HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2006-03-23, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006. PAGE 5.
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He cloth bestride the world like a colossus
ry this on for size: ALL'S WELL Try ENDS WELL by H. Neville
Nah.
How about THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
by Hank Neville? Would you buy KING
LEAR, by Sir Henry Neville?
Nope - doesn't sing.
It is, however, the latest half-baked premise
in a series of unlikely theories and
preposterous propositions, all seeking to
discredit the legacy of William. Shakespeare.
There is an entire lit-crit genre, manned by a
tireless sub-category of academic drones
dedicated to the belief that the writer .who
gave us 38 plays and uncountable sonnets
and poems could not possibly have been
the man history identifies as William
Shakespeare. .
How could, these Bard-knockers argue, a
simple, homespun son of a failed wool
merchant from hicksville Stratford Upon
Avon; how could this...rube who never went
beyond grammar school and couldn't even
spell his own name the same way twice - how
could such a bumpkin possibly write so
knowledgeably and luminously about love and
war and death and royalty and warfare and
psychology and politics in places as far flung
as Rome and Edinburgh, Ellsinore and
Athens?
No, they say. Clearly the author was
someone infinitely more illustrious. Sir
Francis Bacon,' perhaps. Or the poet
Christopher Marlowe. Or the
scholar/philosopher Edward de Vere.
Or, more lately, Sir Henry Neville.
B ob Rae is calling on New Democrats
and Liberals to unite to take on
Stephen Harper, but he would have
more chance of reuniting Richard Burton and
Elizabeth Taylor.
The former NDP premier said he worries
what policies the Conservative prime minister
will have if he wins a majority, but
progressive-thinking- voters will have an
opportunity to combine and defeat him.
Calls for the NDP and Liberals to join have
been raised in Ontario for half a century,
mainly because the Conservatives have clung
to power the vast part of that time while the
two other parties split most of the votes
between them.
Liberal, leader John Wintermeyer met NDP
MPPs in 1963 and urged them to join forces
after he lost an election, but was turned down
by the NDP hierarchy.
NDP MPP George Samis later urged his
party almost annually to join with the Liberals
as the only way to get rid of the durable
Conservatives.
A Liberal leader, Stuart Smith, said the idea
had merit, but would be opposed particularly
by his rural MPPs, who were notoriously right
wing and called "the Social Credit party in
disguise" by the NDP.
Most New Democrats argued the Liberals
were more pro-business-and less supportive of
labour and the underprivileged. Co-operation
betWeen them would be an "unholy alliance."
iThe Liberals and New Democrats were
unable even to work together to bring down
Conservative governments when they were
reduced twice to minorities in 1975 and 1977.
Neither would do anything that could help
install the other party.
The NDP under Rae, and Liberals under
David Peterson finally agreed to co-operate in
1985, when. the Conservatives again fell to a
minority. The NDP guaranteed to put the
Liberals in government and support them for
two years on condition they introduced
Who he? An English courtier and distant
relative of Shakespeare who, his champions
reason, preferred to remain, anonymous and let
Shakespeare take the credit because he
"wanted a poor relation to have a hand up."
Yeah, that sounds reasonable. Next year I'm
going to pen a sequel to War and Peace, but
I'll say my penniless niece in North Battleford
wrote it.
Poor Shakespeare. All he did was bequeath
the planet with the greatest literary legacy in
the history of the English language. All his
detractors want to do is erase his name on the
title page.
Not fair. We owe him.
And not just for the immortal comedies and
tragedies, most of which the majority of us
have never read and never will. Shakespeare
didn't just transform English literature; he
sprinkled the very tongue we speak with pixie
dust. He touched us all at every level of
communication, written and oral, and still
does, each and every day.
Consider this sentence:
"The sanctimonious and unearthly arch-
villain bedazzled the vulnerable and
fashionable go-between with honey-tongued
specified programs.
But Liberal fresh faces after decades of Tory
governments proved appealing and Peterson
was quickly able to call an election and win a
majority.
The New Democrnts felt they got the worst
out of this short spell of co-operation. They
eventually were elected to government after
the Liberals imploded in 1990, but mainly
because voters were unwilling to bring back
the Tories they had kicked out only five years
earlier.
The Liberals under Dalton McGuinty later
obtained co-operation and votes from some
New Democrats by running an aggressive
campaign in which they claimed only their
party had a chance of defeating far right
Conservative premier Mike Harris, who
offended many by cutting government and
services, and votes for the NDP would be
wasted. This gave the NDP another reason to
fear getting tangled up with Liberals.
New Democrats in Ontario, who
automatically are members of both provincial
and federal parties, still find little affinity with
Liberals, consider them closer to
Conservatives and feel those two parties have
Final Thought
Time is the coin of life. Only you can
determine how it will be spent.
- Carl Sandburg
and lustrous embraces and dauntless nimble-
footed outbreaks of inauspicious pandering."
