Shakespeare and the Middle Ages

310 Pages·2009·3 MB·English

by  Curtis Perry

Shakespeare and the Middle Ages
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Shakespeare and the
Middle Ages
edited by
Curtis Perry and John Watkins
1
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox26dp
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© Curtis Perry and John Watkins 2009
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First edition published 2009
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Shakespeare and the Middle Ages/
edited by Curtis Perry and John Watkins. —1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978–0–19–955817–9 (alk. paper)
1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Shakespeare, William,
1564-1616—Knowledge—Middle Ages. 3. English literature—Medieval infl uences.
I. Perry, Curtis. II. Watkins, John, 1960-
PR3069. M47S53 2009
822.3'3—dc22
2009001824
Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
MPG Biddles Ltd., King’s Lynn, Norfolk
ISBN978–0–19–955817–9
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The editors would like to thank Andrew McNeillie, of Oxford University Press,
for his enthusiastic support of our project. We are also very grateful to the
staff at Oxford University Press who oversaw its production, and especially to
Jacqueline Baker and Claire Thompson. Two anonymous peer reviewers soli-
cited by the press offered useful queries for the authors of many of the essays
as well as smart advice about the book as a whole. The Bibliothèque National
de France granted us permission to reproduce an illustration of Richard II’s
abdication from a fi fteenth-century Flemish manuscript of Froissart’s Chronicles
(BNF, FR 2646) for our cover. Generous research support from the University
of Minnesota allowed John Watkins to hire expert research assistants at cru-
cial stages of the project. Dana Schumacher helped us enormously with fi nal
preparation of the manuscript, and Anne Carter assisted us with the index. We
are also very grateful to Andrew Elfenbein for his patient assistance with fi nal
proofreading. Finally we would like to thank the Shakespeare Association of
America for hosting a seminar on Shakespeare and the Middle Ages at their
2004 annual meeting in New Orleans. Several of the papers were fi rst presented
at that lively session.
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Abbreviations and Texts xi
Notes on the Contributors xiii
Introduction 1
Curtis Perry and John Watkins
PART I. TEXTS IN TRANSITION
1. Shakespeare’s Fickle Fee-Simple: A Lover’s Complaint, Nostalgia,
and the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism 21
Christopher Warley
2. Shakespeare’s Resurrections 45
Sarah Beckwith
3. Towards a History of Performativity: Sacrament, Social Contract,
and The Merchant of Venice 68
Elizabeth Fowler
4. Losing France and Becoming England: Shakespeare’s King John
and the Emergence of State-Based Diplomacy 78
John Watkins
PART II. MEDIEVALISM IN SHAKESPEAREAN
ENGLAND
5. The Voice of the Author in ‘The Phoenix and Turtle’:
Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser 103
Patrick Cheney
viii / Contents
6. Recursive Origins: Print History and Shakespeare’s 2 Henry VI 126
William Kuskin
7. Chantry, Chronicle, Cockpit: Henry V and the Forms of History 151
Brian Walsh
8. ‘For They Are Englishmen’: National Identities and the Early
Modern Drama of Medieval Conquest 172
Curtis Perry
PART III. SHAKESPEARE AND THE RESOURCES
OF MEDIEVAL CULTURE
9. King Lear and the Summons of Death 199
Michael O’Connell
10. Marvels and Counterfeits: False Resurrections in the Chester
Antichrist and 1 Henry IV 217
Karen Sawyer Marsalek
11. Shakespeare’s Medieval Morality: The Merchant of Venice
and the Gesta Romanorum 241
Rebecca Krug
Bibliography 263
Index 285
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1: From The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande
(STC 13569.2pt 1).
By permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library. 135
2: From Chronicles of England (STC 9991).
By permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library. 138
3: From The Auntient Historie of the Destruction of Troy (STC 15379).
By permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library. 146