Chris : Yes, some people are way ahead of the game from age 3 onwards because of "native genius." Mendelssohn was another. But Shakespeare's bona fides --his authenticated signatures, etc-- show someone who, at least at times, didn't spell his name consistently , and was anything but a litterateur. These facts, by themselves, don't prove anything. Hugo Black, the Supreme Court justice, didn't get beyond grade school, if you can believe it. Bach only got as far as high school, if you can believe it also. But in such cases this is to discuss men who would not rest until they had mastered all it took to end up as the equivalent of university scholars. My point about Wm S is that the process would have been expedited greatly if he had some coaching along the way. Not necessarily Fletcher. It coulda been the Earl, or someone else, like Marlow. Unless proven otherwise I think Fletcher is the best bet, since a friendship is established while both were still fairly young and, as well, there are 2 or maybe 3 plays where they did, in fact, collaborate. Possibly others. To be a good writer you've got to be in love with words and language. You've got to have a real desire to know how words are used to best effect, the nuances of written language, and all of that. That is part # 1. Part # 2 is that you've gotta master the craft of writing, all the nitty-gritty stuff. While someone like Hoffer was able to do this on his own, mostly it would seem to me to require someone to act as a coach in the process. Fletcher, with his Cambridge schooling, would have known all of these things as a former student at the university. I'm thinking back to my Beatnik days. We Beatnik-writer wannabes didn't just make small talk when we sat around drinking espresso in those years. We discussed literature, what made great novels tick. the secrets of good plots, etc, and along the way necessarily looked into the writer's craft and what it takes to become an actual talented writer. My best guess, thinking about the times Wm S and Fletch sat around at the Mermaid, is that they were similarly inclined. One with a million ideas, the other also with ideas, but short on know-how. Easy to see the value of collaboration to both Fletch got new ideas to work with, Wm S got a grounding on the so-called "mechanics" of writing and what it takes to really compose good texts. My theory, anyway. Billy ================================================= In a message dated 4/11/2010 8:40:01 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
Interesting article. I can see how you could develop a theory from the collaboration ideas presented therein. It would have been an exciting time to be a playwright. About Shakespeare's relative lack of education… think of Mozart. Some people are instilled with genius. Chris ____________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2010 5:59 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [RC] Fletcher and Shakespeare Chris : Here is part of a scholarly article about Fletcher and the Bard. As far as I know, which may be wrong, the Fletcher theory is my own Probably I take it too far but, given Shakespeare's ( apparent ) educational shortcomings, despite my desire also to see him as sole author of the plays, etc, somehow you've got to account for the erudition in the oeuvres. I mean, Wm S was, as presumed author, about as schooled as anyone gets, yet with very little formal education. How is that possible ? Hence the plausibility of Earl of Oxford theorists, and my alternative, Fletcher as literary coach. But maybe all that can realistically be said, given Fletcher's prodigious work separate from "Shakespeare," is that he played a role at some stage of the Bard's life rather than as a continuing factor. I donno. But Tennyson, no slouch about such matters, noticed parallels between F and S, and maybe it goes a lot deeper. Billy ----------------------------------------------------------------------- by John Butler John Fletcher was born in December 1579 in Rye, Sussex, the son of Richard Fletcher, in turn Dean of Peterborough, Bishop of Bristol, Bishop or Worcester, and later Bishop of London and chaplain to the queen. John Fletcher was cousin to the poet Phineas Fletcher, author of The Purple Island. He attended Bene't College, Cambridge (now known as _Corpus Christi College_ (http://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/) ) of which his father had been president, but when his father died in 1596 he was in bad financial circumstances. Virtually nothing is known about him until 1606, when he is recorded as one of the group of literary men and wits who gathered at the _Mermaid Tavern_ (http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/mermaid.htm) . This is where he likely met his most famous collaborator, _William Shakespeare_ (http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/) , along with _Ben Jonson_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/) and _Francis Beaumont_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/beaumont/) , with whom his name is almost inextricably bound when his comedies are discussed. Fletcher's collaboration with Beaumont lasted from 1607 until the latter's death in 1616. He also wrote plays in conjunction with _Massinger_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/massinger/) , _Middleton_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/middleton/) , _Rowley_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/rowley/) , and _Jonson himself_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/) . Fletcher's first recorded sole-authorship play was _The Faithful Shepherdess_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/fletcher/fletchbib.htm#shepherdess) (c.1609) and he continued to write plays on his own. These included the historical tragedy _Bonduca_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/fletcher/fletchbib.htm#bonduca) (1614), the comedies The Chances (c.1617), an adaptation from Cervantes, The Tamer Tamed (1624), which answered Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, a political drama, _The Loyal Subject_ (http:/ /www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/fletcher/fletchbib.htm#loyall) (1618), and a tragedy, _Valentinian_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/fletcher/fletchbib.htm#valentinian) (1610-?1614). Fletcher is likely to have collaborated with Shakespeare in two plays, _The Two Noble Kinsmen_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/fletcher/fletchbib.htm#shakes) (1613-16) and _The Life of King Henry the Eighth_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/fletcher/fletchbib.htm#shakes) (1613). In the case of the latter, however, as David Bevington suggests, "the case for Shakespeare as author of essentially the entire play is impressive" (Shakespeare, Works, Ed. Bevington, 893). There seems to be some scholarly agreement, on the other hand, that Shakespeare and Fletcher did write The Two Noble Kinsmen together, although it was not printed in the 1623 folio of Shakespeare's works. It may be interesting to note that the first person to suggest Fletcher as Shakespeare's co-author in Henry the Eighth was Tennyson, followed by his friend James Spedding, who analysed the verse (see Bevington 893 for details). Bevington omits The Two Noble Kinsmen from his edition of Shakespeare but retains Henry the Eighth. Fletcher seems to have preferred comedy as his genre, and this is certainly what he is best-known for. The first of the plays written in collaboration with Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) was The Woman-Hater (1607), but their most famous play was the uproariously-funny _Knight of the Burning Pestle_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/fletcher/fletchbib.htm#knight) (1607) in which Beaumont and Fletcher, influenced of course by Cervantes, made fun of knight-errantry, heroic domestic drama like _Thomas Heywood_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/heywood/) 's Four Prentices of London, and the heroic verse of Shakespeare. They even satirized the audience, especially people who liked to sit on the stage and interfere with the play. After the immense success of this play, Beaumont and Fletcher never looked back. They had struck a close friendship, and a prosperous collaborative creative relationship. The two were so close, in fact, that John Aubrey reported that they even shared clothes sometimes. Their collaboration also produced _Philaster_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/fletcher/fletchbib.htm#phila) (c.1609), a romantic mistaken-identity play, _The Maid's Tragedy_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/fletcher/fletchbib.htm#maid) (c.1610), a play about murder and betrayal, and, finally, _A King and No King_ (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/fletcher/fletchbib.htm#king) (1611), a "black comedy" complete with incest and more mistaken identities, which somehow ends happily. It was a sad day for English theatre when Francis Beaumont died prematurely of a fever in 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death. The first collected edition of the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher came out in 1647. The plays remained popular down to the eighteenth century and are frequently revived today. It is near impossible to talk about the plays in terms of who did what. Some critics argue that Beaumont wrote better plots than Fletcher, or that Fletcher had a greater poetic gift, but in fact such speculation is useless because the collaboration was so close. What can be said, is that the plays are fast-moving, well-constructed, and, in the case of the comedies, still funny. The verse in the tragedies often rises to very grand heights, and Fletcher shows a great gift for songs and lyrical writing. _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
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