Fall 2006 Shakespeare Matters page 1 6:1 "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments..." Fall 2006 Special Issue: Teaching Shakespeare Teaching Shakespeare Shakespeare, Meet Robert and the Law Frost.... by Thomas Regnier by Robert M. Barrett, Jr. n the spring of 2006 I taught, for the first time, a one-semester omething there is that doesn’t love a wall,” Robert Frost course on Shakespeare and the Law at the University of Miami wrote in 1914, using iambic pentameter and inverted syntax ISchool of Law. I highly recommend the experience. In the Sthat are nearly Shakespearean in his blunt but memorable course, we studied seven Shakespeare plays – Merchant of Venice, line. The line speaks for me personally in a very particular way: Measure for Measure, Hamlet, Merry Wives of Windsor, 2 Henry When I finished reading The Mysterious William Shakespeare, by VI, Richard III, and Charlton Ogburn, Jr., something there was within me that didn’t Othello. In addition, the love the wall that hid the true Shakespeare. course included over As a layman, newly introduced to a difficult subject, I responded forty articles about legal to my reading in a way that was undoubtedly visceral—just in part, issues in Shakespeare by though, a small part. The larger part, I submit, was intellectual. I such writers as Edith looked for reason, plausibility, evidence, coherence, and conviction Friedler, Daniel in Ogburn’s words, and I found those qualities much more often Kornstein, Anthony present in the book than absent. I finished reading not indoctrinated, Burton, Thomas Glyn but excited by a new interest, one that has been increasingly rich Watkin, B.J. and Mary and rewarding for me. Sokol, George W. If you will indulge me, I would like to explain how I brought Keeton, Charles Ross, this exciting, new interest into a junior high school classroom. The C.M.A. McCauliff, Lord general outline of what I experienced will be familiar and even Campbell, Mark predictable to some of you; to others, what I have to say might be Alexander, myself, and Edmund Plowden (1518-1585), the famed instructive. I see it primarily as a cautionary tale. many others. Students Catholic jurist whose record of Hales v. Before reading Ogburn, I had had a lifelong but superficial also had to read portions Petit, a famous law case involving suicide appreciation of Shakespeare. In high school, I read Julius Caesar and the state, is parodied in the Hamlet of the Magna Carta and gravedigger’s scene. and memorized many of the shorter passages and lines. That fueled certain English statutes a temporary hunger that led me to buy the Folger paperback and cases. I used J.H. editions of Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, and King Baker’s excellent book, An Introduction to English Legal History1, Lear—tragedies all, befitting my dark, teenage personality at the as a basic text on the common law of England. Although the course time. I was fascinated by the language, which for me was analogous involved a tremendous amount of reading, the students never to geometry, my favorite school subject, in that it was problematical, complained, and some even said they wanted more. but rational and solvable by concentrated thought and flashes of The class was taught as a seminar and had ten students. The insight. class sessions emphasized discussion more than lecture, and we In college, I was introduced to authorship purely by accident. (Cont. on p. 11) (Cont. on p. 9) page 2 Shakespeare Matters Fall 2006 Letters.... To the Editor: To the Editor: Mr. David Moffat in his article discovery about Vicars’ reference, which (Shakespeare Matters, Summer 2006) uses Further to your interesting story “The was unknown to us when we wrote the a six-step approach to solving the Sonnet Famous Poet ‘Shakes His Spear’” book, plainly adds weight to our case. In dedication puzzle and, by applying those (Shakespeare Matters, Summer 2006, p. 4), contrast, I can see no links of any kind principles, agrees with Dr. John Rollett in on the discovery of an apparent reference to between Vicars and the Earl of Oxford, let arriving at the solution of the puzzle: THESE Shakespeare as a pseudonym in the third alone between Vicars and William SONNETS ALL BY EVER THE FORTH. (1628) edition of a Greek work by Thomas Shakespeare. This solution, says Mr. Moffat, is Vicars, I would like to point out that Vicars both “very appealing, but ultimately was the son-in-law of Sir Henry Neville. Professor William D. Rubinstein disappointing” and continues “. we Vicars married Neville’s daughter Anne in Dept. of History, University of Wales cannot ignore these last two words - nor can 1622, seven years after his death. Before we explain them.” that, Neville’s widow Ann had remarried By applying the rules laid out by Mr. Bishop George Carleton (c1557-1628), an Moffat, it is true