SHAKSPER 1997: Re: "prince palatine"

From: Hardy M. Cook (editor@ws.bowiestate.edu)
Date: 06/27/97 

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0717.  Friday, 27 June 1997.

[1]     From:   Anthony Haigh <haigha@centre.edu>
        Date:   Thursday, 26 Jun 1997 11:46:04 -400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0714  Q: "prince palatine"

[2]     From:   W.  L. Godshalk <godshawl@email.uc.edu>
        Date:   Thursday, 26 Jun 1997 22:06:33 -0400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 8.0714  Q: "prince palatine"


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Anthony Haigh <haigha@centre.edu>
Date:           Thursday, 26 Jun 1997 11:46:04 -400
Subject: 8.0714  Q: "prince palatine"
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0714  Q: "prince palatine"

>Does anyone know who the historical "prince palatine" was mentioned by
>Portia in "The Merchant of Venice"

There is a suggestion that this could be a reference to a part of
Bavaria, although it could simply mean "a prince with a palace."

As a boy growing up in Manchester U.K. I seem to remember references to
Lancashire as being a "County Palatine."  Can any fellow Mancunians back
me up on this?

Cheers
Tony Haigh

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           W.  L. Godshalk <godshawl@email.uc.edu>
Date:           Thursday, 26 Jun 1997 22:06:33 -0400
Subject: 8.0714  Q: "prince palatine"
Comment:        Re: SHK 8.0714  Q: "prince palatine"

Shakespeare calls him "County Palentine" and "Count Palentine" in Q and
F. I'm picking this out of John Russell Brown's Arden edition.  Brown
suggests no historical parallels, but notes that Steevens suspected a
joke and compared Jonson's *Alchemist* 2.3.331: "A *Count*, nay, a
*Count-palatine*."

But could "Count Palentine" be a veiled reference to Count Mumpellgart
who visited England in 1592, and became Duke of Wurtemberg in 1593, or
so H. C. Hart tells me?  Some editors suspect that Mumpellgart is
alluded to in *The Merry Wives of Windsor*.

Yours, Bill Godshalk


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