University of Kentucky UKnowledge Literature in English, British Isles English Language and Literature 1970 Shakespeare and the Greek Romance: A Study of Origins Carol Gesner Berea College Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Gesner, Carol, "Shakespeare and the Greek Romance: A Study of Origins" (1970). Literature in English, British Isles. 34. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_british_isles/34 Shakespeare & the Greek Romance This page intentionally left blank Carol Gesner Shakespeare & the Greek Romance A STUDY OF ORIGINS The University Press of Kentucky Lexinaton 1970 ISBN 978-0-8131-5221-9 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-11509 Copyright © 1970 by The University Press of Kentucky A statewide cooperative scholarly publishing agency serving Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky State College, Morehead State University, Murray State University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40506 Contents PREFACE vii CHAPTER ONE The Greek Romances 1 CHAPTER TWO The Continental Tradition 14 The Medieval Background · Boccaccio: Il Filocolo and The Decameron · Cervantes: Contemporaries, Persiles y Sigismunda and Novelas exemplares CHAPTER THREE Shakespeare & the Derived Tradition 47 The Elizabethan Tradition · The Comedy of Errors · Twelfth Night · Romeo and Juliet · Much Ado about Nothing · Othello · As You Like It CHAPTER FOUR Shakespeare's Greek Romances [I] 80 The Critical Tradition · Pericles, Prince of Tyre · Cymbeline CHAPTER FIVE Shakespeare's Greek Romances [II] 116 The Winter's Tale · The Tempest • Conclusions APPENDIX A Bibliographic Survey 145 NOTES 163 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 201 INDEX 207 This page intentionally left blank Priface It is common knowledge among literary scholars that Greek romance was an important factor in shaping Ren­ aissance narrative and drama. Boccaccio drew on its materials for Il Filocolo and The Decameron; Cervantes admitted to competing with Heliodorus in Persiles y Sigismunda. The influence of Greek romance has been recognized in the work of Lyly, Sidney, and Greene; and the significance of Heliodorus has been studied. That many of Shakespeare's plays embody Greek romance materials has long been known, but there has been need for a single work that draws together the facts of the relationship. The whole question of the influence of Greek romance on Renaissance literature in England and on the continent has yet to be investigated. Investi­ gation of that scope is beyond the limits of this work, which attempts only to collect what is known of the Greek romance materials in Shakespeare's plays, with the hope that such a focus will clarify some of the backgrounds of his composite art as well as bring about more understanding of the total relationship of the Greek romance to Renaissance literature. Since Shake­ speare wrote in neither a cultural nor an intellectual vacuum, it has seemed desirable to describe briefly the Greek romance tradition as it may be observed histor­ ically and in the works of Boccaccio and Cervantes. Details of other writings, both Continental and English, which embody Greek romance materials have been col­ lected and are mentioned briefly in the text or in the notes where they seem to be appropriate. I hope that this method will serve to relate Shakespeare to the over- viii Preface all Greek romance tradition in literature and to demon­ strate how wide and pervasive the tradition has been. The danger in books such as this is in centering the eye too closely upon the objective, and thus failing to bring into view other factors which should be consid­ ered in drawing a balanced conclusion. My purpose here is to present evidence that Greek romance is a major fabric of Renaissance narrative and drama, and that many of the marvelous adventures and titillating plot motifs and patterns, especially those calculated to in­ duce surprise and horror or to create a spectacular effect, derive from the novel of the Greek decadence. While what follows may seem to emphasize the afterlife of the Greek romance at the expense of other literary genres, the reader is fairly warned that Greek romance did not work alone, but is only one bright thread in a complicated web which includes materials supplied by other classical genres, folklore, legend, myth, and chi­ valric romance. Since Greek romance has been the one literary type most frequently overlooked, it has seemed necessary to center full attention on it and to supple­ ment the discussion of the text with substantial biblio­ graphic detail so that the weight of evidence may serve to demonstrate the popular as well as the academic approval of the romances during the period c. 1300-1642. This method should help to substantiate