Shakespearean maternities : crises of conception in early modern England

321 Pages·2008·47.838 MB·English

by  Laoutaris, Chris, Shakespeare, William

SHAKESPEAR EAN
SHAKESPEAREAN
MS
M A T E R N I T I E S
H
AA M A T E R N I T I E S
TK
CRISES OF CONCEPTION IN EE
S
EARLY MODERN ENGLAND R
P
NE
A
CHRIS LAOUTARIS I
TR
E CRISES OF CONCEPTION IN
IA
This study explores maternity in the ‘disciplines’of early modern England.Placing the reproductive E
N
female body centre-stage in Shakespeare’s theatre, Chris Laoutaris ranges beyond the domestic S EARLY MODERN ENGLAND
sphere in which the rituals of childbirth,midwifery and wet-nursing were performed in order to
recuperate the wider intellectual,epistemological,and archaeological significance of maternity to the EC
AR
Renaissance imagination. RIS
LE
YS
Focusing on ‘anatomy’in Hamlet,‘natural history’in The Tempest,‘demonology’in Macbeth,and
MO
‘heraldry’in Antony and Cleopatra,this book reveals the ways in which the maternal body was
OF
figured in,and in turn contributed towards the re-conceptualisation of,bodies of knowledge.The DC
relevance of the maternal to early pedagogical,aesthetic,and scientific disciplines,Laoutaris argues, EO
makes itself felt when crises overturn the desired outcomes of birth and nurture. Instances of RNN
C
tragic intervention – such as disease,bewitchment,monstrosity,and death – expose the potentially EE
destabilising power of maternity, dismantling the epistemological certainties with which the NP
GT
maternal body had been invested in the interests of masculine legitimation.Shakespeare resists a I
LO
monolithic concept of motherhood,presenting instead a range of contested ‘maternities’ which AN
N
challengethe distinctive ‘ways of knowing’these early disciplines worked to impose on the order of
DIN
created nature.The engagement with maternity in the early modern period therefore had a more far-
reaching impact on Shakespeare’s cultural landscape than has heretofore been recognised.
Features
• Provides a new interpretation of a subject which is becoming increasingly popular among
Shakespeare scholars,cultural and medical historians,and feminist critics
• Focuses on four of Shakespeare's best-loved plays (Hamlet,The Tempest,Macbeth,Antony and
Cleopatra) C
H
• Presents striking visual material which forms a central component of the book's critical
methodology,including anatomical plates,cabinets of curiosity,early modern follies and grottoes, R
I
archaeological discoveries, artefacts of witchcraft and superstition, early natural historical S
specimens,Renaissance ‘monsters’,ceramics,portraiture,funerary monuments and statuary
L
• Offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of maternity,encompassing research methods A
drawn from a range of academic fields,including literary studies,gender studies,the history of art, O
archaeology,and the history of the sciences U
T
A
R
I
S
Jacket design:www.riverdesign.co.uk
Jacket image:Prodigious history of a woman who for five
years carried her dead child within her womb(1560) by
Pierre Boaistuau.© Wellcome Library,London.
barcode
Edinburgh University Press E
22 GeorgeSquare,Edinburgh EH8 9LF d
i
n
www.eup.ed.ac.uk b
u CHRIS LAOUTARIS
ISBN 978 0 7486 2436 2 r
g
h
Shakespearean Maternities
Crises of Conception in Early
Modern England
Chris Laoutaris
Edinburgh University Press
© Chris Laoutaris, 2008
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
Typeset in Sabon and Futura
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wilts
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 2436 2(hardback)
The right of Chris Laoutaris
to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Contents
Acknowledgements v
Note on the Text ix
List of Illustrations x
Introduction: Constructing Maternal Knowledge 1
1 Flesh and Stone: Dissecting Maternity in the Theatre
of Anatomy 27
Behold the Woman: The Renaissance Anatomist in the
Satyr’s Mask 27
Hearts and Hands: The Satirical Disclosures of Maternity
inShakespeare’s Hamlet 61
2 The Cabinet of Wonders: Monstrous Conceptions in the
Theatre of Nature 94
Wonders of Common Things: The Natural History of
Maternity and the Renaissance Garden-Grotto 94
Above the Beast: The Monster and the Natural Historian
inShakespeare’s Tempest 121
3 Strange Labours: Maternity and Maleficium in the Theatre of
Justice 154
Breaching the Wall: The Archaeologies of Witchcraft and
the Maternal Body in Early Modern England 154
Poisoned Chalices: The Reproductive Demonologies of
Shakespeare’s Macbeth 176
4 Speaking Stones: Memory and Maternity in the Theatre
of Death 212
Voce Pia Mater: Memorialising Mothers and the
Death-Ritual in Early Modern England 212
iv Shakespearean Maternities
A Celerity in Dying: The Maternal Postures of Death in
Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra 235
Postscript: Our Maternities: The Historical Legacy 268
Selected Bibliography 270
Index 294
Acknowledgements
This book has been a long time in the making. It began life as a doctoral
project which was completed at University College London’s
Department of English Language and Literature. An interdisciplinary
study of this nature would not have been possible without the help and
support of a great many individuals who have contributed in tangible
ways to its development at every stage. I owe so much to my family,
whose encouragement and tireless devotion is – and will always be – the
foundation of everything I do; in particular my mum, Thalia; my dad,
John; and my brother, George to whose memory this book is dedicated.
