Quoting the Devil: Defining the Shakespearean Epitaph

Abstract:New work has revealed numerous examples of experimentation with epitaphic writing Shakespeare, and this article draws on that research to argue that Shakespearean epitaph constitutes a distinct sub-genre. It shows that the epitaphs attributed to Shakespeare have been understudied because the social paradigms of burial that inform them were underexplored until recently. It closely reads three of the epitaphs together with the tomb scene of Titus Andronicus to reveal how Shakespearean epitaph uniquely approaches encomium, memory, and the social significance of the gravesite through satirical takes on a form Phillipe Ariès termed "antiepitaph."