He was not of an Age, but for all time! Peter Brown Optima Conference, Sofia 8 th June 2014

Transcription

1 He was not of an Age, but for all time! Peter Brown Optima Conference, Sofia 8 th June 2014

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4 Sir Francis Bacon

5 Samuel Pepys - who wrote in 1662: "it [Romeo & Juliet] is a play of itself the worst that I ever heard in my life.

6 John Dryden wrote 10 years later (1672) in praise of the play and its comic character Mercutio: "Shakespeare show'd the best of his skill in his Mercutio, and he said himself, that he was forc'd to kill him in the third Act, to prevent being killed by him." Samuel Johnson however, considered it one of Shakespeare's "most pleasing" plays

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9 The Venerable English College in Rome Façade of the medieval church of Sancta Maria ad Nives (Our Lady of the Snows) at Palazzola

10 The Venerable English College in Rome

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15 Nuanced characters Iago: Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls. Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. Othello Act 3, scene 3,

16 Who wrote Shakespeare?

17 Christopher Marlowe

18 Edward de Vere 17 th Earl of Oxford

19 Public Record Office, Audit Office, Accounts, Various, A.O. 3/908/

20 As You Like It, II All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.

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22 1596 (?) - The first Hamlet Richard Burbage

23 Judi Dench in Trevor Nunn's 1976 production of Macbeth

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25 /shakespe viewer : Othello

26 Curiosities: Abdul Wahid aged 42 Who? Abd el-ouaheed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun What? Ambassador and Plenipotentiary from the King of Barbary to Elizabeth I When? For over six months from 1600 to 1601 Why? To negotiate an alliance against Spain

27 Curiosities: Final Judgments? Cassio: he [Othello] was great of heart (V.ii) Othello: one that loved not wisely, but too well (V.ii.542) Iago: The Moor is of a free and open nature That thinks men honest (I.iii.398-9) Ben Johnson s tribute to Shakespeare: Shakespeare was indeed honest, and of an open and free nature

28 WS died 23 rd April 1616

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30 Shakespeare s legacy? 39 Plays (40 Cardenio, lost) 35 collected in The First Folio 1623 Poetry (12 major poems) Sonnets (hundreds) a new world of words: WS in Love the living English language we use today e.g. Agatha Christie s Murder Most Foul, Mousetrap A mainspring of imaginative English literature - formative influence on Italian, French, German, Spanish, Russian cultures > 200 operas, music, painting, >300 films, thousands on TV

31 Fig 4: word pieces of the Folio Plays rated on scaled Principal Components 1 and all the plays are color-coded red, with the exception of Othello, which is coded blue, and collects mostly in the upperright hand quadrant where the Comedies tend to cluster.

32 Shakespeare s legacy? Neither here nor there (Othello) Send him packing (Henry IV) Set your teeth on edge (Henry IV) There's method in my madness (Hamlet) Too much of a good thing (As You Like It) Vanish into thin air (Othello) In the twinkling of an eye (Merchant Of Venice) Mum's the word (Henry VI, Part 2)

33 Shakespeare s legacy? A laughing stock (Merry Wives of Windsor) A sorry sight (Macbeth) As dead as a doornail (Henry VI) Eaten out of house and home (Henry V, Pt 2) Fair play (The Tempest) I will wear my heart upon my sleeve (Othello) In a pickle (The Tempest) In stitches (Twelfth Night)...

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35 Geoffrey Chaucer 1342[?]-1400 a thumbnail sketch - I Transforms E even more than Dante transforms Florentine into Italian: imports continental forms, knew Petrarch, but of heaven and hell I have no power to sing Co-incides with growth of English c13th 20 medical MSS in EN c14th 140 c15th 872 Edward I & II: FR + Latin Edward: III EN 1362 Statute of Pleading EN now in public life Growth in education, schools & universities >80 GC MSS survive (no printing yet) The Canterbury Tales has been in print >520 years

36 Geoffrey Chaucer 1342[?]-1400 a thumbnail sketch - II Created English as a medium of art Before Chaucer simply a demotic language, afterwards a literature Adds ca 1,000 words to English (Chaucer had a vocabulary of ca 8,000) Jubilee, administration, policy, tranquillity, secret, galaxy, digestion, philosophical, snow-white,...

37 Geoffrey Chaucer 1342[?]-1400 a thumbnail sketch - III Alliterative systems (from Anglo-Saxon roots) Friend & foe Busy as bees No doubt, I dare say, Many similarities to Shakespeare: intoxicated with words takes people as they come not censorious very English - sees England as a unity impact on the English language enriches it uses speech & vernaculars (no theatre then)

38 New Language for New Frontiers WS introduced 2,076 (6,700) entirely new words (10%) into English as well as new prefixes: un- (314): undressed, unpolished, untrained, uncomfortable, unaware,... out- : outswear, outpray, outvillain, (outperform)... Introduced ca. 600 words in Hamlet (2/3 never used again) of which 170 new King Lear: 350 Julius Caesar: 70 New usage: Hendiadys (1 from 2): 66 examples the book and volume of my brain (I.v.103)

39 Intoxicated with words new English WS takes words out of the common stock and baptises them anew: abode, abstemious, affecting, anchovy, attorneyship, weather-bitten (-beaten), well-ordered, wellread, widen, worm-hole, zany, words only WS used also politicians: misunderestimate, dublicitous,.. Some WS words go but others caught on: bandit, charmingly, tightly,...

40 Shakespeare as an explorer The historian speaks of what has happened, the poet of what can happen Aristotle Poetics The true discoverer or Explorer is not he who discovers new lands, but he who sees the world with new eyes

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43 The Tempest: 1st farewell The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yes, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And like the insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Prospero IV.i.152 ff

44 The Tempest: 2nd farewell... - I have bedimmed The noontide sun, called forth the mutinous winds, And twixt the green sea and azzured vault Set roaring war; to the dread rattling thunder Have I given fire Graves at my command Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let em forth By my so potent art. But this rough magic I here abjure..i ll break my staff. Prospero V.i.41 ff as Playwright & Dramatic Poet

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46 The Tempest: 3rd farewell Now my charms are all overthrown, And what strength I have s mine own, Which is most faint! As you from crimes would pardon d be, Let your indulgence set me free. The Epilogue spoken by Prospero as Actor & Player Is Shakespeare speaking to us via Prospero for these 3 farewells?

47 Forensic reconstruction

48 The Tempest: farewell We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Prospero IV.i.152 ff

49 The British School FVG Trieste Via Torrebianca, 18 Trieste Italy British School Trieste 2014