ARCANA IN SHAKESPEARE'S COMEDIES WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO 'THE COMEDY OF ERRORS' AND 'A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM 1 by WENDY JEAN MACPHEE A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts of The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Volume I The Shakespeare Institute School of English Faculty of Arts The University of Birmingham May 1996 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis aims to demonstrate that Shakespeare encoded his comedies with spiritual arcana including: theurgy; Celtic mysticism; alchemy; Renaissance Platonism; and the Bible. An analysis of The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night's Dream shows that the plays are polysemous, providing simultaneous readings of a number of spiritual allegories. The arcana are examined in the light of material to which Shakespeare could have had access. They are separately documented in chapters designed to provide a resource of information on their contemporary nature mediated for modern understanding. The research is based on an exploration of plays in production, represented in programme notes in the appendices. The work was undertaken to clarify the director's notes to cast and audiences of the international professional Theatre Set-Up company and the results of this study informed their productions from 1983 to 1996. It was found that explanations of the scripts' iconography which the research revealed, clarified and lightened their performance. Early chapters review a range of opinions from literary criticism on the issues discussed in the thesis, revealing considerable sympathy with its tenets. (108,870 words) With many thanks to Tom and Angela Susan and Brian Celia and Brian CONTENTS Volume I Introduction ...p.1 Chapter One: Literary Criticism: the definition of comedy; the structure and nature of Shakespearean Comedy; the function of Shakespearean comedy; comedy may have a serious intention and be treated as seriously as tragedy; Shakespearean comedy is idealistic and mythical. ...p.28 Chapter Two: Literary Criticism: Shakespeare's plays are allegorical. ...p.72 Chapter Three Literary Criticism: Shakespeare's plays are polysemous; there are arcana in Shakespeare's plays significant to their interpretation. ...p.109 Chapter Four: The Arcana: Theurgy and Celtic Mysticism ...p.149 Chapter Five: The Arcana: Alchemy ...p.197 Chapter Six: The Arcana: Renaissance Platonism , 0 .p.236 Chapter Seven The Arcana: The Bible ...p.287 Volume II Chapter Eight: Analysis of The Comedy of Errors ...p.288 Chapter Nine: Analysis of A Midsummer Night's Dream p.415 Conclusions ...p.518 Notes ...p.522 Bibliography ...p.535 APPENDIX A (inside folder at back of Volume II) A.I. The Comedy of Errors 1986 A.2. A Midsummer Night's Dream 1983 A.3. A Midsummer Night's Dream 1995 APPENDIX B (inside folder at back of Volume II) B.I. The Tempest 1982 B.2. Love's Labour's Lost 1984 B.3. The Merry Wives of Windsor 1985 B.4. The Two Gentlemen of Verona 1987 B.5. The Winter's Tale 1988 B.6. Cymbeline 1989 B.7. All's Well That Ends Well 1990 B.8. Measure For Measure 1991 B.9. The Merchant of Venice 1992 B.10. Hamlet 1993 B.ll. The Taming of the Shrew 1994 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: Man as microcosm, 'The Macrocosm and the Microcosm 1 Robert Fludd, Utrittsque Cosmi _Hi_s_t_o_r_i_a (London, 1617) title page. ... p 164 Figure 2: John Dee's Hieroglyphic Monad, The symbol of the monad as it appears in his book, Monas Hieroglyphica, translated and with a commentary by J.W. Hamilton-Jones (New York, 1977), facing p.9. ...p.167 Figure 3: Labyrinths. Sig Lonegren analyses in diagrammatic form how a Classical Seven Circuit labyrinth is made and gives an example of this in the plan of the Lindbacke Labyrinth in Sweden. Labyrinths; Ancient Myths and Modern Uses (Glastonbury,1991), pp.33, 38. ...p.171 Figure 4: George Ripley's Diagrammatic Wheel of correspondences between the elements, the four directions, the planets, the signs of the zodiac, alchemy and Christianity. Compound of Alchymy (London, 1591) sig.M2v. ...p.201 Figure 5: Melencolia From the copper-plate engraving by Albrecht Durer (1514). Facsimile-Reproduction der Reichsdruckerei, Berlin. Reproduced from Plate 14 of The Alchemist; in Life, Literature and Art, by John Read (London, 1947) ...p.203 Figure 6: The King eats the Son. From the Book of Lambspring, Museaum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum...Continens Tractatus Chimicos XXI praestantissimos, 2 vols, Frankfurt, 1678; expanded from the original edition, Frankfurt, 1625. Translated by A.E. Waite, The Hermetic Museum Restored and Enlarged, 2 vols (London, 