The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0530  Wednesday, 15 August 2007

From: 		Mike Shapiro <
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Date: 		Monday, 13 Aug 2007 19:37:55 -0400
Subject: 18.0525 Just My Imagination
Comment: 	RE: SHK 18.0525 Just My Imagination

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on my post.  I'm still digesting all 
of the excellent material provided and I went Amazon over the books 
recommended.

My focus is the similarity between Ben Johnson's description of WS and 
Mercutio's flight of imagination.  Johnson stated, "wherein hee flow'd 
with that facility, that sometime it was necessary he should be 
stop'd..."  One might speculate that Mercutio's flight of imagination is 
an autobiographical demonstration of Shakespeare's divine malady.  A 
psychiatrist's knee jerk analysis would be that the man suffers from 
hypomania.  Johnson also refers to WS's plays as unedited 1st draft 
scripts "...that in his writing, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted 
out a line."  This could also be used as evidence supporting a mania 
determination.  My post was an attempt to find other references that 
speak to this issue.

Mike Shapiro

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