Monday April 1 2013

Shakespeare’s plays were really written by Thursday Next who took a time machine back to the 16^th century together with Jasper Fforde.  April Fool!  But actually I like this theory (I made it up myself) better than the others who try to explain that Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare. As noted in last week’s Monday report, the non-debate goes on and it will be interesting to hear how the Blogging Shakespeare team handles it.  But now to this week’s report.

From Davis and Frankforter’s The Shakespeare Name Dictionary:

• Aristotle is the Greek philosopher who shaped the way we think in so many ways. But, according to the Dictionary, there is little indication in the plays that Shakespeare was “particularly familiar” with his writings.
• Arthur, the legendary king of Camelot, became very popular in the 12^th century with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s tale. The Dictionary tells us that Arthurian romances became a big industry in the Middle Ages and the legend makes its way into Henry IV Part Two and Henry V.

Shakespeare sightings:

• In the second season of Roswell Max comes back from the future to tell Liz she has to stop being in love with him because the world will end…(it’s sort of believable in the context). He tells her they had gotten married at the age of 19 though he told her at the time that they were too young. Liz had then said that Romeo and Juliet had been even younger, but she later realized that it was a tragedy and that they had died. She adds, “There isn’t anything romantic about that!” And I’m going into so much detail on this sighting because I love Roswell, and because that’s the only sighting this week!

Further this week:

• Finished writing: text on Troilus and Cressida.
• Posted: on Ruby Jand’s Movie Blog a review of Kenneth Branagh’s Twelfth Night http://rubyjandsmovieblog.blogspot.se/2013/03/twelfth-night-1988-branagh.html
• Reminder about Blogging Shakespeare: information about an exciting web debate about the authorship of Shakespeare http://bloggingshakespeare.com/shakespeare-beyond-doubt

 Posted this week:

• This Monday report
• “Who and Who?” in Troilus and Cressida.