Rival poet

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Rival Poet is one that still unsure identified, probably specific "person", as in Shakespeare's sonnets poet rival ( rival poet appears).

Shakespeare's sonnets

In Shakespeare's sonnets , a rival poet appears, who is mostly assumed to be a real person. The speculation as to who was meant by this has led to numerous, e.g. T. contradicting theories. The group of sonnets, which presumably refers to a poet rival fighting for favor, patronage and fame, primarily refers to sonnets 78–86.

Suspected candidates

George Chapman

Chapman was a well-known contemporary poet and translator of Homer . Experts believe that Shakespeare knew Chapman's work and used parts of the translation from the Iliad for his play Troilus and Cressida , a dramatic adaptation of Chaucer's epic poem. Chapman himself wrote Ovid's Banquet Of Sense , a poem that can be seen as an answer to the erotic verses Venus and Adonis , which, by the way, emphasize Shakespeare's most cited poet Ovid . The more moral tone of Chapman's verses avoids the amorous style of Shakespeare. Chapman's patron saints moved in the same circles as presumably Shakespeare. Shakespeare may have felt unsafe in his own assessment of a talented poet rival. Chapman was seen as highly educated, while, as Ben Jonson notes, Shakespeare had little Latin and even less Greek (had small Latin and less Greeke .)

Christopher Marlowe

Marlowe , who was of the same age as Shakespeare , was described as a brilliant poet and playwright during his lifetime. His main poetic work Hero and Leander was considered by some experts to be unfinished at the time of his death.

More candidates

In addition to the above, other poets such as Samuel Daniel , Michael Drayton , Barnabe Barnes , and Gervase Markham were identified as potential poet rivals.

Several poets

In addition to attempts to identify individual authors, there is also the approach of accepting a group of poets as the target of criticism. The change in the address of the rival (s) between singular and plural in the sonnets was seen as an indication of this.

In Sonett 78 the “author” refers to other poets (who have gained inspiration from the Fair Youth), in Sonett 79 the author is only concerned about a rival (“he,” a potentially “ worthier pen ”). In sonnet 80 one recognizes a singular reference again, but in sonnet 82 the author again addresses several writers (225). In Sonnet 83 he refers to both your poets , which could indicate that the author is one poet and the rival is the other. According to MacD.P. Jackson appears to Sonnet 86 to be the most significant and detailed of the group in terms of characterizing a “specific” poet rival. (" Was it his spirit, taught to write by spirits ")

literature

  • A. Bach: A Companion to Shakespeare's Sonnets. London, Blackwell, 2006.
  • J. Bate: The Genius of Shakespeare. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  • FE Halliday : A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.
  • K. Muir: Shakespeare's Sonnets. 1979; reprinted London, Routledge, 2005.
  • JD Wilson: Shakespeare's Sonnets: An Introduction for Scholars and Others. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press , 1963.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ R. Levin, Another Possible Clue To the Identity of The Rival Poet, Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 36, 1985
  2. ^ A. Acheson: Shakespeare and the Rival Poet , John Lane, The Bodley head, London and New York, 1903
  3. ^ Halliday, pp. 52, 127, 141-2, 303, 463
  4. ↑ MacD. P. Jackson, Francis Meres and the Cultural Contexts of Shakespeare's Rival Poet Sonnets, The Review of English Studies 2005, 56 (224): 224-246