Shakespeare, The Secret Rebel

Catholic Educator's Resource ^ | August 1, 2005 | Robert Mason Lee

[siunevada]

Third Earl of Southampton - Romeo?

Elizabeth Vernon - Juliet?

According to author Clare Asquith, the words used by the subversive Shakespeare in his plays and poems disguised a hidden pro-Catholic message.

Sunburn: The sun represented divinity, and so sunburn denotes closeness to God. Shakespeare described himself as 'tanned' in Sonnet 62.

Turtle dove: A traditional image for the apostles, used to signify those who remained faithful in the face of persecution.

Nightingale: The story of Philomela, who was turned into a nightingale, was an image of the desecrated church and its covert protests.

Red rose: A term used by Catholics for their 'old, beautiful' religion.

Dark: The new, Protestant religion, associated with black print and sober dress.

Five: Devotion to the five wounds of Christ led to patterned emblems on the banners borne against the new regime. Shakespeare uses it in the form of flowers, birthmarks or heraldic blazons as a marker of Catholicism.

[1rudeboy]

bttt for later

[siunevada]

Ping. (How do they say that in 16th century English?)

[1rudeboy]

In Middle English, it might be "pynge."

[Smogger]

bump

[TotusTuus]

Clare Asquith's book sounds like it would be an interesting read. Thanks for posting.

[JulieRNR21]

Fascinating post....makes me want to read her book.

BTW....a few years ago I visited what is left of Glastonbury Abbey.

[Accygirl]

There was a book out last year called Will in the World, which while not going as far as this book, does suggest that Shakespeare was exposed to some of the Catholic "underground." This type of thinking is on the cutting edge in Shakespeare scholarship.

BTW, thanks for posting about the book. I'm a Shakespeare fanatic and will probably end up buying it.

[Ann Archy]

OMG! How Fascinating!!! Thank you!

[jocon307]

This is very interesting. I wonder if she's really correct, I've always heard that Shakespere was just a slave to the Tudors. Interesting to think he might have been a closet cath-o-leek.

[siunevada]

I watched a PBS (eek!) show called The Search for Shakespeare (I think) on DVD that explored some of the evidence for this same theory. It dragged a little bit in the third and fourth hour because of repetition but it was interesting.

[siunevada]

What makes her audacious theory more remarkable is the fact it was written on a kitchen table in moments snatched from caring for her husband and five children.

"I have so many children that I was literally reading and writing while ironing and cooking," she says. "I wouldn't have thought it possible, but it was."

And if it all turns out to be correct, she will have single-handedly turned the mighty citadel of Shakespearean scholarship on its head.

For some reason, you came to mind. Just another job for Mom.

Change the diaper, change the world. It's all one big blur.

[Ann Archy]

Can someone e-mail Hugh Hewitt about this info?? His prof friend David Allen White (?), teaches Shakespeare at the US Naval Academy and is fascinating to listen when he's on Hugh's show.

[Ann Archy]

Her book, Shadowplay will be a must-buy!

[Gwaihir]

The first half of 'Will in the World' was especially good.
Greenblatt's speculation that Shakespeare could have met with Campion was intriguing.

[SuziQ]

The book does sound interesting, but I'd read something about Shakespeare being a 'closet Catholic' a few years ago.

[okie01]

Russian authors and playwrights have always been recognized as written to be understood by two separate audiences on two different levels.

Why was this insight not applied to Shakespeare before now?

[siunevada]

Why was this insight not applied to Shakespeare before now?

Maybe the mind set was not right until recently. It's like turning an ocean liner, it takes a while.

Only in the past few decades have historians revised their assumptions about the period. Far from being a happy time of peaceful transition from Catholicism to Protestantism, the Tudor and Elizabethan reigns were in fact the most brutal and turbulent period in English history.

[Capriole]

So how does this connect to the current, widely-held view that the Shakespeare canon was written by Edward de Vere, the poet and nobleman, rather than the uneducated Will Shakespere? De Vere wasn't a closet Catholic, was he?

[jordan8]

Old Willie was a Fenian, eh? Oops, wrong rebels.