Shakespeare’s spiritual vaccine
[Guangming Shuhua]
Disaster has always been an important content and theme of drama narration. Shakespeare’s plays are undoubtedly the highest achievement of English drama in the Renaissance and an important part of English literature. In many plays, Shakespeare described a particularly special and terrible disaster-plague.
For example, there is a key scene in Romeo and Juliet. Father Lawrence sent his confidant John to send a crucial letter to Romeo. Because John accidentally walked into a plague-infected family when he passed through the plague-stricken area, the patrolman locked him in an isolated room, which delayed the delivery of the letter to Romeo as scheduled. It was because of the delay in this letter that Romeo took "dead Juliet" for granted and chose to commit suicide. Actually, Juliet is just in a deep coma after drinking medicine.
This scene not only reasonably explains why the letter didn’t arrive on time, but also truly describes the situation of everyone fearing for themselves after the plague. We learned from this that even in the 16th century when Shakespeare lived, the plague areas would take corresponding isolation measures. During the plague, the infected people were blocked in the house and were not allowed to go out; People who enter the city from outside should also be isolated in order to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
In addition, there are descriptions of the plague to varying degrees in plays such as Antony and Cleopatra, Coe Leoline, King Lear, Trollos and Cresida, and Timon of Athens. Shakespeare described plagues many times in his plays because he experienced and witnessed a dangerous and special era with frequent plagues.
1. Venus and adonis made Shakespeare famous.
In Shakespeare’s life, he suffered many major plagues. Peter Akrod mentioned in Shakespeare’s Biography that in the summer of 1564, the year when Shakespeare was born, in less than six months, about 237 residents died one after another, accounting for 1/10 of the total population of the parish, and only one third of the babies born in the town lived to one year old. Shakespeare became a survivor after the plague when his mother took him to a nearby village to take refuge.
Shakespeare is indeed a survivor and lucky one blessed by God. In the summer of 1592, the large-scale Black Death broke out in London until 1594, resulting in the death of one in every 12 residents, and Shakespeare, who made a living in London at that time, was lucky enough to escape again. Like contemporary writers, he was always threatened by plague and death, and his career was invaded by plague many times. Many of his neighbors, friends and audiences died in the plague one after another, but it is a miracle that he survived the plague and wrote immortal plays.
At that time, London, like other places in Europe, had limited official measures to control the spread and spread of the plague. Compared with the epidemic prevention and control mechanism all over the world in today’s Internet age, the plague control method at that time was very simple, and posting public notices was one of them. After a particularly serious plague, the government will print relevant notices and post them in more conspicuous public areas of the city to educate the public on matters needing attention in epidemic prevention. After the disaster, the government will also print a "Death List" with the parish as the unit to count and publicize the number of deaths.
Due to the spread of the plague, the London Public Theatre was forced to close in February 1593 and did not reopen until a year later. It rained all night, and after the public theater was briefly opened, the Privy Council ordered that acting be banned within 5 miles of London, and Shakespeare and his theater were in trouble. What was Shakespeare doing during the plague period from 1592 to 1594, when he lost his livelihood because of the closure of the theater? What does he do for a living? Although he can play some plays in the private houses of court nobles, this kind of gag performance is unreliable, and that meager income can’t guarantee him to support his family at all. During the plague, Shakespeare, if he wanted to stay in London, had to find other ways to make money, on the one hand, to support his family in Strafford, on the other hand, to find other jobs and outlets to replace acting. For those who were engaged in literary and artistic creation at that time, the most important thing was to find a sponsor.
As we all know, the most important patron of Shakespeare’s life is the Earl of Southampton. Venus and adonis, a long poem dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, was published in April, 1593. It is the first known poem published by Shakespeare, with a total of 1,194 lines. The creation of the long poem coincided with the plague in England. The main material of this long poem came from Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Young Shakespeare’s ideal was to be Ovid’s successor in England. Shakespeare wrote this long poem, on the one hand, because during the plague, he urgently needed to win the trust and support of his patron, Earl of Southampton; On the other hand, I want to show my talent in drawing lessons from and using classical literature resources, which is not inferior to those Cambridge students like Marlowe and Spencer, because they once ridiculed Shakespeare as a peasant who didn’t know grammar.
