On Jul 26, 6:57 am, Daniel Kessler <dkess...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> JPW wrote:
> > On Jul 24, 6:41 am, Daniel Kessler <dkess...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > > It is the only Shakespeare play wherein Shakespeare invented the
plot,
> > > characters, et al...all of his other plays were a redo of someone
else's
> > > efforts...and at the end of the day ...he couldn't figure out how to
end
>
> > There's no specific source for "A Midsummer Night's Dream," or "Love's
> > Labour's Lost," and so "The Tempest" would actually be the third play
> > for which Shakespeare "invented" the plot. He was, nevertheless, like
> > Autolycus, a snapper-up of other people's trifles.
>
> That's interesting ....since Isaac Asimov in his exhaustive "Guide to
> Shakespeare" says:
>
> "What's more, The Tempest is Shakespeare's complete creation too, for it
is
> the one play in which he apparently made up his own plot." Maybe he's
> thinking that since his "Midsummer Night's Dream" is set upon the frame
of an
> impending wedding --that of Thesus and Hippolyta and that these
characters are
> taken from Greek myths -- they are not invented by Shakespeare, as are
Miranda
> or Prospero, etc.
>
> Also, in "Love's Labor Lost" ...the characters spring from real people
who
> existed at the time...so maybe Asimov cannot count them as "invented" by
the
> "bard."
Writers (including myself) get things wrong all the time--though
scholars (including myself) do their best not to make mistakes.
Incidentally, "The Tempest" does have sources--materials Shakespeare
borrowed, and remember too there are mythological figures in the play
(as there are in Midsummer). BTW, "The Shakespeare Diaries" hint that
by choosing the name Prospero, Shakespeare was getting back at Ben
Jonson (the problematic reference to the "Bermoothes" falls into the
same category).
JPW
http://www.jpwearing.com
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