Women in Shakespeare: A Dictionary

Abstract

ALISON FINDLAY, WOMEN IN SHAKESPEARE: A DICTIONARY, NEW EDN, ARDEN SHAKESPEARE DICTIONARIES (LONDON: BLOOMSBURY 2014)From 'abbess' to 'Zenelophon', Alison Findlay's Women in Shakespeare: A Dictionary is a rich yet accessible reference tool. Ever wonder what a Shakespearean Joan or Bianca is typically like? Or how words including 'fish', 'placket', or 'nothing' were used as bawdy slang in the early modern period? Or what a phrase like 'lead apes in hell' could possibly have meant to Shakespeare's contemporaries? Newly available in paperback and priced at a reasonable £25.99, Women in Shakespeare contains an informative, insightful, and sometimes surprising array of entries covering these and other topics. Perusing the variety of material collected within this laboriously researched and intricately cross-referenced volume is truly a pleasure.The organisation of Women in Shakespeare broadly conforms with the standard format used throughout the Arden Shakespeare Dictionaries series (general editor Sandra Clark), which also includes such recent and forthcoming titles as Shakespeare's Insults: A Pragmatic Dictionary, Shakespeare's Plants and Gardens: A Dictionary, and Shakespeare's Medical Language: A Dictionary. Each of Women in Shakespeare's 350-plus alphabetised entries is formatted according to a useful tripartite structure. The first section provides readers with a basic definition of the headword (often a proper name, but alternatively a common noun, a verb, or a phrase) and outlines how it was understood and used by Shakespeare and his early modern English contemporaries. This is followed by a brief account and succinct analysis of Shakespeare's particular use(s) of this name, turn of phrase, or term within his corpus. In Findlay's lengthier entries, often these second sections read as sophisticated, argument-driven, and feminist-leaning 'mini-essays', to borrow the author's own description (xiv). And, finally, the third section of each entry provides readers with a list of judiciously selected critical sources that could be used as a starting point for further reading and research on the entry's topic. The book concludes with a substantial bibliography of relevant scholarship as well as a comprehensive index that will aid readers in finding further interconnections between entries.Findlay's brief Introduction at the outset of the work describes the unique scope and aims of this dictionary. Though many of its constituent headwords are proper names, the entries for 'Katherine', 'Portia' or 'Emilia', for instance, do not function as individual character studies. Rather, in a move that will have particular appeal for those readers interested in onomastics, such entries typically 'group together several figures by given name with the aim of exploring what kinds of common attribute Shakespeare associated with that name or how he deliberately played off expectations about a given name' (xi).The scope of this book extends far beyond a study of Shakespearean naming practices or of the Bard's major and minor female dramatic personae. Historical women such as Anne Hathaway and Judith Shakespeare also have a place here. Extending the scope even further are feminised personifications like Fortune and Fame as well as mythological, legendary, biblical and literary characters, ranging from Daphne to Eve to Grissel. …