Shakespeare and Spenser: Attractive Opposites

316 Pages·2008·4.432 MB·English

by  J. B. Lethbridge

Shakespeare
and Spenser
The Manchester Spenser is a monograph and text series devoted to historical and textual
approaches to Edmund Spenser – to his life, times, places, works and contemporaries.
A growing body of work in Spenser and Renaissance studies, fresh with confidence and
curiosity and based on solid historical research, is being written in response to a general
sense that our ability to interpret texts is becoming limited without the excavation of
further knowledge. So the importance of research in nearby disciplines is quickly being
recognised, and interest renewed: history, archaeology, religious or theological history,
book history, translation, lexicography, commentary and glossary – these require
treatment for and by students of Spenser.
The Manchester Spenser, to feed, foster and build on these refreshed attitudes, aims to
publish reference tools, critical, historical, biographical and archaeological monographs on
or related to Spenser, from several disciplines, and to publish editions of primary sources
and classroom texts of a more wide-ranging scope.
The Manchester Spenser consists of work with stamina, high standards of scholarship and
research, adroit handling of evidence, rigour of argument, exposition and documentation.
The series will encourage and assist research into, and develop the readership of, one of the
richest and most complex writers of the early modern period.
General Editor J.B. Lethbridge
Editorial Board Helen Cooper, Thomas Herron, James C. Nohrnberg & Brian Vickers
Shakespeare
and Spenser
Attractive opposites
•
EDITED BY
J. B. LETHBRIDGE
Manchester University Press
Manchester and New York
distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
Copyright © J. B. Lethbridge 2008
The right of J. B. Lethbridge to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by
him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK
and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
Distributed in the United States exclusively by
Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10010, USA
Distributed in Canada exclusively by
UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall,
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 0 7190 7962 7 hardback
First published 2008
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in Great Britain
by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn
Contents
GeneralEditor’sPreface vii
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction:Spenser,Marlowe,Shakespeare:Methodological
Investigations 1
J.B.LETHBRIDGE
BeyondBinarism:Eros/DeathandVenus/MarsinShakespeare’s
AntonyandCleopatraandSpenser’sFaerieQueene 54
JUDITHH.ANDERSON
SpenserandShakespeare:PolarizedApproachestoPsychology,
Poetics,andPatronage 79
ROBERTLANIERREID
Perdita,Pastorella,andtheRomanceofLiteraryForm:
Shakespeare’sCounter-SpenserianAuthorship 121
PATRICKCHENEY
PastoralFormsandReligiousReforminSpenserand
Shakespeare 143
KARENNELSON
TheEquinoctialBoar:VenusandAdonisinSpenser’sGarden,
Shakespeare’sEpyllion,andRichardIII’sEngland 168
ANNELAKEPRESCOTT
Hamlet’sDebttoSpenser’sMotherHubberdsTale:ASatireon
RobertCecil? 187
RACHELE.HILE
Fusion:SpenserianMetaphorandSidneanExamplein
Shakespeare’sKingLear 201
SUSANOLDRIEVE
WhatMeansaKnight?RedCrossKnightandEdgar 226
MICHAELL.HAYS
TheSevenDeadlySinsandShakespeare’sJacobean
Tragedies 242
RONALDHORTON
v
vi Contents
WorksCited 259
Spenser-ShakespeareBibliography 291
Index 299
GeneralEditor’sPreface
TheManchesterSpenserisamonographandtextseriesdevotedtohistor-
icalandtextualapproachestoSpenser,hislife,times,places,worksand
contemporaries.
Inresponsetoaperceptibleapproachtothelimitsofourabilityto
interprettextsintheabsenceofnewknowledgeaboutthem,agrowing
body of work in Spenser and Renaissance studies based on solid his-
torical research is being produced and lacunae in the historical fields
lamentedandexplored,includingmuch-neededtextsforteachingand
research.Theimportanceofresearchinnearbydisciplinessuchashis-
tory, archaeology, religious or theological history and book history, is
being recognised and renewed, and requires treatment by or for stu-
dentsofSpenser.
The Manchester Spenser, to foster and build on this refreshed atten-
tiontohistoricalstudy,aimstopublishhistorically-basedcriticism,ref-
erencetools,historical,biographicalandarchaeologicalmonographson
orrelatedtoSpenser’slife,times,peopleandworks,andfromseveral
disciplines;topublisheditionsofprimarytextsrelatingtoSpenser,and
alsoclassroomtextsofamorewide-rangingnature.
TheManchesterSpenserseeksworkwithstamina,ofthehigheststan-
dardsofhistoricalscholarship,research,handlingofevidence,rigourof
