Shakespeare and the Demonization of Fairies

Piotr Spyra

doi:10.1515/texmat-2017-0011

Authors

Piotr Spyra University of Łódź

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1515/texmat-2017-0011

Keywords:

William Shakespeare, fairies, Protestant Reformation, Thomas Hobbes

Abstract

The article investigates the canonical plays of William Shakespeare - Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest - in an attempt to determine the nature of Shakespeare’s position on the early modern tendency to demonize fairy belief and to view fairies as merely a form of demonic manifestation. Fairy belief left its mark on all four plays, to a greater or lesser extent, and intertwined with the religious concerns of the period, it provides an important perspective on the problem of religion in Shakespeare’s works. The article will attempt to establish whether Shakespeare subscribed to the tendency of viewing fairies as demonic agents, as epitomized by the Daemonologie of King James, or opposed it. Special emphasis will also be put on the conflation of fairies and Catholicism that one finds best exemplified in Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. The article draws on a wealth of recent scholarship on early modern fairies, bringing together historical reflection on the changing perception of the fairy figure, research into Shakespeare’s attitude towards Catholicism and analyses of the many facets of anti-Catholic polemic emerging from early modern Protestant discourse.

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Author Biography

Piotr Spyra, University of Łódź

Piotr Spyra is Assistant Professor in the Department of Studies in Drama and Pre-1800 English Literature at the University of Łódź, where he teaches medieval and early modern English literature. His research interests include Middle English poetry, medieval folklore and Renaissance English drama. He is the author of The Epistemological Perspective of the Pearl-Poet (2014), a monograph devoted to the philosophical and theological background of the four poems attributed to the Gawain-Pearl Poet. He has also published articles in journals such as Folklore, Glossator and Multicultural Shakespeare. His current research project focuses on fairies in medieval English romance.

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