Shakespeare's World of Death: The Early Tragedies; Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet by Richard Courtney (review)

HUMANITIES 331 fittingly this always interesting volume concludes with Nancy Palk's brief account of how she personally approaches a Shakespearean text: 'thinking . and feeling with my heart and my body and my mind,' Inthe end, although academic analysis aids in the effective performance today of the early English drama, in .the theatre the actors - working for and with the audience - have, as here, the final say. (ANNE LANCASHIRE) Richard Courtney. Shakespeare's World ofDeath: The Early Tragedies; Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet The Director's Shakespeare Series. Simon and Pierre. 268. $22.99 Shakespeare's World of Death is part of a series 'written for directors and actors.' Using a conversationat often enthusiastic and sometimes avuncular tone, Courtney introduces the reader to very basic methods of reading the plays as scripts and as literature, often arguing in point form and making sure that a reader knows what is important through the liberal use ofitalics. He offers various ways to play the play, illustrates how the lines suggest stage business, and provides four levels of questions. Level 1 includes where doesit occur, what does it look like, 'what do the actors do moment by moment ... how do we feel "now" in comparison with how we felt a minute ago? Space and time are the key issues to address in any play.' Level 2 concentrates on actors' questions. Level 3 compares one performer's interpretation with another's. Level 4 addresses props and business. Courtney then asks 'WHAT IS REALISM IN SHAKESPEARE?' His one-paragraph answer is that 'the people and the events ofa Shakespearean play are not "real life.II They are dramatic fictions ... it is a "picturelJ not the reality of life itself that occurs within the nature and conditions of the stage ... It is grander and more profound than the so-called "reality" of television. Each drama creates a play world of its own.' Thus does he ignore an ongoing impassioned debate in Shakespearean studies. Here is a typical sample of his observations on Hamlet. 'Before the play, the world of death wins when Claudius poisons his brother, the king, and takes his crown and his wife. But in the play proper, Claudius is an effective king and it is Hamlet who represents the world of death. Only after he has killed Claudius, and been killed himself, can goodness return to Derunark.' Courtney's definition of a 'world of death' seldom contains moral ambiguities, such as whether Fortinbras as the new king will bring 'goodness' back to Denmark. Courtney sununarizes A.C. Bradley's definitions of tragedy at length, but misses many of the complexities Bradley perceived in these play worlds. His interpretations of 'The Roman World of Death' in Julius Caesar and in RomeoandJuliet ('a romantic masterpiece known to lovers everywhere') are 332 LETTERS IN CANADA 1995 quite straightforward. For Julius Caesar he provides a brief account of classical rhetorical figures used and some details ofstage history as well as brief accounts offilms. He spends a few pages on the language in Romeoand Julietf noting the extensive use of antithesis. He also explains the element of tragic chance in the plot and provides a stage and film history. He gives the reader a textual history for all three plays, including the memorial reconstruction theory of the 'bad' Q of Hamletf quick character sketches and a detailed breakdown of the plot and time-frame of the plays sceneby scene. In thirty-five pages he provides long quotations punctuated by short passages of interpretation and some lively anecdotes about actors' performances. He lists many familiar images (and a few oddly chosen 'clustersf ) and he spends a little time on the problem of Hamlet's delayed revenge. , It is difficult to take seriously his claim that Hamlet 'marks a major cultural and historical changein human life ..,the moment when flmodern" man is born/ or even that this is the first time in theatrical history when lactors forget themselves in their characters and_ then the spectators can more easily forget their own world for the play world,' particularly when, in the same paragraph, he argues that 'the actor does not totally become Hamlet. Rather we know Hamlet through the actor...