Shakespeare's Women - A French View

7/29/2019 Shakespeare's Women - A French View

1/14

Shakespeare's Women - A French ViewAuthor(s): Henri PeyreSource: Yale French Studies, No. 33, Shakespeare in France (1964), pp. 107-119Published by: Yale University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2929597 .

Accessed: 21/06/2013 19:35

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Yale University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Yale French

Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 143.107.252.5 on Fri, 21 Jun 2013 19:35:01 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=yalehttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2929597?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2929597?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=yale


2/14

HENRI PEYRE

Shakespeare'sWomen A FrenchViewFor a century nd a halfShakespeare'sfame has been firmlystab-lished n France.More translationsnd adaptations fhisplays havebeen attemptedherethan in any other anguage,perhapsbecausenone evermatched heunchallenged ualityoftheversionsmade inGermanby Tieck and Schlegel, nd inRussianby Pasternak.Thereis hardly Frenchproducer f talentwhohas not staged several ofhis playsfromGemier,Copeau, and Dullin, to Vilar and the pro-vincialcompanies of Marseille,Saint-Etienne, nd Lyon. In 1948,at theEdinburgh estival, ean-Louis arraultdeclared: "The fact sherewhichneedsno elaboration:Shakespeare s a positiveneedfortheFrenchman. hakespeare s almost as muchacted in France asMoliere and more oftenthanRacine." All of Shakespeare's playshave been staged n thepresent entury,ncludinghe most demand-ingones for a company and an audience King Lear, Antony andCleopatra),themostbewildering o theFrench (Measure forMeas-ure and, in 1963-64, Troilusand Cressida). Coriolanusprovokedanear-revolutionn Paris in 1934. Even a veryundramatic oem likeThe Rape ofLucrecewas turnednto a play between he twoWorldWars.We have been toldthatthe Sonnets n whichShakespeare sdrawnalternatelyo thebewitchingnd treacherous ark Lady andthe enticingyoungman with"a woman's face with nature'sownhand painted,""the master-mistress"f the poet's passions,havebeen actedas a play in severaldramatic tudios n Paris.Still it wouldbe indeeddisappointingo findthe French under-standing hakespeareexactly n the same way as English critics.Theyapproach himthroughranslations hich nevitablyransfigurehispoetry s muchas RacineorBaudelaire are distorted hen urnedintoEnglish.They are conditionedby a taste,acquired early, fordramatic tructurend forpsychological nalysis.Theyare. urprised,ifenchanted t times, y a poetrywhichbreaksthe dramatic ontinu-ity nd relieves hetragic nguish. ome ofthem why notconfessit? do not disagreetotallywithVoltaire's slurson "the drunken,coarse barbarian"whentheyread Pericles,or thehair-raisingceneinwhich itusAndronicus iolates ndmutilates isdaughter avinia,orLadyAnne's sudden greementomarriagewith he same RichardIII whohas just murdered erbelovedhusband.

107

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/14

Yale French StudiesTheFrench nderwenthe ontagionf Shakespearedolatryirst

from etourneur,nd then venmorefrom heir omanticsuringtheperiod nding bout1875. Someof thebest nd mostaudatorywritingnShakespeare asdone yHugo,Montegut, ezieres, aine,andStapfer. hepresentrenchdulation or heBard would eemto be cooler, ndmore iscerning.hesame anprobably e said oftheUnited tateswhere he 1964 centenaryas beenmarked ycoolness,osay the east, nd evenofBritain here hecelebrationhas assumed n officialharactero which he challengef sharpdissentwouldhave been preferable.ot many re the criticswhowould oday eadily ndorse heraving raisewhich, ne hundredtwenty ears ago, flowingrom hepens of Hazlitt,Lamb, andColeridge, eifiedhakespeare.oleridge ostulatedn his lectureson Shakespearehat in allpoints rom hemost mportanto themostminute,he udgmentf Shakespeares commensurateith isgenius."Whenhe encountered,n Coriolanus, hat ppeared o bean imperfection,efelt ertain hat e would ventuallyealize hatitwas infact profoundxcellence. is criticismf Shakespeare,andhis estheticsenerally includingheabsurdlyverratedndhardlymeaningfulppositionetweenmaginationndfancy havein ourcenturyrovokedn idolatryfColeridgenacademic ircleswhich orders n lunacy.Hazlitt's astewas far urer ndhis psy-chologicalnsightmmeasurablyharper. hakespearemaybe toocolossally reat o "abideourquestion." utsurelyhere re andwillbe oscillationsf thependulumftastewhere venhe is con-cerned. olstoy ndG. B. Shawmayhaveproved aradoxical,pin-ionated, r petty n theirmisguidedssaults n him.Reasonabledoubts aised ngoodfaith y French nd other dmirersf Shake-spearemay,however,e moreenlighteninghanone moreover-sophisticatednalysis fShakespeareanmageryr onemorebanaltributeo hisuniversality.Wehavepointedlsewhere*o threereasofevaluationn whichmodern rench riticismf Shakespeare ad voiced ts strongestreservations.he first, aturallynoughfor a countryn whichRacine, ndevenCorneille,ave n thepresententurygain ecomemodels f dramatic erfection,s that f thestructuref Shake-speare's lays nd oftheirackoffitnessor he tage. harles ambhimselfadoncepointed o that ackof fitnessna strikingssayofElia whichdealtwith Lear. The secondlack, again scathinglydenouncedyGeorge antayanand by scholars uch as HerbertGrierson,loquentlynd independentlyeplored yCatholic oets* In an essay published in 1964 in a collective volume on Shakespeare (inhonor of ProfessorRobert W. Babcock) published by the Wayne State Uni-versityPress, Detroit: The Persistence of Shakespeare Idolatry.

108

This content downloaded from 143.107.252.5 on Fri, 21 Jun 2013 19:35:01 PMAll use subject toJSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


4/14

HENRI PEYRElike Claudel and even by agnosticbut spiritualFrenchmen, s theabsence of religiousconcern n Shakespeare: he writes as if sin,redemption,he Bible, and Christhad never had meaning r realityforhim. He has been said to have understoodwell nigh everythingexceptthe religious xperience.Ourpurposehere s to stresswhat s doubtless third nd evenmorepotent tumbling lock to a genuine dmirationftheBard by manyContinental eaders.For many people across theChannel, iteratureis thevehiclethroughwhichtheyhave, early n their ives, acquiredsome knowledgeof love and some insight nto women. For theFrench, ven love is matter or analysis, nd gainsthrough dequateimaginative nd intellectual reparation.Now Shakespeare'swomenare, forthe most part,adorable creatures f sweetness nd grace,eeriephantoms f delight,ngels of purity nd ofspontaneous ban-don to the man theyhave chosen - for the choice more often stheirsrather han theirpartner's.But are they true, credible,con-vincingwomen?Or, as Hazlitt puts it in his Characters f Shake-speare'sPlays, is "theirpeculiar excellence that they seem to existonly ntheir ttachmentoothers?" hey are,he adds, "pureabstrac-tionsof theaffections." as not Shakespearefailedto probe search-ingly nto those unconscious, rotic,or even intellectual ecrets oflove whichsoon afterhis time were to become themost enthrallingof literary ubjects in the works of Donne, Racine, Richardson,Prevost,Marivaux, Rousseau, Goethe, Stendhal, nd Tolstoy? Themodernreader of Proust and Rilke, or even of Mann and Moraviamustfeelcarried nto a fairy ale or nursery hymeworldof unrealfancywhen he compares thewomenhe knowsfrom ife and fromtoday'snovels to the charmingRosalind, Juliet,mogen, and Mir-anda; togirlsdisguised s youngmen (Rosaline,Viola, Celia, Sylvia,even the dignified ut pedantic Portia), or monsters ike Goneril,Regan,and that moral ldest ister f Lolita and of Queneau's Zazie,Cressida.The Victorianshad naturally udged otherwise.A Mrs. Jamesonand otherwomenwriters, ontemporariesf Tennyson,weremulti-plying olumes nd keepsakes n which hakespeare's rainless ngelsofpurity nd paragonsof fidelity ereset up as modelsforthe vir-gins of Her Majesty'sempire. Ruskin, whose private ife failed todisplayany mature nsightnto the other sex, in the second of hisSesame and Lilies lectures ummarily ecreed that Shakespearehadnoheroes, nlyheroines.Mostof theseheroines refaultless,stead-fast n gravehope and errorless urpose." The men in Shakespearecausecatastrophes hroughheir aults r their olly; ut "theredemp-tion, f therebe any, s thewisdom nd virtue f a woman,and fail-

