Entirely agree, Mark.
david
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2001 7:40 PM
Subject: Re: Shakespeare and Christianity.
> Add to this the Scottish theme for a new Scottish dynasty descended from
> "the good guys."
>
> All true, David, but with his eye unwaveringly on the bigger prize, which
> is why we still read him.
>
> Mark
>
> At 05:46 PM 1/21/2001 -0000, david.bircumshaw wrote:
> >Absolutely right about the debating propensities of the unlearned, but I
was
> >merely reminding that the Elizabethan stage was a 'business venture'. You
> >only have to take a peek at Henslowe's 'diaries' or 'accounts' maybe one
> >should call them.
> >
> >Take Macbeth, for instance. Why does it exist? Well James I was a
> >self-acknowledged expert on witchcraft, there was a vogue for the
> >supernatural on the stage, a Deptford publican, egged on by his wife, had
> >sensationally murdered a guest or guests, so it was a likely 'seller',
the
> >good guys win in the end too, and in the midst of all this we have a
poetic
> >meditation on time unlike anything in English before.
> >
> >Heminge and Condell held the catering franchise at the Globe.
> >
> >Shakespeare was an opportunistic writer, whose intellectual motto could
be
> >the words he gives Romeo for Juliet:
> >
> >'Who would not adventure for such merchandise?'
> >
> >regards
> >
> >david bircumshaw
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: David Kennedy <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: <[log in to unmask]>
> >Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2001 11:56 AM
> >Subject: Re: Shakespeare and Christianity.
> >
> >
> >> I think that David B.'s colourful account of the Elizabethan capitalist
> >> stage rather misses out on the impact on everyday and cultural life
that
> >the
> >> English New Testament had in the period 1500-1600. Access to the Bible
in
> >> English had an enormous impact on the spread of literacy. A Royal
> >> Proclamation of 1541 stated that English Bibles should be placed in
every
> >> parish church so that everyone could read them. So great was the
interest
> >> caused by the appearance of the Bible in English via Tyndale's New
> >Testament
> >> that a Declaration of 1538 tried to stop unlearned people reading and
> >> debating it in taverns and alehouses. Over 200 editions of Holy
Scriptures
> >> were produced between 1521 and 1600. [For a fuller account see
> >Greenblatt's
> >> classic Renaissance Self-Fashioning whence cometh these figures,
> >> particularly the chapter entitled The Word of God in the Age of
Mechanical
> >> Reproduction.] Greatly amused tho by the idea of Ole Shakey as the
> >> Lloyd-Webber of his day.
> >> cheers
> >> David
> >
> >
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