The Shakespeare Book

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 99

Boccaccio’s De Casibus Virorum including a tendency to weep, and already staged a series of plays on
Illustrium (1355–74) (Of the Fates the pragmatism and self-control of this theme: Henry VI Parts One,
of Famous Men). The subjects all Bolingbroke. Alternatively, casting Two, and Three, and Richard III.
suffered a sudden descent from a Richard and a Bolingbroke who In Richard II, he was returning to
good fortune to adversity and death. look very like one another, or an action—the murder of a lawful
When Richard calls for a mirror in who share the roles between king—that would change the
which to read his downfall, he may them, can also be effective, bringing perception of kingship. At the same
have been alluding to a popular out the play’s exploration of what time, however self-aggrandizing
English collection of similar tales makes a king. Richard appears, the play supports
called The Mirror for Magistrates, his argument that to be a king
which included Richard II. Some productions have had two is inevitably to be the hero in
actors play the roles of Richard and a tragic cycle. ■
A willing victim? Bolingbroke on alternate nights,
Clearly, Shakespeare’s character suggesting the arbitrariness of A romantic engraving depicts
imagines himself as a victim—of which man was king, and looking Richard dying heroically at the hands
Bolingbroke, of the inherent nature forward to the Wars of the Roses, of Piers Exton. The manner of Richard’s
of kingship, of fate, and perhaps of during which power would swing murder is not known for certain. It is
his own flaws. But more important from the house of Lancaster to York, possible that he was starved to death.
than the cause of his tragic fall is and back again. Shakespeare had
the spectacle it makes, to the
extent that Richard has been
accused of “doom-eagerness,”
indulging in fantasies of his tragic
abjection before they have become
a political necessity. For example,
Bolingbroke is ostensibly only
pursuing repeal from banishment
and restoration of inheritance, but
Richard mentions deposition as
early as Act 3 Scene 3, when he
asks: “What must the King do now?
Must he submit? / The King shall
do it. Must he be deposed? / The
King shall be contented. Must he
lose / The name of King? A God’s
name, let it go” (3.3.142–145).
Bolingbroke needs to do little
more than stand there with an
army looking menacing.

Playing the King
The king’s pleasure in wordplay and
his self-indulgent loquacity suggest
Richard as an early forerunner for
Hamlet. Along with Hamlet, this is
one of the few Shakespearean tragic
roles that has been played by women
(most recently by Fiona Shaw and
Cate Blanchett). Such casting can
heighten the contrast between
Richard’s hyperemotionalism,

A PAIR OF

STAR-CROSSED

LOVERS

ROMEO AND JULIET (1595)



102 ROMEO AND JULIET

DRAMATIS After the Montagues and Beneath Juliet’s Mercutio is killed by
PERSONAE Capulets brawl, Capulet balcony, Romeo Tybalt. Romeo kills
overhears Juliet’s
MONTAGUES agrees to betroth his avowal of love Tybalt and is banished
Montague Head of the daughter Juliet to Paris and by the Prince.
Montague household. arranges a ball to celebrate. for him.

Romeo The romantically 1.1 2.1 3.1
inclined son of Montague Act 1 Act 2
and Lady Montague. 1.3 2.5

Benvolio Romeo’s cousin, a At the ball, masked Romeo and Juliet are secretly
young peacemaker whose Romeo Montague married by Friar Laurence.
words go unheard. is overwhelmed

Balthasar Romeo’s servant. by Juliet’s
beauty.
CAPULETS
Capulet Head of the Capulet T he chorus sets the scene as and arranges a masked ball to
household. Juliet’s father, at Verona, where two families celebrate. Young Romeo Montague
least 60 years old. feud. The play will last two and his friends (including the witty
hours, Chorus says, and tell the Mercutio) sneak into the ball to get a
Lady Capulet Juliet’s mother, story of two of their children whose glimpse of Rosaline Capulet, the
around 26 years old. doomed love will end in death, object of Romeo’s unrequited love—
reconciling the families at last. but Romeo is instead completely
Juliet Capulet and Lady smitten by Rosaline’s cousin Juliet.
Capulet’s 13-year-old daughter. The play then erupts onto the
streets of Verona, and a brawl Later that night, Romeo,
Tybalt Juliet’s cousin, a between the rival families, the lingering in the orchard below
hot-tempered young man Montagues and Capulets, is halted Juliet’s balcony, overhears her
proud of his skill with a sword. only by the intervention of the declare that she loves him despite
Prince of Verona. To appease the his family name, and he makes
Nurse Juliet’s old nurse, an Prince, old Capulet agrees to marry himself known to her. Ecstatic, the
affectionate and down-to- his 13-year-old daughter Juliet to pair resolve to marry the following
earth woman. the Prince’s young kinsman, Paris, night. Friar Laurence and Juliet’s

OTHERS
Mercutio Romeo’s
charismatic, witty, and
bawdy friend.

Escalus The Prince of Verona.

Paris Escalus’s kinsman, an
arrogant, upright young man
who expects to marry Juliet.

Friar Laurence Franciscan
friar and apothecary, who
marries Romeo and Juliet
in secret.

Petruccio Follower of Tybalt.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 103

Romeo flees to Juliet takes the Lying next to Juliet’s Horrified by the
Mantua, and Juliet’s drug and is found body, Romeo takes discovery of the dead
wedding to Paris is apparently dead lovers, the Montagues
poison and dies. and Capulets end
arranged. in her bed.
their feud.

3.5 4.3–4 5.3 5.3

Act 3 Act 4 Act 5

3.5 4.1 5.3 5.3

Romeo and Juliet Juliet is persuaded Returning to Verona, Juliet wakes to find
spend their wedding by Friar Laurence to Romeo sneaks into Romeo dead and
stabs herself
night together. drug herself to Juliet’s tomb but in despair.
escape her wedding meets Paris and kills

to Paris. him in a fight.

nurse agree to help them, hoping for help. The friar advises her to fight and Paris is killed. Romeo lays
the union will end the feud. The next escape the wedding by taking a down beside Juliet’s apparently
day in the street, Mercutio taunts sleeping-potion, which will make her lifeless body, takes poison, and
Tybalt Capulet and the two begin seem dead for 42 hours. The friar will dies. Not long after, Juliet regains
to fence. But although only Romeo send a message to Romeo in consciousness and finds Romeo
knows it, Tybalt is now his cousin- Mantua, who can then rescue her dead. She tries to take the poison
in-law and Romeo tries to break up from the family tomb when she from his lips with a kiss, but death
the fight. Tybalt fatally wounds awakens. Juliet goes ahead with the eludes her, so she takes Romeo’s
Mercutio. Romeo kills Tybalt in plan, and is found apparently dead dagger, stabs herself, and dies.
revenge, and the Prince banishes on the morning of the wedding.
Romeo from Verona to Mantua. As the bodies are discovered,
The friar’s message does not Friar Laurence explains the sorry
Seeing Juliet distraught, reach Romeo and he hears only situation to the Prince, who
although not knowing why, old of Juliet’s death. Grief-stricken, lambasts the families whose
Capulet decides her wedding to Romeo rushes back to Verona and feuding has brought this tragedy.
Paris must go ahead right away. creeps into the Capulet tomb, The old men shake hands and
Desperate, Juliet asks Friar Laurence where he meets Paris. The two agree to end their enmity. ❯❯

104 ROMEO AND JULIET R omeo and Juliet is perhaps That which we call a rose
the most familiar of all By any other word would
IN CONTEXT Shakespeare’s plays: a tale
of two young lovers, doomed to be smell as sweet.
THEMES kept apart. There are many other Juliet
Jealousy, loyalty, betrayal, stories of separated lovers, but the
romantic love, male intensity of Romeo and Juliet’s Act 2, Scene 1
friendship romance gives Shakespeare’s
drama an emotional charge that stars—and that they will die
SETTING has resonated through the ages. before their parents see sense:
Verona, Italy “The fearful passage of their death-
Romeo and Juliet fall in love marked love / And the continuance
SOURCES instantly, marry the next day, and of their parents’ rage—/ Which but
1562 Arthur Brooke’s poem have one brief and precious night of their children’s end, naught could
The Tragical History of love before they are forced asunder remove—/ Is now the two-hours’
Romeus and Juliet. by their families’ feud, and plunged traffic of our stage;” (Prologue.9–12).
into the spiral of events that brings
LEGACY them both to suicide. Few plays To modern audiences, used to
1679 English dramatist have ever captured so well the films whose plots are constructed
Thomas Otway resets the play wild and heady energy of youthful to keep the audience guessing,
in ancient Rome, with a happy emotion—not only its loves, but its with plot twists right up until the
ending that stresses the play’s rage, its vitality, and its volatility end, this is a surprise, and today’s
political dimensions. in a fractured world where elders reviewers might feel obliged to
fail to provide wise guidance. put in a spoiler alert. Far from
1745 David Garrick and No wonder this play often seems spoiling the play for the audience,
Spranger Barry perform rival to speak to contemporary youth however, it gives the drive that
versions at Drury Lane and with such startling immediacy. makes Romeo and Juliet a
Covent Garden in London. compelling drama. We know
Shakespeare makes the fate exactly what is going to happen
1845 American Charlotte that awaits the lovers clear right to the young lovers as they
Cushman plays Romeo at the from the start. In the short 14-line come together, even though
Haymarket, London, with her opening verse, the Chorus reveals they don’t. We know that their
sister Susan as Juliet. the entire plot, telling us that the love is doomed even as they
play is about two “star-crossed” embark on it with such beguiling
1935 Actors John Gielgud and lovers—lovers whose sad and charm, innocence, and optimism,
Laurence Olivier alternate roles conjoined fate is written in the and we can hardly turn away as
as Romeo and Mercutio in an they hurtle blindly toward their
acclaimed production at the Did my heart love till now? fateful end.
New Theatre, London. Forswear it, sight,
Indeed, it is the sense that their
1938 Russian composer Sergei For I ne’er saw true beauty love is so powerful and inevitable
Prokofiev’s ballet version opens till this night. that it can only end in death that
in Brno, Czechoslovakia. Romeo has made their story captivating
ever since the play was first
1957 Leonard Bernstein and Act 1, Scene 5 performed in the 1590s. For
Steven Sondheim’s musical
West Side Story moves the
story to modern New York City.

1994 The exiled Macedonian
Romany Company Pralipe
stages a version in Bosnia
with a Muslim Juliet and a
Christian Romeo.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 105

It is perhaps because we must see
the pair as innocents that they are so
young. Franco Zeffirelli picked up on
this in his 1968 film version with Olivia
Hussey, just 16 years old, as Juliet.

romantics, especially the young,
the idea of love flying in the face
of a cruel world is intoxicating.

Origins of the story Capeletti (Capulets) of Cremona, Shakespeare’s changes
The basic story in which young were historical, and the poet Dante Many of the principal characters
lovers choose to die together writes of them in his Purgatorio as in Romeo and Juliet are much the
rather than live apart is an ancient being at the center of civil strife in same as in Brooke’s poem, but
one. The Roman poet Ovid’s 13th-century Italy. Shakespeare’s Shakespeare’s treatment of the
Metamorphoses, for instance, immediate source, though, was an story is very different. In Romeo
contains the story of the separated English version of the story written and Juliet, the lovers have just one
lovers Pyramus and Thisbe, which as a long poem in 1562 by Arthur night together after their wedding;
Shakespeare parodied in his next Brooke entitled The Tragical in Brooke’s poem, Romeo visits
play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. History of Romeus and Juliet. Juliet every night for a month ❯❯
In the 3rd century CE, the story
of Ephesiaca, by the Greek writer
Xenophon of Ephesus, sees
the 16-year-old Habrocomes and
14-year-old Anthia embark on
a suicide pact.

