The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.0249  Tuesday, 11 February 2003

[1]     From:   Elliott Stone <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Saturday, 8 Feb 2003 01:09:31 EST
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.0178 Re: Shylock Redux

[2]     From:   James Conlan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Saturday, 08 Feb 2003 17:01:49 +0000
        Subj:   Re: SHK 14.0225 Re: Shylock Redu


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Elliott Stone <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Saturday, 8 Feb 2003 01:09:31 EST
Subject: 14.0178 Re: Shylock Redux
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.0178 Re: Shylock Redux

I assume that Shakespeare knew quite a bit about Venice, its laws and
customs. He usually gets his geographical facts correct. M.O.V. is a
play that takes place in Venice and is governed by local law. If the
case was between two Jews it would be decided in a Rabbinical Court.

Best, Elliott

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           James Conlan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Saturday, 08 Feb 2003 17:01:49 +0000
Subject: 14.0225 Re: Shylock Redux
Comment:        Re: SHK 14.0225 Re: Shylock Redux

I very much appreciate David Evett's remarks on 1 Henry IV, but I
believe the evidence he provides counterindicates his conclusions:

"I can still vividly remember my shock at finding there, right across
the road from the bus stop, a historical marker that read something like
this: "On this spot the body of Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, killed
during the Battle of Shrewsbury, was hanged, drawn, and quartered as a
punishment for treason."  The rather more generous treatment of his
fallen adversary by the Prince of Wales in the play (together with many
other features of the play when studied in relation even to Holinshed,
to say nothing of other historical materials) suggests that
Shakespeare's Shrewsbury is not more "real" than his Venice."

It seems to me that the historical marker which declares that the
already dead Hotspur was "hanged, drawn and quartered as a punishment
for treason" informs Prince Harry's peculiar promise to Falstaff after
Falstaff mutilates the already dead body:

"Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back.
For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have." (Norton Shakespeare,
5.4.149-51)

Though Harry covers Hotspur's face with his favors immediately after he
kills him (5.4.95), Harry's final treatment of Hotspur is hardly
generous: once Harry sanctions Falstaff's lie, the body of the noble
Percy who died in single combat with the Prince and whom the Prince was
originally disposed to afford the dignity of burial can no longer be
protected by the prince the way Douglas is and thereby becomes subject
to judgment by the king for rebellion.  The historically verifiable
judgment on Percy's body is alluded to but deferred in King Henry's
"Other offenders we will pause upon" (5.5.15).  Thus, "Thy ignominy
sleep with thee in the grave / And but not remembered in thy epitaph"
(5.4.99-100)exists in ironic relation to the marker at Shrewsbury. Does
anyone know how old the marker is?

Some say smart societies invest in public transportation.  David Evett's
post shows how public transportation can make society smarter.  Three
cheers for taking the bus!

Best to all,
JP Conlan

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