Bruce Thomas Boehrer's monograph, Animal Characters, seeks to explore some of the particularities of animal representation in early modern literature. Focusing on a different animal in each chapter, Boehrer explores both literal and symbolic uses of animals in a wide range of (mostly English) literary productions. His approach is interdisciplinary, and he employs a range of methodologies, dependent upon the source material (and the specific animal) under consideration.
In his introduction, Boehrer modestly describes his project thus: "a series of character studies of early modern animals" (3). He goes on to state that his argument is "that the problem of literary character may best be understood from the standpoint of animal studies" (3). Indeed, the introduction makes this relationship between "literary character" and "animal studies" clear, as Boehrer explores various theorizations of "character"--from Aristotle to Descartes--and demonstrates how these are often fundamentally concerned with animal-human species divide. What follows may be described as a kind of cultural history of early modern personhood, taking in religious reformation, literary development, colonization and agricultural change, viewed through the lens of "real" and "fictional" animals.
Chapter 1, "Baiardo's Legacy," focuses on the horse. The chapter is named for Rinaldo's horse in Arisoto's Orlando furioso, and begins with a discussion of its eponymous equine. As elsewhere in the book, Boehrer draws on material from the late Middle Ages as a counterpoint to the early modern material that is his main concern. Here, he contrasts the rational horse of chivalric romance with its sixteenth-century descendants. He introduces his reader to the "topos of equine civil disobedience" (36), and charts the demotion of the horse from participation in a "shared heroism and nobility" (36) to near-invisibility in Milton's Paradise Lost (which Boehrer consistently terms a "horseless epic"). Boehrer's argument here is compelling, as he reads the transformation of the horse alongside political and social changes in the class system. He argues that, as the aristocracy moves from warrior class to leisure class, so too does the horse shift in signification. Ending his chapter with a discussion of Don Quixote, Boehrer categorically aligns the abandonment of the rational and heroic horse with the abandonment of the "fantasy" of chivalric identity.
Chapter 2, "The Cardinal's Parrot," is also informed by a sense of cultural shift between the "medieval" and the "early modern," though this time based in religious, rather than class, developments. Once again, this cultural transformation is presented via the changing representation of an animal: the parrot. The author has previously published a monograph entitled Parrot Culture: Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird, and the wealth of material covered in this chapter of his recent work is testament to his wide-ranging study of the bird. Nevertheless, Boehrer limits himself to a discussion of a particular episode in the evolving relationship between Europeans and parrots, exploring the "metamorphosis" of the bird "into an entirely new species" (74) during the early modern period. He begins by exploring the "conceptual association between popes and parrots" (75) during the Middle Ages, before going on to discuss how this association was transformed into a negative and satirical one. Drawing on numerous sources--including visual art--Boehrer demonstrates the close connection of parrots with particular aspects of Catholic devotion and authority, before showing how this is transformed with the anti-Catholic rhetoric of church reformers. He credits these reformers with playing "a major role in creating one of the most enduring clichés of modern western animal representation" (95): the mindless mimicry of the parrot.
The third chapter, "Ecce Feles," is the only chapter in the book that deals directly with animal cruelty, specifically the wanton torture of cats. Beginning with a consideration of the sixteenth-century comedy Gammer Gurton's Needle, in which a cat (Gib) is simultaneously the agent of mayhem and the object of potential violence, this chapter discusses various manifestations of an early modern fear of cats, and the brutality meted out to felines in the name of "fun." As suggested early in the chapter, "the violent treatment of cats has often assumed a festive character" (110), and Boehrer catalogues an almost overwhelming array of cat-roastings connected with religious holidays. From here, Boehrer examines Protestant condemnation of Catholic holidays, and the belief that such feast-days were too closely connected to Pagan festivals. Cats become victim to anti-Papist celebrations, being roasted in bonfires on Guy Fawkes Day and Elizabeth Day. Boehrer's argument is, once again, compelling, as he clearly charts the development of these festivities with careful reference to religious and political shifts. Moreover, Boehrer revisits the cat of Gammer Gurton's Needle to argue that cats may be read more as "scapegoats" than as simple foils for slapstick violence. This elevation of the feline culminates in his dubbing Gib "the Cat of Sorrows" (123), reminding us that, of all the animals discussed, the cat is the only one named in Latin in its chapter title. Here, as in the rest of the book, Boehrer's main focus in on English material, though he draws some interesting comparison with continental sources.
