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 wrestleContinue reading “Theseus’s Ravishings, Marriages, and the Mysterious God Who Secretly Helped Him in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream””
Author Archives: Dennis McCarthy
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.Continue reading “Morocco’s Story of Hercules Playing Dice for a Woman in “The Merchant of Venice””
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 harmContinue reading “North’s Stories in the Canon”
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 theContinue reading “The Fable of the Eagle and the Beetle; And the Art of the Court in Cymbeline”
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 discussContinue reading “Pages and Pages of North’s Passages in “Julius Caesar””
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. AndContinue reading “Dozens of North’s Passages in “Antony & Cleopatra””
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 LivesContinue reading “Dozens of North’s Passages in “Coriolanus””
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 littleContinue reading “Coriolanus’s Address to Aufidius”
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 DouglasContinue reading “The Poetic Description of Cleopatra’s Barge on the River Cydnus”
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 ofContinue reading “The Death of Cleopatra”