argument,expositionanddocumentation.
One aim is to promote the reading of Spenser; the overriding aim
issimplytounderstand—themanandhisworks; tounderstandagain
perhaps; more fully it may be hoped; and undoubtedly as the genera-
tionsslipby,againandprobablyagain.
vii
Acknowledgments
Firstthanks(andforsoverymuchelse)mustgotoTomHerronwho,
together with Hannibal Hamlin, to whom also our gratitude, organ-
isedtheSpenserandShakespeareSeminaratthe2006ShakespeareAs-
sociation of America Conference which was the origin of the papers
collected in this volume, and whose urging, emailing, persuading and
curialdiplomacylandedthebookinthelapsofeditorandauthors.
Next,tothecontributorswhosewillingness,faithfulness,patience,
fortitude,expertiseandfriendshiphavebeensogenerouslyoffered.
ImustthankmystudentsatTu¨bingenUniversityintheMarlowe,
Spenser,ShakespeareSeminarwhichItaughtwithTomHerroninthe
SummerSemesterof2007,andwhichhelpedagreatdealwiththeedit-
ingofthisvolume;theenthusiasm,thedetailedoftenlearnedlyscepti-
calresponsestoarichvarietyofsometimesratherwildspeculations,the
solid,patient,scholarlyresearch,theinventiveness—andthesheerfun
ofitall—allthesehavebeenlaidundercontribution.Inparticularmy
thankstothosedirectlyinvolved:CarmenAdamsandCorneliaDu¨wel.
Thanksaredue,too,totheRiversFoundationatEastCarolinaUni-
versity,totheOfficeofInternationalAffairswhichadministerstheen-
dowment,andtoitsEnglishDepartment(firstunderBruceSouthard,
nowunderMikePalmer)forgivingmeahavenforayear,duringthe
firstpartofwhichInotonlyrecoveredmyhealthbutmanagedtoget
the bulk of the editing and writing done under ideal conditions and
among good scholars and friends—Tom Herron again, Charles Fan-
tazzi, Jerry Leath Mills, David Wilson-Okamura, ... to mention only
thosenames(amongverymany,verykindlyothersIwassadtoleave),
which will be familiar to the readers of these Acknowledgments. My
thanksalsoofcoursetomyownUniversity,Tu¨bingen,forgrantingme
leaveofabsence;and,withadifferentsensein‘ofcourse’,toitsRector,
ProfessorBerndEngler,forsomanyandsuchgoodyearsmyshepherd
andfriend.
ForthefirsttimeIhavehadaResearchAssistant,amythicalbeast
liketheunicornthatonlyscientistsandAmericanscholarsseemtosee.
Nick Frankenhauser is another gracious gift of ECU, but he has his
ownidentity,andIshouldliketothankhimveryheartily.RAshaveto
earntheirkeepofcourse,buttobethrownintothedeependofacol-
lection,andtogetherwithanewprofessorinthemidstofmanyurgent
and no doubt puzzling things, must have been a shock to the system;
butNickcopedwithhumourandcivilityanddidsterlingworkonthose
tediousthingsthathavetobedonetowardstheendofabook:biblio-
graphical work, proof-reading, managing puzzling indexing software,
also some fetching and carrying I’m afraid, poor chap, from ECU’s
viii
Acknowledgments ix
splendid library resources: but all with good cheer and accuracy, and,
asIunderstand,anall-nightsessionortwoathome.
Mywife,StefanieLethbridge,putinsomesterlingworkatlibraries
aroundtheworldcheckingreferencesandthebibliography,andsome
of the trickier quotations; Lord knows that if there are mistakes, they
arenotbecauseofanyslacknessonherpart.Meaculpa.
I acknowledge, too, and with the deepest gratitude, personal and
professional, the Editorial Board who have seen The Manchester
Spenser through its first beginnings and into the wide world, to seek
adventures where they may be found; and, for incitement, encour-
agement, and example, Brian Vickers and Victor Skretkowicz. And of
course, nothing would have happened at all without the vision, belief
and patience (I fear it has been needed) of Matthew Frost and David
RodgersatManchesterUniversityPress.
Acknowledgments are never done of course, but one word more,
for this is not the first, nor will it be the last time that I make heavy
and steady and fruitful use of software developed by others, most of
whom have day jobs, and freely distributed to the great benefit of
the modern academic life. I have used GNU/Linux for many years
now;thisbookhasbeentype-set,indexedandbibliographiedusingthe
LATEXprogrammes and macros, and I should like to acknowledge with
gratitude all those around the world who write the software and who
sogenerouslyandkindlyofferhelpforidiotsviathewebandemail.Li-
nusTorvalds—itseemsimpertinent,butIshouldliketosubmitthanks
tohimfortheLinuxoperatingsystem;andtotheGNUpeoplewhose
sorting, concordancing, indexing and editing programmes are simply
a basic element in GNU/Linux and sometimes taken for granted. My
primarytoolisKeithBostic’snvieditor,acloneoftheclassicUnixvi,
still compiling after all these years and changes in the underlying sys-
temsoftware—anincitementtothoroughwork.Thetask(thankstoa
newcomputer)wasfinishedonaKubuntusystem.Thebookissetin
Aldine401.