The story of Romeo and Juliet
in particular became popular in
16th-century Italy in versions such
as Luigi da Porto’s 1530 novel
Giulietta e Romeo. The two feuding
families in the story, the Montecchi
(Montagues) of Verona and the

Elizabethan feuds Romeo and Juliet was written Catholic Counter Reformation
at a time when England was as conspired to bring Protestant
divided as it has ever been. King England back into the fold.
Henry VIII had split from the
Roman Catholic church in 1533, The younger generation,
and the wounds this had caused of which Shakespeare was one,
were still red raw. The Protestant were indeed caught between
regime of the reigning Queen the warring factions—and it
Elizabeth I, Henry VIII’s daughter, may be that Romeo and Juliet
(pictured) was under attack from was intended as a reminder to
Catholics both from within the them of the tragic consequences
country and from abroad. The of their bitter conflict for their
regime was fighting back, led by offspring. Romeo and Juliet
the queen’s first minister Robert could have found counterparts
Cecil. Catholic recusants were in England, with Protestants
hunted down ruthlessly by Cecil’s and Catholics replacing the
henchmen, while agents of the Montagues and Capulets as
the feuding neighbors.

106 ROMEO AND JULIET

The feuding houses of Verona

Montague Married to Lady Capulet Married to
Montague Lady Capulet

Benvolio Romeo Secretly Juliet Tybalt
his nephew their son married to their daughter her nephew

Mercutio Petruccio
their friend his friend

Abraham Nurse Samson
Balthasar Gregory

House of Montague House of Capulet Friend Servants

or two. Shakespeare’s story is and advice of parents and friends.” A stage revolution
faster, and this serves to heighten Shakespeare, however, is on their It is hard to appreciate today just
the tragic brevity of the romance. side. In Romeo and Juliet, they how revolutionary Shakespeare was
Shakespeare has a very different are innocent victims—Juliet is in bringing this story to the English
attitude toward the lovers. Brooke just 13—and in the beauty and stage. Italian novels were certainly
thoroughly disapproves of them; ardor of their love, they soar becoming increasingly popular
they are “unfortunate lovers, far above their parents’ bickering with the younger generation at
thrilling themselves to unhonest and bitterness. It is this large- the time—Shakespeare was not
desire, neglecting the authority hearted sympathy that gives yet 30 when he wrote Romeo and
Shakespeare such wide appeal, Juliet—but no one had put this kind
My bounty is as boundless and made his message so of story on stage before. Previously,
as the sea, subversive at the time. tragic drama had been mostly
about noble lords and mighty
My love as deep. The more While the characters in warriors in grand settings.
I give to thee Brooke’s poem are largely Here, the hero and heroine are
archetypes, in Romeo and Juliet, just two ordinary contemporary
The more I have, for both they are much more fleshed out teenagers, distinguished only by
are infinite. and real. Shakespeare also brings their love and their way with
Juliet minor characters such as the words, in an ordinary city that
well-intentioned Friar Laurence happens to be called Verona, but
Act 2, Scene 1 and the chatterbox Nurse fully to could be anywhere. The young
life. Romeo’s quick-witted and Shakespeare’s play was no
earthy friend Mercutio is entirely slowly unfolding, grand epic as
Shakespeare’s creation, one of his most earlier tragedies had been,
most appealing. It is Mercutio’s but fast-paced, down, and dirty.
death in a sword fight at the
beginning of Act 3 that wrenches In the brief and measured verse
the mood of the play dramatically with which the Chorus outlines
from comedy to tragedy. the scenario, Shakespeare seems

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 107

to be setting us up for the same provide a way to transcend the Breaking convention
cautionary tale of misbegotten trap of names: “Romeo, doff thy In Verona’s world of false honor,
love as appears in Brooke’s version. name, / And for thy name—which even love, to begin with, is a
But as soon as this cautionary is no part of thee—/ Take all posture. When Romeo first appears,
rhyme is done, we are plunged myself” (2.1.89–91). But ultimately wandering distractedly into the
into the anarchic reality of the even their true love is not enough. aftermath of the brawl, he is in love,
feud, as the formal poetry gives “In what vile part of this anatomy / not with Juliet—who he has yet to
way to a full-scale brawl on the Doth my name lodge?” meet—but with a Capulet girl
streets of Verona. In the roughest (3.4.105–106) Romeo asks Friar called Rosaline. She is never fully
of prose and with rude gestures, Laurence after his banishment, seen, remaining as insubstantial
two pairs of servants, Samson likewise realizing the poison as Romeo’s love for her.
and Gregory, Abraham and in his name and desperate to
Balthasar, hurl bawdy threats rid himself of it. That name Fittingly, it seems, for a romance
at each other. Samson talks of becomes his death sentence. set in Italy, Romeo declares his love
cutting off the (maiden) heads for Rosaline in a sonnet—a short ❯❯
of the Montague women.

Swords are drawn, fighting
begins, and soon the young
blades of the families enter the
fray, followed quickly by old
Capulet, feebly wielding his
sword against the equally frail
old Montague—as feebly, his much
younger wife implies, as he now
wields his marital “sword.” This
is an unruly world of macho
posturing in which even the aged
who should know better join in,
and wisdom and guidance is left
in the dubious hands of Friar
Laurence and Juliet’s nurse.

What’s in a name?
In such a dysfunctional city,
“name” is everything, and true
substance and feeling is lost.
But when Romeo and Juliet later
embark on their romance, Juliet
realizes a name can be a terrible
trap, lamenting famously: “O
Romeo, Romeo, wherefore [why]
art thou Romeo? / ...That which
we call a rose / By any other word
would smell as sweet” (2.1.75–86).
Juliet yearns for her love to

Contemporary audiences will have
identified in Mercutio a portrait of the
playwright Christopher Marlowe who,
like Mercutio, died in a knife fight, in
1593. This illustration dates from 1903.

108 ROMEO AND JULIET

The balcony of a 14th-century
building in Verona has been dubbed
Juliet’s balcony. The building may have
belonged to the Capuleti family on
whom the Capulets are based.

form of poem in 14 lines, which had such as “cold fire” and “loving shared between the two of them,
originated with the 14th-century hate.” Romeo’s sonnet to Rosaline as if to emphasize their miraculous
Italian poet Petrarch. By the time is stuffed with conventional connection and linked destiny:
Shakespeare was writing, sonnets oxymorons: “Why, then, O “Juliet: Saints do not move,
had become the standard literary brawling love, O loving hate, / though grant for prayers’ sake.
form for expressions of love, O anything of nothing first create; / Romeo: Then move not while
especially unrequited love— O heavy lightness, serious vanity, / my prayer’s effect I take.
although Shakespeare was soon Misshapen chaos of well-seeming [He kisses her.]” (1.5.104–105).
to invigorate the form himself with forms, / Feather of lead, bright
his own verses. Sonnets employed smoke, cold fire, sick health,” From this point on, Romeo
a range of rhetorical devices (1.1.173–177). largely abandons rhyme when
including oxymoron—the putting speaking to Juliet, and they both
together of contradictory words Romeo has yet to learn that now speak mostly in blank verse,
love, too, must break from these finding a new and more truthful
Parting is such conventions to find something more way of interacting. It is the young
sweet sorrow truthful. Even when he sees Juliet Juliet who matures into this newer
That I shall say good night for the first time, he speaks of her in expression of love first, and Romeo
till it be morrow. formal couplets: “Did my heart love is drawn in her wake.
till now? Forswear it, sight, / For I
Juliet ne’er saw true beauty till this night” The balcony scene
(1.5.51–52). In the balcony scene, a stage
Act 2, Scene 1 metaphor for separated love, Romeo
Breaking convention speaks to Juliet from the orchard
When Romeo and Juliet speak below her balcony. The device of
to each other for the first time, separating them on stage by the
remarkably, they share the lines of height of the balcony allows them
a sonnet with breathless intensity, to talk with a passion that would be
and the sonnet, conventionally impossible if they were together,
the most personal and unspoken as it could only lead to physicality.
of verses, becomes a tender
conversation. The final couplet is A plague o’ both
your houses.

They have made worms’
meat of me.
Mercutio

Act 3, Scene 1

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 109

Language of love Romeo and Juliet is full of Adaptations
Shakespeare finds a new language oppositions—light versus dark,
of love that has a freshness and youth versus age, time running At least 30 operas and ballets
immediacy that was entirely new fast and time running slow, the have been adapted from
in English verse—rich in imagery, moon versus the stars, love versus Shakespeare’s Romeo and
yet sincerely personal and new- hate. Juliet describes Romeo to Juliet, including Prokofiev’s
minted by this earnest young her nurse as “My only love sprung 1935 ballet Romeo and Juliet
couple, with rich poetic allusions from my only hate” (1.5.137), as and Gounod’s opera Roméo
such as Juliet’s wish to be a if the oxymorons of Romeo’s et Juliette (1867). Leonard
falconer to lure Romeo back like sonnet to Rosaline have taken life. Bernstein and Stephen
a trained falcon replacing more Sondheim’s 1957 stage musical
formal metaphors. In his language, As we were told it would, it is West Side Story moves the
as in his story, Shakespeare the darkness that wins out. Romeo action to New York’s tough
moves on from the divisive and Juliet’s love cannot win, for Upper West Side, where rival
conventions of the past to a new their romantic ideals prove no gangs, the Sharks and the
and more honest and profound match for the force of their elders’ Jets, clash. Many other stage
mode of expression. Romeo and quarrels. However, in death, they shows have been adapted
Juliet’s lines resonate with real prove the catalyst that brings the from Shakespeare’s play,
feeling. Rarely has young love quarrels to an abrupt end. Capulet including French composer
been expressed with such reaches out to Montague “O brother Gérard Presgurvic’s musical
tenderness and such beauty. Montague, give me thy hand” spectacle Roméo et Juliette:
(5.3.295), as each praises the other’s de la Haine à l’Amour (2001).
Yet that love is doomed child. The Prince stands lamenting
from the start. Juliet urgently over their bodies: “A glooming More than 60 different film
wishes for time to rush by to peace this morning with it brings. / versions have been created,
bring on the night, “the love- The sun for sorrow will not show beginning with Clemence
performing night” (3.2.5) that his head” (5.3.304–305). Those left Maurice’s 1900 production.
will allow them to be together. behind feel a profound shame. ■ One of the best known is
But the night is both a time of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film,
love and a symbol of death, and Adrienne Canterna choreographed which made an impact
the urgent race into the dark is and danced in the ballet Romeo and with its beautiful teenage
also a headlong charge into the Juliet, directed by her husband Rasta leads, including 16-year-old
galloping events that bring them Thomas. Their production mixed Olivia Hussey as Juliet in a
to their tragic end. Prokofiev’s score with modern music. controversial nude scene. Baz
Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet
(1996, pictured above), starred
Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire
Danes, and set the action in a
modern world of edgy youth on
California’s “Verona Beach.”

THE COURSE OF

TRUE LOVE

NEVER DID RUN

SMOOTH

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (1595)



112 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

DRAMATIS Theseus announces his Annoyed with his queen Titania falls in
PERSONAE wedding to Hippolyta. Titania, the fairy king love with
Egeus demands that his Oberon drops a love ass-headed
Theseus The Duke of Athens, daughter Hermia be forced Bottom.
conqueror of the Amazons. potion in her eyes.
to marry Demetrius.
Hippolyta The conquered
queen of the Amazons, 1.1 2.2 3.1
betrothed to Theseus. Act 1 Act 2
1.1 2.2
Egeus Father of Hermia.
Hermia decides Puck wrongly drops the love
Hermia Short, fiery, dark- to elope with potion in the eyes of
haired daughter of Egeus,
in love with Lysander. Lysander. Helena Lysander, who, on waking,
tells Demetrius of falls in love with Helena.
Lysander Romantic and in
love with Hermia. their plan.

