Content-Type: message/rfc822 Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2006 13:06:38 -0400 From: "Stan Kelly-Bootle" To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Otto Rank on disputed authorship Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="=__PartFBDF818E.1__=" --=__PartFBDF818E.1__= Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="=__PartFBDF818E.2__=" --=__PartFBDF818E.2__= Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Windows-1254 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 12/10/06 19:49, "Stephen Blackwell" wrote: > I was just looking back over some sections of Otto Rank's Art and Artist = (in > English; Knopf, 1932), a book filled with fascinating consonances and > dissonances vis-a-vis Nabokov, and stumbled upon a passage that I think = gives > a potent context for the present discussion: >=20 > ". . .it can hardly be chance that the greatest creations of the = human > spirit, such as the New Testament, the Homeric poems, and Shakspere's = [sic] > plays, should, on the one hand, have been centres of academic disputes = as to > authorship and, on the other, should have inspired the imagination of = whole > centuries in favour of one author" (382). >=20 >=20 > It is probably also worth bearing in mind that Timon of Athens is, or at = least > at one time was, one of the plays considered even by non-Baconians (i.e. > Stratfordians) > to be of disputed, or perhaps mixed, authorship. I don't have time to = chase > references on that one, sorry. Any annotated edition should have the = details. > And maybe Sam Schuman can chime in with more details? >=20 > Stephen Blackwell >=20 >=20 > SB: >=20 > Your [sic] (assuming it is yours?) tut-tagging Shakespe[a]re=B9s = spelling is > rather odd in the context of verifying =8Cauthorship!=B9 Contemporary = documents > show dozens of variations with Bill the Quill himself (herself?!) = signing > his/her name differently on diverse legal documents. >=20 Otto Rank=B9s three examples are slightly bizarre in being spread = across quite different ages/cultures during which the whole notion of =8Cauthorshi= p=B9 has radically changed. (i) =B3Homer=B9s=B2 ballads (only TWO survive) were orally transmitted for = at least three centuries before writing was available. (ii) The 27 books of the NT have never seriously been ascribed to a single physical author (e.g., Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul are distinct persons &/or pseudonyms) =8B even the oft-presumed unity via holy = inspiration must face the Synoptic and other =8Cdiscrepancy=B9 Problems. Otto may be thinking of the Pauline Epistles, over which much ink-blood has been shed debating which letters were truly dictated by Paul. (iii) Discounting the mad Baconian/Oxfordian/et al delusions, there do remain several real problems over which plays are 100% by Shaksper [sic] = and which have signs of collaboration. The latter was commonplace in the hurly-burly of Elizabethan drama and we should not impose more modern concepts of =8Cjealously-guarded authorship.=B9 Indeed, many of the texts = we now read =8Ccanonically=B9 were cobbled together from scribbled actors=B9 = prompts. =B3To be or not to be =8B aye there=B9s the point!=B2 That happens to be a = genuine extant version of the famous soliloquy =8B which d=B9you prefer? Re-reading VN the American Years (belated-by-15-years homage to Brian = Boyd) prompts me to ask whether the unfinished Original Laura was or could (should?) be meaningfully =8Ccobbled=B9 from any surviving notes? Stan Kelly-Bootle=20 Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm --=__PartFBDF818E.2__= Content-Type: text/html; charset=Windows-1254 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Description: HTML Re: [NABOKV-L] Otto Rank on disputed authorship On 12/10/06 19:49, "Stephen Blackwell" = <sblackwe@UTK.EDU> wrote:

I was just looking back over = some sections of Otto Rank's Art and Artist (in English; Knopf, = 1932), a book filled with fascinating consonances and dissonances = vis-a-vis Nabokov, and stumbled upon a passage that I think gives a = potent context for the present discussion:

    ". . .it can hardly be chance that the = greatest creations of the human spirit, such as the New Testament, the = Homeric poems, and Shakspere's [sic] plays, should, on the one hand, have = been centres of academic disputes as to authorship and, on the other, = should have inspired the imagination of whole centuries in favour of one = author" (382).


It is probably also worth bearing in mind that Timon of Athens is, = or at least at one time was, one of the plays considered even by non-Baconi= ans (i.e. Stratfordians)
to be of disputed, or perhaps mixed, authorship.  I don't have time = to chase references on that one, sorry.  Any annotated edition should = have the details.  And maybe Sam Schuman can chime in with more = details?

Stephen Blackwell


SB:

Your [sic] (assuming it is yours?) tut-tagging Shakespe[a]re’s = spelling is rather odd in the context of verifying ‘authorship!’= ; Contemporary documents show dozens of variations with Bill the Quill = himself (herself?!) signing his/her name differently on diverse legal documents.

     O= tto Rank’s three examples are slightly bizarre in being spread = across quite different ages/cultures during which the whole notion of = ‘authorship’ has radically changed.

(i) “Homer’s” ballads (only TWO survive) were orally = transmitted for at least three centuries before writing was available. =

(ii) The 27 books of the NT have never seriously been ascribed to a single = physical author (e.g., Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul are distinct = persons &/or pseudonyms) — even the oft-presumed unity via holy = inspiration must face the Synoptic and other ‘discrepancy’ = Problems. Otto may be thinking of the Pauline Epistles, over which much = ink-blood has been shed debating which letters were truly dictated by = Paul.

(iii) Discounting the mad Baconian/Oxfordian/et al delusions, there do = remain several real problems over which plays are 100% by Shaksper [sic] = and which have signs of collaboration. The latter was commonplace in the = hurly-burly of Elizabethan drama and we should not impose more modern = concepts of ‘jealously-guarded authorship.’ Indeed, many of = the texts we now read ‘canonically’ were cobbled together from = scribbled actors’ prompts. “To be or not to be — aye = there’s the point!” That happens to be a genuine extant = version of the famous soliloquy — which d’you prefer?

Re-reading VN the American Years (belated-by-15-years homage to Brian = Boyd) prompts me to ask whether the unfinished Original Laura was or could = (should?) be meaningfully ‘cobbled’ from any surviving = notes?

Stan Kelly-Bootle

Se= arch the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB

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