The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.2495  Tuesday, 30 October 2001

[1]     From:   Ed Kranz <
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        Date:   Monday, 29 Oct 2001 10:53:07 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.2485 Rumors about John Florio's Wife

[2]     From:   David Wilson-Okamura <
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        Date:   Monday, 29 Oct 2001 10:17:58 -0600
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.2485 Rumors about John Florio's Wife

[3]     From:   Tom Rutter <
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        Date:   Monday, 29 Oct 2001 22:20:06 -0000
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.2485 Rumors about John Florio's Wife


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Ed Kranz <
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Date:           Monday, 29 Oct 2001 10:53:07 -0500
Subject: 12.2485 Rumors about John Florio's Wife
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.2485 Rumors about John Florio's Wife

Actually it was Jim Florio and they got together at Drumthwacket.

Ed Kranz

Open your ears; for which of you will stop
The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           David Wilson-Okamura <
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Date:           Monday, 29 Oct 2001 10:17:58 -0600
Subject: 12.2485 Rumors about John Florio's Wife
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.2485 Rumors about John Florio's Wife

Roy Flannagan wrote,

>Somewhere recently I read that John Florio's wife is a candidate for the
>dark-ladyship, and that Florio, Shakespeare, and Florio's wife were in
>Southampton's household at the same time.  Is this just a juicy rumor,
>or is there any possible truth in it?

Jonathan Bate toys with this theory in _The Genius of Shakespeare_
(1997), 54-58. After setting out the evidence, he concludes, "We will
never know whether Shakespeare and/or Southampton really slept with
Florio's wife and the sonnets knowingly allude to actual events, or
whether the sonnets are knowing imaginings of possible intrigue....My
story is and is not a fantasy. To adopt what Oscar Wilde once said of
Will Hughes, his candidate for the 'fair youth': you _must_ believe in
Mrs Florio -- I almost do myself. I began to work on the sonnets with a
determination to adhere to an agnostic position on the question of their
autobiographical elements. But, like Sidney Lee, I have been unable to
hold fast to my unbelief" (p. 58).

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Tom Rutter <
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Date:           Monday, 29 Oct 2001 22:20:06 -0000
Subject: 12.2485 Rumors about John Florio's Wife
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.2485 Rumors about John Florio's Wife

Jonathan Bate discusses this one in ch 2 of 'The Genius of Shakespeare',
though I don't know if that's where you came across the rumour in the
first place

Tom Rutter

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