Food in Shakespeare: early modern dietaries and the plays

Abstract

Introduction: This book is the first detailed study of food and feeding in Shakespeare’s plays. Its\npurpose is to provide modern readers and audiences of Shakespeare with an\nhistorically accurate account of the range of, and conflicts between, contemporary\nviews that informed the representations of food and feeding in the plays, in\nparticular views about diet. It is not an exhaustive study of the plays nor is it a\ndefinitive study of food and feeding in the early modern period. It would be neither\npossible nor desirable in a book–length study to provide the reader with a roller–\ncoaster ride through Shakespeare’s treatment of food and feeding and so my aim\nhas been to consider those plays I think most clearly signal Shakespeare’s interest\nin food, specifically the sliding scale from the most ordinary to the most exotic\nmanifestations of food and feeding, and most clearly engage with some of the other\nthings being written about the subject prior to and during the early modern period.\nThe book began life as a study of food in Shakespeare and Elizabethan culinary\nculture but it soon became clear that this was too large a topic for one book and so\nthe main, though by no means exclusive, focus is on Shakespeare and early modern\ndietaries, outlined below. Also outlined below is the early modern perception of\nGalen’s model of humoral theory which dominated early modern thinking about\nhow the body works and the role of diet. While it is crucial to understand the early\nmodern view of the body and humoral theory, and reference will be made to this\nthroughout the book’s main chapters, this is not a study of the humours or\nmedicine per se. Readers who desire more detailed analyses of the humours are\nadvised to consult studies by Gail Kern Paster and Jonathan Sawday who, amongst\nothers, have located early modern ideas of selfhood in the context of that period’s\nunderstanding of the body (Paster 2004; Sawday 1995). While these studies have\nserved to advance our understanding of the complex relationship between\nsubjectivity, the body, and social structures regulating consumption in the\nRenaissance they have not attended to contemporary dietary literature, an\nimmensely popular and influential genre. Ken Albala’s study provides an\nimportant introduction to the genre (Albala 2002) but this book is the first to\nexplore early modern dietaries to better understand the uses of food and feeding in\nShakespeare’s drama.\nIn ancient physiological ...