English Literature Notes

The Body on Stage: Shakespeare, Early Modern Drama, and Modern Subjectivity

Stage is crucial, considering both the play and the theatrical text.

A theatrical text is designed for performance, unlike a literary text meant for solitary reading.

Closet Approach

"Closet approach" emphasizes a private, one-on-one relationship with the text.

In Shakespeare, this relates to master bedroom scenes, known as "the closet scene".

Romantic poets like Coleridge valued a one-to-one approach to Shakespeare, seeing him as a genius.

Literary critics later returned to Shakespeare's theatrical roots.

His plays are tied to the theater (stage, actors).

Limited female characters were a constraint due to the historical context of male-only acting companies.

We can interpret Shakespeare as a director, envisioning his intentions.

The Body

The theater emphasizes the body through actors' gestures and movements.

In this course, we focus on how attention to the body informs accurate play interpretations.

Traditionally, "Hamlet" has been viewed as a disembodied work, focusing on the mind and philosophical questions like:

  • Meaning of life/meaninglessness of life
  • Moral duty to avenge ancestors
  • Despair at life's meaninglessness after disrupted relationships with the past

However, the body is significant in "Hamlet", not just the mind.

Hamlet and other characters' bodies matter.

Hamlet's mind relies on his imperfect, mortal body.

Our study of the body in "Hamlet" will explore:

  1. Memory disruption: Early modern memory was seen as physiological, impacting the body. Memory issues could cause physiological problems. We'll investigate if Hamlet's memory problems cause physical disruptions.
  2. The female body: "Hamlet" is misogynistic, with few female characters. Hamlet's attitude toward Gertrude and Ophelia is often violent and derogatory. Yet, Hamlet has a repressed feminine side. Actresses have played Hamlet. The text contains possibilities explored in theater and TV.

The Shakespearean Age: Definitions

  1. English Renaissance (1564-1616)
  2. Elizabethan Period
  3. Early Modern Age

English Renaissance

A European phenomenon, influencing imagination and thought.

Eurocentric: Considers Europe the center.

Some argue for considering Middle Eastern influence on the European Renaissance (e.g., Islamic Renaissance, translations).

English Renaissance starts later than the Italian Renaissance (14th century).

Renaissance emphasizes rebirth, novelty, breaking from the past, especially the Middle Ages, seen as stagnant.

The Middle Ages as obscurantist is a later invention.

Renaissance highlights new ideas, arts, technology, modern politics.

Starting in the 16th century, there was the rediscovery of classical texts, of Latin and Greek antiquity making them more widely available.

Latin sources influenced Shakespeare, especially for "Hamlet".

Renaissance authors were trained in and disseminated classical forms.

Shakespeare's tragedies drew inspiration from Seneca's tragedies, Plutarch, Ovid, Cicero, Livy, Tacitus.

Classical literature influenced revenge tragedies.

The term "Renaissance" is anachronistic, coined in the 19th century for periodization.

Shakespeare could not have imagined his period as one of rebirth.

The rediscovery of Shakespeare began in Europe in the second half of the 19th century, when philosophers located the Renaissance as a key moment in the development of Western Civilization and valued this time period.

Early Modern

The early phase of European modernity.

Focus is on modernity.

Modernity involves fundamental changes in England in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

Modernity emphasizes ideas and values characterizing later ages.

Factors in establishing modernity:

  1. Decline of the feudal system, changes in economy, money, and rules.

  2. Beginning of the capitalist system, wealth distribution changes.

  3. Changes in political thinking, Macchiavelli's influence:

    a. Replaces classical political theories with individualism and leadership.

    b. This individualism leaves an impact on values in Modernity.

  4. Copernican system (heliocentric) challenges religious authority. Science becomes more authoritative than biblical text. This secular outlook relies on a more secular understanding of knowledge.

  5. Printing using mobile types spreads science and secular knowledge (Guttenberg, 1450s). While expensive, printing played a key role in spreading texts and new systems, thinking and values.

  6. Emergence of new churches, challenging the Catholic Church, rise of Protestantism (Martin Luther, 95 theses). Hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church comes under attack. Protestantism supports individualism and a direct relation with God.

  7. Emergence of Modern Science and new philosophical approaches, scientists were encourage to question and think critically about the truth by observation and measurement became the foundation of the scientific method.

  8. Imperialism: Columbus' voyage to America (1492), emblematic of Modernity. England was deeply engaged with exploration, and the english empire disseminated of the idea of England's civilization, technology and discoveries, with Elizabeth 1.

