Texts and Traditions: Religion in Shakespeare 1592-1604 (Oxford English Monographs)

244 Pages·2007·1.72 MB·English

by  Beatrice Groves

OXFORD ENGLISH MONOGRAPHS
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Texts and Traditions
Religion in Shakespeare 1592–1604
BEATRICE GROVES
CLARENDONPRESS·OXFORD
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Preface
InthelateseventeenthcenturyRichardDavies,ArchdeaconofCoventry,
claimedthatShakespearehadcreatedthecharacterof‘JusticeClodpate’
in order to satirize ‘Sr Lucy’ who had had him whipped for poaching.
Davies also stated that Shakespeare ‘dyed a papist’. The Archdeacon’s
unreliability as a witness (his inability to distinguish between Justice
Shallow and a character created by Shadwell over three-quarters of a
centurylater)isoneexampleofthedifficultiesthatbedevilanyattempt
toproveShakespeare’sCatholicism.Nonethelesstheideahasfoundits
advocates since the Victorian period, and has recently become one of
themostpopularandhotlycontestedareasofShakespearestudies.Peter
Milward, E. A. J. Honigmann, Richard Wilson, Stephen Greenblatt,
and Clare Asquith are among those who have lately suggested that
Shakespeare’sownbeliefsunderliehistrademarkambiguityoftoneand
theromanceworldofchantrychapelsandwaysidecrossesinhabitedby
manyofhischaracters.
Thisbook,however,attemptstoengagewiththereligiousnuancesin
Shakespeare’splaysinalesssectarianmanner.Shakespeare’sdramaturgy
includes traces of Catholicism’s visual emphasis but it also embraces
the rich verbal stimulus of Protestantism’s focus on the Word. This
bookisentitledTextsandTraditionsbecauseitarguesthatShakespeare
enriched his plays through appropriating both the linguistic wealth of
the English Bible and the theatrical splendour of liturgy, images, and
mystery plays from England’s recent Catholic past. Rather than find
thecluetotheseappropriationsinhisownbiography,thismonograph
aims to articulate the way that Shakespeare’s verbally sophisticated,
embodied drama engaged with the religious culture in which both he
and his works were embedded; a culture which, as recent historical
research has suggested, assimilated rather than destroyed much of its
Catholic past. This less confessionalapproach enables a focus which is
notdirectedatShakespeare’sbeliefsbutattheinterpretativepossibilities
thathisengagementwithreligiouscultureopensupwithinhisplays.
This work grew out of an Oxford D.Phil. and I would like to
thank my supervisors Peter McCullough and Emma Smith, for their
viii Preface
encouragement, advice, and friendship, for which I am ever indebted.
My gratitude is also owed for the generosity of my grandmother Phil
who gave me a place in her home in which to study. I would also like
to thank all those who have taught and inspired me, foremost among
whom is my mother Jane, who first fed my love for Shakespeare, and
took me to see his plays. A great debt of gratitude goes also to my
undergraduatetutors:JeremyMaule,AdrianPoole,AnneBarton,Bart
vanEs,PhilWest,and,aboveall,EricGriffiths.
Ihavebeenamazed,throughoutthetimespentworkingonthispro-
ject,bythegenerosityIhaveencountered.Ihavefoundbothstrangers
andfriendscontenttogiveuptheirtimeandeagertosharetheirexpert-
ise.IparticularlywanttothankPascaleAebischer,PhilippaBerry,Santha
Bhattacharji,ImogenBlack, JeremyBoulton,HenryChadwick,Helen
Cooper, Helen Deeming, Sarah Dewar-Watson, Katherine Duncan-
Jones, Trevor Griffiths, Helen Hackett, Ralph Hanna, Lorna Huett,
MartinIngram,FelicityJames,KarenJunod,LaurieMaguire,Diarmaid
MacCulloch, Stephen Medcalf, Llewelyn Morgan, John Muddiman,
DavidNorbrook,AdrianPaterson,BenjaminPrance,AlisonShell,and
Jenny Wormald. I am grateful to the Arts and Humanities Research
Council for the award of a scholarship which enabled me to write my
D.Phil.andtoStJohn’sCollege,Oxford,formytimethereasagradu-
ate student.In particular I would liketo thankthefellows of Wolfson
College,Oxford,whoseawardofaJuniorResearchFellowshipenabled
me to complete this book. I am grateful to the many librarians who
have been unfailingly helpful during my research, in particular those
of the Duke Humphrey and Upper Reading Room of the Bodleian.
Thanks are also due to the staff of the Oxford English Faculty library,
the British Library, the Cambridge University Library, and numerous
collegelibraries.
The chapter on the second tetralogy first appeared in a slightly
different form in Shakespeare Survey as ‘Hal as Self-Styled Redeemer:
The Harrowing of Hell and Henry IV Part 1’ Shakespeare Survey 57
(2004):236–48.MythankstoPeterHollandandCambridgeUniversity
Pressforallowingitsinclusionhere.IamgratefultoTomPerridgeand
allthestaffatOxfordUniversityPressinvolvedinthepublicationofthis
monograph,andinparticularforthehelpfuladviceoftheiranonymous
readers.
Preface ix
I wish to thank my parents, all my family, and Alan and Dorothy
Groves for their love, kindness, and support. Finally, this book is
dedicatedtomyhusband,Peter,inloveandgratitudeforallthathehas
givenmeintheyearsofitswriting.
B.L.R.G.