Mythological Origins & Elizabethan Concerns
Looks at the way Shakespeare's work has been influenced by a body of myths, medieval writing and also shapes his work to suit the Elizabethan audience.
6. www.bl.uk 6
Conclusions
Source: The source goes here
? Shakespeare injected the concerns of his time
? Why have we retold the same stories over and over again?
? The need to know and explain the environments and
communities we live in
7. www.bl.uk 7
General
Medieval Shakespeare : pasts and presents / edited by
Ruth Morse, Helen Cooper, and Peter Holland.
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Narrative and dramatic sources of Shakespeare / edited by
Geoffrey Bullough.
London : Routledge & Kegan Paul ; New York : Columbia
University Press, 1957-1975.
The Oxford companion to world mythology / David
Leeming. (Prehistoric mythology of the Neolithic)
New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2005.
The Oxford companion to archaeology / editor Adrian M.
Fagan ; editors, Charlotte Beck ... [et al.].
New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1996.
New Testament apocrypha / edited by Wilhelm
Schneemelcher
Cambridge : J. Clarke, 1992.
Medieval
Troilus and Criseyde, with facing-page Il Filostrato :
authoritative texts ; the testament of Cresseid ; criticism /
Geoffrey Chaucer ; edited by Stephen A. Barney.
New York ; London : W. W. Norton, 2006.
A Translation of Il Filostrato
http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/filostrato_griffin.pdf
A handbook to the reception of Ovid / edited by John F.
Miller and Carole E. Newlands.
Chichester, West Sussex, UK ; Malden, MA : Wiley
Blackwell, 2014.
The Apocryphal New Testament : a collection of apocryphal
Christian literature in an English translation / J.K. Elliott.
Oxford University Press, 1993.
BL Blog on Chaucer¡¯s manuscripts
http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/201
2/10/paging-through-troilus-and-criseyde.html
Manuscript versions of Ovid¡¯s Metamorphosis
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/ovids-
metamorphoses#sthash.ORCo0Dwe.dpuf
Origins of the World¡¯s Mythologies/ E.J. Michael Witzel
New York: Oxford University Press, 2012
Sources of mythology : ancient and contemporary myths :
proceedings of the seventh annual International
Conference on Comparative Mythology / Klaus Antoni,
David Wei? (eds.).
International Conference on Comparative Mythology (7th :
2013 : Tu?bingen, Germany)
Berlin : Lit, 2014.
Ancient Greek Mythology Influences
Ovid's Metamorphoses : The Arthur Golding Translation of
1567
https://archive.org/details/shakespearesovid00oviduoft
How Romeus became Romeo
http://americanrepertorytheater.org/inside/articles/articles-
vol4-i3-how-romeus-became-romeo
Greek Myths
http://sacred-texts.com/ane/index.htm
¡°The P¨ªnakes of Callimachus¡± Witty, Francis J. in The
Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy , Vol. 28,
No. 2 (Apr., 1958), pp. 132-136
The melancholy muse : Chaucer, Shakespeare and early
medicine / Carol Falvo Heffernan.
Pittsburgh, Penn. : Duquesne University Press, c1995.
YA.1996.b.3224.
Ancient Mesoamerican Influences
¡°Testament of Job¡± in The Apocryphal Old Testament /
edited by H.F.D. Sparks.
Oxford : Clarendon, 1984.
Geoffrey of Monmouth : the history of the kings of Britain :
an edition and translation of De gestis Britonum (Historia
regum Britanniae) / edition by Michael D. Reeve
Geoffrey, of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph, 1100?-1154.
Woodbridge : Boydell Press, 2007.
Geoffrey of Monmouth¡¯s King Lear
http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/geoffrey-of-monmouths-
account-of-king-lear-in-history-of-the-kings-of-britain
Early modern drama and the Bible : contexts and readings,
1570-1625 / edited by Adrian Streete.
Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Biblical influences in Shakespeare's great tragedies / Peter
Milward.
Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1987.
Medieval Shakespeare : pasts and presents / edited by
Ruth Morse, Helen Cooper, and Peter Holland.
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2013
Pp115-116
The Bible in Shakespeare / Hannibal Hamlin.
