Shakespeare’s Leontes: an Aristotelian Natural Philosopher?
- William Shakespeare, perhaps the world’s most celebrated playwright, has been at the heart of much speculation: Was Shakespeare not a man, but a group of writers? Was Shakespeare a penname for Sir Francis Bacon? Was the playwright infected with syphilis? These sensational theories are entertaining, but focus less on the work and more on the image of the man. This makes some sense considering the work survives while the man did not and invites scrutiny and speculation respectively. Scrutiny tends to give way to speculation, like Shakespeare’s vast vocabulary and linguistic inventiveness suggest to some that ‘Shakespeare’ was a pseudonym used by many people. This piece, however, chooses to keep its speculation within the impersonal confines of the work itself and the larger historical trends of the time.
- Shakespeare infused into his dramas social, political, and scientific commentary. Some of it is blatant, while some requires an almost-Talmudic style of investigation to reveal its existence. In The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare embeds a discussion of the geocentric/heliocentric debate into the character development of Leontes.
- The first three acts of The Winter’s Tale are laden with celestial references. The extent of Shakespeare’s knowledge regarding astrological devices such as astra and other basic astronomic happenings, along with the ubiquitous usage of celestial terms, points to the likelihood of his awareness of the geocentric/heliocentric debate. This idea is buttressed by other scientific references, including anatomy and, more specifically, the circulation of blood, in others of his plays. Moreover, the idea of a sun-centered universe had been around for over six decades, having been first printed in 1540 as a discussion of Copernicus’s model, which would itself not be printed until three years later. Weighing the feasibility of Shakespeare’s knowledge against the many cosmic references, it seems plausible to speculate on the representation of this scientific debate through the characters and plot of the play.
- The geocentric model of the universe was central to Aristotle’s science of natural philosophy. Many of his explanations for the world relied upon this fact (e.g. falling objects tend toward their correct place in the universe, which is nearest to its center, i.e., the center of Earth). Moreover, Aristotle and his natural philosophers obtained knowledge through a process of experience that relied upon sensory perception. These tidbits point to Leontes as symbolizing this geocentric model and, more generally, Aristotle’s principles.
- The first bit of evidence to support this claim arises in act one scene two, in the conversation between Camillo and Leontes regarding Hermione’s faithfulness. Leontes’s justification for suspicion relies on his ability to ascertain truth through his senses. In turn, he questions the same of Camillo: “Ha’ you not seen, Camillo… If thou wilt confess, or else be impudently negative, to have nor eyes, nor ears, nor thought… canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil…” (lines 264, 270-273, 300). Moreover, as Leontes implores Camillo to poison Polixenes, he compares the clarity with which Camillo ought to see his point of view as being as obvious “as heaven sees earth and earth sees heaven” (312). This line is indicative of Aristotelian logic, which explains the interaction of heavenly bodies through assumptions obtained by an Earthly observer and his/her perceptions. The phrase supposes that he is as transparently correct as it is obvious that the heavens revolve around Earth.
- The use of such sensory perceptions as denoting reality is not alone enough to concrete the analogy. What strengthens the connection is the fervor with which Leontes defends these insights against reason, loved ones, and even the gods. Camillo addresses this stubbornness in his appeal to Polixenes to leave and escape death: “Swear his thought over by each particular star in heaven, and by all their influences; you may as well forbid the sea for to obey the moon as or by oath remove or counsel shake the fabric of his folly, whose foundation is piled upon his faith, and will continue the standing of his body” (1.2 419-426). Camillo seems to say that even if Polixenes were to swear his loyalty on every star in the universe, and each of their astra in connection with men, that Leontes would remain unmoved as his faith is rooted in his body. While this is a flowery way to say, “We’d better just get out of here because my man is pissed and you’re not going to change his mind,” the images and words used points to the connection to geocentrism. If so, the lines seem to indicate that despite a thorough examination of all celestial objects, one would need to change the static, perfectly predictable statuses of the heavenly bodies (indeed Aristotelian philosophy presupposed perfect, circular orbits of moon, sun, and planets around Earth, which is why the generation and dissipation of sun spots was so paramount) to change that which Leontes believes, as it was realized by his senses (which, according to Aristotle’s science, makes knowledge true). These requirements needed to change Leontes’s mind were exactly the same ones needed to disprove the geocentric, Aristotelian model of the universe.
- More evidence is provided in the first scene of the second act, as Leontes accuses Hermione of adultery and has her escorted to the dungeon. In response to Hermione’s claim that when he comes to ‘clearer knowledge’ he will barely be able to clean her name by admitting his mistake, he replies, ironically, “No; if I mistake in those foundations which I build upon, the centre is not big enough to bear a schoolboy’s top” (100-103). First, Hermione’s use of ‘clearer knowledge’ could be interpreted as a new way of thinking, similar to the induction method introduced by Francis Bacon as a superior analytic strategy to Aristotle’s cyclical deduction. Again, in the play as well as history, Leontes refutes this by asserting the foundations of his argument, his senses, as preeminent. Interestingly enough, he equates the likelihood of his error to the possibility of the center of the universe being as small as a schoolboy’s hat. While the reference to the schoolboy’s hat is most likely comedy, we once again are confronted with Leontes’s assumption that the Earth is the center of the universe.
- To this Hermione replies, “There’s some ill planet reigns. I must be patient till the heavens look with an aspect more favourable” (105-107). While Hermione’s speech appeals to the ‘astrologically malignant’ nature of the events and concludes to wait until these celestial powers change, it also seems to speak to this debate. Simply, Shakespeare could be indicating a need to wait until the heavens literally look with an aspect more favorable, that is, until Leontes can perceive the true workings of the solar system and thus realize his error.
- While other, small passages dabble the rest of the second act, it is the return of Cleomenes and Dion that ices the final touches onto the cake. The two were sent by Leontes to Delphi, to the temple of Apollo, to receive the oracle’s judgment on the fidelity of his wife. Delphi was considered the womb, the center of the world, and since, at the time, the world was considered the center of the universe, Delphi was the center of the universe. Apollo was the god of the sun. The two lords, bearing the wisdom of the oracle from the center of the universe after appealing to the god of the sun, bring Leontes face to face with the heliocentric reality of the universe as, indeed, the oracle finds against his shrewdness. Though Leontes initially rejects the prophecy, as Mamillius dies and Hermione (supposedly) too, he rescinds his judgments, the foundations of his beliefs, and accepts truth.
- Thus, Shakespeare brought the then-current scientific debates to the people with an accessible and entertaining didacticism worthy of Bertolt Brecht. Weaving the particularities of the arguments into the development of his characters, Shakespeare was able to weigh-in on debates that ruined many careers and took many lives. Such embedding of social commentary exemplifies the power of the theater, and art itself, as a transformative institution.
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