Childhood in Shakespeare's Plays

149 Pages·2006·11.76 MB·English

by  Morriss Henry Partee

Childhood in Shakespeare’s Plays
PETER LANG
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern
Frankfurt am Main (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Morriss Henry Partee

Childhood in Shakespeare’s Plays

PETER LANG
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern
Frankfurt am Main (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Partee, Morriss Henry
Childhood in Shakespeare’s plays / Morriss Henry Partee.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616—Criticism and interpretation.
2. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616—Characters—Children.
3. Childhood in literature. 4. Children in literature. 5. Shakespeare,
William, 1564–1616. King Richard III. 6. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616.
King John. 7. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616. Macbeth.
8. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616. Winter’s tale. I. Title.
PR2992.C4P37 822.3’3—dc22 2006022451
ISBN 0-8204-7646-3

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CONTENTS
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
CHAPTER ONE
SHAKESPEARE AND THE HISTORY
OF CHILDHOOD
Challenges in Interpreting Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Shakespeare’s Involvement with Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

CHAPTER TWO
BIRTH AND EARLY CHILDHOOD
The Beginning of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Family Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The Dangers of Childbirth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Nurturing the Infant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Feeding and Swaddling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
CHAPTER THREE
FAMILY AND THE OLDER CHILD
The Resemblance of Children to Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The Bonds Between Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
The Emotional Attachment between Parents and Children . . . . 32
Innocence and Ignorance in Young Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Parental Discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
CHAPTER FOUR
INNOCENCE AND EVIL
IN RICHARD III
The Childhood of Richard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The Young Princes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The Death of the Princes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
CHAPTER FIVE
LEGITIMACY AND ILLEGITIMACY
IN KING JOHN
The Status of Philip Faulconbridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
vi Contents
Arthur and Political Expediency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Arthur and Hubert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The Response to Arthur’s Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
CHAPTER SIX
CHILDHOOD IN MACBETH
Importance of Family and Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
The Family of Macbeth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Macduff and his Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Macbeth and Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
CHAPTER SEVEN
IDEAL AND REAL CHILDHOOD
IN THE WINTER’S TALE
Past and Present Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Mamillius and his Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Perdita and Infanticide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
WORKS CITED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
PREFACE
R
eaders too often dismiss Shakespeare’s understanding of children by
saying that he—like other Elizabethans—views them merely as small
adults. This over-simplification distorts the range of his allusions to
childhood. The playwright frequently employs references to children to
give his adult figures a dimension beyond the requirements of the plot.
Although adults usually idealize their own childhood, they often manifest
hostility to children in general. Moreover, the subtlety of Shakespeare’s
presentation of child characters deserves a greater recognition. Far from
creating one-dimensional figures—either unnaturally precocious or
sentimentally innocent—the playwright skillfully varies his portrayal of
youth. The truculence of young Coriolanus bears little resemblance to the
verbosity of the son of Macduff; the aggressive young Duke of York has
little similarity to the delicate Mamillius.
Despite the general antipathy that some adults in Shakespeare may
demonstrate toward youth, parents can establish intense bonds with their
own children. A powerful desire for a semblance of personal immortality
through children initiates the relationship, and the experience of having
children usually completes the process. Lacking a full objectivity toward
children, parents in Shakespeare sometimes regard their offspring as
extensions of themselves. These parents may not only neglect the
emotional needs of their children, but also they may ignore their
intellectual perceptions. Unthreatened by the passivity of infancy, adults
often display extravagant sentimentality toward their young offspring.
The increasing autonomy of the growing children, however, challenges the
parent. Disobedience in older children usually causes violent rage in the
parent. It is no wonder, then, that the conflict of fathers and daughters
forms a significant part of many of Shakespeare’s plays.
Just as political and economic patterns of Elizabethan England differ
from those of today, family configurations in Shakespeare rest on distinctive
attitudes toward human development. Although the basic instinctive love
viii Preface
parents have for children probably remains constant throughout recorded
time, changes in the political, economic, and social climate alter the actual
manifestation of those feelings. Most writers agree with Lawrence Stone that
Shakespeare wrote in a transitional period during which the nuclear family
slowly replaced the extended family as the predominant form of bonding
between individuals. Moreover, the printing press and corresponding need
for education initiated a gradually increasing awareness of childhood, a
special period of life with needs distinct from those of adults. The process
was far from complete, however, in Shakespeare’s time. Neither warfare nor
political necessity made special allowances for children. Boys accompanied
military campaigns at a very early age, and many parents sent their young
offspring away as domestic servants or apprentices. In short, suggesting an
intense, but ambivalent bonding between generations, Shakespeare’s plays
present the sentimentalization of childhood within a context of patriarchal
authority.
I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Professor Thomas
M. Cranfill for challenging me to begin this inquiry and to Trudy Bach-
Whitehead for encouraging me to finish the project. Especial thanks go to
my wife, Donna, for her careful reading of my prose. She has prevented me
from making many a stylistic infelicity. And I would like to acknowledge
my son, Morriss M. Partee, and his associate, Nate Duval, who contributed
their considerable skills as graphic designers to the format of this book.
1
CHAPTER ONE
SHAKESPEARE
AND THE HISTORY
OF CHILDHOOD
C I
HALLENGES IN NTERPRETING
C
HILDHOOD
A
n examination of the enormous range of Shakespeare’s references to
childhood offers an insight not only into his dramatic art, but also into the
Elizabethan attitude toward children. Certainly, more attention to parental
attitudes toward children and to the experiences of children themselves is
welcome. As Erikson says, “One may scan work after work on history,
society, and morality and find little reference to the fact that all people start
as children and that all peoples begin in their nurseries” (16). Awareness of
the complexity of the inquiry into a period of human development such as
childhood can help guard against unwarranted subjectivity. Absence of any
theory at all throws the reader back on personal intuition. Covert
psychological bias is harder to detect and eliminate than political or
intellectual prejudice. Moreover, even establishing the chronology of
childhood involves a value judgment, since different eras view the timing
of the transition from infant to child to adolescent according to diverse
criteria.
The absence of clearly defined data pertaining to the history of
childhood compounds the theoretical difficulties. Official pronouncements
may have no relationship to the actual practice of parents. Clerics in the
Middle Ages, for instance, would have little direct access to the realities of
family life (Hanawalt 2). In addition, quantity may be deceptive. Although
relatively few in number, the Puritans created an extensive body of
literature concerning children. The general population might not have had
such an interest. The most personal and emotionally significant material
derives from the needs and interests of the literate and propertied classes,
the small minority of wealthy people who could buy books or leave diaries.