Shakespeare's Italian place-myths: The Padua–Verona–Mantua nexus

Abstract

This article aims to explore Shakespeare's poetics of Italian places and place names, with particular regard to the nexus between Padua, Verona, and Mantua. The primary text of reference is The Taming of the Shrew, especially in relation to John Florio's bilingual conversation manual, Second frutes (1590). While Padua, in this and other plays, is represented as a cultural hub, Mantua, by contrast, is often figured as a spatial elsewhere, a heterotopia or ‘badlands’ associated with transgression and violent death. At the same time, Mantua is at the centre of Renaissance culture, thereby constituting a paradoxical space.