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The Longleat Manuscript Reconsidered: Shakespeare and the Sword of Lath
- Author(s):
- Christopher Crosbie (see profile)
- Date:
- 2014
- Group(s):
- Early Modern Theater, Renaissance / Early Modern Studies, Shakespeare
- Subject(s):
- Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616, Theater--Historiography, European drama--Renaissance
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- Peacham Drawing, Longleat Manuscript, Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Vice, Medieval Morality Play, Sword of Lath, Dagger of Lath, Aaron the Moor, Theater History
- Permanent URL:
- https://doi.org/10.17613/ts01-0418
- Abstract:
- The Longleat Manuscript, the earliest known illustration of a Shakespearean play, contains three main components: a passage from the beginning of Titus Andronicus where Tamora pleads for her son's life, lines from Aaron's final confession, and a hand-drawn image that, apparently, corresponds with neither passage fully. Amid other mysteries, the central interpretative question has always focused on the image of Aaron, its curious relation to the text below. Why does the illustrator give the captive a sword? Why append a monologue to a scene where Aaron remains silent? Building on the long-recognized connection between Aaron and the Vice figure of medieval and Tudor morality plays, this article argues for an emblematic reading of the Longleat drawing, revealing its indebtedness to the "sword of lath," a stage property designed to represent evil figuratively. In doing so, this essay reevaluates the reigning compositional theory for reading the manuscript and invites new inquiry into the ways in which preceding theatrical conventions helped shape engagement with late sixteenth-century commercial theater.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Journal article
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 8 months ago
- License:
- Attribution
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