 From Lone Monkey to Family Man: Wittman's Evolving Inclusion in Tripmaster Monkey LARA NARCISI 249 "It's wanting to know that makes us matter": Scepticism or Affirmation in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. A Response to Burkhard Niederhoff ANJA Mi.iLLER-MVTH 281 (Un)tying a Firm Knot of Ideas: Reading Yang Mu's The Skeptic LISA WONG 292 Connotations Vo\. 12.2-3 (2002/2003) Shakespeare's Falstaff as Parody ARTHUR F. KINNEY I The Oxford English Dictionary defines parody as "a composition in prose or verse in which the characteristic turns of thought and phrase in an author or class of authors are imitated in such a way as to make them appear ridiculous, especially by applying them to ludicrously inappropriate subjects; an imitation of a work more or less closely modelled on the original, but so turned as to produce a ridiculous effect." Arguably the most complex and dramatic parody of the Eng lish Renaissance is Shakespeare's King Henry IV, Part 1, with its cen tral portrait of Falstaff, published in 1598 in a quarto now only a fragment (QO or Q1) and-in that same year-Q2, followed by Q3 in 1599; Q4 in 1604; Q5 in 1608; Q6 in the year of Shakespeare's death, 1613, as if in tribute to him, and Q7, possibly a second tribute, a year before the grand First Folio of 1623. In print-and likely on the stage as well-it was one of Shakespeare's first big hits, challenged only by Richard Ill. For this, Falstaff must be given much of the credit; "No character in all drama has seemed so much a creature of real flesh and blood as this figment of a man's imagination," the play's editor, P. H. Davison, tells us.1 His effect on audiences, and on us, is immense. He is, for instance, Harold Bloom's favorite character in the whole corpus of Shakespeare except for his rival Hamlet, and he surpasses Hamlet for Bloom in this: "The sage of Eastcheap inhabits Shakespearean histo ries but treats them like [has the power to transform them into] come- _______________ For debates inspired by this article, please check the Connotations website at <http://www.connotations.de/debkinney01223.htm>. 106 ARTHUR F. KINNEY dies." 2 Scorned by Price Hal in their opening lines together, his sheer vitality and wit make him Harry's equal and sustain the scene: Indeed you come near me now, Hal, for we that take purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and not 'By Phoebus, he, that wand'ring knight so fair.'3 And I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art a king, as God save thy grace 'majesty' I should say, for grace thou wilt have none-[ ... ]. Marry then, sweet wag, when thou art king let not us that are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the day's beauty. Let us be 'Diana's foresters', 'gentle men of the shade', 'minions of the moon', and let men say we be men of good government, being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal. (1.2.11-15; 20-26)4 His quick repartee is heavily grounded in alliteration, repetition, and classical allusion that characterized euphuism, the sophisticated language of an earlier Elizabethan court; from the start, he is parodic. Such forceful, clever talent will, however, come to a sad end. While he is a center of 1 Henry IV, balancing the heroic Hotspur as a choice between serviceable action and indulgent sloth as directions for Prince Harry, he will see young Harry only twice in all of 2 Henry IV and, by Henry V, be pushed offstage altogether, his death reported in the earthy London dialect of an Eastcheap hostess, Mistress Quickly: He's in Arthur's bosom, if ever men went to Arthur's bosom. A made a finer end, and went away an it had been any christom child. A parted ev'n just be tween twelve and one, ev'n at the turning o'th'tide-for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his finger's end, I knew there was but one way. For his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a babbled of green fields. 'How now, Sir John?' quoth I. 'What, man! Be 0' good cheer: So a cried out, 'God, God, God', three or four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him a should not think of God; I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So a bade me lay more clothes on his feet. I put my hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone. Then I felt to his knees, and so up'ard and up'ard, and all was as cold as any stone. (HS 2.3.9-23) Falstaff's death has inspired her too to alliteration and repetition and an allusion to the pseudo-classical King Arthur, but the speech is euphuism flattened out, a paltry imitation, a parody, of Falstaff's.