Shakespeare on the Edge: Border-crossing in the Tragedies and the HenriadWhen Shakespeare's John of Gaunt refers to England as 'this sceptred isle', he glosses over a fact of which Shakespeare's original audience would have been acutely conscious, which was that England was not an island at all, but had land borders with Scotland and Wales. Together with the narrow channels separating the British mainland from Ireland and the continent, these were the focus of acute, if intermittent, unease during the early modern period. This book analyses works by not only Shakespeare but also his contemporaries to argue that many of the plays of Shakespeare's central period, from the second tetralogy to Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello, engage with the idea of England's borders. But borders, it claims, are not only of geopolitical significance: in Shakespeare's imagination and indeed in that of his culture, eschatological overtones also accrue to the idea of the border, not least because the countries of the Celtic fringe were often discussed in terms of the supernatural and fairy lore and, in particular, the rivers which were often used as boundary markers were invested with heavily mythologized personae. exploring the spiritual uncertainties of the period, and for speculating on what happens in 'the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns'. At the same time, the idea that a thing can only really be defined in terms of what lies beyond it provides a sharply interrogating charge for Shakespeare's use of metatheatre and for his suggestions of a world beyond the confines of his plays. |
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Page 47
... choice in the emblematic garden was , archetypally , required to take . As Roland Mushat Frye notes , Scores of paintings and prints represented moral choice as the selection between two pathways , one moral but therefore difficult and ...
... choice in the emblematic garden was , archetypally , required to take . As Roland Mushat Frye notes , Scores of paintings and prints represented moral choice as the selection between two pathways , one moral but therefore difficult and ...
Page 53
... choice structure ultimately drains it of any sense of a real and concrete choice to be made . Indeed one might well see a parallel between the fear of flatness here and the fear , which I shall be discussing in connection with Macbeth ...
... choice structure ultimately drains it of any sense of a real and concrete choice to be made . Indeed one might well see a parallel between the fear of flatness here and the fear , which I shall be discussing in connection with Macbeth ...
Page 124
... choice of confessions difficult and crucial , it is not even a choice : it is dictated by the state , and as we see in this play , heads of state can make wrong choices . The extent to which this is so is illustrated by the ways in ...
... choice of confessions difficult and crucial , it is not even a choice : it is dictated by the state , and as we see in this play , heads of state can make wrong choices . The extent to which this is so is illustrated by the ways in ...
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actually already appear argues associated become borders boundaries Britain British called Cambridge Catholic certainly choice clear clearly close course cultural death Denmark Desdemona Earl Early Modern echoes edited Edward Elizabeth Elizabethan England English fact father figure France further garden geographical George Greene Hamlet heaven Henry human Iago idea identity imagines important instance interest Ireland Irish island Isle Italy James John King Lear land landscape later Leicester literal Literature London Lord Macbeth Manchester marches Marlowe means nature never notes offers Othello Oxford particularly perhaps play points political present Prince Queen question reference remarks Renaissance Richard rivers Robert says scene Scotland Scots Scottish seems seen sense Shakespeare similar spiritual story Studies suggests things thought Tragedy turn University Press Wales wall Welsh writing