Spotlight on Research: Wartime Shakespeare
Carl von Clausewitz famously suggested that war is the continuation of politics by other means. Over the past four centuries, Shakespeare has become the most frequently invoked Anglophone writer during wartime and we could describe many of these uses as the continuation of both politics and war by other means. Shakespeare has been ‘mobilized’ to motivate troops, to reflect on the suffering of war, to influence political opinion, to satirize and condemn military aggression, and to persuade through propaganda. This long, diverse, and complicated history was the focus of a Leverhulme-funded project (2018-2021) and its findings are explored in three linked outputs: my monograph, Wartime Shakespeare: Performing Narratives of Conflict; a collection of twenty-six essays, Shakespeare at War: A Material History, that I co-edited with Sonia Massai (Sapienza University of Rome and King’s College London); and a free exhibition, ‘Shakespeare and War’, that we curated at the National Army Museum in London, open from 6 October 2023 until 1 September 2024.
My book, Wartime Shakespeare (Cambridge University Press, 2023), offers a transhistorical study of Shakespearean productions during wartime, beginning with the Nine Years’ War in Ireland (1593-1603) and ending with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This history is not a linear or neatly progressive one. Rather, it is fragmented, provisional, and multi-layered. Productions of Shakespeare’s plays, like the texts themselves, do not have single or fixed meanings, and binary categories – pro/anti-war, reactionary/radical – are not always helpful or accurate. It is the use of Shakespeare that determines and reveals meaning, and one production often brings together conflicting agendas: wartime Shakespeare can seem both radical and reactionary at the same time. During the First World War, for example, civilians imprisoned at Ruhleben Camp in Germany staged productions of Shakespeare to help structure their time in captivity, boost resolve, and act as a vehicle of allowed dissent. But reports of these productions spread outside the camp as part of a propaganda campaign by German authorities to counter widely circulating reports of the appalling living conditions in Ruhleben and therefore fulfilled a very different set of aims.
Our edited collection, Shakespeare at War (Cambridge University Press, 2023), covers a similar chronological sweep, but offers a ‘material history’ of Shakespeare’s use during conflict. Each chapter takes an object – such as a playbill, print, newspaper clipping, or production photograph – as its jumping-off point, which is used to ask bigger questions about Shakespeare’s significance during a specific conflict. Shakespeare has appeared in several surprising contexts: in 1853, a playbill advertises a performance of The Taming of the Shrew on board the HMS Resolute in the Arctic that was designed, as our contributor Irena Makaryk argues, to increase the unity and resolve of the crew at the height of Anglo-Russian rivalry and in the face of imminent war with Russia. In Ireland, James Sant’s idealized portrait of Shakespeare as a ‘youth’ was kept as a ‘cabinet card’ by Irish nationalist Michael Davitt and sheds light on, as Andrew Murphy discusses, how nationalists and unionists fought over Shakespeare.
We were excited to bring together a diverse range of contributors for the collection, including Shakespeare scholars, political theorists, theatre directors (such as Maria Aberg, Nicholas Hytner, Iqbal Khan, Julia Pascal, and Maggie Smales), and public military figures. Colonel Tim Collins, for example, reflects on his use of Shakespeare during his eve-of-battle address to troops before the coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003. All the featured objects are reproduced in glossy colour photographs at the start of each chapter, and we hope our (affordably priced!) collection appeals to a wide readership of students, scholars, and the public.
This book also doubles as a companion for ‘Shakespeare and War’, our free exhibition at the National Army Museum, which is open until 1 September. Here, we bring some of the items that feature in both books to life: you can see, for example, George Woodward’s striking parody of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, which is rewritten to satirize Napoleon, who debates the merits of invading Britain: ‘To go or not to go’ replaces the familiar opening question. The exhibition draws on research from both my books, but it also casts a spotlight on the significance of Shakespeare for the British Army across the centuries and tells its story through prints, posters, books, recordings, medals, and swords. A rare playbill announces a performance of Henry IV Part 1 by the British Army in Philadelphia during the American Revolutionary War that was designed to boost morale among troops and Loyalists. These advertisements were sometimes sent to Patriot leaders as an early form of cultural warfare to suggest, tauntingly, that the British were confident of victory and enjoying their pastimes.
One of my favourite items is the ‘Kitchener Shakespeare’, a complete edition of Shakespeare’s works that was given to soldiers who had been wounded at the front during the First World War. The copy displayed in the exhibition was presented to Sergeant Frederick Bowman of the Border Regiment and a nearby photograph shows him recovering in hospital. Given that surviving copies often show few signs of use, the Kitchener Shakespeare is an intriguing example of the possible contrast between what Shakespeare is assumed to represent and the reality of how he was used by soldiers wounded in battle, some of whom had been blinded.
It has been thrilling to work with the National Army Museum (NAM) on this exhibition and to give talks and tours throughout its run. On Friday 23 August, I return to the Museum to offer a final reflection and talk about ‘Shakespeare at the Front’. Tickets can be booked through the NAM and it will also be streamed online.
Working on this project has helped me to see that Shakespeare doesn’t tell us what to think about war. Rather, we use Shakespeare to give wartime experiences meaning. I hope these books and exhibition encourage further research, discovery, and reflection on this history that continues to leave a significant mark.
― Dr Amy Lidster
Amy Lidster is a Departmental Lecturer in English Language and Literature at Oxford. Her books include Publishing the History Play in the Time of Shakespeare: Stationers Shaping a Genre (CUP 2022; pbk 2024), Wartime Shakespeare (CUP 2023), and Authorships and Authority in Early Modern Dramatic Paratexts (Routledge, forthcoming).
