"No more shall ye behold such sights of woe, deeds I have suffered and myself have wrought; henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye see those ye should ne'er have seen; now blind to those whom, when I saw, I vainly yearned to know."
(Oedipus Rex by Sophocles)
Monday, January 23, 2006
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2 comments:
I read that Shakespeare never knew the Oedipus myth. How do we know this? Can it be that in King Lear it is just coincidence that Glouster has his eyes gouged out?
i am a grad student in english. like will smith (strange comparison i know), many or most of shakespeare's works were adaptations of previous myths or so-called historical events.
great britian was the pre-america place to practically worship the ancient greeks and romans as the founders of western culture. obviously from macbeth we know shakespeare knew latin, and i suddenly don't remember if historians think he had any formal education but if he did the ancient greco-roman texts would've been a high priority.
i'm interested to know where u read that he didn't know the oedipus myth. think about hamlet - almost the same thing going on (in terms of freud's oedipus idea). after taking several classes that focused a little or a lot on shakespeare, i learned that...
his sonnets were written to a man or men,
many scholars think he is really sort of a combination of several playwrights (he actually did exist but other works are credited to him that some scholars think could be written by his peers),
and he didn't come up with his own plots for most of the plays.
will smith remade just the 2 of us. men in black is the same tune as the old funk song dunno the title but lyrics are 'send me forget-me-nots...to help me to remember...will u forgive me not? i want u to remember' of course, old school will smith (i.e. Homebase w/Jazzy Jeff the songs ring my bell and summertime, etc.) wrote only original stuff. but a few of his other hits i'm fairly sure are also either remakes or existing music that he used to back up new lyrics.
shakespeare was basically a genius with language but as far as creating his plots, that rarely happened. some plays i think he did completely create the plot but the better known ones...the majority of them are beautifully worded versions of existing stories, myths, tales, narratives etc.
anywa i am working on a poem and was fact checking my reference ( "How many years did you spend blind as Oedipus..." now i can add Glouster too if i want, so thanks for pointing out the similarities.
bliss,
rei
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