Although my brother did not live to see its publication, his wisdom,
patience and courage have been silent shaping principles which have
gently nurtured this study and which will continue to inform every other
project I undertake in the future. He will always be, in some way, the
mother of my invention.
Particular thanks are due to the academic and administrative staff at
University College London. From the first day I enrolled at UCL’s
Department of English Language and Literature as an undergraduate
student they have been a limitless source of inspiration and guidance. I
am deeply indebted to Helen Hackett, who first ignited in me an inter-
est in the field of early modern women’s studies. Her influence on my
work has been tremendous and I have benefited from her generosity and
friendship in more ways than I have room to detail here. I am immensely
grateful to René Weis, whose expertise has guided this project from its
very earliest stages. His support, both professional and personal, is
greatly appreciated. I must also express my gratitude for the inspira-
tional tutoring of John Sutherland, Paul Davies and Bas Aarts, who have
been decisive influences in the shaping of my writing over the years.
Special thanks go to Kathryn Metzenthin and Anita Garfoot, the admin-
istrative team of the English department. I have benefited daily from
their hard work and dedicated professionalism as well as their kindness.
vi Shakespearean Maternities
UCL is continuing to provide a nurturing and stimulating culture for my
ongoing research and I am incredibly grateful to the former Head of
Department, now Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Henry
Woudhuysen (who also provided feedback on segments of the original
thesis which has shaped the methodology of this book in significant
ways) and to the current Head of Department Susan Irvine for their
much-appreciated support.
I feel immensely privileged to have had the opportunity to work
alongside Kate Moncrief of Washington College and Kate McPherson
of Utah Valley State College. Sharing with them my passion for early
modern maternity studies has been an enriching experience and one
which has left an indelible impression on this book. An earlier draft of
the fourth chapter appeared in their edited collection Performing
Maternity in Early Modern England, published by Ashgate Press in
2007. I am similarly grateful to Caroline Bicks for her insightful com-
ments on an early version of the same chapter and for our discussions
on maternity and the Renaissance theatre. I must also extend my heart-
felt gratitude to Kate Chedgzoy and Valerie Wayne for their sensitive
and highly astute feedback on this project during its fledgling stages.
This book would not have been published without their positive assess-
ments. I owe a special debt to David Margolies for his much-valued
support and wisdom. Our many conversations, both while I was teach-
ing at Goldsmiths College (University of London) and after, have meant
a great deal to me. I would also like to thank Katherine Duncan-Jones
and Gordon McMullan for their observations on this study at the doc-
toral stage. Their judicious responses have made this a better book than
it otherwise would have been.
Particular thanks go to Jackie Jones, who first commissioned the
book, Máiréad McElligott, James Dale and Nicola Wood. Their profes-
sionalism, perfectionism and endless stores of patience are the bedrock
upon which this project has been built. Dealing with them has, at every
stage of the book’s production, been a pleasant experience, and they have
answered my, almost daily, questions on image layouts and manuscript
presentation, dealt with copyright holders and picture archivists, and
implemented editorial changes, with great grace and serene efficiency.
I would not have been able to complete this book, nor the long-term
academic study which was its catalyst, had it not been for the vital finan-
cial aid of the Arts and Humanities Research Council who funded my
graduate and doctoral research. I am also beholden in more ways than
words can express to the British Academy for awarding me a post-
doctoral fellowship for 2007–10. Their crucial support has seen me
throughthe final stages of this book’s completion and is the basis of my
Acknowledgements vii
continuing research, teaching and writing. I am also grateful to the
English department and Graduate School of UCL for funding my par-
ticipation in international academic conferences during the course of my
doctoral research. Without the invaluable assistance of these funding
bodies so many of the academic projects I have been fortunate enough
to be involved with would have remained unrealised.
