Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0066.  Thursday, 2 February 1995.
 
(1)     From:   E. H. Pearlman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 01 Feb 1995 12:56:21 -0600 (MDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 6.0063  Re: Characters
 
(2)     From:   John Drakakis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 01 Feb 95 19:57:00 GMT
        Subj:   SHK 6.0063 Re: Characters
 
(3)     From:   Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 2 Feb 1995 11:50:03 GMT
        Subj:   Mrs Mortimer's Welsh
 
 
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           E. H. Pearlman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 01 Feb 1995 12:56:21 -0600 (MDT)
Subject: 6.0063  Re: Characters
Comment:        Re: SHK 6.0063  Re: Characters
 
Persons interested in migrating characters should re-read _The First Part
of Sir John Oldcastle_ by the Henslowe collaborative.  E. Pearlman
 
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           John Drakakis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 01 Feb 95 19:57:00 GMT
Subject: Re: Characters
Comment:        SHK 6.0063 Re: Characters
 
On the question of borrowing, what about Thorello from Jonson's Every Man In
(in which Shakespeare was thought to have played a role himself).  I would
imagine that after a few tankards of ale which Shakespeare might have shared
with Burbage, Thorello could very easily have become Othello. After all, with
the aid of no ale at all Othello seems to have become OJ Simpson! At least
the first letter's right!
 
Cheers,
John Drakakis
University of Stirling
 
(3)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 2 Feb 1995 11:50:03 GMT
Subject:        Mrs Mortimer's Welsh
 
Melissa Aaron concludes that the 'real moral' of Lady Mortimer's use of Welsh
in 1 Henry 1V is "for a truly affectionate relationship, marry someone whose
language you don't speak'.  But why divert attention from the scene's central
concern:  the crucial issue of rebellion and the questions this raises for
multi-cultural entities such as Britain? The Welsh language not only serves to
make clear the fatal disunity  of the rebel camp, it also stands as a challenge
to the cultural supremacy of English in Britain, and thus to the political
project of which Hal -ironically Prince of Wales- is the leading agency. A
united, English-speaking Great Britain, intent on 'Englishing' any culture that
lies in its path (Henry V's dismissal of French confirms the point) must
construct languages like Welsh as potentially subversive where they're not
merely ludicrous or barbaric. This complex issue is as carefully probed in this
scene as it is later in the cycle when Fluellen, an English-speaker who
proclaims his Welshness in the language which has bull-dozed his own,
enthusiastically supports its driver (who cannily also proclaims himself
Welsh). The remorseless 'Englishing' of Welshness, Scottishness and Irishness
are fundamental, and still-potent issues in these plays. To drain them away, as
'character' analysis tends to do, is to reduce a serious engagement with
politics to the cosy domestic level of soap opera.
 
Terence Hawkes

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