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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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