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William Shakespeare, Playwright and Poet, Is Dead at 52

nytimes.com

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Re: William Shakespeare, Playwright and Poet, Is Dead at 52

#2

    Miss Hathaway had as a lover
    That infamous son of a glover
      Whatever Will said
      In their second-best bed
    She edited cover to cover
A sort of rambling article from NYT whose most notable feature was a beautiful sidenote style and the lack of a scrollbar. For those interested in Shakespeare and new media, here's a thing I've been working on http://gavinpc.com/project_willshake.pdf

Re: William Shakespeare, Playwright and Poet, Is Dead at 52

#3
"Shakespeare was the most commonly used spelling in his day, but by the 18th century, the version most favored was Shakespear, and only in the 20th century did Shakespeare become the standard. Interestingly, of the six surviving signatures the great man himself left behind, not one is spelled Shakespeare."

He must have gotten it wrong. Thank goodness we've corrected it for him. Not like he was particularly good at English.

Re: William Shakespeare, Playwright and Poet, Is Dead at 52

#4

"Shakespeare was the most commonly used spelling in his day, but by the 18th century, the version most favored was Shakespear, and only in the 20th century did Shakespeare become the standard. Interestingly, of the six surviving signatures the great man himself left behind, not one is spelled Shakespeare." He must have gotten it wrong. Thank goodness we've corrected it for him. Not like he was particularly good at En…

Of the six signatures, three are abbreviations, and the other three don't coincide among themselves. Besides, he did use the modern form when he wrote his name in print, just not in his signature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_Shakespeare's_name

Re: William Shakespeare, Playwright and Poet, Is Dead at 52

#6

"Shakespeare was the most commonly used spelling in his day, but by the 18th century, the version most favored was Shakespear, and only in the 20th century did Shakespeare become the standard. Interestingly, of the six surviving signatures the great man himself left behind, not one is spelled Shakespeare." He must have gotten it wrong. Thank goodness we've corrected it for him. Not like he was particularly good at En…

Of the six signatures, three are abbreviations, and the other three don't coincide among themselves. Besides, he did use the modern form when he wrote his name in print, just not in his signature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_Shakespeare's_name

Oh be quiet with your logic and evidence.

In the Romantic and Victorian eras the spelling "Shakspere", as used in the poet's own signature, became more widely adopted in the belief that this was the most authentic version.

I guess I lean this way. (I do acknowledge what you said about the man himself spelling his own name differently, makes me wonder why...) But I have always been perplexed about different spellings and pronunciations of proper nouns. My name is Dave in every language, I assure you. Sounds like the Elizabethans were all kinds of lax with spelling!

Re: William Shakespeare, Playwright and Poet, Is Dead at 52

#7

"Shakespeare was the most commonly used spelling in his day, but by the 18th century, the version most favored was Shakespear, and only in the 20th century did Shakespeare become the standard. Interestingly, of the six surviving signatures the great man himself left behind, not one is spelled Shakespeare." He must have gotten it wrong. Thank goodness we've corrected it for him. Not like he was particularly good at En…

[deleted]

Re: William Shakespeare, Playwright and Poet, Is Dead at 52

#8
In an intersection of recent topics in HN, I highly recommend the Globe's 2012 rendition of Twelfth Night, in which Stephen Fry plays Malvolio. I was never so much a fan of his as most seem to be around here, but his performance was frankly good, if somewhat similar to the character from Blackadder II. As for the rest of the cast, they range from solid to excellent.

Re: William Shakespeare, Playwright and Poet, Is Dead at 52

#9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of the six signatures, three are abbreviations, and the other three don't coincide among themselves. Besides, he did use the modern form when he wrote his name in print, just not in his signature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_Shakespeare's_name

Oh be quiet with your logic and evidence. In the Romantic and Victorian eras the spelling "Shakspere", as used in the poet's own signature, became more widely adopted in the belief that this was the most authentic version. I guess I lean this way. (I do acknowledge what you said about the man himself spelling his own name differently, makes me wonder why...) But I have always been perplexed about different spellings…

Everyone were all kinds of lax with spelling. If you ever get involved with genealogy you will likely learn to hate the extreme levels of inconsistency there will be in written records covering the same person. It's not unusual to e.g. find church records written by the same priest spelling a parishioners name differently in different records, and these were official records.
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