Shakespeare & Beyond: It is the dawn of a new year, the ideal time to meet Shakespeare’s herald of the dawn: the lark. Shakespeare mainly employs the lark as a beloved symbol for the morning. Most of the lark’s 27 appearances in Shakespeare’s works feature it welcoming the start of each day with a sweet song.
2 comments:
I’ve never considered there could be a study for the birds found in Shakespeares plays but after reading the example such as the explanation of why Juliet wants to replace the Lark’s eyes and voice with a frog I can see how animals in context of Shakespeare’s time would be important to understanding some lines. I clicked on the article in the first place because I thought it was going to talk more about how/if the birds are incorporated into stage shows. The fact she is making a collection of illustrations and documentation on their appearances in his works would be a real aid to theatre designers who are asked to use the birds on stage as props or scenery to make them accurate when they’re painted on like false proscenium borders, as puppets, or even for like patterns on costumes to convey the symbols for which they stand.
I’ve never heard a lark sing, but I knew about the symbolism of the bird within Shakespeare. The theory that the lark has such a voice due to lack of physical attractiveness makes perfect sense - I wonder if there can be more explored within that metaphor on that front. I did not know about larks being attracted to the color red, so the fact that Shakespeare references this in Henry VIII by referring to someone as a cardinal, a double entendre for both a position and another type of bird, is incredibly clever. Shakespeare’s different takes on the lark’s song are very interesting - especially Juliet’s. This beautiful song sounds discordant to her because it represents Romeo having to leave her room, reflecting, I think, that what she’s doing with Romeo is unorthodox. If I’m not mistaken, there are references to many different types of birds within Shakespeare’s work, and all of them have specific meanings attributed to them. Nightingales are also mentioned in Romeo and Juliet, commonly a symbol of the night and the spring, and even love.
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