This presentation presents a critical overview and assessment of the pedagogical and critical treatment of the Court Scene, with particular attention to its use in modern political interpretations; places Malcolm in the thematic context established by Holinshed’s comparison of Duncan and Macbeth; puts the scene in the context of the play’s plo…[Read more]

“Sources, Scholarship, and Sense: Shakespeare’s Use of Holinshed in Macbeth,” , (2003)

This presentation uses an analysis of Shakespeare’s primary source as a means to disclose modifications and retentions for the purpose of achieving both dramatic and narrative ends. Establishing the identity of “Bellona’s Bridegroome” as MacDuff enabl…[Read more]

Reviews arguments for identifying Shakespeare’s handwriting to the handwriting of Addition IIc in the Sir Thomas More ms. and, by reference to the concept of a control as the indispensable requirement for such comparison, finds the arguments not only instances of special pleading, but a failure to satisfy this fundamental requirement. Urges…[Read more]

Uses the survival of the English chivalric romance tradition throughout Shakespeare’s professional lifetime and his exploitation of that tradition especially in his major tragedies to challenge the commonplace distinction between the medieval and the renaissance on the one hand, and to suggest that his openness to that medieval tradition showed…[Read more]

Establishes the division of characters between Maria/Toby/Feste and Malvolio, and their respective behaviors, characteristics, and values; shows the difficult, though sanctioned position, in which Malvolio’s role as steward places him; and traces Olivia’s (and later Orsino’s) regard for him in that role. Correlates the dichotomy between the two d…[Read more]

0. Preliminaries provide the usual guides to contents and graphics, and an unusual statement of acknowledgments. It also provides a preface which explains my approach to prevent possible misapprehensions because of its debt to, but also its departure from, source and influence studies. It addresses various critical issues: genre because of…[Read more]

Chapter 1: Introduction provides on overview of the nature of English chivalric romances and an explanation of the historical circumstances of its particular vogue in late Elizabethan and early Jacobean England. It examines the biases in literary criticism—literary supersession and literary prefigurement, and neo-classical definitions of and r…[Read more]

Chapter 2: The Survival of English Chivalric Romances provides an account of the documentary evidence of manuscripts, entries, printings, and adaptations which detail the survival of English chivalric romances. The discussion considers other cultural artifacts and related literary kinds which include materials from the tradition of these romances…[Read more]

Chapter 3: The Significance of English Chivalric Romances describes the main features of English chivalric romances: all-embracing idealism; overarching motifs, like separation-and reunion, exile-and-return, sieges, and quests; typical characters: ladies, knights, stewards true or false, and fair unknowns; amatory motifs: courtly love,…[Read more]

Chapter 4: Macbeth: Loyal Stewards and Royal Succession views the play as a romance defined by its overarching structure as exile-and-return of the rightful and qualified successor to the throne. Malcolm proves himself worthy in the Court Scene in England, where his test of Macduff demonstrates his ability, superior to his father’s, to establish “…[Read more]

Chapter 5: Hamlet: Courtly Revenge and Chivalric Succession sets Hamlet’s confusion about the appeal of a chivalric figure as a figure of justice and the ghost’s injunction to courtly revenge for adultery and incest at least as much as murder, in the larger context of the struggle between Denmark and Norway. Whatever befalls Hamlet occurs in the…[Read more]

Chapter 6: Othello: Courtly Love and Chivalric Justice explains the sudden onset of Othello’s jealousy in terms of the known propensities of intermediaries in courtly love to betray their function and thereby alter perceptions of relationships among lady, lover, and their go-between. It interprets the dichotomies between Venice and the Levant on t…[Read more]

Chapter 7: King Lear: Courtly Romance and Chivalric Restoration sees the opening perversions of and developing machinations of courtly love as means leading to the undoing of Edmund, Goneril, and Regan. It sees Edgar, the instrument of their undoing, fulfilling his obligations to father and godfather, as the fair unknown made so by internal exile…[Read more]

Entries identify chapter and page.

“Appendix: Census of English Chivalric Romances through 1616” compiles data on manuscripts, printings, entries, and adaptations of English chivalric romances from standard sources: Short-Title Catalogue, Annals of the English Drama 975-1700, and the Stationers’ Register, among others. Tabulations of the data through 1610 serve as the basis for t…[Read more]

Reflects all works cited or consulted in preparing this book. The disproportion between pre-1970 and post-1970 works reflects the greater and lesser relevance, respectively, of most work in the field of English chivalric romance to my thesis. Recent scholarship has approach the subject less from a literary and historical than from a political,…[Read more]

Begins with the textual crux–Q’s “you” and F’s “he”–in Iago’s question to Othello at III, iii, 96-7: “Did Michael Cassio/When [someone] woo’d my Lady, know of your love?” Q’s reading is unanimously but silently adopted by all modern editors of the play, who take F as their copy text, on the assumption that F’s reading makes no sense. Continues…[Read more]

This textual crux all modern editors unanimously and silently emend, from the Folio “he”, their copy text, to the Quarto “you.” Although they find F so nonsensical as to deserve no comment, Shakespeare, his company, and his audience found it not only sensible in a play involving jealousy, but also powerful. The difference between then and now…[Read more]

Surveys the contemporary and modern designations of the genre of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. Considers the gothic, not the humanistic, character of chivalric romance and the range of chivalric romances both idealistic and satirical. Accepting the medieval treatment of The Iliad as chivalric in nature, views Shakespeare’s play as a com…[Read more]