A simple example is a passage that many observers have long believed to contain a typographical error, the line of poetry in Sonnet 23 that goes: "More than that love which more hath more expressed. "On the surface, it does not make sense -- until Asquith realized it was a pun. "It should read, 'More than that love which More hath more expressed,' " she says -- a reference to Sir Thomas More, the chancellor and Catholic saint beheaded by Henry VIII for refusing to take the oath of supremacy recognizing the monarch and not the pope as head of the Church in England.

Similarly, she says, all of Shakespeare's characters existed on at least two levels, the dramatic and the allegorical....

The coded language was a vehicle that allowed him to comment on current events without risking the wrath of the authorities. Viewed through this prism, Romeo and Juliet becomes a commentary on the forbidden love between the 3rd Earl of Southampton and Elizabeth Vernon, one of the Queen's more impoverished ladies-in-waiting. King Lear becomes a symbol of James I, while his daughter Cordelia's refusal to make a public affirmation of unconditional love represents the refusal of Catholics to take the Oath of Supremacy.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 10:28 AM  |