Posted on 11/27/2014 7:27:57 PM PST by annalex
On Tuesday, word spread about the discovery of a "first folio" of the works of William Shakespeare [...]. It was uncovered by some industrious librarians in St.-Omer, France, near the city of Calais, at a public library that already boasts possession of an even rarer Gutenberg Bible.
The folio, as the BBC noted, "collects 36 of Shakespeare's 38 known plays for the first time, and was originally printed in 1623, seven years after the playwright's death." As Jennifer Schuessler reported, the folio's unearthing brings the total number of known Shakespeare compendiums to 233.
[...]
...over the past century-and-a-half, based on his works and some biographical plot points, scholars and religious figures have begun to debate Shakespeare's faith. In 2011, the Vatican's official paper offered that Shakespeare "convincingly adhered to the Catholic faith," submitting his inclusion of purgatory in "Hamlet" as part of the evidence.
[...]
While there is no conclusive proof of Shakespeare's Catholicism, the folio's discovery certainly heats things up.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
For your ping lists.
Whatever the merit of the argument, that’s real weak.
This is merely another corroboration of the theory.
William Shakespeare had two relatives who were executed by Elizabeth and the brother of one of his beloved teachers also shared that same fate.
You have to read Shakespeare in the original Klingon.
If there were two of him, one a quiet Royal the other his flamboyant actor front, and more evidence of that theory were to come to light, then this avenue of investigation might be worthwhile. Until then, I'm thankful for the works and for the unnamed who squirrelled these folios away, one day in Calais.
Jesuit schools holding the Bard in such high regard is proof positive that he was a (recusant) Catholic.
I won’t disagree that Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, c. 1300, was Catholic.
And Abraham Lincoln was a gay man. Or whatever.
Who cares?
I’m away from home but I’ll cite the books I have on the subject when I return.
That was my first reaction, but as we have learned since 1970 (or 60s), once the argument over the rewrite is started, it will continue.
“Who cares?”
Apparently there are a number of people here who do care. If you don’t, fine, but why even bother involving yourself in the thread then?
“A scribe, by any other religion, would write as sweetly.”
In Lincoln’s day, men traveling would sometimes stay overnight in a boarding house or type of motel in which lodgers would rent a bed or part of a bed. You might have two or three men in the same bed. Personally, I’d sleep on the floor before I’d sleep in a bed with a man I didn’t know. But this is virtually the entire argument made that Lincoln was gay. I don’t think there’s any evidence he was, but some of the proponents of the homosexual lifestyle often proclaim this or that famous person was in the closet. Sometimes true, usually not.
“Get Thee to a nunn`ry”
There were no Church of England nunneries- Henry VIII seized them all and sold off their properties. In 1500`s, thousands of Catholic English women fled and went to live in Catholic nunneries in Belgium, France etc.
“Get Thee to a Catholic nunn`ry”
There fixed it.
When has anyone ever heard that a Protestant advocates a woman to go into a Catholic nunnery?
Nunnery was Elizabethan slang for a brothel. He was not telling Ophelia to go and take up in a religious order.Doesn’t mean he was or was not a crypto-Catholic. Just that it’s not exactly evidence he was.
Such a prolific author must have left behind an enormous collection of letters, rough drafts, annotated reference books, etc.
I wonder where the collection is kept at?
Yes good point.
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