1893). Paperback edition by Samuel Weiser 1 vol. (Maine, 1994), p.301 ...p.206 Figure 7: The Wolf eats the King: 'The Death and Resurrection of the King', Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens: hoc est, Emblemata nova de secretis naturae Chymica (Oppenheim, 1618), p.105. ...p.207 Figure 8: The Old King Drowning and the Birth of the New King, Splendor Solis, ascribed to Salomon Trismosin, Harley MS 3469 in British Library, 1582, Plate 7. ...p.208 Figure 9: The two sets of twins in the 1986 Theatre Set up production of The Comedy of Errors ...p.410 Figure 10: Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus. Theatre Set- Up 1986 ...p.411 Figure 11: Scenes IV.iv and IV.ii. Theatre Set-Up 1986 ...p.412 Figure 12: IV.i.86., IV.iv.123, Theatre Set-Up, 1986 ...p.413 Figure 13: IV.i.104., IV.i.27. Theatre Set-Up, 1986 ...p.414 Figure 14: Set and costumes coloured to symbolise the lovers as the four elements. Theatre Set-Up 1983. ...p.506 Figure 15: The roundel's colours changed to match the main phases of alchemy. Theatre Set-Up 1983 ...p.507 Figure 16: Titania as Sun and Moon. Titania as Isis with her attendant fairies as herbal medicines ...p.508 Figure 17: Hermia as air. Theatre Set-Up 1983 ...p.509 Figure 18: Peaseblossom and Cobweb. Theatre Set-Up 1995 ...p.510 Figure 19: Helena in disarray. Theatre Set-Up 1995..p.511 Figure 20: The lovers' quarrel. Theatre Set-Up 1995 ... p.512 Figure 21: Hermia and Helena fighting. Theatre Set-Up 1995. ...p.513 Figure 22: Titania and Oberon as nature spirits. Theatre Set-Up 1995. ...p.514 Figure 23: Oberon as nature spirit. Theatre Set-Up 1995 ...p.515 Figure 24: The mechanicals. Theatre Set-Up, 1995...p.516 Figure 25: Pyramus and Thisbe. Theatre Set-Up 1995. ...p.517 INTRODUCTION This thesis is based on the proposition that Shakespeare encoded his plays with arcana the understanding of which removes implausibilities in characterisation and plot, explains mysteries in the language used and reveals deeper levels of meaning and significance. 'Arcana 1 , as used in this thesis is defined by Dr Ernest Klein as a 'secret, mystery 1 . He claims that the word derives from 'Orcus, name of the god of the infernal regions in Roman mythology'. The proposition of the thesis is examined in the light of a range of critical opinion on Shakespeare's comedies in Chapters One to Three. Chapters Four to Seven discuss potential secret meanings in Shakespeare's plays, examining them in detail from sources available to Shakespeare himself and relating them to the broad spectrum of his work, including his tragedies. Chapters Eight and Nine record the exploration and application of these secret meanings to two particular comedies, The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night's Dream. In these chapters internal evidence is presented in support of the notion that the arcana discussed in detail in Chapters Four to Seven are embodied in the plays. They are detected by comparing the text with its source material and by identifying significant language, characterisation and stage action. This interpretation, undertaken for practical purposes, is related where appropriate to perceptions from a spectrum of literary criticism. The INTRODUCTION process of presenting the plays in performance in the light of the research is also recorded and the effects of the research, (within the limits of monitoring them imposed by the performance conditions) on actors and audiences of the professional international touring theatre company, Theatre Set-Up (described in detail below), is included in each relevant chapter. The programme notes for each Theatre Set-Up production present the research which has informed it to the audience and are included in Appendices A (The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night's Dream) and B (all other productions presented by Theatre Set-Up between 1982 and 1995). My analysis of The Comedy of Errors does not exactly correspond to the production presented by Theatre Set-Up (as reference to the plays' programme notes in Appendix A will indicate), as I have written with the benefit of hindsight, later research illuminating the earlier production work. However the exposition of A Midsummer Night's Dream, including productions mounted in 1983 at the beginning and in 1995 at the end of the research period, builds on the 1995 director's notes given to the cast, and presented in the programme notes to the production's audiences, thereby giving an accurate record of material upon which the production was based. The impulse to undertake this study was created by the academic needs of Theatre Set-Up, which I direct and manage and whose summer seasons from 1983 to 1995 provided