The Gospel According to Shakespeare by Piero Boitani (review)

In The Gospel According to Shakespeare, Piero Boitani offers a close critical look at William Shakespeare’s ‘re-scripturing’ of the Gospels in his work. For Boitani, Shakespeare’s works are a meditation ‘on providence, on forgiveness, and on goodness and happiness’ and this is achieved ‘in Christian terms’ (p. 2). Boitani argues that Shakespeare, particularly in his plays after Hamlet, is engaged in creating his own Gospel.

Originally published in Italian in 2009 as Il Vangelo secondo Shakespeare, the work has been translated into English by Vittorio Montemaggi and Rachel Jacoff for the present edition. The book features a select bibliography, detailed notes, and an index, and the short length (it runs to a slim 156 pages) makes for an easy read. It is arranged into eight sections: an Introduction, seven chapters, and a brief Conclusion. Each chapter is devoted to a different work by Shakespeare, and focuses on a religious theme related to the Gospels: Hamlet (Amen); King Lear (God’s Spies); and the Romances: Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Music of the Spheres); Cymbeline (Divineness); The Winter’s Tale (Resurrection); and The Tempest (Epiphany).

Boitani suggests that in both Hamlet and King Lear the presence of divinity is born from pain, suffering, and death. Shakespeare’s Gospel in these two plays is only hinted at, with faith, salvation, and peace ‘only glimpsed from far away’ (p. xi). For Boitani, Shakespeare’s Romances constitute his ‘Good News’, where he closely examines ideas of compassion and forgiveness, transcendence, resurrection, and epiphany, and where the female characters (Marina and Thaisa, Imogen, Hermione and Perdita, Miranda) appear as ‘true bearers of grace’ (p. 8). Throughout the book, Boitani compares several of Shakespeare’s characters to religious figures, although the biblical allusions can at times seem tenuous. Lear and Pericles, like Job (pp. 25–30; 44–46) and Jesus Christ (pp. 25, 30, 37; 46, 55), are testaments to patience; Hermione, through her death and resurrection is both Lazarus- (pp. 84–85) and Christlike (pp. 83–88); and Ferdinand and Miranda’s love story draws parallels with Adam and Eve in Genesis (pp. 94–95), with their wedding feast becoming a Last Supper (p. 6) on Prospero’s island.

The Gospel According to Shakespeare has much to offer Shakespearean scholars in general, and will appeal particularly to those interested in Shakespeare’s religious perspective and use of biblical intertextuality. More broadly, it will serve as a useful reference to all scholars interested in religious and biblical studies that inform Renaissance literature and history.