Laurie E. Maguire. Shakespeare's Names. Oxford Shakespeare Topics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. x + 256 pp. index. bibl. £24.99. ISBN: 978–0–19–921997–1.

Abstract

Shakespeare's Names is an eclectic and engaging look at onomastics-the study of the origin, history, and use of proper names-that focuses especially on the early modern era and a selection of Shakespearean plays. While author Laurie Maguire employs many varied methodologies in approaching her subject, from historical criticism to linguistics and cultural studies, it is perhaps her consideration of gender that, by the end of her work, resonates the most. In her opening chapter, ''On Names'' (a title admittedly borrowed from Montaigne), Maguire takes a look through the history of naming and interpreting names from Plato's Cratylus to Derrida. In chapter 2, ''The Patronym: Montague and Capulet,'' she centers her consideration of the relation of words to things, or signifier to signified, on Romeo and Juliet, a play ''of contradiction, contrast, of clashes'' (55). While, on one hand, identity is rigidly fixed in this play, through family enmity-either you're a Montague or a Capulet-on the other hand, this is a work which revels in puns and oxymorons, rendering language relative. At the end of the chapter Maguire focuses on the concept of translation, considering a Canadian bilingual production of the play (Romeo & Juliette), in which Englishspeaking Montagues and French-speaking Capulets do not understand each other until they both lose a child and begin to focus on the ''personal rather than the patronymic'' (73). Chapter 3 (''The Mythological Name: Helen'') considers Shakespeare's Helens and Helenas of A Midsummer Night's Dream, All's that Ends Well, and Troilus and Cressida, and the classically-inspired associations that would have accompanied this name in the minds of early modern audiences. She also considers Nell Quickly in Henry IV and, while she concludes that ''Helens/Nells'' are always associated with loose morés and sexual aggressivity, Shakespeare offers his heroines more complexity and thus ''tries to liberate his Helens'' from ''this associative onomastic straitjacket'' (119). In chapter 4, ''The Diminutive Name: Kate,'' Maguire uses Katherine Minola from The Taming of the Shrew as a departure point for a discussion of the concept of