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September 3, 2006
Thrice Scooped on Rediscovering Homer
I saw an article at Discovery News that I wanted to bring to your attention. The article tells of a new book by Andrew Dalby, Rediscovering Homer, in which he claims that Homer did not write these classic works: a women wrote them. But lo and behold, afarensis beat me to the story.
So I decided to write a post on how speculation about the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey was "as venerable a tradition as speculating about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays." But John Mckay at archy beat me to that. (I know why afarensis is spelled with a lowercase "a" but I'm not so sure why archy is).
So I thought I would point out Mark Twain's opinion on the authorship of Shakespeare but Porlock Junior left a comment about this on John's post.
Here is part of Twain's opinion anyway,
Its quite plain significance--to any but those thugs (I do not use the term unkindly) is, that Shakespeare had no prominence while he lived, and none until he had been dead two or three generations. The Plays enjoyed high fame from the beginning; and if he wrote them it seems a pity the world did not find it out. He ought to have explained that he was the author, and not merely a NOM DE PLUME for another man to hide behind. If he had been less intemperately solicitous about his bones, and more solicitous about his Works, it would have been better for his good name, and a kindness to us. The bones were not important. They will moulder away, they will turn to dust, but the Works will endure until the last sun goes down. [from Is Shakespeare Dead?]
Twain has a lot to say about Shakespeare and authorship in Is Shakespeare Dead?
Posted by Duane Smith at September 3, 2006 1:00 PM | Read more on Mark Twain |
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