Service and Dependency in Shakespeare's Plays

Description

This is an unusual study of the nature of service and other types of dependency and patronage in Shakespeare's drama. By considering the close associations of service with childhood or youth, marriage and friendship, Judith Weil sheds new light on social practice and dramatic action. Approached as dynamic explorations of a familiar custom, the plays are shown to demonstrate a surprising consciousness of obligations, and a fascination with how dependants actively change each other. They help us understand why early modern people may have found service both frightening and enabling. Attentive to a range of historical sources, and social and cultural issues, Weil also emphasizes the linguistic ambiguities created by service relationships, and their rich potential for interpretation on the stage. The book includes close readings of dramatic sequences in twelve plays, including Hamlet, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew and King Lear.

Judith Weil has recently retired from the post of Professor of English at the University of Manitoba. Co-editor, with her husband Herbert Weil, of 'The First Part of King Henry IV' (Cambridge, 1997), she has published widely on Shakespeare and Renaissance drama, including essays in 'Marlowe, History and Sexuality: New Essays on the Life and Writings of Christopher Marlowe', ed. Paul Whitfield White, 'Renaissance Female Tragic Heroines', ed. Naomi Conn Liebler and 'Approaches to Teaching English Renaissance Drama', ed. Alexander Leggatt and Karen Bamford.

'An ... imaginative and unusual book, unusually well written ... The book entertainingly and impressively negotiates the terrain between the plays and their circumambient culture.' Shakespeare Survey 59