Micah W. Snell PhD thesis

233 Pages·2017·1.67 MB·English

AWAKENING FAITH IN SHAKESPEARE:
RELIGION AND ENCHANTMENT IN THE WINTER’S TALE AND
THE TEMPEST
Micah W. Snell

A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD
at the
University of St Andrews

2017
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AWAKENING FAITH IN SHAKESPEARE:
RELIGION AND ENCHANTMENT IN THE WINTER’S TALE AND THE TEMPEST

MICAH W SNELL

THIS THESIS IS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
AT THE
SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS

JANUARY 2017
i
DECLARATIONS
1. Candidate’s declarations:

I, Micah W Snell, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 73,000 words in
length, has been written by me, and that it is the record of work carried out by me, or
principally by myself in collaboration with others as acknowledged, and that it has not been
submitted in any previous application for a higher degree.

I was admitted as a research student in September, 2010 and as a candidate for the degree of
PhD in September, 2011; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the
University of St Andrews between 2010 and 2017.

Date 28/01/2017 Signature of candidate ____________________

2. Supervisor’s declaration:

I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and
Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St Andrews and that the
candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree.

Date __________ Signature of supervisor ____________________

3. Permission for publication:

In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews I understand that I am giving
permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the
University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not
being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and the abstract will be published, and
that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research
worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use unless
exempt by award of an embargo as requested below, and that the library has the right to
migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the
thesis. I have obtained any third-party copyright permissions that may be required in order to
allow such access and migration, or have requested the appropriate embargo below.

The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the publication of
this thesis:

PRINTED COPY
a) No embargo on print copy

ELECTRONIC COPY
a) No embargo on electronic copy

Date 28/01/2017 Signature of candidate ____________________

Signature of supervisor ____________________
ii
ABSTRACT
This thesis considers The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest as William Shakespeare’s
last great plays which foster re-enchantment for an age suffering spiritual disenchantment.
Chapter 1 identifies a critical context for studying these between theological studies of
the arts and literary-critical studies of Shakespeare and religion. Section 1 surveys David
Brown’s work on religious enchantment and imagination through the arts. Section 2 takes in
literary criticism’s turn to Shakespeare and religion. Section 3 explores recent theological
studies of theatre and Shakespeare. Section 4 revives overlooked criticism from religious
poets of the past.
Chapter 2 introduces a progression of theoretical constructs that revitalize these plays
as spiritually re-enchanting. Section 1 looks at affect theory as a means to understand the
body-spirit relationship in the context of performance. Section 2 draws on Scott Crider’s
reading of The Winter’s Tale as the performance of a complete ethical rhetoric demanding
both theatrical and mythical interpretations. Section 3 expands T. G. Bishop’s study of the
theatre of wonder as Shakespeare’s affective convergence of reason and emotion. Section 4
builds on the preceding sections to reestablish Renaissance alchemy as the most directive
evidence for reading these plays as spiritually re-enchanting.
Chapter 3 is my reading of The Winter’s Tale. I argue that a wondrous, alchemical
reading of the play suggests Hermione dies and is bodily resurrected in the last scene.
Paulina’s alchemical art is cryptic, but the resolution is a corporate miracle that re-enchants
the audience through the awakening of faith.
Chapter 4 is my reading of The Tempest. I identify Prospero as an all-powerful and
benevolent alchemist who, instead of imposing vengeance on everyone within his control, at
the end relinquishes his potent art in exchange for the less certain but greater spiritual
enchantment of redemption through the free and loving act of forgiveness.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My debts of gratitude for this project are not such that they can be repaid in words. At
St Andrews, Gavin Hopps has saved this project countless times and modelled gracious
supervision for a student who needed it. The St Mary’s College faculty without exception
have been supportive. Margot Clement was always kind with her administrative expertise.
Judith Wolfe as the internal examiner and Malcolm Guite as the external examiner were
thorough and constructive in their feedback, and the result is much better for their input.
At Houston Baptist University, President Robert Sloan granted the leave necessary to
finish. Gary Hartenburg carried my duties without hesitation when asked; I cannot repay his
kindness. Timothy Bartel has thoughtfully commented on revision after revision. My
colleagues in the Honors College and my students have inspired me with their clear eyes and
full hearts. John Mark Reynolds has been a teacher, mentor, and friend these many years.
Matthew Anderson, John Mack, and Amelia Holt ferreted out as many manuscript
errors as they could. What remnants there may be I acknowledge mine.
The Right Reverend Jack Leo Iker has provided encouragement and support without
which completion would have been impossible. I am humbled to serve under his leadership.
My grandparents, Wayne and Betty Snell, and Earl and Betty Adams, have modelled
a lifetime of service and sacrifice. I have not, and cannot, adequately express my gratitude for
their constant intercessions on my behalf. My parents gave me the preparation and freedom to
find my calling and pursue it wholeheartedly. John and Diane Peske have never once
complained that I dragged their daughter and grandchildren across time zones and continents;
they too have been unfailingly supportive. Elisabeth, John Paul, Andrew, and Rosemary are
the children who never fail to cheer me with their ceaseless delight in life and learning.
My wife Jennifer’s resistless energy of love has never ceased to amaze and sustain
me. Without her this project would not have been possible. I dedicate this work to her.
iv
EPIGRAPHS

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put
within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your
body, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
~Ezekiel 36:26

When supernatural religion disappears, art becomes either
magic that is run by authorities through force or fraud, or
falsehood that becomes persecuted by science.
~W. H. Auden

