The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1665  Thursday, 29 September 2005

[Editor's Note: It seems to me that this thread has reached its useful 
life and further discussion should be conducted offline.]

From: 		Alan Horn <
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Date: 		Wednesday, 28 Sep 2005 01:25:56 EDT
Subject: 16.1640 Caliban's Father
Comment: 	Re: SHK 16.1640 Caliban's Father

What strikes me about this thread is how much Joe Egert sounds like 
someone I believe he's taken issue with, David Basch.

In Egert's first post, after listing all the theological anagrams he's 
worked out from the character list of The Tempest, he asks, "All 
coincidence?" Where have we heard that line before? And, when 
challenged, he suggests that Shakespeare is a special case, a "Myriad 
Man" who is likely to have intended any meanings that might be 
attributed to him.

Basch, of course, goes beyond the standard belletristic search for 
wordplay and anagrams in applying interpretive methods to Shakespeare's 
texts that even in Jewish mysticism are traditionally reserved for the 
revealed word of God. But while this is going too far for most of us, 
many do share with him an obliviousness to the banality of coincidence 
and a belief that Shakespeare's works or canonical literary works in 
general are not subject to normal interpretive constraints.

Alan Horn

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