Shakespeare and the Emblem: Studies in Renaissance Iconography and Iconology ed. by Tibor Fabiny

Abstract

Reviews 89 At the outset, the author expresses his confidence that complex argu­ ments “can be communicated in clear language.” Lindenberger’s style is indeed lucid and free of the jargonistic terminology of literary criticism (though he might have gone the full distance and avoided the use of foreground as a verb and the habitual preference of utilize over use). In a concluding “Retrospect” Lindenberger writes: “Throughout its . . . history opera has . . . practiced a certain outrageousness in its interactions both with other art forms and with the various social con­ texts in which it has flourished.” In Opera: The Extravagant Art the author practices a certain theoretical outrageousness of his own. Doubt­ less he will find his Beckmessers to chalk up indiscretions and “mistakes,” but I am confident that many readers of this book will find its enthusiastic extravagance in perfect harmony with its subject. GARY SCHMIDGALL University of Pennsylvania Shakespeare and the Emblem: Studies in Renaissance Iconography and Iconology, ed. Tibor Fabiny. Szeged, Hungary: Attila József Univer­ sity, 1984. Pp. 480 + illus. 60. This symposium represents both ongoing and innovative concerns of the University at Szeged, ongoing in that it is the third volume of “Papers in English and American Studies,” and innovative in that the papers published here “are the fruits of a two year project, which was partly launched by a deeply felt need to stimulate Shakespeare Studies in Hungary.” In this case, the goals and the results are admirable. I shall begin by disposing of a few rather technical observations. The volume is published by reproduction of typescripts, all apparently pre­ pared on a single machine so as to provide (as it does) a pleasant and uniformly readable text throughout, thereby reducing costs and also speeding publication. This works very well except for some illustrations which lack clarity and detail; in future publications of this kind, I hope that technological developments will make it possible to provide less “fuzzy” images. As for the language, the English throughout is clear and effective, although typographical errors occasionally appear. The contributors build upon the past fifteen years of international research into relations between visual and verbal icons and images, but they also attend carefully to such monumental earlier contributions as those by Samuel Chew, Erwin Panofsky, and others. Toward the end of the book, seventy-five pages are devoted to reviews of some two dozen seminal books, reviews which will no doubt be especially helpful in Hungary but which would be useful to any scholars interested in explor­ ing iconographical research for the first time. Eight principal essays make up the published symposium. Of these the first two are methodological. Tibor Fabiny begins with a broadly introductory essay entitled “Literature and Emblems: New Aspects in Shakespeare Studies,” to be followed by J. Pal’s “Some Iconological Aspects of the Poetic Sign,” which together set a clear-headed course. 90 Comparative Drama Six more particularized essays follow, of which two are by “foreign” scholars: Peter M. Daly, the Canadian who is contributing so much to emblematic research, provides examples (some original, others cited derivations) of how “interest in the iconograph and the emblem can help to bridge the gap between page and stage,” while warning that we should not exaggerate the importance of these new tools, “nor should they be regarded as an infallible code for the deciphering of a text, gesture, or stage property.” And the American Clifford Davidson pro­ vides in a briefer essay a balanced survey of the iconography of Wisdom and Folly in King Lear. Hungarian scholars, however, are the principal contributors, as they should be. Tibor Fabiny provides two interesting and well documented essays, one on the veritas filia temporis theme in Shakespeare, exploring also the general iconography of time and truth, and another on motifs of the theatrum mundi and the ages of man. There follows a short, rather methodological, consideration by Z. Szilassy of emblems as action, convention, and dramatic mechanisms on stage. Finally, Gyorgy E. Szonyi contributes a study of Alma’s House in The Faerie Queene, the only non-Shakespearean focus, but a subject clearly relevant to the dramatist. It is impressive indeed to see what has been achieved in these...