There are geniuses who, in the fathomless depths of
abstraction and pure speculation—situated, so to say,
above all dogmas, present their ideas to God. Their prayer
audaciously offers a discussion. Their worship is
questioning. This is direct religion, full of anxiety and of
responsibility for him who would scale its walls.
~Victor Hugo
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declarations ................................................................................................................................ i
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. iii
Epigraphs .................................................................................................................................. iv

Chapter 1: Critical Engagements of Shakespeare and Religion ................................................ 1
1.1 David Brown – Theology and Imagination ..................................................................... 6
1.2 Literary Criticism and the Turn to Religion .................................................................. 17
1.3 Theology and Theatre .................................................................................................... 40
1.4 Past Criticism from Religious Poets .............................................................................. 61

Chapter 2: The Early Modern Turn to Rhetoric, Wonder, and Spiritual Alchemy ................. 77
2.1 The Turn to Affect Theory ............................................................................................ 78
2.2 Rhetoric and Myth in The Winter’s Tale ....................................................................... 91
2.3 Wonder in Shakespeare’s Theatre: The Poetics of Incarnation ..................................... 99
2.4 Spiritual Alchemy ........................................................................................................ 116

Chapter 3: ‘Be Stone No More’ – Readings in The Winter’s Tale ........................................ 131
Readings ............................................................................................................................ 143
Act III ................................................................................................................................ 145
Act IV ................................................................................................................................ 148
Act V ................................................................................................................................. 155

Chapter 4: Prospero’s Fire, Prospero’s Freedom – Readings in The Tempest ...................... 181
Characters and Themes ...................................................................................................... 183
Readings ............................................................................................................................ 196

Epilogue ................................................................................................................................. 212
Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 214
vi

All quotations of Shakespeare are from the 2nd edition of The Riverside Shakespeare unless
noted. Quotations of Scripture are from the 1560 edition of the Geneva Bible. Spelling,
lettering, and punctuation have in some cases been silently modernized where it is expedient.
1
CHAPTER 1: CRITICAL ENGAGEMENTS OF SHAKESPEARE AND RELIGION
Introduction
This first chapter surveys existing scholarly writings for the sake of contextualizing a
new perspective on the religious significance of Shakespeare’s last plays. Both in theology
and early modern studies, recent decades have seen a swell of attention to Shakespeare’s
evident fascination with matters of religion. This is but the latest turn to the subject, which
has been of critical interest to some degree as long as there has been critical interest in
Shakespeare. Studies in theology have tended to prioritize drama as illustrative of theological
considerations. Early modern studies are inclined to legitimize criticism of Shakespeare and
religion with methodologies detached from Christian faith and practice. Four hundred years
later, Shakespeare’s art continues to evoke highest praise for perception and creativity.1 I
wish to explore the possibility that William Shakespeare had a creative and sincere religious
imagination worthy of consideration in its own right, and this religious imagination climaxes
in The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. I propose that in his final works Shakespeare offers a
dramatic enchantment of awakening faith, and that in order to best appreciate religion in his
plays we should be open to the possibility that these plays may affect their audiences
spiritually.
Criticism into the twentieth century at times approached religion in literature with
deference to this kind of awakened faith. The current disregard for such a perspective in
secular criticism might be identified as a kind of critical disenchantment. Despite all the
recent attention to Shakespeare and religion, there remains opportunity between literature and
theology for a study of the romances as what they appear to be: works of spiritual re-

1 Harold Bloom’s apotheosis of Shakespeare is neither the first nor the greatest. Samuel Johnson finds
Shakespeare next unto Homer in excitement and inventiveness, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge compares
Shakespeare to Dante and Milton. See: Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (New York:
Riverhead, 1998); Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Coleridge on Shakespeare: The Text of the Lectures of 1811-12,
ed. R. A. Foakes (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 2008), 110; Samuel Johnson, Preface to The Plays of
William Shakespeare (1765), in Samuel Johnson, Selected Writings, ed. Peter Martin (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2009), 371, 376.
2
enchantment for a disenchanted age. Such a study may be situated between the two poles of
criticism already identified: The first pole is theological consideration of the arts nascent in
recent decades, which has engaged theatre generally and Shakespeare specifically. The
second pole is critical attention to Shakespeare and religion in early modern and literary
studies, which tends toward secular and sceptical methods and inferences. The first
perspective takes Shakespeare’s spiritual significance seriously, but such studies tend to treat
Shakespeare as material for ulterior considerations more than as theologically creative in his
own right. The second perspective takes Shakespeare’s artistic and creative significance
seriously, but tends to treat religion in secular terms and assume in some way that
Shakespeare must have done the same. Between these perspectives is a balance of the two:
Shakespeare was one of the greatest artists ever to reflect on religion, and his art embodies
original creative expression of enduring spiritual significance. This first chapter situates this
third perspective.
Initially, I briefly address the matter of Shakespeare’s late writing, which affects why
his final plays are suitable for such a study. In the first major section of this chapter I survey
the work of David Brown, whose theological writings have broadly refocused attention to the
vitality of the arts for Christian thought and practice. Relying on Brown’s work, I suggest
Shakespeare is an ideal subject for continuation of such study, since the playwright remains
an artist of the highest caliber as well as one attentive to the very concerns Brown identifies.
In the second section I turn to the literary critical study of Shakespeare and religion. After
considering what should be retained from those critics sceptical about Shakespeare and
religion, I transition to an extended exposition of the work of Ken Jackson and Arthur Marotti
as well as those who have followed their lead in identifying new methodologies of criticism
with the decline of New Historicism. Jackson and Marotti find that as attention to
Shakespeare and religion has waxed, this need has continued. Finally I give considerable