Shakespeare In Love
Book I: Budding Genius
The Taming of the Shrew · Henry VI, Part 1 · Henry VI, Part 2 · Henry VI, Part 3 · Richard III · The Two Gentlemen of Verona · Titus Andronicus · The Comedy of Errors · Love’s Labour’s Lost · Richard II
Here we taste the first fruits of a budding genius as Shakespeare experiments with bringing truth to the masses. In his hands, the arts become a means of proclamation, and comedy, history, and tragedy become vehicles for exploration.
Let us hear Shakespeare.
The Taming of the Shrew
a kind of history
Comedy, ~1590, 1st published in Folio
The First Folio’s publication in 1623, 8 years after Shakespeare’s death, brought us 18 plays from Shakespeare never published during his lifetime — about half of his canon. Among them is The Taming of the Shrew, probably Shakespeare’s first comedy. For a prolific writer, Shakespeare cared very little for the publishing of his plays, censorship laws made it difficult for any Catholic to publish, even a great playwright like Shakespeare would find difficultly in publishing. Instead, the prolific playwright dedicated himself to staging stories in the theater, like The Taming of the Shrew, where an actor tells the audience in the introductory scenes that these plays are “a kind of history.”
His first comedy uses his well-known play-within-a-play motif (famous in later productions like Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet). But this play is a curious kind of history, for it starts off with a set-up scene where a practical joke is played on Christopher Sly (‘cunning Christ-bearer’). He wakes from his drunken stupor to find himself declared a Lord who can’t remember the last 15 years. And part of the joke is that as he wakes he is forced to watch this play, which is, as mentioned, “a kind of history.”
Only, for the Catholic audience, this kind of history reveals reality. We’re quickly transported to Padua, a kind of England. In Padua, the father of a prominent house is Baptista, who has 2 daughters of marriageable age — the elder Catherine, who none wish to court, and the younger Bianca, who all wish to court.
To hear Shakespeare and interpret this Catholic allegory, a few things to note. Baptism is the only sacrament common to both Catholics and Anglicans, so this is a very astute name choice from Shakespeare to help disguise and yet unlock the allegory of the two main churches in England. Next, the elder daughter, is named after Catherine of Aragon, the Catholic Queen discarded by Henry VIII when he created his State church and wedded his new wife under Anglican rites. The name means “pure.” In the story, the older sister and noted shrew, Catherine, represents the Catholic church, the old faith that none in Padua desired to wed. Curst Cate would have been a common refrain lamenting the displaced Queen, and in this story is symbolic of the displaced Church.
None woo Catherine until Petruchio comes to town ready to “wive and thrive.” And once again, for a Catholic audience member, his name sounds a lot like Peter, the office of Peter being the vicar of Christ and head of the Catholic church on earth. This allegory is confirmed for Catholics when Petruchio officially introduces himself to the audience,
“Thus it stands with me: Antonio my father is deceased, and I have thrust myself into this maze, haply to wive and thrive, best as I may. Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home, and so am come abroad to see the world.”
A couple key historical items to note. Antonio is the given name of Pope Saint Pius V, the saintly pope who excommunicates Queen Elizabeth in 1570. And Pope Gregory XIII is the pope who follows (his papacy was from 1572-1585), the one whom Petruchio specifically represents in the play, going to woo the curst bride of Christ.
There are two things, possibly above all others, that Pope Gregory XIII would be known for among the English people of Shakespeare’s time. One, the Jesuit mission to England which began in 1580. And two, the Gregorian calendar of 1582, which better aligned our solar calendar with the seasons.
Both these items are represented in the play.
The Jesuit mission is represented in all the disguises that the travelers to Padua, except Petruchio, must don to woo Bianca. As it was illegal and punishable unto death to be a Catholic priest in Elizabeth’s England, the Jesuit mission meant the English priests took on disguises to woo Anglicans back to the pure faith as well as bring the divine sacraments to Catholics who had kept the faith despite torment and torture.
