>Michael, you eloquently raise a range of points that are central in the debate, so I'll comment on them one by one.
Thanks, Kent. That's a reasonable response, and I'll look out for Diana Price and Richard Paul Roe's books, with some enthusiasm actually. Roe's book about Italy (from the few pages on Amazon) is certainly an education. I doubt it'll change my view of Shakespeare's acquaintance with Italy.
The book begins with Roe finding sycamore trees on the west side of Verona, as stated in Romeo and Juliet.
underneath the grove of sycamore
That westward rooteth from the city's side.
But how, to weigh this evidence, when sycamores grow all over Italy, and indeed most of Europe? Aren't there bound to be sycamores at all points of the compass from Verona? (Besides, Roe seems to be assuming US usage, i.e. he means a Platanus species, judging from his reference to mottled bark), whereas Shakespeare most probably meant Acer Pseudoplatanus, so far as he meant anything in particular at all - but "sycamore" didn't have a settled meaning in sixteenth-century England, and was also used to translate various Biblical trees, such as the Sycamore Fig...)
I feel very pleased that these topographical details are getting some attention, but I also feel I can already see that it's going to end up rather inconclusive.
|