UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE SHAKESPEARE, AUTHORITY, AND THE ENGLISH CATHOLIC EXPERIENCE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By CORTNEY WILMERING Norman, Oklahoma 2020 SHAKESPEARE, AUTHORITY, AND THE ENGLISH CATHOLIC EXPERIENCE A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH BY THE COMMITTEE CONSISTING OF Dr. David Anderson, Chair Dr. Daniela Garofalo Dr. Ronald Schleifer Dr. Kenneth Hodges Dr. Jane Wickersham © Copyright by CORTNEY WILMERING 2020 All Rights Reserved. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank… God, for His wisdom, patience, and plan for my life. Professor David K. Anderson, for taking me under your wing, for reading hundreds of discarded dissertation pages that will never see the light of day again, and for the most amusing draft commentary that Word has ever known. I am forever indebted to you for your uncompromising standards, your steady encouragement, and your sympathy when I told you I needed to move home to Michigan. I simply could not have asked for a better adviser and mentor. Professors Jane Wickersham, Ronald Schleifer, Daniela Garofalo, and Kenneth Hodges for your insights, suggestions, and guidance. Professor Joyce Coleman, for your invaluable mentorship and easy friendship and for allowing me to participate so fully in the OU Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Thanks to OU CMRS for permitting me to audit your dream course and for awarding me a scholarship to travel to England and see Shakespeare’s home for myself. The University of Oklahoma and the OU English Department for taking a chance on me. A special thanks to MEMS for the Rudolph C. Bambas Memorial Scholarship. I am eternally grateful for all forms of funding I received, especially the Dissertation Fellowship, just as I am grateful for all the opportunities the department gave me to teach. Thank you to all my former students everywhere for trusting me with some small part of your education. My former professors at UNLV. Thank you for introducing me to graduate English study and for carefully guiding me through the master’s process. I especially want to thank Dr. Richard Harp, who took an interest in my future and who dragged me across the finish line during my examination. Without your help, my opportunity at OU would never have been possible. My parents, Richard and Karen Wilmering. Even in my lowest moments, I knew that I could always count on the two of you for a listening ear, a word of encouragement, and an unwavering belief in my ultimate success. (Not to mention, a very reasonable rental agreement.) Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for always being my biggest champions. My siblings, Ryan and Katie Wilmering; my sister-in-law, Amanda; and all my wonderful nieces and nephews: Reagan, Claire, Caroline, Andrew, and Annemarie. Thank you for all the wonderful vacations on the shores of Lake Huron and for always being on my side. A special “thank you” to Katie Wilmering and Chris Marasti-Georg for attending my defense. It is a demonstration of love and respect that I will never forget. I am so lucky to have such a funny, strong, and supportive sister, and I am so happy that she has found such a nice man. “The Group”: my darling friend, Amanda Cuellar; Renata and Trey Burchfield; Chris and Kacia Edison; Melissa Weiss and her amazing brownies; Adriana Valtinson and Alex Parry, aka Adri- Alex; Meghan “Meg Gregg” Crawford; Brittany McDaniel; and my Fuzzy’s boyfriends. I am so grateful to have entered the program with all of you. Not only did your abilities help sharpen my own, but I simply could not have survived coursework without your support and friendship. v Know that wherever you are and wherever you go, you have a friend in Michigan whose door is always open. Especially on Thursdays. My Other OU friends: Kevin Ashenbach, my true mentor in the program and fiercely loyal friend, who never failed to provide help and insight whenever I asked for it (and even sometimes when I didn’t); Jason Lubinski and Brad Gray, for all the Tingler-sitting and for always offering me a house full of puppies and a glass full of wine; Shannon Madden, for all the late-night gabs and boxes full of cab; Jonathan and Bethany Rutledge, the kindest and most encouraging couple I know; Saara Raasu and Patrick Le Mare, who opened their hearts and their Casablanca room to me on two different continents; and Katherine Hickey, whose faith inspires my own. My Norman friends: Dewayne, who talked me off of many a grad student ledge; J. D., whose “cultured” transmission shop kept my car looking good and running smoothly; Cliff, whose friendship literally took me to Las Vegas and back; Kelly “Big Brother” Riner, for