All The Borrowings So Far

Posted by4threvoltPosted inSmoking Guns

Each post below examines a Shakespearean passage (or series of passages) that derives from the earlier writings of Thomas North:

    • Romeo and Juliet
      In 1562, Arthur Brooke referred to an early stage tragedy on Romeo and Juliet in the preface to a long epic poem on the star-crossed lovers. As explained in the posts below, the connections between Brook, North, and Romeo and Juliet all indicate the same thing: Brooke used the tragedy as one his sources, and … Read more
    • 35. Joan Pucelle’s and Henry VI’s Ironic Allusions to North’s Disastrous Stories about Caesar
      As we have seen, many characters in the Shakespeare canon like to cite various stories from North’s translations–often using them to highlight parallels to their own situation. This especially occurs in the early English histories, with various characters referencing North’s chapters on Julius Caesar in North’s Plutarch’s Lives. This includes Joan Purcelle and Henry VI, … Read more
    • 34. Hamlet as Brutus, Polonius as Caesar, & a Burial in Hugger-Mugger
      The full title of Thomas North’s Plutarch’s Lives begins: “The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Compared Together…” And sometimes this is abbreviated to Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, referring to the correspondences that Plutarch drew between Greek and Roman rulers. North then used this same framework for his histories and tragedies, drawing parallels between the … Read more
    • 33. Lysimachus, Antiochus, Tyre, Tarsus, Miletum, and the Wise Man Who Wished To Know None of the King’s Secrets
      When Thaliard enters in act 1, scene 3 of Pericles, he mentions a story about a wise philosopher who wanted just one thing from a King. As shown, the story comes from “The “The Life of Demetrius” in North’s Plutarch’s Lives. North’s Plutarch Shakespeare’s Pericles and Twelfth Night but he was much more to be … Read more
    • 32. Edgar as the Impoverished, Unperfumed Learned-Theban, Who Stands in Esperance and Knows the Cause of Thunder.
      Numerous scholars have discussed King Lear’s unswerving focus on the virtues of poverty and charity –especially in contrast to the corruption of wealth. Throughout the tragedy, many of the characters are forced into destitution and misery–especially Edgar (Poor Tom) and King Lear – only to end up embracing the impoverished and natural state of the … Read more
    • 31. Theseus’s Ravishings, Marriages, and the Mysterious God Who Secretly Helped Him in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
      Plutarch’s Lives begins with a chapter on “The Life of Theseus,” the fabled King of Athens, describing the various legends associated with him, including his vicious habit of raping and then wedding women. Theseus also famously escaped the minotaur’s labyrinth when the Princess of Crete, Ariadne, had fallen in love with him watching him wrestle … Read more
    • 30. Morocco’s Story of Hercules Playing Dice for a Woman in “The Merchant of Venice”
      In The Merchant of Venice, Morocco paraphrases a story from Plutarch’s Lives about Hercules playing dice to win a woman. The prose passage appears in “The Life of Romulus,” not in one of the chapters used for the Roman plays. Scholars for a long time were confused about the origin of Morocco’s story, till E. … Read more
    • North’s Stories in the Canon
      As we have seen in prior weeks (including with the borrowings from North in the tragedies, in the English Histories, and those related to North’s journal), characters will frequently recite the humanist wisdom and political metaphors found in North’s earlier writings. For example, when Iago observes that the thief of temporal riches does less harm … Read more
    • 29. The Fable of the Eagle and the Beetle; And the Art of the Court in Cymbeline
      In 3.3. of Cymbeline, Belarius has been unjustly banished by the King, and, in an act of revenge, kidnapped the King’s two sons and raised them as his own in the safety of a remote mountain cave. The playwright has clearly designed the scene on a fable in The Moral Philosophy of Doni of the … Read more
    • 28. Pages and Pages of North’s Passages in “Julius Caesar”
      Julius Caesar is yet another Shakespearean tragedy that has been taken whole from North’s Plutarch’s Lives. The play is a scene-by-scene remake of North’s chapters on Julius Caesar and Marcus Brutus. Note in the picture above, not only is the playwright closely following North’s Plutarch, he also borrows material from North’s Dial. We will discuss … Read more
    • 27. Dozens of North’s Passages in “Antony & Cleopatra”
      1. Each of the 11 pictures will showcase another page of passages in Antony & Cleopatra that clearly derive from related material in North’s Plutarch’s Lives. Each will also include a scholar’s quote related to North’s “incomparable prose” and Shakespeare’s debt to it. 2. “The music of that play’s language still has this effect upon me. And … Read more
    • 26. Dozens of North’s Passages in “Coriolanus”
      1. Each of the eight attached pictures will show another page of speeches in Coriolanus that clearly derive form related passages in North’s Plutarch’s Lives. 2. Michael Blanding’s North by Shakespeare will explore arguments that North actually wrote the plays on Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra based on his chapters in Plutarch’s Lives … Read more
    • 25. Coriolanus’s Address to Aufidius
      After listing a series of dramatic passages in Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra that were taken almost verbatim from North, the editor Tucker Brooke wrote: “[T]hese passages, all of which rank among the special treasures of Shakespearean poetry, come straight and essentially unaltered out of North… “In the passages I have cited there is little … Read more
