Our selection of terms (together with the occasional occurrence or related terms such as frame or pensill) has resulted in our drawing 483 textual references (81 of them, or 16.7%, to painting per se) from the First Folio.
The exact number of collated references in each play, as well as for the three Folio categories, are the following.
•The Tempest: 17
•The Two Gentlemen of Verona: 19
•The Merry Wives of Windsor: 8
•Measure For Measure: 14
•The Comedie of Errors: 4
•Much Adoe About Nothing: 12
•Loves Labours Lost: 17
•A Midsommer Nights Dreame: 20
•The Merchant of Venice: 10
•As You Like it: 15
•The Taming of the Shrew: 15
•All’s Well, That Ends Well: 14
•Twelfe Night, or What You Will: 17
•The Winter’s Tale: 18
TOTAL: 200 (average of 14.3 per play)
•The Life and Death of King John: 10
•The Life and Death of King Richard the Second: 14
•The First part of King Henry the Fourth: 20
•The Second part of Henry the Fourth: 13
•The Life of King Henry the Fift : 14
•The First Part of Henry the Sixt: 20
•The Second Part of Henry the Sixt: 6
•The Third Part of Henry the Sixt: 7
•The Tragedy of Richard the Third: 11
•All Is True [Henry the Eight]: 7
TOTAL: 122 (an average of 12.2 per play)
•The Tragedie of Troilus and Cressida: 15
•The Tragedy of Coriolanus: 8
•The Lamentable Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: 8
•The Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet: 11
•The Life of Tymon of Athens: 19
•The Tragedie of Julius Caesar: 7
•The Tragedie of Macbeth: 19
•The Tragedie of Hamlet: 32
•The Tragedie of King Lear: 15
•The Tragedie of Othello: 6
•The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra: 6
•The Tragedie of Cymbeline: 15
TOTAL: 161 (an average of 13.4 per play)
There are, it seems, little discrepancies between the averages the three categories. The general average is 13.4 references per play, which is exactly that of the Tragedies.
But sub-dividing the plays, as we’ve done in the previous chapter, into early (Two Gentlemen to Dream), middle (Merchant to Troilus), and late periods (All’s Well to Tempest) does show a slight rise and subsequent fall. In the first period, we recorded 162 references for an average of 12.4; in the second, 163 references for 16.3 (but, without the somewhat anomalous Hamlet, it is 14.5); and in the third 158 for 13.1.
It therefore appears as if references to art and imitation were also a constant feature of Shakespeare’s plays throughout his career. Once again, this becomes rather more apparent when the plays are listed according to their (presumed) chronology, together with their number of references as well as (in parentheses) their most oft-repeated search term (when it represents a significant proportion of the play’s total references)
•Two Gents of Verona (1590–4): 19 (7 picture / 6 shadows)
•Taming of the Shrew (1590–4): 15
•2 Henry the Sixt (1591): 6
•3 Henry the Sixt (1591): 7
•1 Henry the Sixt (1592): 20
•Titus Andronicus (1592–4): 8
•Richard the Third (1592–3): 11
•Comedie of Errors (1592–4): 4
•Loves Labours Lost (1594–5): 17 (7 paint)
•King John (1594–6): 10
•Richard the Second (1595): 14 (6 shadows)
•Romeo and Juliet (1595–6): 11
•Midsommer Nights (1595–6): 20 (8 imagination)
•Merchant of Venice (1596–7): 10
•1 Henry the Fourth (1596–7): 20 (11 counterfeit)
•Merry Wives (1596–7): 8
•2 Henry the Fourth (1597–8): 13 (6 image)
•Much Adoe (1598): 12
•Henry the Fift (1598–9): 14
•Julius Caesar (1599): 7
•As You Like it (1599–1600): 15 (8 counterfeit)
•Hamlet (1600–1): 32 (10 imagination)
•Twelfe Night (1601–2): 17 (7 images)
•Troilus And Cressida (1600–2): 15
•All’s Well (1602–5): 14
•Othello (1603–4): 6
•Measure For Measure (1603–4): 14
•Tymon of Athens (1605–8): 19 (11 painting)
•King Lear (1605/1610): 15 (6 images)
•Macbeth (1606): 19
•Anthonie (1606–7): 6
•Coriolanus (1607–8): 8
•Cymbeline (1609–10): 15 (5 picture)
•Winter’s Tale (1609–11): 18 (6 art)
•The Tempest (1611): 17 (11 art)
•All Is True (1612–3): 7
Of the thirty-six plays, 7 do not use the term art (Two Gents, 1 Henry VI, Richard III, Errors, King John, Richard II, and Much Adoe); but all of them belong to the first half of Shakespeare’s career. Six never mention painting (2 Henry VI, Errors, 2 Henry IV, 12th Night, All’s Well, and Othello); 2 of these plays are early, 2 belong to the middle period, and two are late. And only four plays never use the term counterfeit (Titus, Merry Wives, Measure, and Tempest).
But more than anything else, this survey reveals two things. The first is how Shakespeare uses these terms of imitation rather indiscriminately. A shadow can be a painting (1 Henry VI 2.3.34 TLN 875; Merchant 3.2.127 TLN 1474), or an actor (Dream 5.1.209 TLN 2015), or it can be both at once (Two Gents 4.4.197 TLN 2015; 1 Henry VI 2.3.34–46 TLN 875–86). A counterfeit can either refer to painting (Merchant 3.2.115 TLN 1462–3; Hamlet 3.4.53–4 TLN 2437–8) or to acting (3 Henry VI 2.3.25–8 TLN 1087–8; 12th Night 4.2.19 TLN 2004). And while a picture is very often a painting (Shrew Ind.1.44–5 TLN 50–1; Winter’s Tale 5.2.174 TLN 3181), it can also be a written (LLL 5.2.38 TLN 1926) or spoken (Cymbeline 5.5.175 TLN 3455) description. And perhaps a picture could even be a player, for in Tempest the catch Flout’em and cout’em is plaid by Ariel: ”a picture of Nobody (3.2.123–4 TLN 1483–4). But such a confusion is maybe par for the course when dealing with an art that can incorporates poetic, visual, and musical elements gleaned from all the other mimetic arts in order to provide a veritable moving picture.
The second thing this survey reveals is how Shakespeare’s theatre itself appears to be somewhat ill-at-ease with the deceptive nature of artistic representation. For one senses in this most Aristotelian of the arts — in Shakespeare’s hands, at least — a prevalence of platonic mistrust. Of course, ever since Pliny the elder (whom Shakespeare almost certainly had read), the mimetic art of painting was both praised and blamed for its being so true-to-life as to be deceitful (a famous example being the birds deceived by Zeuxis’ painted grapes). Likewise Shakespeare’s own references to painting or to playing almost always appear in a context of deceit. In Shakespeare, all shadows “limpe behinde [their] substance” (Merchant 3.2.129 TLN 1476).
Thus are we also reminded of the often ironic and derogatory nature of the previous chapter’ theatrical references: of the “counterfetting Actors?” (3 Henry VI 2.3.28 TLN 1088), the “quicke Comedians … squeaking Cleopatra” (5.2.216–21 TLN 3459–64), and even of Hamlet’s “Seemes Madam? Nay, it is: I know not Seemes” (1.2.76 TLN 257). So that perhaps Shakespeare’s many internal references to the deceptive nature of artistic representation were indeed intended to enable his audience to maintain the ironic, critical distance required to appreciate his skill while also remaining “undeceived” by it. As if Shakespeare was remind them to enjoy his theatre while never falling for it.