109



5/14

Yale French Studiesing that, here s none." Even theharsh nd, to many, epulsiveIsabella n Measure orMeasure tandsn Ruskin's yesfor thevic-torious ruthndadamantineurityf a woman." nly ne of thosewomen s declaredweak: Ophelia.Only hree Lear'seldest augh-ters nd Macbeth'swife) are wicked "frightfulxceptions."Ruskin's referenceent learly o whatVerlaine alled,follow-ingE. A. Poe, a "childwife." or a fewmonths,r a fewdays, neachman'sexistence,ucha preferenceor a baby doll may beindulged. ora, nthe peningcene fA Doll's House, hus musesher ondescendingusband y her ffectedhildishness.nnaKare-ninadoes ikewise,nder ven eavieronstraint;o doesthe oveliestofall fictionaleroines, atasha, nWarand Peace. But they oonweary f that ole, nd anymanwearies ven ooner fhavingmar-ried ninconsequentialrattlingittle irlwith heheadofa bird ndthemmutableidelityf dog.Taine, n the ixth ectionf he hap-teron Shakespeare n his History f English Literature, fterpor-trayinghemales nhis theatres coarsebarbarians,lumps ffleshmadeheavywithwine nd fat," ontrastshewomen o them: Theyarecharminghildren,hofeelto an excess nd love to thepointof madness." ompared o them, he heroines ftheFrench tagealmost ook ikemen.Taine'snephew, hevrillon, ho was fond fseeing Celt nShakespearewhosebirthplaceaynottoofarfromWales),wrote venmorerapturouslyftheentrancingeminityfthose eroines; e saw them s sistersf theGaelicfairies hphadnoneofthepracticalityftheAnglo-Saxonsypifiedytheprosaicand empiricalobinson rusoe.With tter aivete,hakespeare's omen hrowhemselvestthenecks f thementhey avedecided o love with tter bandonand notmuch nderstatement.uliet, hom hakespeare adefouryearsyoungerhan he was in the talian tory y Luigida Porto,during erfirstnterviewith omeo, rofferser ovetothe rdentyoungman with s little uileas CandyChristiann the recentAmericanatire:

Mybountys as boundlesss the ea,Mylove as deep;themore giveto thee,The more have, or oth re nfinite.The gentleMiranda atches ight fFerdinand,he thirdmanshehas ever een andthefirst orwhom he has sighed: henaturallyfalls nlovewith im t once. Attheirecond ncounter,heofferstocarrynhisplace he ogswhich erfathernjoined im oremoveandpileup.Shedisobeyserfather howatches er musedly.es-demonarenounces ersto follow heMoor;withno less candor

110



6/14

HENRI PEYREand with utterdisregard f all feminine iplomacy, he awkwardlyand insistently leads the cause of Cassio, wholly unaware of herhusband's haracter. essica louts erfather, hylock,withno qualmsand, seated near Lorenzo, oblivious f "the Jew"who is beingtaughtlessons of mercy, he prefers o admire "how the floor f heaven/Is thick nlaid with patines of brightgold." Almost any piece offlatteryan win theseunsophisticatedirls,whomno mother as everwarned against the,deceit of golden tongues. ndeed Shakespeare'swomen Ophelia, Desdemona, Cordelia, mogen,and a hostof oth-ers) have no mothers nd never eem to have undergone mother'srestrainingnfluence. ir Valentine,one of the two Gentlemen fVerona, umsup thepractice nd conviction f honey-tonguedhake-pearean males whenhe declaresto the Duke:

Though ne'er so black, say theyhave angels' faces.That man thathath a tongue, say, s no man,If withhis tonguehe cannotwin a woman.Thesuitors o noteven have to strain heirwitanddip long nto heirstoreof poetical compliments o win thesegirls. Cressida,the onlygenuine oquette alongwithCleopatra amongthese"ladies,"did offer he semblanceof some resistance; ut she promptly eas-suresa clumsyTroiluswho was going o imagineher hard towin:

