• Next message: Hardy M. Cook: "Re: Shakepix"
• Previous message: Hardy M. Cook: "Re: MV"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ]

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 11.0006  Monday, 3 January 2000.

[1]     From:   Sean Lawrence <seanlawrence@writeme.com>
        Date:   Wednesday, 29 Dec 1999 10:15:23 -0800
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.2308 The Seacoast of Boeotia

[2]     From:   Clifford Stetner <cstetner@liu.edu>
        Date:   Wednesday, 29 Dec 1999 22:22:50 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.2308 The Seacoast of Boeotia

[3]     From:   Larry Weiss <pgw@idt.net>
        Date:   Friday, 31 Dec 1999 14:43:14 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.2308 The Seacoast of Boeotia


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Sean Lawrence <seanlawrence@writeme.com>
Date:           Wednesday, 29 Dec 1999 10:15:23 -0800
Subject: 10.2308 The Seacoast of Boeotia
Comment:        Re: SHK 10.2308 The Seacoast of Boeotia

Larry Weiss proposes:

>The notion that anyone with the vaguest knowledge of European geography
>and history would place Bohemia in the Hellenic world, and give Bohemia
>a seacoast and a king with a typical Greek name is ridiculous.

Why not?  He put people with Greek-sounding names in Denmark, and seems
to have made Verona a port, but no one is proposing that he mixed up
Elsinore with Ephesus.  I'm not really sure why he should have to follow
"real" geography at all.

Cheers,
Seán.

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Clifford Stetner <cstetner@liu.edu>
Date:           Wednesday, 29 Dec 1999 22:22:50 -0500
Subject: 10.2308 The Seacoast of Boeotia
Comment:        Re: SHK 10.2308 The Seacoast of Boeotia

"The first three acts of WT are a dramatization of the corresponding
portio of Robert Greene's novel Pandosto (1588)... Greene's jealous
king, Pandosto of Bohemia, is changed into Leontes of Sicilia with a
corresponding change of Egistus of Sicilia into Polixenes of Bohemia),
and Shakespeare's reason for switching the countries is a matter of some
critical interest" (Smith in Riverside 1564).

>The notion that anyone with the vaguest knowledge of European geography
>and history would place Bohemia in the Hellenic world, and give Bohemia
>a seacoast and a king with a typical Greek name is ridiculous.  I
>speculate therefore that WS, or the compositor, confused Bohemia with
>some Hellenic country, most probably Boeotia.  Boeotia was a city state
>(and a confederation of city states) which was at its height when
>Syracuse was the second most influential city in the Hellenic world, and
>dominated all of Sicily.

Clifford Stetner

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Larry Weiss <pgw@idt.net>
Date:           Friday, 31 Dec 1999 14:43:14 -0500
Subject: 10.2308 The Seacoast of Boeotia
Comment:        Re: SHK 10.2308 The Seacoast of Boeotia

>The notion that anyone with the vaguest knowledge of European geography
>and history would place Bohemia in the Hellenic world, and give Bohemia
>a seacoast and a king with a typical Greek name is ridiculous.  I
>speculate therefore that WS, or the compositor, confused Bohemia with
>some Hellenic country, most probably Boeotia.  Boeotia was a city state
>(and a confederation of city states) which was at its height when
>Syracuse was the second most influential city in the Hellenic world, and
>dominated all of Sicily.

Never mind.  This conjecture has the charm of an elegant solution that
occurs at 2AM to an insomniac who feels impelled to get up and write it
down before the light of dawn dispels the illusion.

It does not look as good after a little research.

If there was any confusion between Bohemia and Boeotia, it was the
responsibility of WS's source, Greene's "Pandosto," which also has
Bohemia as one of the locales.

It is possible that 16th C Bohemia had a seacoast.  But it is also
possible (and to me more likely) that the Bohemia in the story is no
real country but, in Asimov's words, "an imaginary story book land of
romances."  As he speculates, it might have been the supposed place of
origin of the swarthy "Bohemians" or gypsies.

Sorry to bother you with my nocturnal musings.

Happy New Year,
Larry Weiss

• Next message: Hardy M. Cook: "Re: Shakepix"
• Previous message: Hardy M. Cook: "Re: MV"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ]