The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0789. Saturday, 26 July 1997.
From: Judy Kennedy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 22 Jul 1997 16:53:42 -0300 (ADT)
Subject: Help re Forman and Montrose
In his influential 1983 essay 'Shaping fantasies' etc, (Representations
vol.1, no.2, pp. 61-94), Louis Montrose quotes Simon Forman's dream of
Queen Elizabeth. The footnote to the quotation reads: 'Quoted from
manuscript in A. L. Rowse, _The Case Books of Simon Forman_ (London,
1974), p.31.' This essay is reprinted in the _New Casebooks_ volume on
_Midsummer Night's Dream_ (ed. Richard Dutton, 1996). The footnote is
unchanged.
Montrose's essay was republished in somewhat altered form in _Rewriting
the Renaissance_ (ed. Margaret W. Ferguson et al, Chicago, 1986). The
footnote to the quotation of Forman's dream is identical with 1983,
except for the addition of the publisher, ie '(London: Weidenfeld and
Nicholson, 1974)'.
I have not been able to locate any book by A. L. Rowse with this title.
I have consulted A. L. Rowse, _Simon Forman: Sex and Society in
Shakespeare's Age_ (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974). In this
volume the quotation of Forman's dream appears on p. 20. Rowse's
footnote refers to C. H. Josten's _Elias Ashmole_, I.29. At this
location Josten speaks of the large body of manuscripts, including those
of Forman, which were collected by Ashmole and are now in the Bodleian.
Rowse does not give an MS call number, but I suppose Montrose may be
correct in stating that Rowse is quoting from manuscript.
Can anyone help me by providing information about a book by Rowse with
the title Montrose gives (and which is repeated by other writers, eg
Kirby Farrell), or should it be supposed that Montrose's references to
title and page number are both wrong?
Further information about the actual manuscript would also be helpful.
Thank you!
Judy Kennedy
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.