    • 24. The Poetic Description of Cleopatra’s Barge on the River Cydnus
      Before many Shakespeareans had learned that the Roman plays actually came straight from North, some would occasionally highlight some of North’s passages in these works as among their favorite, writing long essays on how they demonstrate the playwright’s genius. For example, in an early-twentieth-century series of reviews in Harpers’ Monthly Magazine, the critic James Douglas … Read more
    • 23. The Death of Cleopatra
      One of the most famous scenes in the canon is the immortal description of Cleopatra’s suicide. This too, like the rest of the play, comes from North: North’s Plutarch’s Lives (1580) Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (1607) [H]er other woman called Charmian [stood]half-dead and trembling, trimming the Diadem which Cleopatra wore upon her head. One of … Read more
    • 22. Volumnia’s Speech to Save Rome (Full Version)
      In the post that introduces “Week Four: The Roman Adaptations,” we included a depiction of the opening of Volumnia’s speech to save Rome, but as shown above (and in the table below) the borrowed exchange is actually far more extensive. In fact, as we will continue to see this week, the question of whether Shakespeare … Read more
    • The Roman Adaptations
      While many of Shakespeare’s borrowings derive from North’s translations, it is important to stress that it was North’s particular English wording that so captured the attention of the playwright—not the French, Italian, and Spanish words of the original author. Indeed, North frequently veered from the original foreign text to rework it into his own masterful … Read more
    • 21. The Surprising Origin of Hotspur and Northumberland
      Not long after the Parthians’ stunning defeat of Rome at the battle of Carrhae (53 BCE), located in modern-day Turkey, a Parthian General walked into the banquet hall of Orodes II, King of Parthia, with the rotting head of Marcus Crassus in his hands. A theater troupe was performing a tragedy for the king, and … Read more
    • 20. North’s Marginal Notes and “Richard II”
      The Rise of One Requires the Fall of Another, Like Buckets in a Well or Sun Melting Snow On March 29, 1591, Thomas North purchased a used, 1582-edition of his Dial of Princes for 5 shillings, signing the back and dating the purchase—a copy now kept at the Cambridge University Library.[1] Then he began rereading … Read more
    • 19. Griefs of the Inward Soul, Seeing Things Thru Water, & Dissolving the Bands of Life
      North began translating both the colossal Plutarch’s Lives (1579/80) and Nepos’ Lives (1602) many years before he would eventually sell them to printers. In the interim, North often used the stories and ideas he found in these unpublished translations as source-material for his plays. For example, in the mid-1590s, North decided to use Richard II … Read more
    • 18. The Boy’s Comical Derision of the Cowardice of Bardolf, Pistol, and Nym
      In North’s Dial of Princes, the long-term mistress of Marcus Aurelius, Boemia, writes an angry letter to the famous emperor-philosopher, who has just returned from battle. She is furious with him for refusing to see her, so Boemia begins the letter by launching into a hilarious series of insults, deriding him as a braggart coward, … Read more
    • 17. Richard III Can Change Colors Like the Chameleon And Imitate Homer’s Greeks
      In “The Life of Alcibiades” in Plutarch’s Lives, North writes that the subject of the chapter could frame himself after the fashions and manners of anyone at all—from any country. He could, as North wrote, put on more colors than the chameleon—and even be taken for an Achilles while in Sparta. This chameleon-like ability to … Read more
    • Histories
      The main reason that the Shakespeare canon includes so many histories is that Thomas North was an historian and believed that histories constituted the most vital component of an enlightened education. His work on Plutarch’s Lives in the 1570’s especially taught him something new and important about the character of leaders and its relationship to … Read more
    • North’s Journal, “Henry VIII,” and “The Winter’s Tale”
      In Thomas North’s 1555 Travel Journal: From Italy to Shakespeare (2021), June Schlueter and I explore a newly rediscovered journal that the 20-year-old North kept during his trip to Rome. The young translating playwright had travelled with an embassy sent by the Catholic Queen Mary, who had wanted a formal reconciliation of England with the pope. North … Read more
    • Tragedies
      This first week discusses seven passages from Shakespeare’s darkest plays that derive from North’s earlier writings.
    • 16. Henry IV Worries that Prince Hal Has Vices Like the “Fattest Soil” Has Weeds
      In the prior post on English histories, we noted that the gardener’s comparison of commonwealth to gardens in Richard II derives from two passages of two different works of North: Plutarch’s Lives and The Dial of Princes: Notice that in the above exchange, North’s fatness … of the soil refers to its fertility—and, as with … Read more
    • 15. Nations Are Like Gardens with Noisome Weeds & Wholesome Herbs — & Children, Fruit Trees with Superfluous Branches
      Dozens of botanical analogies throughout the Shakespeare canon all have a Northern origin (i.e., come from the works of Thomas North). This includes what is likely the most famous and extended botanical metaphor in the canon: the garden-scene in Richard II (3.4.29-66). In the relevant exchange, a gardener and a servant have a political discussion … Read more
    • 14. Video: How We Know North Wrote “Winter’s Tale” [Coming Soon]
      The image below depicts a small part of the video (coming soon), which will soon be posted here.
