Hewers of Wood, Drawers of Gall

Abstract

This chapter shows how the stage’s physical materials create meaning and position race as a construction of degraded European environments. In Titus Andronicus, Aaron’s black “hue” both begets and justifies the physical, bodily “hews” he orchestrates against the Andronicii, which are figuratively aligned with the excessive consumption of timber. In Lust’s Dominion, Eleazar’s furious “gall” (referencing both his ire and a popular ingredient in both ink and blackface cosmetic recipes) informs his audience how they should read his “Inky” face. The chapter investigates these material wooden puns in the context of England’s timber crisis and economic expansion at the turn of the seventeenth century. Through reorienting our understanding of Aaron and Eleazar around the wooden commodities that may have constituted their black skin on stage—namely, cork and galls—this chapter shows how the performance of “race” on stage was mediated by the natural world and the human commodification of it.