Divine Harmony Amongst Many Spheres: The Relationship Between Literal and Metaphoric Music in Shakespeare

Much research has been done on the integral role of music in Shakespeare\u27s works. Many critics evaluate the role of metaphoric music in the plays, referencing notions of harmonious human interaction or a dissonant cosmos. Also, many critics analyze music\u27s relationship to the bawdy, the sensual, and the deranged within Shakespeare. Fewer critics, but still quite a few, evaluate the literal musical material that likely would have been incorporated into the performance of these works. What did Desdemona\u27s Willow Song really sound like? What was the melody of the tunes that Ophelia sang in her mad outrage? My research interests lie in combining these two critical approaches. In my thesis, I evaluate Othello, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and the Tempest according to the Boethian divisions of music, musica instrumentalis (aural music), musica humana (music of human relationships), and musica mundana (music of the spheres). I analyze the way that these different levels of music work together within each play and then make an argument about how this relationship is a manifestation of Shakespeare\u27s own religious equivocation and doubt