    • 13. Video: How We Know North Was The Original Author of “Henry VIII”
    • 12. A Warning for Those Who Creep Into the Bosom of the King
      As we note in Thomas North’s 1555 Travel Journal: From Italy to Shakespeare, at one point, in Cardinal Wolsey’s final scene in Henry VIII, he recites a lesson from North’s Dial of Princes about those who compete for power. His first focus is on two other ambitious court-climbers: Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cranmer: … that … Read more
    • 11. The Garden of Lombardy, 100 Milch Kine to the Pail, and 6 Score Fat Oxen in a Stable
      As shown in Thomas North’s 1555 Travel Journal: From Italy to Shakespeare, the experiences that the young dramatist documented during his journey to Rome are most relevant to what would become two of North’s first plays: Henry VIII and The Winter’s Tale. But we also find the impressions that North wrote about the various Italian … Read more
    • 10. “Exit Pursued by a Bear:” Antigonus, the Banishment to Sicily, the Dark Storm, and the Roaring Bear
      Perhaps, the most famous stage direction in the Shakespeare canon occurs in The Winter’s Tale and involves the doomed character Antigonus. He leaves the play abruptly after abandoning the banished baby Perdita on the shores of a distant land: “Exit pursued by a bear,” reads the stage-direction. We soon discover that Antigonus doesn’t survive, and … Read more
    • 9. Elder Gossip Who Never Spoke “Word That Might Be To The Prejudice of” Another
      In Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey’s defensive claim that he has never slandered the Queen comes from a similar passage in North’s Dial of Princes. Both passages are referring to elderly, malicious gossipers, especially stressing their spleen, heart, and tongue/mouth. Both also include the same unique eight-word word-string: North’s Dial of Princes Shakespeare’s Henry VIII his … Read more
    • 8. North’s Journal, “Henry VIII,” a Cardinal-Parade, and a Consistory
      While Thomas North’s 1555 Travel Journal examines all the extensive borrowings connecting the journal to Henry VIII and The Winter’s Tale, just the first example described here should be sufficient to prove the diary’s use by the original playwright. As shown in the feature pic above, both North’s journal and Henry VIII juxtapose eerily similar … Read more
    • 7. Coriolanus’s Belly-Fable Conflates 3 Fables, All Written by North
      In an earlier example, we noted that the playwright of Julius Caesar was able to recall passages from North’s Dial while copying passages from North’s Plutarch. In this example, he intertwines stories from three of North’s translations. As is well known, in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Menenius’s fable, in which “all the body’s members / Rebelled against … Read more
    • 6. Arden’s Speech on the Fear of God and Speech of Men
      In North’s Dial of Princes, Marcus Aurelius complains that in most instances, religious teachings and concern for reputation are often enough to keep women virtuous. But, he says, “if the fear of the Gods, the infamy of the person, and the speech of men do not restrain the woman, all the chastisements of the world … Read more
    • 5. North’s “Dial” and Caesar’s Speech on Death and Cowards
      As is well known, Caesar’s speech that “Cowards die many times before their deaths” was hinted at in North’s Plutarch’s Lives. But previously, it was believed that Shakespeare took that hint and then refashioned it himself with many new details. Yet, as we see both above and below, the specific words and notions of the … Read more
    • 4. Romeo’s Sorrow
      In North’s own copy of his translation of the 1582 edition of The Dial of Princes, the translator adds a marginal note highlighting the “description of sorrow (Fol. 296 in 1582 edition; 475 in 1619 ed.) The passage describes how people act when they are depressed: they crave solitude, hate the day, love the night, … Read more
    • 3. The Miseries of Hecuba and Hamlet’s Play to Catch The Conscience of a King
      After Hamlet watches an actor perform a tragic description of Hecuba’s agonies caused by the “tyrant Pyrrhus,” he expresses astonishment at the actor’s abilities to fake such deep sorrow: “For Hecuba! / What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, / That he should weep for her?” (2.2.558-60). In this same speech, the Prince then … Read more
    • 2. Lear’s Poor Naked Wretches Who Must Borrow Clothing From Beasts
      In one chapter in The Dial that deals with poverty, North writes that “the author … compareth the misery of men with the liberty of beasts.” The point was that, in contrast to human beings, animals possess a number of natural gifts that help them survive: “to birds she [Nature] hath given wings … to … Read more
    • 1. Iago’s Speech on He Who Robs Me of My Good Name
      Thomas North would publish his first translation, The Dial of Princes, in 1557, seven years before Shakespeare was born. And we do not even complete its first page before we come across something that sounds suspiciously Shakespearean — specifically, a passage that reads much like Iago’s speech on the thief of reputation in Othello. North’s … Read more