The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 19.0273 Thursday, 8 May 2008
[1] From: Marilyn A. Bonomi <
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Date: Tuesday, 6 May 2008 17:48:14 -0400
Subj: RE: SHK 19.0267 FYI Ron Rosenbaum's Shakespeare List
[2] From: Brian Willis <
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Date: Tuesday, 6 May 2008 20:41:09 -0700 (PDT)
Subj: Re: SHK 19.0267 FYI Ron Rosenbaum's Shakespeare List
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Marilyn A. Bonomi <
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Date: Tuesday, 6 May 2008 17:48:14 -0400
Subject: 19.0267 FYI Ron Rosenbaum's Shakespeare List
Comment: RE: SHK 19.0267 FYI Ron Rosenbaum's Shakespeare List
I am troubled by this attempt to determine the state of the private
heart of a playwright dead for almost 400 years.
We don't have a single actual bit of verifiable, testable information as
to William Shakespeare's feelings about his wife Anne Hathaway.
We have no evidence that the voice of the sonnets is the poet's (versus
a constructed voice for the purpose of creating the poems); they are not
substantive support for anything about *Shakespeare's* emotional state,
though they are wonderful reading; and one can construct a number of
plausible scenarios about the voice speaking the sonnets-one simply
cannot do so about *Shakespeare.*
Can we focus our energies and discussion on matters more sustainable
than this airy fairy tale discussion?
Thanks :)
Mari Bonomi
[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Brian Willis <
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Date: Tuesday, 6 May 2008 20:41:09 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 19.0267 FYI Ron Rosenbaum's Shakespeare List
Comment: Re: SHK 19.0267 FYI Ron Rosenbaum's Shakespeare List
Bob Grumman wrote:
>That's ridiculous. Not only is there the sonnet David Basch
>brings up, but isn't the fact that Shakespeare married her
>evidence of anything pertinent? And the fact that he retired
>to the house in Stratford where she lived when it's clear he
>could have stayed most of each year in London, away from
>her? There's no conclusive evidence, but there is surely
>evidence, that he loved her. I would say there's evidence
>that he didn't, too, I just don't think it very strong.
Part of Ron's point, and a very judicious one, is that a preponderance
of evidence doesn't exist to evaluate the state of Will's love life.
Besides bringing up questions about the very nature of "love" and what
that state means, it becomes increasingly tenuous to assert -- one
position or the other -- that we can declare the state of Will's
"feelings" for his wife. Although I'm sure that Bob is seeking to
determine important issues about the biography of Shakespeare, I'm not
sure that we can assert that marriage is evidence of love (or for that
matter lack of it) at all. Surely, the pressure of the banns (exemption
during the holy season and Anne's obvious pregnancy) are inconclusive in
this case. Marriage is not evidence of anything, except for a social and
economic contract, usually bound in religious oaths. The "love" involved
is a highly subjective matter, especially so when such beliefs are
skewed by personal psychology, or even dependency ("love is a fever"
after all). As for Sonnet 145, the exercise of one sonnet, possibly
early in Shakespeare's life, is a snap shot of one moment in time,
perhaps courtship, perhaps marriage or even later life. Retirement in
Stratford does not point necessarily in the direction of a loving
relationship either, although I think that Will's children were probably
an important factor in the purchase of New Place. All of the evidence is
subjective in this particular matter, and what does the answer do for
our understanding of the works anyways? If we somehow determine that
Shakespeare was locked in a loveless marriage, does that somehow
invalidate, falsify or (shock and horror) impurify his canonical
language on love? All we can be fairly certain of is that Will, like all
human beings, loved, or at least highly doted, but determining
objectively if Anne was the love of his life does not add to the
discussion of his work, nor does it clarify issues of biography.
Unfortunately, biographers of William Shakespeare are forced to confront
and speculate on that issue, which is as futile as determining how many
children were Lady Macbeth's. Unless you are playing the role, and then
the question becomes absolutely pertinent (within twentieth century
acting methodologies at least).
Brian Willis
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