Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis I will look at the way in which power relationships are presented in Shakespeare's dramas, with specific reference to the so-called ''Henriad'', Measure for Measure and The Tempest. Each play consists of a network of power relationships in which different forms of power interact on different levels. Different characters in the above-mentioned plays have access to different forms of power according to their position within these networks. The way in which the characters interact could also cause or be influenced by shifts and changes in the networks of power relationships that occur in the course of the action. I will use Michel Foucault's theories on the relationship between power, knowledge and discourse as a guide to my analysis of Measure for Measure. I will also use selected aspects of Mikhail Bakhtin's theories on language and literature, with specific references to the concepts of "dialogism" and "heteroglossia" or "manyvoicedness", as well as his concept of carnival, which implies a temporary inversion in power relationships in an unofficial festive context, as a guide to my analysis of the Henriad. I will use a combination of the theories of Foucault and Bakhtin in my analysis of The Tempest. I have chosen the terms "discourse" and "dialogue" as key terms in the title of this thesis not only because they play an important role in the theories of Foucault and Bakhtin respectively, but also because they play an important role in the analysis and representation of power relationships. According to Robert Young, Foucault relates ''the organisation of discourse ...to the exercise of power" (10). One could also say that the power relationships in a society are reflected in the portrayal of a dialogue between different voices representing different sections of or classes in that society as in Bakhtin's principles of dialogism. I will explain the overall importance of these terms in more detail in the Introduction and the other relevant chapters. In the introductory chapter I will first provide a theoretical background for the thesis as a whole. Then I will look at the specific theoretical principles that are relevant to each chapter. In the chapter on the Henriad I will look at the way in which an alternative perspective on power relations and the role of the king are created by looking at them from the perspective of Bakhtin's concept of carnival. In the next chapter, I will show how Measure for Measure presents us with an evaluation of different strategies of power, which I will look at from the perspective of Foucault's theories on power, knowledge and discourse. In my chapter on The Tempest I will combine aspects of both theories in my analysis of a play that presents us with a complex analysis of power relationships as a social phenomenon. In the concluding chapter I will look at the different perspectives on power relationships that emerged from my previous chapters and attempt to see what its implications are for the representation of power relationships in Shakespeare's work and perhaps as a social phenomenon. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis gaan ek kyk na die wyse waarop magsverhoudinge uit gebeeld word in Shakespeare se dramas, met spesifieke verwysing na die sogenaamde "Henriad", Measure for Measure en The Tempest. Elke drama bestaan uit 'n netwerk van magsverhoudinge waarin verskillende vorme van mag op verskillende vlakke wisselwerking uitoefen. Verskillende karakters in bogenoemde dramas het toegang tot verskillende vorme van mag volgens hul posisie in die netwerke. Die manier waarop die wisselwerking tussen die verskillende karakters plaasvind kan ook verskuiwings en veranderinge in die netwerk van magsverhoudinge in die loop van die aksie veroorsaak, of daar deur beïnvloedword. Ek gaan Michel Foucault se teorieë oor die verhouding tussen mag, kennis en diskoers as 'n gids tot my analise van Measure for Measure gebruik. Ek gaan ook uitgesoekte aspekte van Mikhail Bakhtin se teorieë oor taal en literatuur, met spesifieke verwysing na die konsepte van "dialogisme" en "heteroglossia" of "meerstemmigheid", sowel as sy konsep van karnaval, wat 'n tydelike ommekeer in magsverhoudinge in 'n onoffisiële feestelike konteks impliseer, as 'n gids tot my analise van die Henriad gebruik. Ek sal 'n kombinasie van die teorieë van Foucault en Bakhtin gebruik in my analise van The Tempest. Ek het die terme "discourse" en "dialogue" as sleutel terme in die titel van hierdie tesis gebruik, nie net omdat hulle 'n belangrike rol in die teorieë van Foucault en Bakhtin onderskeidelik speel nie, maar ook omdat hulle 'n belangrike rol in die analise en uitbeelding van magsverhoudinge speel. Volgens Robert Young verbind Foucault die manier waarop diskoers georganiseer word met die uitoefening van mag (10). Mens kan ook sê dat die magsverhoudinge in 'n gemeenskap gereflekteer word in die uitbeelding van 'n dialoog tussen verskillende stemme wat verskillende dele van of klasse in die gemeenskap verteenwoordig soos in Bakhtin se beginsel van dialogisme. Ek sal die algehele belang van hierdie terme in meer besonderhede bespreek in die inleidingen die ander relevante hoofstukke verduidelik. In die inleidende hoofstuk gaan ek eers 'n teoretiese agtergrond vir die tesis as geheel verskaf Dan sal ek kyk na die spesifieke teoretiese beginsels wat relevant is tot elke hoofstuk. In die hoofstuk oor die Henriad gaan ek kyk hoe 'n alternatiewe