J. F. Bernard - Shakespearean Melancholy: Philosophy, Form and the Transformation of Comedy

SHAKESPEAREAN MELANCHOLY

EDINBURGH CRITICAL STUDIES IN SHAKESPEARE AND PHILOSOPHY

Series Editor: Kevin Curran

Edinburgh Critical Studies in Shakespeare and Philosophy takes seriously the speculative and world-making properties of Shakespeares art. Maintaining a broad view of philosophy that accommodates first-order questions of metaphysics, ethics, politics and aesthetics, the series also expands our understanding of philosophy to include the unique kinds of theoretical work carried out by performance and poetry itself. These scholarly monographs will reinvigorate Shakespeare studies by opening new interdisciplinary conversations among scholars, artists and students.

Editorial Board Members

Ewan Fernie, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham

James Kearney, University of California, Santa Barbara

Julia Reinhard Lupton, University of California, Irvine

Madhavi Menon, Ashoka University

Simon Palfrey, Oxford University

Tiffany Stern, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham

Henry Turner, Rutgers University

Michael Witmore, The Folger Shakespeare Library

Paul Yachnin, McGill University

Published Titles

Rethinking Shakespeares Political Philosophy: From Lear to Leviathan

Alex Schulman

Shakespeare in Hindsight: Counterfactual Thinking and Shakespearean Tragedy

Amir Khan

Second Death: Theatricalities of the Soul in Shakespeares Drama

Donovan Sherman

Shakespeares Fugitive Politics

Thomas P. Anderson

Is Shylock Jewish?: Citing Scripture and the Moral Agency of Shakespeares Jews

Sara Coodin

Chaste Value: Economic Crisis, Female Chastity and the Production of Social Difference on Shakespeares Stage

Katherine Gillen

Shakespearean Melancholy: Philosophy, Form and the Transformation of Comedy

J. F. Bernard

Forthcoming Titles

Making Publics in Shakespeares Playhouse

Paul Yachnin

Derrida Reads Shakespeare

Chiara Alfano

The Play and the Thing: A Phenomenology of Shakespearean Theatre

Matthew Wagner

Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic: Selfhood, Stoicism and Civil War in Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra

Patrick Gray

Conceiving Desire: Metaphor, Cognition and Eros in Lyly and Shakespeare

Gillian Knoll

Shakespeares Moral Compass: Ethical decision-making in his plays

Neema Parvini

Shakespeare and the Truth-Teller: Confronting the Cynic Ideal

David Hershinow

Revenge Tragedy and Classical Philosophy on the Early Modern Stage

Christopher Crosbie

For further information please visit our website at edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/ecsst

SHAKESPEAREAN MELANCHOLY

Philosophy, Form and the
Transformation of Comedy

J. F. BERNARD

EDINBURGH

University Press

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J. F. Bernard, 2018

Edinburgh University Press Ltd

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I have been thinking about melancholy, comedy and Shakespeare for eleven years, ever since I took a graduate seminar with my masters advisor, Kevin Pask, at Concordia University. My first debt of gratitude is thus his for having put me on this path. From Concordia, I also thank Louis-Patrick Leroux and Meredith Evans.

I have incurred many more debts along the way and will do my best to acknowledge them here.

I owe quite a lot to my doctoral advisor at the University of Montreal, Joyce Boro, for her guidance, wisdom and support. I also thank Heike Harting, Lianne Moyes and Heather Meek.

I am also incredibly grateful to two friends with whom I had the pleasure (and pains) of going through the doctoral program while at U de M. The encouragement and timely insight given by Maude Lapierre and Frederik Byrn Khlert live in the margins of this book.

As a graduate student, I was fortunate enough to hold two research assistantships with the Shakespeare Performance and Research Team at McGill University, as well as to present some of my work at their various meetings, which proved an invaluable learning and growing experience, both personally and professionally. I thank Wes Folkerth, Leanore Lieblein, Denis Salter and Paul Yachnin to that effect.

. I am very grateful to Niamh and to everyone who participated in the event.

In May of 2016, I had the opportunity to partake in a month-long seminar at the University of Michigan thanks to the Early Modern Conversions Project. Though the work I did there pertains to another project, the informal and thought-provoking discussions with colleagues over food and drinks (so much food) were most welcome and have helped shape parts of the argument of this book. My heartfelt thanks go to Alison Searle, Stephen Spiess and Lieke Stelling.

Michael Bristols mentorship and friendship over the years has brought me more than can be expressed here. As evidenced through my critical framework, his work has had a strong influence on mine. His nod, if I can indulge in a baseball metaphor, is equivalent to Sandy Koufax telling me I can pitch. Thanks, Mike.

I am very grateful to everyone at Edinburgh University Press, Commissioning Editor Michelle Houston and Assistant Commissioning Editors Ersev Ersoy and Adela Rauchova, as well as my two anonymous readers, whose comments helped enhance the overall quality of the manuscript. In particular, I wish to thank the series editor, Kevin Curran, for his insight and support throughout this project. The book could not have come to fruition without him. I wish to thank Emily Bernard and Diana Verrall, as well as Diana Neate, for attentive readings of portions of the manuscript. Josie Panzuto also undertook a generous and insightful reading of the introduction at a timely juncture. I thank the amazing (and dare I say magical) Nisha Coleman for her unbelievable insight and diligent reading of the manuscript near the end.

I thank my family and friends for their love and support over the years. Je vous aime tous trs fort.

A portion of , on The Merchant of Venice, appeared previously in Renaissance Studies (The Merchant of Venice and Shakespeares Sense of Humour(s), 28 November 2014, p. 5). I thank them for the permission to reproduce the material here.

SERIES EDITORS PREFACE

Picture Macbeth alone on stage, staring intently into empty space. Is this a dagger which I see before me? he asks, grasping decisively at the air. On one hand, this is a quintessentially theatrical question. At once an object and a vector, the dagger describes the possibility of knowledge (Is this a dagger) in specifically visual and spatial terms (which I see before me). At the same time, Macbeth is posing a quintessentially philosophical question, one that assumes knowledge to be both conditional and experiential, and that probes the relationship between certainty and perception as well as intention and action. It is from this shared ground of art and inquiry, of theatre and theory, that this series advances its basic premise: Shakespeare is philosophical.