Shakespeare’s Italian Settings and Plays PDF
Preview Shakespeare’s Italian Settings and Plays
SHAKESPEARE'S ITALIAN SETTINGS AND PLAYS CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATIONS OF SHAKESPEARE SHAKESPEAREAN MOTIVES Derek Cohen SHAKESPEARE'S INVENTION OF OTHELLO Martin Elliott SHAKESPEARE: THE PLAY OF HISTORY Graham Holderness, Nick Potter and John Turner SHAKESPEARE'S ITALIAN SETTINGS AND PLAYS Murray J. Levith SHAKESPEARE THE AESTHETE Lachlan Mackinnon HAMLET AND THE ACTING OF REVENGE Peter Mercer Further titles in preparation Shakespeare's Italian Settings and Plays Murray J. Levith Professor of English Skidmore College, New York M MACMILLAN PRESS © Murray J. Levith 1989 Softcover reprint of the hardcover lst edition 1989 978-0-333-43966-1 All rightsr e s e r v ed. No reproduction, copyo r transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WClE 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1989 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Wessex Typesetters (Division of The Eastern Press Ltd) Frome, Somerset British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Levith, Murray J. Shakespeare's Italian settings and plays -(contemporary interpretations of Shakespeare) 1. Shakespeare, William-Criticism and interpretation I. Title II. Series 822' .3'3 PR2976 ISBN 978-1-349-19683-8 ISBN 978-1-349-19681-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-19681-4 For Tina Contents List of Plates viii Preface ix 1 Illyria, Italia, Englandia 1 2 Venice 12 A The Merchant ofV enIce 18 B Othello 29 3 The Terra Firma 40 A The Taming oft he Shrew 46 B Romeo and Juliet 54 C The Two Gentlemen ofV erona 60 4 Beyond the Signory 65 A All's Well That Ends Well 70 B Much Ado About Nothing 76 C The Tempest 82 5 The Undiscovered Country 87 Notes 91 Index 102 vii List of Plates la Coryat and courtesan. From Thomas Coryat, Coryat's Crudities, 161l. b Venetian courtesan wearing chapineys. From Pietro Bertelli, Diversarum nationum habitus, vol. 1, 1594. 2 'The Description of Venice'. From Fynes Moryson, An Itinerary, 1617. 3 Rialto Bridge. From Pietro Bertelli, Diversarum nationum habitus, vol. 3, 1596. 4a Venetian merchant. b Noble moor. From Cesare Vecellio, Degli habiti antichi et moderni, 1590. 5 Sword and dagger. From George Silver, Paradoxes of Defence, 1599. 6 Milan. From Georg Braun, Civitates orbis terrarum, 1572. 7a Florence. From Pietro Bertelli, Theatrum urbium Italicarum, 1599. b Siena. From Georg Braun, Civitates orbis terrarum, 1572. 8 'The Battle of Lepanto'. Anonymous artist. 'The Battle of Lepanto' is reproduced with permlssIOn of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. All other plates are reproduced with permission of The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C. viii Preface Heminge and Condelllisted the plays they collected according to genre, and from the First Folio onward there has been a tendency to group Shakespeare's plays in one way or another. Renaissance Italy was a favourite locale for Shakespeare, and this study brings together his non-classical Italian plays. I consider eight works of various genres, written throughout the dramatist's career, in the context of their settings. The book is organized into five sections. Chapter 1 is introductory. Chapters 2 to 4 are arranged first to discuss from an English perspective the specific geographical area used by Shakespeare in a group of plays, then to examine the plays located there. Thus, Chapter 2 is about Venice and the Venetian plays, Chapter 3 about the so-called terra firma (territories on the Italian mainland subject to the State of Venice) and plays set in those cities, and Chapter 4 about areas beyond the Signory and plays so located. Chapter 5, the final section, reviews opinion as to whether or not Shakespeare visited Italy. My approach to the plays may seem somewhat eclectic, since only those issues that grow out of setting are explored. In certain works, these issues are decidedly more central than in others. Some plays, therefore, receive more expansive attention. All quotations are from The Riverside Shilkespeare (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974), G. Blakemore Evans textual editor. For clarity, I have omitted the brackets Evans uses for questionable readings. My brackets indicate insertions. Skidmore College granted me a sabbatical leave to draft my manuscript, and I received three additional grants toward the realization of this book from the Skidmore Faculty Committee on Research Grants. As always, Dean of Faculty Eric Weller has been encouraging and supportive in every possible way. The collections of many libraries in the US and abroad were used for research, but the Folger Shakespeare Library, the New York State Library, and the State University of New York at Albany Library were especially forthcoming with needed books and microfilm. The late Gloria Moore, inter-library loan librarian at Skidmore, provided invaluable assistance in helping locate obscure ix x Preface material. Librarians Alvin Gamage, Barbara Smith, Judith Reese, and Rosemary Del Vecchio were there when I needed them, as was Reference Assistant Marilyn Sheffer. At an early stage of my work, the Snow Library, Orleans, Massachusetts, gave me the opportunity to present some of my ideas as a part of their winter lecture series. More recently, drafts of sections of this material were offered at Iowa State University, Florida Atlantic University, New College (University of South Florida), and West Virginia University. All of my Shakespeare students helped along the way by discussing in and writing for my classes. Student Assistants Adah Franklin, Maureen Bouley, Brian Downing, and Clark Matthews typed, xeroxed, checked, proofed, and did other painstaking detail work. I especially wish to thank Clark Matthews for his highly professional computer expertise. Amy Shore and Susan Stein assisted with the Index. Debbie Mar helped with final proof reading. Dr Stanley Wells and Mr Robert Stein read a preliminary draft. My colleague Dr Phillip J. West read the final manuscript, and saved me from several embarrassments. Finally, and most importantly, loving thanks to Nathaniel and Willy who tolerated their daddy's 'homework' (sometimes), and Tina who, as usual, endured it all. Qufu Normal University Shandong Province The People's Republic of China
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