The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0736.  Saturday, 5 July 1997.

[1]     From:   Louis Marder <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 3 Jul 1997
        Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0733  Qs: The Birth of Hercules

[2]     From:   Alison Findlay  <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Friday, 4 Jul 1997 11:00:00 +0100
        Subj:   RE: SHK 8.0733  Qs: The Birth of Hercules


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Louis Marder <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 3 Jul 1997
Subject: 8.0733  Qs: The Birth of Hercules
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0733  Qs: The Birth of Hercules

Dear John Robinson from Louis Marder, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  July 3, 1997.

I have a fat folder on The Birth of Hercules.  It includes a clipping
from Dec. 18, 1972, announcing  "German discovers a new Shakespeare
play." Although it had been edited before in the early 20th century, the
"discoverer" now says it is by W.S. and it is written in his hand.  I
wrote a review of the whole business in The Shakespeare Newsletter.
Alexander Anikst wrote a review and said their was no validity to the
arguments.  I sent the review to Dieter Schamp, a German dramaturge, the
discoverer, who sent me a rejoinder.  I have letters,  materials in
German and Schamp's book William Shakespeare, Die Geburt des Hercules, a
German translation of the play, published by  Felix Bloch Erben in early
1973,  [1 Berlin 12, Hardenbergstrasse 6]  It is 87 pages long with a
supplementary twenty-one pages of commentary. Schamp also sent me a copy
of the magazine Die Deutsche Buhne (Feb.1973) with a one page article
featured on the front cover with the blurb, Neuen Shakespeare entdeckt.
Schamp's home address in 1974, may lasts note from him was404 Neusss,
Annostrasse 29, Germany.  This was one of the rockets that light up the
Shakespearean sky every so often - like Shall I die, Cardenio,  the
Elegy.  What would Shakespeare scholars do without them?  If you send
postage, John, I'll send the folder. [1217 Ashland Avenue, Evanston, IL
60202. ]  If I had my way, it would already be in the Shakespeare Data
Bank which everyone wants but hardly anyone wants to cooperate in doing.

Volunteers welcome - always, all subjects. RSVP

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Alison Findlay  <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Friday, 4 Jul 1997 11:00:00 +0100
Subject: 8.0733  Qs: The Birth of Hercules
Comment:        RE: SHK 8.0733  Qs: The Birth of Hercules

Dear John Robinson,

The Malone Society produced a reprint edition of *The Birth of Hercules*
(1604)  in 1911, edited by R. Warwick Bond. It makes links between
Hercules and Christ - with close references to Luke's account of the
angel and the shepherds and Matthew's description of Joseph receiving
assurances from God about Mary's chastity. There are also parallels with
Heywood's *The Silver Age* My own interest in the play is in its
presentation of illegitimacy (Hercules being a figure commonly cited as
a heroic model for bastards in the Renaissance). There is a section on
this topic, though nothing detailed about the play, in my book
*Illegitimate Power: Bastards in Renaissance Drama* (Manchester / St
Martins Press, 1994). From what I remember it is quite a lively text -
with some interesting cameo roles and comic business involving the
servant characters alongside the mythological story line.  I hope this
is of some help.

Best wishes,
Alison Findlay
Lancaster University

Subscribe to Our Feeds

Search

Make a Gift to SHAKSPER

Consider making a gift to support SHAKSPER.