Elizabethan and Jacobean Ages

Historical definition named after Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and King James I (Early Jacobean Age, 1603-1625).

Elizabethan Age is often called a "golden age" due to intense intellectual thinking and prosperity in arts, literature, poetry, and drama; people sought after adventures and discoveries of new and different things. Also, this was a time of relative peace an stability, compared with the uncertainty of the Tudor Kindoms before.

Relative peace and stability during Elizabeth's reign (though war against Ireland and plotting existed).

Defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) made England a dominant maritime power.

Queen Elizabeth patronized artists and playwrights, including Shakespeare.

Theaters protected despite the rise of Puritanism, which was hostile to theater.

Under King James, theaters were repeatedly closed (plague, Puritan hostility).

Reformation in England

Emphasizes religious divisions (Catholicism, Protestantism/Anglican Church).

Conflicts continued after Shakespeare, leading to the Civil War (1642-1651).

Focus is on culture that privileges direct access to Scriptures (Calvin, Erasmus). Criticized the Roman Catholic Church for deviating from the Bible's meaning, in the protestant churches there had to be a direct way to reach Gos which leads to personal involvement with the most important aspect for them and also the personal contact between the devotee and the Bible.

Contrast between Catholic devotion (prayers) and Protestant insistence on direct access to the Bible.

For protestantism, praying for the dead or having priests praying for them was not acceptable.

The ghost in "Hamlet" seems Catholic (Purgatory), showing the clash between direct access to Scriptures (Protestant) and the importance of prayers/rites for the dead (Catholic).

No label is completely right or wrong; each illuminates a different aspect of this complex period.

Shakespeare's Life (1564-1616)

Few records make life reconstruction problematic.

  • 1564: Born in Stratford-Upon-Avon (year Michelangelo, Calvin died, Galileo born). Probably attended public school: grammar, rhetoric, logic, learned Latin, French.
  • 1582: Married Anne Hathaway (18, she 26). Before 21 was father of three children. Eldest child born 16 months after marriage, so it was a bit of a hurry.
  • 1596: Son Hamnet (similar name to Hamlet) dies at 11. "Hamlet" written probably after his death. Sh. had daughters, but now sons. Therefore , male line was exhausted with the death of Hamnet, which was probably a source of anxiety for Sh. because he desired to have an heir.
  • 1585-1592: "Lost years" (no known records). Speculation abounds (practiced law, traveled to Italy).
  • 1592: In London, actor and collaborator to other playwrights. Immediately after this he began writing his historical play "Henry VI".
  • 1594: Joined Richard Burbage's playing company: "Lord Chamberlain’s Men" as an actor and then the resident playwright, dramatist
  • 1593-1595: Theaters closed due to plague outbreak. Shakespeare may have written poetical works, that may have been of his most important: "The Rape of Lucrece", “Venus and Adonis”, start writing the “Sonnets”.
  • 1595: Back with "LCM" as resident dramatist. He had to write at least two plays a year, particularly just for them.
  • 1590-1600: Prolific decade, Historical plays: "1,2,3 Henry VI", "Richard III" (also elements of tragedies), "Richard II", "1,2 Henry IV", "Henry V", "King John" and “Henry VIII” although this one was written later. Tragedies: “Titus Andronicus” (also a historical play), “Romeo and Juliet”, + late 1590s: “Julius Caesar”, “Hamlet”, “Troilus and Cressida”. Comedies: “The Comedy of Errors”, “The Taming of the Shrew”, “Love’s Labour’s Lost”, “The Merchant of Venice”, “Much Ado About Nothing”, “As You Like It”, “The Merry Wives of Windsor”. During the Elizabethan time was important to expose past medieval conflicts for Elizabeth dynasty celebration; not just Tudor propaganda but also machiavellian perspective of greatness.

With the comedies, Shakespeare seems to tell us that the theater was a place where not only people needed to be instructed about history, for example about merits and demerits of kings, but also it could provide a lot of entertainment; the theater was also the place where social customs could be learnt and social behavior modeled.

  • 28 December of 1598: Building of the Globe: legend goes that the “LCM”, joined by some workmen and carpenters, dismantled the theater they were using (“The Theatre”, located in Shoreditch- could no longer use without paying a lot); they had some financial issues with the owner of the land on which the theater was located, therefore in one night they dismantled it and they built another one using the same materials, but this time on the south bank of the Thames- and the name was “The Globe” . Important theater became and First Hamlet's performance. The material conditions are important for understanding Shakespeare structure.