Hard to seem won: but I was won, my lord,With hefirst lance....The others eldom hesitate o take the first tep in love. As Halitt(theauthor fthat amentable iberAmoriswhich howshow muchmore experthe was in bookish ove than n dealingwithwomen nreal life) explains discreetly, hakespeare'sheroines are taught ytheforce of feelingwhen to foregothe form of propriety or theessenceof t." Even thewittiestnd mostplayfully estrained f theseheroines,Beatricein Much Ado about Nothing another orphan),forsakesher prideand her contempt fter he realizes, ike one ofMarivaux'smoreanalytical eunes files, that she has fought gainstherinclinationsong enough and is attracted o Benedick. She doesnothesitate, n a briefmonologue, o lay down theweapon of herself-controlnd of her sharp tongue:

And, Benedick, ove on: I will requitethee,Taming mywildheartto thy ovinghand.Wouldto God, many Continentalman wouldexclaim,womenwereindeedso easy to conquer,or rather o prompt o surrender nd to

111



7/14

Yale French Studiesremainteadfastlyonstantver fter! hateaubriand,he irstrenchcritic o commentpon hemonotonyf these ngelichakespeareancreatures, hose anguage at leastto a foreignar) is hardly is-tinguishablerom ne to the other, robably as swayed y thatidyllic icture f the Englishgirlwhen he fell in love with anEnglish astor's aughter, harlotteves. Many a Frenchman idthe ame, erlioz eing hemost otoriousxample fa Frenchman'sinfatuation ithShakespeare's eroines. ut whileChateaubriandhad left constant ife t homeand had to withdrawefore heprospect f bigamy,oorBerloizmarried he actresswhomhe hadapplauded s JulietndOphelia not understandingword f whatshe recited) and sufferedhe consequences. amartine,Vigny,Tocqueville most inconstantusbands, ll) likewise lectedfortheir rides entle ndpatient ompatriotsf Cordelia ndImogen:whatpoor forlorn ives hey ecame!With econdthoughts,owever, typical renchman onderswhatmerit heremaybe in winning lady so entirelyevoidofcomplexity,o prompto rewardyperbolicoetical ompliments,oinexperttunderstandinghedeploymentf wit, f maginativeies,oftenderelf-analysis,f ntellectualasteryo which maleresortswhen e enjoys hepursuitvenmore han he atch.Wemay nvythe marriedife whichRodriguewill lead withChimene, ithmonthlyisit n theirhildren'sompany o thegrave f Chimene'sfather;he xistence hich iphares ouldhavehad with hemodest,simple,ndregallyroudMonime, he dealwoman ormany maledream; ven hatwhichAlceste,f he hadbeena littleess rascibleand a littlemorecharitable, ight ave enjoyedwithCelimene.Those adieswould elight enwithheirhanging oods, heirve-ningreminiscencesy the fireside"Rodrique, ui l'efit ru?""Chimene, ui l'eu't dit?"), their ntellectualebateswith their"gloire" nd theirucidself-control,heirmoral ualms.Husbandswould venpreferhat heirmates e exposed o occasional emp-tationsnd even yield o them, o that he maleswouldhavetheadvantagefforgivinghem r ofsavoringhe ophisticatedelightofa reconciliation.Coleridgensisted pon lauding he lily-whiteuilelessnessfShakespeareaneroines.Shakespeareas no innocentdulteries,ointerestingncests, o virtuous ice,"he averred.Whatearnedhismoral ulogymay appearas a lackofpsychologicalepth o themoderneaderwhohasfedonStendhal, laubert,hekhov,trind-berg,nd Proust. e may egrethat hepoet f the onnets idnotlendto enough fhis angelic reaturesome ofthe nner onflictswhich ad tornhimwhenhe penned umbers42 and 144 ofhissonnetequence:Love is my in andthy earvirtue ate, r,Two

