SHAKESPEARE'S IMAGINED PERSONS

SHAKESPEARE'S IMAGINED PERSONS

Also by Peter B. Murray A STUDY OF CYRIL TOURNEUR A STUDY OF JOHN WEBSTER THOMAS KYO

Shakespeare's lntagined Persons The Psychology of Role-Playing and Acting Peter B. Murray Barnes & Noble Books

First published in Great Britain 1996 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-0-333-64836-0 ISBN 978-0-230-37675-5 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230376755 First published in the United States of America 1996 by BARNES & NOBLE BOOKS 4720 Boston Way Lanham, MD 20706 ISBN 978-0-389-21015-3 hardcover ISBN 978-0-389-21016-0 paperback Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for Peter B. Mun ay 1996 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 978-0-333-63448-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written pem1ission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the tenns of any licence pennitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W 1 P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. 10 9 8 7 6 05 04 03 02 01 5 4 3 2 1 00 99 98 97 96

Contents Acknowledgements vii 1 Introduction 1 2 The Behaviorism of B. F. Skinner 23 3 Character Formation and the Psychology of Role-playing and Acting 38 4 Hamlet 57 5 Prince Hal - King Henry V 103 6 As You Like It 146 7 Absorbed Action: "Sure this robe of mine does change my disposition" 173 Appendix: The Psychology of Habits 179 Notes 199 Works Cited 215 Index of Names 245 Index of Subjects 251 v

For Karen

Acknowledgements I want to express my gratitude to a number of people who have contributed to the development and completion of this book. These include several of my faculty colleagues at Macalester College who have read and advised me regarding the material on psychology. Henry R. West, a colleague in philosophy, read my discussions of Aristotle's writings on the psychology of behavior; Sears Eldredge, a colleague in dramatic arts, read the chapter on the psychology of role-playing and acting; and Walter D. Mink, a colleague in psychology, read the chapters on behaviorism and the psychology of role-playing and acting. Irwin Rinder, a sociologist and the psychologists Roxane H. Gudeman, Lynda LaBounty, and Charles C. Torrey have each read the chapters on psychology and have also teamtaught courses with me that included much of the material on psychology. Charles Torrey and Lynda LaBounty have, in addition, advised me extensively during the writing of the book, Charles especially on the psychology of role-playing and acting, and Lynda especially in my efforts to understand B. F. Skinner's radical behaviorism. In this connection, I am also indebted to the late Kenneth MacCorquodale, a close associate of Skinner, for his generous praise of my interpretation of Skinner's work. In the field of English I want to thank Richard Wertime for encouraging me after reading an early version of my ideas about the psychology of role-playing and acting in Shakespeare. And I want to thank Thomas D'Evelyn for his careful reading and his suggestions for revisions of the manuscript. Giles Gamble, my colleague in Shakespeare studies at Macalester, has read and re-read every part of the book, and I am very thankful to him for the great help and encouragement he has given me over the years. I am grateful to Macalester College for a special leave for research that was supported through money from a grant provided to the College by the Mellon Fund. I am thankful to the staff of the Macalester College and University of Minnesota libraries, especially James Summerfield at Macalester, for their assistance in obtaining materials for my research. I also want to thank Charmian Hearne, the editor at Macmillan who took an interest in my work and has shepherded it through the process of publication. I owe a debt of gratitude as well to the people who have helped me by doing the word-processing for the manuscript, Marit Enerson, Diana vii

viii Acknowledgements Lundin, and more recently Rhonda Isaacs, who has seen me through a series of revisions. Finally, I want to thank my wife, Karen Olson Murray, for her unflagging interest and support as a scholar in helping me to think through the ideas the book presents and as a writer in helping me to edit the manuscript. The author and publishers wish to thank the following for permission to reproduce copyright-material: Benziger Publishing Company, for the extracts from StThomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 3 vols (1947-8). Everyman's Library, David Campbell Publishers Ltd, for the extracts from The Essayes of Michael Lord of Montaigne, trans. John Florio, 3 vols. The publishers and the Loeb Classical Library, for the extracts from Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, trans. H. E. Butler, 4 vols (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1921-2). Macmillan, for the extracts from Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Martin Ostwald (1962). Oxford University Press, for the extracts from The Dialogues of Plato, trans. B. Jowett, 2 vols (1937). Routledge, Chapman, and Hall, for the extracts from William Shakespeare, As You Like It, ed. Agnes Latham; The First Part of King Henry IV, ed. A. R. Humphreys; Hamlet, ed. Harold Jenkins; King Henry V, ed. J. H. Walter; The Second Part of King Henry IV, ed. Andrew S. Caimcross; and The Winter's Tale, ed. J. H. P. Pafford. In quotations, all texts using Early Modem English spelling have been modernized in spelling and typography.