Shakespeare Fans discussion
Sonnets…Intro
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I feel like I might try to see if the different fonts…are delineating some pattern…
“Twenty-three sonnets open with the letter W, which appears in four different founts: large
'VV' (three times), smaller 'v' (eleven times), small w'(seven times) and italic 'D' (twice). Other large capitals that appear in varying sizes include H, S and O.”
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"This book makes two main claims: that Shakespeare’s Sonnets contains intricate hidden organization, and that Shakespeare was far more engaged with other poets and with pursuing a career as a poet than is generally assumed. The first claim presupposes that the organizational schemes have been hiding in plain view for over four centuries. The second is literary-historical and biographical, because it speaks to Shakespeare’s cultural milieu and personal ambitions. Although ‘hidden’ and ‘hiding’ may create the impression that Shakespeare wrote in code, the fundamental reason why his schemes have gone unnoticed is historical: within decades of his death, conventions of sonnet sequences became unfamiliar, and they have largely remained so since. The first claim might also be said to follow from the second, because the poets with whom Shakespeare engages most intensely wrote the most complex sequences. In proving these claims, the book approaches Sonnets as three distinct and related things: as a free-standing sequence, as a sonnet sequence among other poets’ sequences, and as a work in Shakespeare’s career as a poet."
Wow, the Monte book looks fascinating. How is it so far, Candy?
I’ve pulled it off a shelf and am reading her intro again and it’s so good. I think I especially sm enjoying since visiting in on the winter. That Shakespeare performed in Ipswich where one of our train commutes passed! I jumped up.