One of the reasons why I chose to take Italian was my love for Shakespeare, and I had always been enamored with why he set a vast majority of his plays in Italy. For the first time, I actually looked up why, complete with a list of plays to trace his trend.
Coriolanus Setting: Rome, Corioli, and Antium
Cymbeline Setting: Britain, Italy
Julius Caesar Setting: Rome; afterwards, Sardis and near Philippi
Measure for Measure Setting: Vienna The Merchant of Venice Setting: Partly in Venice, and partly at Belmont, the seat of Portia on the Continent
Much Ado about Nothing Setting: Messina Othello Setting: Venice (for first act)
Romeo and Juliet Setting: Verona and Mantua
The Taming of the Shrew Setting: Padua, and sometimes in Petruchio's home in the country
Titus Andronicus Setting: Rome
The Two Gentlemen of Verona Setting: Verona, Milan, and the frontiers of Mantua
The Winter’s Tale Setting: Sometimes in Sicilia, sometimes in Bohemia
The arguments made in the article linked above raise the cultural and political allure of Italy as reasons why Shakespeare used the country as a prevalent setting for his plays. Culturally, the British population considered Italians to be cunning yet sophisticated and this sort of personality made sense to put into his comedies. Overarching themes include the framing devices of plays within the play, disguises, witty banter, and deals made between characters. Themes of violence and passion also mesmerized Britain, which led to adding Italian setting to the trend of tragedies as well. The foreign backdrop also helped the English to separate themselves from the play, and make them less relatable or controversial to the general public, especially with the monarchy involved in the economics of theatrical success. This therefore settles the political criticism Shakespeare tries to convey without getting in trouble.
From a contemporary standpoint, playwrights have used similar reasoning for their own adaptations for their own works and productions.- Kat Agudo
