Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0752.  Wednesday, 4 October 1995.
 
(1)     From:   Fran Teague <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 02 Oct 95 15:45:39 EDT
        Subj:   Re: SHK 6.0742  Re: Conversations (in medias res)
 
(2)     From:   Georgianna Ziegler <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 03 Oct 95 12:17:00 PDT
        Subj:   Shakespeare on CDRom
 
(3)     From:   W. L. Godshalk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 03 Oct 1995 12:34:49 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 6.0744  Re: owe/own
 
(4)     From:   Stephanie Hughes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tue, 3 Oct 1995 14:22:33 -0400 (EDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 6.0734  Re: Importance of Shakespeare
 
 
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Fran Teague <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 02 Oct 95 15:45:39 EDT
Subject: 6.0742  Re: Conversations (in medias res)
Comment:        Re: SHK 6.0742  Re: Conversations (in medias res)
 
On the subject of initial dialogue that leads one into a play's action: I've
just been directing _The Merry Wives of Windsor_. While it begins in the midst
of a conversation, it does not operate in quite the way that folks have said
other Shn. plays do. That is, the problem that the characters are discussing as
they enter is not made at all clear by the immediately following dialogue nor
does the initial dialogue necessarily function as the play writ small. Since
MWW is sometimes cited as an analogue to Oth, I just thought I'd mention how
very differently its opening lines work from those of Oth.
 
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Georgianna Ziegler <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 03 Oct 95 12:17:00 PDT
Subject:        Shakespeare on CDRom
 
We've received a number of calls about the availability of Shakespeare text on
CD Rom.  I generally refer people to two versions well-reviewed in an article
by Anita Lowry, a Reference Librarian at Columbia U., entitled "Electronic
Texts in English and American Literature."  The article appeared in a special
issue of Library Trends on "Electronic Information for the Humanities" in
Spring 1992.  She spends considerable time discussing and comparing
WordCruncher (based on Riverside) and OUP Electronic Shakespeare, and comes
down in favor of WordCruncher for its ease of use.
 
WordCruncher is distributed by Johnston & Company, Electronic Publishers, Box
446, American Fork, UT 84003.  Phone: 801-756-1111, FAX 801-756-0242.
 
We've also had companies approach us as to which edition of Shakespeare they
should use.  The problem is, that they don't want to pay for the rights to use
an existing and editorially acceptable text, which is why you find a lot of
fly-by-night electronic versions that don't say what they're based on.  I've
always told them that if they want something out of copyright, then it's got to
be a good 19th-c edition, but that the scholarly world will want a more
standard text, and if they're not willing to use one, then they've basically
closed themselves out of that market!
 
Georgianna Ziegler
Reference Librarian, Folger Library
 
(3)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           W. L. Godshalk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 03 Oct 1995 12:34:49 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 6.0744  Re: owe/own
Comment:        Re: SHK 6.0744  Re: owe/own
 
Susan Mather
 
The OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (OED, sometimes NED, or Murray's) is my basic
source for the information on owe and own as cognates. Ron Macdonald
suggests also Marcel Mauss's THE GIFT.
 
Yours, Bill Godshalk
 
(4)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Stephanie Hughes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tue, 3 Oct 1995 14:22:33 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: 6.0734  Re: Importance of Shakespeare
Comment:        Re: SHK 6.0734  Re: Importance of Shakespeare
 
I regret that my choice of example of what our culture would be like without
Shakespeare offended Professor Capuzzo. Certainly it would be hard to have more
affection and appreciation for the Spanish language than I do, or for Italian
or French, the ony three languages that I am familiar with besides English,
though, sadly not familiar enough. (To my undying joy, my daughter is now
fluent in both French and Italian.) All languages have their strengths and
weaknesses, and certainly English doesn't cover all bases. (Take for instance
the awful gender problems we face when trying to be general, with no neutral
form of the third person singular, a wretched lack, which poses infernal
problems.)
 
Certainly English imperialism was the major factor in spreading English around
the globe, and then when that phase came to an end, the continuation of its use
by the American influence after WWII. Yet how much did the nature of the
language have to do with the ability of the English and the Americans to spread
their control in the first place? I am not saying this out of chauvinistic
pride, simply trying to examine the phenomenon with a measure of detachment.
 
Certainly many individuals have contributed to the development of the language
both before and after Shakespeare. Still, it is my belief that no <<single>>
individual has influenced the language more than this one. It is also my belief
that that influence was immediate, and was disseminated throughout the
theatergoing public during the years his plays were first produced, spreading
thus throughout the language, but even if, as Robert Appelbaum states, this
influence did not begin for several generations after his death, what
difference does it make when it began? If you discover a chest full of treasure
buried in your backyard, what difference does it make when it was buried? It
makes you just as rich as it would if it were buried the day before.
 
I think it is important that we recognize that great changes come not only from
general movements but also from individuals. Great moments give us great men
and women, but these moments are stamped as well by their ideosyncrasies and
special qualities. In our current existential noman's land we suffer terribly
from our lack of belief in heroes. True it is no good to inflate an ordinary
person into a hero, from such we get tyrants and cult leaders, but perhaps it
is even worse to deny ourselves some devotion to those who deserve it.
 
Stephanie Hughes

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