Page 12 - Boca ViewPointe - April '20
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Page 12, Viewpointe                                                   April 2020
      Book Review




       Reassessing, Remembering,                         nourishment that the                              that might have been
                                                                                                           in Shakespeare’s
                                                         Bard received from
       and Celebrating Shakespeare                       pagan writers.                                    possession in his
                                                            Roman culture,                                 lifetime as well as
       Jonathan Bate.  How the Classics Made Shakespeare.   according to Bate,                             writings that were
       Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019.      provided Shakespeare                              falsely ascribed to
       Stuart Kells. Shakespeare’s Library, Unlocking the Greatest   and the Elizabethans                  Shakespeare. These
       Mystery in Literature. Berkeley: Counterpoint. 2018.  with the dominant                             comprise  folklore
       All the world’s – his stage                       model of secular                                  and  apocrypha,
       “love is not love/ which alters when it alteration finds,  life – in contrast                       what Kells terms
       Or bends with the remover to remove.” Shakespeare  t o t he rel i gi ous                            Bibliomania, put
                                                         focus of the times.                               forward sometimes
       By Dr. Ronald J. Meyers                           From architecture                                 by reputable scholars,
                                                         to literature, to                                 more often by
          The notable Shakespeare                        philosophy , to                                   forgers and fakers.
       scholar Jonathan Bate poses                       political institutions,                           Professor Bate would
       the fundamental question:                         notably Republican                                no doubt support
       “What did Shakespeare                             ideals. More than ten                             his  conclusion:
       believe?”  and  quizzically                       plays are drawn from English history and, following the   “Shakespeare certainly did have books and he read
       responds: “We can only                            example of Roman historians, sought to teach political   them, yet there are no books with authentic Shakespeare
       guess.” Then he attempts                          and moral lessons in their representation of history.   signature, bookplates, book labels or inscriptions.” He
       to answer, based on his                           Thirteen  of  his thirty  eight plays  represent  characters   speculates that reproductions of his home reveal a library
       lifetime of research, which                       drawn from classical time, and are set in ancient Greece   likely housed on the second floor; and he further muses
       corresponds to my own                             or Rome.                                          that Shakespeare who, in his youth would have worked
       more than three score years of involvement studying      Clearly his plays generally reflect piety and the   with his father in the leather trade, would doubtlessly
       and teaching the Bard. All this yields both nothing   acceptance of the monarchy.  It was forbidden  to   have delighted in binding his personal library in exquisite
       and everything: shards regarding him and his life,   represent the Jewish or Christian Deity on stage. And so   leather.
       yet everything he knew and believed rendered in his   Shakespeare could freely render the Greek and Roman      Kells also cites the role of Australia itself in
       plays and poems. These thoughts on the anniversary of   gods. Like the Renaissance artists Botticelli and Titian,   Shakespeare’s reputation. Early in Australian history,
       Shakespeare’s death-day and likely birthday, celebrated   Shakespeare  was  absorbed  with  pagan  values.  His   the plays were performed by “decent” British convicts
       on April 23rd.                                    greatest literary source and influence was undoubtedly   who were forced to relocate to the island; they surely
          My own study of Shakespeare concludes that he was   the poet Ovid whose paganism and rendition of fantasy   respected the empathy of his writing which brought them
       first and foremost a bourgeois, commuting dad, who   life found a receptive audience in Shakespeare’s writing.   a connection with their motherland. For the upper classes,
       earned his living, a very good one indeed as a practitioner   Professor Bate forcefully argues the role of books on his   Shakespeare’s birthday was celebrated with annual gala
       in the theater, and heaped a considerable wealth upon his   fertile imagination; such readings that nourished him are   events. A member of the Parliament actually moved to
       family. He gave up the rat race after more than twenty   encyclopedic.                              name the capital after the Bard. David Scott Mitchell, an
       years, and returned in retirement to spend his declining      Stuart Kells an Australian library scholar, book   industrialist and aficionado, created a major library and
       years, happily as he might, in the bosom of his family with   collector,  and  literary  sleuth  has  undertaken  a  search   collection, which rivals that of the iconic Folger Library
       his married daughter Susanna, granddaughter Elizabeth,   for Shakespeare’s library, or presumed library. Over the   in Washington,  principal  repositories  of  Shakespeare
       and his beloved wife Anne, his purest love and eternal   centuries there have been multiple attempts on the part   Bibliomania.
       muse.                                             of wealthy individuals, scholars and collectors to recover
          He lived in a revolutionary time for the world and for   or suggest books that might have comprised his library.      Dr. Ronald J. Meyers, Emeritus Professor of English,
       England. The Renaissance introduced the new learning   Kells has undertaken an exhaustive search for books   resides in La Paz. rmeyers@esu.edu. 
       and the Reformation Protestantism, the spirited revolt and
       rejection of the dominant Catholic Faith and teachings
       that had dominated Europe for more than a millennium.                       Attention Dog Owners
       Bate presents a Shakespeare caught in the cross winds
       of the time, swirling religious, international, political,
       and moral. Protestantism was brought into England by                  It is your responsibility to pick up after your dog. It’s the law.
       King Henry VIII when the Catholic Pope refused to
       acknowledge his sovereign right to divorce his first wife,                    Some of you have been negligent in doing so.
       the Spanish princess. But devout Protestants took no                      Please keep our Boca Pointe community beautiful!
       half measures and wished to advance their cause, driven
       by precisely the same energy that animated the Puritan
       pilgrim fathers who brought their passion and dogmatism
       to the new world. Shakespeare was inculcated with the
       new faith as a youngster, though his work surprisingly                   Want Results Now?
       retained very positive feelings toward Catholicism.
          One aspect of Shakespeare relevant today was
       Protestant hearty opposition to frivolity, which led to the           • Drug Free • Surgery Free • Pain Free
       Blue Laws that sought to restrict theatrical performances.
       It is interesting to note that one of the weapons that
       Protestants used was restriction upon theatrical                          Cold laseR TheRapy
       performances when the numbers of people dying from
       what was termed the plague reached a certain number.
       The theatrical establishment contended that the Puritan                                                 Experience this non-surgical
       fathers were overly strict in curtailing performance.                                                   drug free treatment option
       Shakespeare himself encountered it and several of his
       siblings were victims of the plague. Forced closing of the                                                  Receive A FREE Gift
       theater notably in 1592 allowed Shakespeare respite to
       compose his long poems and perhaps work on his sonnets                                                    with first appointment
       and plays. Shakespeare’s father John, at one time mayor
       of Stratford, whitewashed religious drawings on the wall   Medicare, auto, workMan’s coMp  and Most Major insurance accepted
       of the Guild Chapel in concert with Puritan objections
       to such Catholic remnants; but later he was fined for      AdvAnced PhysicAl TherAPy AssociATes
       not attending Puritan services, something Shakespeare
       similarly was prone to. More seriously was the intellectual

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