Shakespeare Seen: Image, Performance and Society

316 Pages·2019·39.088 MB·English

by  Stuart Sillars

ShakespeareSeen
Thiswide-rangingstudytracestheforcesthatdrovetheproductionandinterpretationof
visual images of Shakespeare’s plays. Covering a rich chronological terrain, from the
beginning of the eighteenth century to the midpoint of the nineteenth, Stuart Sillars
offers a multidisciplinary, nuanced approach to reading Shakespeare in relation to
image, history, text, book history, print culture and performance. The volume begins
byrelatingtheproductionimageryofShakespeare’splaystoothervisualformsandtheir
socialframes,beforediscussingthedesignandoperationofillustratededitionsandthe
‘performance readings’ they offer, and analysing the practical and theoretical founda-
tionsofeaselpaintings.ClosereadingsofTheComedyofErrors,KingLear,theRomanplays,
TheMerchant ofVeniceandOthelloprovidedetailedinsightintohowtheplayshavebeen
represented visually, and are accompanied by numerous illustrations and a beautiful
colourplatesection.
Stuart Sillars is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Bergen,
Norway,andtheauthorofseveralbooksandmanyarticlesontherelationsbetweenword
andimage,includingfourpreviousvolumesonShakespeareandvisualartpublishedby
CambridgeUniversityPress.HenowlivesinEly,Cambridgeshire,andBergen,Norway.
Frontispiece: Unidentified artist: untitled illustration showing Coriolanus with Volumnia
andValeria,TheLeopoldShakespeare,1880.Thedepictionofthesceneisthefirstimage
fullytoreflectthescene’simportance,asmostlikelyperformedinShakespeare’stimeand
inproductionfromthemid-eighteenthcentury.Seepages161–2.
SHAKESPEARE SEEN
IMAGE, PERFORMANCE AND SOCIETY
STUART SILLARS
UniversityofBergen,Emeritus
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ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107193246
DOI:10.1017/9781108147705
©CambridgeUniversityPress2019
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2019
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyTJInternationalLtd,PadstowCornwall
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ISBN978-1-107-19324-6Hardback
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For my friends pictured without

CONTENTS
Listofcolourplates pageix
Listofillustrations xii
Acknowledgments xviii
1 Framesandcircumstances 1
PartOne:StructuresandconceptsinShakespeareimaging 19
2 Mechanismandmeaninginillustratededitions 21
3 Performancereadinginpractice 48
4 Shakespearepaintingandaestheticidentity 67
PartTwo:Image,stageandbeyond;instancesandmovement 87
5 ThevisualidentitiesofTheComedyofErrors 89
6 Text,imageandtemperinKingLear 117
7 Rhythmsofactionandfeeling:theRomanplays 137
8 RankandraceinOthello 171
9 TheMerchantofVeniceandEnglishvisualculture 197
vii
contents
10 Shakespearepainting1800–1848 217
11 Conclusionsanddepartures 234
Notes 239
Selectbibliography 258
Index 264
Theplatesectioncanbefoundbetweenpp148and149
viii