Abstract
The royal mothers in Shakespeare’s plays often display qualities that Vives and other conduct book writers warn against, such as pride, overindulgence of their children, and emotional excess. Near the end of his career, Shakespeare writes his most fully developed mother-queen, Hermione, through whom he explores the tensions generated by the figure of the royal mother. The Winter’s Tale raises the possibility of a mother-queen who wields a disruptive power, only to reject that possibility and show Hermione as a good queen: not only a virtuous wife but also a virtuous mother. Nevertheless, though the play ultimately dismisses the image of the dangerous or damaging royal mother, it does not—or cannot—completely dispel the fear provoked by a powerful mother-queen.
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Notes
- 1.
Royal Mothers and Their Ruling Children: Wielding Political Authority from Antiquity to the Early Modern Era, eds. Elena Woodacre and Carey Fleiner (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 1.
- 2.
Mary Beth Rose, Plotting Motherhood in Medieval, Early Modern, and Modern Literature (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 61–65.
- 3.
Cited by Rose, Plotting Motherhood, 64.
- 4.
Rose, Plotting Motherhood, 74.
- 5.
Rose, Plotting Motherhood, 74–76. John Luis Vives, A very frutefull and pleasant boke called the instruction of a Christen woman, trans. Richard Hyrde (London: 1529). All quotations from this book refer to The Instruction of a Christen Woman, trans. Richard Hyrde, eds. Virginia Walcott Beauchamp, Elizabeth H. Hageman, and Margaret Mikesell (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002). See p. 150.
- 6.
Mary Villeponteaux, The Queen’s Mercy: Gender and Judgment in Representations of Elizabeth I (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 1–17.
- 7.
Sid Ray, Mother Queens and Princely Sons: Rogue Madonnas in the Age of Shakespeare (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 9.
- 8.
Michelle A. White, “‘She is the man, and Raignes’: Popular Representations of Henrietta Maria during the English Civil Wars,” in Queens and Power in Medieval and Early Modern England, eds. Carole Levin and Robert Bucholz (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009), 205–223, see 216–18.
- 9.
William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, King Henry VIII (All Is True), ed. Gordon McMullan, Arden 3rd Series (London: Bloomsbury, 2000), 1.2.9.
- 10.
Paul Strohm shows that earlier medieval queens had access to more directly powerful roles; he reads the role of mediatrix as a marginalized queenly role that evolved as the institutional basis for queenly authority eroded. Hochon’s Arrow: The Social Imagination of Fourteenth-Century Texts (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 95. Julie Crawford makes a very different argument about the role of mediatrix in the politically important kinship networks of late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. In her study of Mary Sidney Herbert, Margaret Hoby, Lucy Harington Russell, and Mary Wroth, Crawford analyzes the powerful role these women played in the production of literary texts and in the political culture of early modern England. Mediatrix: Women, Politics, and Literary Production in Early Modern England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
- 11.
See Frances Dolan, Whores of Babylon: Catholicism, Gender, and Seventeenth-Century Print Culture (Notre Dame, IN.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999), 289, and Ray, Rogue Madonnas, 42–43.
- 12.
William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, ed. Peter Holland, Arden 3rd Series (London: Bloomsbury, 2013), 5.3.158–59; 123–24.
- 13.
Janet Adelman, Suffocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal Origin in Shakespeare’s Plays, Hamlet to The Tempest (London: Routledge, 1992), 146–61.
- 14.
Ray, Rogue Madonnas, 123.
- 15.
Ray, Rogue Madonnas, 124.
- 16.
William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, ed. John Pitcher, Arden 3rd Series (London: Bloomsbury, 2010), 1.2.28–29.
- 17.
Donna C. Woodford, “Nursing and Influence in Pandosto and The Winter’s Tale” in Performing Maternity in Early Modern England, eds. Kathryn Moncrief and Kathryn R. McPherson (Farnham: Ashgate, 2007), 183–196, see 189.
- 18.
See Charles Fantazzi’s introduction in Juan Luis Vives, The Education of a Christian Woman: A Sixteenth-Century Manual, ed. and trans. Charles Fantazzi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 2.
- 19.
Valerie Schutte, “Under the Influence: The Impact of Queenly Book Dedications” in The Birth of a Queen: Essays on the Quincentenary of Mary I, ed. Sarah Duncan and Valerie Schutte (New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2016), 31–47, see 33.
- 20.
Vives, trans. Hyrde, 11.
- 21.
Vives, trans. Hyrde, 11.
- 22.
Vives, trans. Hyrde, 133.
- 23.
Vives, trans. Hyrde, 148.
- 24.
Vives, trans. Hyrde, 149.
- 25.
Vives, trans. Hyrde, 149.
- 26.
Felicity Dunworth, Mothers and Meaning on the Early Modern English Stage (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010), 131–32.
- 27.
Mary Ellen Lamb, “Engendering the Narrative Act: Old Wives’ Tales in The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, and The Tempest,” Criticism 40 (1998): 529–53.
