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《英语文学导论 An Introduction to English Literature》课程教学资源（参考资料）The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's Poetry

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PATRICK CHENEY the most important body of imaginative literature of the last thousand years'.s We might say that Shakespeare's absolute mastery of poetry's idiom and form during the English Renaissance allowed this mysterious genius to create the most enduring body of dramatic works not simply in English but'in any Western language'.For the next 4o0 years,his dramatic poetry would set the benchmark for achievement in artistic expression. In addition to writing much of his drama in poetry,Shakespeare wrote five freestanding poems of major significance to the development of English verse.Early in his professional career,in 1593,he published Venus and Adonis,a 1,194-line poem of sixain stanzas(rhyming ababcc)in the popular erotic genre of the Ovidian epyllion or minor epic.Prefaced with a dedicatory epistle to Henry Wriothesley,the young earl of Southampton,and signed William Shakespeare',this'first heir of [his]...invention'promises a work of 'graver labour.Then,in 1594,Shakespeare fulfils this promise by publish- ing The Rape of Lucrece,a I,855-line poem in rhyme-royal stanzas (ababbcc),in the genre of tragic minor epic,again prefaced by a dedication to Southampton,and once more signed William Shakespeare'.While Venus became his most popular work during his lifetime,going through nine editions by 1616,Lucrece was popular as well,going through five editions. Together,the two epyllia make Shakespeare one of the most well-known print-poets during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.So much so that in I599 the printer William Jaggard published a volume of verse titled The Passionate Pilgrim,which included versions of the poems we now know as Sonnets 138 and 144,along with three of the inset-lyrics from the love-sick courtiers in Love's Labour's Lost and fifteen other poems,by such poets as Marlowe,Richard Barnfield,and Bartholomew Griffin.This volume,too, was popular,going through three editions,the last in 1612.In I6o1,Robert Chester published a curious volume titled Love's Martyr,which included the great 67-line philosophical lyric known today as'The Phoenix and Turtle', which employs thirteen stanzas of four lines each in the unusual metre of a seven-syllable line with four accents(rhyming abba),and five stanzas of three lines each in trochaic metre (rhyming aaa).In 16II,this volume was re-issued with a different name,Britain's Annals. If during the early stage of his career Shakespeare published his own poetry,and during the middle stage others published his poetry for him, late in his career we encounter a mysterious publication that blurs this distinction of authorial agency:the 1609 quarto titled Shake-speares Sonnets,which includes the 154 sonnets themselves and A Lover's Complaint,a 329-line poem in the rhyme-royal stanza of Lucrece,written in the popular Elizabethan genre of pastoral complaint.For complex rea- sons,we do not know whether Shakespeare authorized this publication or 2

‘the most important body of imaginative literature of the last thousand years’.5 We might say that Shakespeare’s absolute mastery of poetry’s idiom and form during the English Renaissance allowed this mysterious genius to create the most enduring body of dramatic works not simply in English but ‘in any Western language’. For the next 400 years, his dramatic poetry would set the benchmark for achievement in artistic expression. In addition to writing much of his drama in poetry, Shakespeare wrote five freestanding poems of major significance to the development of English verse. Early in his professional career, in 1593, he published Venus and Adonis, a 1,194-line poem of sixain stanzas (rhyming ababcc) in the popular erotic genre of the Ovidian epyllion or minor epic. Prefaced with a dedicatory epistle to Henry Wriothesley, the young earl of Southampton, and signed ‘William Shakespeare’, this ‘first heir of [his] ... invention’ promises a work of ‘graver labour’. Then, in 1594, Shakespeare fulfils this promise by publishing The Rape of Lucrece, a 1,855-line poem in rhyme-royal stanzas (ababbcc), in the genre of tragic minor epic, again prefaced by a dedication to Southampton, and once more signed ‘William Shakespeare’. While Venus became his most popular work during his lifetime, going through nine editions by 1616, Lucrece was popular as well, going through five editions. Together, the two epyllia make Shakespeare one of the most well-known print-poets during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. So much so that in 1599 the printer William Jaggard published a volume of verse titled The Passionate Pilgrim, which included versions of the poems we now know as Sonnets 138 and 144, along with three of the inset-lyrics from the love-sick courtiers in Love’s Labour’s Lost and fifteen other poems, by such poets as Marlowe, Richard Barnfield, and Bartholomew Griffin. This volume, too, was popular, going through three editions, the last in 1612. In 1601, Robert Chester published a curious volume titled Love’s Martyr, which included the great 67-line philosophical lyric known today as ‘The Phoenix and Turtle’, which employs thirteen stanzas of four lines each in the unusual metre of a seven-syllable line with four accents (rhyming abba), and five stanzas of three lines each in trochaic metre (rhyming aaa). In 1611, this volume was re-issued with a different name, Britain’s Annals. If during the early stage of his career Shakespeare published his own poetry, and during the middle stage others published his poetry for him, late in his career we encounter a mysterious publication that blurs this distinction of authorial agency: the 1609 quarto titled Shake-speares Sonnets, which includes the 154 sonnets themselves and A Lover’s Complaint, a 329-line poem in the rhyme-royal stanza of Lucrece, written in the popular Elizabethan genre of pastoral complaint. For complex reasons, we do not know whether Shakespeare authorized this publication or PATRICK CHENEY 2

