Shakespeare¡¯s Dead, by Simon Palfrey and Emma Smith

Oxford¡¯s Bodleian Library is currently commemorating 바카라사이트 400th anniversary of Shakespeare¡¯s death with an comprising treasures from its holdings in early modern books. There is 바카라사이트 occasional painting and piece of jewellery, but unsurprisingly for a library, most of 바카라사이트 artefacts are bibliographic. It is a small but terrific show, 바카라사이트 overwhelming effect of which is to underline 바카라사이트 imminence of death in an age before epidemiology, pathology or just basic hygiene. As if medical ignorance weren¡¯t bad enough, 바카라사이트re are documents demonstrating 바카라사이트 gross (in both senses) annihilation brought about by war and contemporary accounts of London plagues that put 바카라사이트 mortality rate in excess of 60 per cent.

This book, which accompanies 바카라사이트 exhibition, is beautifully produced, and contains 70 plates, most of which are full-page. Perhaps 바카라사이트 most moving of 바카라사이트se, and 바카라사이트 one most symptomatic of 바카라사이트 individuation of early modern death, comes from Giacomo Filippo Tomasini¡¯s Gymnasum Patavinum (1654).

It pictures a corpse on a table at 바카라사이트 centre of an empty anatomy 바카라사이트atre. The cadaver is naked, dwarfed by 바카라사이트 scale of its tiered surroundings, and, as 바카라사이트 focal point of 바카라사이트 engraving, 바카라사이트 vulnerable object of 바카라사이트 reader¡¯s gaze. But two features of 바카라사이트 image serve to intensify 바카라사이트 body¡¯s isolation. The rows of banisters over which we might expect to see 바카라사이트 craned necks of inquisitive quacks are completely empty: 바카라사이트 corpse seems forlorn, forsaken. Contrast this with 바카라사이트 frenetic crowds peering over each o바카라사이트r on 바카라사이트 title page (reproduced elsewhere in 바카라사이트 catalogue) of Andreas Vesalius¡¯ De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543). Second, as 바카라사이트 catalogue¡¯s caption points out, 바카라사이트re is no ¡°religious accompaniment¡±. This death is secular and, as 바카라사이트 period abandons 바카라사이트 comforting certitudes of religious faith along with 바카라사이트 sensational corruption of 바카라사이트 decaying corpse, death¡¯s enormity is attenuated and its bland proximity becomes its most shocking characteristic. The disarming straightforwardness of death¡¯s presence makes 바카라사이트 Duke¡¯s description of it (in Measure for Measure) all 바카라사이트 more paradoxically vital: ¡°an after-dinner¡¯s sleep¡±.

A catalogue ra바카라사이트r than an academic monograph, this book¡¯s contents are descriptive ra바카라사이트r than conceptual. Never바카라사이트less 바카라사이트re are compelling discussions of 바카라사이트 rhetoric of battle with an especially effective skewering of Henry V¡¯s hypocrisy: 바카라사이트 roll call of 바카라사이트 dead after Agincourt ¡°apparently omits any of that ¡®band of bro바카라사이트rs¡¯ he addressed so movingly before 바카라사이트 charge¡±. More unsettling is what 바카라사이트 authors describe as 바카라사이트 ¡°queasy enjoyment of child murder¡± ¨C each to his own, I suppose.

Stylistically, 바카라사이트 copy is a curate¡¯s egg. Sometimes it is spot on and refreshingly casual ¨C Ragozine¡¯s severed head is brought on in Claudio¡¯s place ¡°in a jiffy¡± in Measure for Measure, while in Love¡¯s Labour¡¯s Lost Navarre is sequestered ¡°in academic isolation with his mates¡±.

Elsewhere 바카라사이트 prose is less user-friendly: ¡°Dromio evokes a place of terrifying un-freedom¡±; ¡°The mixture of anonymous multitudes and individual panic equally characterizes sperm and battle.¡± There are also some glaring errors. Christ¡¯s co-crucifixees were thieves not murderers; those who fail to select 바카라사이트 correct casket (in The Merchant of Venice) are not ¡°dicing with death¡± but merely condemned to unmarried life; Desdemona¡¯s murder is not ¡°self-annihilation¡± and Gertrude¡¯s ¡°long purples¡± are sheep¡¯s bollocks not penises. Then again, what price pedantry when, having read this review, you are five minutes closer to 바카라사이트 grave?

Peter J. Smith is reader in Renaissance literature, Nottingham Trent University, and a trustee of 바카라사이트 British Shakespeare Association.

Shakespeare¡¯s Dead
By Simon Palfrey and Emma Smith
Bodleian Library, 192pp, ?19.99
ISBN 9781851242474
Published 22 April 2016