Palgiarism and Hermione

[Rita Winston]

Ebony wrote:

> One is called *Jubilee*, a production commissioned
> by the Royal Shakespeare Company to commemorate the
> 1769 Jubilee Celebration of the Bard

> Hermione:  They aren't doing it for Shakespeare, but 
> for themselves. If he lives, perhaps they will too.  

George Bernard Shaw wrote a playlet titled "The Dark Lady of the
Sonnets" which is about Shakespeare and is worth reading. He wrote it to
be performed as a fund-raiser for some campaign to create a National
Theatre, and in the preface, he wrote that the British people needed a
National Theatre and he would persuade them to do it for Shakespeare if
he couldn't persuade them to do it for themselves.

> (The next is my favorite line in the whole play...)
> Hermione:  And we'll never know what song the Sirens 
> sang, or what name Achilles used when he hid himself
> among the women.

 I was enthused, that is, until my tutor for this 
> session (another Oxford guy) told us not to be 
> impressed. (snip) So our tutor then hands out a 
> few copies of an excerpt from *Urne-Burial*, by 
> Sir Thomas Browne.  Written in 1651, this text is a 
> rather obscure essay on how the ancients buried their 
> dead.  Sure enough, most of the above is found 
> somewhere in this dusty text that no one but scholars 
> read anymore.

LOL, I was going to tell you where that line came from, until I read on
to the next paragraph. IIRC I first found it in Robert Graves's The
Greek Myths, where he supplies answers. The questions had remained in my
mind ever since, along with a STRONG IMPRESSION that there were actually
THREE questions and I just couldn't remember the other one. So a couple
of years ago I actually LOOKED UP the footnote in my friend Lee's copy
of TGM.

(Another line which I have run across in many books is 'That was in
another country, and besides the wench is dead'. I asked a couple of
people if they knew where it came from and they didn't. While roaming
tame among Lee's bookcases, I read her COLLECTED PLAYS of Christopher
Marlowe, and it's from THE JEW OF VENICE --- someone is starting to
accuse him of usury or murder or something and said "You are guilty of
-- " and he cuts in "Adultery. But that was in another country, and
besides the wench is dead.") 

Graves cited the entire passage from the Browne book, in its obsolete
spelling and grammar, and it seemed to me that Browne was quoting
something from Classical Literature that every educated person in that
century (when Education = CLassical Studies) was familiar with, and I
still haven't found out WHAT Classical source. I still haven't found a
third question, either.

Graves cited the book by its Latin title HYDRIOTAPHIA and I was
bewildered until the light bulb went on over my head: Taphia like
Epitaph, and Hydria is type of Greek urn designed for holding water:
"Oh, he means URNE BURIALL, the book that Bernadette wrote her PhD
dissertation (English Lit) on!" I admire the wit with which Bernadette
titled that dissertation "The Experience of URNE BURIALL". From the way
she talked during the year(s) she wrote it, I assumed that it was a
digressive meditation on NeoPlatonic spirituality. (Digressive - made of
digressions, like TRISTAM SHANDY by Sterne, and THE ANATOMY OF CRITICISM
by Frye, and THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS, author forgotten by me: not the
same as transgressive). For the last 18 years, I have intended to get
around to reading it, along with RELIGIO MEDICI and ANATOMY OF
MELANCHOLY. Aren't they by the same Browne?

I was *astonished* that you didn't recognize the Browne semi-quote -- I
mean, you're a grad student in English Lit and I'm a -- I'm nothing, I'm
a college drop-out who never got an A in an English class in my LIFE,
and never took a Lit class that I could possibly avoid. I'm not trying
to be a big show-off of my limited knowledge: I know all too well that I
NOTHING about modern and 20th century literature and such 19th century
literature as is considered Important -- I read PAMELA and CLARRISSA
instead of anything by George Sand. 


> Our tutor's field is seventeenth century British 
> literature... but my American colleagues and I have
> come to the conclusion over pints that this man knows
> absolutely everything.  He is completely intelligent 
> and conversant on just about any subject, which is 
> why he teaches at Oxford, I supposed.

You MUST meet my friend Lee, who knows everything, even tho' she teaches
only in her living room and in newsgroups.

> Although Browne's work is now public domain, we
> were horrified that he hadn't done an attribution.  
> It'd be different if the text in question was something 
> like the Bible (which needs no attribution, really)

I was under the opinion that Browne quotes are thought to be part of the
common cultural heritage of educated people, and therefore need no more
attribution than quotes from the Bible or Shakespeare or Marlowe. Btw,
where does the quote 'Except my life - except my life - except my life'
come from?
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pepperwood, thunderbird down, seven inches
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R ighteous
A ttractive
V ictorious
E ager
N atural
C lassy
L egendary
A mazing
W ise
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