PATRICK CHENEY Table I (cont.) Year Plays Poems 1619 Q3 2H6,Q2 3H6,Q4 Per.,Q2 Wiv., Q2 MV,Q2 Lt.,Q3 H5,Q2 MND I620 OIo VGA I62I 1622 QI Oth.,Q6 R3,Q7 IH4, QI Rom.(),Q4Ha远.() 1623 FL Note:All editions that advertise Shakespeare's authorship are underlined.When the title page contains Shakespeare's initials,dotted lines are used.Dotted lines also indicate works where there are two title pages(one of which contains Shakespeare's name)or an entire edition is lost.F=folio;Q=quarto;O=octavo shall see,just as commentators since the seventeenth century emphasize the poetic'character of Shakespeare's plays,recent critics emphasize the 'dra- matic'character of his poems.Perhaps only by recalling this historic integra- tion of theatrical poems with poetical plays can we accurately measure Shakespeare's achievement as an English author. A cultural context To view Shakespeare's achievement in the art of poetry,both in his plays and in his poems,we may wish to recall the cultural environment in which he produced his metrical art.While the first three chapters chart important contours of this environment,we might here draw attention to a particular frame for viewing the historic conjunction of two institutions supporting the sixteenth-century invention of modern English poetry:the printing press and the theatre. While the printing press had been invented in the fifteenth century,only toward the end of the sixteenth did it become a major institution for secular literature in England.7 Usually,literary historians credit Edmund Spenser with being the first canonical English poet to use the printing press to present himself as a national poet.In 1579,Spenser published his Virgilian pastoral poem,The Shepheardes Calender,and in 159o he followed with his Virgilian epic,The Faerie Oueene(Books 1-3),with a second instalment appearing in I596(Books 4-6).Spenser's achievement was to invent the modern notion of the print-poet,the author who uses the publication of poetic books to present his cultural authority to the nation.In our English literary histories,Ben

shall see, just as commentators since the seventeenth century emphasize the ‘poetic’ character of Shakespeare’s plays, recent critics emphasize the ‘dramatic’ character of his poems. Perhaps only by recalling this historic integration of theatrical poems with poetical plays can we accurately measure Shakespeare’s achievement as an English author. A cultural context To view Shakespeare’s achievement in the art of poetry, both in his plays and in his poems, we may wish to recall the cultural environment in which he produced his metrical art. While the first three chapters chart important contours of this environment, we might here draw attention to a particular frame for viewing the historic conjunction of two institutions supporting the sixteenth-century invention of modern English poetry: the printing press and the theatre. While the printing press had been invented in the fifteenth century, only toward the end of the sixteenth did it become a major institution for secular literature in England.7 Usually, literary historians credit Edmund Spenser with being the first canonical English poet to use the printing press to present himself as a national poet. In 1579, Spenser published his Virgilian pastoral poem, The Shepheardes Calender, and in 1590 he followed with his Virgilian epic, The Faerie Queene (Books 1–3), with a second instalment appearing in 1596 (Books 4–6). Spenser’s achievement was to invent the modern notion of the print-poet, the author who uses the publication of poetic books to present his cultural authority to the nation. In our English literary histories, Ben Table 1 (cont.) Year Plays Poems 1619 Q3 2H6, Q2 3H6, Q4 Per., Q2 Wiv., Q2 MV, Q2 Lr., Q3 H5, Q2 MND 1620 O10 V&A 1621 1622 Q1 Oth., Q6 R3, Q7 1H4, Q1 Rom. (?), Q4 Ham. (?) 1623 F1 Note: All editions that advertise Shakespeare’s authorship are underlined. When the title page contains Shakespeare’s initials, dotted lines are used. Dotted lines also indicate works where there are two title pages (one of which contains Shakespeare’s name) or an entire edition is lost. F ¼ folio; Q ¼ quarto; O ¼ octavo PATRICK CHENEY 4

