The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 23.0506  Friday, 7 December 2012

From:        Larry Weiss < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

Date:         December 6, 2012 11:23:20 PM EST

Subject:     Re: SHAKSPER: Ven. Dedication

>Larry Weiss asks why would WS incorporate a hidden 

>message which only he would understand? I thought I 

>had provided a reasonable scenario. He was evidently 

>angry and frustrated with Wriothesley (see 3 above) and 

>this was a uniquely satisfactory way of sticking up a finger 

>at the cause of his distress (a person whom he could not 

>take to task within the public eye). Like a disgruntled 

>waiter spitting into the hamburger of his objectionable 

>customer, who then proceeds to consume the mixture 

>without anyone (but the waiter) being the wiser.

Ah, but the hamburger eater, like the man who consumes a spider in his drink, may well become ill as a result.  If Southampton does not see the spider, he can suffer nothing.  Shakespeare would have to have been supremely neurotic to derive satisfaction from his unperceived insult.