112



8/14

HENRI PEYREloves I have of comfort nd despair. The debateswhich move ourminds as well as our emotions n Corneille'sPauline or in Racine.'sAndromaque, nd which fewwomenin real life have escaped, arealmostwholly bsentfrom hakespeare.Their trugglesre without-side circumstances r witha destiny nscribed n the stars,seldomwith nner motiveswhichmighthave stood againsttheirfeelings,whether hey e pride,dignity,ilialdevotion, eligious cruples, on-flicting exual or sentimentalttractions, oliticalconcerns.Thereis little soul-searchingn the women's soliloquies in Shakespeare.It may appear seductive o a very young man, eager to assert hisown ego by crushing woman's,to dream of an obedientmistresslike Desdemona who, at themale's bidding,would lie down andreadily ccept strangulation;r, like Imogen, meekly ubmit o herhusband's order to have her murdered; r, like the clumsyOpheliawho is used as a decoy by her father, e incapableeither f under-standing r ofcuringHamlet,of sharing singleone ofhis torturedthoughts,onsentingmeekly o get herself o a nunnery. ontinentaldramatistsnd novelists ave accustomedus to morecomplexchar-acter-drawinghanwe find n thesegentleheroines.RichardFeverelhimselfwould notlonghaveremained nder he swayof thecharac-terless and childish daughterof Prospero. Basil de Selincourtremarked hat the Englishmindhas a native ffinityorunanalyzedadjustmentsnd reactions."We are less certain odaythan weretheVictorians hat such a refusal o look inwardenhances the interestofliterary eroines.Elmer Edgar Stoll, the American critic who quoted the abovesentencefromBasil de Selincourt,was thoroughly onversantwithFrench classical drama. His studyof Shakespeare's Young Lovers(OxfordUniversity ress,1937) multipliesntelligenteservationsnthe lack of variety nd of truthfulnessn Shakespeare'swomeninlove. He resists he charmof Imogen by whom ven G. B. Shawhad been enraptured who indeed behaves like a gullible, oolishgirl, ltogether evoid ofcritical ense.He is less annoyedby Portia's"affectation nd pedantry" the terms are Hazlitt's), by her sillyacceptanceof her father'swhims,which s followedby her decep-tionofhimand her ludicrous rickwiththe rings, han many otherreaders of The Merchantof Venice would be. But he impatientlybrooks he traditional avings f English ritics ver the manyunrealgirls who populate Shakespeare's pastoral comedies, from Hermiaand Helena in MidsummerNight'sDream to Perdita, he flower-girlof A Winter'sTale. He does not balk at the characterization fShakespeare'smaidens s "those ong-legged,oose-mouthed oydensin rompers"offered y one of the most original iterary riticsofAmerica n the first alf of this century, rofessorHall Frye. It is

113



9/14

Yale French Studiesno wonder,hen, hatn order o preservehefetishismhich, inceGarrick ndMrs. Montagu, as surroundedven the oosest ndflimsiestfShakespeare'somedies,omeAmericanymbol-huntersamong he ately new" ritics aveendeavoredo discovereligiousand spiritual eaningsoncealed nderCymbelinendA Winter'sTale!A Frenchman'sisadvantageies probablyn his nothaving ead,earlynchildhood,amb'sTalesfrom hakespearergentle oeticalexcerptsrom hakespeare'somedies.Whenhe comes o them t alater ge,havinglready dmiredhematureomplexityfEuripides'and of Racine's women, haredthe struggles etween ove and"amour-propre"f Corneille's eroines,ead MadameBovary ndhalf allenn ovewith a Sanseverina,e is liable obe onlymildlyamused ythe nconsequentialnd desultoryehavior fthose pen-hearted ut light-brainednglish irls:Rosalind nd Celia inAsYou Like It, Olivia in Twelfth ight who quicklyforgets bout thebrother hom he was mourning),ndeventhenun, sabella,whodiscoursesike a pedant nd firstosses side herbrother'sifewiththe words: Die, perish . . I'll pray thousand rayersorthydeath./No word o save thee." ater hefinds trangelyax excusesfor he ewdhypocriticalyrant ngelo. ikeAlice n Wonderland,GilbertndSullivan's peras, nd, on anotherevel,The Pilgrim'sProgress ndthe sonorous adencesof theAuthorizedVersion f theBible, uchworkswouldhave to be absorbedarlyn life n orderto hold under heir way hosewho werebornon the wrong ideoftheChannel rof theAtlantic.In Shakespeare'sragediesand Measure orMeasure omes loseto beingone), the heroines' ocation eemsto be to bring bouterrors,mistakes,rimes, nd, throughheirveryvirtues,o rushheadlongotheir uin.Neverhasthecommon ayingfLatinmenrung ruer:women'smanifestestiny,ike that of philosophers,is to complicatenproblemsfideasand of ifewhatmightther-wisehavebecome oo disgustinglyasy.French atholicsnparticu-lar, monghemn Academician,eanGuitton,refond fponder-ingoverwhat o them s one ofthegreatest ysteriesf faith:whydidGod create wo sexes?Paul Claudel, hanwhomno dramatistinFrancewasmore hakespeareannda great dmirerftheBard,deplored itterlyhefrighteningbsenceof God in Shakespeare'stheatre,heutterackofanyverticalranscendencenMacbeth ndLear. As he readand reread hakespeare,thatgeniuswhoneverfoundGod,"hecame lsotomiss portrayalfwomenomparableto Agrippine,hedre, oxane,Athalie.He sufferedorpoorCor-delia and her amentablewkwardness,ried overthe five imesrepeated never" f thedying ingwho has recovered isdaughter

