Mischief in the Wood: Pastoral, Domestic Abuse, and the Environment in The Merry Wives of Windsor and A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Abstract

Interplay between urban environments and natural environments in Shakespeare’s plays is often presented as evidence of pastoral sensibilities. William Empson appears to be largely responsible. In Some Versions of Pastoral, first published in 1935, Empson identifies certain literary themes that show evidence of pastoral sensibilities. The themes can be broad. For example, Empson identifies “as a possible territory of pastoral” “this grand notion of the inadequacy of life, so reliable a bass note in the arts.”¹ I understand the impulse to look beyond a specific cultural phenomenon for signs of a broader influence on literature and culture, but I worry that Empson expands the reach of pastoral so far that it ceases to be a useful critical term.