After the publication of this long poem, its popularity was unexpected by Shakespeare himself. It is said that almost every woman in a noble family in London has a copy of Venus and adonis on her desk, and it is also popular to copy Shakespeare’s poems among college students in Cambridge and students in the four major law schools. It can be said that what really made Shakespeare famous overnight was this long poem written during the plague. It is with this long poem that Shakespeare’s genius was appreciated by the Earl of Southampton. Scholars believe that Shakespeare’s second narrative poem "The Humiliation of Lucretius" may have been written during this period of avoiding the plague, and the poem reflects the true story in Roman history.
During the outbreak of the plague in London in 1592-1593, Shakespeare’s two narrative long poems, Venus and adonis and the Disgrace of Lucretius, made him famous and gained fame and fortune. The plague in Elizabethan period not only did not destroy Shakespeare’s poetic genius, but in a sense allowed him to stay away from complicated affairs temporarily. Under the protection of the Earl of Southampton, in a relatively comfortable environment, Shakespeare was able to devote himself to poetry creation and survived the terrible time when the plague prevailed.
Never let sad tears soak his plays.
Great changes in the history of the times can influence the rise and fall of drama, but not the talent of poets.
From December 1592 to 1593, London closed public theaters because of the plague; After a brief opening in 1594, it was closed in April and mid-May of that year because of a new epidemic. This repeated tossing caused some actors to change careers during the epidemic, and a large number of troupes were dissolved, and few troupes finally survived.
Shakespeare himself still insisted on preparing for the post-disaster reconstruction troupe during the plague-ridden period. He knew that many troupes would not persist, and those who persisted would be the final winners. In February 1594, Shakespeare completed the revenge tragedy Titus Andlau Knicks, which was the first published Shakespeare play. Then he created several historical dramas such as Richard II and King John.
Shortly after the plague, in May of 1594, under the protection of Baron Henston, the "Palace Minister Troupe" was established. Shakespeare also joined the troupe, and he contributed all the plays he had written in the past as the capital of his shareholding. Shakespeare is one of the eight shareholders of the troupe. According to The Chronicle of Shakespeare, it was from 1594 that he began his great cooperation with richard burbage.
During this period, Shakespeare, as the main actor and screenwriter of the troupe, wrote and acted. In 1594, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet and Richard II premiered one after another. As the first stage of Shakespeare’s creation, He has completed the futile love (1594), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1596), The Merchant of Venice (1596), Henry IV (Part 1 /1596), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597) and Henry IV (Part 2/1596). On the eve of the Earl of Essex’s rebellion in 1601, Shakespeare’s troupe performed charles ii at the Globe Theatre. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night also premiered in this year. Perhaps to bring some joy and comfort to people who are negative and world-weary after the plague, Shakespeare created many comedies after the plague.
However, the good times did not last long, and then in 1603, a large-scale plague broke out again, which made the originally turbulent national situation even more precarious. On March 24th, 1603, the Queen died at the age of seventy. The Tudor Dynasty, which began in henry vii and lasted for 118 years for five monarchs, came to an end. The air of death all over London aggravated the sadness of the queen’s death. As the Queen’s designated heir to the throne, James I succeeded.
James I brought changes to the theatre environment in London. On May 17, 1603, the "Palace Minister Troupe" was officially reorganized into the "King Sacrifice Troupe", and on May 19, the King of England issued a letter of patent. It probably means that no matter where Shakespeare’s troupe performs after the plague subsides, all localities should not only allow but also give the best support and assistance, but also give considerable courtesy. In the first ten years of James I’s reign, the actors of the Globe Theatre were invited to perform at the court more than ten times a year on average. At this time, Shakespeare already had the privilege of symbolizing identity.
In 1603, when the plague reached its peak, London officially printed the Death List, which was published every week for a penny, and thousands of names appeared on the death list with a huge print run. As today, once the citizens knew that the plague appeared in the city, the only way they could think of was to flee, but fleeing caused a greater spread of the plague. The nobles fled to the country villas to take refuge, but it was the same for the poor everywhere, so the poor were the ones who died the most in the plague. In order to prevent the people who fled the city from further aggravating the spread of the plague, the government will also issue regulations on isolation and confinement to restrict freedom of movement. Nevertheless, the plague in 1603 killed one fifth of the population.
