1590s Drama and Militarism: Portrayals of War in Marlowe, Chapman and Shakespeare's 'Henry V' (review)

Reviews 243 Parergon 20.2 (2003) all things in common except their houses and shops, comes from the clerics. The descriptions of the cities established by the Europeans, designed to attract more investment of resources and people from the merchants. The texts will bear analysis from multiple different viewpoints. The translations seem as ever impeccable although one regrets the editorial decisions that restrict footnotes to a minimum. It makes the reader work hard for understanding in many areas. To take a single example, whether for trade or exploitation, there was a widespread interest in the flora of the area. An understandable ignorance amongst the reporters of the names of the unfamiliar plants, led some to long descriptions of size, type, flowers, use and the like of the most widespread and common of the new varieties they encountered. Since the Spanish had come with samples of all the familiar European plants which they hoped to naturalise in the islands they had seized, the existing eco-system was likely to be rapidly modified by the incomers and it is frustrating to struggle to identify the native flora described. Pineapples, certainly, kapok trees probably, turpentine trees perhaps but what of the others? Not even a book on the natural history of the West Indies is recommended. There is so much incidental detail in these accounts that needs to be fitted into our knowledge of the world of Columbus: descriptions by landlubbers of maritime practices and the sights at sea of such things as St Elmo’s fire, descriptions of technology and mining beliefs, descriptions of clothing and body language, that one hopes for a companion volume to the series in which experts might clarify some of the material and enable one to evaluate the accuracy and the importance of the information. It was these reports after all on which the powerful in Europe based their actions and those actions were profoundly to change the world. It would be nice confidently to appreciate what they tell us. Sybil M. Jack Department of History University of Sydney Taunton, Nina, 1590s Drama and Militarism: Portrayals of War in Marlowe, Chapman and Shakespeare’s ‘Henry V’, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2001; cloth; pp. vii, 239; 10 b/w illustrations; R.R.P US$75.95, £45.00; ISBN 0754602745. This study examines ways in which the late-Elizabethan drama, particularly Marlowe’s two-part Tamburlaine, Chapman’s Caesar and Pompey and his two 244 Reviews Parergon 20.2 (2003) Byron plays, and Shakespeare’s Henry V, intersected with the military writing of the period, produce ‘a debate around problems of space, order, command, national boundaries and defence as responses to specific personalities and events’ (p. 16). Nina Taunton’s discussion of military treatises and manuals current in those years is comprehensive in scope, yet accessible to the non-specialist. The study is organized around three major themes, a division which provides necessary structure while it allows the reader to appreciate the connections between various political or strategic issues. Thus, Part One, ‘Generals’, concerns Elizabethan debates – and instances of conflict – about what makes a good commander, and the relative merits of a centralized command structure as opposed to the independent authority of commanders in the field. Part Two, ‘The Stratagems of War’ addresses conflicts between timehonoured classical models of military practice and the lessons of contemporary experience; the subject of these debates included calls to establish a professional standing army, and about its optimum size and composition. Taunton also examines the role of rhetoric, as a powerful factor in military policy-making, since the capacity of the classically-trained writers to out-argue their opponents made it difficult to displace classical treatise material; while, rhetoric was in itself a tool of militarism, representing the role of aesthetics in the promotion of this body of work and of its ideals (pp. 154-5). Lastly, the third part, ‘Camps’, focuses on the military camp: its location, the discipline and organization of troops, the commander’s understanding of natural and technological resources in the provision of security, the supply of food and reinforcements, and ready access to reliable intelligence. These broad categories are subdivided into specific areas, and provide insight into the details...