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Shakespeare and Cognition - Aristotle's Legacy and Shakespearean
Drama
By Arthur F Kinney
Routledge
£16.99
Dateline: 17th October, 2006
In his previous book Shakespeare's Webs Kinney examined the
use of stage props in Shakespeare's theatre. He now turns his attention
to those objects and images - particularly crowns, bells, rings and
wills - that are visible to the audience only in their imaginations,
mention of which sparks memories of the same or similar objects together
with their cultural/emotional connotations.
Aristotle's Metaphysics opens with the words "All men by
nature desire to know", and the philosopher goes on to posit that
knowledge is gained by the process of sight, perception and memory.
As Kinney says, "We enlarge on this when we claim knowledge is
the vision of some thing that is processed by the brain along neural
pathways and across synapses worn down by frequent usage". The
fact that memories of a particular object or event change slightly every
time they are retrieved leaves plenty of scope for ambiguity and reinterpretation,
and Shakespeare writes his plays "in such a way that certain key
moments have potentially conflicted meanings, that there is only indeterminacy
at the heart of the most lasting drama".
One such key moment is the Julius Caesar's off-stage refusal of a crown.
But what exactly is this unseen crown, or "one of these coronets"
as Casca describes it? Is Brutus correct in assuming that Caesar intends
to accept the offer of kingship on the Ides of March? If we assume that
Mark Antony did in fact present Caesar with a crown, it could have been
one of laurel in recognition of his victory over Pompey. This unseen
incident is what makes Brutus decide to kill Caesar, but as Kinney points
out, in the seventeenth century coronets were worn by earls, not by
kings - and Shakespeare was always careful to differentiate between
the two
Off-stage bells also play an important role in Shakespeare, particularly
in Macbeth. Kinney contends that memories of England's recent
Catholic past, in which the ringing of a bell during mass signified
"sacred acts performed by ordained persons", may have influenced
audiences' response to the scene in which the bell rung by Lady Macbeth
to tell her husband that his drink is ready is interpreted by him as
the bell that signals the time for him to murder the saintly Duncan.
Kinney's chapter on rings is particularly interesting. Rings appear
in many of Shakespeare's plays but never more poignantly than in The
Merchant of Venice, in which Shylock's runaway daughter Jessica
steals the turquoise ring given to him - possibly as a betrothal gift
- by his late wife Leah. To add insult to injury Jessica exchanges it
for a monkey, a symbol of lust. Kinney reminds us that Jewish lineage
passes through the female line, so because of Jessica's conversion Shylock's
descendants will be Christians. It is the loss of this treasured ring,
unseen by the audience, that determines Shylock to make Antonio's "pound
of flesh", formerly an obviously absurd condition, into gruesome
reality.
Finally, Kinney discusses Shakespeare's use of wills. Primogeniture,
the notorious wardship system and illegitimacy were topics of keen interest
in Shakespeare's lifetime, so it is no wonder that "absent wills
and present heirs" feature so prominently in his work. The plots
of All's Well, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice
- to name but a few - revolve around the power of a dead parent or guardian
over a young person. And of course, the history plays would be a great
deal shorter without the themes of usurpation and bastardy…
Shakespeare and Cognition is a fascinating and wide-ranging
examination of why his plays, whilst rooted in the late sixteenth-early
seventeenth century, have retained their appeal for four centuries.
In Kinney's words, "Shakespeare's key moments have potentially
conflicted meanings, apparently endless readings and controversy that
makes his plays appreciated both by native English speakers and by those
'in states unborn and accents yet unknown'."
J D Atkinson
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