Every word in that (admittedly goofy)
sentence - excepting 'the', 'and' and 'of' -
sprang from the brain of the bumpkin from
Stratford-upon-Avon.
Despite the hyenas of academe nipping at
his heels, Will Shakespeare of Stratford
continues,, almost four centuries after his
death, to speak to - and for - all of us.
And he fascinates us still. This year alone,
four new books about the Bard will hit the
bookstores.
And this year - the 400th anniversary of the
writing of Macbeth - the Royal Shakespeare
Company in England intends to stage every
one of his 38 plays.
Will Sir Henry Neville even get a passing
credit in the Shakespeare sound alike contest?
Not likely.
Jonathan Bate, author of The Genius of
Shakespeare, says: "There's not a shred of
evidence to support the (Neville-as-
Shakespeare) argument; it's full of errors.
There's no reason to doubt that Shakespeare
wrote Shakespeare."
Ah, but why does he endure so? How does
he continue to, as he once wrote of Julius
Caesar, bestride the world like a colossus?
Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director of the
Globe Theatre said it best:
"He celebrated all the world, not just the
section he favoured. We keep going back to
him - now more than ever - because we know
that his spirit of inclusion, his love of
everything, is our last best hope."
more philosophical reasons to join.
New Democrats often say they prefer
Conservatives, who they feel promote policies
that favour the better-off but at least are frank
about it, while Liberals pose as concerned
about the weak in society, but do not help them
much when they have the opportunity.
New Democrats also recall ruefully when
they wound up with fewer seats than required
to be classed as a pail), and allocated support
services, the Liberal government had to be
pushed by public opinion to approve services
for them, while the Conservatives offered
them willingly.
Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton
complained a few days ago the Liberals permit
more children to live in poverty, while holding
$8,000-a-table dinners for party funds.
Hampton says, "the Liberals say the right
things in their speeches, but don't mean any of
them and hardly ever do them. The
Conservatives tell you what they will do and
do it, but the Liberals criticize everything the
Conservatives do and do exactly the same
when they have the chance."
Rae is optimistic if he believes these
differences of philosophy can he bridged
easily and the two parties will embrace each
other with open arms.
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Just call me Chip
/
t 's a bit like being a chipmunk really, a
state of mind or an existence that begins
about the same time every year.
The summer leaves had long given up their
vivid green to autumn's brilliance, faded, then
taken their seasonal tumble. As sunlight
diminished, a tiresome dreariness was
beginning to weight the feet, but anticipation
of the festive season kept everyone scurrying
and gathering. With preparations to be
completed and food to be stocked little thought
could be given to an encroaching sleepiness.
There was too much to do, too much to look
forward to to pay heed to the changes in
energy levels. Instinct drove us on.
Christmas passed into a new year. Days were
short, nights long and cold. And as January
and February enclosed us, it seemed easier to
tuck away. Hearty foods sustained us, cozy
covers comforted us and dark evenings lulled
us. Energy was low, enthusiasm not exactly at
its peak. We, along with the chipmunks
hibernated.
Then March arrived, a hint of spring chased
away by more snow. A few sunny days
warmed us briefly before a blistering cold
wind blew in. Each time, the promise slowly
started to awaken us before Old Man Winter
re-asserted himself.
The winter months are tough for me. No
secret. But through education and
understanding I have found ways to get
through. Each year I become more determined
not to be defeated. I am, after all, not so self-
absorbed that I can't see in the big scheme of
things there are worse things to have to
struggle to survive than winter.
That said, however, personal trials are
relative. While a person can certainly
appreciate another's pain is worse than their
own, it doesn't take away what that person's
experiencing.
And what I, and many others are
experiencing is seasonal affective disorder. So
while I count my blessings every day, and I am
well aware they are abundant, it doesn't alter
the reality that there is a little cloud in my
world each winter, that seems to loom a little
darker before spring's awakening. It's actually
quite frustrating to see and recognize the
beauty and fortune that encompasses your life
and know the only hope to be enlivened by it
is essentially a calendar flip away.
While I can appreciate that the winter we
just came through was not all that bad, I am
desperately ready for spring. My need for sun,
for warmth, for an end to this unending
weariness, has reached the point of obsession.
Unfortunately, a rather uneasable one.
Spring, with all its good stuff, will get here
when it's ready, my obsession be darned. So I
acknowledge what I feel and do my best to
find responses to soothe it. I have planted
seeds and nurtured them as they've begun to
sprout next season's promise inside my horne.
I watch for every sign of new beginnings and
am eagerly keeping an eye out for my first
robin. I leaf through catalogues looking at
warm weather fashion and ideas to brighten
my wardrobe.
And I've even booked a cottage for my
summer holiday.
For sure, the promise of sunshine and long
days is just around the corner. So for the next.
few weeks I will, like the chipmunk, continue
my slow awakening, hiding when weather's
dicey, then frolicking forth to enjoy every day
that spring takes a trial run.
Uniting parties can be tough