Location
Sydnor Performance Hall
Access Type
Open Access
Start Date
4-17-2024 2:15 PM
End Date
4-17-2024 2:30 PM
College
Lynchburg College of Arts and Sciences
Department
English
Keywords
Shakespeare, Machiavelli, lion, fox, animal symbolism, comedies, drama, political ideology
Abstract
While William Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets have been discussed time and time again over the past few centuries, one topic that has been less traversed is the connection between his Comedies and Niccolò Machiavelli’s political ideologies. This project will explore references of lions and foxes in Shakespeare’s Comedies and the leaders and monarchs within them to determine how beliefs about Machiavelli’s political ideology influenced Shakespeare’s literature and became symbols for leadership and power. This project will be important for gaining historical context on Machiavellian political discourse and how it was represented in the contemporary dramatic literature of William Shakespeare. I will closely examine Shakespeare’s Comedies for references of lions and foxes and explore the qualities of the play’s leader(s) or monarch(s) based on Machiavelli’s belief that “[A leader] must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves.” Additionally, I will locate contemporary and secondary sources discussing these connections. I hope to collect new information regarding how Machiavelli’s ideologies were perceived amongst the common people in Shakespearean England and make note of how lions and foxes appear in his comedic plays. I also plan to make note of such appearances in a spreadsheet to act as a visual aid for my research. Through my research, I hope to outline textual evidence and analysis to confirm how the presence of a lion or fox in Shakespeare’s Comedies offers commentary on the play’s leader or monarch and how potential misinterpretation regarding Machiavelli’s work may have resulted in the stereotypes of these animals that appeared in contemporary literature.
Faculty Mentor(s)
Dr. Robin Bates Dr. Elizabeth Savage Dr. Chidsey Dickson
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Included in
Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, European History Commons, Italian Literature Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Medieval History Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, Renaissance Studies Commons
Recognizing Traps and Frightening Wolves: Foxes and Lions as a Representative of Machiavellian Political Ideology in Shakespeare’s Comedies
Sydnor Performance Hall
While William Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets have been discussed time and time again over the past few centuries, one topic that has been less traversed is the connection between his Comedies and Niccolò Machiavelli’s political ideologies. This project will explore references of lions and foxes in Shakespeare’s Comedies and the leaders and monarchs within them to determine how beliefs about Machiavelli’s political ideology influenced Shakespeare’s literature and became symbols for leadership and power. This project will be important for gaining historical context on Machiavellian political discourse and how it was represented in the contemporary dramatic literature of William Shakespeare. I will closely examine Shakespeare’s Comedies for references of lions and foxes and explore the qualities of the play’s leader(s) or monarch(s) based on Machiavelli’s belief that “[A leader] must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves.” Additionally, I will locate contemporary and secondary sources discussing these connections. I hope to collect new information regarding how Machiavelli’s ideologies were perceived amongst the common people in Shakespearean England and make note of how lions and foxes appear in his comedic plays. I also plan to make note of such appearances in a spreadsheet to act as a visual aid for my research. Through my research, I hope to outline textual evidence and analysis to confirm how the presence of a lion or fox in Shakespeare’s Comedies offers commentary on the play’s leader or monarch and how potential misinterpretation regarding Machiavelli’s work may have resulted in the stereotypes of these animals that appeared in contemporary literature.