Shakespeare Institute

Abstract

To understand the enigmatic quality of love in its dramatic portrayal in early modern England requires a consideration of human behaviour, cultural and religious ideology, and literary tra-dition.  From medieval courtly love, which praises idealized love, ascetic self-restraint and sublimation, to the trobadours, and Petrarchan lyric, with its inherent struggle between sensu-ality and mysticism, the literary tradition portrays love and sexuality as convoluted and seem-ingly inextricable.  Ideologically, love is often perceived through the empirical mind-body or spirit-soul distinction, as consisting of a carnal, lascivious aspect most frequently controlled by reason or moral restrictions of religion.  Calvinist philosophy of concupiscence presents humans perplexed in a dichotomy of lustful, carnal urges that are not only disharmonious with the soul, but also ignominious to the spirit.  Passionate love is seen as being base and sinful, the precedent being the original fall, especially for the female gender where sex and concep-tion seem to go hand-in-hand as the female reproductive imperative.  Control seems to be the operative word in perceiving sexuality as a noble rather than salacious force, condoned, as long as reason controls and elevates passion to spiritual ecstasy.  Protestant philosophy, how-ever, deems sexuality as being an integral union of souls, the highest expression of love be-tween man and woman committing to each other to bear offspring and raise a family.  In this ideological context, the definition of love is not simple, as it is further confounded by percep-tions of sexuality and gender roles.  Shakespeare probes and agitates these notions of love, by inverting these unequivocal perceptions and showing that it is not reason, but passion that is a valiant and virtuous life force.  Portraying and questioning primarily pathos and eros in con-jugal relations, but also agape, filia and storgi, especially through the epithalamic genre, de-layed marital consummation and marriage, Shakespeare explores human erotic nature in its perceived lewdness and aesthetic magnificence.  The focus of this paper is to investigate the dynamics of love, consummation (or delay, or lack thereof) and potential transcendence in conjugal union in three of the tragedies, with reference to other tragedies and comedies.  The nature of love itself is questioned, the focus thereof being pathos and eros in  Othello, The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest.

This essay emphasises the significance of the dramatic appropriations of cosmetic signifiers that are potent in Renaissance revenge tragedies, signifying the genre as the suitable means to convey and instruct women on their social conduct. First I provide a context for early modern cosmetic culture and practices by examining some of the main anti-cosmetic arguments that are reflected in the revenge tragedies. Then I expand on these findings by exploring the stage device of the cosmetic corpse — a curious beautification ritual that goes against the traditional cosmetic scenes of tragedies, where cosmetics are usually applied on the living self causing monstrous ramifications to their health. Instead, female chaste corpses are grotesquely revamped into weapons to depose necrophiliac tyrants, who die from kissing the cosmetically enhanced poisonous corpses of the women who were painted by the revengers. Despite, the device being recycled from Thomas Kyd’s The Tragedy of Soliman and Perseda (c.1591), this essay focuses on the richest representations of the cosmetic corpse found in Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy (1607) and The Lady’s Tragedy (1611) that gave the fullest readings.

Theatre Reviews Section of Multicultural Shakespeares, Dec 2014. Section includes my pp.81-97 review of: The Taming of the Shrew, Globe to Globe, dir. Haissam Hussain, 26-27 May 2012.
Also pp. 98-110, Saffron Walkling's review of Coriolanus at the Edinburgh International Festival, dir. Lin Zhaohua, 20-21 August 2013.

From the establishment of its first permanent theatre in 1753 until the end of Victoria’s reign in 1901, almost 2000 performances of Shakespeare’s plays were produced in Manchester, a number exceeded only by London. Such was the bard’s popularity that Charles Calvert’s career as theatre manager in the city and creator of theatrical versions of Shakespeare’s plays was so successful that his funeral procession attracted 50,000 onlookers. Why was the city so enthusiastic about Shakespeare’s plays and so receptive to their moral messages? I will answer these questions by assessing the impact of social, economic and technological changes on the city’s cultural life.

Manchester’s contribution to the development of national and international Shakespearean theatre and how Manchester adopted Shakespeare’s works to give direction to its development have not been researched before. My new and original research aims to link Manchester and Shakespeare in the public consciousness for the first time.