Saturday, May 3, 2014

Thesis gems

I'm coming across all kinds of gems while traipsing through Civil War-era newspapers searching for Shakespeare.  Here are a few of today's greats:

From a review of Chapman, Dekker, Webster, Middleton, Marston, and others, 1863:

Chapman's worth is based on his "wonderful" translation of The Iliad, though his own dramatic work is dismissed out of hand thusly: "The best of his surviving plays, if the epithet 'best' can be applied where all is bad, are..."
Dekker is discussed for his authorship of a play with "a title too strong for ears polite" and his quarrel with Ben Jonson.
Webster gets this lovely sentence: "The 'Duchess of Malfy' and the 'White Devil' are powerful dramas, but are stuffed too full of horrors to suit the taste of a modern audience."
Middleton: "His name would hardly have been kept alive by his dramatic performances, although they were twenty in number, but for a single circumstance...The conclusion, taking into account the relative powers of the two authors, is irresistible that he filched from Shakespeare, not the other way round." (Regarding Macbeth.)
Marston: "He was a rough and vigorous satirist, and had the honor of seeing one of his satirical performances burned on account of its licentiousness."

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From 1863, directly below an advertisement for the last night of the "play in five acts, Jack Cade":

NOTICE: I forewarn all persons from harboring or entertaining my wife, MRS. HATTIE MILLER, as she has been seduced and eloped with a scoundrel by the name of William Alvin Lloyd, and I will not be responsible for any debts contracted by her.--SAM K. MILLER.

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From 1864, directly below an 
advertisement for the play "Trying a Shrew, or, The Day After the Wedding":

MATRIMONY.--Two young gentlemen, who are both good looking, intelligent, refined, and tried soldiers of Pickett's Division, are desirous of commencing a series of correspondence with any young ladies who may have a view to matrimony after the adjustment of existing troubles.  The ladies must possess similar qualifications.

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