Protagonist was designed by Sh. having in mind a particular actor of his company, Richard Burbage, who was also a shareholder together with William Kempe, and Sh. himself:

• Not the character only for specific physical characteristics also the play, precisely at “The Globe”.

• Reconstructed as was in Sh.’s time. Open door theater, during Spring/Summer. 3 classes- today the opposite. Upper class (best places in the heavens), middle class (commoners in the galleries), and lower class placed dirtiest and cheapest: (groundlings had to stand), an experience in itself as the actors really interacted with the groundlings.

• Limited idea looks like when we read “Hamlet”; actors joked with audience and they responded to actors, the plays were then much more interactive than we might expect from simply reading the play as a book

• Clowns and fools often used hard language and swearwords (lively), but “Hamlet” bit different (no clown yet), only at the beginning of Act 5 (joke characters, the gravediggers).

• Sh. Could profit more from playing company, very successful plays, stability finance: 1601-1608 other great season:

  • Tragedies: “Othello”, “King Lear”, “Macbeth”, “Anthony and Cleopatra”, “Coriolanus”, “Timon of Athens”
  • Comedies: “Twelfth Night”, “All’s Well that Ends Well”, “Measure for Measure” (however, these have somehow a darker tone)

Two main season (1590-1600, 1601-1608); due to some stylistic differences: history/political issues/instability(season 1) or ontological tragedy (season 2).

• 1603: Men (previously called in another way) and then “The King’s Men” (Gained royal patronage due to I became King, named change because of it). However, relationship James/theatre controversial (Puritans): James sometimes consented to close down theaters. Not as fond such as Elizabeth.

• 1603/05: Plague and attacks Puritan theaters close, time hard Shakespeare: We can see a surging collaboration between Shakespeare and other playwrights- the paternity of a play difficult to reveal (Some works are the fruit of collaboration), for instance: - “Timon of Athens”, with the collaboration of Thomas Middleton - “Pericles”, with the collaboration of George Wilkins (late romance) - “Henry VIII”, with the collaboration of John Fletcher - “The Two Noble Kinsmen”, with the collaboration of John Fletcher

• 1608: “Hamlet” done. Playing company started working with “The Blackfriars Theatre”. Indoor theater-winter time performances. Limitations with light and had interruptions due to using candelabras until a certain point during the performance. Intermission of plays the director’s work; “Hamlet” was not intended to have intermissions was designed for “The Globe”. Not all plays designers put that structural decision

• Indoor theaters also changed the price seats:

○ Shakespeare’s late romances seem more intimate, plays which were more poetical, action a bit limited, very limited specifications so some critics believe that this was the case, because of this move to “The Blackfriars Theatre”, therefore once again the material conditions in which plays were staged affected the structure, composition, designing of the plays

○ Among late romances (other works): - “Pericles” - “Cymbeline” - “Winter’s Tale” - “Tempest” - “The Two Noble Kinsmen” - “Henry VIII”

• 1616: Dies, but many events are speculated

• Very shortly after his death we have a big publication, 1623: “First Folio”, 36 plays by Shakespeare. Before only printed material: 20 before. Celebrating author, with a good and positive review by the public, expensive publication and good reputation. Has its mature age, but the play was criticized in a bad way by writers in the first decades of the 20th century.

Hamlet

to consider at least 3 significant dates for any Shakespearian play (case “H” has an evident uncertainty any critic is 100% certain of each these): 1 Completion Mansucript (When the manuscript finished).

Here we have to rely on number different records in order to understand when happened a performing: - It was written probably around 1599- 1600: we can take these dates as reliable because play we don’t have the figure of the clown (important) or the jester or not that much important.

Some critics says because “Lord Chamberlain's Man” around 1599 - 1600 found the playing company deprived actor who generally played the fool, at very moment company. Was found one self without a actor playing the fool but still is speculation.

Instead, “Hamlet”, we have only a fleeting reference - We don’t have a straight forward clown in “H”. In the same way we have in “King Lear”,, or instead, in “Hamlet”, there is much more less references to clown chars, characters

The Performance

The Publication.

When the manuscript was printed, edition version of the play. Here, dynamics are less uncertain two Quartos (printed materials) of straight forward in which find the publication edition.

The Earliest Performances In 1589 theorist, called Thomas Nats ,he mensione a Play called hamlet,he says he was satirizing it.

What the history/ historians, says there weres 2 and the earlies one was the