Shakespeare and religion

321 Pages·2010·2.202 MB·English

by  Shakespeare, William, Shell, Alison

SHAKESPEARE
AND RELIGION
THE ARDEN SHAKESPEARE
THE ARDEN CRITICAL COMPANIONS
GENERAL EDITORS
Andrew Hadfield and Paul Hammond
ADVISORY BOARD
MacDonald P. Jackson Katherine Duncan-Jones David Scott Kastan
Patricia Parker Lois Potter Phyllis Rackin Bruce R. Smith
Brian Vickers Blair Worden
Shakespeare and Renaissance Europe
ed. Andrew Hadfield and Paul Hammond
Shakespeare and Renaissance Politics Andrew Hadfield
Shakespeare and the Victorians Adrian Poole
Shakespeare and Comedy Robert Maslen
Shakespeare and Music David Lindley
Shakespeare and Elizabethan Popular Culture
ed. Stuart Gillespie and Neil Rhodes
Shakespeare and Law Andrew Zurcher
Shakespeare and Religion Alison Shell
Shakespeare and the Medieval World Helen Cooper
Forthcoming
Shakespeare and his Texts Tom Lockwood
THE ARDEN CRITICAL COMPANIONS
SHAKESPEARE
AND RELIGION
ALISON SHELL
Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare
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BLOOMSBURY, THE ARDEN SHAKESPEARE and the Diana logo
are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in 2010 by Methuen Drama
© Alison Shell 2010
Alison Shell has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining
from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by
Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-9042-7170-3
PB: 978-1-4725-6817-5
ePDF: 978-1-4081-4360-5
ePub: 978-1-4081-4361-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Series: Arden Critical Companions
CONTENTS
TEXTUAL NOTE vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS viii
ABBREVIATIONS x
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi
Introduction 1
Chapter One
Antitheatricalism in Shakespeare’s Age 30
Chapter Two
Shakespeare’s Life and Works: Catholic Critiques 79
Chapter Three
Good Works: Shakespeare’s Use of Religious Moralism 120
Chapter Four
Providence, Fate and Predestination:
From Tragedy to Tragicomedy 175
Conclusion 223
NOTES 236
BIBLIOGRAPHY 287
INDEX 303
TEXTUAL NOTE
In quoting from early-modern texts, expansions of abbreviations are
shown in square brackets, with the exception of ‘n’ and ‘m’, which
have been silently expanded; u/v and i/j have been silently normalized.
All biblical references come from Lloyd E. Berry (ed.), The Geneva
Bible: A Facsimile of the 1560 Edition (1969: repr. Peabody, Mass.:
Hendrickson, 2007).
Except where otherwise indicated, the following editions have been
used for quotations from Shakespeare’s works:
All’s Well That Ends Well. Ed. Susan Snyder. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1993.
Antony and Cleopatra. Ed. Michael Neill. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1994.
As You Like It. Ed. Juliet Dusinberre. Arden Shakespeare, Third Series.
London: Thomson, 2006.
Cymbeline. Ed. Martin Butler. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2005.
Hamlet Second Quarto Text. Ed. Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor. Arden
Shakespeare, Third Series. London: Thomson, 2006.
Henry IV: Part One. Ed. David Bevington. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1987, repr. 1998.
Henry IV: Part Two. Ed. René Weis. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1997.
Henry V. Ed. Gary Taylor. 1982: repr. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1998.
Henry VI. Part III. Ed. John D. Cox and Eric Rasmussen. Arden Shake -
speare, Third Series. London: Thomson, 2001.
Julius Caesar. Ed. David Daniell. Arden Shakespeare, Third Series. Nelson:
Walton-on-Thames, 1998.
King Lear. Ed. Jay L. Halio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1992.
TEXTUAL NOTE vii
King Richard II. Ed. Andrew Gurr. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1990.
Macbeth. Ed. A.R. Braunmuller. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1997.
Measure for Measure. Ed. N.W. Bawcutt. 1991: repr. Oxford: Oxford
Univ ersity Press, 2008.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ed. Peter Holland. Oxford: Oxford Univ -
ersity Press, 1994.
Much Ado About Nothing. Ed. Claire McEachern. Arden Shakespeare,
Third Series. London: Thomson, 2006.
Othello. Ed. E.A.J. Honigmann. Arden Shakespeare, Third Series.
Walton-on-Thames: Nelson, 1997.
Richard III. Ed. Pat Baldwin and Tom Baldwin. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2000.
Romeo and Juliet. Ed. Jill L. Levenson. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2000.
Sonnets. Ed. Katherine Duncan-Jones. Arden Shakespeare, Third Series.
