It seems that President Obama has a Henry Vth problem. When Henry was Prince Hal he was best friends with Sir John Falstaff. That's according to the Henry IV plays which would have been based on Henry IV aka Bolingbroke and his son who was pals with Sir John Oldcastle--the basis for Falstaff--who was a real war hero as well as follower of John Wyckliff, 14th century religious reformer and founder of the Lollards. When Hal took the title Henry along with the fifth, he had to make a deal with the establishment church and ditch his friend. More or less the same as in the play by that king's name.
As for as our president, what's become of Rev. Jeremiah Wright? Comments?
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Resurrecting Lilian Winstanley
What we need in this world is a love for greatness and greatness uncovering greatness. I will revive one of the most underappreciated intellects of the modern post Renaissance era--Lilian Winstanley. Professor Winstanley, 1875-1960, made many contributions in the field of 16th-early 20th century literature. Beginning in 1920, she wrote three phenomenal works on the four major Shakespeare tragedies using the method of historical or higher criticism developed in part in the previous century used in Bible scholarship. As the blogs continue, the truth will as Martin Luther King said, flow like a river.
``Merchant of Venice'', Lopez, and Perez
Then the Professor Lilian Winstanley relates some relevant historical background to ``Merchant of Venice'' to help us ``mind read'' that audience.
``It is very generally admitted that Shakespeare's portrait of a Jew villain is probably in part due to the great excitement caused by the trial of a Jew, Roderigo Lopez, for the attempted murder of the queen and Don Antonio: Lopez was executed in, 1594.
``Shakespeare, in drawing the portrait of the Jew villain, was availing himself of what was just then a strong popular excitement against the Jews. So much is admitted! [See Boas, Shakespeare and His Predecessors.]''
From Frederick A Boas's ``Shakespere and his Predecessors'' pp. 216-8:
``But Shakespere was probably influenced by other than purely literary precedents. The long-prevalent tradition that Jews were unknown in England between the time of Edward I and the Protectorate, and that thus Shakespere must either have been entirely unacquainted with them, or have met them abroad, has been completely disproved from examination of the state papers and other authoritative sources. A tract written between 1600 and 1625 expressly declares `a store of Jewes we have in England; a few in court; many i' th' Ciity, more in the countrey.' Furthermore, as has been shown by Mr. S.L. Lee, during the earlier years of Shakepere's London life, a Jewish doctor--Roderigo Lopez by name--held a very prominent position in the capital, and must have been well known to many members of the theatrical profession. He was a physician to Lord Leicester, and at a later date the Queen herself. He thus formed an intimacy with the general body of the courtiers, among whom the young Earl of Essex was the rising leader. Essex, with whom Shakespere's friend Southampton was so closely connected , employed Lopez, who was a master of foreign languages, as interpreter in his communication with Antonio Perez, a Portuguese refugee at the English court. Perez was a pretender to the throne of his native land, which Philip of Spain wished to annex to his dominions, and he naturally received support from the Queen and her advisers. He showed, however, little capacity for his part, and Lopez gradually became estranged from him and his patron Essex. The doctor even agreed with agents of Philip to poison Perez, and overtures were made to him to put Elizabeth out of the way by similar means. This he emphatically refused to do, but Essex, discovering that a plot against the Queen was in progress, succeeded by threats of torture, in implicating Lopez, who was tried before a special commission in the Guildhall, and executed amidst the jeering execrations of the city crowd at Tyburn in the spring of 1594. Even after his death the popular excitement was kept alive by the publication of five official accounts of his treason. It can therefore be no mere chance that Henslowe, in his diary, mentions no less than twenty representations, between May 1594 and the end of the year, of Marlowe's `Jew of Malta'. The `groundlings,' with the execution of Lopez fresh in their minds, would appreciate with more than usual zest plays which introduced memebers of his race in an odious light, and it is in the highest degree probable that it was under these influences that Shakespere began `The Merchant of Venice'. There is furthermore great plausability in Mr. Lee's ingenious conjecture that the name Antonio for Shylock's victim, whioh is not found in the earlier stories, and which is Portuguese rather than Italian, was taken from Antonio Perez, who after the execution of the doctor became a popular hero.
Wikipedia has a different account of the Portuguese Antonio Perez making him a) Spanish, b) more the manipulator, and c) King Philip more the victim of Perez and William the Silent. There will be more to say on William the Silent also known as William of Orange in Professor Winstanley's third book. (seeen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Perez)
Were one to split the difference, Spain conquered Portugal in 1580.
``It is very generally admitted that Shakespeare's portrait of a Jew villain is probably in part due to the great excitement caused by the trial of a Jew, Roderigo Lopez, for the attempted murder of the queen and Don Antonio: Lopez was executed in, 1594.
