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| Wednesday, 1 September 2004 |
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The mind and art of William Shakespeare by Derrick Schokman Since the death of William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, literary historians and critics have attempted to discover the mind and art, or psychological development of the Bard.
By grouping his plays into different types of dramatic expression viz. chronicle-history, farce and comedy, tragedy and pastoral they have sought to show the shifting phases of his outlook upon life. In the English chronicle histories, which included kings Richard the Second and Third and Kings Henry the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth, political problems absorbed Shakespeare. These he brought to a final conclusion in Henry the Fifth, his conception of a true king. The play is a patriotic exaltation of the most complete expression of heightened national self-consciousness. Comedy With politics behind the Bard turned to comedy. A Midsummer Night's Dream, Comedy of Errors, Taming of the Shrew and the Merry Wives of Windsor are all farcical comedies in one way or another. The only two real romantic comedies are As You Like It and Twelfth Night, where the temper of the playwright and his poetry are so mellow. These two plays did for Elizabethan drama what the pastoral poets Spenser and Sidney had already done for Elizabethan lyric. The English at the end of the 16th century and the early 17th were beginning to feel the oppression of the cities. The forested glades of Arden (As You Like It) and the orchard gardens and Boccacio - like villa in Illyria (Twelfth Night) must certainly have served to highlight that pastoral impulse. Tragedies Shakespeare's next mind-set is associated with the great group of tragedies he wrote probing the mystery of life. These can be thought of as psychological tragedies or the tragedies of human character, and cosmic tragedies or tragedies of fate. Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus are typical psychological tragedies, which depict some weakness, a vulnerable heel of Achilles, in otherwise admirable persons. In Julius Caesar is shown the failure of the idealist (Brutus) in conflict with an "efficient" adversary (Antony). Hamlet is a parallel tragedy of the academic man and philosopher found wanting when suddenly brought from the university into the world of strenuous action. In Antony and Cleopatra we see the converse tragedy of the "efficient" man giving way to the wantonness of Cleopatra: "We have kissed away kingdoms and provinces". In Coriolanus the shattered ideal is that of honour, which is seen to mask the subtle sin of egoism. In the cosmic tragedies, the issue shifts from the relations of man and man to the relation of man and his creator. The failure of man is considered to be no longer a result of a faulty character but of fate or destiny outside his control. In the case of Macbeth it is a mysterious curse of super human origin that has been imposed on him. The symbolism of the witches is used in characteristic fashion. In Lear we have a king who is fated to go mad, "singing aloud, crowned with rank fumitory and furrow weeds" as he wanders through the fields cursing the Heavens for taking no notice of his appeals to be saved from the troubles he has brought upon himself. The tempest which greets him in his wanderings is symbolic of Heaven having turned a deaf ear. Othello too is classed as a cosmic tragedy wherein a good and honourable man in every way is surrounded by evil forces that drive him to his downfall. Shakespeare's earlier plays Romeo and Juliet and Richard the Second are also cosmic and psychological tragedies respectively. But some critics treat them separately as lyrical tragedies because the Bard essayed to write them in a lyrical vein with an abundance of passion. He later abandoned this style for a more dramatic expression of his characters. Pastoral Although for a while the Bard was in the depths when he wrote these tragedies, he rose to the heights again to proclaim the ultimate triumph of good in the serene optimism of Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. Truth that will out through disguises, wrongs that become rights in the end, wanderings that lead home eventually, and all things that are precious to the romantic Muse were used by Shakespeare in the creation of these last three plays. In Cymbeline, Posthumous recovers Imogen of whom he was not worthy. In the Winter's Tale, Hermione who was dead comes alive again. And in The Tempest, Prospero is restored to the dukedom of Milan. All these symbolising the mystering of an over-ruling Providence. Farewell It is not difficult to connect these pastoral plays with Shakespeare's premature withdrawal from London to the country in Stratford-on-Avon where he spent the rest of his life. In fact, Sir Edmund Chambers, one of the great exponents of Shakespearism, believed that Prospero could well be the Bard himself taking a romantic farewell of the stage and the arts that he had dominated. He calls attention to Prospero's address to the "elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves" where he declares how by their aid he has "bedimmed the noontide sun, called forth the mutinous winds, and 'twixt the green sea and azured vault set roaring war." And on the completion of that address renounces his magic, breaks his staff and drowns his book, betaking himself to the dukedom of Milan - which is Stratford where he settled down to pruning his roses and eating his pippin in the orchard. **** Back **** |
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