Shakespeare's Use of the Catch as Dramatic Metaphor

Abstract

of the world, alien to the context.' Dryden, in An Essay of Dramatic Poesy, regretted that Shakespeare's wit often degenerated into clenches. The passage affords prime example of the sort of quibble which Doctor Johnson said the poet found irresistible, Atalanta the golden apple and the traveler the ignis fatuus. Recent linguistic criticism, however, takes more favorable The passage is quoted, among other examples, by Helge Kokeritz to illustrate the aspect of Shakespeare which Doctor Johnson deplored but which actually constitutes a rich and rewarding field of research.'0 In Julius Caesar it seems to point to mythic archetype that was often drawn into Shakespeare's mind an emblem, whether of heart acutely distressed or of man suddenly turned upon by subjects or supposed friends. Ovid stresses the innocence of Actaeon and tells of the murmuring among the deities at the fate of the unlucky hunter, and the persistence of the mythic image might be taken an index to Shakespeare's sympathies. The case of Falstaff, however, warns us not to extrapolate Actaeon's blamelessness to Caesar. Nor can undue importance be attached to the fact that only to the conspirators is applied the epithet of dog, an animal Shakespeare often sees in an unfavorable light: this element is inherent in the myth and also in Antony's ability to see the assassination only savage spectacle. There still remains the true Shakespearean ambiguity, the dramatization of contradictory points of view. Brutus prescribed early in the action that the conspirators carve Caesar as Dish fit for the Gods, / Not hew him Carkasse fit for Hounds (II. i. I73I74), and he died with his noble concept of their deed intact. To Antony they were butchers; yet instead of descending, he might have done, to Hamlet's pun on Brutus's brutality, he finally eulogizes his manhood and gentle life, exempting him from the invidiousness of the pack he has run with.