The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0161 Monday, 13 March 2006
[1] From: Bruce Young <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 10 Mar 2006 10:31:53 -0700
Subj: RE: SHK 17.0151 Shakespeare and Southwell
[2] From: Joseph Egert <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 10 Mar 2006 23:01:59 +0000
Subj: RE: SHK 17.0141 Shakespeare and Southwell
[3] From: Matthew Cossolotto <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 12 Mar 2006 15:22:01 -0500
Subj: Shakespeare and Southwell
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bruce Young <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 10 Mar 2006 10:31:53 -0700
Subject: 17.0151 Shakespeare and Southwell
Comment: RE: SHK 17.0151 Shakespeare and Southwell
Thanks to Sara Trevisan and Peter Bridgman for the information on
Southwell and Shakespeare. I was already aware of the Internet sites
Sara mentions, but I appreciate being reminded that Michael Wood (the
main source of recent published assertions on this matter) claims that
Southwell was distantly related to Shakespeare "on his mother's side."
Question: By "his" does Wood mean Southwell's or Shakespeare's? If he's
thinking of Southwell's mother, then his claim contradicts Peter
Bridgman's; if he's thinking of Shakespeare's mother, then he's perhaps
referring to the same distant relationship Peter describes.
By the way, though that relationship goes back only five generations, it
is much more convoluted than the 9th cousin once removed relationship I
discovered. For one thing, it involves no genetic link, but depends
three times on a connection through marriage. Peter's description could
be boiled down to the following: Southwell had an aunt who had an aunt
whose granddaughter was married to a third cousin of Shakespeare's. Or
alternatively, Southwell could have had first cousins who were second
cousins with the wife of a third cousin of Shakespeare's. That's so
faint a relationship that I would want more solid evidence before
feeling confident that Southwell and Shakespeare were aware of being
related.
Two more bibliographic questions:
1. If I'm following, Southwell's letter to his cousin first appeared in
1592 but without any reference to "W. S." In what form did this letter
appear? (I.e., part of a larger book or what?) Is there an STC number?
2. I looked at the 1616 edition of Southwell's "St. Peters Complaint" at
Early English Books Online and found that the page that presumably says
"To My Worthy Good Cosen Maister W. S." is missing. Does the Huntington
copy reproduced there have the page, but it was somehow not
photographed? Or are there copies elsewhere with the page?
Thanks,
Bruce Young
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joseph Egert <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 10 Mar 2006 23:01:59 +0000
Subject: 17.0141 Shakespeare and Southwell
Comment: RE: SHK 17.0141 Shakespeare and Southwell
Bruce Young needs more info on the Southwell-Shakespeare connection.
Check out John Klause's essay "Catholic and Protestant, Jesuit and
Jew..."(03) in Dennis Taylor's collection SHAKESPEARE AND THE CULTURE OF
CHRISTIANITY IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND(03) (no. 6 in the series: STUDIES
IN RELIGION AND LITERATURE). Klause's Note 13 cites several references
addressing their ties. In the essay Klause tracks down a plethora of
parallels between Southwell's life/works and the MERCHANT OF VENICE.
Interestingly, Klause "prefigures" in 2003 my own conjecture on this
List linking "Bellario" and Cardinal Bellarmino. An earlier version of
the essay appears in RELIGION AND THE ARTS vol.7.1/2 (2003).
Hope this helps,
Joe Egert
[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Matthew Cossolotto <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 12 Mar 2006 15:22:01 -0500
Subject: Shakespeare and Southwell
Peter Bridgman wrote (below) that Venus and Adonis was published in
1592, but wasn't the publication date April 1593? If V&A was published
AFTER Southwell's 1592 letter, how would this chronology affect item 2.
below???
Regarding Southwell's visits to Southampton House, is there any record
of Shakespeare visiting same? If not, why not?
Matthew Cossolotto
>2 - The letter was first published in 1592, the same year as 'Venus
>and Adonis'. In the letter Robert complains that "still the finest
>wits are distilling Venus' rose ... playing with pagan toys". His
>letter ends "it rests in your will".
>
>3 - It may be in reaction to this criticism, and to Robert's arrest
>(July 1592), that a chastened Shakespeare promised "a graver labour"
>for his next poem.
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