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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0775  Saturday, 24 November 2007

[1] 	From:	Larry Weiss <larry@lweiss.net>
	Date:	Tuesday, 13 Nov 2007 14:12:13 -0500
	Subj:	Re: SHK 18.0762 Lear and Job

[2] 	From:	Elliott Stone <elliott.stone@comcast.net>
	Date:	Tuesday, 13 Nov 2007 22:16:46 -0500
	Subj:	Re: SHK 18.0762 Lear and Job


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:		Larry Weiss <larry@lweiss.net>
Date:		Tuesday, 13 Nov 2007 14:12:13 -0500
Subject: 18.0762 Lear and Job
Comment:	Re: SHK 18.0762 Lear and Job

Of course, the supposed parallels between Job and Lear have long been 
discussed. But I wonder if anyone has commented on the structural 
similarities between Timon of Athens and the Book of Job. Timon, who 
begins as a rich man and suddenly loses everything, spends the second 
half of the play crouching in the wilderness engaging in dialogues with 
a series of "comforters."

[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:		Elliott Stone <elliott.stone@comcast.net>
Date:		Tuesday, 13 Nov 2007 22:16:46 -0500
Subject: 18.0762 Lear and Job
Comment:	Re: SHK 18.0762 Lear and Job

Hannibal Hamlin suggests that an ideal question for the list would be 
"What is the earliest printed reference to a relationship between King 
Lear and the Book of Job?"

I would suggest rather-" What is the earliest printed reference to a 
connection between Shakespeare's King Lear and King Cinyras of Book 10 
of Ovid's Metamorphoses?"

I ask this question in view of the following sentence taken from the 
Wikipedia review of Jane Smiley's 1991 Pulitzer Prize novel "Thousand 
Acres".

"Lear, however, is transformed into a child molester, and his malicious 
daughters are portrayed as hapless victims of his perverted lust".

I am sure that Smiley has read and understood both her Lear and her 
Ovid. The reviewer of her book, however, does not want to even entertain 
the unpleasant
idea that Shakespeare might have had incest on his mind!

Best,
Elliott H. Stone

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