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Tag Archives: Shakespeare
Hamnet and Tutankhamun
Shakespeare’s life is a great mystery but we do know that he had a son, Hamnet, who died at the age 11, possibly from the plague. Four years after his son’s death, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, maybe his greatest masterpiece. In … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged afterlife, ancient Egypt, archetypes, art, burial, death, fiction, grave, Hamnet, Howard Carter, literature, Maggie O'Farrell, mask, Osiris, Shakespeare, symbolism, symbols, tomb, truth, Tutankhamun, Tutankhamun's mask
4 Comments
On the Permeability of Borders
Although scholars differ in their estimation of the number of words and phrases that Shakespeare introduced into English, they all agree that he transformed the language tremendously. He referred to himself as “a man on fire for new words.” As … Continue reading
Shakespeare and Goethe on Love: from Despair to Hope
“She had a wildness in her eyes and into it I plunged.” Goethe, “Sorrows of Young Werther” In January 1778 Christel von Lassberg drowned herself in the river Ilm, the reason most probably being unrequited love. A copy of Goethe’s … Continue reading
Posted in love, Uncategorized
Tagged bear, freezing, Goethe, hibernation, literature, love, passion, rebirth, regeneration, Romanticism, Shakespeare, spring, suffering, symbolism, symbols, trauma, Werther, Werther effect, winter, Winter's Tale
10 Comments
The Wild Abandon of the Vine Month
1.“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk roses and with eglantine. There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lulled in these flowers with … Continue reading
Posted in Summer, The Vine
Tagged blood, Celtic calendar, Christ, communion, Dionysus, fairies, Maenads, Midsummer Night's Dream, sacrifice, Shakespeare, symbolism, symbols, vine, vine month, vineard, wine
12 Comments
If Love Be Blind, It Best Agrees with Night
Edmund Dulac, “Night, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” Act III, scene II of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet begins with a breathtaking monologue of Juliet in which she beckons the night to come faster so that she can start her “amorous … Continue reading
Posted in The Night
Tagged alchemy, archetypes, Christmas, darkness, goddess, Hymns to the Night, Modranect, night, Novalis, Nut, Nyx, paganism, Rilke, Shakespeare, symbolism, symbols, winter solstice
32 Comments
The Knight’s Feet in Soft Slippers
Keanu Reeves, seems perfect to have played Hamlet Hamlet is such a famous and celebrated play that it was dubbed a ‘collection of quotes.’ Who has not heard: “This above all: to thine own self be true,” or “There is … Continue reading
Posted in Hamlet
Tagged art, forgiveness, Fortinbras, Hamlet, Kenneth Chan, literature, mysticism, Pisces, poetry, Shakespeare, spirituality, symbolism, theatre, violence, Zbigniew Herbert
20 Comments
Images of the Zodiac: Contemplating Taurus
Posted in Johfra Bosschart
Tagged archetypes, art, Buddha, Freud, Johfra Bosschart, Krishnamurti, libido, Mars, myth, mythology, psychoanalysis, Shakespeare, spirituality, spring, symbolism, symbols, Taurus, The Tempest, Venus, Zodiac
48 Comments