Shakespeare and the Hunt: A Cultural and Social Study (review)

Those fascinated by the tale of Shakespeare owing his career as a poet and playwright to hunting (or poaching) may be especially interested in this insightful study of the implications of hunt imagery in Shakespeare's works. Nicholas Rowe first recounted the tale of Shakespeare fleeing Stratford to avoid prosecution for poaching. Though the truth of the tale is dubious, Berry asserts that it "is not easily dismissed" (21) and that regardless of whether or not it is true, and whether Shakespeare hunted or not, "throughout his life, Shakespeare was situated—economically, socially, and geographically—on the margins of the hunt" (14). Berry here provides the first full-length consideration of Shakespeare's invocation of the hunt, as well as considerable insight into hunting as an Early Modern pursuit, as not only Shakespeare's use of hunting but Early Modern hunting itself has attracted "little in the way of modern research" (x) prior to now.

Indeed, the book's primary strength is as a cultural and social study of the hunt in Shakespeare's time. The book offers a wealth of fascinating information about the culture of the hunt, information that illuminates not only Shakespeare's references to it but the hunt as employed generally in Early Modern literature. Berry's primary research is impressive, and his selection and explanation of materials is excellent. Early Modern scholars should read this book simply for its cultural insights.

The book also has a great deal to say about Shakespeare. Every major use of hunting throughout Shakespeare's plays and poems is given careful treatment. In general, Berry's discussions are illuminating, even if only in making immediate sense of hunting references, and, in some instances, his commentary adds considerably to our knowledge of the work in question. As is almost inevitably the case in a book focusing narrowly on one aspect of a writer's work, Berry's arguments are occasionally strained, attempting to make more of the hunting references than the text easily allows or attempting to take the discussion in a direction resisted by the text he is considering. Such occasions are relatively infrequent, though, and Berry makes some exciting discoveries.

Most successful, perhaps, though Berry himself acknowledges the difficulty of coming to an accommodation with the play, is his treatment of The Taming of the Shrew. His reading of Petruccio's taming of Kate as analogous to the taming of a hunting falcon delves more deeply and perceptively into the play's well-known falconry imagery than I have seen hitherto and offers a compelling interpretation. Berry's speculations about how the play may have been influenced by the life of Henry Lord Berkeley, whose wife (Katherine) had a falcon named Kate, and who was an avid hunter, is also perhaps the book's most interesting and exciting invocation of cultural history in relation to Shakespeare, though proof of any clear debt in the play to these historical figures is not forthcoming.

Berry also deals with "Venus and Adonis," Love's Labor's Lost, Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, The Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, The Tempest, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. The discussion consistently problematizes the hunt, arguing that "Most of Shakespeare's metaphoric links between hunting and war emphasize the murderous violence of individual combat" (217). That is, though the hunt could in Early Modern England be idealized as rite of passage, as model of chivalry, as useful training for soldiers, or even as entertainment, Shakespeare consistently invokes the hunt in negative terms. This approach works well in relation to many of these works, but it does lead occasionally to strained arguments, most significantly in its readings of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Berry attempts to reconcile his view of Shakespeare's critical attitude toward the hunt with King James's love of the sport, and he acknowledges that reading the play's use of the hunt as a critical commentary...