114



10/14

HENRI PEYREonly o watchherdie; but what prosaicfuneral pitaphAlbanyusesto conclude themostghastly ramaever written: The oldest hathborne most." The pagan Goethe at least allowed his Gretchen obe saved!Claudel spokeand wroterepeatedly n Shakespeare,notablywhenhe succeededLouis Gillet, nother dmirer ftheBard, in theFrenchAcademy. n 1931; Gillet had written n elegant and veryFrenchpopularization n Shakespeare.A pillarof theCatholic nd conserva-tiveRevue des Deux Mondes and a warm admirer f Dante, aboutwhom he wrote n even better ook than his Shakespeare,he couldbut lamentShakespeare's otal unawareness f the Holy Trinity,heabsence ofany repentance n the Sonnets, hevirtual bsence of anysense of sin in his plays, the exclusion of Christfromhis dramas.More than any Greek, French, or Spanish tragedy, hakespeare's(Othello, Macbeth, Lear, and, even more exultingly, ntony ndCleopatra) end in a universal riumph f death. Even as he hasstabbedJagobeforehe himselfwelcomes hesting f death whichCleopatracompares to a lover's kiss -the Moor bitterly ejoicesthathe has not quite killed his deceiver. I'd have thee live;/ For,in my sense, tis happinessto die." Like many a French readerofShakespeare and of Englishpoetry rom idney through oleridgeto Auden's "Lay thy sleepinghead, my love,"), he wondersat theweird bsessionwith hetheme f sleep sleep n solitude, aturally,and inutter blivion f all, even of dreams amongEnglishwriters.But his most ogentremarks n what he, and his compatriots,missin Shakespearerevolve round our themehere. His womenhave lit-tledepthand hold scant attraction or a "Latin."Not oneofhisplays bears a woman's name for tstitle.The contrastwith Frenchclassical drama, with Hugo, and with the. authors ofHedda Gablerand of The Three Sisters s indeed sharp. n manyofthegreat ragedies, heir ole is perfunctory:ortia n JuliusCaesar,orVirgilia n Coriolanuswho says hardly ortyines n thecourse ofthe play. Cordelia utters bout one hundred n all and disappearsfrom he drama after he first cene and does not reappear until heendof Act IV. Her silenceduring hatfirstceneinwhichLear dis-plays his inability o read into his daughters'characters, houghpraised strangelynough by the King of France as "a tardiness nnature,"defies ll verisimilitude:t enables thetouching ordelia tofulfill rolenotunlike hose of Desdemonaand Ophelia: she wreakshavoc when she wantsto serve.All these womenwho believeGillethintsat this thattheywere born to save, were in truthborn to destroy.They lack all insight nto the psychological ndmoralworld, s does Gertruden Hamlet: she remainsunperceiving

115



11/14

Yale French Studiesof themoralssuewhichortureser on, ven houghheboastfullydeclaresnAct III: "yet ll that s, I see." LadyMacbeth,houghshemayforsake er sleepandher reason, oes noteven rise upto the piritualnd moral ense fguiltwhich ormentserhusband.AstoCressida,he ess aidthebettern the iew fthose rench-menwhoadmireHomer, r evenGiraudoux. heywould all her"unepetite este."EvenHeinrich eine,whoprofessedohate heEnglish, assurprisedyher rudity.ommentingnShakespeare'swomenn a volume ublishedn 1838 to accompanyngravingsfthose adies ofthemost diousnationwhichGod inhisanger re-ated,"he attemptedo be more,ynical han heFrench. We err,"he hinted,inthinkinghatwomen ease-toove when hey etrayus. Theydo but follow heirnature."But Cressida's shamelessdeceitofTroilusunderhisvery yes s toomuch, ven to a reader f ManonLescaut and of Les Liaisons dangereuses.Coleridge,while quotingthe lines in whichUlysses gives a physical description a rareoccurrence n Shakespeare of that born courtesanwho feignsinnocence

