A Comparison of the Comic Visions of Shakespeare and Pieter Bruegel

FAIN: FB-13058-77

Richard W. Mercer
Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA 23284-9005)

To compare the comic visions of Shakespeare and Pieter Bruegel with special attention to the mixture of Light and serious elements in Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline Winter's Tale, and Tempest and in Bruegel's secular encyclopedic paintings, his paintings of peasant life and his famous cycle of the seasons. This study should also establish the best methods as well as the critical uses and limitations of such a comparison.