Chapter 4, "The People's Peacock," discusses the introduction of the turkey to Europe. As in Chapter 1, Boehrer considers class change from the perspective of representations of an animal; however, this time it is with regards to culinary habits. Considering early reactions to the turkey, he argues that it "was understood largely as a new and improved peacock" (141). This leads to a discussion of banqueting, and the move from viewing this as noble to viewing it as gluttony. The turkey becomes intrinsically linked with this, coming to stand as a symbol of gluttonous and pretentious cuisine, and Boehrer combines accounts and descriptions of "real" banquets with fictional and satirical portrayals of greed. Moreover, the association of the newly-discovered turkey with the familiar peacock speaks to early narratives of exploration and colonization, in which the unfamiliar is figured in terms of the known. This leads Boehrer to conclude that "early modern writers approach the turkey through a set of prefabricated perceptions" (162).
The final chapter is entitled "Vulgar Sheepe," and addresses the consistently symbolic presentation of ovine creatures in early modern literature. Boehrer coins "sheepspeak" to describe a process of "thinking with sheep" (164) that is key to understanding representation. Exploring the paucity of "real" sheep compared with their symbolic counterparts, Boehrer lists familiar metaphorical ovines, such as the mindless follower, the imperilled innocent and the angelic victim. However, this chapter seems somewhat weaker than the others, as Boehrer's survey does not lead to any concrete conclusions. While it is certainly interesting that Shakespeare refers to sheep throughout his entire corpus, Boehrer struggles to conclude anything more than "sheep seem never to have been far from Shakespeare's mind" (169). Moreover, when his attention turns to Milton's "sheepless pastoral," his analysis seems less confident and rigorous than his previous exploration of the "horseless epic." Indeed, his final assessment of the lack of sheep in Milton's poetry ends on the somewhat unsatisfactory note that "he [Milton] spent virtually his entire life in and around London" (190). As in the rest of the book, Boehrer demonstrates a deep and wide-ranging knowledge of his source material, and even offers an informative new gloss on a passage from Titus Andronicus based on contemporaneous agricultural manuals, but the chapter lacks any real argument. The overall impression is that there simply is not a lot one can say about sheep.
Despite this, Boehrer's book is a thought-provoking and interesting read. While the cultural shifts it charts may be familiar ground to many, the approach and methodologies taken are unusual, and offer new perspectives on the material. To read literature and, indeed, history, through the lens of the animal may seem idiosyncratic, and Boehrer addresses this head-on. In doing so, he offers a history of anthropocentrism, which goes some way to rethinking (early) modern notions of personhood.
Boehrer does address (and adhere to) typical ideas of periodization. While this, on the whole, is justified by the specificity of the cultural developments he discusses, my main criticism of the book would be the slight tendency to overlook certain medieval representations of animals in order to better distinguish from the early modern. An example of this can be found in Chapter 2. In seeking to underline the transformation of the parrot as a mindless repetitive figure of satire, Boehrer is somewhat dismissive of medieval uses of the same image. He mentions Hoccleve's "Humorous Praise of his Lady," but downplays the frequency with which the "jangling jay" occurs in medieval literature.
Nevertheless Animal Characters is an interesting take on the problematic question of literary character, as well as a significant contribution to scholarship on anthropocentrism and the cultural history of personhood. The enthusiasm and scope of the writing make it an engaging read, and the depth and breadth of the source material is quite fascinating.