London: Thomson, 1997, repr. 1998.
The Tempest. Ed. Stephen Orgel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987,
repr. 2008.
Titus Andronicus. Ed. Jonathan Bate. Arden Shakespeare, Third Series.
1995: repr. London: Arden, 2003.
Twelfth Night.Ed. Keir Elam. Arden Shakespeare, Third Series. London:
Thomson, 2008.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Ed. William C. Carroll. Arden Shake -
speare, Third Series. London: Thomson, 2004.
(with John Fletcher) The Two Noble Kinsmen. Ed. Lois Potter. Arden
Shakespeare, Third Series. London: Arden, 1997.
‘Venus and Adonis.’ InShakespeare’s Poems, ed. Katherine Duncan-Jones
and Henry Woudhuysen. Arden Shakespeare, Third Series. London:
Arden, 2007.
The Winter’s Tale. Ed. Susan Snyder and Deborah T. Curren-Aquino.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book was researched during two periods of research leave granted
by Durham University, and the first draft was completed during a term’s
leave funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. To both
institutions, I would like to record my thanks.
My series editors, Andrew Hadfield and Paul Hammond, were dis -
cerni ng readers of the book, generous with their scholarship and
impeccably patient on the many occasions that deadlines slipped. Blair
Worden’s comments as reader for the press were supportive and well
targeted. During the publication process, Charlotte Loveridge, Margaret
Bartley, Anna Brewer, Jennifer Key and Neil Dowden were a pleasure
to work with.
I could not have negotiated a 300-mile commute and a number of
family-related difficulties over the last five years without Arnold Hunt,
whose support and close engagement with the project has been just as
crucial in scholarly matters. Petra Hunt, who has been very patient
with her mother’s preoccupation and is just starting to like Shake -
speare, has made it all worthwhile. In trying to inspire her, I have been
conscious of all that my mother, Jean Shell, did to pass on her own
love of Shakespeare and literature to me. To her, to my father, Stephen
Shell (a great reader-aloud), and to my parents-in-law, Bryan and Fiona
Hunt, I am grateful for more than I can say.
The following individuals and repositories have been especially cru-
cial to my efforts: the staff of the British Library rare books and manu -
scripts sections, and of Durham University Library; Mairi Macdonald
at the Shakespeare Study Centre; Brother James Hodkinson, S.J., and
Anna Edwards, at the Jesuit archives in Mount Street; Bro. Ninian
Arbuckle, at the Franciscan Province in Forest Hill. I am deeply grate -
ful to the following individuals for engaging in useful discussion, and
in many cases supplying references or reading portions of the book:
Robert Bearman, Susan Brigden, Colin Burrow, Alison Chapman, Helen
Cooper, John D. Cox, Brian Cummings, Peter Davidson, Michael Dobson,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
Frances Dolan, Susan Doran, Eamon Duffy, Katherine Duncan-Jones,
Paul Edmondson, Alison Findlay, Tom Freeman, Eva Griffith, Beatrice
Groves, Hannibal Hamlin, Canon Michael Hampel, Joan Osark Holmer,
Lisa Hopkins, Phebe Jensen, David Scott Kastan, John Kerrigan, Peter
Lake, Rhodri Lewis, Laurie Maguire, Judith Maltby, Arthur Marotti,
Thomas M. McCoog, S.J., Donald Measham, Robert Miola, Susannah
Brietz Monta, Nicholas Moschovakis, Molly Murray, Diane Purkiss,
Debora Kuller Shuger, Nigel Smith, Tiffany Stern, Jane Stevenson,
Richard Strier, Dennis Taylor, Gary Taylor, Stanley Wells, Martin
Wiggins, Michael Wood, Gillian Woods, and all those who helped to
refine the content of this book through engaging with it at conference
presentations. Among my once and future colleagues at University
College London, I would especi ally like to thank Helen Hackett, whose
detailed comments on Chapter 2 of this work were invaluable, Gerard
Kilroy, René Weis and Henry Woudhuysen.
This book goes to press in my last few months as a member of the
English department at Durham University. I have been exceptionally
fort unate in the heads of department that have overseen the long
gestation of this book, Michael O’Neill, Patricia Waugh and Stephen
Regan. My medieval and early-modern colleagues within the depart -
ment have been stimulating sources of advice: Robert Carver, the late
Robin Dix, Mandy Green, John McKinnell, Barbara Ravelhofer, Corinne
Saunders, Gillian Skinner, Richard Sugg. It is to them, to all my dear
past and present colleagues at Durham, and to the students that I
taught when I was there, that I would like to dedicate this book.