perspektief op magsverhoudinge en die rol van die koning geskep word deur hulle te beskou van uit die perspektief van Bakhtin se konsep van karnaval. In die volgende hoofstuk sal ek kyk hoe Measure for Measure 'n evaluasie van verskillende magsstrategieë aan ons voorlê, waarna ek gaan kyk van uit die perspektief van Foucault se teorieë oor mag, kennis en diskoers. In my hoofstuk oor The Tempest gaan ek aspekte van albei die teorieë kombineer in 'n drama wat 'n komplekse analise van magsverhoudinge as 'n sosiale verskynsel aan ons voorln sosiale verskynsel aan ons voorlê. In die laaste hoofstuk gaan ek kyk na die verskillende perspektiewe op magsverhoudinge wat voortspruit uit die voorafgaande hoofstukke en kyk wat die implikasie daarvan vir die uitbeelding van magsverhoudinge in Shakespeare se werk en as 'n sosiale verskynsel is.

Poststructuralism may be broadly characterized as a move away from traditional Western foundationalist thinking. Such thinking is exemplified by post-enlightenment transcendentalism, humanism and subject-centredness. This study aims to contribute to the poststructuralist decentering of the subject by means of the application of the critical practice of deconstruction – a type of analysis named and popularized by Jacques Derrida, who is himself frequently classified as a poststructuralist, in which the ruling logic of the text is undermined and the meaning of the text is therefore shown not to be fully present within it – to four texts by a writer who is arguably among the most prominent within the English literary canon: William Shakespeare. The first deconstructive reading centres around the court scene at the climax of the bond story in The Merchant of Venice. Here the apparent contrast between the restrictive law – which views Shylock’s claim of a pound of Antonio’s flesh as valid – and justice and mercy – which regard adherence to this bond as contrary to the spirit of the law – is collapsed, and justice is shown to be capable of being as restrictive as the law, while mercy becomes embroiled in all the trading that occurs in The Merchant of Venice, and demonstrates the capacity to be mercenary. The Tempest is examined next: the starting point is the apparent Nature/Culture distinction within the play. The reading is influenced by Derrida’s use of the notion of supplementarity in his examination in “… That Dangerous Supplement …” of the Nature/Culture distinction in Rousseau. Particular attention is given first to the wedding masque, where the central figure of Ceres, who is goddess of agriculture and marriage, and also the source of seasonal changes, is shown to problematize any absolute distinctions between Nature and Culture. Such distinctions are further collapsed with reference to Prospero and Miranda’s teaching of language to Caliban, as the latter, who supposedly is representative of natural man, is shown to have had his thought supplemented by language before Prospero’s arrival on the island. Hamlet is approached with a reading that again draws from Derrida – this time his exploration of Mallarmé’s “Mimique” in “The Double Session”. Plato’s theory of forms also becomes involved as this chapter plays with the distinction between Being and imitation, destabilizing this distinction within Hamlet and problematizing Hamlet’s question: “To be, or not to be”. And finally, the chapter on Measure for Measure is concerned with the ideas of restraint and freedom, inspecting Lucio’s suggestion that his restraint arises from “too much liberty”, as well as many other instances in the play where restraint, as well as freedom – which seems at times to function in the same way as restraint – seems significant. The reading draws attention to its own impulse to restrain the reader with the truisms it presents by being written in the form of thirty-four aphorisms, and thus alludes to Derrida’s “Aphorism Countertime”. / Dissertation (MA (English))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Modern European Languages / unrestricted

Due to the social, political, and religious upheavals occurring across Europe in the Early Modern period, many writers were exploring the proper relationship between citizens and political and religious leaders. While some writers encouraged citizens to give unconditional loyalty to local and national leaders, Shakespeare has a pattern of endorsing citizen rebellion as a moral means to overthrow tyrannical rulers. By exploring Richard III, Measure for Measure, and Julius Caesar, I argue that Shakespeare is developing a taxonomy of citizen responses to a tyrannical leader and teaches citizens that a moral rebellion can be launched against a tyrant when a citizen embraces personal responsibility, accepts the power of rhetoric over violence, and overcomes the filtering effects of nostalgia. To demonstrate that Shakespeare is deliberately entering the conversation about a citizen's reaction to a tyrant, I provide information about how a tyrant is defined in the Early Modern period. I synthesize the scholarship on relevant texts in the period and explain how all three leaders in the aforementioned plays support that definition of tyranny. Then I focus on each play's surrounding characters to discuss the motivations and reactions of rebellious and obedient citizens. Finally, I conclude each section with an analysis of the repercussions of the citizen's actions and evaluate the lessons that Shakespeare is consistently promoting about moral rebellion.

