On Monday Sept. 23, Dr. Ramie Targoff delivered a lecture entitled “Proxy Weddings, from Shakespeare to Rubens,” in honor of her achievements as the Jehuda Reinharz Professor of the Humanities at Brandeis. Occurring in the Rapaporte Treasure Hall, the lecture was sponsored by the Office of the President. 

The event began with comments from President Ronald Liebowitz, who expounded upon Targoff’s illustrious academic achievements, including the publication of several books such as “Shakespeare’s Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance" and "Posthumous Love: Eros and the Afterlife in Renaissance England.” 

Liebowitz was followed by English Department Chair Prof. John Burt (ENG), who elaborated upon Dr. Targoff’s impressive literary career. Regarding her book “Shakespeare’s Sisters,” he commented that “she has recovered these figures not only through her scholarship, but through stories,” a sentiment that would be demonstrated throughout the subsequent lecture.

Targoff delved into Peter Paul Rubens’ famous medieval cycle of paintings “Life of Mari de’ Medici,” focusing on the particular painting “Marriage of Maria de’ Medici and Henri IV Per Proxy,” in which Mari’s proxy wedding ceremony with her uncle is depicted. The painting represents a quintessential example of the proxy wedding, the performance of a wedding ceremony without the presence of either the bride, groom, or both. In the case of this painting, the wedding was conducted before the bride and groom had even met. This practice was often employed among royalty, to facilitate marriages across distant kingdoms. 

Targoff explored the concept of marriage by proxy throughout several time periods, including biblical, ancient, medieval and Shakespearean times in order to trace its evolution throughout history. Over the course of these time periods,the definition of marriage itself expanded from a legal agreement to a religious sacrament. She traced the shift from solely male proxies to brides being able to use proxies as well. 

Targoff explored the rich emotional complexities of marriage by proxy through a close reading of Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing,’ commenting that the action often resulted in “the severing of a temporary but authentic bond.” She spoke of the phenomena in which the proxy developed genuine feelings that they were forced to suppress. 

Audience member, Em Clemens ’28, reflected in an email interview later that night that “I’m in Professor Targoff’s ‘Shakespeare Now’ class, so when we were told she was being honored and giving a lecture I knew that I had to go. Before going to the talk, all I knew about marriage by proxy was what we discussed when reading ‘Much Ado About Nothing,’ which she touched on a bit, but I had no idea how interesting and prevalent it was.” 

On Sept. 24, Dr. Targoff commented in an email correspondence with The Justice over email that “The topic … raises important questions about human agency and when we can delegate our voice or our will to another person to represent us. This has repercussions in the religious, political, and social sphere.” When asked why she is so passionate about studying proxy weddings throughout history and literature, she responded “ I chose this topic to speak about because it reaches across the humanities. … [It] [includes] materials from the Hebrew Bible, Roman legal codes, Christian law and doctrine, as well as two plays from Shakespeare and multiple paintings by Rubens… I chose this topic in part because it reflects wide interdisciplinary thinking. I am also simply fascinated by its utter strangeness and complexity.” Dr. Targoff also explained that she found this topic pertinent since her newly endowed chair focuses on the humanities and much of career at Brandeis has been devoted to expanding the University’s interest in humanities.

Clemens further commented that, “In class, it is apparent that Targoff is very educated and passionate about her area of study, and it was wonderful to hear her lecture outside of class. I started reading her latest book ‘Shakespeare’s Sisters’ before I knew that she was going to be my professor, and now that I know her as both the author and the professor, I can say that her honoring is well deserved.”

The audience left Dr. Targoff’s lecture with a newfound understanding of the emotional complexity and rich history behind a painting that most people have encountered at some point in their academic careers. Following the lecture, President Leibowitz presented Dr. Targoff with an engraved chair, in honor of her newly awarded accolade.