The Function of Song in Contemporary British Drama by Elizabeth Hale Winkler (review)

250Rocky Mountain Review different stages in Shakespeare's development as a dramatist. In the early plays, Roberts notes a tendency to elevate the animal realm over the human. Later plays suggest other kinds of transformations, including hybrids of humans and animals, like centaurs and Amazons. In TAe Tempest, she argues, "Consciously or unconsciously, Shakespeare has moved from the world of Ovid and his more rigid Christian successors toward the 'so religious conclusion of a heathen man' that characterizes Montaigne" (115). This chapter, though loosely organized and unsatisfactory in its arrangement , rewards a reader's perusal because it provides multivalent readings of animal allusions and metaphors. The final—and by far the most cogent—chapter in the book focuses on images ofthe female. Here Roberts' approach and her store ofclassical literary texts pay off in a fascinating discussion of the "Triple Hecate," the ancient goddess figure, who, Roberts claims, produces the virgin, whore, and crone forms embedded in female characters ranging across the spectrum of Shakespeare's plays. Focusing particularly on Two Noble Kinsmen, All's Well That Ends Well, and TAe Winter's Tale, this chapter describes the conflicts between male and female characters as models for understanding male reactions to the powerful threat associated with the goddess. Finally, Roberts argues that reading such figures in the plays could offer women a chance to "explore and describe their own Wild world" and perhaps "revolutionize our appreciation of the Triple Hecate and redesign Culture in ways that would restore her centrality and versatility" (181-82). TAe Shakespearean Wild will be a useful teaching resource because of its accessible technical vocabulary, one that most undergraduate students could manage. The book also features many fine reproductions of sixteenthand seventeenth-century woodcuts, which provide visual support for Roberts' observations. While its thesis definitely places it into the AngloAmerican feminist camp, the otherwise committed may avail themselves of rich, insightful readings of mythological allusions and generic modulations in Shakespeare's works. MARY ANN BUSHMAN Illinois Wesleyan University ELIZABETH HALE WINKLER. TAe Function of Song in Contemporary British Drama. Cranbury: University of Delaware Press, 1991. 363 p. This useful book provides a valuable survey ofthe use ofsong in contemporary British drama. Elizabeth Hale Winkler is at her best in her central chapters on Arden/D'Arcy and Edward Bond; her thorough knowledge of and intense involvement with these authors make these chapters come alive. Furthermore, her discussion is interspersed with many provocative, relevant quotations from personal interviews with the authors themselves; these interviews add an important dimension which should be of great interest to future scholars. Book Reviews251 Perceptive and stimulating as it is, however, the opening "theory" chapter which "posits dramatic song as a separate genre" (21) is neither convincing nor related very well to the rest of the book. Winkler's initial emphasis on both the importance of performance—a song is not a lyric poem but a "script of a public event"—and the value of the "agonistic" theory of song as drama—where song works against rather than in harmony with its surroundings (19)—fades away and is often lost sight of in the ensuing discussion , as she becomes involved in her survey of the literature. The strong central chapters are further weakened by both the thin historical survey which precedes them and the glib treatment of the mainstream "classics" (Beckett, Pinter, and others) which follows. The historical background, especially the treatment of O'Casey (whose profound influence on the examined dramatists is clearly acknowledged), cries out for more detailed discussion, as does Winkler's "examination" of Waiting for Godot, which consists of one paragraph on the "two songs" of the play, "a wordless lullaby and a children's song that goes on endlessly" (244). Her complete treatment of the "lullaby" runs to just three sentences: "The lullaby is begun by Vladimir in a tone that is much too loud, thus rendering the function of the song meaningless. Sung with the appropriate softness, however, it leads to one of the rare moments of tenderness and care in the play. Such moments enable mankind to go on living despite a lack of direction and perspective " (244). This example illustrates all too clearly the...