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.
Mesopotamian Myth read aloud: The Poem of the
Righteous Sufferer
https://www.soas.ac.uk/baplar/recordings/the-poem-of-
the-righteous-sufferer-ludlul-bl-nmeqi-tablet-ii-entire-tablet-
read-by-karl-hecker.html
Traditional Narratives of Tainos
http://ancientantilles.com/traditionalnarrativesandreligion.h
tml
Sacred Texts Americas
http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/
Before the muses : an anthology of Akkadian literature /
Benjamin R. Foster.
Bethesda, Md. : CDL Press, c2005.
Conclusions
Geomythology
http://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPST/MayorGeomythology.pd
f
Fossil Legends of the First Americans/Adrienne Mayor
Princeton University Press, 2005.
#3: This presentation will be will be focused on intertextuality and the body of work that directly or indirectly influenced Shakespeare.
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Shakespeare lived in a great time for the English vernacular
Bible being translated from Latin to English (King James¡¯ bible).
body of texts including classical and ancient texts such as Ovid¡¯s Greek myths which had been translated from Latin and a host of his European contemporaries as well as historical work such as those of Chaucer and Dante.
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secret weapon at his disposal, must have been a library as he seemed to be working from texts whose editions predated those that were popular in his lifetime.
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It would be very challenging to examine older myths of literary interest from other from cultures if it weren¡¯t for fields of scholarship such as: Geomythology , Comparative Mythology and Linguistics which addresses this.
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Most of Shakespeare¡¯s work was not influenced by just one story quite often speeches/ bits of knowledge were injected from a variety of other sources. I will try to focus on the main themes only. I will also only focus on a few texts that influenced him to avoid this presentation just being a list of names.
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Image: Drawing of England BL: Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1
Image: Panorama of historical London
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Maps_of_Old_London/Norden
#4: earlier prose by Chaucer who wrote a similarly named Troilus and Criseyde.
Borrowed from an earlier story by the Italian Boccaccio's(Il Filostrato,(The Love Struck) features the familiar protagonists Troilo and Criseida took place during the war for Troy.
These stories are similar, in that they share a plot and a title but the similarities end there.
Theme - War and recounting History
questions war,
war disrupts people¡¯s lives but also serves as a catalyst for bonding and shared experiences.
show how easily life/perceptions views etc can change
people¡¯s values can be forced to change depending on the situation they are in or the pressure exerted on them through circumstances.
Through the love story itself and the twists and turns of the war.
Image : http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2012/10/paging-through-troilus-and-criseyde.html
Image: Royal MS 17 E IV http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/ovids-metamorphoses
#5: English poet, Arthur Brooke titled "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet." (1562)
Greek mythology(43 bc¨C ad 17 Ovid's Metamorphoses)
Ovid work was heavily influenced by the works of Callimachus Pinakes
In the story of Pyramus and Thisb¨¥ whose parents banned them from being together but they managed to communicate with each other whispering through the cracks of a wall. After a while they arranged to meet in person.
Theme - Barriers to love, potions and health
his use of poison and inclusion of medical information.
It was almost a medical drama with a love story.
Shakespeare uses 3 characters to present this knowledge.
Juliet¡¯s nurse
Apothecary.
Friar who is the priest physician (early modern doctor/counsellor)
Image: Apothecary http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=4359
Image : http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/ovids-metamorphoses
#6: An earlier work by Geoffrey of Monmouth ¡°History of the Kings of Britain¡±.
Biblical Job
earlier Mesopotamian(myth called The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer 1700 BCE.
righteous suffering in Mesoamerican mythology of the Tainos in Caribbean.
Theme- Suffering in General
The concept of suffering providing clarity is prominent in this work as King Lear
Cordelia suffers patiently first,
Lear whose vanity and arrogance
He faces despair not knowing if his situation will end or change for the better.
He has to face the guilt that his choices are what lead to this outcome.
Guilt for Gloucester
Tension for audience
Image : http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-true-chronicle-history-of-king-leir-1605
Image :http://ancientantilles.com/traditionalnarrativesandreligion.html
#7: Archetypal or the diffusionist view,
Gondwana mythology and Laurasian mythology.