CONCEPTS OF NATURE AND ART IN SHAKESPEARE'S LAST PLAYS THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF Bottor of $gtlos:opf)p IN ENGLISH BY IFFAT ARA Lecturer in English Women's College DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 1987 T3880 C 0 N T 2 N T o 1. Prrff^ica J"" I, Introduction 1 3. Chapter one: The Concipt^ of Nature and Art in the Corwj'iies -32 -^1 . Charvter two: Edrnund the Bastird in King LG.ir 1 ^-'5 5. Chaptar thre-a: Tn^ Concept of Nature and Art in Tne Tempest ' ^6 5. Chapter four: The Con'-"'pt of Nature and Art in The ''lintc^rVsJPil^^ -''S 7. Chapter five: The Concept of N^tu^-s and iQj-t, ^" P^^i'^l-.s and CymbelinG 303 8. Conclusion 3c3 9. Bibliography 377 Preface Tie tordc of tills thesis, Concocts of "rfrire and Art in th^ Last Plays of 3ha'cospeo.rG \f'is su::[,ort'xI to no "hy vy sTipervisor, Professor O.r. Govil TIIO initiTted ve into the s'lbject. Furtior, his -^'^le Cuidanco and keen interest in -y ^-ork enabled "• e to 7-iursuo it -(.'ithout any hir-'dles. His close pom^-'j of sono of uhe cai-ly chapter? and ^'ise su:^i:o'^-tioas reja^dln iher nere very illininatin'^, I ojn, therefore, -rr^otly indebted to Mi^. i can justify this ventiUN on t-i-^ 'ground that no full-length st^ily of this sub.i-^'^t 'i-j -.^ far been unfiortnkon. I "i-ve iiolnded, for rjnr_o:^ '^ cross-rorerences, so-^e of tlie rlays of tbe earlier ' h-^ " and even one of the latn plays, llinR Lear, in order to build np the proper perspective T^'or this thesis. T'-'v--^- conco-^ts are also highli^^htod in plays like A I id-3ir r^^r .^i.dit's Jreanu -Intonv and Gleonatra. Othello and Timon of Athens, lut even a casual treatment of t'-'e>e ^'onld have lengthened the thesis still fiarthor -^nl bene. I hqvo not included then here. j'hoj':]"! ny father, Pro-Lessor A,X. Ans-^ri, -^ "oll-'aio-'n Shakes i^are scholar, "Oiill h ive ;jvon "o enough, -all-^ir-e "'ct o-rin't bo lic ho'^v/ cor.nj tnent - he co^jld only niringly ottond to t-io pronross of uy --or":. I have benefited a lot from n lirf'e nunbor o-^ bis articles on ShaJcespeare, thou.'::h, I am no less obllc^d to him for all that he has done for no. L'y r.othor, vho bas alvays been a source of Insi^lration and stinnilus, cannot be repaid for her generosity in arew words. I-y sister, Roslian Ara, inspite of her preocciinations i>/ith her doctoro.l thesis Karl Jasnoi-s's retanir/sicgl ^ysten^ spared enough time to 7irepare tlie Tdbliocr?'^ ly. ler kindness in this re^-^rd, and on all occasion^, ^dll -^l^'ay remain fresh in my mind. I am also ind'^bted to Professor (I'lss) A. Thomas, Principal, %bmen's Collofie and Professor 1 asoodul Hasan, ::b.airi-;:an, Department of Enpilish : to th'^ for' "^r for c^ttinr; mo Lc':vf^ Cor Acadrmic Pursuits san'^tion''>d by the Tori ^^r 7ipp-';:jianccIlor an'"^ t^ tho latter Tor 'vi<^ •;n''nl'ilnr ^o-rtogy nnd encoiu'-i^'-'m'^^'.t. Last, but not t'<^ lo-^st, I sr^ .indebted to 3r, hi",-"amr'dl''] hhan, Librari-^n, ^'^n-lish 'Jrmiaar Libmry, for procurjn'^ boolcr; for TIO, ^-id to I'r. 1 oh'\ 'Jaseen --'nd I'.r, A^dus l-'mad for the alr'ost accur-to tyoin'", o-''" this thesis, done a. pai isfcahlngly -uad -rith co^.-isto'il: vlf^lonce. IFF AT ARA INTRODUCTION Shakespeare transcends his age precisely because he "escapes from the current Elizabethan limitations". His 'true originality' makes him outshine others. It is wrong to consider him an orthodox moralist who passes judgment through his plays. Undoubtedly he Is very veil ^ acquainted with the Christian tradition which influenced his way of thinking as far as the Last Romances are concerned and he makes use of the concepts of repentance, atonement and grace. But primarily the plays are a product of his own experience as a creative artist. Shakespeare's plays project his varied experiences of life-and language is the medium for objectifying those experiences. The characters in the early Comedies exhibit their true nature by speaking about themselves and commenting on the sequence of events in the plays. Shakespeare puts the accepted 'dramatic conventions' to his own specific purposes. He transmutes the historical chronicle material into a new form and humanizes melodrama into a distinctive 'concept of tragedy'. No less fascinating is the dramatic design through which his Insights into life are projected. 