Thank you all for your enthusiastic participation as we ventured into the subversive Shakespeare. Sonnet 130 "My Mistress' Eyes" really does show that Shakespeare was out to challenge the accepted paradigms of love in his day -and ours! For him the challenge to the artificial veneers of society was his core concern. He was/is an artist hotly in pursuit of "the truth" in human affairs. So the Fool is such an important figure in Shakespeare.... and I don't know for sure, but I reckon Erasmus MUST have been an influence on Sh's thinking. There ought to be more attention to Erasmus given these days. Anyone up to writing an up-to-date version of "In Praise of Folly"! Today -as back then in the Renaissance- it was the arts that were the only real source of creative criticism of what was going on in society: politics/ fashion/religion.... As our friend, the Romantic poet P.B. Shelley said (at the end of his Defense of Poetry): "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world".... MG
PS did any of you see the article on the "true" picture of Shakespeare in the magazine that goes with the Weekend Australian- worth a quick look - it is in the library on the newspaper shelves. I was alerted to this by one of my "Friends" one of my last year crop of brilliant Shakespearean enthuasiasts: Cat! -
http://cattles.livejournal.com/Thank you
MG
PS- what a buzz: one of our other Shakespearean enthusiasts from last year (I am sure some of you know here -Dinali Lowe- is sharing her current visit to New York with us via her LiveJournal- take a peek at:
http://d-lowe.livejournal.com/Here are the two portraits of the bard that are in question... check out the data in the W.A.