Demetrius More hard-headed I n Athens, Theseus is artisans resolve to meet in the
than Lysander, but also preparing for his wedding to forest to rehearse a play in honor of
courting Hermia. Hippolyta, the vanquished the wedding.
queen of the Amazons, when in
Helena Tall and fair-haired, in bursts Egeus complaining that his In the forest, the fairy king and
love with Demetrius. daughter Hermia refuses to marry queen, Oberon and Titania, quarrel
Demetrius. He says that she has over a changeling child. Oberon
Oberon King of the fairies. been bewitched by Lysander. sends mischievous Puck to find
Theseus commands Hermia to the juice of a flower which, when
Titania Queen of the fairies. marry Demetrius. Hermia and placed in the eyes of a sleeper,
Lysander decide to elope and agree makes them fall in love with the
Robin Goodfellow A puck to meet the next night in the forest. first person they see on waking.
or mischievous sprite, also Hermia confides in Helena. Helena Oberon drops the juice on Titania’s
known just as Puck. is in love with Demetrius. To win eyes. Demetrius and Helena pursue
Demetrius’s love, Helena tells him Hermia and Lysander into the
Peaseblossom, Cobweb, of the elopement. A band of forest. Oberon orders Puck to drop
Mustardseed, and Mote the juice in Demetrius’s eyes so
Fairies who tend to Titania.

Peter Quince A carpenter
who plays the Prologue.

Nick Bottom A weaver who
plays Pyramus, whose head is
transformed to that of an ass.

Francis Flute A bellows-
mender who plays Thisbe.

Tom Snout A tinker who
plays the Wall and worries that
the lion will be too scary.

Snug A joiner, who plays Lion
and is a slow learner.

Robin Starveling A tailor
who plays the Moon.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 113

The lovers fall asleep Oberon removes When the lovers awake in Puck and the
after a wild chase the love potion their rightful pairings, fairies bless
through the forest. from Titania’s the palace.
Theseus ordains a joint
eyes and wedding in Athens.
Puck restores

Bottom’s
rightful head.

3.3 3.3 4.1 4.1 5.2
Act 3 Act 4 Act 5
3.2 4.1 5.1

Oberon applies the Puck applies an While hunting in the forest, At the wedding in
love potion to Demetrius’s antidote to the Theseus and Hippolyta come Athens, the artisans,
eyes. Demetrius falls in love potion to to much amusement,
Lysander’s eyes to across the sleeping lovers.
love with Helena. resolve the confusion. perform the
story of Pyramus

and Thisbe.

that he falls in love Helena—but The boys and girls fight and run him and Hippolyta in a three-way
Puck mistakenly gives the juice through the forest before falling wedding. The artisans finish their
to Lysander, who wakes and sees asleep. As they sleep, Puck removes rehearsal and all return to Athens.
Helena and falls in love with her. the spell from Lysander’s eyes.
After the wedding, the artisans
As the artisans rehearse, Puck Oberon removes the spell from perform their play Pyramus and
changes the head of Bottom the Titania’s eyes, and she is appalled Thisbe, about two parted lovers.
weaver for that of a donkey. when she wakes with Bottom in her In the play, Thisbe sees a lion
Bottom’s companions flee, but arms. Oberon commands Puck to and flees, dropping her mantle.
Titania, sleeping nearby, awakes switch Bottom’s head back, and Pyramus finds the mantle and
and falls in love with him. As the Oberon and Titania are reconciled. stabs himself. Thisbe discovers
lovers appear, it is clear something Pyramus’s body, so kills herself, too.
is awry, and Oberon tries to make Theseus and Hippolyta, out The Court can barely contain its
amends by applying the love juice hunting with Egeus, come upon laughter, and as the play ends,
to Demetrius’s eyes. But when the sleeping lovers. As the lovers Theseus calls an end to the revels.
Demetrius falls in love with Helena, awake, Hermia pairs with Lysander Puck leads a fairy procession
too, she thinks it is all a cruel joke. and Demetrius pairs with Helena. through the palace. ❯❯
Theseus ordains that they shall join

114 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

IN CONTEXT A Midsummer Night’s nor yet the shadow of the things.”
Dream is unique in Shakespeare simply uses the magic
THEMES Shakespeare’s varied of this night to delve into the
Love, identity, sense, canon. Full of romance and poetry, interplay between imagination and
and madness humor and beauty, it is a flight of reality, madness and reason, love
fantasy, a journey into a world and common sense, and tell a story
SETTING of magic that explores love in all that is both an enchanting delight
Mythical Athens, and a its tenderness, excitement, and and a voyage into the dark places of
forest outside Athens danger. Its story has resonated the mind. Spenser’s Faerie Queen,
across cultures, and the play is although set in fairyland, was about
SOURCES widely performed across the world. the real queen, Elizabeth I, and it is
8 CE The poem Metamorphoses hard not to see Elizabeth, too, in the
by the Roman poet Ovid, plus The play is set not just on any strong queens of the Dream, Titania
various Greek myths. night, but Midsummer Night. The and Hippolyta.
summer solstice had a mystical
LEGACY significance dating back to ancient Wedding and marriage
1604 The first recorded times. Shakespeare’s England had It is not known for certain when
productions are at the court pagan roots that ran far deeper A Midsummer Night’s Dream was
of King James I. than its Christian tradition, and this written, but some suggest that it
was the night when magic was felt was a play to celebrate a wedding,
1662 A gutted adaptation is to be in the air, and fairies and
performed; and English diarist sprites were abroad. It is not that Tim Supple’s production for the RSC
Samuel Pepys describes it as everyone believed in fairies, though. in 2006 set the action in India. The
“the most insipid, ridiculous Edmund Spenser, who wrote his lines were spoken in a mix of English
play that I ever saw.” poem The Faerie Queene around and six Indian languages. Here, Bottom
this time, declared, “the truth is bemoans his ass’s head.
1692 English actor Thomas that there be no such things,
Betterton commissions Henry
Purcell to write music for a
version called The Fairy Queen.

1905 Austrian director Max
Reinhardt stages the play in
Berlin using a revolving set.

1914 British actor/director
Harley Granville-Barker
stages a controversial
futuristic version.

1960 The play is adapted into
an opera by British composer
Benjamin Britten.

1970 Peter Brook’s famous
minimalist production for the
RSC has a white box for a set.

2006 With a production
originating in Chennai, Tamil
Nadu, British theater director
Tim Supple turns the play into
an Indian folktale.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 115

O long and tedious night, In many ways, it is an interior An English idyll
Abate thy hours. journey—a journey of self-
Helena knowledge—but the journey is as The forest in A Midsummer
much about society rediscovering Night’s Dream is said to be
Act 3, Scene 2 what matters as it is a personal outside Athens, but it is really
journey. Clearly, there is much to an English wood, like the
possibly the wedding of the learn in Athens about marriage. forest of Arden Shakespeare
young Elizabeth de Vere to the At the opening of the play, Theseus knew so well. The play can be
Earl of Derby in 1595. Others explains how he won Hippolyta, seen to be a hymn to England,
dispute this idea, but the play the queen of the Amazons (a tribe full of magic, yet down-to-
does indeed seem to take the of female warriors), by force: earth and real—a reminder,
pattern of an elaborate masque. “Hippolyta, I have wooed thee with perhaps, to distant rulers
It begins with the announcement my sword, / And won thy love by of what really matters.
of a wedding—so often the doing thee injuries” (1.1.16–17).
endpoint of a drama—and finishes The wild flowers Oberon,
on the night of a triple wedding. Old Egeus calls for the death the king of the fairies, tells
penalty if his daughter Hermia of are those of an English
The weddings—in Athens, the refuses to marry Demetrius. Even wood, brought to life with a
world of reality—are brief scenes Theseus’s “reprieve” only offers tenderness and knowledge
that frame the wild and spectacular Hermia the choice of life in a of a writer who had walked
journey into the fairy forest. There nunnery instead. It is clear that those woods since childhood.
is a symmetry and movement Theseus and Egeus may have the Shakespeare gives Oberon
between the world of lovers, fairies, law on their side, but their world these words:
and “mechanicals” that is like a of “reason” and “sense” has little “I know a bank where
marvelous dance, coming together understanding of human love and the wild thyme blows,
in the magical torch-lit procession feelings. Indeed, Theseus’s vision Where oxlips and the
that ends the play. The play can be is entirely out of sympathy with nodding violet grows,
seen both as an exquisite wedding imagination and poetry, as well as Quite over-canopied with
gift and an instruction on the true love, which he equates with a kind luscious woodbine,
nature of love that the watching of madness: “The lunatic, the lover, With sweet musk-roses, and
couple must learn before embarking and the poet / Are of imagination with eglantine” (2.1.250–253).
on married life. all compact” (5.1.7–8). Love, for
Theseus, is a frantic delusion. The fogs and sodden
City and forest Poetry is a frenzied rolling of fields and the tired ploughman
A Midsummer Night’s Dream has the eye. ❯❯ that the queen of the fairies,
a triple structure. It begins in the Titania, describe are scenes
city, journeys into the forest, and The lunatic, the lover, from England, not from
then returns to the city again. The and the poet Athens, and the artisans
city is the world of order, reason, who put on the play are
and discipline, but order in this city Are of imagination as solidly English as one
has broken down. The characters all compact. can imagine.
must voyage into the wild in order Theseus
to learn lessons for their real work.
Act 5, Scene 1

116 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Capulets needed to embark upon
if Romeo and Juliet were to have
a happy outcome.

These are the forgeries A forest of the mind And though she be but little,
of jealousy The forest that the four lovers she is fierce.
Titania enter, along with the artisans, is Helena
a place of the imagination, a place
Act 2, Scene 1 of fantasy and dreams, where the Act 3, Scene 2
normal order of things is turned
Parallels with Verona upside down. Nowadays, wear masks and costumes, change
In some ways, the Athens of psychologists might talk of the roles, behave out of character, suffer
Theseus is as unhealthy as the realm of the unconscious, and delusions, swap status or lovers—
feuding Verona that brings such critics explore the psychological and even, as in the case of Bottom
tragedy to Romeo and Juliet symbolism of the play and its the weaver, acquire the head of
(which was written around expression of sexual desires and an ass. Here the world of reason
the same time). Like Romeo gender issues. In Shakespeare’s and “common sense”—what is
and Juliet, Hermia and Lysander time it is simply the world of normally sensed—vanishes and
are star-crossed lovers, doomed dreams and fairies. Indeed, the nothing is certain. Identities
to separation by foolish and whole play is presented as a continually shift and transform.
tyrannical parents. When dream that we have strayed into.
Lysander laments that “The course As Puck says at the end: “If we Troubled identity
of true love never did run smooth” shadows have offended, / Think The loss of identity is disturbing,
(1.1.134), it is almost as if he is but this, and all is mended: / That and often terrifying. What is love,
talking about Romeo and Juliet. you have but slumbered here, / when it can shift so easily? Isn’t
The journey into the forest in While these visions did appear; / love attached to a person’s identity?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is And this weak and idle theme, / Hermia, the most constant of the
the journey the Montagues and No more yielding but a dream” lovers, begins to question who she
(Epilogue.1–6).