(Nay, her foot speaks; her wantonspirit ooks outAt every oint and motive f herbody).resorted o clouds of circumlocutions o explain her lewdness. nher,he explained, Shakespearehas drawn heportrait fa vehementpassion that,having tstrueoriginand proper cause in warmth ftemperament,astens n, rather hanfixesto, some one object byliking ndtemporaryreference"Notesand Lectures: hakespeare).The English rt of understatement!Neitherthe Frenchified eine nor French critics even if theybelongto theAcademy) can lay claimto prudishness henreadingPericlesor Troilus nd Cressida and pretend obe outraged ybruteimmorality. ather,they are exasperatedby the whimperingndinconsistencyf thatwilycreature n whomShakespeare seems tohave sketched weaker image of his Cleopatra. She is not eventruly erfidious r cruel, as Racine's heroines an be. (The hideousRegan ofLear maybe an exception.)Shakespeare'sfemalesdo notseem eventorealizewhat vil s. Mauriac and othermodern escend-antsofRacine, and Claudel himselfn his splendidcreationof Ysein Partage de Midi, have been more subtle n portrayingheBaude-lairian traitwhichmakes criminalwomentrulyprofound:"la con-science dans le mal."When much has been said (for all neverwillbe said on Shake-speare), at the root of thefeeling f embarrassment hich urks nmanya Continental uropean's (and apparently lso in manyan

116



12/14

HENRI PEYREAmerican's) rather ukewarm eactionto Shakespeare'swomenonce we have outgrown herapturousributesf theRomantics isanotherrealization:Shakespeare's portrait f love is magnificentlyand luxuriantlyoetical, dyllic, aradisiac. t is a summation f allthe power over words and music which the EnglishRenaissanceachieved ven better, erhaps, hanhad the talian.The most nchant-ing of the lyricswithwhichthe comediesare interspersed"Take,o take those ips away") and many of thedramatic nd passionatecries ofbaffledmen, ike the Moor's "Yet I do love thee,and whenI love thee not/Chaos is come again,"rise above anything lse inthewhole rangeofliteraturend of music.But in a centurywhich has delightedn theRussian and Frenchnovelswhich, inceFlaubert,Tolstoy,Joyce,Proust,have analyzedlove afterphysicalpossession and eroticism,whichconsidersLaw-rence'sWomen nLove as a classic,hails Lulu on theoperatic tage,buysNana and FannyHill at everybookstand, t mustbe confessedthat Shakespeare'stimidityn delving ntothe harrowingmysteriesof sensuality lienateshimfrommanyof us. We wouldnot blamehim forhavingcome at the end of the Middle Ages and forbeingcloser to medieval romancesthan to modernpsychological iction.Enough criticshave never the less undertaken o prove that heanticipated reud and Havelock Ellis. But we cannothelp findingthat n abyss,not ofone hundred ut offivehundred ears, eparateshis Rosalind, Viola, Perdita, mogen, and Portia fromRoxane andPhedre. His women,even the married nes like Imogen and Des-demona, even the sophisticated nes like Beatrice, seem nevertohave either experienced or imaginedthe realitiesof love, or itsphysicalsubstratum. he French used to smile at the Victoriannovel whichtook it for granted hat overs had no lips. Their lips,in Shakespeare's plays, serve for prattlingnd babbling, often na charmingly ure friendshipetween womaidens: Hero and Bea-trice,Celia and Roxane, Viola and Olivia. They are seldomusedforkissing. dmondJaloux,a great admirer f Elizabethandrama,once remarked n the scarcity f the scenes n Shakespeare nwhicheven an embrace s exchangedby a couple. Cressida, at herboldestin thefourth ct, would be one of thoserare exceptions, nd Cleo-patra the outstanding ne in the unforgettableirst cene in whichshe and Antony xchange caress:

Cleo.: If itbe love indeed, ell me howmuch.Ant.: There'sbeggary n the love than can be reckon'd.Antony, efiningheirkissing, s "thenoblenessof life,"challengestherestof the worldto match uch a peerlessdelight. lsewherewe

