ABSTRACT
Some of Shakespeare’s most familiar lines occur during the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet when Juliet asks a hidden Romeo to “refuse” his name. Juliet to the contrary, however, names mean a lot—and certainly in Shakespeare. Angelo of Measure for Measure is surely no angel, and neither is Juliet’s garrulous nurse Angelica. In any event, in December of 1862 John Ruskin published sections from his Munera Pulveris, a treatise on political economy, which in asides and footnotes attempts to explain the significance of some of Shakespeare’s names. Several prominent twentieth-century novelists, however, have evinced fascination with names in Shakespeare. In some plays Shakespeare was limited by names inherited from source materials. For the most part dealing with minor and especially comic characters and secondary play actions, Shakespeare will single out a vivid attribute and so label a character, either by occupation, physical trait or feature, or some notable aspect of personality.
