'Hamlet' and the Visual Arts, 1709-1900 by Alan Young (review)

Abstract

194 Reviews their respective fields of study contribute articles published in chronological order of subject, which offerthe reader a panorama of the building of literary careers from Ovid to English women writers of the Renaissance period. In the firstchapter John Farrell develops the idea that 'the literary career took shape in Rome [mainly with Virgil] under the specific influence of the careerist ideology of the patron class' and their socio-political position (p. 44). In 'From Cursus to Ductus: Figures of Writing in Western Late Antiquity (Augustine, Jerome, Cassiodorus, Bede)' (pp. 46-103) Mark Vessey depicts the parallel evolution of literary careers and spiritual progress in Christian intellectuals of the late Roman period, so different from the figure of the author as scribe pre-eminent in late ancient and medieval Christian ideology. Robert R. Edwards shows the difference between the elevated stance of writers in the Roman period and the practical position that they occupied in the medieval age. In Authority and Influence?Vocation and Anxiety: The Sense of a Literary Career in the Sentimental Novel and Celestina' James F. Burke shows how Fernando de Rojas developed an innovative literary career that gave rise to the construction of individual characters in late medieval Spanish literature, and which may antedate Cervantes's texts. William J. Kennedy describes Petrarch's career as oscillating from the point of view of authorship. Kathleen Bollard de Brosse investigates Fray Antonio de Guevara's literary persona, that arises from his manifold professional status. Anne J. Cruz continues with the relationship between the professional role of the writer outside his literary activity and the importance that it has for his literary reputation. Likewise, Anne Lake Prescott applies the same concept of intermingling literary and non-literary careers to English and French poets. Patrick Cheney follows up on this phenomenon of intersection and relocates it in England by studying Spenser's Februarie Eclogue. De Armas analyses Cervantes's career as a writer and relates it to the seminal Virgilian model in that respect. Alvaro Molina joins in the argument that literary fame is directly related to the political positions defended by the authors and applies it to Cervantes's treatment of the moriscos. In the last chapter, 'Renaissance Englishwomen and the Literary Career', Susanne Woods and Margaret P. Hannay, with Elaine Beilin and Anne Shaver, describe the position held by English women writers in the period, such as Margaret Cavendish or Mary Sidney, and defend their inclusion in the contemporary literary canon. University of Corunna MarIa Jesus Lorenzo Modia 'Hamlet* and the Visual Arts, ijog-igoo. By Alan Young. Cranbury, NJ: University of Delaware Press; London: Associated University Presses. 2002. 405 pp. ?50. ISBN 0-87413-794-2. 'Hamlet' and the Visual Arts sets out to document the relationship between images of the play and the view of Shakespeare's work in the popular imagination throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Alan Young has been largely successful in accomplishing his goal in this detailed study; however, the argument is somewhat thwarted by its presentational form. Text describing images cannot replace the im? ages themselves and rarely does them justice. While a number of key illustrations are reproduced alongside the text, the overall argument rests on the 'persuasive indication ofthe enormous impact that the proliferation of Hamlet images had upon cultural life at all levels of society in Britain and elsewhere' (p. 371). What the reader encounters is a proliferation of descriptions of images rather than the images themselves. This volume creates an appetite for a more fully illustrated work or, to my mind at least, another form of presentation. That said, the central argument of the book is clearly laid out and convincingly MLR, ioo.i, 2005 195 made. The firsttwo chapters give a detailed history of the development of Hamlet im? agery in the context ofsocial and mechanical developments during these two centuries. The second two chapters trace the history ofthe depiction ofparticular scenes through this complex cultural territory,first looking at the most popular scenes depicting Hamlet and then focusing on images of Ophelia across the period. The final chapter documents the ways in which parodies ofthe play, both on stage and in visual culture, indicate...