Miranda Fay Thomas brings a new understanding to the significant shaming gestures, defined as “an action of non-verbal communication, performed with the deliberate intention of inflicting humiliation upon someone else” (1), found in Shakespeare's plays. Her research builds on that done by her advisor and mentor Farah Karim-Cooper, whose work focused solely on hand gestures. Beginning with Thomas's own position as a present-day feminist historical scholar, she identifies each full-body gesture and dismantles it with the use of historical context, modern theory, and her own experimentation. The shaming gestures selected for this study are chosen to represent the span of Shakespeare's career. Loosely arranged chronologically, the book begins with aggressive gestures that are distinctly masculine and sexualized, including biting the thumb in Romeo and Juliet, Pistol's use of the fig in 2 Henry IV and Henry V, the acts of spitting in Richard III and The Merchant of Venice, and the cornutu in Othello. The final three chapters deal with more passive gestures, which are distinctly feminized, and while not overtly sexual, they are just as shaming. These include Lady Macbeth's handwashing, Volumnia's kneeling in Coriolanus, and the stillness of Hermione's statue in A Winter's Tale. The result “reveals a previously unseen history of how social tensions are embodied within gesticular action and how such gestures are used as a powerful form of control to humiliate others within the body politic of early modern England” (21).
The breadth of research creates a full picture of the meaning behind each gesture, both historically and today. In analyzing the thumb bite in Romeo and Juliet, Thomas engages a wide range of scholars, including Plutarch, Montaigne, Thomas More, Stephen Greenblatt, and Jean-Paul Sartre, as well as conducting her own research in the Wanamaker Playhouse. Elsewhere, she includes Elizabethan and Jacobean texts, such as Bulwer's Chirologia and Chironomia, Anthony Cople's Wits, Fittes and Fancies; plays such as Arden of Faversham; and playwrights like Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd, juxtaposed with accounts of contemporary actors including Patrick Stewart and Anthony Sher performing the roles. In each chapter, Thomas contextualizes the act with similar gestures elsewhere in Shakespeare: Volumnia is placed alongside Kate at the end of Taming of the Shrew, Sylvia begging for Valentine to her father in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Mariana asking Isabel to kneel with her at the end of Measure for Measure, the innumerable kneeling lords in Richard II, and the multiple instances of kneeling (or not) in King Lear. By providing reference to the larger framework, Thomas's investigation provides a nearly complete picture of the significance of each gesture. It also justifies the analysis of gestures that are harder to identify as gestures—Othello's fear of the cornutu, whether or not it is enacted on stage, and Hermione's stillness, which seems the opposite of a gesture.
At the same time, Thomas holds up a contemporary lens to the gestures, insisting they be scrutinized with our current knowledge as well. The resulting conclusions have much to offer the canon of Shakespearean analysis—for example, that Anne's spitting on Richard is “intended to feminize this dangerous masculinity [of Lancastrian rule in the Henry VI plays]. . . . Spitting, in this context, becomes a taming act intended to neutralize Richard's unruly body—and its unruly masculinity—for the overall good of a well-balanced body politic” (90). Considering the movement in Shakespearean studies and performance toward a more equitable gender diversity, this new take on the gendered power behind these analyzed gestures is timely; Thomas finds strength in the feminine and weakness in the masculine that will provide interesting opportunities for future exploration, both scholastically and practically.
The investigation of what instigates shame in Elizabethan and Jacobean England provides insight into character motivation and a wealth of resources to look to for more information. Perhaps the one area where additional research would have been useful would be in Elizabethan and Jacobean staging practices, also known as original practices, wherein scholars and practitioners have deduced and re-created many of the ways Shakespeare's actors would have brought the plays to life. However, through diligent historical research, contextual comparison, and contemporary reflection, Thomas has certainly created a body of research that will serve scholars, practitioners, and the generally curious.