1. Derek Traversi : An Approach to Shakespeare, London, 1969, Vol. II. P.11 In the Elizabethan England, as in the Middle Ages, the stage was surrounded by the groundings. The plays vere generally put up to cater for their interest and needs. Hence a direct rapport was established between the actors and the theatre-goers. Shakespeare makes use of dramatic forms skin to myth and legend partly to make his art arresting for the commo^ man and partly to universalize its implications. He chooses kings and great men as heroes, in order that the common interest in the vicissitudes of their fortunes could be stimulated. Shakespearean drama holds a wide appeal, for it makes patterns of common experience available to the reader. As the main emphasis in this thesis is laid on the Romances some of their sources are worth mentioning. The Winter's Tale derives its stuff from Robert Greene's pastoral romance : Pandosto. Cymbeline is based upon Boccaccio's version of the story. Pericles owes its story partly to Chaucer's contemporary, Gower, and partly to an Elizabethan novel by Twine adapted from Gower's Confessio Amantis. The Tempest whose initial matter may not be definitely pinned down has very much in common with the corpus of contemporary romantic literature. Shakespeare transforms the original material wherever such a transformation is needed. Though he uses Romance conventions yet the characters are invested with such vividness and authenticity that they seem to represent human nature in its essentials, for Shakespeare is an acute observer of human modes of behaviour. In the Last Plays, even more than in the early comedies, Shakespeare resuscitated the image of the 'courtly environment of romance'. The statue scene in The Winter's Tale, the fight between Guiderius and Cloten and the former's return with Cloten's head and the apparent death and reawakening of Imogen in Cymbeline are afew examples of Shakespeare's mastery over mimetic art. The characters in the Romances are different from those in other plays, for Shakespeare seems to be interested in creating a 2 'new type of theatrical effect' which is peculiar to tragi-coraedy. Here the real and the ideal are blended together and Shakespeare is able to create something nev out of the 'old romantic material'. Shakespeare, born and bred in the countryside, had newly arrived in the town. He did not like the admirers 2. E.G.Pettet s Shakespeare and the Romance Tradition, London, 1949, pp. 168-69 of court-life and was 'a patron of the arts and an exemplar of virtue to lesser men'. Moreover, he constantly drew attention to the dangerous seductiveness of courtly life. The indulgence in sensuality corrupts one's character and flattery weakens the exercise of Judgment, He ponders over these issues in the Comedies and Histories and these are the focus of preoccupation in the Last Plays, too. To him history and romance are equivalent to hothing but wars and lechery'. He subjects both to trenchant criticism and sums up the negative vision in the all-inclusive phrase 'Time the conqueror or Devourer'. According to Shakespeare 'love and honour' 'beauty and truth' are virtues admirably fitted to his ideal characters. He never exalts the lords and ladies unduly but tries to present them aS responsible members of society. Both Spenser and Shakespeare were disillusioned by the courtly behaviour of the citizens of London but their faith in human nature remained unshaken. They advocated married .love as the norm in everyday life. Courtly life was satirized sharply and incisively by both. Though Shakespeare was brought up in a totally different milieu 3. J.W.Lever i The Elizabethan Love Sonnet. London, 19 56, P. 167 yet his "Incredible capacity for growth" made him respond to the demands of his times. He embodied his knowledge of Machiavellian politics in Richgird III though his conception of it was a little less mature compared to that of Sidney in the portrayal of Amphialus, But Shakespeare's genius made him go farther than his contemporaries, Sidney and Shakespeare may be considered the best spokesmen of the Elizabethan age. Both of them being Elizabethans, Sidney and Shakespeare inherited the same framework of tradition from the Middle Ages. Arcadia and King Lear are equally concerned with the Christian concept of patience. Yet if 'Sidney expresses Elizabethan education, Shakespeare express Elizabethan humanism'.^ Whereas Sidney's Areadlq and Spenser's Faerie Queene reflect the courtly concepts mediated through an allegorical design Shakespeare's plays highlight both the traditional pattern of values and his own modified version of them. Truth seems to emerge from a juxtaposition of uncultivated nature and 4. John F. Danby : Poets on Fortune's Hill, Studies in Sidney, Shakespeare. Beumont and Fletcher, rj^ondon. P.73. 5. John F. Danby__i_Qpj^t., p. 72 the refinements of artifice.