This thesis examines how Shakespeare’s characters come to create knowledge through the use of early modern scientific modes of thought Chapter one looks at scientific cataloging as a means of objectifying living things in botanicals, herbals, and anatomies and how this mode of defining the world is illustrated in several of Shakespeare’s plays, such as Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Tempest, and Titus Andronicus Chapter two explores the art of prediction by reading signs in nature, such as astronomy, astrology, and prognostication, and focuses on Macbeth and Julius Caesar Chapter three looks at knowledge creation through the scientific method, specifically hypothesizing, experimenting, and analyzing results This method is especially evident in Hamlet The conclusion uses The Tempest as an example which encompasses all these types of knowledge creation This thesis ends with the assertion that though knowledge about the world is created through these various methods, the characters who are most successful are those who are able to discover truth about the human spirit

Shakespeare and the brave new world of early modern science

This article examines recent critical approaches to Shakespeare and the senses. Historicizing the senses has posed certain methodological challenges: what is the relationship between subjective sensory perceptions and broader cultural understandings of sensation? Does the sensate have a history? Recent work on each of the five senses demonstrates that the answer is yes. And, surprisingly, Shakespeare and his literary works are at the center of the field. As an important figure of the English literary canon, yet one about whom we know so very little, Shakespeare's sensory archive is both omnipresent and illusive. Shakespearean sensations thus provide a way of grappling with the larger methodological stakes of this field. This article examines a wide range of critical approaches to Shakespeare's sensory archive and ends by considering possible paths for further research.

Mark L. Caldwell

Papers

Hamlet And The Senses