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Making Men of Monsters: Shakespeare in the Company of Strangers

2005; Routledge; Volume: 1; Issue: 1-2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17450910500135602

1745-0926

Richard Wilson,

Theatre and Performance Studies

Voltaire's racist attack on Shakespeare was motivated by what he, Voltaire, correctly identified as Shakespeare's essentially non-racist (and hence to Voltaire offensive) philosophy articulated in his plays. The ritual of carnival, an act of exclusion, has been well explored in relation to Shakespeare, to the neglect of the equally important ritual of mumming: the identification with and admittance of the disguised stranger. Repeatedly Shakespeare dramatizes acts of hospitality towards strangers that go far beyond the liberal notions of tolerance that Voltaire championed and form an emotion and philosophical rejection of the human divisive mentality.