Dear Harry -- I've tried to distribute "Shakespeare" around, i.e., in this
case, to Alonzo as well as Prospero, and of course to Bottom the
ballad-writing amateur actor -- the first quote is from Alonzo, only the 2nd
from Prospero (and the last two from Bottom). But if Shakespeare the
(fantastical and unrealistic) entertainer and self-forgiver is present in
the displaced Duke of Milan (or knight of Stratford), as seems to be
supported by the later pages of "Miraculous Harp," then the stuff quoted is
also being tried out, or dress-rehearsed, in front of an audience that can
see the tiring-house before it and the re-tirement being performed before it
as well. But your sense of the (self-conscious?) posturing to be found in
Prospero is like Joseph in the Bible asking "Am I in the place of God?"
(It's a somewhat similar story, via the abjured revenge [as mediated by
Montaigne].) With my best to you, Jim
On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:50:07 -0700
Harry Berger Jr <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Jim, Prospero's a goofball. He's the King of Klunk. All that heavy stuff
>you're quoting is stuff he's in effect trying out in front of a mirror. He
>wants to be the Prospero of your dreams. Don't let him get away with all
>that "Hey, I've pardoned the deceiver" nonsense.
>
>
> On Sep 20, 2007, at 7:36 AM, James C. Nohrnberg wrote:
>
>> I am far from believing that Shakespeare led a life of allegory, or
>> that the author is altogether any one of his characters, but
>> certainly on occasion we can feel invited to pick up the thread.
>> As most of us will have told our students, the trick is to connect
>> this:
>>
>> Methought the billows spoke and told me of it,
>> The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder,
>> That deep and dreadful organ pipe, pronounced
>> The name of Prosper; it did bass my trespass.
>> Therefore my son i' th' ooze is bedded; and
>> I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded
>> And with him there lie mudded. ...
>>
>> (Where Hamnet is present/absent)
>>
>> And this:
>>
>> ... But this rough magic
>> I here abjure; and when I have required
>> Some heavenly music (which even now I do)
>> To work mine end upon their senses that
>> This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
>> Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
>> And deeper than did ever plummet sound
>> I'll drown my book.
>>
>> (Where staff is the same one that appears in Falstaff/Shake-spear.)
>>
>> With this:
>>
>> I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of
>> man to say what dream it was. ... The eye of man hath not heard,
>> the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his
>> tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I
>> shall get Peter Quince to write a ballet of this dream. It shall
>> be called "Bottom's Dream," because it hath no bottom; and I will
>> sing it in the latter end of our play, before the duke.
>>
>> And this triumphant announcement from the same party:
>>
>> for the short and the long is, our play is preferred.
>>
>> -- Jim N.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:46:37 -0400
>> "James C. Nohrnberg" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> The belief that it was not Shakespeare who wrote those plays which
>>> he is credited with or which have been fathered on him is merely
>>> the frustrated perception -- under another name -- that nobody
>>> could have written those plays. But Alonzo hasn't drowned
>>> himself, Ferdinand hasn't drowned, and Prospero's book, insofar as
>>> it's Shakespeare's, refuses to be lost to its master. -- Jim N.
>>> On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:02:44 -0400
>>> Lauren Silberman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>> I believe that Paul Oskar Kristeller expressed the opinion that
>>>> the plays of Shakespeare were written by another man of the same
>>>> name. Lauren
>>>> At 10:27 AM 9/19/2007, you wrote:
>>>> It does make sense that Greville wrote some of Shakespeare's
>>>> works. Since Shakespeare was so busy translating the King James
>>>> Bible, he would hardly have had the time for sonnets. But then,
>>>> who wrote Greville's poems? Perhaps Marlowe. There's the dating
>>>> problem, but I'm sure there's a way around it. Greville's ghost
>>>> could no doubt solve the conundrum for us, if we can interrupt
>>>> one of his nightly rounds.
>>>> By the way, did list members catch the news in the NYTimes that
>>>> the first graduate program in Shakespeare Authorship Studies is
>>>> being convened at Brunel University in London? And a "Statement
>>>> of Reasonable Doubt" in the Stratfordian hyphothesis has been
>>>> signed by the usual suspects: Derek Jacobi, Mark Rylance, etc. I
>>>> have a theory of my own that the celebrated roles of Derek Jacobi
>>>> (I, Claudius, Cadfael, Underworld: Evolution) were actually
>>>> performed by someone else. In some cases, he might actually
>>>> support the theory himself. The truth will out.
>>>> Hannibal
>>>> Hannibal Hamlin Associate Professor of English The Ohio State
>>>> University Book Review Editor and Associate Editor, Reformation
>>>> Mailing Address (2007-2009): The Folger Shakespeare Library 201
>>>> Capitol Street SE Washington, DC 20003 Permanent Address:
>>>> Department of English The Ohio State University 421 Denney Hall,
>>>> 164 W. 17th Avenue Columbus, OH 43210-1340
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: anne prescott
>>>> <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 8:48
>>>> am Subject: Re: Master of Shakespeare > Thanks for this, Matt. I
>>>> think. Sort of. I'll add Greville to Mary > > Sidney amd Oxford
>>>> as the creator of Shakespeare. I might add that > nowadays once
>>>> your college posts its curriculum that if, as in my > case this
>>>> year, you're doing the Shakespeare course, you get some > mighty
>>>> peculiar ads for books or even, in my case, a slim volume. > But
>>>> > even before such public posting, years ago when I was teaching
>>>> my > fable and fantasy course I got an essay from someone showing
>>>> that > Queen Victoria wrote the Alice books. Curiouser and
>>>> curiouser. Off > to > teach L's LL and will tell the students
>>>> about Greville (and the > Greville kids, as we call them at
>>>> Kalamazoo). By the way, decades > ago > when I was on my
>>>> honeymoon and we were visiting Warwick castle the > > guide told
>>>> us that Greville "walks" there. Maybe he reads this e- > list,
>>>> too. Anne. > > On Sep 19, 2007, at 4:47 AM, Steggle, Matthew
>>>> wrote: > > > Fulke Greville fans might want to know that there's
>>>> a new book > out, > > which has a rather surprising hypothesis
>>>> about him: > > > > http://www.masterofshakespeare.com/ > > > > I
>>>> note that its ideas are already turning up on wikipedia, so > >
>>>> expect a rush of enquiries. > > > > - Matt > > > -- > BEGIN-
>>>> ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS >
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------ > > Teach
>>>> CanIt if this mail (ID 423238613) is spam: > Spam: > https://
>>>> antispam.osu.edu/b.php?c=s&i=423238613&m=b640dace6c02Not >
>>>> spam: https://antispam.osu.edu/b.php?
>>>> c=n&i=423238613&m=b640dace6c02 > Forget vote: > https://
>>>> antispam.osu.edu/b.php?c=f&i=423238613&m=b640dace6c02 ------ >
>>>> ------------------------------------------------ > END-ANTISPAM-
>>>> VOTING-LINKS > >
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> James Nohrnberg
>>> Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
>>> Univ. of Virginia
>>> P.O Box 400121
>>> Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
>>
>> [log in to unmask]
>> James Nohrnberg
>> Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
>> Univ. of Virginia
>> P.O Box 400121
>> Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
[log in to unmask]
James Nohrnberg
Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
Univ. of Virginia
P.O Box 400121
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
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