Review of Karen Raber and Karen Edwards’ Shakespeare and Animals: A Dictionary

One of the most recent volumes in the Arden Shakespeare Dictionary series, Shakespeare and Animals aims to provide entries that “include all of Shakespeare’s animals” (10). In this volume, Karen Raber and Karen Edwards, both of whom have been immersed in scholarship concerning early modern literary engagements with animals for over a decade, share a wealth of knowledge with their readers. The dictionary serves not only as a guide to the animals included in Shakespeare’s works, but also to the use of the following in the bard’s plays and poems: terminology used to designate the relationships and interactions between animals and humans; folkloric beasts; foods and other products originating from animals; characters associated with animals; and mythical figures linked to animals. Additionally, the volume includes a useful introduction, an index of the animals listed in each of Shakespeare’s works, a bibliography of primary and secondary source materials, and nine illustrations of various animals by sixteenth century artists.

In the introduction, Raber explores how Shakespeare’s use of animals afforded him “a language and an imaginative repertoire of imagery for thinking about and representing the world” (1). The Renaissance, the author notes, witnessed an increased interest in studying animals due to scientific and philosophical attentiveness to non-human creatures and to contemporary economic concerns. Thus, the publication of animal husbandry manuals flourished alongside textual accounts of “new” animals encountered in the Americas and Africa. Additionally, “petkeeping was an increasingly common practice” for early modern people and involved not only the use of animals…