Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 5, No. 0993.  Thursday, 8 December 1994.
 
(1)     From:   Matthew Henerson <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 7 Dec 1994 12:38:52 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 5.0975  Re: *Pericles*
 
(2)     From:   Lonnie J Durham <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 7 Dec 1994 20:50:34 -0600 (CST)
        Subj:   AYL and Macbeth
 
(3)     From:   Don Foster <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 08 Dec 1994 09:01:27 -0400 (EDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 5.0980  Cardenio
 
(4)     From:   Don Foster <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 08 Dec 1994 09:14:56 -0400 (EDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 5.0980  Female Frienships
 
(5)     From:   Grant Moss <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 8 Dec 1994 10:37:25 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 5.0980 World View
 
 
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Matthew Henerson <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 7 Dec 1994 12:38:52 -0500
Subject: 5.0975  Re: *Pericles*
Comment:        Re: SHK 5.0975  Re: *Pericles*
 
To Cary M. Mazer:
 
Thank you for the information about Robeson.  Now that you remind me, I
recall that the *Pericles* was indeed '58, and the *Othello* was '59, by
which time I guess that something had happened to allow him to go to
England. I think I recall hearing that he was pretty sick by that time.  I
wonder if that had anything to do with the government giving him his
passport back.  None of the post-war administrations had been noted for
clemency in their dealings with him.
 
Sincerely,
Matt.
 
To Adrian Kiernander:
 
Thank you for the information about Bell and the Bell Shakespeare Company.
I wish I had seen that *Much Ado*.  Do you know if they ever tour outside
of Australia?  By the way, have you heard of Zefferelli's *Much Ado* with
the National Theater in '67 or '68?  That cast (which included Albert
Finney, Robert Stephens, Maggie Smith, Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Frank
Finlay and Lynn Redgrave) also used broad Italian accents which excited
much critical grumbling.  I've heard a recording of it myself, and I go
back and forth on the accents.  For me, they work least well with Dogberry
and Verges, mostly because I can't hear any kind of class distinction, and
so I have trouble understanding why their mangling the English should be
any funnier than, for example, Don Pedro's.  Let me know what you think if
you ever have the chance or inclination to listen to it.
 
Sincerely,
Matt.
 
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Lonnie J Durham <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 7 Dec 1994 20:50:34 -0600 (CST)
Subject:        AYL and Macbeth
 
My goodness! What a pleasure it is to run one's mind over such beautifully
imagined productions as those offered by Ron Moyer in this last run of
postings.  I never much liked anything of Garland Wright's until I read
Ron's take on the Guthrie's AYL.  More! More!
 
Gratefully Yours,
Lonnie Durham
 
(3)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Don Foster <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 08 Dec 1994 09:01:27 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: 5.0980  Cardenio
Comment:        Re: SHK 5.0980  Cardenio
 
To Timothy Reed about _Cardenio_ (hereafter "Card") and _The Second Maiden's
Tragedy_ ("2MT"):
 
Charles Hamilton is notorious for speaking with great enthusiasm and certainty
even when he hasn't a clue what he's talking about. Every time Hamilton comes
across a document in the Elizabethan "secretary hand," he announces it to be
Shakespeare's.  For example, he told the press that he knew "in five seconds"
that the _Ironside_ MS was in Shakespeare's hand, but in fact the _Ironside_
ms. is in the same hand as that of a playhouse scribe who elsewhere signs
himself "W.P." (as even Eric Sams has since been forced to acknowledge).
 
Card. cannot be identified with 2MT.  The Card. narrative was taken from
Shelton's _Don Quixote_ pt. 3, chapters 9-13, and pt. 4, chaps. 1-5 and 9. 2MT
is taken from pt. 4, chaps. 6-8. The two plays were probably introduced in the
same season, coinciding with the publication of Shelton's translation. (The
evidence of SHAXICON, together with documentary records concerning such plays
as 1-2H4, 2-3H6, "As You Like It" and "What You Will," etc., suggest that it
was fairly standard practice for plays to be paired in production.)
 
In evaluating Hamilton's eccentric claims, you might begin with Harold Metz,
_Sources of Four Plays Ascribed to Shakespeare_; Lewis Theobald's _Double
Falsehood_; Shelton's _Don Quixote_; and Anne Lancashire's edition of 2MT.  The
original Card. was written by Shakespeare and Fletcher, 2MT by Middleton.  That
Shakespeare may have had a revising hand in 2MT is the thesis of Eric Rasmussen
in SQ, in a recent essay that was effectively countered in the SQ Forum by
MacD. Jackson.  Shakespeare may have tinkered some with the MS of 2MT, but the
play is otherwise entirely by Middleton. This is not to say that 2MT is notably
"un-Shakespearean."  Shakespeare in his last works is demonstrably influenced
by Middleton's style, as well as by various incidentals favored by Middleton.
The similarities between Middleton and late Shakespeare have complicated the
problem of such texts as _Timon of Athens_ and the Hecate material in
_Macbeth_.  Foster.
 
(4)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Don Foster <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 08 Dec 1994 09:14:56 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: 5.0980  Female Frienships
Comment:        Re: SHK 5.0980  Female Frienships
 
To Helen Ostovich, RE: female friendship between a lady and her maid in the
Carolinian period.
 
One important instance is that of Elizabeth Tanfield Cary and her faithful
servant, Bessie Poulter, as described by Cary's daughter in the "Life of Lady
Falkand" (recently published with Cary's _Mariam_ in a scholarly edition by
Barry Weller and Margie Ferguson).  Don Foster
 
(5)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Grant Moss <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 8 Dec 1994 10:37:25 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 5.0980 World View
Comment:        Re: SHK 5.0980 World View
 
Re Paul Silverman's query about Elizabethan views and the theater, a good start
would be Orgel's "The Illusion of Power," which provides a nice discussion of
the Elizabethan and Jacobean court view of theater and masque.
 
Grant Moss
UNC-Chapel Hill

Subscribe to Our Feeds

Search

Make a Gift to SHAKSPER

Consider making a gift to support SHAKSPER.