Defacing god's work : Metamorphosis and the 'Mimicall Asse' in the age of Shakespeare

If the English Middle Ages can be characterized by their general reticence in metamorphic matters, people might instinctively expect more liberal attitudes and expressions in the early-modern period. For most of the play, the protagonist makes little or no use of his supposed power to shift his own shape, although there are some para-metamorphic moments. Shakespeare borrowed a good deal from Marlowe as well as from Lyly, and he played with metamorphosis throughout his career. One of the most disturbing examples of the interpenetration of fact and fiction, reality and fable, is Nicholas Remy's Demonolatry, a text which has not previously featured in discussions of A Midsummer Night's Dream. All this material, arcane and convoluted as it is, supplies a web of sub-texts, both to the metamorphosis itself and to the Theseus' famous speech on Reason, Poets, Madmen, and Imagination.

© Modern Humanities Research Association and Tayor & Francis 2013.