Article published In: English Text Construction
Vol. 17:1 (2024) ► pp.106–140
Witch, strumpet, maid and saint
Joan of Arc’s characterisation through the use of epithets in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 1
Published online: 18 October 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.00064.bor
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.00064.bor
Abstract
Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 1 depicts Joan of Arc in contradictory terms. This paper discusses the narrative and literary techniques that are used to develop Joan of Arc’s characterisation, particularly the alternation of location between the Anglo-Burgundian and the French-Armagnac camp, the antagonistic staging of Joan of Arc compared to Lord Talbot and Margaret of Anjou, and the contrastive use of epithets, including the shifting positive, neutral or negative dictionary meanings and context-dependent meanings, as per Ray Jackendoff’s theory of Conceptual Semantics. This results in questioning the apparent meaning of words and concepts and thereby also the apparent judgment on the characters themselves, thus ambiguating, questioning, and ridiculing apparent certainties.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Historical context
- 3.1H6’s relation to contemporary depictions of Joan of Arc: Impact and meaning of popular appellations
- 3.1Negative appellations
- 3.2Positive appellations
- 4.Literary and structural devices applied by Shakespeare in order to shape Joan of Arc’s characterisation in 1H6
- 4.1Dual structure and antithetical use of epithets
- 4.2Antagonistic staging and antithetical use of epithets
- 4.2.1Joan versus Talbot
- 4.2.2Joan versus Margaret
- 5.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
References
References (36)
Bartholeyns, Gil. 2019. Le tiers terme: le vêtement et la rationalité politique du corps au Moyen Âge. Revue des langues romane [En ligne], Tome CXXII N°1 | 2018, mis en ligne le 01 juin 2019. [URL]. (Accessed March 5, 2022)
Boswell-Stone, W. G. 1896. Reprint of the second edition 1907. Shakespeare’s Holinshed. The Chronicle and the Historical Plays Compared. Franklin Classics. London: Chatto and Windus. Citations refer to the reprinted 1907 edition.
Burns, Edward (ed). 2002. Reprinted 2013. King Henry VI Part 1. The Arden Shakespeare. London and New York: Bloomsbury. The 2013 edition was used for determining the CDM.
Crystal, David and Ben Crystal. 2002. Shakespeare’s Words. A Glossary & Language Companion. New York: Penguin Books.
Encyclopedia.Com. Crime and Punishment in Elizabethan England. [URL]. (Accessed October 7, 2019)
Grindlay, Lilla. 2018. Queen of Heaven. The Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin in Early Modern English Writing. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.
Hall, Edward. Open Library. Hall’s Chronicle: containing the history of England, during the reign of Henry the Fourth, and the succeeding monarchs, to the end of the reign of Henry the Eighth, in which are particularly described the manners and customs of those periods. Carefully collated with the editions of 1548 and 1550. Printed for J. Johnson, 1809. [URL]. (Accessed May 18, 2021)
Hattaway, Michael (ed). 1990. Reprinted 2004. The First Part of King Henry VI. The New Cambridge Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Citations refer to the 2004 edition.
(ed). 2002. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s History Plays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hoenselaars, Ton. 2002. Shakespeare and the early modern history play. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s History Plays, edited by Michael Hattaway, 25–40. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Holinshed, Raphael. Oxford University Fell Fund. “The Holinshed Project.”. [URL]. (Accessed May 8, 2021)
Howard, Jean E. 2016. The First Part of King Henry the Sixth. The Norton Shakespeare, 3rd ed., edited by Stephen Greenblatt et al., 415–423. London and New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Jackendoff, Ray. N.d. “Conceptual Semantics.” [URL]. Accessed June 18, 2022)
Jones, Dan. 2014. Paperback edition 2015. The Hollow Crown. The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors. London: Faber and Faber. Citations refer to the 2015 edition.
Lake, Peter. 2016. How Shakespeare Put Politics on the Stage. Power and Succession in the History Plays. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Leggatt, Alexander. 1988. Paperback edition 1989. Shakespeare’s Political Drama. The History Plays and the Roman Plays. New York and London: Routledge. Citations refer to the 1989 version.
Marshall, Peter. 2018. Heretics and Believers. A History of the English Reformation. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Orgelfinger, Gail. 2019. Joan of Arc in the English Imagination, 1429–1829. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Rackin, Phyllis. 1990. Stages of History. Shakespear’s English Chronicles. New York: Cornell University Press.
. 2002. Women’s roles in the Elizabethan history plays. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s History Plays, edited by Michael Hattaway, 71–85. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rosen, Barbara (ed). 1969. Reprint with new introduction 1991. Witchcraft in England, 1558–1618. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. Citations refer to the 1991 edition.
Ryan, Patrick. 2004. Shakespeare’s Joan and the Great Whore of Babylon. Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme 28, no. 4 (2004): 55–82. [URL]. (Accessed December 2, 2023)
Schwarz, Kathryn. 2016. Whose Body? Rethinking Feminism in Early Modern Studies. Gender, Race, and Sexuality, edited by Ania Loomba and Melissa E. Sanchez, 213–28. London and New York: Routledge.
Scot, Reginald. 1548. The Discoverie of Witchcraft. Reprinted by BiblioLife. London: Elliot Stock, 1886.
Shaw, Bernard. 1924. Reprinted with ‘On Playing Joan’ and a new Introduction in Penguin Classics 2001, Reissued with a new Chronology 2003. Saint Joan. London: Penguin Books.
Shugg, Wallace. 1977. Prostitution in Shakespeare’s London. Shakespeare Studies. Colombia: Associated University Presses. [URL]. (Accessed August 26, 2019)
Tillyard, E. M. W. 1944. Published in Peregrine Books 1962. Shakespeare’s History Plays. Edinburgh: Peregrine Books. Citations refer to the 1962 edition.
Zerweck, Bruno. Historicizing unreliable narration: Unreliability and cultural discourse in narrative fiction. Style 35, no. 1 (2001): 151–76. [URL]. (Accessed February 9, 2023)