The forest of dreams is a
place where normality is subverted.
But it is more of a nightmare than
a dream. Characters play parts,

Adaptations The play’s unusual structure In the 20th century, adaptors
means it has not always been have been more interested in
treated gently by adaptors. In the the psychological and sexual
17th century in particular, many symbolism. Peter Brook’s 1970
productions took liberties, for version was performed in a plain
example by staging the comic white box, and focused on the
elements alone. The pageant-like adult themes over spectacle.
nature of the play has inspired Benjamin Britten’s 1960 opera
many to add music. One of the had a fairy chorus of boy trebles
best was the Fairy Queen by as a chaste counterpoint to the
English composer Henry Purcell libidinous adults. Film versions
(1692), which inserted exquisite have included Max Reinhardt’s
musical masques between each epic and visually sumptuous
scene. In 1842, Felix Mendelssohn rendering of 1935 and, more
wrote beautiful incidental music recently, Michael Hoffman’s
to a production that includes the 1999 soap opera-like version
famous Wedding March. set in Tuscany (pictured).

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 117

A Midsummer Night’s Dream relationships

Egeus Asks for help Theseus Engaged to Hippolyta
King of Athens Former Queen of the Amazons

Hermia Truly loves Puck Lieutenant to
His daughter Mischievous fairy
Lysander Oberon
King of Fairyland
Helena Loves because Demetrius
Her friend of potion Courting Hermia Married to
Truly loves
Transforms Titania
Loves because of potion into an ass Queen of Fairyland

Given love potion by Puck Nick Bottom Loves because
Given love potion by Oberon Weaver of potion

really is, as Lysander, who once tender in the play. Indeed, it The fairies reinhabit the house as
professed to love her, suddenly is Bottom who has the sanest protective dreams: “But all the story
seems to hate her: “Am I not insight into love, telling Titania: of the night told over, / And all their
Hermia? Are you not Lysander?” “Methinks, mistress, you should minds transfigured so together, /
(3.2.274). Yet Helena lamented at have little reason / for that [loving More witnesseth than fancy’s
the beginning of the play that she me]. And yet, to say the truth, reason images, / And grows to something
would have been happy if she could and love / keep little company of great constancy; / But, howsoever,
only be Hermia and so be loved by together nowadays” (3.1.135–137). strange and admirable.” (5.1.23–27). ■
Demetrius—that she would give
the world to be Hermia “translated.” Happy resolution Now the hungry lion roars,
The artisans show the truest And the wolf behowls
In the forest, they are all understanding of love, and pass the moon,
“translated” under the influence through the madness of the forest Whilst the heavy
of mischievous, shape-shifting with their identities intact. Even ploughman snores,
Puck, and the effect is decidedly when they are playing characters
nightmarish. The magic love in their play, they stay steadfastly All with weary task fordone.
juices turn them this way and themselves. Snout doesn’t become Puck
that, love to hate, hate to love, in the Wall, he simply, as Snout,
an extreme fashion. Bottom is the “presents” it. Act 5, Scene 2
most dramatically translated of all,
yet he is the one who stays most It is only fitting that these
constant. He may gain the head simple men bring the drama down
of an ass, but he is unfailingly to earth and good humor again
courteous to Titania and to all the at the end, leaving the realm of
fairies who tend to him, and the dreams to the fairies, with proper
relationship between him and separation restored. At the end,
Titania, though in some ways an everyone retires to bed, thankful to
illusion, is the gentlest and most put this wild night behind them.

THERE IS NO SURE

FOUNDATION SET ON

BLOOD

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING JOHN
(1596)



120 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING JOHN

DRAMATIS King Philip of France Cardinal Pandolf The English side is
PERSONAE challenges King John to excommunicates victorious. John orders
renounce his throne in King John for his Hubert to murder Arthur.
King John King of defiance of the Pope.
England. He is vain, favor of Arthur, but John King Philip breaks
cruel, and indecisive. defies him.
their alliance.
Queen Eleanor King
John’s mother. 1.1 3.1 3.3
Act 1 Act 2 Act 3
Philip the Bastard
Illegitimate son of 2.1 3.2
John’s eldest brother,
Richard I. He is later renamed The French and In the battle with the French,
Sir Richard Plantagenet English fight an Philip the Bastard beheads
inconclusive battle
King Philip of France before the gates of the Duke of Austria and
He backs Arthur’s claim Angers. Peace is rescues Queen Eleanor after
to the English throne. she is captured by the French.
made by the
Louis the Dauphin King marriage of Blanche,
Philip’s son. John’s niece, to King
Philip’s son, Louis.
Lady Blanche of Spain
Niece of King John. E ngland and France prepare to them. A battle is waged, with
for war. Robert Falconbridge both sides claiming victory. Peace
Cardinal Pandolf quarrels with his brother, is made by the marriage of the
Papal legate. Philip. They both claim to be dauphin to John’s niece, Blanche,
the heir to their father’s estate. with all of England’s French
Duke of Austria Previously Robert insists that his brother territories, except Angers, as her
killed Richard I, now defender is the illegitimate son of Richard I, dowry. The arrival of Cardinal
of Arthur. “the Lionheart.” Queen Eleanor Pandolf, the Pope’s legate, causes
recognizes her son’s features in renewed conflict. When King John
Arthur Son of John’s elder Philip and renames him Sir Richard defies the Pope’s authority, Pandolf
brother, Geoffrey, later he Plantagenet, although he continues excommunicates him. King Philip
becomes Duke of Brittaine. to be known as the Bastard. breaks his allegiance with England.

Lady Constance Arthur’s Outside the city of Angers (in The Bastard decapitates the
mother. France, but owned by the English), Duke of Austria (who had killed
the French and English kings his father, Richard I), and rescues
Prince Henry John’s son, demand that the gates be opened Queen Eleanor. Arthur is taken
later King Henry III.

Hubert A loyal follower of
King John.

Earl of Pembroke, Earl of
Salisbury Nobles who rebel
against John.

Lady Falconbridge Philip
the Bastard’s mother.

Robert Falconbridge
Lady Falconbridge’s
legitimate son.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 121

Hubert prepares to burn out Arthur tries to King John’s King John dies,
Arthur’s eyes with hot irons, escape, but falls to disaffected nobles apparently poisoned by
but Arthur’s pleas move him to his death from the swear loyalty to the a monk. The nobles are
be merciful and spare the boy. Dauphin and prepare to
castle walls. reconciled to the new
fight on his side. king, Henry III.

4.1 4.3 5.2 5.7
Act 4 Act 5

3.4 4.2 5.1 5.4

Lady Constance mourns King John learns that King John submits to In the battle,
the loss of Arthur. French troops are the authority of the Pope. Salisbury and
Pembroke discover
Cardinal Pandolf advises preparing to that the French are
Louis to claim the English invade, and both planning to put them
throne after Arthur’s murder. Queen Eleanor and to death afterward,
Lady Constance are and return to King
dead. Hubert reveals
John’s side.
that Arthur is
still alive.

prisoner by King John and placed the king that French troops are John resigns his crown into
in the custody of Hubert, who about to land on English soil. The Pandolf’s hands, only to have it
is ordered to murder him. The Bastard brings in Peter of Pomfret returned. The Bastard condemns
Cardinal is cheered by the fact that who prophesies that John will give this and insists that the king
King John will have to kill Arthur, up the crown by noon on Ascension should continue to defy the
which will turn the English against Day. John throws him in prison. dauphin. The latter is eager to
him. He recruits Louis the Dauphin John is relieved when Hubert fight, and refuses to be deflected
to march on England. confesses that the prince is still by the Cardinal. The French are
alive. But Arthur falls to his death. weakened by a loss of supplies and
Hubert cannot bring himself to His body is found by Pembroke, the defection of English nobles.
kill Arthur and instead promises Salisbury, and Bigot, who don’t As fortune turns in the favor of the
to tell King John that he is dead. believe the death was accidental. English, King John is ill. He dies in
John has had himself crowned for the presence of his son, now King
a second time. When the king John submits to the authority Henry III. English nobles offer their
announces that Arthur is dead of a of the Pope, on condition that allegiance to the new king, and the
sudden sickness, the nobles angrily Cardinal Pandolf disarm the Cardinal negotiates a truce. ❯❯
renounce him. A messenger tells French. It is Ascension Day when

122 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING JOHN

IN CONTEXT W hen King John asserts is the joke that is being played
that there is “No certain against the king when he makes
THEMES life achieved by others’ this assertion, for, as the audience
Inheritance, identity, death” (4.2.105), he alludes to his already knows, Arthur isn’t really
kingship, loyalty decision to kill Arthur—the young dead. The audience is allowed to
rival to his throne. Rather than think that John has won a lucky
SETTING confirming John’s authority, the reprieve. But at the very moment
The English court, Angers murder has undermined it, for when Hubert is hurrying after the
in France England’s nobles will no longer earls to tell them that Arthur is
follow “the foot / That leaves the not dead, they discover his body
SOURCES print of blood where’er it walks” at the foot of the prison walls.
1587 Holinshed’s Chronicles of (4.3.25–26). This episode illustrates one of
England, Scotland, and Ireland. the distinct features of King John;
Blood follows blood why it appears to stand alone
c.1589 Anonymously authored The doctrine that blood follows tonally as well as structurally.
play The Troublesome Reign of blood, and that murdering other
King John may have been an royal claimants does not secure The play undermines the
influence on Shakespeare. one’s grip upon the throne, ambitions and actions of the great,
resonates throughout Shakespeare’s wrong-footing them at every turn.
LEGACY English history plays. For example, For example, the motives of the
1737 First known performance in Richard II, the murder of King King of France may be morally
at Theatre Royal, London. Richard continues to generate new suspect when he makes peace
enemies for the usurper Henry IV. with England, as the Bastard
1899 King John’s death What is unusual about King John points out, but an Anglo-French
scene from Herbert Beerbohm marriage at least prevents further
Tree’s production of King John The play includes John’s disputes with bloodshed. However, Philip’s
represents the first example his nobles, but omits the resolution— vows of allegiance have barely
of Shakespeare on film. forcing him to sign the Magna Carta in been made before he is forced by
1215. John died a year later at Newark Cardinal Pandolf to declare war
1936 A Hindi film adaptation, Castle, Nottinghamshire, shown here. once again. It seems impossible for
Saed-e-Havas (King John) is the major characters to maintain a
made in India, directed by
Sohrab Modi.

1953 At the Old Vic in London,
Richard Burton plays a
swashbuckling Bastard.

1980 The Weimar National
Theatre in Germany stages an
acclaimed production with a
tough, uncompromising image
of warfare.

