Judith Shakespeare Reading

Abstract

R ECENT SCHOLARSHIP HAS DONE MUCH TO EXPAND our understanding of how early modern women wrote, but a related topic has received less attention: how did they read? When Shakespeare imagines women in love, he often puts written material in their hands. Compared to women in other genres, the young women of the comedies do an inordinate amount of reading and writing, and they are especially likely to be writing letters to or reading letters from their romantic interests. Such letters surface in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Silvia and Julia both read and send letters), The Merchant of Venice (Jessica writes to Lorenzo; Portia writes to Bellario to save her husband's friend), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Mistress Quickly receives a letter asking for her help wooing Anne Page; the wives read Falstaff's love letters), Much Ado about Nothing (Beatrice writes a love letter that is stolen and revealed at the end), As You Like It (Celia and Rosalind read Orlando's love verse; Phebe writes a love note to Ganymede), Twelfth Night (Viola writes out her love speech to Olivia on Orsino's behalf; Maria uses Olivia's character to woo Malvolio), All's Well That Ends Well (Helena and the Countess both write letters about Helena's love for Bertram; Parolles writes to Diana), and Troilus and Cressida (Cressida writes a letter to Troilus). ' To be sure, a young woman occasionally looks at a book, as does Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew, Ophelia in Hamlet, or Imogen in Cymbeline. But it is far more common for Shakespeare's literate women to be studying love letters than good books. (Both Ophelia and Imogen also have letters to read or write.) Even outside the comedies, where courtship is less important, when women read, they read letters. Thus Queen Margaret (3 Henry VI, 3.3.166), Cordelia, Goneril, and Regan (King Lear, 2.2.165; 3.5.10; 4.2.82; 4.5.1529), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth, 1.5.1), and Volumnia (Coriolanus, 2.1.108) all read or send letters.2 This pattern of female literacy centers on personal