ABSTRACT
The key word is “prevent” (Julius Caesar, 2.1.28). The question is: how is it possible to “restore” order when there is no conclusive proof that the existing order has been disturbed? Disorder authorizes action, order does not. Most of Shakespeare’s plot making is based on disorder being restored to order. Many Shakespearean characters seem literally obsessed by chances to “redeem,” “remediate,” “make even.” “Then is there mirth in heaven,” harmony-bound Hymen classically corroborates at the end of As You Like It, “When earthly things made even/Atone together” (5.4.107–9). But what if the “earthly things” have not yet been disrupted? And what if the world—outside comedy—has become too complex for one single agent to “make all this matter even” (5.4.18), as Rosalind in As You Like It is still confident to do?