2012 King John is staged
in Armenian in London by
the Gabriel Sundukyan
National Academic Theatre.
The production highlights the
boisterous humor of the play,
portraying King John as a
clown-like figure.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 123

consistent policy on anything, and, I am amazed, methinks, Philip The Bastard
as a result, the play struggles to and lose my way
achieve any kind of tragic effect Philip Falconbridge has more
(it may be worth noting that the Among the thorns and lines than any other character
term “Tragedy” is absent from the dangers of this world. in King John, and is often
title). Tragedy depends on a kind Philip the Bastard described as the play’s hero.
of heroic consistency and self- Bastards in Shakespeare
assertion in the face of cosmic Act 4, Scene 3 are usually villains (Don John,
opposition or unlucky chance—and Iago, Edmund). The status of
this is not the story of King John. in order to be recognized as “bastard” was equated with
Richard’s son. He chooses the a moral deficit, his inability
Disputed succession latter, but the arbitrariness of his to inherit wealth leaving
John’s assertion that “There is choice reinforces the point that him with a ruthless streak.
no sure foundation set on blood” “all men’s children” (1.1.63) must However, the Bastard of King
(4.2.104) also relates to ideas of doubt their paternity. In the verbal John is a comic figure: “Why,
identity and inheritance. The play’s battle between Eleanor and what a madcap hath heaven
opening dispute is about who Constance (2.1), both Arthur lent us here!” (1.1.84). He acts
stands next in line to the throne and Richard the Lionheart stand as both a satirical chorus,
after the deaths of Richard and accused of being bastards. exposing the protagonists’
Geoffrey, Queen Eleanor’s elder true motives, and a heroic
sons. There is disagreement about It seems then that neither ruthless figure. In Maria Aberg’s 2012
whether a son (Arthur) or a brother political action nor an unquestioned production for the RSC, Philip’s
(John) should inherit, with even blood right to the throne are enough gender was changed, and he
Eleanor implying that Arthur to render kingship secure. The was played with a mixture of
might have the superior claim. play advises the necessity of tenderness and scorn by Pippa
maintaining loyalty, particularly Nixon (above, left).
The situation is made more among one’s nobles. The new
complicated by the larger difficulty King Henry III is brought to tears Philip is aware of the irony
of determining paternity. This by the sight of Salisbury, Pembroke, of a bastard defending the
anxiety is focused on Philip the and Bigot kneeling before him. moral order, and at the end of
Bastard, who is proven to be A cynical response to this the play Salisbury advises the
the illegitimate son of Richard the display—given their betrayal of new King Henry that it is his
Lionheart by physical resemblance. King John and then the dauphin— duty “to set a form upon that
Philip is left in the position of seems to be deliberately averted by indigest” (5.7.26). That Philip
choosing his identity—whether the Bastard’s final words, which speaks the play’s final lines
to inherit Sir Robert’s estate, or emphasize the need for unity: may testify to his charisma
suffer the stigma of illegitimacy “Naught shall make us rue / If and rapport with the audience,
England to itself do rest but true” or to the difficulty that
Mad world, mad kings, (5.7.117–118). It is one of the play’s subsequent kings will find
mad composition! deepest ironies that the man who in imposing this ideal “form.”
carries the blood of Richard the
Philip the Bastard Lionheart in his veins is denied the
chance to rule the nation he loves
Act 2, Scene 1 more than its legitimate kings do. ■

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THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (1596)



126 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

DRAMATIS In Venice, Antonio, The Jew Shylock lends Shylock’s daughter
PERSONAE a merchant whose Bassanio money he Jessica runs off
ships are all at sea, needs to woo Portia but with a Christian,
Antonio A merchant of agrees to help his demands a pound of Lorenzo, and with
Venice, he guarantees a loan friend Bassanio. Shylock’s money.
to his friend Bassanio “with Antonio’s flesh as security.
a pound of my flesh.”
1.1 1.3 2.6
Bassanio Antonio’s friend, Act 1 Act 2
and suitor to Portia.
1.2 2.2
Leonardo A servant to
Bassanio. In Belmont, Portia, a rich The clown
heiress, is depressed by her Lancelot Gobbo
Graziano, Salerio, suitors, who, by her father’s decides to leave
Solanio Friends of will, must choose one of three Shylock’s service
Antonio and Bassanio. and joins Bassanio.
caskets to win her hand.
Lorenzo Friend of
Antonio and Bassanio, I n Venice, the merchant In Belmont, the Prince of Morocco
in love with Jessica. Antonio is sad, but agrees to arrives to try his luck with Portia.
help his friend Bassanio raise In Venice, Shylock’s servant Lancelot
Shylock A rich Jewish the money he needs to woo the decides to leave his master and
moneylender, father of Jessica. beautiful heiress Portia. In Belmont, serve Bassanio. Shylock’s daughter
meanwhile, Portia is sad too. By her Jessica is sad that Lancelot is
Jessica Daughter of Shylock, father’s will, she must marry the leaving and decides to run away.
in love with Lorenzo. man who chooses the correct one She gives Lancelot a message
of three caskets—gold, silver, and for Lorenzo, who is staying with
Tubal A Jew, Shylock’s friend. lead. When Shylock hesitates to Bassanio. Shylock is invited to
lend Bassanio money, Bassanio dinner with Bassanio, and while
Lancelot A clown and servant promises Antonio as guarantor. he’s out, Jessica steals his money
to Shylock. Shylock sees a chance of revenge and escapes to Belmont disguised
on Antonio, who has previously as a boy. In Belmont, the Princes of
Gobbo Father of Lancelot. mocked him. He stipulates that the Morocco and Aragon fail the casket
bond be a pound of Antonio’s flesh. test, choosing gold and silver.
Portia A rich heiress. She
disguises herself as a doctor
of law, “Balthasar,” to save
Antonio’s life.

Nerissa Portia’s maid, in love
with Graziano.

Balthasar, Stefano Portia’s
servants. Later, the names of
Portia and Nerissa in disguise.

Prince of Morocco Suitor
to Portia.

Prince of Aragon Suitor
to Portia.

Duke of Venice He must
uphold Venetian law.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 127

Shylock is incensed by his As Bassanio speeds Balthasar demands Shylock Back in Belmont,
runaway daughter, but takes to Venice to help be punished for trying to Portia reveals her
role as Balthasar and
solace in the chance of Antonio, Portia and take a Christian’s blood, and all ends happily for
revenge on Antonio, whose Nerissa resolve to Shylock is forced to give Portia and Bassanio,
Nerissa and Graziano,
ships are sunk. follow disguised up all his property.
as lawyers. and Jessica and
Lorenzo.

3.1 3.4 4.1 5.1
Act 3 Act 4 Act 5

2.7/9 3.2 4.1 4.1

In Belmont, the Bassanio chooses the Portia as Balthasar argues Bassanio is prevailed
princes of Morocco lead casket and wins that Shylock may take upon to give
and Aragon choose the hand of Portia, Antonio’s flesh, but only
the wrong caskets if he spills no blood. Balthasar Portia’s
who gives him a ring in payment
and fail to win ring; Graziano woos for his help.
Portia’s hand.
her maid Nerissa.

In Belmont, Portia asks Bassanio to In a Venice courtroom, Shylock wealth. The Duke pardons him,
delay choosing caskets to prolong demands his pound of flesh. providing he pay half his wealth to
their time together. But to his and Balthasar (Portia in disguise) Antonio. Antonio simply asks that
Portia’s joy, he chooses the lead arrives to adjudicate. Balthasar Shylock give the money to Jessica
casket containing a portrait of says Shylock should be merciful, and Lorenzo on his death. Balthasar
Portia. Bassanio’s friend Graziano but the law is in his favor. Shylock asks in payment from Bassanio only
and Portia’s maid Nerissa decide delightedly prepares to take his the ring Portia gave him.
to marry. This happiness is marred pound of flesh. Then Balthasar
by news that Shylock is claiming informs him that in doing so he Lorenzo and Jessica bask in their
his flesh from Antonio. Portia may not spill Antonio’s blood. love as Portia and Nerissa return.
offers to repay the debt “twenty Stunned, Shylock accepts The girls berate Bassanio and
times over,” and Bassanio sets Bassanio’s money. But Balthasar is Graziano for giving their rings to
off for Venice. Portia follows relentless. As an alien threatening other women. Antonio defends them,
Bassanio disguised as a male a Venetian, she tells Shylock, he and Portia and Nerissa admit the
lawyer, accompanied by Nerissa faces the death penalty, which can truth. Portia tells Antonio his boats
disguised as “his” clerk. only be averted by giving up all his are safe, and Nerissa gives Lorenzo
and Jessica Shylock’s new will. ❯❯

128 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

IN CONTEXT F ew of Shakespeare’s plays Shylock, whose Jewishness
have caused quite as much is so crucial to his portrayal, and for
THEMES disquiet as The Merchant of whom the play does not end well,
Prejudice, revenge, justice, Venice. The story is a blend of two continues to arouse deep anxiety
money, love old folk tales—that of the mean among audiences and performers.
moneylender who demands an
SETTING extreme payment, a pound of flesh, The stereotypical Jew
Venice and the fictional from his creditor, and that of the The anxiety hinges on whether the
town of Belmont, in Italy young princess who finds her play is anti-Semitic. A rapacious,
true love through the test of three skinflint moneylender, Shylock
SOURCES caskets. The Merchant of Venice certainly conforms to a negative
The main elements of the plot, has a happy ending for most, with
the flesh-bond and the story the young lovers united, and in In the 16th-century, Venetian Jews
of the caskets, are taken from Portia, Shakespeare creates an were confined to a ghetto, and Shylock
folk tales. The character Shylock appealing heroine, humble and would have been forced to live here. In
is inspired by the following: loving yet brilliant and incisive in this early 17th-century map of Venice,
the court scene. But the moneylender the ghetto is marked with a star.
14th century Italian Giovanni
Fiorentino’s collection of tales
Il Pecorone (“The Dunce”).

1589 Christopher Marlowe’s
The Jew of Malta.

LEGACY
1605 The play is performed for
James I on Shrove Tuesday.

1959 Tyrone Guthrie directs
a production in Israel, with
Aharon Meskin as Shylock.
The action is moved to the
present day, portraying Shylock
as a capitalist financier.

1970 At the National Theatre,
London, Laurence Olivier
portrays Shylock as a Jew
trying too hard to assimilate,
as the action is moved to
Venice in the 1880s.

1992 In his book Shylock,
critic John Gross feels there is
“a permanent chill in the air”
in the play’s treatment of Jews.

2004 A film adaptation
directed by Michael Radford
casts Al Pacino as Shylock,
Jeremy Irons as Antonio, and
Lynn Collions as Portia.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 129

stereotype of a Jewish character on Shakespeare, or those who Dustin Hoffman took on the role of
that was already well used by the misuse the play. Many critics Shylock in a 1989 production directed
time Shakespeare wrote his play defend Shakespeare against by Peter Hall. Hoffman portrayed the
around 1597. Indeed, Christopher the charge of anti-Semitism by moneylender as a good man driven
Marlowe had a huge hit with such underlining the play’s nuances. beyond endurance by mistreatment.
negative stereotypes around 1590 Others have suggested that we
with The Jew of Malta. There are should bear in mind the context anger of the whole Hebrew
clear parallels between Shylock of Shakespeare’s age, when few race. But perhaps it is not
and Marlowe’s Jew, Barabas, people had the political and racial quite so simple as that. When
who, like Shylock, is a widowed awareness we do now. Shakespeare Shylock says, “If you prick us,
father with a single beautiful was writing, as when he wrote of do we not bleed?” he is not
daughter who rejects her father’s Othello, about storybook figures in just saying that Jews have the
“misplaced” Judaism and converts tales from abroad. The problem, same blood, but also referring
to Christianity. It is likely that perhaps, is more for us today—how to the common test for a
neither playwright was writing do we deal with characters such as witch, which was to prick the
from direct experience, however, Shylock with our awareness of the thumbs to see if they bleed. ❯❯
since Jews had been banned from dangers such stereotypes pose?
England long before. As a result, But love is blind, and lovers
both Barabas and Shylock are The victim of prejudice cannot see
perhaps best seen as stock villains. Since the Holocaust, most
stagings of the play have been The pretty follies that
There is no doubt that The acutely aware of the dangers of themselves commit
Merchant of Venice has done a portraying Shylock simply as a
great deal to reinforce negative villain and have instead looked Jessica
stereotypes of Jews over the at the character more as a tragic
centuries. Originally, perhaps, victim of racial and religious Act 2, Scene 6
this was in a mostly comic prejudice. Shylock is seen as an
vein, with Shylock played as outsider who is abused by the
a pantomime villain. But more Christians of Venice, robbed and
disturbingly, The Merchant of abandoned by his daughter, and
Venice was staged deliberately in finally humiliated by the loss of his
Nazi Germany in the late 1930s to fortune and good name and forced
help justify the attacks on Jews. to convert to Christianity. Such is
Critics, however, have been divided Shakespeare’s skill as a playwright
over whether this can be blamed that this tragedy can be found in
the play. In a famously telling
In sooth, I know not why speech, Shylock rails against the
I am so sad. abuse he has suffered: “I am a Jew.
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a
It wearies me, you say it Jew hands, organs, dimensions,
wearies you senses, affections, passions; fed
Antonio with the same food, hurt with the
same weapons, subject to the same
Act 1, Scene 1 diseases, healed by the same
means, warmed and cooled by
the same winter and summer as
a Christian is? If you prick us,
do we not bleed?” (3.1.54–59).

