Shakespeare's love mythology in Venus and Adonis

163 Pages·2006·3.41 MB·English

by  Hungerford, Dorothy Anne

SHAKESPEARE'S LOVE MYTHOLOGY IN VENUS AND ADONIS,
.
'
A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT S DMAM AND ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
by
Dorothy Anne Hungerford
B.A. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., 1968
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
I n the Department
of
English
DOROTHY ANNE HUNGERFORQ 1975
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
March, 1975
Approval
Name : Anne Hunger ford
Degree: Master of Arts
Title of Thesis: ~hakespeare'sL ove Mythology in Venus and Adonis,
A Midsummer-Night's Dream and Antony and Cleopatra.
Examining Committee:
Chairman : Jared R. Curtis
J. W, Lever
Senior Supervisor
G. Newman
E. Lambert
myStockhol der
External Examiner
Associate Professor
University of Britis.h .C olumbia
Vancouver, B C
Pate Approved: March 7, 1975
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without my written permission.
Title of ~hesis/~issertation:
A
~hakespeare's Love Mythology in Venus and Adonis, Midsummer-
Night's Dream and Antony -and Cleopatra.
-
Author :
(signature)
Anne Hungerford
(name )
Ifarch 7, 1975
(date)
ABSTRACT
In all three works which I will consider, Venus and
Adonis, A Midsummer-~ight's Dream and Antony and Cleopatra,
Shakespeare's theme of love is informed, in varying
degrees, by the figures of classical mythology. The gods
and goddesses of pagan myth underwent many transformations
from their original antique forms to their revival in
Renaissance literature and art. A major portion of this
study is concerned with establishing,Shakespeare's
mythological figures in a Renaissance context.
I have attempted to trace the development of
Shakespeare's use of love mythology from its earliest
forms in Venus and Adonis and A Midsummer-Night's Dream
to its fullest expression iri Antony and Cleopatra.
Venus and Adonis shows us, within a mythological framework,
the fall of the world. A Midsummer-Night's Dream reverses
the process, rebuilding through divine influence a mythic
paradise. Antony and Cleopatra transcends the relative
simplicity of the two earlier works. The negative aspects
of love in Venus and Adonis and the positive aspects
portrayed in A Midsummer-Night's Dream are placed in the
context of a world no longer sheltered by gods and
goddesses. In Antony and Cleopatra the world neither
falls nor rises; it stays locked i n a stasis under the
dominance of Fortune's wheel. The divine content of
mythology is present only on the edges of this world,
where it struggles, unsuccessfully, t o achieve
recognition.
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
page
INTRODUCTION
VENUS AND ADONIS
A MIDSUMP4ER-NIGHT'S DREAM
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
BIBLIOGRAPHY
P L A T E S
'
Michelangelo (after) , "Ganymede ," Chalk
Drawing, Fr. 18, for Tomasm-Cavalieri,
1532, from Erwin Panofsky, Studies i n
(London: Oxford Univ. Pr., 1939,
LXXXIV, 158.
Gustave DO^, Illustration f a r The Divine
Comedy, Paradise canto 9, from The Divine
C -r oamn-e td*v w ohfi tDe a(nNteew A YliOa;h^:i eprai.i thteraonns .B kLs a.w, r1e9nc4e8 ) . 62
Paolo Veronese, "Mars and Venus," Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, from Edgar Wind,
Pagan Mysteries i n the Renaissance (London:
Faber & Faber, 1958), illus. 76. 120
Francesco Cossa, "The Triumph of Venus,
"
'(detail), Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara, from
Edgar wind, Pagan Mysteries i n the Renaissance
(1958), illus. 77. 121
,"
Botticelli, "Mars and Venus National Gallery,
London, from Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries i n the
Rena'issance (1958) , illus. 74. 122
INTRODUCTION.
The Renaissance, as its name implies, was a t i m e of
extraordinary reawakening, After centuries of semi-neglect
the achievements of the Greek and Roman civilizations were
restored t o a position of central importance and the influx
of rediscovered classical thought stimulated the great
