Tuesday, February 28, 2006
I feel so betrayed
While catching up on my Arts & Letters Daily (because I really am that geeky), I started reading this review of new Shakespeare Biographies but had to stop after the fourth sentence. I knew the Flowers' Portrait of Shakespeare was one I'd seen before, but I couldn't place it.
A quick tab over to google, and I'm in levels of shock only a true english geek could go in to.
This is the Flowers portrait. It's not made by one of his peers, like we've all been taught. It apparently "dates back to around 1818 to 1840, exactly the time when there was a resurgence of interest in Shakespeare's plays," according to the BBC. Read the full article here.
Why does this matter? To most people, it probably doesn't. But some of us are reading shakespeare at a rate of 100+ pages a week for class, and that image of the Bard ("good old Will") gets drilled in. Not to mention the posters. Oh, oh, all the posters.
At least we know the Droeshout one is real.
Oh, by the way, here's a breakdown of all the known images of shakespeare. ¶ 0 comments
A quick tab over to google, and I'm in levels of shock only a true english geek could go in to.
This is the Flowers portrait. It's not made by one of his peers, like we've all been taught. It apparently "dates back to around 1818 to 1840, exactly the time when there was a resurgence of interest in Shakespeare's plays," according to the BBC. Read the full article here.
Why does this matter? To most people, it probably doesn't. But some of us are reading shakespeare at a rate of 100+ pages a week for class, and that image of the Bard ("good old Will") gets drilled in. Not to mention the posters. Oh, oh, all the posters.
At least we know the Droeshout one is real.
Oh, by the way, here's a breakdown of all the known images of shakespeare. ¶ 0 comments