This speech is often quoted out
of context as a heartfelt cry against
racial prejudice—or the bitter cry of

130 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

Tell me where is fancy bred, merchant in the play’s title. But of This night, methinks is but
Or in the heart, or in the head? course Shylock is a moneylender, the daylight sick.
not a merchant. The merchant of Portia
Singer the title is Antonio. He plays a
comparatively peripheral role in Act 5, Scene 1
Act 3, Scene 2 a play that is mainly a comedy
about the nature of love. both plays, too, a misanthrope—
Is this speech a plea for human Malvolio in Twelfth Night and
rights or a justification for revenge— In the very first line of the play, Shylock in The Merchant of
another stereotype of Jewish Antonio laments: “In sooth, I know Venice—is left out of the general
villainy? Either way, Shakespeare’s not why I am so sad.” His friends happiness at the play’s end.
audiences may have been surprised try to find an explanation for his
by how much they were moved by sadness, but there is none. In a So what is the reason for this
the words he placed in the mouth telling parallel, Portia opens the gloom? It may be no accident that
of the play’s stock villain. very next scene saying: “By my Shakespeare’s play is set in Venice,
troth, Nerissa, my little body is the commercial capital of Europe
The melancholic merchant aweary of this great world.” at the time, and the play focuses
Shylock often draws so much on a merchant. It is perhaps the
attention from critics that he is There is something that has restless quest for money and the
sometimes assumed to be the cast a gloom over the world, and commodification of relationships
the comic journey of the play that has robbed the world of joy.
is to lift this gloom through the When his daughter Jessica leaves,
redeeming power of love, just as it what is uppermost in Shylock’s
is in Twelfth Night, in which it is mind is the financial cost, and
Viola’s task to lift the gloom into the plot of the play hinges on
which Orsino and Olivia have sunk. Bassanio’s need to borrow
In both plays, the heroines, Portia money to even woo Portia.
and Viola, must dress as men to
win out, released by their disguise
to reveal their true brilliance. In

The value of life
In the test of the three caskets,
Portia will not find true love in the
precious gold or silver caskets, but
only the poor lead casket. When
Bassanio makes the right choice of
the lead casket, Portia explains that
she has herself has little monetary
value: “the full sum of me / Is sum of

Darko Tresnjak’s 2007 production
had a futuristic setting. At the end, it
hints that the marriages will not turn
out well, so it is not only Shylock
(F. Murray Abraham) who will suffer.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 131

something which, to term in gross, / The friends in Venice
Is an unlessoned girl, unschooled,
unpractiséd, / Happy in this, she is Friends Friends
not yet so old” (3.2.157–160).
Graziano Lorenzo
For Shylock, this would make
her utterly worthless. For him, Love each other Antonio Love each other
without money, there is no life.
“Nay, take my life and all,” he Nerissa Jessica
wails when the Duke threatens to Daughter to
take all his wealth in punishment Friends Guarantees
for his crime, “you take my life / Bassanio’s
When you do take the means
whereby I live” (4.1.373–374). debt

But the Christians in Venice Lady-in- Bassanio Shylock
are perhaps only slightly less waiting
obsessed with the making and
spending of money. To achieve and
a happy ending, all the couples confidante
must leave the commercial world
of Venice behind entirely and Portia Owes money to
escape to the paradise of Portia’s Defeats in court
home in Belmont. Only there can Christian Jewish
Lorenzo and Jessica see that the
real riches are in the beauties of Back in Venice, Shylock is a lonely remains. Elizabethan audiences
the night and music: “the floor and broken man, humiliated and may have seen this outcome
of heaven / Is thick inlaid with vilified, with most of his money as just deserts for the Jew.
patens of bright gold” (5.1.58–59). gone, his renegade daughter absent But Shakespeare manages to
It is also in Belmont that Antonio and waiting upon his death, when portray Shylock’s fall as an all
receives the happy news that his she will inherit what wealth of his too human event. ■
ships are safe, after Portia assures
him with a letter that she has
mysteriously acquired. But this
happiness has come at a cost.

Demonized Jewry Jews had been banished from 1594, accused of conspiring
England since 1290, and they to poison the Queen. Some
remained banished until scholars believe Lopez was the
1655, when the Jewish scholar inspiration for Shylock, but there
Manasseh ben Israel gained was no shortage of negative role
Oliver Cromwell’s assent for Jews models for Shakespeare to draw
to return. There were a handful on, not least Marlowe’s Barabas.
of Jews in London in Elizabethan With the Christian ban on usury,
times, but none would have been Jews had long been forced
able to profess their religion into the role of moneylenders.
openly, on pain of death. London Prejudice was rife, partly
Jews in the 1590s were mostly because Jews were blamed
Marranos—descendants of forced by Christians for the betrayal
Jewish converts from Portugal of Christ. Jews were demonized
and Spain—including the queen’s in many ways—blamed for
doctor Rodrigo Lopez, who was spreading the plague and
hung, drawn, and quartered in associated with witches.

HONOUR

IS A MERE

SCUTCHEON

HENRY IV PART 1 (1596–1597)



134 HENRY IV PART 1

DRAMATIS Henry learns that Hal speaks in soliloquy At Gad’s Hill, Hal and
PERSONAE rebellion in the north of his rebellious Poins steal back the
and west will postpone
Henry IV King of England, reputation and long-term stolen money from
also known as Bolingbroke. his crusade to the plan to reform himself. Falstaff and company.
Holy Land.
Harry, Prince of Wales
Eldest son of the King, also 1.1 1.2 2.1
known as Hal. Act 1

Earl of Worcester Leader 1.2 1.3
of the rebel warlords.
Ned Poins recruits The barons
Percy, Earl of Falstaff to rob travelers and Worcester and
Northumberland The Earl pilgrims at Gad’s Hill in Kent. Northumberland
of Worcester’s elder brother
and fellow rebel. recruit the
enthusiastic
Henry Percy Son of Hotspur to their
Northumberland, also rebel cause.
known as Hotspur.
T he troubles that plague Henry to the throne, led by the
Kate Lady Percy, Henry IV’s reign begin Earl of Northumberland, fear his
Hotspur’s wife. with his overthrow and appropriation of their feudal rights.
murder of Richard II in the earlier Henry has already demanded the
Sir John Falstaff play of that name. Plagued by guilt, Scottish prisoners captured for
A disreputable knight, which he longs to expiate with a ransom by Hotspur. Faced with
and drinking companion crusade to the Holy Land, Henry Henry’s ultimatum, the fiery Hotspur
of Prince Hal. is kept frustratingly at home by vents his fury. The barons harness
the threat of rebellion in Wales the young man’s anger by recruiting
Mistress Quickly Hostess and in the north. him to their cause. Stung by Henry’s
of the Boar’s Head Tavern in ingratitude, they plan to join with
Eastcheap, London. In Wales, the warlord Owain Mortimer and the Scots against him.
Glyndwˆ r has thrown his forces
Owain Glyndwˆ r A Welsh lord behind the claim of Glyndwˆ r’s Henry’s son, Prince Hal, adds to
and Lady Mortimer’s father. son-in-law, Edmund Mortimer, to his father’s woes. He sidesteps all
be Richard’s rightful heir. In the responsibility as Prince of Wales
Lady Mortimer Glyndwˆ r’s north, those barons who helped and wastes his time in the seamy
daughter and Mortimer’s wife.

Lord Edmund Mortimer
Earl of March, Hotspur’s
brother-in-law.

Sir Richard Vernon A rebel
executed after the Battle of
Shrewsbury.

Sir Walter Blunt A noble
loyal to the king, who dies
fighting the Percys.

Ned Poins A follower
of Falstaff.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 135

In Wales, Hotspur, Hotspur learns that Henry talks with Henry sends his son John
Mortimer, and neither Glyndwˆ r the rebels but offers north and Hal west as
them no compromise. rebellion threatens
Glyndwˆ r plan to divide nor his father once more.
the realm in three once will send him

Henry is defeated. necessary
reinforcements.

3.1 4.1 5.1 5.5

Act 2 Act 3 Act 4 Act 5

2.5 3.2 4.2 5.4

In the Boar’s Head Tavern, At court, Hal Falstaff helps At Shrewsbury,
Hal and Falstaff assures his father the royal cause by Hal fights and kills
that he’ll prove himself accepting bribes to
rehearse Hal’s future Hotspur, although
interview with his father. a worthy prince dismiss good Falstaff steals the glory.
against Hotspur. soldiers from

the army.

underworld of Eastcheap. There he’ll banish Falstaff one fine day. sides fight at the Battle of
his surrogate father, Sir John He seems to speak both as the Shrewsbury, where Hal fights
Falstaff, holds sway over a tavern- king and as himself in this. Hotspur one-to-one. After killing his
court of drunkards, thieves, and rival, the prince praises his nobility.
prostitutes. Hal joins in the revelry, With the rebellion gathering Then, seeing the body of Falstaff,
but only, he tells us, to shine the pace, Hal returns to court and plays he grieves the loss of his less noble
brighter when, like the prodigal the out the tavern scene with his friend. True to form however, Falstaff
son, he turns away from fleshly father. When he promises to defeat is feigning. Once Hal has left, the
pursuits to take up his royal role. Hotspur and appropriate his honors, wily knight sees the chance for
Henry is reassured, finally seeing profit and takes the body of Hotspur
Hal’s eventual return to face something of his own ambition in his off as his own kill. Meeting Hal
his father is rehearsed in the tavern son. Together they meet the rebels in as he goes, Falstaff persuades
where, speaking as Hal, Falstaff a parley. Hal offers to fight Hotspur in the Prince to condone the lie.
defends his own licentiousness single combat but the unbending Meanwhile, news of further rebellion
as a celebration of life. But Hal, Henry refuses, dismissing the rebels’ leaves the resolution of Henry IV’s
speaking as his father, calls such claim of broken promises and political difficulties to Part 2. ❯❯
vice life-threatening, and admits repeating his demands. The two

