Another reason to be familiar with the canonical works in a culture is precisely because they’re canonical. It’s like a common currency. By now, English-speaking culture is so rooted in Shakespeare that you’d be missing out if you didn’t recognize the references.
Any idiot knows by Act II what will happen.
We do now! But apparently, the original Elizabethan audiences went in expecting a happy ending—and were shocked when it turned out to be a tragedy. Tricky fellow, that Willy S.
Another reason to be familiar with the canonical works in a culture is precisely because they’re canonical. It’s like a common currency. By now, English-speaking culture is so rooted in Shakespeare that you’d be missing out if you didn’t recognize the references.
Yes. Same reason some familiarity with the King James Version of the Bible is culturally useful.
I didn’t mean they would know how it would end—I meant they would know that Lear used shallow indicators to judge character, and Cordelia would turn out to be the faithful daughter.
It looks like audiences since before Shakespeare’s time would have gone in knowing the outline of the story. But I’m mostly replying to confess—the same Wikipedia article that I myself quoted makes it clear that there was no really happy ending to King Lear until 1681. I wasn’t paying close enough attention.
Another reason to be familiar with the canonical works in a culture is precisely because they’re canonical. It’s like a common currency. By now, English-speaking culture is so rooted in Shakespeare that you’d be missing out if you didn’t recognize the references.
We do now! But apparently, the original Elizabethan audiences went in expecting a happy ending—and were shocked when it turned out to be a tragedy. Tricky fellow, that Willy S.
Yes. Same reason some familiarity with the King James Version of the Bible is culturally useful.
cf Richard Dawkins on his lifelong love of the King James Bible
I didn’t mean they would know how it would end—I meant they would know that Lear used shallow indicators to judge character, and Cordelia would turn out to be the faithful daughter.
It looks like audiences since before Shakespeare’s time would have gone in knowing the outline of the story. But I’m mostly replying to confess—the same Wikipedia article that I myself quoted makes it clear that there was no really happy ending to King Lear until 1681. I wasn’t paying close enough attention.