The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0415 Wednesday, 27 June 2007
[1] From: Colin Cox <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 25 Jun 2007 15:07:12 -0700
Subj: Re: SHK 18.0408 How long to write a play?
[2] From: William Godshalk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 25 Jun 2007 19:49:27 -0400
Subj: Re: SHK 18.0408 How long to write a play?
[3] From: Mathew Lyons <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 26 Jun 2007 08:55:21 +0100
Subj: Re: SHK 18.0408 How long to write a play?
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Colin Cox <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 25 Jun 2007 15:07:12 -0700
Subject: 18.0408 How long to write a play?
Comment: Re: SHK 18.0408 How long to write a play?
The question of how many sources Shakespeare actually used has become of
interest to me of late. I have an estimate that he only needed 19 books
and 10 plays. And of further interest, 7 of the books he got from his
schooldays buddy, Richard Field. I'd appreciate the list's comments on this.
Colin Cox
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: William Godshalk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 25 Jun 2007 19:49:27 -0400
Subject: 18.0408 How long to write a play?
Comment: Re: SHK 18.0408 How long to write a play?
>To Larry Weiss "it appears that WS had only one or two
>sources [for the history plays] -- Holinshed and (for the
>Wars of the Roses) Hall. The plays show no evidence that
>he looked at primary sources or any other secondary sources
>(if there were any). Indeed, some passages in the plays are
>little more than versifications of what Holinshed wrote. I am
>thinking in particular of the Archbishop's exegesis on the Salic
>law in HenV,I.ii and many passages in HenVIII, including
>Shakespearean passages."
I'm sure that others will take exception to some of these
generalizations. But I just put my copy of Hall (Scolar, 1970) on the
scale and it weighs over 10 pounds. It's in black-letter type. Be
honest. The last time you read Hall, how long did it take?
Bill
[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mathew Lyons <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 26 Jun 2007 08:55:21 +0100
Subject: 18.0408 How long to write a play?
Comment: Re: SHK 18.0408 How long to write a play?
The notoriously slow Ben Jonson wrote Poetaster in fifteen weeks,
according to Rosalind Miles in her biography 'Ben Jonson: His Life and
Work'.
Also, although I don't have it to hand to check, in Sally-Beth Maclean
and Scott McMillin's book on The Queen's Men, they record a law suit
between a playwright/poet called Rowland Broughton and a group of
players in the early 1580s. I don't recall all the details, but
Broughton was contracted to write 18 plays in 30 months, or one every
seven weeks or so. He failed to deliver on that - otherwise there would
be no law suit - but on the other hand, both he and the players
obviously thought it was a feasible undertaking in the first place.
Mathew Lyons
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