This study is aimed to read Shakespeare's problem comedies, Troilus and Cressida and Measure for Measure into the historical and cultural context of dynamically-changing English Renaissance society at the turn of the sixteenth century. In the historical context of emerging capitalism, growing economic crisis, reformed theology, changing social hierarchy, and increasing sexual control, this study investigates the nature of complicated moral problems that the plays consistently present. The primary argument is that the serious and dark picture of human dilemma is attributed not to Shakespeare's private imagination, but to social, political, economic, and religious crises in early modern England.

This dissertation examines early modern literary engagements with the rhetorical and ethical dimensions of law reform. One of the most important mechanisms of social regulation in late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean England, law reform was a matter of, first, the “perfection” of the organization and expression of existing laws, legal instruments, and legal processes. However counter-intuitively, these officially-sponsored reforms were calculated to prevent more radical innovations that would generate “inconveniences,” systemic contradictions and uncertainties that threatened the law’s ability to produce just results. Second, law reformers generated a discourse on “execution” that targeted the character of legal representatives. This tradition of character criticism, delivered directly from the Lord Keeper’s mouth or circulated through other legal-political, literary, theatrical, didactic, and religious works, encouraged officers’ conscientious execution of their duties and alerted the English public to the signs of the abuse of authority. Law reform created a distinct critical orientation toward legal and governing activities that was reproduced throughout a system of justice in which an extraordinary number of subjects participated. It was a critical orientation, moreover, that was refracted in literature sensitive to the implications of the socio-political dominance of legal language, traditions, and officers. The principles and practices of law reform—along with the conflicts and anxieties that inspired and sprang from them—were appropriated by amateur and professional writers alike. Close readings reveal that Inns-of-Court revellers, Francis Bacon, John Donne and Shakespeare all engaged deeply with the potential, as well as the ethical and practical limitations, of law reform’s central role in local and national governance. In the Gesta Grayorum and Donne’s “Satyre V,” the reveller and the satiric speaker improvise on legal forms to compensate for the law’s imperfections that threaten the security and prosperity of the English subject. In Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and The Winter’s Tale, the character of the legal-political officer and reformer is tested as he attempts to put policies and principles into practice.