The calendar is mentioned as a joke during an interchange with Petruchio and his new bride Catherine. The historical allusion is that when Pope Gregory announced the new calendar in 1582, Europe was then divided in telling time by religious lines. Many Catholic countries adopted the new calendar immediately, skipping ahead 11 days from October 4 to October 15 overnight. While the slowest Catholic countries adopted the new calendar within 2 years. Instead, the Protestant countries would take centuries to align. (The American colonies wouldn’t adopt the calendar till the mid-18th century). And so it’s a part of hilarious Catholic comedy that Petruchio dictates the time to his shrewish wife who while disbelieving learns to believe her husband and calls it as he sees it,
“Then God be blessed it is the blessed sun
But sun it is not, when you say it is not,
And the moon changes even as your mind.
What you will have it named, even that it is,
And so it shall be so for Katherine.”
It’s a bit of irony at the “shrewish” Catholics aligned with the Pope almost immediately, while the Protestants took centuries to heed his wisdom. Another moral to explore for another time.
There is so much more to comment on this play, an amazing Catholic comedy, but then this summary wouldn’t be considered brief. And so, for the sake of brevity, we once again urge one another to hear Shakespeare, and in doing so love the bride of Christ even more every day called ‘today.’
Blessed are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear! In truth I tell you, many prophets and upright people longed to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.
— Jesus of Nazareth, King of Kings
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
a sheep doth often stray if the shepherd be awhile away
Comedy, ~1590, 1st published in Folio
Another contender for his first play, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, is an early comedy which shows many themes Shakespeare will take on throughout his career. Friendship, secret lovers, betrayal, a father’s forbidding of love, banishment and exile, villainy, letters, and spies. Only, while this play includes many seeds that will mature and flower throughout his career, the play somehow doesn’t pack the weight of his later plays. And yet, it does have lyrical beauty and shows not only promise but moments of genius for the budding Catholic playwright.
The Catholic-ness of the play is found early. Two friends conversing, one of his upcoming journeys, one doting on his love, as he notes, “he after honor hunts, I after love.” The lover promises, “for I will be thy beadsman, Valentine.” Seemingly innocuous lines until one realizes the rosary is illegal in England. For Catholic audiences — struggling to maintain the faith in Anglican England where the old, ancestral faith is outlawed — Shakespeare is clearly establishing Catholic characteristics illegal in Elizabeth’s Anglican England where the Catholic church is banished and the State church propped up in its place, governed by the royals of England.
Spoiler alert, but as the story progresses, both friends find themselves in the imperial court, a stand in for the royal courts of England. Sadly, Proteus betrays his friend after plotting to woo his friend’s object of affection. As part of the betrayal, the Duke banishes Valentine who is exiled into the forest. Again, the early seeds of important Catholic themes that resound throughout his canon in plays like King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, As You Like It, Othello, and Richard III are all present and seen in this short and powerful play. Catholic themes are all here — of banishment, of slander, of disguised heroes, of betrayal and spies, of oaths and forswearing of them, and, of course, of love. Only, this is a comedy.
And as a comedy it ends with forgiveness, wedded bliss, and hope. As this one is an early play, Shakespeare’s cousin has yet to be arrested, tortured, and martyred, and so the later even more intense suffering he is about to experience has yet to forge the gut-wrenching genius and artistry that is to come. That takes place between 1592 and 1595 when his cousin, Saint Robert Southwell, is imprisoned, tortured, tormented, martyred, and impaled. That’s the crucible that forges the greatness of Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and his later canon. Once his cousin gave all unto death, Shakespeare transformed into the poet for all ages and all times. His cousin’s martyrdom forged Shakespeare’s destiny. But that is yet to come.
And this play is a comedy. And as a comedy, ends on a note of hope, with these words, as the restored Proteus listens to his friend Valentine tell the Duke about the hope of a united England, no longer separated by sacraments, liturgies, or even churches, but once again whole, holy, and one, like the forgotten times of old.
Come, Proteus, ‘tis your penance but to hear
The story of your loves discovered
That done, our day of marriage shall be yours:
One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.
Titus Andronicus
violent, Vicious, villanous, and ferocious
Tragedy, ~1592, 1st published as Quarto
Shakespeare is deep. Deeply Catholic. And in Titus Andronicus, we see the early stirrings and patterns of the genius that is to come. Shakespeare is entering into one of the most artistically fruitful decades of any poet, playwright, storyteller, or writer to have walked this earth. And early on in his career, he is setting the stage for the whole of his canon, which happens to be the greatest canon of literature published since the New Testament was penned in the streets and jail cells of the Roman empire.