``Shakespeare, in drawing the portrait of the Jew villain, was availing himself of what was just then a strong popular excitement against the Jews. So much is admitted! [See Boas, Shakespeare and His Predecessors.]''
From Frederick A Boas's ``Shakespere and his Predecessors'' pp. 216-8:
``But Shakespere was probably influenced by other than purely literary precedents. The long-prevalent tradition that Jews were unknown in England between the time of Edward I and the Protectorate, and that thus Shakespere must either have been entirely unacquainted with them, or have met them abroad, has been completely disproved from examination of the state papers and other authoritative sources. A tract written between 1600 and 1625 expressly declares `a store of Jewes we have in England; a few in court; many i' th' Ciity, more in the countrey.' Furthermore, as has been shown by Mr. S.L. Lee, during the earlier years of Shakepere's London life, a Jewish doctor--Roderigo Lopez by name--held a very prominent position in the capital, and must have been well known to many members of the theatrical profession. He was a physician to Lord Leicester, and at a later date the Queen herself. He thus formed an intimacy with the general body of the courtiers, among whom the young Earl of Essex was the rising leader. Essex, with whom Shakespere's friend Southampton was so closely connected , employed Lopez, who was a master of foreign languages, as interpreter in his communication with Antonio Perez, a Portuguese refugee at the English court. Perez was a pretender to the throne of his native land, which Philip of Spain wished to annex to his dominions, and he naturally received support from the Queen and her advisers. He showed, however, little capacity for his part, and Lopez gradually became estranged from him and his patron Essex. The doctor even agreed with agents of Philip to poison Perez, and overtures were made to him to put Elizabeth out of the way by similar means. This he emphatically refused to do, but Essex, discovering that a plot against the Queen was in progress, succeeded by threats of torture, in implicating Lopez, who was tried before a special commission in the Guildhall, and executed amidst the jeering execrations of the city crowd at Tyburn in the spring of 1594. Even after his death the popular excitement was kept alive by the publication of five official accounts of his treason. It can therefore be no mere chance that Henslowe, in his diary, mentions no less than twenty representations, between May 1594 and the end of the year, of Marlowe's `Jew of Malta'. The `groundlings,' with the execution of Lopez fresh in their minds, would appreciate with more than usual zest plays which introduced memebers of his race in an odious light, and it is in the highest degree probable that it was under these influences that Shakespere began `The Merchant of Venice'. There is furthermore great plausability in Mr. Lee's ingenious conjecture that the name Antonio for Shylock's victim, whioh is not found in the earlier stories, and which is Portuguese rather than Italian, was taken from Antonio Perez, who after the execution of the doctor became a popular hero.
Wikipedia has a different account of the Portuguese Antonio Perez making him a) Spanish, b) more the manipulator, and c) King Philip more the victim of Perez and William the Silent. There will be more to say on William the Silent also known as William of Orange in Professor Winstanley's third book. (seeen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Perez)
Were one to split the difference, Spain conquered Portugal in 1580.
16th Century Scotland & ``Hamlet'' Part Two
3) ``Again, Shakespeare's Denmark is a place where the king has been murdered and his wife has married the murderer. This also happened in sixteenth-century Scotland; Darnley is almost invariably alluded to in contemporary documents (Buchanan's Oration and Detection, for instance), as the "king"; the "king" had been murdered, and his wife had married the murderer.
``Shakespeare's Denmark also is a place where a councillor is murdered in the presence of a queen, and his body disposed of "hugger-mugger" fashion by a staircase. This, also, had happened in contemporary Scotland in the case of Rizzio's murder.''
4) Our author also notes that in both Scotland and in the play there is a love for strong drink. Dr. Buchanan in his ``Oration and Detection'' refers to Bothwell the elder as a drunken beast and it is in Hamlet that drink plays a killer role.
The resemblances between Scotland and ``Hamlet'' would be more than striking, but also lawful. The Elizabethans were curious perhaps a bit anxious as to who would be their new ruler and what's up with Scotland, their ruler's home, given the added possiblity of an invasion from their northern neighbor.
``Shakespeare's Denmark also is a place where a councillor is murdered in the presence of a queen, and his body disposed of "hugger-mugger" fashion by a staircase. This, also, had happened in contemporary Scotland in the case of Rizzio's murder.''
4) Our author also notes that in both Scotland and in the play there is a love for strong drink. Dr. Buchanan in his ``Oration and Detection'' refers to Bothwell the elder as a drunken beast and it is in Hamlet that drink plays a killer role.
The resemblances between Scotland and ``Hamlet'' would be more than striking, but also lawful. The Elizabethans were curious perhaps a bit anxious as to who would be their new ruler and what's up with Scotland, their ruler's home, given the added possiblity of an invasion from their northern neighbor.