This dissertation examines early modern literary engagements with the rhetorical and ethical dimensions of law reform. One of the most important mechanisms of social regulation in late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean England, law reform was a matter of, first, the “perfection” of the organization and expression of existing laws, legal instruments, and legal processes. However counter-intuitively, these officially-sponsored reforms were calculated to prevent more radical innovations that would generate “inconveniences,” systemic contradictions and uncertainties that threatened the law’s ability to produce just results. Second, law reformers generated a discourse on “execution” that targeted the character of legal representatives. This tradition of character criticism, delivered directly from the Lord Keeper’s mouth or circulated through other legal-political, literary, theatrical, didactic, and religious works, encouraged officers’ conscientious execution of their duties and alerted the English public to the signs of the abuse of authority. Law reform created a distinct critical orientation toward legal and governing activities that was reproduced throughout a system of justice in which an extraordinary number of subjects participated. It was a critical orientation, moreover, that was refracted in literature sensitive to the implications of the socio-political dominance of legal language, traditions, and officers. The principles and practices of law reform—along with the conflicts and anxieties that inspired and sprang from them—were appropriated by amateur and professional writers alike. Close readings reveal that Inns-of-Court revellers, Francis Bacon, John Donne and Shakespeare all engaged deeply with the potential, as well as the ethical and practical limitations, of law reform’s central role in local and national governance. In the Gesta Grayorum and Donne’s “Satyre V,” the reveller and the satiric speaker improvise on legal forms to compensate for the law’s imperfections that threaten the security and prosperity of the English subject. In Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and The Winter’s Tale, the character of the legal-political officer and reformer is tested as he attempts to put policies and principles into practice.

In this study of A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and Measure for Measure I argue that the surface plots of these comedies point us to a philosophic understanding seldom discussed in either contemporary public discourse or in Shakespearean scholarship. The comedies usually involve questions arising from the conflict between the enforcement of law (whether just or not) and the private longings (whether noble or base) of citizens whose yearnings for happiness tend to be sub- or even supra-political. No regime, it appears, is able to respond to the whole variety of circumstances that it may be called upon to judge. Even the best written laws meet with occasional exceptions and these ulterior instances must be judged by something other than a legal code. When these extra-legal instances do arise, political communities become aware of their reliance on a kind of political judgment that is usually unnoticed in the day-to-day affairs of public life. Further, it is evident that the characters who are able to exercise this political judgment, are the very characters whose presence averts a potentially tragic situation and makes a comedy possible. By presenting examples of how moral and political problems are dealt with by the prudent use of wisdom, Shakespeare is pointing the reader to a standard of judgment that transcends any particular (or actual) political arrangement. Once we see the importance of the prudent use of such a standard, we are in a position to judge what this philosophic wisdom consists of and where it is to be acquired. It is just such an education with which Shakespeare intends to aid his readers.

This dissertation explores the relevance of recent studies of Aristotle’s comic theory to the central dramatists of early modern England, Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare. Applications of the Poetics to Renaissance English drama tend to treat Aristotle’s theory historically, as a set of concepts mediated to England by continental redactions. But these often conflated the Poetics’ focus on literary form with the Renaissance’s predominant interest in literature’s rhetorical effect, reducing Aristotle’s genuinely speculative theory to a series of often pedantic literary prescriptions. Recent scholarship has both undone these misinterpretations and developed the comic theory latent in the Poetics. Ironically, these studies make Jonson’s and Shakespeare’s comedy look much more Aristotelian than do Renaissance ones. So rather than taking the Poetics simply as a possible source for each dramatist, I read it primarily as a literary theory that, when reinvigorated by modern scholarship, can explain structures and effects arrived at practically by these dramatists. Three recent hypotheses are especially pertinent to Jonson and Shakespeare: that comic hoaxes aim to expose comic error, which is for Aristotle a deviation from the mean of virtue; that “righteous indignation” is the comic emotion equivalent to the “pity and fear” of tragedy; and that catharsis is a clarification, rather than purgation, of reason and emotion. In light of these, I offer detailed readings of four plays that demonstrate these authors’ comic range: from Jonson’s satirical Every Man Out of His Humour to the almost farcical Epicoene, and from Shakespeare’s romantic Much Ado About Nothing to the tragicomic Measure for Measure. These plays demonstrate a variety of ways in which catharsis, the end of drama, results directly from the comic hoax and involves both the audience’s and characters’ experience of indignation and their comprehension of its relationship to the emotions of envy and pity. In each case, Aristotle’s incisive but flexible theoretical framework enables an explanation of the emotional pain present in the these “comedies of affliction” and reveals remarkable similarities between dramatists usually described as direct opposites.

