“Art Made Tongue-tied by Authority”: Censorship and Shakespeare’s Dramatic Strategies

Abstract

Ambiguity in Shakespeare’s plays is often the result of his response to the external pressure of censorship, a defining condition of writing in his time. This paper examines how Shakespeare coped with the censor’s eyes when he wrote his plays as an acting dramatist living his own historical time and space. Specifically, it focuses on two of the most controversial scenes in his plays—the Jack Cade rebellion scenes in Henry VI, Part 2 and the deposition scene in Richard II to demonstrate how Shakespeare employed strategies of ambiguity. As a preliminary inquiry, this paper considered Sir Thomas More, to which Shakespeare contributed revisions, where he negotiated censorship through comic portrayal, philosophizing, and the use of conservative political doctrine as a counterpoint, thereby rendering his political stance deliberately ambiguous. His intention, therefore, is shaped by circumstances and contingent on the socio-political contexts of his time. With this adaptive concept of authorship, today’s readers, actors, and directors can approach Shakespeare as collaborators, unravelling the ambiguities produced by the pressure of censorship. Shakespeare’s negotiation with censorship thus becomes an opening for fresh interpretation, enabling his plays to speak more powerfully in contemporary cultural and political contexts.