Friday, November 23, 2007

Master of Shakespeare & Shakespeare Geek

I came across another possible Shakespeare author contender today. Master of Shakespeare, better known as Fulke of Greville.

Fulke Greville was an aristocrat, courtier, statesman, sailor, soldier, spymaster, literary patron, dramatist, historian and poet. He was educated at Shrewsbury and Jesus College, Cambridge. He worked for Sir Francis Walsingham as an ‘intelligencer’ where he traveled extensively throughout Europe. He became a great favorite of Queen Elizabeth, was Clerk to the Council of Wales, Treasurer of the Navy, and from 1614-1621 he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.

After the death of his father in 1606, Fulke became Recorder of Stratford-upon-Avon and he held that post until 1628. Greville was famous for his friendship with, and biography of Sir Philip Sidney, and his long tempestuous love affair with Philip’s sister, Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke.


I have also found a new Shakespeare blog called Shakespeare Geek. Makes very interesting reading. He is an IT programmer, has three young children, and his favourite play seems to be King Lear. He is also teaching his kids ALL the plays and sonnets. The Geek has found a LOT of stuff about Shakespeare. For example, he found Shakespeare in (American) Sign Language. Well he is a geek after all. I hope he doesn't mind my adding some of the more interesting links to my sidebar.

And lastly I have found the Holy Grail of Shakespeare (at least my Holy Grail anyway). The Shakespeare Apocrypha (again thanks to Shakespeare Geek) which lists all plays claimed to have been written by Shakespeare, but there is no definite proof.

1 comment:

Duane Morin said...

Thanks for the link, Historia! I wouldn't say King Lear is my favorite (I won't claim a favorite). Lear to me is more like the Mount Everest of the plays. If you "get" Lear, you can get all of Shakespeare. I'll show you hundreds of people who can quote Romeo and Juliet, or who've seen the Much Ado About Nothing movie with Kenneth Branagh. But someone who can speak at length (and depth) on Lear? That tells me something.

Personally I'd go with Hamlet and Tempest as close for favorites for me. Tempest because it's a fairy tale, good for the kids. Hamlet because my "Shakespeare formative years" were during my time as an angsty mopey college kid and Hamlet spoke to me nicely :).