8 ‘A deed without a name’
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James R. Macdonald
Abstract
In the Life of Samuel Johnson, James Boswell records a conversation on April 8, 1779 among the guests at Allan Ramsey's house whose subject apparently turned to Macbeth. This chapter explores the different layers of theological uncertainty with which Macbeth confronts its spectators. Stephen Greenblatt observes that Shakespeare never offers the audience a clear understanding of the Sisters, instead 'staging the epistemological and ontological dilemmas that in the deeply contradictory ideological situation of his time haunted virtually all attempts to determine the status of witchcraft beliefs and practices'. It examines the reasons behind the play's remarkable reserve by connecting epistemological uncertainty to textual instability. Since the belated publication of Thomas Middleton's The Witch in 1778, scholars have recognized its strong textual connection with Macbeth. Middleton's putative changes certainly heighten the ambiguity of the Sisters' nature through contradiction and obfuscation.
Abstract
In the Life of Samuel Johnson, James Boswell records a conversation on April 8, 1779 among the guests at Allan Ramsey's house whose subject apparently turned to Macbeth. This chapter explores the different layers of theological uncertainty with which Macbeth confronts its spectators. Stephen Greenblatt observes that Shakespeare never offers the audience a clear understanding of the Sisters, instead 'staging the epistemological and ontological dilemmas that in the deeply contradictory ideological situation of his time haunted virtually all attempts to determine the status of witchcraft beliefs and practices'. It examines the reasons behind the play's remarkable reserve by connecting epistemological uncertainty to textual instability. Since the belated publication of Thomas Middleton's The Witch in 1778, scholars have recognized its strong textual connection with Macbeth. Middleton's putative changes certainly heighten the ambiguity of the Sisters' nature through contradiction and obfuscation.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgments xii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Religious ritual and literary form
- 1 Shylock celebrates Easter 21
- 2 Protestant faith and Catholic charity 39
- 3 Singing in the counter 56
- 4 Romancing the Eucharist 72
- 5 Edmund Spenser’s The Ruines of Time as a Protestant poetics of mourning and commemoration 90
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Part II Negotiating confessional conflict
- 6 Letters to a young prince 113
- 7 Tragic mediation in The White Devil 126
- 8 ‘A deed without a name’ 142
- 9 Henry V and the interrogative conscience as a space for the performative negotiation of confessional conflict 160
- 10 Formal experimentation and the question of Donne’s ecumenicalism 182
- 11 Foucault, confession, and Donne 196
- Afterword 216
- Index 239
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgments xii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Religious ritual and literary form
- 1 Shylock celebrates Easter 21
- 2 Protestant faith and Catholic charity 39
- 3 Singing in the counter 56
- 4 Romancing the Eucharist 72
- 5 Edmund Spenser’s The Ruines of Time as a Protestant poetics of mourning and commemoration 90
-
Part II Negotiating confessional conflict
- 6 Letters to a young prince 113
- 7 Tragic mediation in The White Devil 126
- 8 ‘A deed without a name’ 142
- 9 Henry V and the interrogative conscience as a space for the performative negotiation of confessional conflict 160
- 10 Formal experimentation and the question of Donne’s ecumenicalism 182
- 11 Foucault, confession, and Donne 196
- Afterword 216
- Index 239
