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  • Shakespeare and Emotions: Inheritances, Enactments, Legacies eds. by R. S. White, Mark Houlahan, and Katrina O'Loughlin
  • Frank Swannack
White, R. S., Mark Houlahan, and Katrina O'Loughlin, eds, Shakespeare and Emotions: Inheritances, Enactments, Legacies, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015; hardback; pp. 282; R.R.P. £58.00; ISBN 9781137464743.

Editor, R. S. White, introduces this volume with a literary tool he terms 'New Emotionalism' (p. 9). White responds to current early modern criticism that focuses on medical and philosophical knowledge influenced by Aristotle and Galen. The notion that the body and emotions are interconnected forms the basis of this collection of twenty-two essays, which is divided into three parts: 'Emotional Inheritances'; 'Shakespearean Enactments'; and 'Emotional Legacies and Re-enactments'.

In Part I, Danijela Kambaskovic examines Shakespeare's sonnets through Platonic love madness. She also considers early modern treatises on melancholy to argue that Shakespeare defined love as a venereal disease. Bríd Phillips analyses the locus amoenus, or pleasant place, in Titus Andronicus through an Ovidian model. In an interesting twist, she reads Lavinia's body as mirroring the corrupted locus amoenus. Ciara Rawnsley explains why Cymbeline has not been well received by modern audiences, suggesting the reason is the play's focus on fairy tales and folktales. She argues that Shakespeare's ploy is that the fairy tale setting allows for greater emotional impact. Through the play's wager plot, Rawnsley unpacks Posthumus's sexual anxiety.

In Measure for Measure, Andrew Lynch analyses Isabella who invests herself emotionally as a virgin martyr. Tracing Shakespeare's hagiographic sources, Lynch argues that Isabella is persecuted because of her emotional attachment to God. Stephanie Downes offers an alternative reading of how the French are represented in Henry V. The manner in which the French language is articulated in the play reveals complex emotional ties between the English and French characters. Mary-Rose McLaren compares Margaret of Anjou as she is represented in BL, MS Egerton 1995 (Gregory's Chronicle) to her character in 3 Henry VI. The Margaret found in the 1460 Chronicle seems more vulnerable than Shakespeare's powerful, obsessive woman. McLaren concludes that the emotional power of Shakespeare's Margaret is indebted to the Chronicle's dualism.

In Part II, Peter Groves reveals how actors can produce emotional rhythm through Shakespeare's metre. In his analysis of Shakespeare's [End Page 228] plays, Groves discusses the techniques involved in this practice: 'switches', 'reversal', 'drag', and 'silent beat'. Ruth Lunney examines the emotional responses of Shakespeare's contemporary audience to the character of Talbot in Henry VI, Part 1, Richard III, and Richard II. She argues that a more complex emotional response is required of the audience than just laughter or tears. Martin Dawes considers, in the Henriad, the three emotional bonds to God: fear, love, and wonder. Political power is shaped in the plays through inspiring these emotional responses that Dawes briefly explores. Anthony Guy Patricia brings together queer theory and emotion in The Merchant of Venice. He queers love's emotional impact between Bassanio and Antonio to give a more complex reading of their relationship. Alison V. Scott reinterprets 'giddy' with a fascinating close reading of Troilus and Cressida. She argues that Troilus uses 'giddy' as emotional self-monitoring. It registers male inconstancy as rationalised self-concern.

Ronald Bedford reads in Troilus and Cressida a wider reflection of emotion. Bestial characteristics are merged with the bodily humours to express the play's competing emotions. With Othello, Christopher Wortham's interesting argument is that Shakespeare uses contemporary geographic knowledge to map emotions. He analyses Othello's traveller's history as taking Desdemona on an exotic journey through cannibalistic greed and lust. Jennifer Hamilton brilliantly examines why Shakespeare extended the storm scene in King Lear. She argues Lear is not mad when confronting the storm, but revealing his shame over his fleshly mortality. Heather Kerr discusses the tearful exchange between Prospero and Gonzalo in The Tempest as transferring passions.

In Part III, Philippa Kelly investigates the connection between feelings and thought in Shakespeare's plays. Her essay ends with a moving personal recollection that provides an added insight into Shakespeare's ghosts. Susan Broomhall analyses early modern emotions...

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