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Thomas I. Rae

Författare till Scotland in the time of Shakespeare

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This little booklet fell into my hands under odd circumstances. I was up in the nonfiction working on putting books in order in my library and managed to come across Scotland in the Time of Shakespeare. Intrigued by the title and promised subject matter, I tried to check it out only to find that it was no longer cataloged. Perhaps its thin binding had caused it to get lost in the shuffle and deleted when it had been missing for a time, or maybe it had found its way to deletion after languishing on the shelves un-checked out for years (indeed, the card in the back of the book is stamped with a date in the year of my birth only). In any case, a co-worker and I agreed that it was rather... ephemeral and would not attract a huge readership in our public library. So I brought it home.

In the 1960s, the Folger Shakespeare Library printed up a whole series of brochures on the Tudor and Stuart period on various subjects - English dress, church, gardening, schools, and much more. This one focuses on Scotland. Despite the title, it really has very little to do with Shakespeare beyond a few mentions and the general time period it covers. In 38 pages followed by black-and-white plates of maps and portraits, the booklet gives a brief overview of Scotland in the 16th and 17th centuries, roughly when James VI (or James I, and confusingly if you don't know your English and Scottish history, he's referred to both interchangeably without explanation) was king. In a sort of running commentary with no chapter breaks, subjects as diverse as economics, church and state, theater, music, and printing are among those covered. It falls into that weird little black hole where those who know more information about Scotland will understand it better, but will simultaneously have a more in-depth knowledge of the subjects covered.

Besides the topical changes, I had a hard time with the overly long and complicated sentence structure: "Those dominant characteristics of independence, pride, and loyalty are to some extent admirable features of the social and personal relationships of the inhabitants of Scotland; and yet they seem incongruous, especially in the idea of loyalty, when one reflects on the events of Scottish history - the murder of kings, treachery, blood feuds between noble families, and general internecine warfare" (8). That example is among one of the longer sentences I had to reread to understand, and was by no means the most complicated (that one involved multiple semicolons).

If you're looking for a book that intersects Scotland and Shakespeare, this isn't really it. And if you're looking for an introduction to Scottish history or on any of the topics this brochure covers, I'd suggest sticking with one of the books mentioned in the bibliography.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
bell7 | Jul 4, 2014 |

Statistik

Verk
1
Medlemmar
7
Popularitet
#1,123,407
Betyg
3.0
Recensioner
1
ISBN
1