his generosity and for always willing to be my plus-one; Aaron McCraw, for all the Sunday chats and the black-eyed peas; Lydia Horner, who laughed, cried, prayed, and cheered on the Spartans with me; David, who always had a friendly face and always left a generous tip; Steven Duggan, who loved to talk about God and sports and who always paid my tab like a true gentleman; Judy and Jeff Fitzgerald, for treating me like a member of the family; and Larry and Don, who looked out for me, loved me, and supported me as only “guardian uncles” could. Luigi’s Pizza Café and the entire Mainella family, especially my old friend, Tommy; Sam and Blake Frost; Jan and Jerry Dotson; Tom and Kyle “tap tap” Giummo; Jerry Roulo; Gayle Young; Jozey and Jay Hayes; Betsy and Ron Hughes; and all those who supported me during the last year of dissertation writing. Barnes, my oldest and truest friend. Through Ladywood, Michigan State, UNLV, and Oklahoma, my educational path is filled with memories of you (special shout-out to whoever moved the car. May God be with you.) The SKG philosophy was my guiding light during some dark grad student hours. I long for the day when we two can live in the same state once again. Until then, wherever you are, there shall my heart also be. **UPDATE** You have always been one of the best gift-givers I know, but no gift could possibly top the unexpected appearance of you and Hervé Duchemin at my defense. It was the biggest and best surprise of my life, and I cannot thank you both enough for it. Tom Weil, the man I was not expecting but that God knew I needed. Thank you for being the voice of reason when I presumed the worst about myself and this project, for rescuing me time and again with your tech and car knowledge, and for teaching me what true introspection and self-improvement looks like. Above all, thank you for showing me that words are love. Tingler, the only creature on earth who never tires of me. “And for Gilbert, who inspired me with the idea in the first place.” vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements v Abstract viii Introduction 1 Section I: Shakespeare and the English Catholic Individual 25 Chapter One: “I have an eye of you”: Hamlet and a Culture of Surveillance 26 Chapter Two: “Riveted with faith” and “flesh”: Corpus Christi in Merchant of Venice 83 Section II: Shakespeare, the English Throne, and the Church 131 Chapter Three: “The death of kings”: Richard II and Destabilized Kingship 132 Chapter Four: “Trust not my holy order”: Measure for Measure and Erastian Governance 182 Bibliography 220 vii ABSTRACT By the time Shakespeare’s plays first appeared on stage in the late-sixteenth century, the Elizabethan campaign against English Catholics had reached its peak. However, Roman Catholicism continued to influence the English throne, the English Church, and most especially, those men and women who remained devoted to it. Through Shakespeare’s works, we can see a sharper picture of the early modern English Catholic experience and gain a new respect for the individual, political, and ecclesial interests that contributed to it. I begin with the individual in Section I, examining the experience of those who had to determine the depth of their patriotism to a state that had criminalized their religion and eliminated many of its celebrations. In chapter one, I explore Hamlet and the psychological effects of the surveillance culture that Claudius implements and that others appropriate in order to investigate one another and protect themselves. I compare this “rotten” climate of suspicion in Elsinore to Elizabethan England and the anxiety suffered by recusant Catholics as a result of state surveillance into their religious practices. In chapter two, I turn to The Merchant of Venice and its implicit gesture towards Corpus Christi, the Catholic feast that once honored the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist but that had been eradicated from the English church calendar after the Reformation. The play’s clearest references to Corpus Christi occur in its fixation on flesh and in its marriage trope, but these elements then also thrust to the forefront the Jewishness of Christ’s flesh and the difficulties associated with conversion. Hamlet and Merchant of Venice reflect individual English Catholics’ desire to practice their religion peacefully, without state interference in the theological teachings they espoused or the feast days they chose to commemorate. In Section II of this dissertation, I shift away from the individual Catholic and towards the traces of Catholicism in the English monarchy and its state-run church. In chapter three, I discuss Richard II and the inherent instability of English kingship.