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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Page 19
... artist : " This world's no blot for us , / Nor blank ; it means intensely , and means good . " In other words , that human life is played out in this world is to be neither mourned nor resisted but accepted , if not embraced , and ...
... artist : " This world's no blot for us , / Nor blank ; it means intensely , and means good . " In other words , that human life is played out in this world is to be neither mourned nor resisted but accepted , if not embraced , and ...
Page 34
... artists helped to condition audiences to behold the saints from a complex perspective . The Northern artistic representations of saints during the transition between the medieval and Renaissance periods center frequently on their ...
... artists helped to condition audiences to behold the saints from a complex perspective . The Northern artistic representations of saints during the transition between the medieval and Renaissance periods center frequently on their ...
Page 35
... artists chose to convey the saints ' humanity by focusing on their vulnerabilities and their struggles with evil . This attention to the chinks in saintly armor developed only in the North . Italy , for instance , offers innumerable ...
... artists chose to convey the saints ' humanity by focusing on their vulnerabilities and their struggles with evil . This attention to the chinks in saintly armor developed only in the North . Italy , for instance , offers innumerable ...
Page 36
... artist does not condemn the saint , who freely accepts Paul's meager supper without the bickering to which other ... artists to disclose more blatantly — and even chillingly — the saint's carnal weakness . By far the most intensely ...
... artist does not condemn the saint , who freely accepts Paul's meager supper without the bickering to which other ... artists to disclose more blatantly — and even chillingly — the saint's carnal weakness . By far the most intensely ...
Page 41
... to live severely impaired . Rather , Grünewald's Anthony can commiserate and so urge like victims to endure because a better life awaits them after death . 68 Other artists treat Anthony's 1 / Characters Named Antonio 41.
... to live severely impaired . Rather , Grünewald's Anthony can commiserate and so urge like victims to endure because a better life awaits them after death . 68 Other artists treat Anthony's 1 / Characters Named Antonio 41.
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
alien ambiguity Anthony of Egypt Anto Antonio and Sebastian Antony and Cleopatra Antony's appear argue Ariel artists audience audience's Bassanio behavior Caesar Caliban characterization characters named Antonio charity choice Christ context Corballis critics demons disguise Dolabella duke earlier earthly Elizabethan emblem English Renaissance Enobarbus Enobarbus's Epiphany Essays example feelings Ferdinand Feste Feste's final foolish Gratiano Grünewald hagiography human iconography ideal identity instance irony Isenheim Altarpiece judgment language Malvolio Mark Antony meaning medieval Merchant of Venice mercy Miranda Montaigne moral More's motives nature Olivia Orsino paradoxically play's Portia pride problem Prospero question Renaissance Drama Renaissance stage Antonios revenge Saint Anthony Saint Play Saint Sebastian saintly secular seems sense Shakespeare Quarterly Shylock sixteenth century spiritual suggests Tempest temptation tempted theatrical thou tion trial scene truth Twelfth Night University Press Viola Viola/Cesario Virgin virtue William Shakespeare wisdom wise folly wise fool words 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...