No Laughing Matter: Shakespearean Melancholy and the Transformation of Comedy”
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Université de Montréal “No Laughing Matter: Shakespearean Melancholy and the Transformation of Comedy” par : Jean-François Bernard Études Anglaises, facultés des arts et sciences Thèse présentée à la faculté des arts et science en vue de l‘obtention du grade de Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) Avril, 2013 , Jean-François Bernard, 2013 Résumé: Mon projet de thèse démontre le rôle essentiel que tient la mélancolie dans les comédies de Shakespeare. J‘analyse sa présence au travers de multiples pièces, des farces initiales, en passant par les comédies romantiques, jusqu‘aux tragicomédies qui ponctuent les dernières années de sa carrière. Je dénote ainsi sa métamorphose au sein du genre comique, passant d‘une représentation individuelle se rapportant à la théorie des humeurs, à un spectre émotionnel se greffant aux structures théâtrales dans lesquelles il évolue. Je suggère que cette progression s‘apparent au cycle de joie et de tristesse qui forme la façon par laquelle Shakespeare dépeint l‘émotion sur scène. Ma thèse délaisse donc les théories sur la mélancolie se rapportant aux humeurs et à la psychanalyse, afin de repositionner celle-ci dans un créneau shakespearien, comique, et historique, où le mot « mélancolie » évoque maintes définitions sur un plan social, scientifique, et surtout théâtrale. Suite à un bref aperçu de sa prévalence en Angleterre durant la Renaissance lors de mon introduction, les chapitres suivants démontrent la surabondance de mélancolie dans les comédies de Shakespeare. A priori, j‘explore les façons par lesquelles elle est développée au travers de La Comedie des Erreurs et Peines d‟Amour Perdues. Les efforts infructueux des deux pièces à se débarrasser de leur mélancolie par l‘entremise de couplage hétérosexuels indique le malaise que celle-ci transmet au style comique de Shakespere et ce, dès ces premiers efforts de la sorte. Le troisième chapitre soutient que Beaucoup de Bruit pour Rien et Le Marchand de Venise offrent des exemples parangons du phénomène par lequel des personnages mélancoliques refusent de tempérer leurs comportements afin de se joindre aux célébrations qui clouent chaque pièce. La mélancolie que l‘on retrouve ici génère une ambiguïté émotionnelle qui complique sa présence au sein du genre comique. Le chapitre suivant identifie Comme il vous plaira et La Nuit des Rois comme l‘apogée du traitement comique de la mélancolie entrepris par Shakespeare. Je suggère que ces pièces démontrent l‘instant où les caractérisations corporelles de la mélancolie ne sont plus de mise pour le style dramatique vers lequel Shakespeare se tourne progressivement. Le dernier chapitre analyse donc Périclès, prince de Tyr et Le Conte d‟Hiver afin de démontrer que, dans la dernière phase de sa carrière théâtrale, Shakespeare a recours aux taxonomies comiques élucidées ultérieurement afin de créer une mélancolie spectrale qui s‘attardent au-delà des pièces qu‘elle hante. Cette caractérisation se rapporte aux principes de l‘art impressionniste, puisqu‘elle promeut l‘abandon de la précision au niveau du texte pour favoriser les réponses émotionnelles que les pièces véhiculent. Finalement, ma conclusion démontre que Les Deux Nobles Cousins représente la culmination du développement de la mélancolie dans les comédies de Shakespeare, où l‘incarnation spectrale du chapitre précèdent atteint son paroxysme. La nature collaborative de la pièce suggère également un certain rituel transitif entre la mélancolie dite Shakespearienne et celle développée par John Fletcher à l‘intérieure de la même pièce. Mots Clés : Shakespeare, mélancolie, comédie, humeurs, émotions, identité, performance. Summary: My dissertation argues for a reconsideration of melancholy as an integral component of Shakespearean comedy. I analyse its presence across the comic canon, from early farcical plays through mature comic works, to the late romances that conclude Shakespeare‘s career. In doing so, I denote its shift from an individual, humoural characterization to a more spectral incarnation that engrains itself in the dramatic fabric of the plays it inhabits. Ultimately, its manifestation purports to the cyclical nature of emotions and the mixture of mirth and sadness that the aforementioned late plays put forth. The thesis repositions Shakespearean melancholy away from humoural, psychoanalytical and other theoretical frameworks and towards an early modern context, where the term ―melancholy‖ channels a plethora of social, scientific, and dramatic meanings. After a brief overview of the prevalence of melancholy in early modern England, the following chapters attest to the