In memory of Margaret Jean (Smith) Arnold (1934-2025)

Margaret Jean (Smith) Arnold (1934-2025) was a literary scholar whose work on Shakespeare I encountered and enjoyed before our paths crossed in other ways: in an October, 2023 blog post [1], I considered Hamlet’s mother Gertrude as perhaps willing to secretly test the wine for poison before her son, and in that way, perhaps to be compared to the self-sacrifice of Alcestis, about whom Shakespeare would have known at least second hand through the work of Euripides, which Margaret J. Arnold cited in 1984 as “the most popular Greek dramatist in Shakespeare's time” [2].

I stumbled on Margaret’s 1984 essay because I briefly researched how Shakespeare would have known about the tale of Alcestis. This led to Euripides, and then to Margaret’s helpful work.

Soon I noticed that Margaret was participating in various online Shakespeare groups to which I share my blog posts, and she often liked these and sometimes commented in kind and generous ways. Fairly soon, we exchanged messages. When I mentioned her often-cited 1984 essay, she was very humble, surprised that it was even still available.

Margaret wrote many helpful reviews of literary scholarship in the late 1990s [3], 2003-4 [4], and 2005-9 [5], including a 1995 review of a book on Shakespeare and religion [6]; she contributed to feminist criticism in journals [7], and participated in at least three seminars at Shakespeare Association of America conferences between 1984 and 1990, often on feminist-related topics [8].

She received her Ph.D from the University of Texas in 1971, with fellowships in both English and Classics, and then taught at the University of Kansas from 1968 to 2004 [9].

Margaret died late last November (2025). I am grateful for her scholarship and service in education, as well as for her cheerful support of my work.

NOTES:

[1] Part 18: A mote in Ophelia’s eye met with Gertrude's merciful fiction? - October 10, 2023: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/part-18-mote-in-ophelias-eye-met-with.html

[2] “Euripides was the most popular Greek dramatist in Shakespeare's time” according to Margaret J. Arnold (1984). See Arnold, Margaret J. “‘Monsters in Love’s Train’: Euripides and Shakespeare’s ‘Troilus and Cressida.’” Comparative Drama 18, no. 1 (1984): 38–53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41153103.

[3] A samples from 1998-9s here (not an exhaustive list):

Arnold, Margaret J. The Polemics and Poems of Rachel Speght, by Barbara Kiefer Lewalski. Renaissance Quarterly 51, no. 3 (1998): 1065–66. https://doi.org/10.2307/2901824.

Arnold, Margaret J. The Unmasking of Drama: Contested Representation in Shakespeare’s Tragedies; Issues of Death: Mortality and Identity in English Renaissance Tragedy; Seneca by Candlelight and Other Stories of Renaissance Drama, by Jonathan Baldo, Michael Neill, and Lorraine Helms. Renaissance Quarterly 52, no. 2 (1999): 564–67. https://doi.org/10.2307/2902095.

Arnold, Margaret J. Jonson, Shakespeare and Early Modern Virgil; “The Pale Cast of Thought”: Hesitation and Decision in the Renaissance Epic, by Margaret Tudeau-Clayton and James Lawrence Shulman. Renaissance Quarterly 52, no. 4 (1999): 1186–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/2901862.

[4] Samples from 2003-2004 here:

Arnold, Margaret J. The Life of John Milton: A Critical Biography, by Barbara K. Lewalski. Renaissance Quarterly 56, no. 1 (2003): 252–53. https://doi.org/10.2307/1262310.

Arnold, Margaret J. The “Centuries” of Julia Palmer, by Julia Palmer, Victoria Burke, and Elizabeth R. Clarke. Renaissance Quarterly 56, no. 4 (2003): 1310–11. https://doi.org/10.2307/1262076.

Arnold, Margaret J. Sharpening Her Pen: Strategies of Rhetorical Violence by Early Modern English Women Writers, by Sidney L. Sondergard. The Modern Language Review 99, no. 3 (2004): 739–40. https://doi.org/10.2307/3739007.

[5] Samples from 2005-9 here:

Arnold, Margaret J., and Mary Jo Kietzman. The Self-Fashioning of an Early Modern Englishwoman: Mary Carleton’s Lives. Renaissance Quarterly 58, no. 2 (2005): 720–22. https://doi.org/10.1353/ren.2008.0689.

Arnold, Margaret J. Review of Single Imperfection: Milton, Marriage and Friendship. Renaissance Quarterly 59, no. 3 (2006): 983-985. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/234286.

Arnold, Margaret J., and Stephen M. Fallon. Milton’s Peculiar Grace: Self-Representation and Authority. Renaissance Quarterly 60, no. 4 (2007): 1490–92. https://doi.org/10.1353/ren.2007.0351.

Arnold, Margaret J., Thomas N. Corns, John K. Hale, and Fiona J. Tweedie. Milton and the Manuscript of De Doctrina Christiana, by Gordon Campbell. Renaissance Quarterly 62, no. 4 (2009): 1388–89. https://doi.org/10.1086/650137.

[6] Arnold, Margaret J. Review of Shakespeare's Christian Dimension: An Anthology of Commentary ed. by Roy Battenhouse. Comparative Drama 29, no. 4 (1995): 529-532. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/cdr.1995.0047.

[7] Adelman, Janet, Margaret J. Arnold, Linda Bamber and Catherine Belsey,
‘Feminist Criticism’, PMLA, 104:1 (January 1989), 77–9.

[8] These included (perhaps not an exhaustive list):

1984, Shakespeare Association of America conference, Cambridge, MA:
XVIII Seminar: SHAKESPEARE AND THE CLASSICAL TRADITION
Chairman, ROBERT S. MIOLA (Loyola College)

1987 MEETING, Shakespeare Association of America conference, APRIL 9TH - 11TH
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
XXII Seminar: SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY AND GENDER
Leader: SHIRLEY NELSON GARNER (University of Minnesota)

1990 MEETING, APRIL 12TH-14TH, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA,
THE SHAKESPEARE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
III Seminar: RENAISSANCE WOMEN AS READERS AND WRITERS
Leaders: Margaret Ferguson (University of Colorado at Boulder)

[9] Obituaries November 24, 2025 - 2:40 pm
Obituary: Margaret Jean (Smith) Arnold
by Lawrence Community
https://lawrencekstimes.com/2025/11/24/obituary-margaret-jean-smith-arnold/

IMAGE:
Fair use, https://lawrencekstimes.com/2025/11/24/obituary-margaret-jean-smith-arnold/

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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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