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 againstContinue reading “7. Coriolanus’s Belly-Fable Conflates 3 Fables, All Written by North”
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North’s Handwritten Notes in his “Dial” Mark the Passages He Used for his Plays
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. Then he began rereading or skimming certain sections, skipping from here to there, underscoring certain lines and passages, and adding various notesContinue reading “North’s Handwritten Notes in his “Dial” Mark the Passages He Used for his Plays”