117



13/14

Yale French Studiesare eft o wonderfLadyMacbeth ver ntertainedny oveforherhusband a more ertinentuestion han hat roposed y thenowfamousmockessay, How Many Children ad LadyMacbeth?".What owers idDesdemona ield verOthello n the ilence f thenight, hat ppeal did the hunchback ichard II have for LadyAnneor thevileEdmund orReganand Goneril?Men are seldomloved fortheir rains r for theirmature irmnessf purpose nShakespeare;moreusually t is for some exterior andsomeness.Neitherdmirationordesire, eitherespect or malepersonalitynor an impulse temmingrom he sensesplaysmuchpart n thelove of these trangelynsexedwomen. t is hard o realize hat hesamepoetwhowas so timid t facing herealities f passion n hisplayshas also conjured p the mostburning cstasies f sensualgluttonyn the stanzas f Venusand Adoniswhichbegin"Nowquickdesire ath aught heyieldingrey...."The explanation as offered y Cibber, arly n the eighteenthcentury,nd by many thers ince, hat ny suggestivembrace rclosecaresswouldhavebeengrosslyncongruousn theElizabethanstagewherewomen's artswere playedby youngmen.Nothing,however,ndicateshat udiencesn Shakespeare'simeswere wareofanythingudicrous,r were n any way repelled, hen heado-lescentwho took the partof Cleopatra hanked messenger iththe words: There's old, nd here/My bluestveins o kiss."Orwhenthe man who mpersonatedady Macbeth lluded o "his"femininendmaternalosom:"I havegiven uck, ndknow/Howtendertis o ove he abethatmilksme."Or: "Come omywoman'sbreasts,/ nd takemymilk orgall."Others ave, n the strengthf the Sonnets, inted hatShake-spearemight avenurturedpreferenceor hekind f ovefavoredby manyGreeks nd thereforeacked genuinenterestntheoppo-site ex.But Sophocles, hought is well-knownhathe shared heinclination hichwas to be that f Oscar Wilde ndGide (each amarriedman ike theBard), of Proust nd Tchaikowsky,everthe-less createdAntigone; nd Proustianwomen tand n no lack ofconvincingruth. peculationsboutShakespeare's rivateife andtastes ave neveryieldedmuch ruit; hey explain" othing.actssimply oint o Shakespeares a manof his time,not of ours.Exceptforthe creationf the coquettish,aughty,nd capriciousCleopatra hose ovewassatiated even houghheherselfmakeshungry/ heremost he satisfies" his women re notendowedwith he fullnessnd the complexityfRacine's, fWebster's,revenofShakespeare'soungerontemporary,ohn onne, he yni-cal poetof"The Flea" and of "Love'sConstancy."Itmaybe a mark f Frenchevityo contendhat, incemost

118



14/14

HENRI PEYREliterature as been composed by males,the supreme chievementnit is to succeed in creatingwomenwho are not onlyall that menmay desire ntheir ondest reams lovely, hanging, ickle, nter-tainingly aried, unpredictable,ntuitive, n St. John Chrysostom'swords, a desirablecalamity;"but also what theycan actuallybe:intelligentlynalytical, ensible, practical,maddeninglyogical,notunmindful f the senses and not lovingthemselvesnd theirmoodsmoreardently han theirpartner, s Cleopatra herself oes. Shake-speareanidolatry, nd the admiration or his women instilled nmost Englishpeople fromtheirchildhood on, may be responsibleforthe relatively mall numberof true women to be encounteredin the sweep of English iterature.romFielding to Hardy, passingthroughWordsworth, helley,Keats, Tennyson,Swinburne,Wilde,and Hopkins.Of Christabels here re many, nd of ladies appearingwith a dulcimer n drug-provoked reams,and of witchesof Atlas,and of dreamingMadelines of theEve of St. Agnes, and of Ladiesof Shalott, nd other Tennysonianmaidenshaving"but fed on theroses and lain in the ilies of life."But if iteratureoes play a con-siderable ole nmolding hefeminines well as theheroic deals ofa nation, foreignermay ascribeto Shakespeare'sportraits certainfairytale and Prince Charmingnotion of woman which perhapsaccountsforsome profound exual dissatisfactiont thecore, fEng-lish and American culture.The notion, endorsed by Pope at thebeginning fhis Epistle to a Lady, that

Mostwomenhave no characters t allfinds omereinforcementn thereading f the loveliestpastoralandromantic lays of the Bard.

119

Shakespeare's Women - A French View

Documents

Transcript of Shakespeare's Women - A French View