- 28.
Vives, trans. Hyrde, 145.
- 29.
Helen Hackett explores the connection between the female generation of stories and of “issue” in The Winter’s Tale, concluding that this late play comes close to surrendering to this feminine power, rather than placing it under patriarchal control. “‘Gracious Be the Issue’: Maternity and Narrative in Shakespeare’s Late Plays” in Shakespeare’s Late Plays: New Readings, eds. Jennifer Richards and James Knowles (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999), 25–39.
- 30.
William Shakespeare, Richard III, ed. James R. Siemon, Arden 3rd Series (London: Bloomsbury, 2009).
- 31.
Katharine Goodland, “‘Obsequious Laments’: Mourning and Communal Power in Richard III,” Religion and the Arts 7.1–2 (2002): 31–64.
- 32.
William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, ed. Jonathan Bate, Arden 3rd Series (London: Routledge, 1995), 1.1.108–109.
- 33.
Marguerite A. Tassi, Women and Revenge in Shakespeare: Gender, Genre, and Ethics (Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press, 2011), 117.
- 34.
Rose, Plotting Motherhood, 64.
Bibliography
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Crawford, Julie. 2014. Mediatrix: Women, Politics, and Literary Production in Early Modern England. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dolan, Frances. 1999. Whores of Babylon: Catholicism, Gender, and Seventeenth-Century Print Culture. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Dunworth, Felicity. 2010. Mothers and Meaning on the Early Modern English Stage. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Goodland, Katharine. 2002. “‘Obsequious Laments’: Mourning and Communal Power in Richard III.” Religion and the Arts 7 (1–2): 31–64.
Hackett, Helen. 1999. “‘Gracious Be the Issue’: Maternity and Narrative in Shakespeare’s Late Plays.” In Shakespeare’s Late Plays: New Readings, ed. Jennifer Richards and James Knowles, 25–39. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Lamb, Mary Ellen. 1998. “Engendering the Narrative Act: Old Wives’ Tales in The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, and The Tempest.” Criticism 40: 529–553.
Ray, Sid. 2012. Mother Queens and Princely Sons: Rogue Madonnas in the Age of Shakespeare. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rose, Mary Beth. 2017. Plotting Motherhood in Medieval, Early Modern, and Modern Literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Schutte, Valerie. 2016. “Under the Influence: The Impact of Queenly Book Dedications.” In The Birth of a Queen: Essays on the Quincentenary of Mary I, ed. Sarah Duncan and Valerie Schutte, 31–47. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Shakespeare, William. 1995. Titus Andronicus. Ed. Jonathan Bate. Arden 3rd Series. London: Routledge.
———. 2009. Richard III. Ed. James R. Siemon. Arden 3rd Series. London: Bloomsbury.
———. 2010. The Winter’s Tale. Ed. John Pitcher. Arden 3rd Series. London: Bloomsbury.
———. 2013. Coriolanus. Ed. Peter Holland. Arden 3rd Series. London: Bloomsbury.
Shakespeare, William, and John Fletcher. 2000. King Henry VIII (All Is True). Ed. Gordon McMullan. Arden 3rd Series. London: Bloomsbury.
Strohm, Paul. 1992. Hochon’s Arrow: The Social Imagination of Fourteenth-Century Texts. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Tassi, Marguerite A. 2011. Women and Revenge in Shakespeare: Gender, Genre, and Ethics. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press.
Villeponteaux, Mary. 2014. The Queen’s Mercy: Gender and Judgment in Representations of Elizabeth I. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Vives, Juan Luis. 1529. A Very Frutefull and Pleasant Boke Called the Instruction of a Christen Woman. Trans. Richard Hyrde. London.
———. 2002. The Instruction of a Christen Woman. Trans. Richard Hyrde. Ed. Virginia Walcott Beauchamp, Elizabeth H. Hageman, and Margaret Mikesell. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
———. 2007. The Education of a Christian Woman: A Sixteenth-Century Manual. Ed. and trans. Charles Fantazzi. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
White, Michelle A. 2009. “‘She is the man, and Raignes’: Popular Representations of Henrietta Maria During the English Civil Wars.” In Queens and Power in Medieval and Early Modern England, ed. Carole Levin and Robert Bucholz, 205–223. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Woodacre, Elena, and Carey Fleiner, eds. 2015. Royal Mothers and Their Ruling Children: Wielding Political Authority from Antiquity to the Early Modern Era. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Woodford, Donna C. 2007. “Nursing and Influence in Pandosto and The Winter’s Tale.” In Performing Maternity in Early Modern England, ed. Kathryn Moncrief and Kathryn R. McPherson, 183–196. Farnham: Ashgate.
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Villeponteaux, M. (2018). “Good queen, my lord, good queen”: Royal Mothers in Shakespeare’s Plays. In: Finn, K., Schutte, V. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Shakespeare's Queens. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74518-3_9
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