A MARXIST STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S COMEDIES

A MARXIST STUDY
OF SHAKESPEARE'S
COMEDIES
Elliot Krieger
 © Elliot Krieger 1979
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1979 978-0-333-26463-8
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission

First published 1979 by

THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Associated companies in Delhi
Dublin Hong Kong Johannesburg Lagos
Melbourne New York Singapore Tokyo

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Krieger, Elliot
A Marxist study of Shakespeare's comedies
1. Shakespeare, William - Comedies
I. Title
822.3'3 PR2981
ISBN 978-349-04656-0 ISBN 978-349-04654-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-04654-6

This book is sold subject

to the standard conditions
of the Net Book Agreement
For Marge
Property was thus appalled,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was called.
SHAKESPEARE,
("The Phoenix and Turtle", 37- 40)
Contents
Acknowledgements IX

1 INTRODUCTION I

2 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 8

"A Mutual Stand" Belmont 8
"I Give Them with This Ring" Property 16
"And from Your Love I Have a Warranty" Thriving 23
"Above This Sceptred Sway" The Trial 28
Irony 34

3 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM 37

"Such Separation as May Well be Said" The Athenian
Lovers 37
"I Will Overbear Your Will" Theseus 47
"To Take What They Mistake" Craftsmen and Fairies 51
Harmony 65

4 AS YOU LIKE IT 70
"Your Grace, That Can Translate" 70
"The Lineaments of Nature" 87

5 TWELFTH NIGHT 97
"The Morality of Indulgence" 97
"One Self King" The Aristocrats 101
"To His Image ... Did I Devotion" The Ideal
Servants 105
"Means for This Uncivil Rule" The Servants 114
"To Be Count Malvolio" 121
"All Is Fortune" Ideology 125

vii
Vlll Contents

6 HENRY IV, PART ONE I3I

"If I Do Grow Great, I'll Grow Less" Falstaff I 3I
"To Demand the Time ofDay" Prince Hal I38
"Revolted Tapsters, and Ostlers Trade-fall'n" I46
"My State ... Show'd Like a Feast" Hotspur and
Henry I56

Notes I7I

Index 178
Acknowledgements
All Shakespeare quotations are from The Riverside Shakespeare,
textual editer G. Blakemore Evans (Boston, Houghton Mifflin
Co., 1974).
An early version of Chapter I appeared in The Minnesota
Review, (ns7, 1976); an early version of Chapter 5 appeared in
Zeitschrifl fiir Anglistik und Amerikanistik (Leipzig, 25:4, 1977).
Several friends read and commented on parts of the manuscript.
I especially wish to thank Dick Fly, Irving Massey, Barry Phillips,
and Bill Saunders for their helpful criticism.
My friend and colleague Max Bluestone read the entire
manuscript with extraordinary care and attention. Without his
criticism, the manuscript could not have become this book.
I do not know how to thank my wife, Marge Rooney, except to
say that without her this book would not have been possible or
worth while.

IX