Cantor - Shakespeares rome - republic and empire

Shakespeares Rome

REPUBLIC AND EMPIRE

WITH A NEW PREFACE

Paul A. Cantor

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO AND LONDON

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

1976 by Paul A. Cantor

Preface to the paperback edition 2017 by Paul A. Cantor

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.

First edition published in 1976 by Cornell University

Second edition published in 2017 by The University of Chicago Press

Printed in the United States of America

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ISBN-13: 978-0-226-46895-2 (paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-46900-3 (e-book)

DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226469003.001.0001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cantor, Paul A. (Paul Arthur), 1945 author.

Title: Shakespeares Rome : Republic and Empire : with a new preface / Paul A. Cantor.

Description: Second edition. | Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Originally published: First edition. Ithaca, New York : Cornell University Press, 1976.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016058730 | ISBN 9780226468952 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226469003 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Shakespeare, William, 15641616Criticism and interpretation. | RomeIn literature. | Historical drama, EnglishHistory and criticism. | Shakespeare, William, 15641616. Coriolanus. | Shakespeare, William, 15641616. Antony and Cleopatra. | Coriolanus, Cnaeus MarciusIn literature. | Antonius, Marcus, 83 B.C.?30 B.C.In literature. | English dramaRoman influences.

Classification: LCC PR3069.R6 C3 2017 | DDC 822.3/3--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016058730

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

Preface to the Paperback Edition

I was delighted when the University of Chicago Press decided to reprint my first book, Shakespeares Rome: Republic and Empire, to accompany their publication of my new book, Shakespeares Roman Trilogy: The Twilight of the Ancient World. I had long dreamed of doing a revised edition of the earlier book, to allow me to add new observations I had developed over the years. Finally, I realized that the true solution was to write a whole new book on the subject. Now that I have accomplished that, we are republishing Shakespeares Rome: Republic and Empire exactly as it appeared in 1976. My new book has given me the chance to modify anything I said in the earlier book and to develop at length the new thoughts I have had about Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra in the four decades since I wrote Shakespeares Rome. I hope that people reading Shakespeares Rome for the first time will be motivated to turn to Shakespeares Roman Trilogy to see my further reflections on three of Shakespeares greatest works. By the same token, reading Shakespeares Roman Trilogy will shed new light on Shakespeares Rome, and in particular give new meaning to what I discuss as the liberation of eros in this book In the introduction to Shakespeares Roman Trilogy, I explain how the two books differ and identify the ways in which the new one marks an advance beyond the old. Shakespeares Roman Trilogy may be the more wide-ranging book, but Shakespeares Rome, with its focus on Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra, allows me to analyze in greater depth the distinctive worlds of republic and empire as Shakespeare portrays them. In this book I work out the details of how the republican and the imperial regimes operate, and I also do more of the kind of character analysis typical of most studies of the Roman plays, for example, discussing the pride of Coriolanus and the love of Antony and Cleopatra in ways that I do not in Shakespeares Roman Trilogy. The two books are complementary, looking at the same subject from different angles. Shakespeares genius is legendarily inexhaustible, and even in two books I could not possibly say all that there is to say about the Roman plays. Still, I believe that together these two books illuminate central aspects of Shakespeares achievement, especially the political dimension.

When I wrote Shakespeares Rome back in the 1970s, I felt a need to justify taking a political approach to the Roman plays. After all, in the afterglow of the New Criticism, people at that time were still writing about image patterns in the Roman plays and treating them as lyric poetry. As it turned out, Shakespeares Rome formed part of the seismic shift in literary criticism that began in the 1970s, which brought political issues to the fore in studying Shakespeare. In particular, this book was an early example of what came to be known as the Shakespeare as Political Thinker approach (after a book with that title, edited by John Alvis and Thomas West, which came out in 1981). I believe that Shakespeare belongs in a long tradition of treating Rome from the perspective of political philosophy. Accordingly, in both my books I have studied Shakespeares Rome in a broader and more philosophical context than is often the case. For understanding the distinctive nature of the ancient city (the polis), I have gone back to Plato and Aristotle, and for analysis of the Roman regime specifically, I have drawn on Polybius and Plutarch. I have also turned to Machiavellis understanding of Rome, perhaps a direct influence on Shakespeare but in any event a major contribution to comprehending the larger significance of Roman history for the modern world.

I develop the philosophical background to understanding Shakespeares Rome more explicitly and fully in Shakespeares Roman Trilogy. In the new book, I even extend forward the dialogue about Rome between Shakespeare and other thinkers to include figures he could not have read but whom he in many ways anticipatedphilosophers such as Montesquieu, Hegel, and Nietzsche. Rome as a philosophical problem has been at the center of political theory from antiquity to the present day. The history of Rome has proven to be crucial to understanding the difference between republics and empires, and thus more generally to the study of the political regime as a formative agent in human life. As I explain in the introduction to Shakespeares Roman Trilogy, Shakespeare participates in the long and distinguished tradition of regarding the Roman republic as superior to the empire in political terms.

The more I have studied the Roman plays, the more I have become convinced that, in terms of profundity and scope, Shakespeares thinking about Rome can stand comparison with that of anyone who has ever taken up the subject. I hope that, together, Shakespeares Rome and Shakespeares Roman Trilogy will validate this claim. In coming back repeatedly to the Roman plays, I have been trying to advance our understanding of both Shakespeare and Rome.

This republication allows me to correct a major omission in my original acknowledgments. At the time, my editor at Cornell University Press asked me not to mention him, but at this remove, I trust that I may now say that this book would not have been published without the firm support and generous encouragement of Bernhard Kendler.

Preface to the First Edition

i

This study of Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra is based on the assumption that Shakespeares Roman plays may provide an opportunity to learn something about Rome as well as about Shakespeare. As innocuous as this assumption seems, it runs counter to the most common critical attitude toward the Roman plays. Ever since Ben Jonson, it has been fashionable to question Shakespeares knowledge of Rome, and in some cases even to maintain that his Romans are merely Elizabethan Englishmen in disguise. and therefore any investigation of his portrait of Rome would be of antiquarian interest only.