16th Century Scotland & ``Hamlet''
Just as in Ancient Greece, any attempt to resist prophecy causes its fulfillment, Macbeth's murderous attempts at evasion helped fulfill prophecy going back to mythological Arthur's times, to reunite the old empire.
Now to ``Hamlet''. What is Denmark for our playwright? The Denmark attributed to the source, Saxo Grammaticus, which is this backwater, barely this side of antedeluvianism? ``Even the Hamlet, the hero of the primitive story, cuts an enemy's body to pieces and boils it and outrages a woman, and yet he is the best person in the whole piece.'' Something is rotten, but's it not in the state of Denmark.
Shakespeare's Denmark was 16th century Scotland. Here's why.
1) In Shakespeare's Denmark, feudal anarchy is the rule, no pun intended, the crown is overthrown and all the main characters are killed or die tragically. The same for Scotland. Its crown was in continuous danger of being overthrown and seized by the elder and younger Bothwells, nearly every head of state or statesman is killed or died tragically-such as James V (James VI's grandfather), Mary Queen of Scotts, Lord Darnley, Rizzio, and Murray.
2) Shakespeare's Denmark while feudal, was an intellectual hotbed where Cathlolicism and Protestantism lived side by side although barely peacefully. This would be similar to Scotland of the 16th century where John Knox the founder of Presbyterianism and his co-religionist Dr. George Buchanan--teacher to the young James VI and Michel de Montaigne--worked to further the Renaissance. In ``Hamlet'', the ghost Hamlet, the living Hamlet's father, was Catholic:
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd,No reckoning made, but sent to my accountWith all my imperfections on my head:O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible
(I.v. 76-80)
The living Hamlet is Protestant; as the Queen requests of her son:
Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
(I.2.118-119)
Wittenberg is the site where in 1517 Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door and is considered to have started the Protestant Reformation.
``This peculiar combination is, once again, exactly paralleled in contemporary Scotland; the queen's party were Catholics; her opponents were the Protestant lords, and there was a specially close connection between Scotland and German Protestant Universities. Knox himself once had a congregation at Frankfort-on-the-Main, [Froude, Chap. X.] and there were many other Scotch Protestants in different parts of Germany. `"There was a whole Scoto-German school, among whom the Wedderburns were predominant."'
Now to ``Hamlet''. What is Denmark for our playwright? The Denmark attributed to the source, Saxo Grammaticus, which is this backwater, barely this side of antedeluvianism? ``Even the Hamlet, the hero of the primitive story, cuts an enemy's body to pieces and boils it and outrages a woman, and yet he is the best person in the whole piece.'' Something is rotten, but's it not in the state of Denmark.
Shakespeare's Denmark was 16th century Scotland. Here's why.
1) In Shakespeare's Denmark, feudal anarchy is the rule, no pun intended, the crown is overthrown and all the main characters are killed or die tragically. The same for Scotland. Its crown was in continuous danger of being overthrown and seized by the elder and younger Bothwells, nearly every head of state or statesman is killed or died tragically-such as James V (James VI's grandfather), Mary Queen of Scotts, Lord Darnley, Rizzio, and Murray.
2) Shakespeare's Denmark while feudal, was an intellectual hotbed where Cathlolicism and Protestantism lived side by side although barely peacefully. This would be similar to Scotland of the 16th century where John Knox the founder of Presbyterianism and his co-religionist Dr. George Buchanan--teacher to the young James VI and Michel de Montaigne--worked to further the Renaissance. In ``Hamlet'', the ghost Hamlet, the living Hamlet's father, was Catholic:
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd,No reckoning made, but sent to my accountWith all my imperfections on my head:O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible
(I.v. 76-80)
The living Hamlet is Protestant; as the Queen requests of her son:
Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
(I.2.118-119)
Wittenberg is the site where in 1517 Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door and is considered to have started the Protestant Reformation.
``This peculiar combination is, once again, exactly paralleled in contemporary Scotland; the queen's party were Catholics; her opponents were the Protestant lords, and there was a specially close connection between Scotland and German Protestant Universities. Knox himself once had a congregation at Frankfort-on-the-Main, [Froude, Chap. X.] and there were many other Scotch Protestants in different parts of Germany. `"There was a whole Scoto-German school, among whom the Wedderburns were predominant."'
Polyolbion and the British Empire
Here our author cites from Song V of Polyolbion by Michael Drayton:
"the ancient British race Shall come again to sit upon the sovereign place. . . . By Tudor, with fair winds from little Britaine driven, To whom the goodly bay of Milford shall be given; As thy wise prophets, Wales, foretold his wish'd arrive And how Lewellin's line in him should doubly thrive. For from his issue sent to Albany before, Where his neglected blood his virtue did restore He first unto himself in fair succession gained The Stewards nobler name; and afterwards attained The royal Scottish wreath, upholding it in state. This stem, to Tudors, joined . . . Suppressing every Plant, shall spread itself so wide As in his arms shall clip the Isle on every side, By whom three severed realms in one shall firmly stand As Britain-founding Brute first monarchised the Land."
