莎士比亞劇作《理查三世》中的食物、牙齒與掠食

Food, Tooth and Predation in Shakespeare’s Richard III

飲食乃生存的必須，與飲食相關的元素可迅速啟動我們的想像。莎士比亞作品中運用了極大數量與飲食相關的意象，本文旨在重讀莎士比亞歷史劇《理查三世》，聚焦於作品中此類意象，除將此劇與數齣莎翁劇作做互文連結，亦考量莎翁年代飢荒威脅的歷史情境。本文主張此戲中掠食關係極為關鍵，正如理查三世的牙齒在劇中被搬弄為極具象徵意義。以食物、牙齒、與掠食意象詮釋這部作品所呈現的英國歷史，不僅趣味橫生，且別具意義。

Food and drinks, which are vital for the sustenance of life, can readily trigger our imagination. Shakespeare uses a myriad of images related to food and drinks in his plays. This paper focuses on Shakespeare’s Richard III, attempting to reinterpret these images. By rereading Richard III in the light of intertextual correlation with several of Shakespeare’s other plays, and by contextualizing the play within the history of Shakespeare’s time when famine often threatened, the paper argues that predatory relationship is central to the play, while Richard III’s tooth is with symbolic meaning. Food, tooth and predation can be used to reinterpret the English history Shakespeare dramatizes in Richard III to yield interesting meaning.