Only a few fragments from Shakespeare's works sufficiently indicate a man who was familiar with a special, first-rate knowledge of certain locations and cultures, which at that time could not be found in books or learned in schools.
The lyrics and poems reveal a well-traveled cosmopolitan - a man intimately familiar with Italian and French culture unfathomable second-hand.
Shakespeare sets many of his plays in France and Italy, just as he does in England. It is simpler to say that he could have learned some information about foreign countries here and there from other people, but the details that are emphasized primarily by Shakespearean experts reveal a man of wide acumen.
"King Henry V" contains a scene written entirely in courtly (and lascivious) French, while the protagonists and situations in "Love's Labor in Vain" reveal an unequivocal knowledge of French manners, mannerisms and courtly culture of that climate.
Knew Venice like London
Shakespeare, for example, knew that Florentine citizens were famous for their arithmetic and bookkeeping (Othello); he knew that Padua was the "cradle of art" (The Tamed Shrew; or, depending on the translation, The Tamed of Wickedness), and that Lombardy was the "beautiful garden of great Italy" (ibid.); he knew that a dish of roasted pigeons had always been prized in the Italian north (The Merchant of Venice).
He especially knew Venice, almost like London. Even the smallest Venetian things could not escape his attentive eye: for example, the two votes of the Venetian doge in the city council, or that the night police, the Signori di Notte, were characteristic of Venice, as well as the foreign city where the Venetian Jews did most of their work. – Frankfurt.
Anderson, in the electronic edition of his study, draws attention to the book by the late Richard Paul Roe, "Shakespeare's Guide to Italy: Following the Bard's Unknown Travels", published last year by the prestigious Harper Perennial.
The Hidden Line in Shakespeare's Novels
Roe's guide is by no means conspiratorial in nature, but its author literally follows the entire geography and the paths followed by, if not Shakespeare, then his protagonists in Italian dramas. And in the end he says that the experts, who are still willing to claim that Shakespeare never left London, should think twice about their dubious conclusions.
"There is a hidden Italy in Shakespeare's plays," Roe writes. "It is an ingeniously described Italy that has never before been recognized or even suspected—in all these 400 years—except by a dedicated few. It is perfectly accurate; it is exquisitely detailed; it is, above all, fascinating."
Italy in Shakespeare's works is perfectly accurate; it is very detailed; she is, above all, fascinating
And, as bravely documented by Roe, who used Shakespeare's plays as a kind of travelogue, the list of Italian locations portrayed in the lyrics and poems could practically serve as a manifesto of de Virre's travels in the region during the period 1575-76.
Further, the poems Venus and Adonis and The Abduction of Lucretia (or, The Rape of Lucretia) are dedicated to the Duke of Southampton, a high Elizabethan courtier.
Nothing is left of the genius
Southampton is conventionally assumed—though without any evidence—to have been Shakespeare's patron. A certain number of researchers during the previous two centuries devotedly searched for evidence of this claim, but in vain. As Anderson shows in his book, these dedications to a duke of Elizabeth's court seem more meaningful if they were written by Edward de Vere. At least for the reason that at the time when they were dedicated and written - 1593/94. - Southampton was seen as a potential husband for de Vir's daughter, Elizabeth.
Henley Street
John Adams, one of America's founding fathers, expressed his skepticism after visiting Stratford, writing that indeed nothing remains of that genius, "nothing that can inform us what education, what society, what accident caused him to suddenly turn to letters and drama".
Washington Irving had almost the same sentiments after a similar visit to England, honestly wondering how, despite such a gap in Shakespeare's life, his biographers clearly have their hands full.
Walt Whitman, in 1888, told his trustee that he was convinced that the "Shakspere" he was talking about could not have written what was attributed to him. For him, that case was closed a long time ago.
(To be continued)
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