Undertaking an interdisciplinary project of this kind meant that I often
found myself having to journey into unfamiliar academic territory. I was,
however, blessed with many willing guides who have helped me navigate
these exciting, though daunting, landscapes of knowledge. I have had the
privilege of working with people from many different fields– academics,
historians, archivists, curators, librarians, researchers, archaeologists, sci-
entists and chemists – who have generously given up their time to share
their expert knowledge with me and, in some cases, even their own metic-
ulous research. I am particularly indebted to Patricia Burstall, Bisham
Church archivist, who is a gifted writer and enthusiastic local historian.
I am also grateful to Alan Massey, honorary fellow of the Department of
Chemistry, Loughborough University, for giving me exclusive access to
his thrilling chemical analyses on early modern Witch-bottles. I have also
been aided in my archaeological investigations by Brian Hoggard; Tim
Pestell, Curator of Archaeology at the Norwich Castle Museum; Jacqui
Pierce of the London Archaeological Archive Research Centre; Professor
Ivor Noel Hume, formerly of the Guildhall Museum; and Hazel Forsyth,
curator of the Tudor/Stuart galleries at the Museum of London. Special
thanks go to Margaret Hannay, who kindly shared her own unpublished
research with me; Robin Harcourt Williams, archivist at Hatfield House;
Geoffrey Fisher of the Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art;
Anthony Trowles of the Westminster Abbey Library; Chris Gravett and
Ann Mitchell of Woburn Abbey; Sebastian Fattorini of Skipton Castle;
Robert Yorke of the College of Arms; Jo Rowley of Pioneer Productions;
the National Geographic Channel US; Ian Murray, archivist at the present
Barber-Surgeons’ Hall; John Fisher of the Guildhall Library; Rea
Alexandratos, Dal Pozzo Project Coordinator for the Royal Collection,
Windsor Castle, whose efficiency is a godsend; Lucie Strnadova at the
Royal Collection, Windsor Castle; Nikki Braunton of the Museum of
London; Jeremy Coote and Kathy Wright of the Pitt Rivers Museum,
University of Oxford; Joanna Parker of Worcester College Library,
University of Oxford; Colin Barber of Margate Shell Grotto; Matthew
Bailey of the National Portrait Gallery, London; Rachael Cross of the
Wellcome Trust, London; Heather Gordon and Liz Jenkins of the
National Monuments Record, English Heritage; Ute Wenzel-Förster of
the Städel Museum, Frankfurt; Ingrid Kastel of the Albertina Museum,
viii Shakespearean Maternities
Vienna; Michele Visentin of the Centro Studi Antoniani, Padua; Marie
Poulain and Raphaëlle Cartier of the Agence Photographique de la
Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris; Florian Kugler of the
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Gunilla Dedesund, Permissions
Editor for Lennart Nilsson; José Manuel Fernández at the Museo
Nacional del Prado, Madrid; Nell Carrington of the Wallace Collection,
London; Axelle Russo of the British Museum; Niki Pollock of the Special
Collections Department, Glasgow University Library; Elizabeth Mcgrath
of the Warburg Institute, London; Lesley Headdon of Penshurst Place;
and all the staff at the British Library, Wellcome Library, Courtauld
Institute of Art, Warburg Institute, Lambeth Palace Library, Guildhall
Library, London Archaeological Archive Research Centre and Museum
of London, who have assisted me in my research. I am also grateful to
Viscount De L’Isle of Penshurst Place and His Grace the Duke of Bedford
of Woburn Abbey for kindly allowing me to publish photographs of items
in their collections.
Over the years my enthusiasm for academic research has been ener-
gised by the support of friends from whom I have drawn inspiration and
encouragement. I owe particular thanks to Shona McNeill who first
instilled in me a love of literature. Her knowledge, both literary and his-
torical, continues to amaze me and her influence on my education and
career are greater than she knows. I am also grateful to those with whom
I have had many stimulating and fruitful discussions about my ongoing
research, including Eleni Pilla; Maria Petrides; Jerri McIntosh; Yih Yee
Wong; Yewande Okuleye; and Florentia Stavrou whose presence and
support during the final stages of the manuscript’s completion is much
appreciated. I would also like to say a big thank you to Tasos Pelekanis
for his technological expertise which has taken the strain out of the prac-
ticalities of digital imaging. I apologise to anyone who has in some way
been part of this project but did not get a mention here.
Note on the Text
In transcriptions of manuscripts and early printed texts all i/j and u/v
orthographical constructions have been modernised, unless otherwise
stated. In the end notes of each chapter I have indicated the direct
sources, including the accession numbers, of early printed texts referred
to. The Short Title Catalogue (STC) numbers for early English texts
have, where this information was available, been included in the bibli-
ography. Where STC numbers were unavailable WING catalogue
numbers, where possible, have been added.