During the plague, Shakespeare never put down his pen, and after the plague, he ushered in a turning point in his personal destiny. He not only wrote tit for tat (1604), Othello (1604), All’s well that ends well (1605), King Lear (1605) and Macbeth (1606).
During the plague, the theater was forced to close, and the official announcement prohibited "the audience gathering together" because it was particularly easy to lead to "large-scale infection of the plague or the epidemic of other infectious diseases". Without an audience, the troupe can’t survive. In order to survive, most troupes have moved to other provinces, from fixed places to traveling performances, and Shakespeare’s troupes often tour other provinces. In the history of London, the longest periods of theater closure were: 1581-1582, 1592-1593, 1603-1604, 1608-1609, 1625, 1630, 1636-1637, 1640 and 1641, respectively. The impact of theater closure on the troupe was as follows
In 1605, Shakespeare didn’t take part in the touring performance of the King’s Sacrifice Troupe. After Othello in 1604, Shakespeare devoted himself to the writing of King Lear, which was completed in early 1606 at the latest. Perhaps it is the direct context of the plague. Shakespeare asked King Lear to use the words "revenge, plague, death and chaos" in his curse on his daughter Reagan and her husband Cornwall, and denounced her as "a plague sore hidden in my corrupt blood". The exact time of script writing has been controversial in academic circles. Some scholars speculate that King Lear was written around the end of 1605 according to Gloucester’s lines in one scene and two scenes, "These recent solar and lunar eclipses are not good omen" and the phenomena of solar and lunar eclipses that occurred in September 1605.
Since then, Shakespeare has entered the most mature creative period of his life.
3. Look at the impermanence of life with rational eyes
Shakespeare, who has experienced the test of plague and death, naturally has a deeper understanding of the nature of the world and life. In The Tempest (1611), he borrowed Prospero’s words:
Our party is over. Our actors,
I once told you that it was a group of elves;
All of them have vanished into thin smoke.
Like the illusory composition of this illusion,
A castle in the clouds, a magnificent palace,
Solemn temples, even the earth itself,
And everything on earth, will also dissipate,
Just like this illusion, there is not even a shadow of smoke.
We are all dream characters,
Our life is in a deep sleep.
The characters and scenes on the stage are fleeting like a mirage, and so is human life. Plague eliminated the differences between society, class, gender, dignity and individuals. In this line by Shakespeare, the meaning of "the whole world is a stage" is perhaps more complicated than we realized before-the great poet has refined the truth contained in the "stage" of "the world", that is, "impermanence".
Shakespeare always enjoys light and shadow, reveling in ugliness and beauty, loftiness and inferiority, richness and poverty, smallness and magnificence. He created Iago and imogen with the same pleasure. No matter in the dark and horrible image of tragedy or the graceful and dreamy image of comedy, we can see the development of his English historical drama to Roman drama, his exploration of the national identity of England and Britain, his interest in the marginal "other" (such as Shylock the Jew and Othello the Moor), and the complex female images he created … In his great works, the thinking about life and death runs through.
Shakespeare’s plays show people’s attitude towards death-not to deny death, but to give it special meaning and gain wisdom from it. In tragedy, those who are doomed to be destroyed by fate will not leave this world casually. On the contrary, they have a special mission. They always convey the noble and rational spirit of human beings seriously and fully through philosophical language, just like Hamlet. Only after completing such a mission will they leave the stage in a solemn way.
Great art is a spiritual vaccine given to the world by great writers.
When viruses and plagues threatened mankind, Shakespeare wrote the most brilliant poems. When Shakespeare looked at the impermanence of life and the truth of existence with rational eyes, he affirmed the human appeal of love, freedom and perfection buried behind it, the moral laws from the ideal kingdom of beauty and the sacred inner light beyond religion, all of which made us feel that the plague stopped in the poet’s poems. For Shakespeare, who was immersed in art, the plague hardly existed. By creating a bright and poetic world, he revealed why Shakespeare was so extraordinary in the Renaissance when the stars were shining.
(Author: Gu Chunfang, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Peking University Art Institute)