In this first published tragedy of his, we learn how profoundly Catholic his canon will be. His plays are not simply great stories, but chronicles of world history. Let us consider a few details from Titus Andronicus to uncover how patterns in his plays disguise religious allegories through a mask of entertaining stories.
One of the first things Shakespeare teaches us in this visceral and violent slasher play is the importance of characters and their names. In this case, he remakes Roman history as a violent and contemporary political thriller. Let’s start with the name of the play’s namesake, Titus Andronicus.
Titus Andronicus is an amalgam of two important historical people.
One is Titus, who was Roman emperor in A.D. 79, and succeeds his father who came to imperial power during the Year of Four Emperors in A.D. 69. Before Titus became emperor, he found renown as a military commander in charge of ending the Jewish rebellion. Specifically, in A.D. 70, he captured Jerusalem and destroyed the city and the temple. The temple in Jerusalem is the only place ancient Jews are allowed to offer holy sacrifices to God.
The other is Andronicus, who is mentioned in the book of Maccabees, a book canonical for Catholics but not for Anglicans. The story of 2nd Maccabees starts with the following honorific commentary about the holy high priest,
“While the holy city was inhabited in all peace and the laws were observed as perfectly as possible, owing to the piety of Onias, the high priest and his hatred of wickedness, it came about that the kings themselves honored the holy place and enhanced the glory of the Temple with the most splendid offerings.”
Well, at this point, it may come as no surprise to those who hear Shakespeare that the one who slays the holy Onias is Andronicus.
“Menelaus then had a quiet word with Andronicus, urging him to get rid of Onais. Andronicus sought out Onias and, resorting to the trick of offering him his right hand on oath, succeeded in persuading him, despite the latter’s lingering suspicions, to leave sanctuary; whereupon, in defiance of all justice, he immediately put him to death.”
Is it just a coincidence or is it possibly part of a masterful design that in Shakespeare’s play, Titus Andronicus literally loses his right hand, being deceived by Aaron, much like Onias was tricked by Andronicus in the Maccabean story. A type of divine retribution and an artistic nod to the play’s namesake.
So, the name of the story is a mix of two historical people, one who destroys the temple where Old Testament sacrifices were made and another who kills the holy high priest of God. Interesting choices by the great Catholic storyteller. In England, the same thing happened under Henry 8th and his daughter Elizabeth, who made the sacrifice of the mass illegal, destroyed many places of worship, and killed priests who offered the body of Christ to his people.
Let us also consider one more character — Lavinia, the daughter of Titus Andronicus in Shakespeare’s story. In history, Lavinia is the name of the bride of the founder of Rome and she is also the Queen Mother to the Latin people. Anyone familiar with the sacred scriptures see readily how Lavinia stands as a ready symbol for the Catholic Church, the bride of Christ and mother to all Catholics.
Then consider in Shakespeare’s story the impact of her savage rape and mutilation by the Queen’s sons, her tongue cut out and hands cut off. Symbolically, these details stand as multiple metaphors — the Royal pillaging of the Church, the Crown’s censoring of Catholics, the government killing of the Church’s priests and lay faithful. Very literally, King Henry and Queen Elizabeth had Catholic priests dismembered, cutting off the very hands that brought the body of Christ to his bride in England.
With these few details in Titus Andronicus, we are only starting to scratch the surface of the deeply Catholic symbolism embedded within this entertaining masterpiece.
Unable to properly plumb the profound depths of this story in a short summary, the desire for brevity means we’ll conclude with this thought. The story is violent because it tells the story of the English church — which is a violent history. The way the State church treated Catholics is barbaric and cruel and violent. When the royals titled “Defenders of the Faith” became the chief martyr makers in English history, well, how else would a Catholic playwright chronicle the plight of his kinsmen and countrymen?
Queen Elizabeth, the evil slayer of his beloved cousin and other kinsmen, is represented in Titus Andronicus as the evil character Tamora, Queen of the Goths. If we think Tamora was evil, deceitful, and cruel, well, don’t look into the history of Elizabeth. English royals, especially her, were savage in their cruelty against Roman Catholics. Again, Shakespeare’s story is violent because it’s not simply a story for the stage, but also a history, disguised to avoid censorship, a story meant to chronicle the violent history of English royalty mutilating the Catholic church and her beloved children.