本論文視莎士比亞的《量罪記》為詹姆士王朝城市喜劇。這齣喜劇勾勒出城市的郊區下流地圖誌。過去的批評家在討論此劇時，要不將此劇視為迎接英國新國王詹姆士一世的奉承之作，就是將此劇解讀成對新來統治者的政治批評。本論文試圖超越過去論述的簡單二元對立，以城市喜劇的角度重新切入《量罪記》，分析莎士比亞如何透過戲劇再現城市下流文化，以及此舞台再現如何連結台下底層市民，形成大眾展演政治。 論文第一部分分析《量罪記》與城市下流文化的再現。本劇將維也納城作為「崩壞之身」拉開序幕，此隱喻一方面沿襲自文藝復興時期的身體政治學，一方面又挑戰了它，因為此「崩壞之身」直到劇終仍然維持其「病態」。本劇讓觀眾體驗漫布於城市各個角落的下流文化，包括郊區的妓院群與監獄中的娼寮。本劇表面上似乎在鞏固文森提歐公爵對城市空間的掌控與管理權，另一方面卻又透過「下流」角色的身影，提供觀眾另類的閱讀，揭露城市下流文化的延續與崛起。 論文第二部分探索詹姆士王朝的城市慶典與本劇饒富興味的最後一幕之間的關係。最後一幕中，公爵的皇家入城儀式與詹姆士一世的王室慶典有許多相似之處。城市慶典許久以來便是君王用來展示自我權力的工具之一，詹姆士一世對於自己的王室慶典之抗拒，卻流露出他對公眾討論的恐懼與對自我名譽的管理。他對公眾形象的細心掌控也被再現於此劇的最後一幕中。不過，即使在這最後一幕，嫖客盧求不僅讓公爵淪為眾人笑柄，毀了他的聲譽，更勾起觀眾對城市下流文化之記憶。因此，觀眾目睹的反而不是一個可敬王者的回歸，反而是一個淫亂嫖客之崛起。 論文第三部分將本劇放置在原本的文化、社會與歷史背景中 。《量罪記》屬於1603年後冒出的一波「偽裝國王劇」，這一波戲劇風潮呼應伊莉莎白一世去世、詹姆士一世繼位的關鍵歷史時刻，反映出的是當時人民對於新王來臨產生的焦慮。《量罪記》特別之處在於呈現了城市「下流」人物對於未來生存與否的焦慮。另外，本劇亦與「假國王」的戲劇傳統相關。在此戲劇傳統中，劇作家會透過舞台上的「假國王」來做政治批評，展示適當的統治方式。本論文認為，本劇中影射詹姆士一世的公爵角色也可被視為一個舞台上的「假國王」，崛起的反而是城市「下流」人物。本劇透過丑角盧求邀請觀眾大方嘲弄公爵並且挑戰他早先建立起的權威。最後，盧求成為舞台上的底層大眾化身，透過情色的笑話與不馴的笑聲與台下的觀眾形成「下流」社群，共享大眾歡樂。正是這大眾愉悅的力量，讓此劇不再替統治者的權威背書，反而擁抱了底層下流市民。 / This thesis sees Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure as a Jacobean city comedy that maps an urban vulgar culture. Critics in the past often focused on whether the play should be read as a flattery to the new king, James I, or as a political criticism of the ruler. The thesis goes beyond the simple dichotomy offered by criticism in the past. It reads Measure for Measure as a city comedy and analyzes Shakespeare’s dramatic representation of the urban vulgar culture, which connects the lowlife figures onstage with the audiences offstage, ultimately forming a popular performative politics. The first part of the thesis analyzes Measure for Measure and its representation of an urban vulgar culture. Vienna in the play is represented as a “vile body,” which both confirms and unsettles the early modern body politic, since the vile body stays “ill” till the very end of the play. The play invites the audience to experience how this vulgar culture permeates every part of the city, including the houses of prostitution in the suburbs and a “bawdyhouse” in the prison. While the play seems to confirm Duke Vincentio’s control and regulation of the city, the bawdy figures provide us with an alternative reading of the play, revealing the survival and even the rise of the urban vulgar culture The second part of the thesis relates Jacobean civic pageantry to the play’s intriguing final scene, in which the Duke stages a royal entry that is not unlike James I’s civic pageantry. While civic pageantries had long been used by monarchs to demonstrate their power, James I’s resistance to participating in his own pageantry revealed his fear of public discourses and his careful management of reputation and honor. This careful management of public image is also represented in the play’s final scene. However, even during the final scene, Lucio not only turns the Duke into a mockable figure but also ruins the Duke’s reputation and honor. His stage presence also evokes a suburban vulgar culture. Thus, the audience does not witness the return of a respectable ruler, but the rise of a lascivious whoremaster. The third part of the thesis puts the play into its cultural, social, and historical backgrounds. Measure for Measure belonged to the wave of disguised ruler plays after 1603. The wave of drama was produced during the critical moment when Elizabeth I died and James I came to the throne. It reflected a popular anxiety of the arrival of the new king. Measure for Measure is unique in its dramatization of suburban bawdy figure’s anxiety of their future state. In addition, the play was also closely connected to the “mock king tradition,” in which the dramatists staged a mock king on the stage in order to show the proper way to rule. The thesis argues that Duke Vincentio, who resembled James I in many aspects, could possibly stand for a “mock king.” What the play actually shows is the rise of the suburban vulgar culture. The clown Lucio invites the audience to laugh at the Duke and challenges his authority established in earlier scenes. Lucio eventually stands for the general lowlife public on the stage, forming a “bawdy” community with the audience through bawdy jokes and unruly laughter. It is exactly this power of popular mirth that turns the play from an endorsement of the ruler’s authority to a celebration of the lowlife citizens.