pervasiveness of melancholy within Shakespeare‘s comic corpus, suggesting that, rather than a mere foil to the spirits of mirth and revelry, it proves elemental to comic structures as an agent of dramatic progression that fundamentally alters its generic make-up. I initially consider the ways in which melancholy is developed in The Comedy of Errors and Love‟s Labor‟s Lost, as an isolated condition, easily dismissible by what I refer to as the symmetrical structure of comic resolution. In both plays, I suggest, the failure to completely eradicate melancholy translates into highly ambiguous comic conclusions that pave the way for subsequent comic works, where melancholy‘s presence grows increasingly cumbersome. Chapter three reads Much Ado about Nothing and The Merchant of Venice as prime dramatic examples of the phenomenon by which prominent comic characters not only fail to offer a clear cause for their overwhelming melancholy, but refuse to mitigate it for the benefit of the plays at hand. The melancholy found here creates emotional loose ends from which a sense of malaise that will take full effect in later comedies emanates. In the next chapter, As You Like It and Twelfth Night are held as a landmark in Shakespeare‘s treatment of comic melancholy. The chapter suggests that these plays complete the break from individual melancholic characterization, which no longer seem suitable to the comic style towards which Shakespeare progressively turns. Consequently, the final chapter undertakes an analysis of Pericles and The Winter‟s Tale to demonstrate the fact that, in his concluding dramatic phase, Shakespeare returns to the comic taxonomies of melancholy in order to foster more forceful, lingering emotional impacts as a form of dramatic impressionism, a relinquishing of details in favour of more powerful emotional responses. In a brief coda, I read The Two Noble Kinsmen as the culmination of the dramatic treatment in melancholy in Shakespeare, where the spectral wistfulness that characterized the late plays reaches a breaking point. I suggest that the play bears witness to a passing of the torch, as it were, between the Shakespearean dramatization of melancholy and the one propounded by Fletcher, which was to become the norm within subsequent seventeenth-century tragicomic works. Key Words: Shakespeare, melancholy, comedy, humours, emotions, identity, performance. ii Table of Contents Résumé: .................................................................................................................................................i Summary: .............................................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... v Chapter 1: What‘s so Funny about Humour? An Introduction ............................................................ 1 Chapter 2: Opening Act: Doublings, Couplings, and Early Melancholy ........................................... 53 Chapter 3: Party Crashers: Melancholic Dissonance and the Refusal to Change .............................. 93 Chapter 4: Leaving on a High Note: The Melancholic Close of Shakespearean Comedy .............. 143 Chapter 5: Late Shakespearean Melancholy and the Comic Post-Mortem ..................................... 208 Coda: Shakespeare, Fletcher, and the Melancholic Swan Song ...................................................... 251 Works Cited ..................................................................................................................................... 251 iii To Emily, the light of my life, who shared the mirth and melancholy of such a project with me, and without whom this dissertation would simply not have been possible. I love you so very much. iv Acknowledgements This project represents the culmination of my decade-long engagement with Shakespearean drama as a university student. Consequently, I have incurred countless debts of gratitude along the way that cannot be contained within these brief acknowledgements. I shall spend the next few years singing the praises of all concerned parties. In the meantime, the following list will do. I thank my family and friends for their understanding and support as I undertook the writing of this dissertation, even if what I had to say about it did not make much sense to them at times. I owe considerable editing and proofreading debts to my wife, Emily, and my sister-in-law, Diana. Their tireless efforts to that effect were humbling and much appreciated. I wish to thank my dissertation supervisor Joyce Boro, whose rigorous engagement with my work at several stages has improved this dissertation tremendously. It was privilege to count her as my advisor, and it is now a pleasure to call her a friend. I am also grateful to Heike Harting, for timely and challenging