Well-Known Image of Little-Known Play is Not Shakespeare
As Hollywood burnishes the image of the Bard of Avon, in such recent successful films as "Shakespeare in Love," "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet," Shakespeare scholar June Schlueter at Lafayette College has discovered that the oldest surviving image of a Shakespeare play doesn't represent his work at all.
Schlueter's essay on her research is published in the current issue of Shakespeare Quarterly, the leading journal in the field. At the heart of her findings is a 1594 drawing by Henry Peacham, long believed to be the only extant contemporary illustration of a Shakespeare play in production.
Not so, Schlueter argues. Rather, it is a rendering of a German play, and not of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, as had long been supposed by schoars. "Titus," a forthcoming film adaption of the lesser-known play, is directed by Julie Taymor and stars Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. "The full scholarly version of Schlueter's discovery makes prior explanations of Peacham's drawing instantly obsolete," said Gail Kern Paster, the editor of Shakespeare Quarterly.
Other Shakespeare plays in various stages of production include: "O," an update of 'Othello' with a teen cast; "Hamlet," with Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, Sam Shepard and Bill Murray; and "Love's Labours Lost," with Kenneth Branagh, Nathan Lane and Alicia Silverstone.
An article about Schlueter's research appeared in the June 4, issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Registration is required to see the article at http://www.chronicle.com/weekly/v45/i39/39a01901.htm. For a copy of her Shakespeare Quarterly essay, contact Campus Crossroads at 603-357-2811, or [email protected].
June Schlueter is an English professor and the provost of Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. She can be reached at 610-330-5070, or at [email protected]. Or contact Roger Clow in the Lafayette news office at 610-330-5052, or at [email protected].
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