we cannot ignore the words old friend of Neville’s who was a fellow- the and forth, but what better way to explain alumnus of Merton College, Oxford, and them than to consult a dictionary and define whose first apointment was as vicar of them? Mayfield, Sussex, one of Neville’s estates. A dictionary search quickly yields one As the stepfather of Ann Neville Vicars, definition of the word the as “beyond any Carleton did much to advance Vicars’ career. other.” In The Truth Will Out, which I co-authored Similarly a definition of the word forth with Brenda James, we advance the view is “out into view.” that Sir Henry Neville (c. 1562-1615) was the By using these definitions, the real author of Shakespeare’s works, and this meaning of the dedication becomes: THESE SONNETS ALL BY E.VER, BEYOND ANY OTHER, OUT INTO VIEW. Shakespeare Matters Subscriptions to Shakespeare Matters are One interpretation of beyond any Published quarterly by the $40 per year ($20 for online issues only). other might be that this collection of The Shakespeare Fellowship Family or institution subscriptions are $45 per sonnets is beyond the excellence of anything Please address correspondence to: year. Patrons of the Fellowship are $75 and up. like it published before. Please send subscription requests to: Editorial Offices An interpretation of out into P.O. Box 65335 The Shakespeare Fellowship view might be saying that the sonnets are Baltimore, MD 21209 PO Box 421 now published and available for all to see for Hudson, MA 01749 the very first time--as opposed to being Editor: privately circulated amongst friends. Roger Stritmatter, PhD The purpose of the Shakespeare Fellowship is to promote public awareness and acceptance Whether or not this was the intention Contributing Editors: of the authorship of the Shakespeare Canon by of T.T. I cannot say. Mark Anderson, K.C. Ligon, Lynne Kositsky, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550- Howard Schumann, Dr. Charles Berney, 1604), and further to encourage a high level of Charles Boyle, Dr. Felicia Londre, scholarly research and publication into all Sincerely, Alex McNeil, aspects of Shakespeare studies, and also into Dr. Anne Pluto, Elisabeth Sears, the history and culture of the Elizabethan era. Ian Haste William Boyle, Richard Whalen, The Society was founded and incorporated Hank Whittemore, Dr. Daniel L. Wright in 2001 in the State of Massachusetts and is Mission, British Columbia chartered under the membership corporation Phone (Baltimore, MD): (410) 764-9202 laws of that state. It is a recognized 501(c)(3) email: [email protected] nonprofit (Fed ID 04-3578550). All contents copyright ©2006 Dues, grants and contributions are tax- The Shakespeare Fellowship deductible to the extent allowed by law. Shakespeare Matters welcomes articles, essays, commentary, book reviews, letters and news items. Contributions should be reasonably concise and, when appropriate, validated by peer review. The views expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the Fellowship as a literary and educational organization. Fall 2006 Shakespeare Matters page 3 From the Editors Shakespeare’s Language--and Our Education The books, the academes, from whence doth spring the true Promethean Fire — LLL n graduate school, one can overhear enough to phone the reporter and tell her News has a funny way of traveling in many curious and often paradoxical that the Professor, whose course on another unexpected circuits. As I said, the Professor Itheories about Shakespeare. A tenured subject he had taken, didn’t know what he was not dumb. Moreover, when he had English professor of my acquaintance was time to reconsider his words, he realized certain that Shakespeare couldn’t possibly that he really didn’t give a damn who have had a serious education because it Shakespeare was. It was not as if [he] it was would have ruined him as a writer. The The reporter thought your editor any skin off his nose. opinion was expressed to a newspaper “Do you know something?” the reporter who had called to elicit his view was attacking the Professor, Professor told your editor a few days later, on the authorship question. He explained whom she had “liked,” and not “Shakespeare knew Anglo-Saxon! In Troilus that there was no such question among and Cressida, he conjugates the anglo- educated persons at universities, and that his misguided notions. saxon verb, to seethe: “My business Shakespeare was, like Caliban, “a natural” “I like him too,” said your editor, seethes.—sodden business….”(3.1.43). (3.2.33) who acquired a talent for courtly Funny how a change in perspective diction as a hanger-on at court – an auditor, “but that doesn’t change the fact matters. We’re used to the mantra, based if you will, at the trough of higher that he doesn’t know what he’s on quoting Ben Jonson out of context, that education.