King John (Vol. 56) - Clayton G. MacKenzie (essay date 1998)
Clayton G. MacKenzie (essay date 1998)
SOURCE: “Renaissance Emblems of Death and Shakespeare's King John,” in English Studies, Vol. 79, No. 5, September, 1998, pp. 425-29.
[In the essay below, MacKenzie examines the imagery of regeneration in King John, arguing that Shakespeare emphasizes the importance of death, rather than life, in the play.]
The fourth print in Hans Holbein's Icones Historiarvm Veteris Testamenti reveals Adam in a postlapsarian world. He tills the soil, assisted and shadowed by a skeletal Dance of Death figure. It is a vision of toil and hardship, and the 1547 verse accompaniment to the Lyons edition emphasises the consequences of Adam's transgression.
En grand labeur, & sueur de son corps Le pere Adam a sa uie gaignee, Heue tandis en doloreux effortz Subiecte a l’Homme enfante sa lignee.(1)
The reference is to Genesis 3:17-19. In eating the fruit of the forbidden tree,...
[The entire page is 2399 words long]
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