'A Fortnight Hold We This Solemnity': The Elizabethan Annual Cycle in Shakespeare’s Major Comedies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2014.6.11Keywords:
Shakespeare, festivity, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You like It, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth NightAbstract
In Shakespeare’s Festive World: Elizabethan Seasonal Entertainment and the Professional Stage François Laroque analyses festivity and its literary and imaginary representation in Shakespeare’s England. He holds that the Elizabethan year is essentially simple and logical as it is divided into two halves. The first half starts on the winter solstice of 24 December and ends on the summer solstice of 24 June, including the twelve days of Christmas celebrations and a group of moveable feasts such as Easter and Whitsun and Laroque adopts for it the name of the ritualistic half of the year. The second half, which begins on 25 June and ends on 24 December, is marked by a lack of important religious festivals, the presence of a few fixed festivals and a greater number of working days over holidays, so it is known as the secular half of the year. Based on Laroque’s insights, this paper argues that Shakespeare’s major comedies – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night – bring to life the secular half of the Elizabethan year in such a way that each play seems to evoke its particular period and a set of activities peculiar to it.
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