"We make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars": a semantic mapping of Shakespeare's astronomical language

Shakespeare’s language has been studied and analysed for centuries, including monographs on the most disparate semantic fields –such as botany, geography, commerce, etc. In this regard, astronomical language is no exception. However, existing studies of Shakespeare’s astronomical language have either leaned towards the field of astrology and the symbolism of the occult or focused on glossing specific passages and terms, usually to disentangle the scientific value of astronomical references. Therefore, there is no systematic account of the semantics of these terms. Thus, the purpose of this study is to provide a holistic analysis of the three most common terms with a strictly astronomical meaning in Shakespeare’s lexicon, namely, ‘sun’, ‘moon’, and ‘star/s’. The analysis here maps the semantics of these terms by looking into the recurring meanings that they take. This, in turn, opens a new avenue of research into the stylistic utilization of astronomical bodies in ways that include character delineation, plot development, dramatic structure, gender characterization, and the role of figurative language at large.