Introduction Jonson succeeds Spenser as national or laureate'poet,and does so monu- mentally the year of Shakespeare's death(1616)by publishing a folio edition of Works that includes not just poems but also court masques and commer- cial plays. In 1567,John Brayne built the Red Lion playhouse,the first commercial theatre in England.Then,in 1576,just a few years before Spenser published his pastoral poem,Brayne's brother-in-law,James Burbage (father of Richard Burbage,lead actor in Shakespeare's playing company)built a playhouse called the Theatre.During the next twenty-five years,England witnessed the building of several other commercial theatres,including the Curtain (I577),the Rose(I587),the Swan (1594),and,in 1599,the Globe. From the start,the playwrights who wrote plays for the new London theatre used poetry as their principal medium of dramatic speech.Early on,they selected blank verse as most fit for dramatic performance,beginning with Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton in Gorboduc,Thomas Kyd in The Spanish Tragedy,Marlowe in Tamburlaine,and Shakespeare in the Henry VI plays.While Spenser,along with Sir Philip Sidney,Samuel Daniel,Michael Drayton,and George Chapman,perfected the medium of non-dramatic verse-with all of them except Sidney relying on the printing press to do so-Kyd,Marlowe,Shakespeare,and after them Jonson perfected the medium of dramatic verse in the new theatre. Until very recently,scholars of the English Renaissance tended to see the printing house and the playhouse as independent institutions.Yet,as the cases of Marlowe and then Chapman especially make clear,authors during the I59os began to produce work important to both institutions. Shakespeare's accomplishment lies in following Marlowe down this pro- fessional path,rather than Spenser,who eschewed the commercial theatre.Yet in the end Shakespeare's dual relation with the printing house and the playhouse emerges as historically unique;for instance,he alone absorbed himself in the life of the theatre and produced a Petrarchan sonnet sequence. As recently as 2o00,Julie Stone Peters'revisionary monograph,The Theatre of the Book,1480-1880:Print,Text,and Performance in Europe, argued for a symbiosis between the theatre and the printing house: The printing press had an essential role to play in the birth of the modern theatre at the turn of the fifteenth century.As institutions they grew up together...[NJearly a century before Shakespeare was born,there began,in fact,to develop a relationship that would help create the theatre for which he wrote.Printing,far from being marginal to the Renaissance theatre,was crucial at the outset...Drama was understood to play itself out in two arenas-on the stage and on the page

Jonson succeeds Spenser as national or ‘laureate’ poet, and does so monumentally the year of Shakespeare’s death (1616) by publishing a folio edition of Works that includes not just poems but also court masques and commercial plays.8 In 1567, John Brayne built the Red Lion playhouse, the first commercial theatre in England.9 Then, in 1576, just a few years before Spenser published his pastoral poem, Brayne’s brother-in-law, James Burbage (father of Richard Burbage, lead actor in Shakespeare’s playing company) built a playhouse called the Theatre. During the next twenty-five years, England witnessed the building of several other commercial theatres, including the Curtain (1577), the Rose (1587), the Swan (1594), and, in 1599, the Globe. From the start, the playwrights who wrote plays for the new London theatre used poetry as their principal medium of dramatic speech.10 Early on, they selected blank verse as most fit for dramatic performance, beginning with Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton in Gorboduc, Thomas Kyd in The Spanish Tragedy, Marlowe in Tamburlaine, and Shakespeare in the Henry VI plays. While Spenser, along with Sir Philip Sidney, Samuel Daniel, Michael Drayton, and George Chapman, perfected the medium of non-dramatic verse – with all of them except Sidney relying on the printing press to do so – Kyd, Marlowe, Shakespeare, and after them Jonson perfected the medium of dramatic verse in the new theatre. Until very recently, scholars of the English Renaissance tended to see the printing house and the playhouse as independent institutions. Yet, as the cases of Marlowe and then Chapman especially make clear, authors during the 1590s began to produce work important to both institutions. Shakespeare’s accomplishment lies in following Marlowe down this professional path, rather than Spenser, who eschewed the commercial theatre. Yet in the end Shakespeare’s dual relation with the printing house and the playhouse emerges as historically unique; for instance, he alone absorbed himself in the life of the theatre and produced a Petrarchan sonnet sequence.11 As recently as 2000, Julie Stone Peters’ revisionary monograph, The Theatre of the Book, 1480–1880: Print, Text, and Performance in Europe, argued for a symbiosis between the theatre and the printing house: The printing press had an essential role to play in the birth of the modern theatre at the turn of the fifteenth century. As institutions they grew up together... [N]early a century before Shakespeare was born, there began, in fact, to develop a relationship that would help create the theatre for which he wrote. Printing, far from being marginal to the Renaissance theatre, was crucial at the outset... Drama was understood to play itself out in two arenas – on the stage and on the page.12 Introduction 5

