Petrified Truth

Will

Thanks to Book Moot for reminding us that today is the birthday of William Shakespeare. Born April 23, 1564, he remains the most vital single author in the English language.

He's back in the news right now. "The Flower Portrait," a famous painting that had been thought to be contemporaneous, has been shown to date from the early 1800s.

Historians have disagreed about the origins of The Flower Portrait, which bears the inscription 1609. Not everyone has been convinced that the portrait, owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), was painted during the playwright's lifetime. Now National Portrait Gallery experts in London confirm it is a fake which dates back to the early 19th century.

The gallery's 16th century curator Dr Tarnya Cooper said the image could be found on the cover of a number of Shakespeare editions found in book shops.

She said: "It achieved notoriety over the years.

"Some said it was painted in a later style while others strongly believed it was a lifetime portrait."

Chrome yellow paint, dating from around 1814, had been found embedded in the portrait.

"We now think the portrait dates back to around 1818 to 1840, exactly the time when there was a resurgence of interest in Shakespeare's plays," she added.

Vincent Miller, the best English professor I ever had, wrote this advice long ago:

Get a book you can read without a microscope and one you can carry. Separate texts are the best.

Don't read the notes. Don't read any critics.

Remember, you are much better schooled than Shakespeare's audience and they understood him without any college professors. Of course, they had learned to observe -- they had to in order to stay alive.

There's no substitute for seeing his plays performed on stage, but a very close second are the films produced by Kenneth Branagh. My favorites: Much Ado About Nothing, followed by Henry V.

The 2005 Houston Shakespeare Festival will perform Hamlet and As You Like It this summer.

Even better may be The University of Texas Shakespeare at Winedale summer program, where they'll be performing Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream near Round Top in the rolling countryside of Washington County. See you in the barn!

Posted by Alan at April 23, 2005 02:16 PM