More on Interviewing Dr. Young

When I talked with Dr. Young today (an expert on family life in Shakespeare's time), we talked mainly about the plays Meleager and Star-Crossed. Dr. Young said that content-wise, both could have been in line with other Shakespeare works. Here's an overview of what he told me:

Concerning Meleager:
Shakespeare did write plays about ancient mythology; but those plays tended to have happy endings, while Meleager is a tragedy. However, he did write a play called Coriolanus that was based on Roman myth that was a tragedy as well, so we're still in the ballpark with this one.

Dr. Young said that his belief is that Shakespeare had a positive ideal for families, and that oftentimes, it's when families go wrong that there's a tragedy (i.e. it's the disrupted family that makes the tragedy tragic)--consider Hamlet & King Lear as other examples. Meleager fits right into this.

Scene from Coriolanus, a Shakespearean war tragedy

He also said that Althaea's willingness to kill her own son was somewhat similar to the mother figure in Coriolanus, who, although she didn't kill her own son (who was also a warrior, incidentally--good move there, guys), rejoiced when he came home from battle covered with scars, saying that she'd rather have her son injured than dishonored. So, Althaea's willingness to place the demands of morality over the life of her son might be able to fit into that category.

On courtship rituals:
When I asked him about the use of courtship rituals in Shakespeare's plays and how they were received by the audience, Dr. Young told me that even when his plays were set in foreign times & places, Shakespeare would insert a lot of English customs into them.

Titania & Co.

On Star-Crossed:
 Interactions between magical folk and mortals actually happened a lot in Shakespeare's plays; and oftentimes, these interactions could be funny. However, Dr. Young explained that with Shakespeare, humor wasn't always just funniness; it could be anything magical as well. So Puck's play could easily fall under the classification of a Shakespearean comedy.