136 HENRY IV PART 1 T here is little honor in the So shaken as we are, so
deposition of a king. The wan with care
IN CONTEXT crown that Henry IV wears King Henry
is one he took from the weak King
THEMES Richard II, with the help of a group Act 1, Scene 1
Deception, usurpation, of independent warlords led by the
honor, disorder Earl of Northumberland. Now he of a politician. Such shrewd tactics
wants to unite England as a nation cut clean across the chivalric code
SETTING marching “all one way” (1.1.15). of honor with its escutcheons
Court of Henry IV, and the Unfortunately, this means replacing (shields bearing coats of arms) and
Boar’s Head Tavern; rebel those same warlords’ feudal powers heraldic etiquette on which the
camps in England and with a centralized form of rule, court of his predecessor, Richard II,
Wales; Shrewsbury and they are not pleased. Their was built.
threatened rebellion challenges
SOURCES Henry in the north and the west. Among the rebels, Richard is
1587 Holinshed’s Chronicles of remembered as the perfect king.
England, Scotland, and Ireland. Henry doubly needs the support They conveniently forget his self-
of these barons—not only to defend interested neglect of England, and
1594 The Famous Victories the borders but, importantly, to now heap blame on his usurper for
of Henry V, an anonymous maintain his right to rule. He destroying the ideal. This illusion
play probably known to cannot claim to have inherited the of chivalry fires the imagination of
Shakespeare. throne. His right depends on might, young Hotspur to pursue honor
and therefore on their support. wherever it lies: “To pluck bright
1595 Samuel Daniel’s poem Henry’s dilemma as king is how honour from the pale-faced moon…
“The First Four Books of the legitimately he can quell their And pluck up drownèd honour by
Civil War Between the Two rebellion when his legitimacy the locks" (1.3.200, 203). But the fact
Houses of York and Lancaster." is derived from rebellion itself. that it is unreachable shows how
vulnerable it is.
LEGACY Politics and chivalry
1597–1613 The play is a big Shakespeare reinvents Henry here
success—five quarto editions as a Renaissance prince rather than
of the text are published. the medieval monarch that he was.
His attempt to forge a nation-state
1600 References to parts 1 and under the crown, which was in fact
2 as “The Hotspur” and “Sir a later Tudor project, is the strategy
John Falstaff” attest to the
popularity of these characters. I’ll so offend to make Old men and the young
offence a skill, The play presents the conflict
1642–60 Falstaff is kept on between this imagined past and
stage during the Puritan Redeeming time when men Henry’s coldly realistic present
period in a drollery entitled think least I will. through a series of real and
“The Bouncing Knight." Prince Hal surrogate father-son relationships.
Northumberland and Worcester,
1951 Richard Burton plays a Act 1, Scene 2 those powerful warlords who want
heroic Hal in a Stratford-upon- to reinstate the past, are happy to
Avon production. recruit their valiant young kinsman
Hotspur to the cause. They see a
1966 Orson Welles directs and political naivety in his idealism that
stars in Chimes at Midnight, they can use. But they keep him
an artistic film adaptation. well away from policy decisions

1982 Trevor Nunn’s RSC set
presents Henry’s England as a
precarious wooden scaffolding.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 137

and, doubting the king’s word, whom Henry needs to conform, for Censorship
deny him the details of Henry’s a noble heir would let him reinstate
terms for peace. In the end, though, the line of legitimate inheritance Sir John Falstaff (above right,
it is Northumberland who can’t be that he himself usurped, and played by Antony Sher in a
trusted. He and Glyndwˆ r fail to send restore England’s true order. 2014 RSC production) is one
Hotspur essential reinforcements of Shakespeare’s bawdiest
before the battle at Shrewsbury. For the present, Hal chooses dramatic creations. His comic
Typically, Hotspur puts a brave disorder. He spends his days far profanities were part of a long
face on this, arguing that it adds a from the uneasy court, in the tradition of stage swearing.
“larger dare to our great enterprise” stews of the Eastcheap taverns, However, by the late 16th
(4.1.78). But single-minded valor is where excess, licentiousness, century, this was increasingly
no substitute for political strategy. and dissipation are the norm. offending Puritan sensibilities.
And the consequence is fatal. The whole is epitomized in the Shakespeare had already got
expansive and unconstrained into trouble by originally
Henry sees in Hotspur the man fleshiness of Falstaff, the emblem naming the character Sir John
he’ll never be. He represents the of physical, moral, and spiritual Oldcastle, which was also the
knightly virtue that Henry stepped disorder and of occasionally ❯❯ name of a Protestant martyr.
away from when he seized the The outraged lord chamberlain
crown. In this respect he is Henry’s An RSC production in 1951 saw (a descendant of Oldcastle’s)
lost ideal, and the son that he would Richard Burton (center), play an aloof, forced Shakespeare to change
wish for: “A son who is the theme of heroic Hal. Critics remarked upon the name and apologize.
honour’s tongue” (1.1.80). His own Burton’s eyes, which seemed to hold
son, Prince Hal, is a rebellious youth a vision of Hal’s own destiny. Players came under
pressure to clean up their
language, then the 1606 “Act
to Restrain the Abuses of
Players” formally banned all
onstage ribaldry and cursing.
From then on, the plays were
purged of any off-color or
irreligious language, a legacy
that continued into the 20th
century. The most drastic
clean-up was, perhaps, the
1818 Family Shakespeare
edited by the Reverend
Thomas Bowdler, whose cuts
were so severe that some
plays, in particular Othello,
were rendered nonsensical.

138 HENRY IV PART 1

letting go. If Hotspur is true honor,
then Falstaff, as his name suggests,
is its opposite. He sees honor as an
empty word, a symbol that serves
no material good. In this respect,
Falstaff is a parody of Henry. Wit
and low cunning are his tools, as
political craft is the king’s. And
both of them are thieves.

Three worlds life, as we see in the second scene In a rowdy Boar’s Head Tavern,
Shakespeare constructed his (1.2). Some directors have made Falstaff (Roger Allam) plays the lute
own narrative using details this clear in the scene transition, as as Hal (Jamie Parker) dances in this
from Holinshed’s account of the court figures leave by passing 2010 production at the Globe Theatre.
Henry’s “unquiet reign” but much through the entering tavern folk,
of the plot is his own invention. and Falstaff sits on what was himself when the moment’s right.
The result is a tightly structured, Henry’s throne. Where the court He’ll shine the brighter because of
three-part story focusing on the is factional and serious, in the what he seemed to be. Critics are
relationships between a troubled tavern laws are joyously broken divided as to how we might respond
monarch, his ambitious warlords, and honor mocked. And while to this, and much depends on
and his wayward heir. This gives the infestations of Eastcheap individual performance. Should
us three clearly defined worlds in parody the uneasiness of Henry’s princes know their subjects’ lives
the court, the rebel camp, and the court, in Falstaff they indicate a in order to govern better? If so, then
Boar’s Head Tavern. The first two greed for pleasure more than power. Hal’s calculation is wise. It shows
present events in historical time him following a path between
while the third, a wholly invented Hal’s destiny Hotspur’s unquestioning pursuit
comic alternative to recorded Hal may prefer to spend his of honor and Falstaff’s selfish
history, acts as a foil. It’s both a time in Eastcheap, but he’s not dismissal of it. The opposite view
rebel space, and a topsy-turvy entirely unlike his royal father. is that Hal is as crafty as his father
court, and offers a subversive His appearance as the wayward and knows precisely how to make
commentary on the two. Falstaff’s prince is part of a long-term plan, a show. In a world where chivalry
principles are the same as Henry’s as he tells us privately at the scene’s is dying and honor a “mere
but applied to the realm of private close. He’s wasting time with the scutcheon” (5.1.140), Hal deploys
common people in order to reform the tactics of a politician.
But sirrah, there’s no
room for faith, truth,
nor honesty in this bosom
of thine; it is all filled up
with guts and midriff.

Prince Hal

Act 3, Scene 3

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 139

I can teach thee, coz, to shame use Hotspur and appropriate his father. But once he’s gone, the fat
the devil—By telling the truth reputation for himself: “Percy is knight rises from the ground in
but my factor, good my lord, / To high indignation at Hal’s farewell.
Hotspur engross up glorious deeds on my This comic coda alters the tone of
behalf” (3.2.147–148). Hal’s language the ending. We laugh, happy that
Act 3, Scene 1 of commodity sounds more like Falstaff only pretends death. But
a Renaissance merchant than a we are also invited to consider
The Eastcheap world extends Hal’s medieval knight. The politician Falstaff’s feigning as a comment
range of roles. Mimicking the tavern prince will fashion his heroic image on Henry’s tactical success. For the
drawer (barman), he shows that out of Hotspur’s coat of arms. king used decoys in the battle, men
he can “drink with any tinker in dressed as him and carrying his
his own language” (2.5.18–19). The two meet at Shrewsbury escutcheon. It’s a ploy that only
The multi-layered tavern scene in battle. On stage, it’s a chance to confirms the rebels’ view of him
(2.5) draws the clearest parallels thrill the audience with swordplay. as a counterfeit king.
between kingship and acting when The opponents are equally matched
he and Falstaff rehearse Hal’s and by the end almost admire each When Falstaff then heaves
interview with his father. Playing other’s fighting skills; this makes Hotspur’s body on his back and
the king with a cushion for a crown, Hotspur’s death all the more goes off to spin tales of how he
Hal responds to Falstaff’s appeal poignant, as Hal admits: “Fare killed the hero, we watch story-
against banishment with simple thee well, great heart…When that telling take up what’s left of
honesty: “I do; I will” (2.5.486). The this body did contain a spirit, / chivalry. And as Hal meets Falstaff
moment is rich with possibilities, A kingdom for it was too small a taking off with the body, he agrees
not least that Hal speaks for himself bound” (5.4.86, 88–89). to “gild” (5.4.155), the old man’s lie,
here and the threat of banishment which makes for an ambiguous,
is real. The knocking at the door Ambiguous ending downbeat ending. It’s a sign that
that follows underlines the cold As Hal turns to leave, he sees Hal has yet to separate himself from
reality of Hal’s words: that time Falstaff’s body nearby and bids his former life, and both his less-
will intrude upon this comic world a brief farewell to his surrogate than-honorable father figures. ■
and judgment will catch up with
them all. Prince Hal is caught Royal Court
between, and is under
This parallel between politics pressure from, the
and performance is acknowledged “three worlds” of the
by the king himself when he and play—the tavern and
his son meet for real. He tells Hal his surrogate family,
that, as Bolingbroke, he rationed his the royal court and
appearances, and was so courteous duty to his father,
in public that he soon had Richard’s and the rebel camp,
audience in his hands. He fears that where Hotspur
the Prince is too familiar with his represents an ideal
people and will be as vulnerable as of knightly honor
Richard was. But Hal already has Hal knows he
his plan. He assures his father that, cannot attain.
as Henry used Richard, so he will
Prince Hal

Boar’s Head Tavern Hotspur

WIVES

MAY BE MERRY AND YET

HONEST TOO

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
(1597–1598)



142 THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

DRAMATIS After Justice Shallow In need of money, Mistresses Page
PERSONAE pompously threatens Falstaff resolves to and Ford find they
legal action against seduce mistresses have both received
Mistress Margaret Page Falstaff, Falstaff gleefully Page and Ford, who he the same letter from
The first “wife.” admits poaching deer. Falstaff. They decide
thinks fancy him. to play along and
Master George Page
Margaret’s husband. bankrupt him.