``Selden's note on the above passage is: `About our Confessor's time, Macbeth, King of Scotland (moved by prediction, affirming that his line extinct, the posterity of Banquho, a noble thane of Loqhuabre, should attain and continue the Scottish reign) and, jealous of others, hoped—for greatness, murdered Banquho, but missed his design; for one of the same posterity, Fleanch son to Banquho, privily fled to Gryffith ap Llewelin (Drayton Polyolbion, Song V.), then Prince of Wales, and was there kindly received. To him and Nesta, the Prince's daughter, was issue one Walter. . . . The rest alludes to that: Cambria shall be glad, Cornwall shall flourish, and the Isle shall be styled with Brute's name and the name of strangers shall perish: as it is in Merlin's prophecies.'"
(Wikipedia notes that The Poly-Olbion is a topographical poem describing England and Wales. Written by Michael Drayton and published in 1612, it was reprinted with a second part in 1622. Drayton had been working on the project since at least 1598.
"the ancient British race Shall come again to sit upon the sovereign place. . . . By Tudor, with fair winds from little Britaine driven, To whom the goodly bay of Milford shall be given; As thy wise prophets, Wales, foretold his wish'd arrive And how Lewellin's line in him should doubly thrive. For from his issue sent to Albany before, Where his neglected blood his virtue did restore He first unto himself in fair succession gained The Stewards nobler name; and afterwards attained The royal Scottish wreath, upholding it in state. This stem, to Tudors, joined . . . Suppressing every Plant, shall spread itself so wide As in his arms shall clip the Isle on every side, By whom three severed realms in one shall firmly stand As Britain-founding Brute first monarchised the Land."
``Selden's note on the above passage is: `About our Confessor's time, Macbeth, King of Scotland (moved by prediction, affirming that his line extinct, the posterity of Banquho, a noble thane of Loqhuabre, should attain and continue the Scottish reign) and, jealous of others, hoped—for greatness, murdered Banquho, but missed his design; for one of the same posterity, Fleanch son to Banquho, privily fled to Gryffith ap Llewelin (Drayton Polyolbion, Song V.), then Prince of Wales, and was there kindly received. To him and Nesta, the Prince's daughter, was issue one Walter. . . . The rest alludes to that: Cambria shall be glad, Cornwall shall flourish, and the Isle shall be styled with Brute's name and the name of strangers shall perish: as it is in Merlin's prophecies.'"
(Wikipedia notes that The Poly-Olbion is a topographical poem describing England and Wales. Written by Michael Drayton and published in 1612, it was reprinted with a second part in 1622. Drayton had been working on the project since at least 1598.
Ptolemaic vs Coopernican Investigation
``Neither can we judge Shakespeare completely by the effect produced on our own minds, we after all, are a remote posterity.'' Now the rub ``and nothing is more certain than that he did not write for us.''
Once we look at that audience and try to think what they were thinking and how they were thinking--a universe understood in the Coopernican rather than the Ptolemaic way--we will see matters differently. Many problems we have in understanding Shakespeare will go away, on the other hand many problems will arise.
Here Lilian Winstanley allows us a peak into her next book and asks why ``Macbeth''? One reason is a Scottish king had succeeded to the English throne, the play would have been viewed as a compliment to him, James I. Banquo was an acestor to the Stuarts and depicted favorably in light of the play. The main character in the play would bring about one of the Merlin prophecies in the foundation or re-foundation of the British empire. According to Winstanley's contemporary professor Thomas Gwynn Jones, these prophecies had political bearing in Wales and England and were celebrated by writers at the time of the Bard--including Edmond Spencer, Michael Drayton, and Ben Jonson.
Once we look at that audience and try to think what they were thinking and how they were thinking--a universe understood in the Coopernican rather than the Ptolemaic way--we will see matters differently. Many problems we have in understanding Shakespeare will go away, on the other hand many problems will arise.
Here Lilian Winstanley allows us a peak into her next book and asks why ``Macbeth''? One reason is a Scottish king had succeeded to the English throne, the play would have been viewed as a compliment to him, James I. Banquo was an acestor to the Stuarts and depicted favorably in light of the play. The main character in the play would bring about one of the Merlin prophecies in the foundation or re-foundation of the British empire. According to Winstanley's contemporary professor Thomas Gwynn Jones, these prophecies had political bearing in Wales and England and were celebrated by writers at the time of the Bard--including Edmond Spencer, Michael Drayton, and Ben Jonson.
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