The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.0711  Friday, 8 March 2002

From:           Markus Marti <
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Date:           Friday, 08 Mar 2002 00:57:39 +0100
Subject: 13.0689 Re: Hamlet (Once More)
Comment:        Re: SHK 13.0689 Re: Hamlet (Once More)

> Actually, isn't Edgar Allan Poe credited with being the father of the
> modern detective story?  And if one is looking for the earliest literary
> detective, check out the story of Susanna and the elders in which Daniel
> separates the accusers, questions them, and then compares their answers
> and determines they are lying--good police procedure.

Ed Taft was speaking about "modern" detective stories. The "earliest"
detective in a biblical sense is a landowner called LORD, who questions
the usual two naked suspects separately and then comes to rather hasty
conclusions about a stolen banana, pear, or kiwi from one of his
favourite trees. Not being able to identify themselves properly they are
driven out of the place -- the usual police procedure. (Gen. ch. 3)

Markus Marti
http://www.unibas.ch/shine/

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