Iris Casteren van Cattenburch Casteren Iris Shakespeare’s Sustaining Allegory Sustaining Shakespeare’s The little o’th’earth | Shakespeare’s Sustaining Allegory Maarn, 9th July 2011 Mama, what kind of research are you actually doing? Well, it involves asking myself all sorts of questions to which I don’t yet know the answers, and then I search for the answers. Can we help you? Ask us a question, a very difficult one that you don’t yet have an answer to so that we can also find an answer. Let me think… I know a difficult question. If you could stand in a circle, where would you choose to stand? Philip: In the middle. Why there? Philip: Because then you could see everything really well. George: And if that one person stood in the middle of the circle, then we would all be able to see him very well. Another question, mama. How, in one’s life does one know what is the best thing to do for the future? George: Through your life. Philip: By saying something aloud to someone… and then deciding whether it is also a good thing to do. By talking about it together and thinking together of new ideas. The little o’th’earth Shakespeare’s Sustaining Allegory Promotoren Prof.dr. D.A. Pascoe Prof.ir. N.D. van Egmond The little o’th’earth Shakespeare’s Sustaining Allegory The little o’th’earth, Shakespeare’s duurzame allegorie (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 30 januari 2015 des middags te 4.15 uur door Iris Hanna Casteren van Cattenburch geboren op 5 april 1972 te Oldebroek Reade him, therefore; and againe, and againe: Iohn Heminge. Henrie Condell. Digitally published by Utrecht University (2015) Graphic and cover design: Petra van der Lem, CatchyDesign, Zoetermeer Cover design inspired by First Folio (1623) and Orbis Terrarum Nova et Accuratissima Tabula, Nicolaes Visscher and Nicolaes Berchem (1690?) Font used: Foro Rounded by Dieter Hofrichter, Hoftype (2013) Copyright © Iris Casteren van Cattenburch 2015 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Printed for the PhD defence ceremony on 30 January 2015, by FWa Drukwerk, Zoetermeer. Not for sale ISBN/EAN: 978-90-393-6278-5 Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................... 9 Summary ........................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Samenvatting.................................................................................................................................................................. 11 Bookmarker ..................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Curriculum vitae .......................................................................................................................................................... 12 PROLOGUE ....................................................................................................................................................................... 15 AIR 1 Hercules’s Entrances - Introducing Allegories ............................................................................ 25 2 The Numbring Clocke - Overshooting All-hating Worlds.................................................... 39 3 An O Without a Figure - Lear’s Sustaining No-thing ................................................................ 67 WATER 4 O, But One Word - Mechanisms of Life and Death in The Tempest ............................. 91 5 O Well Done: - Macbeth’s Sustaining Memories ......................................................................... 131 EARTH 6 Tricks and Trade - The Unsustainable Economics of Measure for Measure ........ 149 7 Common Whores - The Merchants of Venice and Athens .................................................. 181 FIRE 8 Occasional Postures - Sustaining Sexualities in Anthony and Cleopatra .............. 211 9 Full Circles - The Industry of The Phoenix and The Turtle ................................................ 255 10 “Take this Audit, take this life” - Cymbeline’s Futures ............................................................ 273 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................................ 303 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 307 Photographic Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. 329 7 8 Acknowledgements And hither am I come, A Prologue arm’d, but not in confidence Of Authors pen, or Actors voyce; but suited In like conditions, as our Argument; To tell you (faire Beholders) that our Play Leapes ore the vaunt and firstlings of those broyles Beginning in the middle: starting thence away, To what may be digested in a Play: Like, or finde fault, do as your pleasures are, Now, good, or bad, ’tis but the chance of Warre. Writing The little o’th’earth was a lesson for life. I would first like to name three peo- ple, who gave me my Alpha, and then, for better and for worse, granted and supported many more Alphas, as our personal Play ‘leapes over the vaunt and firstlings of many broyles, starting thence away’, yet ever again ‘beginning in the middle’. Thanks, with love, to my husband Pascal Rijnders, and to my parents Ankje and Hans Casteren van Cattenburch-Kruif. Thanks to Philip, Lex, George, Jules and Sam, for sustaining mama. Five people who long ago inspired to the Alpha of this thesis are David Prins, Krystyna Robaczewska, Ric Rose, Gino Vannelli and Peter de Voogd; I thank them for every spark and wise advice. Krystyna is the only soothsayer I will ever believe in sooth, and love; and Peter never refrained from keeping my treasures. Thanks to Michel Faber, whose ‘little book’ certainly ‘deserved to absorb me back to literature’. I thank Kaja Pohlmann and Erik van Plateringen for seeing and acknowledging my eventual start; they made me feel safe to take the plunge. I thank Klaas van Egmond, not only as my second supervisor. Our first meeting in August 2009 instigated meteor showers in my thought and life. I thank him for every gate he opened, his integrity, and his presence at vital points. All along the line from Alpha to Omega, many friends stood by. I would like to thank Nico Anten, who understands and allows me to do what I so much want to do. I thank my other colleagues at Connekt for bearing with me and Shakespeare over the past four years: Seher Bardakci, Frits Bisschop, Robert Boekestijn, Freek Boele, Jeroen Bol, Sara Bus, Harsha Dijk, Coen Faber, Vanessa van Geffen, Henrik Goijer, Lia Hsu, Michael Jurriaans, Kevin Jansen, Jonneke van de Kamp, Jos van Kleef, Caroline Koiter, Maarten Koningsveld, Robert Kramps, Ruben Kwak, Annemieke de Leeuw, Machteld Leijnse, Paul Potters, Linda Rijnbeek, Jan van Rompay, Bram van Schijndel, Tzvetan Stantchev, Esther van de Sterre, Hanny Swart, Arjen Stroo, Gerard Vos, Marije de Vreeze, Marina van Weele, Walter Wienhoven, Janneke Wiersema and Bianca Witmer; Nick Juffermans, who taught Venus how Adonis’s ways are sustaining after all; Nicole Maas, alias Puck, who is able to ‘put a girdle round ’bout the earth in forty minutes’ or even less, and in reality put a spell on our audience; and Herman Wagter, my Lean and Green Oberon, 9 whom Titania will never stop to hate and love at the same time. I thank the Lean and Green Ambassadors, especially my respondents Frans van den Boomen, Mark Haverlach and Liane Philipsen, for allowing Atlas to go on holiday, enabling Hercules and Pallas Athena to restore the connection between Heaven and Earth; just long enough to discover the ‘human dimension of changing space’ in their daily practice of sustainable logistics. I thank my special friend and councillor Sybe Schaap, who was not only prepared to critically discuss my texts and personal cares, but was also willing to act as one of my respondents, together with my esteemed client Ellen Tromp of Deltares. I thank Willem Bruggeman and Ron Thiemann of Deltares, Jacqueline Cramer and Herman Wijffels of USI for their support in an early and in the final stage. I thank Robert Goevaers, who gave me some great ideas for Shakespeare’s homo economicus in The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and Timon of Athens. He introduced me to Dirk-Jan van Swaay of ING Bank, who was ready to apply Shakespeare’s sustaining allegory to a new financial model for zero-emission bus transport. Meanwhile, Pieter van Hoof helped me recuperate, by cooking a delicious meal for me, over a profound discussion on the ethics of evil of Friar Lodowick, and myself. On my way from Alpha to Omega, Shakespeare invited me to discover myself, provid- ing me with one vital tool: Eros. I thank Anna Arrowsmith for her female pornographic films, and for her