The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0507 Friday, 26 May 2006
[1] From: Bob Lapides <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 25 May 2006 11:36:34 EDT
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0499 Shakespeare's "Small Latin and Less Greek"
[2] From: Jim Carroll <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 25 May 2006 11:53:52 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0499 Shakespeare's "Small Latin and Less Greek"
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bob Lapides <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 25 May 2006 11:36:34 EDT
Subject: 17.0499 Shakespeare's "Small Latin and Less Greek"
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0499 Shakespeare's "Small Latin and Less Greek"
I've read Baldwin, and I understand how one careless statement
eventually led to bigger mistakes in this regard, but I don't get why so
many of Shakespeare's contemporaries and near-contemporaries (who knew
enough to know better) would claim he had but "small Latin" and was
relatively uneducated in other matters as well.
In the 19C, something similar happened with Charles Dickens, who was
attacked by certain of his critics for being uneducated. This claim was
to some degree true, but it was often irrelevant to his great
achievement, and it was put forward by those with a particular bias,
that is, by those who thought the mass appeal of such a powerful writer
threatened their own literary, social or political values.
What I'm wondering about is this: Were those who criticized
Shakespeare's supposed want of education motivated by some political
agenda? Was the question of his knowledge of the accepted rules of drama
and of classical literature really an argument about social background,
one that became increasingly important in the class conflicts of the 17C
and later?
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Bob Lapides
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jim Carroll <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 25 May 2006 11:53:52 -0400
Subject: 17.0499 Shakespeare's "Small Latin and Less Greek"
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0499 Shakespeare's "Small Latin and Less Greek"
I don't know why there are so many doubts concerning Shakespeare's
knowledge of Latin, but he surely knew at least as much as his
middle-class neighbors (and in-laws), the Quineys. Baldwin discusses the
evidence from their letters here:
http://durer.press.uiuc.edu/baldwin/vol.1/html/71.html
Jim Carroll
_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>
DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the
opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the
editor assumes no responsibility for them.
