Covert Appropriations of Shakespeare: Three Case Studies

Papers on Language and Literature, Winter 2007 by Hirsh, James

Some artists have constructed new works or major elements of new works from raw materials provided by Shakespeare but have redeployed these materials in such a way that the appropriation, despite its significant contribution to the creation of the new work, is disguised. Among the ways an appropriation may be disguised are the following: the source material may be redeployed in a context radically different from the original context; superficial features of the material may be radically altered; one appropriation may be obscured by a less significant but more conspicuous appropriation of other material. Any or several of a variety of factors may contribute to a writer's reluctance to acknowledge an appropriation. For example, a writer may fear that awareness of an appropriation by a reader or playgoer would distract attention from or undermine the artist's intentions in the new work. Harold Bloom has argued that a writer suffering from anxiety of influence may prefer not to call attention to the writer's indebtedness to a precursor. The present essay will explore three examples of significant but covert appropriations of Shakespearean material.1

The following exchange occurs early in King Lear.

KINU LEAR: Which of you shall we say doth love us most

[.................................]

Goneril,

Our eldest-born, speak first.

GONERIL: Sir, / love you more than words can wield the matter,

Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty,

Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare,

No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor;

As much as child e'er lov'd, or father found:

A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable:

Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

(1.1.51-61, italics added)

Compare Goneril's response with the following poem:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints,-I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my lifel-and, if God choose,

I shall but love theebetler after death, (italics added)

Sonnet 43 of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese (probably written in 1846, published in 1850, and here quoted from Selected Poems 237) was evidently inspired by Goneril's speech.2 The speaker of the sonnet is implicitly respending to a question posed by the addressee (How dost thou love me?) that paraphrases the question posed by Lear. The sonnet contains elements that specifically resemble elements in Goneril's speech.

Goneril

I love you

eyesight

space

eyesight, space, and liberty

liberty

No less than life

with grace, health, beauty, honor

grace

child

A love that makes breath poor

I love you

Sonnet 43

I love thee / I love thee

sight

depth and breadth and height

depth and breadth and height

freely

all my life

with the breath, / Smiles, tears

Grace

childhood's

I love thee with the breath

I... love thee

Furthermore, most of these elements occur in the same sequence in the speech and the sonnet. Browning's sonnet occupies twice as many iambic pentameter lines as Goneril's speech, and some elements in the sonnet seem to be expansions of elements in the speech. The words "depth and breadth and height" that occur in the second line of the sonnet specify the three dimensions of physical "space" mentioned in the second line of Goneril's speech. The similes "as men strive for Right" and "as they turn from Praise" in the middle of the sonnet specify components of "honor" mentioned in the middle line of the speech. Instead of the single "with" phrase followed by four objects that occurs in Goneril's speech, Browning's poem contains five "with" phrases, each with its own object or set of objects. The two occurrences of the clause "I love you" in the speech expand to nine "I love thee" clauses in the sonnet. (How often will the speaker say "I love thee"? Let me count the times.) The overall form of both the speech and the sonnet is a catalogue of ways the speaker loves the addressee, a catalogue consisting large Iy of abstractions. The speech is framed with simple declarations of love-the first line and the last line contain the words "I love you." The sonnet is similarly framed-each of the first two lines contains the words "I love thee" and the last line contains the words "I shall but love thee." An element understandably absent from Goneril's declaration of filial love is conspicuous by its absence from Browning's poem. Although the actual addressee of Browning's sonnet was her suitor Robert Browning, her poem is devoid of sensuality. There are differences between the speech and the poem. Browning was not plagiarizing Shakespeare; she was using the speech as raw material to produce something new and different.