The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 27.331  Monday, 3 October 2016

 

From:        William Blanton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

Date:         October 3, 2016 at 3:05:27 AM EDT

Subject:    MV Dialog

 

John:

 

Thank you for the answers to my questions. I make this brief reply:

 

1. I am relieved that I did not miss a reference to Jason in Il Pecorone. We need not cast our nets any wider. I based my description of the Jason myth on Ovid because we know that Shakespeare was familiar with his Metamorphoses.

 

What interests me is what makes a reference to Jason of particular significance in MV. I have checked an online Shakespeare concordance, and have found out that Shakespeare used the word Jason only in MV.

 

 

2. I am not taking material from one historical source and grafting it onto the play. As I mentioned to Tony Burton, I am trying very hard not to do such a thing. Quite the opposite. However, I am still struggling with exactly how best to communicate the way in which I have reached my observations and conclusions.

 

In a very small way, I am taking some cues from the arcane field of computer aided stylistic analysis of Shakespeare’s plays. Almost my entire focus is on the particular words that Shakespeare used in the play. An important aspect relates to any particular word patterns that I detect.

 

One significant word pattern relates to the number of times Shakespeare used a particular word within a short space of time and, if relevant, whether he used that word anywhere else in the play. When I noticed such a pattern, I then tried to figure out what it might mean.

 

I recently cited the pattern of the word liveries in Act 2 Scene 2: three times within 36 lines and nowhere else in the play. In the aural culture of Elizabethan theater, these repeated words would have been a marker for the audience. Shakespeare told the audience to pay particular attention to those words.

 

Something made these words remarkable. As I was reading the biography of Essex (Robert, Earl of Essex, by Robert Lacey), I came upon the description of how Essex spent a huge sum of money outfitting in his special tangerine and white livery a number of followers he took with him on his mission to France, and what a spectacle he made of his entry into the camp if Henry IV.

 

That spectacle was an historical fact. It was also something that many of those in London at the time would have been known about. Essex was no doubt the butt of many jokes about this.

 

I did not stop with this one instance. I have described other patterns in the last four or so posts that I believe point to Essex as the identity of Bassanio on what I have called the Political/Religious/Current Events dimension of meaning.

 

However, I have been doing something that may have contributed to confusion. I have described my conclusions, opinions, and speculations following a citation of each pattern and of the circumstantial evidence at the time. From now on I will refrain from describing such conclusions, opinions, and speculations until an appropriate end point in the discussion at hand.

 

Speaking of Shakespeare, Essex, and history. Shakespeare himself referred to Essex (the General of our gracious Empress) in connection with important events current at his time that are recorded in history. In Henry V, Shakespeare had the Chorus say the following at the beginning of Act 5:

 

CHORUS …But now behold,

In the quick forge and working-house of thought,

How London doth pour out her citizens.

The Mayor and all his brethren, in best sort,

Like to the senators of th’antique Rome

With the plebeians swarming at their heels,

Go forth and fetch their conquering Caesar in —

As, by a lower but high-loving likelihood,

Were now the General of our gracious Empress —

As in good time he may — from Ireland coming

With rebellion broachèd on his sword,

How many would the peaceful city quit

To welcome him!… .

(5.0.22-34) (emphasis supplied)

 

 

(I have wondered at the potential ambiguity of the word broached. It certainly could mean the defeat of the Irish. It could also mean that Essex would be bringing rebellion with him to London. Just a parenthetical thought.)

 

Essex and his army left for Ireland in 1597. Shakespeare probably wrote Henry V in early 1599. Essex returned post haste from Ireland in late 1600 and was soon arrested for treason. He staged his pathetic excuse for a rebellion in early 1601; lost; was tried and convicted; and was beheaded.

 

Thank you for your patience and your observations.

 

With respect,

Bill

 

 

 

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