Posted on 01/07/2011 7:24:58 AM PST by marshmallow
Exactly! I admired his ability to remember and act all of his lines between having to do the stutter and the clubfooted limp. He's quite an accomplished actor.
Yes, More was indeed a Catholic; but I do wonder whether Shakespeare really wrote all of The Reign of King Edward III.
Ok, I swear, I'll be good.
Yesterday, I was so taken aback to see such a faithful rendering of Hamlet's speech, that I neglected your comment captured above.
You make a very interesting point, which I should probably not attempt to discuss, but I simply cannot help myself.
Assuming that the children were indeed his own, and further assuming that the works were all Shakespeare's own, I would wonder whether the children were dyslexic, or "word blind," as it was called in another time. The question of what tutors, if any, Shakespeare employed for his offspring would certainly have to be answered, as well.
I have no answers. But it is certainly an interesting point.
Then, there´s the First Folio compiled by Heminges and Condell who had known and worked with Shakespeare, with a dedicatory poem by Ben Jonson, who had also known him.
That Shakespeare was a negligent husband and father is generally known, since he was seldom in Stratford, except as a by then wealthy retiree who had obtained a Coat-Of-Arms primarily for his father´s memory and the attribution of Gentleman for himself.
Though I suppose we could surmise that after he farted in the Queen´s presence and went to travel in embarrassment for some seven years, that it was then that de Vere concocted his scheme of authorship...which makes about as much sense as any other such ¨conspiracy¨, even though no one ever thought of it for at least 150 years after Shakespeare´s death.
All we have in writing from the Stratford man is his will and 5 other signed documents, all of which indicate he had difficulty writing his own name, let alone the plays and other poetry attributed to Shakespeare.
The will famously left his second-best bed to his wife, and the bulk of his estate to his favorite daughter Susanna. There was no mention at all of manuscripts, books, or any other literary property. We are supposed to believe that 7 years earlier in 1609 he had allowed his most famous poems to be published by Thomas Thorpe, and had no property interest in that publication, or in the future publication of his famous plays.
In his book “Shakespeare Revealed in Oxford’s Letters” William Plumer Fowler analyzes 37 of de Vere’s letters and compares the language to the Shakespeare plays. The analysis itself is very interesting, but the frontispiece of the book was stunning to this longtime handwriting analyst. That picture of a handwritten letter by de Vere clearly revealed to me the brilliant dramatic poet who very likely was Shakespeare.
The mystery of who wrote the Shakespeare plays and sonnets will very likely never be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. It would be very nice to discover a manuscript of “The Tempest” in de Vere’s handwriting, which would settle all issues, chronological or otherwise. Barring such a miraculous event, we all just have our own considered opinion of the available evidence.
...We are supposed to believe that 7 years earlier in 1609 he had allowed his most famous poems to be published by Thomas Thorpe, and had no property interest in that publication, or in the future publication of his famous plays...
I think that the abdication of property interest makes a very persuasive argument that the works were indeed authored by another or others.
“We are The Reasoning Race, and when we find a vague file of chipmunk tracks stringing through the dust of Stratford village, we know by our reasoning powers that Hercules has been along there. I feel that our fetish is safe for three centuries yet.”
Sadly, Lear never wrote back. :(
Sadly, Lear never wrote back. :(
Thank you!
I loved the books. The TV series was also very good
interesting point about the “group efforts” — one can never really know, but logically your opinion makes sense. The actors would improvise and Shakespeare would probably take advice from friends (as do many authors and playwrights today). I think pretty definitely the final “editing” was Willy’s and of course the level of pure “go it alone” would vary from play to play
Take Romeo and Juliet. You can see traces of this from Tristan and Isolde and even back to the Puranas and other Hindu-Aryanic tales
Ditto for King Lear
however, Shakespeare polished these and made them incredible. Why Shakespeare is read not only in english but in a multitude of languages -- I've read him in French and in Polish and my sis-in-law in Japanese and the themes and plots STILL hold
That is mastery.
Sticking to the Japanese point -- have you see Karusawa's "throne of blood"? it's based on King Lear yet stands on its own.
It’s not that people question Shakespeare for being middle class. I think it’s pretty well establishedl that all great figures of the mind stand between the overlords and the peasants. You don’t see much of the titled nobility among the British pantheon. Well, Shaftesbury, Cavendish, Keynes, Russell. But nobody else. And needless to say none from the lower orders.
No, it’s all sons of gentry, merchants, doctors, lawyers, perhaps artisans. Shakespeare falls comfortably into that. The problem is that we have no record of schooling after grammar school, and his plays evince knowledge of the classics. How did he know Latin, or if he didn’t how did he make it look as if he did? “He’s a genius” is hardly an answer.
As for Newton, I don’t know his exact status at birth, but he was educated at Cambridge and therefore there is no similar mystery.
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