The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.0629  Tuesday, 5 April 2005

[1]     From:   Jane Brody <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Friday, 01 Apr 2005 09:14:09 -0600
        Subj:   Margery?

[2]     From:   Norman Hinton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Friday, 01 Apr 2005 16:48:48 -0600
        Subj:   Re: SHK 16.0614 Margery and the Tearful Jestmonger

[3]     From:   Joseph Egert <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Saturday, 02 Apr 2005 02:06:45 +0000
        Subj:   Re: SHK 16.0614 Margery and the Tearful Jestmonger

[4]     From:   Florence Amit <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Saturday, 02 Apr 2005 12:01:27 +0300
        Subj:   The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.0614


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Jane Brody <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Friday, 01 Apr 2005 09:14:09 -0600
Subject:        Margery?

 >Margery was pronounced orthodox and at one point given a
 >letter certifying her as Kosher.

Sorry to be so literal, but do you mean that Margery was pronounced
Jewish? Or are you using orthodox and Kosher in a more general sense?

Jane Drake Brody

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Norman Hinton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Friday, 01 Apr 2005 16:48:48 -0600
Subject: 16.0614 Margery and the Tearful Jestmonger
Comment:        Re: SHK 16.0614 Margery and the Tearful Jestmonger

I don't see why Margery's name has to mean anything at all.

And since the sole manuscript of Margery Kempe's book was lost from
shortly after her death (c. 1438) until 1934, it's hard to see what kind
of reference Shakespeare might have made.

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Joseph Egert <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Saturday, 02 Apr 2005 02:06:45 +0000
Subject: 16.0614 Margery and the Tearful Jestmonger
Comment:        Re: SHK 16.0614 Margery and the Tearful Jestmonger

Having just read Steve Sohmer's fascinating speculations on Hamlet as a
Luther figure, I now believe that LANCelot fits the role as well. Has
the critical literature anywhere identified the clown with
Luther/MeLANCThon? Is this echo yet another source for his mother's name
"Margery", a variant of Luther's own mother's name "Margarethe"? Does
Lancelot's insistence on Margery as his mother somehow recall the issue
of Luther's own legitimacy? In this reading, Lancelot's guilt-ridden
move from Shylock's flesh-bound House of Hell and works may reflect
Luther's own troubled desertion of the Catholic Church for a faith-based
Protestantism. Finally, does Lancelot's struggle with his "conscience"
remind us at all of Luther's own inner conflicts at Worms and elsewhere?

Joe Egert


[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Florence Amit <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Saturday, 02 Apr 2005 12:01:27 +0300
Subject: Conference: SHK 16.0614 Friday, 1 April 2005
Comment:        The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.0614 Friday, 1 April 2005

I can offer the Hebrew to this inquiry.  There are names in Shakespeare
like Jessica, where the Hebrew is standard in keeping with a "Biblical
allusion" - and there are other names where a breakdown of the letters
reveals an embedded Hebrew. Some names have the two elements. If I were
a senior instructor of Shakespeare I would take the bull by the horns
and learn Hebrew. It is about time.

Now Margery can be read Mar- meaning bitter, Gar meaning convert or
friendly stranger (to the Jews) and the Y shows possession first person
singular . The name would mean my bitter or hard attachment
(affiliation). Considering Launcelot's relationship to Shylock and his
family the name has a resonance for that.

Launcelot's soliloquy can be read for French as well as more deeply
interpreted in English than is customary. Considering the Dark Lady and
the importance of the name of Bassanio in the play I would venture a
guess that Launcelot is a transfiguration of the spouse of Aemila
Bassano Lanier.

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