PATRICK CHENEY Thus,Peters situates the drama of Shakespeare in her revisionary model:'In the English-speaking world,Shakespeare's career has helped to produce one of those enduring lies so convenient to the history of progress:that Renaissance dramatists were unconcerned with the circulation of their work on the page;that the press kept aloof from the stage and the early stage kept aloof from the press'(pp.4-5).Following up on Peters in 2003, Lukas Erne argued that Shakespeare wrote his plays for both the page and the stage:printed playbooks became respectable reading matter earlier than we have hitherto supposed,early enough for Shakespeare to have lived through and to have been affected by this process of legitimation... [T]he assumption of Shakespeare's indifference to the publication of his plays is a myth.' Although neither Erne nor Peters is concerned principally with the dra- matic medium of poetry or with Shakespeare's poems,they revolutionize our understanding of the historical context for viewing one of the field's most pressing conundrums:that a man of the theatre writing a nonpareil drama could produce some of the most important freestanding poems in English,and even publish some of them under the signature of his own name. A professional context To a remarkable extent,the history of Shakespeare criticism depends on how individual commentators come to understand this author's 'poetry'.4 Importantly,the earliest commentators showed a critical sensibility that gets lost during the ensuing centuries;they see William Shakespeare as a poetic author who writes both poems and plays.Thus,during the period,the term 'poet'meant both author of poems and author of plays.Today,in a culture that privileges Shakespeare's plays over his poems,and an academy whose critical theory has spent the past thirty years neglecting the'literary' and the 'poetic'in favour of the 'historical'and the 'political',we might be surprised to discover that during Shakespeare's own lifetime only a few commentators mention a 'writer...for the stage'.'s Rather,the majority of Shakespeare's contemporaries mention a writer for the page,singling out his poems,as Richard Barnfield does in 1598 when he sees Venus and Lucrece as 'immortall Book[s]'that keep company with Spenser's Faerie Oueene,Daniel's 'sweet-chast Verse',and Drayton's 'Tragedies'(Shakspere Allusion-Book,I:5I). Yet a significant number of contemporaries measure Shakespeare's poetic achievement in terms of both his poems and his plays.The most famous emerges in the I598 Palladis Thamia when Francis Meres writes, 6

Thus, Peters situates the drama of Shakespeare in her revisionary model: ‘In the English-speaking world, Shakespeare’s career has helped to produce one of those enduring lies so convenient to the history of progress: that Renaissance dramatists were unconcerned with the circulation of their work on the page; that the press kept aloof from the stage and the early stage kept aloof from the press’ (pp. 4–5). Following up on Peters in 2003, Lukas Erne argued that Shakespeare wrote his plays for both the page and the stage: ‘printed playbooks became respectable reading matter earlier than we have hitherto supposed, early enough for Shakespeare to have lived through and to have been affected by this process of legitimation ... [T]he assumption of Shakespeare’s indifference to the publication of his plays is a myth.’13 Although neither Erne nor Peters is concerned principally with the dramatic medium of poetry or with Shakespeare’s poems, they revolutionize our understanding of the historical context for viewing one of the field’s most pressing conundrums: that a man of the theatre writing a nonpareil drama could produce some of the most important freestanding poems in English, and even publish some of them under the signature of his own name. A professional context To a remarkable extent, the history of Shakespeare criticism depends on how individual commentators come to understand this author’s ‘poetry’.14 Importantly, the earliest commentators showed a critical sensibility that gets lost during the ensuing centuries; they see William Shakespeare as a poetic author who writes both poems and plays. Thus, during the period, the term ‘poet’ meant both author of poems and author of plays. Today, in a culture that privileges Shakespeare’s plays over his poems, and an academy whose critical theory has spent the past thirty years neglecting the ‘literary’ and the ‘poetic’ in favour of the ‘historical’ and the ‘political’, we might be surprised to discover that during Shakespeare’s own lifetime only a few commentators mention a ‘writer ... for the stage’.15 Rather, the majority of Shakespeare’s contemporaries mention a writer for the page, singling out his poems, as Richard Barnfield does in 1598 when he sees Venus and Lucrece as ‘immortall Book[s]’ that keep company with Spenser’s Faerie Queene, Daniel’s ‘sweet-chast Verse’, and Drayton’s ‘Tragedies’ (Shakspere Allusion-Book, 1: 51). Yet a significant number of contemporaries measure Shakespeare’s poetic achievement in terms of both his poems and his plays. The most famous emerges in the 1598 Palladis Thamia when Francis Meres writes, PATRICK CHENEY 6

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