1
artistic flowering for which this period is so renowned.
Classical literature, i n particular, captured and inspired
the imagination of the Renaissance world and since much of
it was found expressed through mythology, Renaissance artists
celebrated a renewed interest i n the classical portrayal of
the pagan gods and goddesses. Moreover, the new humanism of
the period provided a fresh interpretation of mythological
figures, Not only were classical myths freed from the
Christianizing influence which had dominated them during the
Middle Ages, for instance, Gelding's departure from the
moralized tradition i n his Elizabethan translation of Ovid's
Metamorphoses, but they were further informed by a renewed
2
interest i n philosophy, primarily the tradition of ~eoplatonism.
Paul 0. Kristeller, Renaissance Thought (New York : Harper,
1961), p. 7.
Jean Seznec, The Survival of the Pagan Gods. The Mythological
,
Tradition and Its Place i n Renaissance Humanism (1940) trans.
Barbara F. Sessions, Bollingen Series XXXVIII (princeton, N.J.,
Princeton Univ. Pr., 1953, 1972), pp. 96ff.
Thus figures taken from classical mythology, infused with
philosophical meaning and reinterpreted i n the light of the
new humanism, appear i n the works of Botticelli and Michel-
ange lo.
The Renaissance fascination with pagan mythology also
appears i n Shakespeare's work. H i s use of classical icon-
ography i n several of the sonnets and many of the plays and
his familiarity with at least the basic premises of the
surrounding philosophical tradition, show that he parti-
cipated i n the general movement toward mythological expression
i n the arts. Richard Cody and David P. Young have attempted
i n their individual works t o place Shakespeare i n this tra-
d i t i ~ n w, ~hi le Erwin Panofsky, Jean Seznec and Edgar Wind
make reference to Shakespeare when discussing the Renaissance
revival i n the plastic arts,5 but on the whole this is an
area of Shakespeare criticism which is only now beginning t o
receive scholarly attention. I have therefore chosen t o
examine certain aspects of Shakespeare's myth structure. Since
30n Shakespeare and Neoplatonism, see John Vyvyan, Shakespeare
and Platonic Beauty (London: Chatto & Windus, 1970); Walter
C. Curry, Shakespeare's Philosophical Patterns (Louisiana
State Univ. Pr., 1937, 1959).
,
4~ichardC ody, The Landscape of the Mind (London: Clarendon Pr.
1969); David P. Young, Something of Great Constancy (New Haven:
Yale Univ. Pr., 1966).
'I3dgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries i n the Renaissance (London: Faber
& Faber, 1958); Erwin Panofsky, Studies i n Iconology (London:
Oxford Univ. Pr., 1939, 1967).
Shakespeare's use of Renaissance mythology is a topic too
large for the confines of this paper and too expansive for
the l i m i t s of my knowledge, I w i l l concentrate on the myth-
ological aspects of love in three works which have this theme
in common: the narrative poem Venus and Adonis and the plays
A Midsummer-Night's Dream and Antony and Cleopatra. In each
instance the Love theme is explored through mythological
backgrounds which demonstrate Shakespeare's indebtedness t o
the revival of pagan mysteries i n the Renaissance.
I shall open with a study of Venus and Adonis because
it is clearly the best example of an Ovidian mythology
interpreted and t~ some extent transformed by the new Renai-
ssance humanism. The universal treatment accorded t o love i n
this early mythological poem points toward Shakespeare's
lifelong exploration of the power of Eros i n the world, a
theme which is further explored in A Midsummer-Night's Dream
where, amidst fairies and lovers, the descent of the winged
god into the play's world and its consequent metamorphosis,
is charted. Finally, in Antony and Cleopatra, which shares
a pagan setting with the earlier works and their concern with
the universality of love, Shakespeare departs from the recog-
nizable figures of classical mythology and instills a l l mytholo-
gical potency into the dramatic characterization, through