Now that Spring has sprung, it seems appropriate to highlight a particularly lovely book: Shakespeare’s Flowers, written by Jessica Kerr (with illustrations by Anne Ophelia Dowden). First published in 1969 and still available here, this insightful and highly readable work traces the significance of flowers across Shakespeare’s oeuvre.
Given the complexity of Shakespeare’s characterizations, it is easy to consider the plays as explorations of purely human nature. As Kerr points out, though, the myriad depictions of flowers attest to the symbolic language of the botanical world. “Shakespeare liked to use flowers as images to illustrate his ideas about people,” Kerr writes, noting that they helped to convey “what [individuals] looked like, their characters, and their actions.” Whether discussing Ophelia’s wildflowers or the “rose by any other name” invoked by Juliet, the magical blossoms in A Midsummer Night’s Dream or the daffodils of A Winter’s Tale, Kerr captures the spectrum of Shakespeare’s natural imagery.
Yet there is also the historical importance of these images to consider. According to Kerr, Shakespeare’s writing gives us a “wonderful picture of the English countryside and of the gardens and flowers” which featured in his personal landscape. In so engaging with the flowers that populate his plays, we are implicitly engaging with the natural world as Shakespeare knew it. And that, as Kerr reminds us, could be as dramatic as any theatrical stage!
©2019