Anne Page Their daughter. 1.1 1.3 2.1
Act 1
William Page Their young
son, a schoolboy. 1.1 1.3

Mistress Alice Ford Shallow instructs his Caius finds out from
The second “wife.” nephew Slender to Mistress Quickly that
court young Anne parson Evans is backing
Master Frank Ford Alice’s Page, who is due to Slender’s suit of Anne and
husband, sometimes inherit 700 crowns.
disguised as Brooke. challenges him
to a duel.
John, Robert Ford’s servants.
I n Windsor, Justice Shallow Young Fenton then arrives, also
The Host of the Garter Inn threatens Falstaff for poaching hoping to marry Anne. Mistresses
deer. Falstaff cheerily admits Page and Ford receive identical
Sir Hugh Evans his misdemeanors and trouble is love letters from Falstaff and decide
A Welsh parson. averted. Shallow’s nephew Slender to teach the fat knight a lesson.
is advised to marry young Anne Pistol, annoyed by being sacked by
Doctor Caius A French Page for her money. At the Garter Falstaff, tells Ford about Falstaff’s
physician. Inn, Falstaff laments his lack of letter to his wife, while Nim tells
funds, and plans to send letters to Page. Page is not bothered, but the
John Rugby His servant. mistresses Page and Ford in a bid enraged Ford disguises himself as
to get at their husbands’ money. “Brooke” to meet Falstaff at the
Mistress Quickly Garter Inn.
Housekeeper of Doctor Caius, Dr. Caius is enraged when he
and Anne Page’s go-between. sees a letter from parson Evans Mistress Ford invites Falstaff to
backing Slender’s hopes to marry her house when her husband is out.
Robert Shallow Anne Page. Caius is hoping to Brooke pretends to be a suitor of
A justice of the peace. marry Anne himself. Mistress Ford himself and offers to

Master Abraham Slender
Nephew of Robert Shallow,
Anne’s unlikely suitor.

Master Fenton
A young gentleman,
Anne Page’s lover.

Peter Simple
Slender’s servant.

Sir John Falstaff The fat
knight of the Henry IV plays.
He is lodging at the Garter Inn.

Bardolph, Pistol, Nim
Followers of Falstaff.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 143

Falstaff boasts As instructed by Mistress Falstaff tries to Falstaff dressed as
to Master Ford Ford, Falstaff hides in a escape Mistress Herne is attacked by
(disguised as basket of stinking laundry “fairies” in the forest
Brooke) that he to escape her husband and is Ford’s house and mocked by all.
will show how dressed as an
Mistress Ford dumped in the river. old woman. Ford is
can be seduced. baffled about how he
could have missed
Falstaff once again.

Act 2 2.2 3.3 4.2 5.5
2.2 Act 3 Act 4 Act 5
4.4
3.2 3.5

Mistress Quickly tells The Host of the While pretending to Mistresses Ford
Falstaff that Mistress Garter sends Evans support all three of and Page tell their husbands
Ford wishes him to
and Caius to Anne’s suitors, about Falstaff and plan a
visit her at home. different locations Mistress Quickly final lesson for him
encourages Anne in in Windsor Forest.
for their duel. her own choice of

young Fenton.

pay Falstaff to seduce his wife on old woman in order to escape Ford, forest dressed in white. Mistress
his behalf. Unaware of the plans but Ford thinks it’s his hated aunt Page tells Caius that Anne will be
the mistresses Ford and Page have and beats him black and blue. in the forest dressed in green.
for Falstaff, Ford angrily follows
him on his assignation with Mistresses Ford and Page tell In the forest, Falstaff is terrified
Mistress Ford. As Ford comes their husbands what has been by “fairies” (really children trained
home, Mistress Ford (as planned) going on, and together they plot by Evans), who pinch him while
tells Falstaff to hide in a basket of Falstaff’s final humiliation. They Pistol and Nim tease him with
filthy linen, which is then dumped invite him to dress as the mythical burning candles. Caius runs off
in the river. Recovering later at the stag spirit Herne the Hunter, and with a boy dressed in green and
Garter, Falstaff is told by Mistress to meet them at night in the forest. Slender with a boy dressed in white.
Quickly that it was all a big Page arranges for Slender to elope The wives reveal their pranks to
mistake and Mistress Ford wants with Anne, while Mistress Page, Falstaff who admits he has been
to meet again. Ford (as Brooke) unaware, arranges for Caius to made a complete ass—as Caius and
finds out. At Mistress Ford’s house, elope with Anne. Meanwhile, Slender return to acknowledge that
Falstaff is persuaded to dress as an Anne elopes with Fenton. Page tells they too have been made fools of.
Slender that Anne will be in the Fenton arrives, married to Anne. ❯❯

144 THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

IN CONTEXT T he Merry Wives Of Windsor Why then, the world’s
is one of the most enjoyed mine oyster,
THEMES but least celebrated of
Love, fidelity, forgiveness Shakespeare’s plays. Its tale Which I with sword will open.
of a lovable rogue getting his Pistol
SETTING comeuppance at the hands of the
Windsor, a town on the women he hopes to take advantage Act 2, Scene 2
River Thames near London of is a comic formula that has
been recycled again and again,
SOURCES in everything from Restoration
There are no direct sources for comedies to stage farces and TV
the play, which was largely a sitcoms. The rogue is, of course,
spin-off from the Henry IV plays. Shakespeare’s unique creation,
It is one of the very few of the “fat knight” Sir John Falstaff.
Shakespeare’s plays to be set
wholly in England, and much Suburban comedy The Merry Wives was Shakespeare’s
of the comedy draws from The remarkable thing, however, rather off-beat response. There is no
English in-jokes of the period. is that Shakespeare’s play was one reliable source for this story, however.
of the originals, the blueprint for all Another speculative theory is that
LEGACY these later comedies. At the time the play was performed in front
1597 The play was probably Shakespeare wrote The Merry of the queen in April 1597 in
first performed in April before Wives, plays were mostly about Windsor, prior to the annual feast
Elizabeth I at Windsor. aristocratic, mythical, or heroic for the knights of the Garter at
figures. The idea of a comedy about Windsor Castle, or that The Merry
1623 The Folio version purges the foibles of a “suburban” middle Wives makes good the promise in
the play’s “profanities.” class was unheard of. Although the epilogue for Henry IV Part 2
younger English playwrights such to “continue the story, with
1786 A Russian adaptation, as John Fletcher and Ben Jonson Sir John in it.”
by Catherine the Great herself, quickly followed with sharp “city”
is one of the rare non-English satires, the suburban comedy was The fat knight’s frolics
successes of the play. Shakespeare’s idea. Scholars have debated the question
of when in Falstaff’s life the story is
1799 Italian court composer A story goes that Elizabeth I set. It’s clearly before his reported
Antonio Salieri adapts the play so liked the character of Sir John death in Henry V, but is it before his
as an opera, as does Guiseppe Falstaff in Henry IV part 2 that she drinking days in Eastcheap with
Verdi in 1893. wanted to see “Falstaff in love,” and Prince Hal in Henry IV, or after? It
probably doesn’t matter, because
1902 A spectacular London …here will be an old abusing Shakespeare omits any reference
production celebrates the of God’s patience and the to 15th-century historical events in
coronation of Edward VII. King’s English! The Merry Wives—it really feels as
Mistress Quickly if Falstaff has been plucked from
1985 British theater director his own century and dropped amid
Bill Alexander stages an RSC Act 1, Scene 4 the citizens of Shakespeare’s time.
“new Elizabethan” production
set in 1950s suburbia. Falstaff is definitely the star of
the play, and the comedy comes
2012 The play is performed from this rambunctious character,
in Kiswahili at the Globe to who drops into the dull world of
Globe Festival in London, Windsor life and causes chaos. He
which hosted 37 productions imagines he is going to lord it over
of Shakespeare’s plays in this provincial backwater with his
37 different languages.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 145

knighthood and his eloquence on with her men; they mistook their In this 2008 production at the
but he’s in for a surprise. The very erection” (presumably meaning Globe Theatre, London, Christopher
biddable housewives who he thinks “direction”), to which Falstaff Benjamin’s self-deluding Falstaff thinks
will make easy pickings, mistresses ruefully responds, “So did I mine, he sees the “leer of invitation.”
Page and Ford, quickly turn the to build upon a foolish woman’s
tables on him and he is humiliated promise” (3.5.39–40). While when A triumph for love
again and again. Hugh Evans is teaching the boy Yet even as the wives come out on
William his Latin, he talks of the top with their husband’s apologies
What makes Falstaff so appealing “focative” case, not the vocative, and Falstaff’s humiliation, they are
is the manner in which he bounces saying, “Remember, William, caught by surprise, as Fenton and
back from each setback with focative is caret”—to which Anne show the real victor to be
irrepressible optimism. Even at Mistress Quickly knowingly replies, love. While the wives have been off
the end, when made a complete fool “And that’s a good root” (4.1.48–49). teaching the men a lesson and the
in the forest, he has a comeback— Pages have been trying to set up
“Have I lived to stand at the Most of the play is about the their daughter Anne in marriages
taunt of one that makes fritters of wives asserting their control over she doesn’t want, Anne has eloped
English?” (5.5.141–142). Throughout the town. They are not easily with Fenton. “You would have
the play, his wit shines while fooled, and they are worthy of more married [Anne], most shamefully, /
all the other men mangle language respect than their husbands give Where there was no proportion held
so badly that it is often impossible them. They show, too, that they in love” (5.5.213–214), Fenton tells
for modern audiences to follow. have a great sense of fun. But them, and stresses how their love
having fun does not make them match will save Anne from “A
Mangled words disreputable; they do not have to thousand irreligious cursèd hours /
There are malapropisms and be melancholy nuns or unattractive Which forcèd marriage would have
mispronunciations galore—and prudes to be good wives. As brought upon her” (5.5.221–222).
they are frequently bawdy. Mistress Mistress Page says, “Wives may be The message still resonates today. ■
Quickly laments, “she does so take merry, and yet honest, too” (4.2.95).

WE HAVE HEARD THE

CHIMES

AT MIDNIGHT

HENRY IV PART 2 (1597–1598)



148 HENRY IV PART 2

DRAMATIS Rumour introduces The Lord Chief Hotspur’s widow
PERSONAE the play’s themes of lies Justice rebukes persuades his father

Rumour Presenter of the play. and deception. Falstaff for to flee to Scotland
misleading Hal. rather than reinforce
Henry IV King of England.
the rebels.
Prince Harry Eldest son of
the king, known as Hal and INDUCTION 1.2 2.3
later Henry V.
Act 1 Act 2
Earls of Warwick, Surrey,
and Westmoreland; 1.1 2.1
Harcourt, Gower, Sir John
Blunt Supporters of the king. Northumberland Accused of breach of
learns of Hotspur’s promise by Mistress
Prince John of Lancaster; death and agrees to
Humphrey, Duke of Quickly, Falstaff
Gloucester; Thomas, Duke renew the placates her
of Clarence Hal’s brothers. rebellion. sufficiently to

Lord Chief Justice of borrow more funds.
England Falstaff’s nemesis.
T he presenter Rumour Northumberland has fled to
Percy, Earl of begins the play by Scotland and left his fellow rebels
Northumberland revealing the lie that’s on vulnerable. They agree to a parley,
Rebel warlord. its way to old Northumberland: that and present their grievances to
Hotspur has defeated King Henry’s Prince John who promises redress
Scrope, Archbishop of forces at the Battle of Shrewsbury. on behalf of his father. Although
York; Lord Bardolph; Lord This happy news reaches him Mowbray remains unsure, the other
Mowbray; Lord Hastings; moments before it is contradicted lords dismiss their troops and
Sir John Coleville by the truth: that Hotspur was prepare for peace. No sooner have
Rebellious nobles. killed, the rebels routed, and the their men dispersed than John
king’s men are marching north arrests the rebels for high treason
Sir John Falstaff Drinking toward him. Despite his grief, and condemns them all to death.
companion of Hal. Northumberland agrees to join
the Archbishop of York’s forces Deception also flourishes
Ned Poins, Bardolph, in a renewed fight. By the time elsewhere. Falstaff should be
Ensign Pistol Followers the forces gather, however, with Prince John in the north
of Falstaff. but consumption, physical and

Mistress Quickly Hostess
of the Boar’s Head Tavern.

Doll Tearsheet A prostitute.

Kate The widow of Henry
Percy, Hotspur.

Robert Shallow Justice of
the Peace in Gloucestershire.

Silence A colleague
of Shallow.