SHAKESPEARE’S CHAUCERIAN ENTERTAINERS By JACOB ALDEN HUGHES A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of English MAY 2014 © Copyright by JACOB ALDEN HUGHES, 2014 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by JACOB ALDEN HUGHES, 2014 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of JACOB ALDEN HUGHES find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. ___________________________________ William Hamlin, Ph.D., Chair ___________________________________ Michael Delahoyde, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Michael Hanly, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Since this project represents the culmination of a rather long and sometimes meandering journey (as any good schooling should!), many thanks are in order. That’s putting it mildly, really. Regrettably, I can’t succinctly express my full gratitude to everyone who deserves it. I see the unbroken line of my education stretch back into the 1980s, and many positive influences deserve better recognition than I can give them here. Regardless, they have my thanks! Concerning my doctoral committee, any gratitude I could extend in words seems inadequate. I owe this project’s inception and my decision to study Shakespeare and Chaucer in graduate school to Michael Delahoyde, who has been ever present at all stages of my work. I’m very grateful to (and for) my committee chair, Will Hamlin, for his meticulous reading, indispensable commentary, and attentiveness to my every challenge throughout my time at WSU. And many, many thanks are in order to Michael Hanly, who has always been there should I knock on his door these past seven years, whose insights always challenged me to more rigorous scholarship. I was very lucky to have such a supportive and accessible committee. I’m also grateful to my reader “on the outside,” Steve Cary, for poring over these many pages and answering last-minute distress calls. Thanks to my family, who have weathered more than their share over these past few years, but remained supportive of my madness. I especially appreciate my life partner, Victoria Howells, for putting up with seven years of my graduate school anxiety amidst her own. I’m running out of synonyms for gratitude. So, on with it. iii SHAKESPEARE’S CHAUCERIAN ENTERTAINERS Abstract By Jacob Alden Hughes, Ph.D. Washington State University May 2014 Chair: William Hamlin As has been established by scholars Ann Thompson and E. Talbot Donaldson, Shakespeare was heavily influenced by the medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Shakespeare continually references Chaucer throughout his career, borrowing many of the poet’s plots, quotations and characters. However, unlike with many of his other sources, Shakespeare engages and grapples Chaucer’s themes and ideas. “Shakespeare’s Chaucerian Entertainers” identifies characters throughout the bard’s canon who process and engage Chaucer’s ideas on theater, authorship and performance. Through the likes of Prospero, Feste, Falstaff, Duke Theseus from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and even Aaron from Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare recognizes and demonstrates how Chaucer’s poetry is relevant to drama and theatricality. By conveying this relevance through his plays, Shakespeare teaches his audience to better observe his meaning by addressing Chaucer’s. Therefore, key Shakespearean ideas emerge out of Chaucerian methods. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................1 2. THE BOUNDARIES OF INSTRUCTION AND ENTERTAINMENT IN THE TEMPEST VIA THE FRANKLIN’S TALE AND CHAUCER’S RETRACTION .......................................17 3. AARON AND CHAUCER’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL IMPULSES .................................50 4. THEATRICALITY IN THE KNIGHT’S TALE AND A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM ....................................................................................................................................................82 5. AUTHORIAL MASKS AND GENRE AMBIGUITY IN TWELFTH NIGHT AND CHAUCER’S SURPRISE GROUP (AND ELSEWHERE) ....................................................118 6. CHAUCER LOST AND FOUND IN SHAKESPEARE’S HISTORIES ...........................147 WORKS CONSULTED ..............................................................................................................179 v Dedication This work is dedicated to the memories of Bonnie Longan, Harrison S. Hughes, and Bobbie Marlow. vi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION It is perhaps inevitable that Shakespeare and Chaucer, the two greatest artistic forces in early English literature, have faced comparative scholarly treatment over the past century. However, with an increasing number of exceptions since the 1980s, this treatment has been generally focused on what noted Chaucerian E. Talbot Donaldson refers to as “source hunting” (Chaucerian Shakespeare 1). For the most part, these source studies set out to identify particular Chaucerian references in the bard’s plays and poetry. Of the many potential subjects a literary scholar might write on, most audiences would find reading about quotes or the origins of plot devices just as entertaining and illuminating as consulting a dictionary: occasionally useful and educational, but hardly “cover-to-cover” reading. For scholars, these references serve many potential uses from aiding dating techniques to providing a broader social and cultural context for literary works. As such, the meticulous efforts of “source hunters” have been invaluable. Nevertheless, when encountered in a source study, these references often seem empty and displaced from the plays or poems in which they originally appear. What difference does it make to readers, for example, whether they recognize Duke Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream was drawn from Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale? As Donaldson wryly notes, “recognition of a source and understanding of its effects are two different matters” (1). The distinction Donaldson makes between these tasks—recognition and understanding— highlights the more general purpose of the present study: to understand the potential effects of Shakespeare’s references to Chaucer. But as a rule, Chaucerian influence is abundant throughout 1 Shakespeare’s canon and cannot be isolated to a particular period or group of plays. It might be tempting to suggest that he borrows from Chaucer randomly, or at the very least when it is topically convenient. However, Shakespeare owes more to Chaucer than a few borrowed plots and quotations; he frequently implements Chaucerian characterizations (or caricatures even) and thematic patterns that are relevant to his own art. Far from random, Shakespeare reflects on Chaucer’s influence in his plays. More specifically, Shakespeare frequently, though often subtly, draws attention to his Chaucerian influence through characters who can be considered entertainers or stage managers. And very often these Chaucerian entertainers, when we examine the root of their poetic influence, stem from Chaucer’s own discussions of art and entertainment. So one level of Shakespeare’s interest in Chaucer is vocational, from an artist’s perspective. In these instances, we glimpse how the bard was reading his chief literary ancestor. These glimpses alone often help illuminate Shakespeare’s meaning. Yet in a deeper, more significant layer, at other points Shakespeare expects his readers to recognize the Chaucerian themes buried under the surface of his drama, the poetic bedrock on which they stand. Chaucerian entertainers invite reader participation through this recognition process. That is, they signal more than just Shakespeare’s familiarity with his sources, but rather the ideas attached to them. The idea of a Chaucerian entertainer developed from prior research where I examined how Shakespeare was an expert reader of Chaucer. That project identified three Shakespearean characters who were clearly tied to Chaucer’s works, and argued that since they were all artists of some kind, Shakespeare was processing Chaucer through a looking glass. In effect, Shakespeare’s ideas and concerns with authorship reflect Chaucer’s. Intending to expand on that line of inquiry for a much larger project, I eventually realized that Shakespeare’s use of Chaucer- influenced author-type characters had less to do with self-identification than it does with 2 medium: poetry is directly relevant to Shakespeare’s understanding of dramaturgy. Not that Shakespeare eschews the influence of other poets—far from it, actually. What struck me is that Shakespeare repeatedly consults Chaucer when exploring ideas that are explicitly relevant to theater or performance. But why would Shakespeare the playwright so actively implement his influences from Chaucer the poet where theater is concerned? On one hand, it is reasonable to speculate that Shakespeare saw Chaucer as a kind of kindred spirit. Their common cultural heritage is undoubtedly a factor. But Chaucer’s works, especially The Canterbury Tales, are filled with theatrical potential, and rely to some degree on that medium’s artifice. Further, Chaucer frequently calls attention to narrative artifice in