Comic Transformations in Shakespeare

Ruth Nevo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780367239909
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136557125
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

First published in 1980.

In this study of Shakespeare's ten early comedies, from The Comedy of Errors to Twelfth Night, the concept of a dynamic of comic form is developed; the Falstaff plays are seen as a watershed, and the emergence of new comic protagonists - the resourceful, anti-romantic romantic heroine and the Fool - as the summit of the achievement.

The plays are explored from three complementary perspectives - theoretical, developmental and interpretative which lead to a further understanding of the powerful relation between the plays' formal complexity and their naturalistic verisimilitude.

Index

Adam, 184

Adriana, 25–27, 27–28, 30, 33

Aemilia, 28, 30

Agroikos, 20

Aguecheek, Sir Andrew, 205, 211, 213

Alazon, 12–13

Amiens, 184

Antipholus of Ephesus, 33

Antipholus of Syracuse, 25, 26, 27–28, 33

anti-Semitism, 128

Antonio, 119, 121, 123–125, 127, 139, 168, 217; and Shylock, 129–133; and trial scene, 132–136; anti-Semitism of, 128–129

Aragon, 137–138

Armado, Don Adriano de, 73, 74–77, 76, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91

As You Like It, 92, 137, 160, 175–176, 180–198, 204; Act II, disjunctive contraries of, 183–189; and Duke Frederick, 187–189; and Phebe, 193–195; and Rosalind, 189–196; and source story, 183; comic device of 189, 195; comic disposition of, 187; dialectic on court and country, 184–185; dialectical resolution, 196; flight into the forest, 183–185; initiating circumstances for plot, 182–183; structure discussed, 181–182; unique features of, 180–182

Audrey, 186

Bakhtin, Mikhail, 14, 15, 217–218

Balthasar, 168

Baptista, 39, 40, 42

Barber, C. L., 81, 83, 86–87, 120, 181, 202–203, 213

Bartholmew, 39

Barton, Anne, 37–38, 173

Bassanio, 119, 121, 125, 127, 131, 133, 134, 138, 139

Beatrice, 162–163, 164–166, 166–169, 174–176, 177; and eavesdropping, 171–172; determined to be single, 175–176

Becker, Earnest, 69

Belch, Sir Toby, 205

Benedick, 162–163, 164, 166–169, 174–176, 177; and eavesdropping, 171–172

Berowne, 73–74, 75, 78, 84, 91; challenges courtiers’ heroic enterprise, 71–72; change of heart discuss...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Dedication
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• I. Shakespeare’s New Comedy
• II. ‘My glass and not my brother’
• III. ‘Kate of Kate Hall’
• IV. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
• V. Navarre’s world of words
• VI. Fancy’s images
• VII. Jessica’s monkey; or, The Goodwins
• VIII. The Case of Falstaff and the Merry Wives
• IX. ‘Better than reportingly’
• X. Existence in Arden
• XI. Nature’s bias
• XII. Comic remedies
• Appendix: Scanning a Shakespeare play
• Selective bibliographical note
• Index