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Cay Gibson
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Posted: Sept 01 2005 at 7:47am \| IP Logged

Was Shakespeare a Secret Catholic?

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Cay Gibson
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JennGM
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Posted: Sept 01 2005 at 7:59am \| IP Logged

Interesting article. I've always been convinced that he was secretly Catholic. If he wasn't, he was at least sympathetic...or perhaps just had traditional Catholic smells and bells pinings.

I had this book from years ago called Shakespeare's Religious Background that talks about this theory. The author, Peter Milward, apparently wrote other titles on a similar vein, such as The Catholicism of Shakespeare's Plays.

Why is it such a controversy? If he was, does that change the integrity of the play? No...so why the fuss?

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Karen T
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Posted: Sept 03 2005 at 9:50pm \| IP Logged

jenngm67 wrote:

Why is it such a controversy? If he was, does that change the integrity of the play? No...so why the fuss?

I think the controversy is not over his Catholicism so much as it is over who actually wrote the plays attributed to him. By making him Catholic it becomes more plausible that he would have written secretly.
Karen T

Kelly
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Posted: Sept 07 2005 at 7:56pm \| IP Logged

His being Catholic would certainly help explain his lost years---perhaps studying at a forbidden Catholic University on the continent, or as a guest to Catholic patrons and their Catholic library? Also, do ANY of his plays feature a protestant "man of the cloth"?

Listen to Dr. Henry Russel's tape on Shakespeare---from the NACHE conference about three years ago. It provides much food for thoughton this subject.

Kelly in FL

Mary K
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Posted: Sept 08 2005 at 8:25am \| IP Logged

I remember hearing or reading somewhere that when Shakespeare's son Hamnet died he was upset that his son would not get a "proper" funeral. To me, that seems to be a Catholic one.
Shakespeare most likely kept his Catholicism hidden so he would stay in Elizabeth I's good graces.
Mary-NY

Cay Gibson
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Posted: Sept 08 2005 at 1:00pm \| IP Logged

Kelly wrote:

His being Catholic would certainly help explain his lost years---

I decided to read Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales this month (or two

). I read it once in high school and barely understood it. I think the teacher even dropped the whole lesson cause she wasn't getting much feedback from the class. All I walked away with was that it was a book of various tales about a bedlam of pilgrims on a pilgrimage to st. Thomas Becket's shrine in Canterbury...thus The Canterbury Tales.

Anyway, I picked up the Pocket Book Classic-Enriched Classic translation by R.M. Lumiansky. I'm hoping I finally have found a translation my pea-brain can understand.

(If anyone knows an easier version outside of children's lit, please let me know). I have read some tales with my dc through picture books, but I really need to challenge myself.

Now, while my oldest dd has taken an advanced English class on Shakespeare and understood him perfectly, the fact is I only understood his work vaguely. She had an excellent English teacher. I had a lukewarm one.

So, Chaucer was even scarier for me to read.

This translation looked so modern-day-reader-friendly that I bought it on the spot. I'm also interested in the Middle Ages and pilgrimages so...what the heck!

I'll give it a go!

Since we're speaking about Shakespeare here, I wanted to share a part of the General Intro I read (pg. xvii): "Coleridge not only extravagantly praises Chaucer but also explicitly prefers Chaucer to Shakespeare, for reasons of Romantic ideology. 'The sympathy of the poet with the subjects of his poetry is particularly remakrable in Shakespeare and Chaucer; but what the first effects by a strong act of the imagination and mental metamorphosis, the last does without any effort, merely by the inborn kindly joyousness of his nature. How well we seem to know Chaucer! How absolutely nothing do we know of Shakespeare!' "

Don't you think it odd that he writes: "How well we seem to know Chaucer! How absolutely nothing do we know of Shakespeare!" ? I'm sure he meant through their writing you seem to know Chaucer, yet Shakespeare eludes understanding. But still...it's ironic that there are lost years in Shakespeare's life. I guess it just struck me as ironic.

And, yes, I'm glad I have this freedom and liberty to pick up this work of literature in my own timing and do not have a teacher trying to force War and Peace upon me.

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Cay Gibson
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mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks

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