The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.0493  Wednesday, 20 February 2002

From:           Laura Blankenship <
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Date:           Tuesday, 19 Feb 2002 12:26:48 -0600
Subject: 13.0468 Parenting was Re: Shakespeare and Sex
Comment:        RE: SHK 13.0468 Parenting was Re: Shakespeare and Sex

>I've always marveled at how rare and unpersuasive Shakespeare's
>depictions of  actual *parenting* challenges are (parenting of small
>children, I mean).

Because he was a man, and faced no parenting challenges of his own.  He
left his own children back in Stratford.  Parentage is another
issue--related to adultery of course--that S deals with quite often.  It
seems, too, that parenting falls into that "domestic" and perhaps too
practical realm that would not make for good theater (in S's opinion).

>And all of this from a writer who seems quite comfortable
>working child actors into his storylines. (In Richard III, Macbeth,
>Hamlet, MND's fairies, etc.)

Child actors, but not infants or children under five--but I don't know
the history of that.  I had always read that the children were pre-teen
to teen, but perhaps someone who knows more can answer that.

Laura Blankenship

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