Whilst other wrote good words (2)

The second in a (very) occasional series on the sources for Shakespeare’s work. Part one – on the “histories” he consulted – is here

We didn’t study Horace much at school, but my Latin teachers made sure we were at least aware of one his most famous lines – the beginning of Ode XXX.

Exegi monumentum aere perenniu

I have made a monument more lasting than bronze

Why am I mentioning it? Because every time I read the first lines of Sonnet 55, I am sure that Shakespeare had read Horace too…

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme

It’s not the only clue we have that Shakespeare knew his classical (and especially his Roman) authors. They crop up a great deal as the basis for characters, for plots and for literary allusions.

Macbeth (2)

Iris Theatre (St Paul’s Covent Garden)

 

Iris Theatre (in its 10^th anniversary year), Macbeth, and me. There’s a trio of weird sisters for a warm summer’s night.

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Streatham Common

As far as I knew it, the plot of The Merry Wives was (to paraphrase Elizabeth I) laughs and a bit with a box. Falstaff and some wives? Of Windsor? Who are merry? Well, none of that is an inaccurate description for a play that is even more frothy than Twelfth Night and more contrived than Cymbeline…