1601: And, Is Shakespeare Dead?, Volume 271601, or Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the time of the Tudors is a hilarious ribald send-up of Elizabethan England in which Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Sir Walter Raleigh, and other luminaries of the period are pictured sitting about the fireplace amusing one another with risqué tales. During a visit to West Point in 1881, Twain met Lieutenant Charles Erskine Scott Wood, adjutant to the commanding general. As Leslie Fiedler notes in his afterword, "he discovered not only that Wood, like him, was a freethinker, but that he had at his disposal a well-equipped printing plant." He asked Wood to publish the piece, and it is the West Point edition--complete with the Old English-style type Wood selected--that is printed here. If "in 1601 Twain both parodied and paid homage to Shakespeare's liberating bawdry," Erica Jong observes in her introduction, in "Is Shakespeare Dead? he tried to come to terms with his conflicting responses to Shakespeare as mentor and muse." Jong suggests that Twain's real concern in this book may well be his own "place in literary history." |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 7
Page 134
... Irreverence . The quality or condition of irreverence toward God and sacred things . What does the Hindu say ? He says it is correct . He says irreverence is lack of respect for Vishnu , and Brahma , and Chrishna 134 IS DEAD ? SHAKESPEARE.
... Irreverence . The quality or condition of irreverence toward God and sacred things . What does the Hindu say ? He says it is correct . He says irreverence is lack of respect for Vishnu , and Brahma , and Chrishna 134 IS DEAD ? SHAKESPEARE.
Page 136
... of the human race will have to be humbly reverent toward them or suffer for it . That can surely happen , and when it happens , the word Irreverence will be regarded as the most meaningless , and 136 IS DEAD ? SHAKESPEARE.
... of the human race will have to be humbly reverent toward them or suffer for it . That can surely happen , and when it happens , the word Irreverence will be regarded as the most meaningless , and 136 IS DEAD ? SHAKESPEARE.
Page 138
... irreverence . This is all unfortu- nate , because it makes it difficult for students equipped with only a low grade of mentality to find out what Irreverence really is . It will surely be much better all around if the privilege of ...
... irreverence . This is all unfortu- nate , because it makes it difficult for students equipped with only a low grade of mentality to find out what Irreverence really is . It will surely be much better all around if the privilege of ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
admiration Adventures of Huckleberry Afterword American edition artist attorney's office autobiography Baconian beeing Bobbie Ann Mason celebrated claim Claimants Clemens Connecticut Yankee copy court culture death dream Ealer Erica Jong essay fact fart fiction Francis Bacon freedom grace Hannibal happened hath Huck Huckleberry Finn Illustrated Introduction irreverence knowledge Lady lawyer learned literary literature lived Lord Penzance Mark Twain House Mark Twain Project matter mind Mississippi never novel obscene Oxford Mark Twain person Plays and Poems poet poetry pornography published Pudd'nhead Wilson readers Roy Blount Jr sacred Satan scatology scholars seems Shake Shakespeare Dead Shakespeare of Stratford Shaxpur Shelley Fisher Fishkin speare's story Strat Stratford Stratford Shakespeare Stratfordians surmise talk tell things tion Tom Sawyer Abroad trade village voice William Shakespeare word write wrote Ye Queene yeeres young