Particular Saints: Shakespeare's Four Antonios, Their Contexts, and Their PlaysWhy do characters named Antonio proliferate on the English Renaissance stage? Why are they so often paired with other characters named Sebastian? And more significantly, why are they repeatedly characterized by Shakespeare and his contemporaries as fools for love? Particular Saints draws on church history, art history, and theater history to address these questions by illustrating that Renaissance stage Antonios are a type, representing a tradition familiar to early modern audiences and exploited by Shakespeare in portraying his four major characters named Antonio. Such characters ultimately derive from the rich medieval iconography and hagiography of Saint Anthony of Egypt. How this knowledge reinforms our late-twentieth-century understanding of the four plays in question is addressed in separate chapters that range widely across each work: The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest. |
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Contents
| 20 | |
A foolish consistency Antonio and Alienation in The Merchant of Venice | 51 |
Willing love Antonio Viola and Epiphany in Twelfth Night | 88 |
The worlds great snare Antony Cleopatra and Game | 116 |
Prosperos false brother Shakespeares Final Antonio | 154 |
No way out but through Shakespeares Antonios and the Wisdom of This World | 186 |
Notes | 193 |
Bibliography | 229 |
Index | 241 |
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Common terms and phrases
acceptance Antonio Antony and Cleopatra Antony's appear artists association audience Bassanio become believe Caesar Caliban calls century characterization characters choice Christ Christian complex continually course critics death desire discussion disguise drama earlier Elizabethan English especially example experience fact feelings Feste Feste's final fool foolish further give hand human ideal identity instance Italy judgment kind language late later least less lines live Malvolio meaning medieval Merchant of Venice moral motives nature never Night Olivia once particular perhaps play play's Portia practical present Press pride problem Prospero question reason reference remains Renaissance response revelers Saint Anthony scene Sebastian seems sense Shakespeare Shylock speaks spiritual stage stage Antonios Studies suggests Tempest trial true truth turn Twelfth Twelfth Night understanding University Viola wisdom wise folly worldly York
Popular passages
Page 168 - O, wonder ! How many goodly creatures are there here ! How beauteous mankind is ! O brave new world, That has such people in't ! Pros.
Page 148 - And there appeared a great wonder in heaven ; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.
Page 161 - O, it is monstrous! monstrous! Methought, the billows spoke, and told me of it; The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd The name of Prosper; it did bass my trespass. Therefore my son i" the ooze is bedded ; and I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded, And with him there lie mudded.
Page 62 - I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano ; A stage, where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one.
Page 126 - The loyalty well held to fools does make Our faith mere folly : yet he that can endure To follow with allegiance a fall'n lord Does conquer him that did his master conquer, And earns a place i
Page 99 - And, like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye. This is a practice As full of labour as a wise man's art; For folly that he wisely shows is fit; But wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit.
Page 119 - Upon a tawny front : his captain's heart, Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper, And is become the bellows and the fan To cool a gipsy's lust.
Page 103 - I think nobly of the soul, and no way approve his opinion. 60 Clo. Fare thee well. Remain thou still in darkness: thou shalt hold the opinion of Pythagoras ere I will allow of thy wits, and fear to kill a woodcock, lest thou dispossess the soul of thy grandam. Fare thee well.
Page 54 - I caught it, found it, or came by it, What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born, I am to learn ; And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, That I have much ado to know myself. Solar. Your mind is tossing on the ocean ; There, where your argosies...
Bibliographic information
| Title | Particular Saints: Shakespeare's Four Antonios, Their Contexts, and Their Plays |
| Author | Cynthia Lewis |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | University of Delaware Press, 1997 |
| ISBN | 087413630X, 9780874136302 |
| Length | 250 pages |
| Subjects | › Drama / Shakespeare Literary Criticism / Drama Literary Criticism / Shakespeare |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |