‘With his Head Broke’: The Occupational Hazards of Shakespeare’s Schoolmasters

Placed in largely comedic situations and portrayed as objects of mockery, Shakespeare's schoolmasters serve as prime and highly visible representations of the precarious and emergent teaching profession of the time. They are the 'self-wise-seeming' schoolmasters that Sidney designates as laugh-worthy personages in his Defence of Poesy. Beyond staging their ridiculousness as characters, Shakespeare also accentuates these professionals' precarity by making visible physical, environmental, and emotional hazards inherent to their occupation. In the comedies, Shakespeare's schoolmasters provide valuable insights on the intersectionality of professional identity and health. Whether it is Hortensio, whose temporary disguise as a schoolmaster, results in him returning to stage with 'his head broke' (Taming of the Shrew II.i.136), or Holofernes who renders his own demise so poignantly as that which is 'not generous, not gentle, not humble' (Love's Labour's Lost V.ii.617), it is impossible to overlook these characters' overall wellbeing as professionals. Considering the schoolmaster in Shakespeare's work via contemporary accounts of the figure's occupational hazards, I hope to make visible the abiding nature of what seems to be a decidedly modern portrayal of the sad, stressed, and wounded teacher.