Shakespeare for the wiser sort: Solving Shakespeare's riddles in The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, King John, 1-2 Henry IV, The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, Julius Caesar, Othello, Macbeth, and CymbelineWilliam Shakespeare’s plays are riddled with passages, scenes and sudden plot twists which baffle and confound the most devoted playgoer and the most attentive commentator. Why, for example, didn’t Hamlet succeed to the throne of Denmark at the instant of his father’s death? (It’s not because the Danish throne was elective.) Why does Chorus in Romeo and Juliet promise his audience ‘two houres trafficke of our stage’ when the play obviously runs almost three hours? How is it that Old Hamlet sent his son to school in (Protestant) Wittenberg but his Ghost was sent to (Catholic) Purgatory? and is there cause-and-effect here? How can Lancelot Gobbo be correct (and he is) when he claims Black Monday (the day after Easter) and Ash Wednesday (the 41st day before Easter) once fell on the same day? And what is a ‘dram of eale’? This engaging and lucid book solves these tantalizing riddles and many others. |
Contents
1 | |
8 | |
17 | |
Shakespeares timeriddles in Romeo and Juliet solved | 36 |
Did Shakespeare know Bandello? | 55 |
Shakespeare rewrites the Holy Ghost | 77 |
The double time crux in Othello solved | 106 |
The men behind the masks of Falstaff Faulconbridge Lamord and Hamlet | 127 |
Appendix | 166 |
Bibliography | 174 |
Index | 187 |
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audience auditors Bandello bastard Boaistuau Book of Common Brooke calendar reform Cambridge University Press Carey's Caska Cassio Catholic Christian Church Cobham Common Prayer Copernican Copernicus Cymbeline Cyprus dead death Desdemona Digges Easter Elizabeth Elizabethan England English Ephesus equinox Falstaff father Faulconbridge Feast of Saint Folio French friar George Carey Ghost Giulietta Gregorian reform Hamlet Henry Carey Henry VIII Henry's Holinshed holy days Holy Saturday Honigmann Iago Iago's Jacobean Julian calendar Julius Caesar Julliette July King John knew Lamord London Lord Chamberlain Lorenzo Macbeth March marriage married Mary moon murder night Nurse's Old Capulet Oldcastle Othello Oxford passage pilgrim play playwright Porto potion Prince Protestant Psalm Queen reading recognized religious Renaissance rival calendars Roman Romeo and Juliet Saint James scene scholars Scripture Shakespeare wrote Shrove Tuesday Solstice speech stars Sunday Thomas thou tomb Troublesome Reign Venetian Venice Verona William Shakespeare wiser sort writing