the thesis that Greek romance has been a much underrated factor in the development of fiction and drama, while at the same time drawing together the body of materials that relate specifically to Shakespeare. This work began as long ago as 1951, the result of a stimulating lecture by Professor Waldo McNeir of the University of Oregon, who has encouraged me by pub­ lishing the discussion of Cymbeline. A version of this work eventually emerged as a Louisiana State Univer­ sity doctoral dissertation, under the guidance of Profes- Preface ix sor William John Olive. President-Emeritus Francis S. Hutchins and Vice President-Emeritus Louis Smith of Berea College have made it possible to broaden the scope of the dissertation by granting me leave of ab­ sence from my teaching duties during the fall semester of 1964. They have further assisted me with research grants during the summers of 1964, 1965, and 1966. Dur­ ing the summer of 1968 assistance was extended to me by Yale University. Miss Faunice Hubble of the Berea College Library has been especially gracious in helping me locate materials, as have officials of the libraries of Columbia, Oxford, and Yale Universities. M. Roger Pierrot of the Biblio­ theque Nationale has answered bibliographic queries. My thanks must go to colleagues at Berea College: Profes­ sor Charles Pauck has assisted me with some German texts; Professor-Emeritus Charlotte Ludlum has read the portion of the manuscript dealing with historical aspects of the classical romances; Dr. William Schafer has read the manuscript and made many suggestions, as has Professor Thomas Stroup of the University of Ken­ tucky. A final critical reading by Professor F. David Hoeniger of the University of Toronto not only helped me with many details of style and arrangement, but offered encouragement when it was most needed. Fi­ nally I must thank Marie Tychonievich Clendenin and Judy Clouse of Berea College for typing the manuscript, and Doubleday and Company for permission to quote from Moses Hadas's translation of Xenophon of Ephe­ sus. The sections dealing with The Tempest and Cymbe­ line were published originally as "The Tempest as Pasto­ ral Romance" in The Shakespeare Quarterly 10 {1959), and "Cymbeline and the Greek Romance: A Study in Genre" in Studies in English Renaissance Literature, ed. Waldo F. McNeir (Baton Rouge, La., 1962). The editors of The Shakespeare Quarterly and the Louisiana State x Preface University Press have given me permission to include them, somewhat revised and augmented, in this volume. My friend and colleague Professor Eleanor Brooks (Berea College 1937-1966) gave me much encourage­ ment during the early phases of research and composi­ tion. Her death in 1966 left me heir not only to her students and to her courses, but to many of her books. For these reasons I dedicate the work to her memory and also to the others who have assisted me along the way. Shakespeare & the Greek Romance This page intentionally left blank Chapter One The Greek Romances AN INTRODUCTION The Greek romances of the early Christian era have been called the twilight of Greek literature, the descent from Olympus, and have been relegated to the literary scrap heaps as childish in substance and wanting in truth. This adverse criticism results from their marvel­ ously improbable action and the puppetlike quality of their protagonists, as well as from their amorality, their elaborate language, and self-conscious, somewhat Eu­ phuistic style. Even a superficial knowledge of the per­ manent values of the true Olympians-Harner, Sopho­ cles, Aeschylus-testifies to the truth of this harsh judgment. But the Greek romances form a tremendous storehouse for many of the primary plots and motifs of fiction. They are forerunners of the modern novel and the direct ancestors of the historical novel and the voy­ age imaginaire. It is in them that we find the origin of the one indispensable of romantic fiction, the heroine.1 In Greek letters they have a very real importance in that they form a direct link between Greek literature and Oriental civilization, perhaps the only literary ground, 2 Shakespeare & the Greek Romance except the beast fables, in which Greek met non-Greek and received rather than dispersed. As hybrids they fill an exotic corner in the history of letters; at the same time they have a workaday importance to the student of the English Renaissance, for they have been a pervasive influence on drama and fiction since their earliest publi­ cation, and a knowledge of them is essential to a full understanding of the Renaissance literary milieu. Helio­ dorus, Longus, Achilles Tatius, and Apollonius of Tyre all were published in English translations between 1483 and 1597, and other romances were accessible in Greek manuscripts.