My dissertation explores Shakespeare’s negotiation of Reformation controversy about theories of salvation. While twentieth century literary criticism tended to regard Shakespeare as a harbinger of secularism, the so-called “turn to religion” in early modern studies has given renewed attention to the religious elements in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Yet in spite of the current popularity of early modern religion studies, there remains an aura of uncertainty regarding some of the doctrinal or liturgical specificities of the period. This historical gap is especially felt with respect to theories of salvation, or soteriology. Such ambiguity, however, calls for further inquiry into historical theology. As one of the “hot-button” issues of the Reformation, salvation was fiercely contested in Shakespeare’s day, making it essential for scholarship to differentiate between conformist (Church of England), godly (puritan), and recusant (Catholic) strains of soteriology in Shakespearean plays. I explore how the language and concepts of faith, grace, charity, the sacraments, election, free will, justification, sanctification, and atonement find expression in Shakespeare’s plays. In doing so, I contribute to the recovery of a greater understanding of the relationship between early modern religion and Shakespearean drama. While I share Kastan’s reluctance to attribute particular religious convictions to Shakespeare (A Will to Believe 143), in some cases such critical guardedness has diverted attention from the religious topography of Shakespeare’s plays. My first chapter explores the tension in The Merchant of Venice between Protestant notions of justification by faith and a Catholic insistence upon works of mercy. The infamous trial scene, in particular, deconstructs cherished Protestant ideology by refuting the efficacy of faith when it is divorced from ethical behaviour. The second chapter situates Hamlet in the stream of Lancelot Andrewes’s “avant-garde conformity” (to use Peter Lake’s coinage), thereby explaining why Claudius’s prayer in the definitive text of the second quarto has intimations of soteriological agency that are lacking in the first quarto. The third chapter argues that Hamlet undermines the ghost’s association of violence and religion, thus implicitly critiquing the proliferation of religious violence on both sides of the Reformation divide. The fourth chapter argues that Calvin’s theory of the vicarious atonement of Christ, expounded so eloquently by Isabella in Measure for Measure, meets substantial resistance, especially when the Duke and others attempt to apply the soteriological principle of substitution to the domains of sexuality and law. The ethical failures that result from an over-realized soteriology indicate that the play corroborates Luther’s idea that a distinction must be maintained between the sacred and secular realms. The fifth chapter examines controversies in the English church about the (il)legitimacy of exorcising demons, a practice favoured by Jesuits but generally frowned upon by Calvinists. Shakespeare cleverly negotiates satirical source material by metaphorizing exorcisms in King Lear in a way that seems to acknowledge Calvinist scepticism, yet honour Jesuit compassion. Throughout this study, my hermeneutic is to read Shakespeare through the lens of contemporary theological controversy and to read contemporary theology through the lens of Shakespeare. / Graduate / 2023-11-20