PROGRAMME DETAILS FOR THE 188TH SEASON 2011/2012
TUESDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2011
PROFESSOR EWAN FERNIE
Chair and Professor of Shakespeare Studies at The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham
Ewan Fernie is the author of Shame in Shakespeare, editor of Spiritual Shakespeares and co-ordinating editor of Reconceiving the Renaissance. He has recently completed a Macbeth novel called Bloodhill with Simon Palfrey, with whom he is also General Editor of the 'Shakespeare Now!' series of short, provocative books published by Continuum. He is writing a critical book for Routledge on the demonic from Shakespeare to Thomas Mann. And he is Principal Investigator of the AHRC / ESRC funded project, 'The Faerie Queene Now: Remaking Religious Poetry for Today's World', for which he has written Redcrosse: A New Celebration of England and St George with the poets Andrew Motion, Michael Symmons Roberts and Jo Shapcott and the theologian Andrew Shanks. Redcrosse was premiered at St George's Chapel, Windsor and Manchester Cathedral in 2011 and is due to be taken by the RSC to Coventry Cathedral in its jubilee year of 2012.
King Lear and the Positivity of Possession
This paper will explore the strange association between goodness and the demonic in Edgar / Poor Tom. Bradley called Edgar the most religious character in King Lear but the religious role Edgar performs is of a terrifyingly demonic character. This, he will argue, has been seriously underestimated in current criticism and he will go on to probe the conjunction of passion and possession in Edgar's demonic masquerade in order to uncover some buried and provocative continuities between sex, the demonic and religious experience. He will ultimately suggest that Poor Tom embodies an agonised spirituality of possession in terms of radical susceptibility. This contrasts with the spirituality of limitation and reserve which Cordelia portrays. And he will argue that it is more existentially troubling, illuminating and even potentially inspiring for all than any critical treatment of Poor Tom in terms of mere theatricality is willing to confront.
Lecture Notes
The 865th meeting of the Shakespeare Club took place at Mason Croft on Tuesday 8 November 2011. Jean Lawrence took the chair and introduced Rev Dr Paul Edmondson, Head of Research and Knowledge at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust whose lecture was entitled Muse of Fire?: Shakespeare and the Bible.
Dr Edmondson began by reminding the audience of the many books, plays and exhibitions which celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James version of the Bible. Published too late to have an influence on Shakespeare it is still, along with the First Folio, one of the cornerstones of the English language. Dr Edmondson considered the bibles in use in Shakespeare’s time and how the book influenced him.
The history of the bible in English began in 1526 with Tyndale’s unofficial translation, using Anglo-Saxon words and “the language of the ploughboy”. Between 1526 and 1611 there were 11 translations of the bible, the Geneva bible being the one Shakespeare knew best. Dr Edmondson suggested that Shakespeare’s knowledge of the bible was acquired mostly through private reading rather than hearing it read in church. His engagement with it is subtle, running through his work “like an electrical charge” coming to the surface in the plays Measure for Measure and The Merchant of Venice.
Dr Edmondson went on to compare quotations from the bible with passages in Shakespeare. For example, passages from the erotic Song of Songs were shown to be comparable with some of the Sonnets. Dr Edmondson finished by concluding that Shakespeare’s use of the bible demonstrated a catholic spirituality, but not a Roman Catholic one, rejoicing in the natural world and uniting soul and body.
Dr Edmondson took questions from the audience and the meeting finished at 9pm.
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