Shakespeare Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature Series Editors: Martin Halliwell, University of Leicester and Andy Mousley, De Montfort University Published Titles: Gothic Literature, Andrew Smith Canadian Literature, Faye Hammill Wo men 's Poetry, Jo Gill Contemporary American Drama, Annette ]. Saddik Shakespeare, Gabriel Egan Forthcoming Titles in the Series: Asian American Literature, Bella Adams Children's Literature, M. 0. Grenby Eighteenth-Century Literature, Hamish Mathison Contemporary British Fiction, Nick Bentley Contemporary American Fiction, David Brauner VictorianLitera ture, David Amigoni Crime Fiction, Stacy Gillis Renaissance Literature, Siobhan Keenan ModernAmerican Literature, Catherine Morley Scottish Literature, Gerard Carruthers Romantic Literature, Richard Marggraf Turley Modernist Literature, Rachel Potter Medieval Literature, Pamela King Wo men's Fiction, Sarah Sceats Shakespeare Gabriel Egan Edinburgh University Press This book is dedicated to my graduate students in the 2006-7 cohort of the degrees 'MA Texts in Performance' and 'MA Early Modern Writing' at Loughborough University, upon whom its ideas were first tested and, in the light of their wise critiques, thor­ oughly revised. © Gabriel Egan, 2007 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Ehrhardt by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester, and printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wilts A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 o 7486 2371 6 (hardback) ISBN 978 o 7486 2372 3 (paperback) The right of Gabriel Egan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Contents Series Preface Vlll Acknowledgements lX Chronology x Introduction I How Shakespeare's works come down to us 9 PART I DRAMATIC GENRES Chapter I Comedies: A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado about Nothing 19 Transformation, Translation, and Plays to Pass the Time 21 Benign and Malign Deceptions 28 Soldiers Turned Lovers 3 I Determining Genre 34 Dirty Jokes and Sexual Mores 36 Chapter 2 Histories: Richard 2 and Henry 5 46 This England 4 7 Providence 53 Serialised History and the Tudor Myth 57 The Order of Composition 65 What Kind of King is Henry 5? 68 VI SHAKESPEARE Chapter 3 Tragedies: Hamlet and Othello 81 Large and Small Affairs in Hamlet 82 Sex, Suicide, and Scepticism 90 Testing the Supernatural 99 The Character of Othello in Isolation 104 The Character of Othello in the World III Racial Difference - Cultural Difference - Multiculturalism I 13 Chapter 4 Problem Plays and Romances: All's Wellthat Ends Welland Th e Winter's Ta le 121 Not Hamlet in a Dress, nor Helen in Breeches 122 Choosing Among the Men 125 Helen's Qu est 128 Unsuitable Husbands 131 Do Hermione and Polixenes Paddle Palms? 135 The Winter's Ta le as Proto-novel 139 Summer/Winter - Man/Woman - Land/Class 144 PART II CRITICAL APPROACHES Chapter 5 Authority and Authorship: Measure for Measure I 59 History: Then l 60 Proposing to Isabella 164 Being a Nun 166 Meaning: Now 167 Recovering Shakespeare's Version 172 Chapter 6 Performance: Macbeth 180 The Witches l 82 The Timing of Exits and Entrances 187 The Bipolar Stage 192 The Apparitions 195 Indeterminacy 199 Chapter 7 Identities: Th e Tempest 203 The Identity of Caliban 204 Nature/Nurture 208 CONTENTS Vll The New World 212 Colonialism in General 215 Ariel as Subaltern 218 Chapter 8 Materialism: Timon of Athens 225 Base and Superstructure 226 Timon as Unaccommodated Man 228 Money, Gold, and G(u)ilt: Shakespearian Alchemy 231 The Second Law of Thermodynamics 237 The New Materialism versus Gaia 241 Conclusion 248 Student Resources 252 Electronic Resources and Reference Sources 252 Glossary 256 Guide to Further Reading 263 Index 274 Series Preface The study of English literature in the early twenty-first century is host to an exhilarating range of critical approaches, theories and historical perspectives. 'English' ranges from traditional modes of study such as Shakespeare and Romanticism to popular interest in national and area literatures such as the United States, Ireland and the Caribbean. The subject also spans a diverse array of genres from tragedy to cyberpunk, incorporates such hybrid fields of study as Asian American literature, Black British literature, creative writing and literary adaptations, and remains eclectic in its methodology. Such diversity is cause for both celebration and consternation. English is varied enough to promise enrichment and enjoyment for all kinds of readers and to challenge preconceptions about what the study of literature might involve. But how are readers to navigate their way through such literary and cultural diversity? And how are students to make sense of the various literary categories and peri­ odisations, such as modernism