enfinblue's Bluey (credit to Fifi for the nickname!) Diaryland Diary

"I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart." -Vinc3nt V@n Gogh

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I'll shut up and let others do the talking.

Slept SOO poorly last night. But otherwise am well-ish (sniffly and cold, but happy). Will chalk it up to daylight savings time.

I'm going to keep relatively quiet tonight, but the readers of the NYT are not. I CRACKED up at the comments to the following article about ANOTHER portrait that MIGHT have been painted of SHakespeare from life. (I think it's a rather nice portrait, and to my eyes supports rather than discredits the claims of the Sanders portrait.) I'm pasting a bunch of the comments in. Credit to readers of the NYT of course - I've deleted their names.

Article:
article

Comments:

1. Who cares. Shakespeare is a horrible, dated anachronism loved only by others of such ilk.

Beyonce is much more relevant.

2.

Now we know what the bard looked like, I think!?

3.

I�d like a closer view of this painting. In my mind, it bares a resemblance to pictures I have seen of Richard Burbage. Can we get a better view?

4.

Who cares what he looked like, or even whether he was Edward de Vere or Bacon or Marlowe? The only real and authentic portrait we need of Shakespeare is his body of work.

5.

�The engraver, who was only in his teens when Shakespeare died, must have had a picture, until now unidentified, to work from. Professor Wells believes it to be the one he has revealed today and that it was done from life, in about 1610, when he was 46 years old.�

Someone should teach the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust about pronoun references. If Professor Wells was 46 in 1610, he is miraculously well preserved.

6.

I thought that the portrait of Shakespeare in the National Portrait Gallery in London was the only one to be of him. I tend to believe that one since he looks like more like a struggling writer rather than some one from nobility.

7.

Stanley Wells is partly responsible for the Oxford Shakespeare�s including Edward III � a dubious decision, and one that casts considerable doubt on his claims for this painting.

8.

Can this be true?

9.

This appeared in the Times of London almost 3 years ago (July 2006). Why the big play today?
ALEC COBBE was strolling around the Searching for Shakespeare exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery when he was stopped in his tracks by a painting that was the spitting image of one he had on his wall at home.
It had been in his family�s collection for centuries and no one had paid it much attention, although an 18th-century ancestor thought that it might have depicted Sir Walter Raleigh.

Scholars have confirmed that Mr Cobbe�s painting is the original of the famous portrait in the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington that was on loan at the National Portrait Gallery exhibition � an image that inspired numerous copies in the 18th and 19th centuries, fixing it in the public imagination as an image of Shakespeare.

[Thomas, As you will read in the blog post, the results of the investigation were confirmed today, that's why it is news. -- RM, NYT Ed.]

10.

To quote:

�This is for every schoolboy and schoolgirl for the next four hundred years. Have you any idea how much suffering you are going to cause. Hours spent at school desks trying to find one joke in A Midsummer Night�s Dream? Years wearing stupid tights in school plays and saying things like �What ho, my lord� and �Oh, look, here comes Othello, talking total crap as usual�. Oh, and�

�that is for Ken Branagh�s endless uncut four-hour version of Hamlet.�

Black Adder

11.

Thank God.

I can sleep better at night now.

12.

This article completely misses the point. The author of the Shakespears plays WAS NOT William Shakespeare, theatre owner, it was Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Perhaps Mr. Mackey could educate himself on this point. Perhaps even look it up on wikipedia. For the �paper of record� to omit this in an aticle of this type is absurd.

[Tom, If you think it has been established that William Shakespeare was not the author of these plays, based on what Wikipedia says, we can't help you. -- RM, NYT Ed.]

13.

I�m surprised to see there are still people attributing authorship to the man from Stratford. How quaint.

There are plenty of portraits of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, aren�t there?

14.

wow�

I like it!

The portrait shows much more life than the engraving we�ve seen thousands of times. I love the rosy cheeks and the shrewd eyes! The pressed clever smile and the stylish short beard!

15.

All Elizabethans look the same to me.

� Tony the Tiger

16.

wow�

I like it!

The portrait shows much more life than the engraving we�ve seen thousands of times. I love the rosy cheeks and the shrewd eyes! The pressed clever smile and the stylish short beard!

17.

I feel like I�ve seen this picture before - haven�t I? Or is it a very similar appearing portrait of a similar appearing man? Isn�t the portrait behind the man at the top of the page already well known?

18.

�Give every man thy ear, few thy voice.� It appears most of the comments need to heed to this. Take a course on Shakespeare and you will think differently. Look up Peter Saccio�s courses from the teaching company online. Buy it, and learn that Shakespeare isn�t dated. Maybe you are.

19.

It�d be great if that�s his real face, cause it is a beautiful face

20.

This is a beautifully done portrait�but it appears that Shakespeare was a bit wall-eyed. Check it out on Yahoo.com

21.

Thus far the comments are the worst of the web, snarky, derivative and ignorant.

I hope Mr. Well�s� claims hold up and we all have a better idea of what one of the world�s great authors looked like.

22.

Given that this supposed portrait bears a somewhat eerie resemblance to Joseph Fiennes in �Shakespeare in Love,� one has to wonder�

23.

Phil! You are of course trolling to get folks� dander up. And what of merit have you written lately?

24.

It�s Moliere.

25.

compare Sheakespeares pic, with that of pics of Roger Bacon. As certain folk have pointed out, the real Sheakespeare, was Roger Bacon, and Sheakespeare an alibi. Who only could have known about the inner life of courts and the philosophical statements made in his plays. Just a thought.

6:33 p.m. - 2009-03-09

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