To hear Shakespeare is to learn Church history. And with this background, just consider how powerful these opening lines of the play must have been for English Catholic audiences suffering under tyranny, unable to legally be Catholic since the earlier generations of their fathers and forefathers.
Noble patricians, patrons of my right,
Defend the just of my cause with arms.
And countrymen, my loving followers,
Plead my successive title with your swords.
I am his first-born son that was the last
That wore the imperial diadem of Rome.
Then let my father's honors live in me,
Nor wrong mine age with this indignity.
The Comedy of Errors
therefore by law thou art condemned to die
Comedy, ~1594, 1st published in Folio
On the verge of greatness, The Comedy of Errors is another early play that highlights themes that will flourish later in Shakespeare’s canon. For a comedy, it starts off with a very severe set-up scene. The law in Ephesus is mentioned in the first lines,
Again, if any Syracusian born
Come to the bay of Ephesus — he dies,
His goods confiscate to the Duke’s dispose,
Unless a thousand marks be levied
To quite the penalty and to ransom him.
Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks.
Therefore by law thou art condemned to die.
Harsh laws and severe penalties, this opening is clearly written by a Catholic playwright to highlight the current laws in England, where any Catholic priest, English or otherwise, who sets foot on English soil is legally doomed to die. Priests were hunted in Elizabeth’s England, and to catch a priest was to condemn him to death.
Now, this is a comedy. So, the accused tells a story of long lost twins he is seeking. And Shakespeare uses the theme of mistaken identity and long lost twins to create some hilarious and slapstick humor for his audience, while also conveying some important religious truths core to England’s identity as a nation — ancient Catholic and newly Protestant. Identity is foremost in this play as it symbolically represents the issue of the two main churches in England, the government-sanctioned Anglican church, and the illegal, persecuted Catholic church. These churches were similar in the early days of the State church, and so, long lost twins is an apt metaphor to the separated churches.
But this is early in Shakespeare’s career, and so the symbolism he is using and exploring in these early comedies will find more depth very shortly. For example, using money as a symbol of the sacraments is experimented here but perfected in Twelfth Night. The symbolism of the ring is explored here and in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, but clarified in Merchant of Venice. These early comedies are critical to his development as an artist, storyteller, and chronicler of church history. And, as such, they function as important testimonies to his development as an artist.
Lastly, Ephesus, obviously as stand in for England, is another astute biblical choice from the Catholic playwright. In England, Queen Elizabeth was frequently referred to in poetry as Diana, the Latin goddess (or Artemis in Greek). So, Shakespeare uses this common English symbol for Elizabeth and offers important coded insights to his Catholic audiences. From a biblical point of view, Ephesus is important community with particular issues which Saint Luke chronicles in his book, The Acts of the Apostles.
A major controversy occurs in the 19th chapter while Saint Paul visits Ephesus, a jealous silversmith Demetrius who created shrines to Artemis, organizes other workers to persecute Saint Paul, relating,
“Men, you know well that our prosperity derives from this work. As you can now see and hear, not only in Ephesus but throughout most of the province of Asia this Paul has persuaded and misled a great number of people by saying that gods made by hands are not gods at all. The danger grows, not only that our business will be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be of no account, and that she whom the whole province of Asia and all the world worship will be stripped of her magnificence.”
This was eerily similar to the preaching of the gospel and sharing of the sacraments by Catholic priests. Queen Elizabeth feared they stripped her magnificence and reduced her power, wealth, and glory of her State-run church. And the tyrant created laws to encourage false worship and ban the true church from England. Like Shakespeare’s other plays, The Comedy of Errors is another key testimony to the hopes of English Catholics in not being banished from their beloved nation nor hunted by their evil Queen.
Let those with ears to hear, hear Shakespeare and learn world history.
Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,
Now the sun is laid to sleep,
Seated in thy silver chair,
State in wonted manner keep:
Hesperus entreats thy light,
Goddess, excellently bright.Earth, let not an envious shade
Dare itself to interpose;
Cynthia's shining orb was made
Heaven to clear when day did close:
Bless us then with wishèd sight,
Goddess, excellently bright.Lay thy bow of pearl apart,
And thy crystal-shining quiver;
Give unto the flying hart
Space to breathe, how short soever;
Thou that mak’st a day of night,
Goddess, excellently bright.— Queen & Huntress by Ben Johnson (1601)
Love’s Labor’s Lost
what fool would be so wise to lose an oath and gain a paradise?
Comedy, ~1594, 1st published as Quarto
Love’s Labor’s Lost , the first comedy published in Shakespeare’s lifetime, comes out clearly against the political machine. Shakespeare cements his place in print as the rebel writer preaching Catholic truths to a regime attempting to root out all traces of the old faith and true religion. As always with Shakespeare, the set up scene sets the stage for the story, and functions as a commentary for his Catholic audience.
In the set-up scene, two key items describe life in England for Catholics.
The first, the King and his close friends take a vow to forsake love and devote themselves to study. Let’s quickly unpack the allegorical meaning. The vow is a stand-in for the Oath of Supremacy, required by all who take public office, or as hinted in the play, also required by all who study in an English university. When modern critics are astounded and confounded that there is no record that so great a mind like Shakespeare’s went to university, it’s easy for Catholics to understand why. Catholics were barred by the government from attending English universities. To take the Oath of Supremacy is to forsake Christ and his bride.
Yes, once the Crown created a State church, they made it illegal for Catholics to hold public office or attend university in order to force obedience to the regime’s new religion, the church for Anglicans. For Catholics, the only universities available were on the continent. So, of course, there’s no record of Shakespeare attending the university, it would have meant apostasy to our Savior and the Church he loved.
Or, as Berowne in the play notes, the other option is “necessity will make us all forsworn.”
The second key theme to our set up scene, there is a proclamation that it is “a year’s imprisonment to be taken with a wench.” Costard tells the King he heard the proclamation, but not its observance. “I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it.”
In allegorical terms, Shakespeare is alluding to Queen Elizabeth’s Thirty Nine Articles of Religion, finalized in 1571, which describe the beliefs of the State church. In the play, the clown confesses that many people heard these proclamations, but few are observing them, insinuating that England remains firmly Catholic. Once again, Berowne foretells, “I’ll lay my head to any good man’s hat, these oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn.”
Shakespeare’s comedies are filled with gravities, and this is a comedy with much hilarity in the form of political satire. Very soon after taking their vows to study and forsake love, a Princess from France shows up with her attending ladies. Immediately, the King and his Lords find themselves foresworn of their oaths to study and avoid love. The Princess tells the King, “‘Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord.”
Since this is a comedy, all the lords find love with the ladies and the hilarity ensues in how they try to justify the foolishness of their earlier vows as they profess their divine love to the ladies.
My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;
Thy grace, being gained, cures all disgrace in me.
Vows are but breath, and breath a vapor is:
Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine,
Exhal’st this vapor vow; in thee it is.
If broken then, it is no fault of mine;
If by me broke, what fool is not so wise
To lose an oath to win a paradise?
A little later, Berowne once again tells the fellows,
Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves,
Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths.
It is religion to be thus forsworn,
For charity itself fulfills the law
And who can sever love from charity?
The message to this short play is clear, lose our Oath of Supremacy to find ourselves devoted to Christ and in communion with his holy Church. When one reads the Oath for itself, you realize that it is not simply Catholics that can’t take the Oath of Supremacy, but any Christian. The diabolic logic of the Oath of Supremacy is that it not only denies the Catholic church, but also Christ our King.
Oath of Supremacy: "I, A.B., do utterly testify and declare in my conscience that the queen's highness is the only supreme governor of this realm and of all other her highness's dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal, and that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm; and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all foreign jurisdictions, powers, superiorities, and authorities, and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the queen's highness, her heirs, and lawful successors, and to my power shall assist and defend all jurisdictions, pre-eminences, privileges, and authorities granted or belonging to the queen's highness, her heirs, and successors, or united or annexed to the imperial crown of this realm: so help me God and by the contents of this Book."
As better said by Shakespeare, “what fool is not so wise to lose an oath to win a paradise?”
If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?
— Jesus of Nazareth, King of KIngs