and the Renaissance, or the prolif­ erating theories of literature, from fe minism and marxism to queer theory and ecocriticism? The Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature series reflects the challenges and pluralities of English today, but at the same time it offers readers clear and accessible routes through the texts, contexts, genres, historical periods and debates within the subject. Martin Halliwell and Andy Mousley Acknowledgements I would like to thank the general editors, Martin Halliwell and Andy Mousley, for inviting me to propose this volume in their Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature series and for their for­ bearance when I failed to meet the agreed deadline. Andy Mousley read the entire typescript and made hundreds of small and dozens of large changes, all of which improved the book immeasurably and for which this sentence is too little thanks. I would like to thank Charles Edelman for talking over points of military protocol that I use in relation to the opening moments of Hamlet in Chapter 3. The rest of the book, for better or worse, is all my own work. The Department of English and Drama at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom has provided an ideal environ­ ment in which to teach and research and I am grateful to my col­ leagues, and especially to my heads of department Nigel Wood and Elaine Hobby, for creating these conditions. This book was typed by its author on an AlphaGrip keyboard, which allows the hands to rest comfortably in the lap (www.alphagrip.com). I have no con­ nection with this company, but I am grateful to its president Michael Willner for his remarkable invention. Chronology Items marked * are definedin more detail in the Glossary Date Historical and Theatrical and biographical events literary events 54BCE Julius Caesar invades Britain and establishes Roman presence 54BCE- Roman Empire controls Britain Open-air 410 CE amphitheatres built for public entertainment 4lO CE Roman Emperor Honorius unable to defend Britain from Pictish and Saxon attacks. Roman rule in Britain effectively ended 410 CE- The one thousand years No purpose-built 1575 commonly (but misleadingly) theatres constructed known as the Middle Ages (= 'medieval' in Latin) or the Dark Ages 1450 Johannes Gutenberg perfects printing with movable type CHRONOLOGY Xl Date Historical and Theatrical and biographical events literary events 1477 William Caxton establishes a printing press in London l 543 Nicolaus Copernicus presents the heliocentric model of the solar system 1558 Protestant Qu een Elizabeth succeeds Catholic Q!ieenMary as monarch of England. (Scotland is a separate monarchy.) Joan Shakespeare, Shakespeare's elder sister, born 1559-74 Monarch and privy council increasingly intervene in the semi-professional acting companies, enforcing aristocratic patronage and squeezing out the smaller and less well­ capitalised troupes 1559-60 Joan Shakespeare I, Shakespeare's elder sister, dies I 562 Margaret Shakespeare, Shakespeare's elder sister born 1563 Margaret Shakespeare, Shakespeare's elder sister dies I 564 Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe born 1566 Gilbert Shakespeare, William's younger brother, born 1569 Joan Shakespeare II, Shakespeare's younger sister, born XU SHAKESPEARE Date Historical and Theatrical and biographical events literary events 1571 Anne Shakespeare, William's younger sister, born 1574 Richard Shakespeare, William's *James Burbage and younger brother, born others formthe Leicester's men company 1579 Anne Shakespeare, William's younger sister, dies 1576 *James Burbage erects the first purpose-built play- house, called The Theatre, in Shoreditch. Companies of child actors begin to offer performances at St Paul's school and a building in the Blackfriars district 1580 Edmund Shakespeare, William's youngest brother (and later an actor in London) born 1582 Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway 1583 Shakespeare's daughter * The privy council Susanna born forms a playing company called the Qieen's men from the best actors in all the companies, and they are sent to tour the country CHRONOLOGY xm Date Historical and Theatrical and biographical events literary events Child actors ceased performing at Blackfriars 1585 Shakespeare's son Hamnet and daughter Judith (twins) born 1586-90 Shakespeare goes to London and enters its literary I theatrical culture * Philip Henslowe builds The Rose playhouse on Bankside * Marlowe's plays for the Admiral's men at The Rose establish blank verse drama as a highly successful commercial fo rm 1588 Spanish Armada defeated l 589 Galileo demonstrates falsity of Aristotelian mechanics by showing that different weights dropped from the Tower at Pisa accelerate at the same rate l 590-1 Shakespeare's