2026/05/13 by Emily Buffey · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Samuel Beckett and Modernism #Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism #Theater, Performance, and Music History
paper · doi:10.1080/0013838x.2026.2656500
openalex publication_date 2026/05/13 · openalex created_date 2026/05/15 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/22
Macbeth’s invocation of three exotic beasts in Act 3, Scene 4 infuses the play’s final reckoning at Dunsinane with ecological significance beyond the vengeful marching of trees. Unlike the “Hyrcan tiger” and the “rugged Russian bear,” the “armed rhinoceros” falls from the play’s verbal patterning, yet becomes a potent sign of how power was performed in this period, and the paranoia that haunted its pursuit. Beginning with the ill-fated rhinoceros that inspired Albrecht Dürer’s iconic 1515 <i>Rhinoceros </i>woodcut, this article traces how rhinos were mobilised in the period as instruments of intellectual rivalry, exploitation and display. Such contexts illuminate Macbeth’s injudicious reference to an “armed rhinoceros” in the banquet scene. From coats of arms to rhino-horn cups, early modern material culture brims with rhinos, whose frequent confusion with unicorns further reframes the play’s engagement with Anglo-Scottish sovereignty, mythmaking and power.