Shakespeare/Richard III help

Kind of off topic, but in school there's a research contest going on. We have
to write a research paper on someone who borrowed ideas from other sources to
create something of their own. At first I thought of doing how Thomas More
used the idea of Plato's Republic to write Utopia, but now I'm thinking of
Shakespeare, particularly how he used various sources to write Richard III
and how his play has had an affect on modern day adaptations. If anyone could
help me with this (or has a better suggestion than Richard III), please
e-mail me privately. Thanks!

-Victoria
"Crying is the refuge of plain women, but the ruin of pretty ones."-Oscar
Wilde

At 03:34 PM 1/21/03 EST, you wrote:
>Kind of off topic, but in school there's a research contest going on. We
have
>to write a research paper on someone who borrowed ideas from other sources
to
>create something of their own. At first I thought of doing how Thomas More
>used the idea of Plato's Republic to write Utopia, but now I'm thinking of
>Shakespeare, particularly how he used various sources to write Richard III
>and how his play has had an affect on modern day adaptations. If anyone
could
>help me with this (or has a better suggestion than Richard III), please
>e-mail me privately. Thanks!
>

I hope you don't mind thaat I'm answering publicly. There are two good
articles on Thomas More on our website. One is by his biographer, the late
Richard Marius, and the other is by former Society chair, the late Jeremy
Potter. (We are the poorer for the loss of these two fine scholars). There
are also several essays on Shakespeare's sources on the site -- rummage
around in the "library" section and you should be able to find them.

One of the writers on More makes the point that More may have been modeling
his history on the works of an earlier writer -- Tacitus? I'm sorry to say
that I forget. But you should be able to find a nice string of borrowings
-- More borrowed...Hall borrowed from More...Holinshed borrowed from
Hall...Shakespeare borrowed from Holinshed...and Colley Cibber freely
adapted Shakespeare to make Richard even more evil (and give himself more
lines). You could really go to town on this.

--
Laura Blanchard
lblancha@... (Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special
Collections Libraries
lblanchard@... (all other mail)
Home office: 215-985-1445 voice, -1446 fax
http://pobox.upenn.edu/~lblancha

ok thank you! This isn't due until May but I really have to start it now
since I'm quite the procrastinator LOL.

-Victoria
"Crying is the refuge of plain women, but the ruin of pretty ones."-Oscar
Wilde

Shakespeare's play was closely modelled on More's
account. You could compare the two. More's book is
at the r3.org web site library. Should be stuff on
how Shakespeare based his account on More, too.

Now you've got me completely confused on how to spell
him, I thought it was Moore!

Actually, there is controversy about whether More
actually wrote More's book on Richard III. One of the
English Historical Review articles, probably the 1889
one, that I have in PDF format in my yahoo briefcase,
goes into that and presents a good case. If you send
me your yahoo ID I can give you access to the folder
theya re in.

Dora



--- Laura Blanchard <lblanchard@...> wrote:
> At 03:34 PM 1/21/03 EST, you wrote:
> >Kind of off topic, but in school there's a research
> contest going on. We
> have
> >to write a research paper on someone who borrowed
> ideas from other sources
> to
> >create something of their own. At first I thought
> of doing how Thomas More
> >used the idea of Plato's Republic to write Utopia,
> but now I'm thinking of
> >Shakespeare, particularly how he used various
> sources to write Richard III
> >and how his play has had an affect on modern day
> adaptations. If anyone
> could
> >help me with this (or has a better suggestion than
> Richard III), please
> >e-mail me privately. Thanks!
> >
>
> I hope you don't mind thaat I'm answering publicly.
> There are two good
> articles on Thomas More on our website. One is by
> his biographer, the late
> Richard Marius, and the other is by former Society
> chair, the late Jeremy
> Potter. (We are the poorer for the loss of these two
> fine scholars). There
> are also several essays on Shakespeare's sources on
> the site -- rummage
> around in the "library" section and you should be
> able to find them.
>
> One of the writers on More makes the point that More
> may have been modeling
> his history on the works of an earlier writer --
> Tacitus? I'm sorry to say
> that I forget. But you should be able to find a nice
> string of borrowings
> -- More borrowed...Hall borrowed from
> More...Holinshed borrowed from
> Hall...Shakespeare borrowed from Holinshed...and
> Colley Cibber freely
> adapted Shakespeare to make Richard even more evil
> (and give himself more
> lines). You could really go to town on this.
>
> --
> Laura Blanchard
> lblancha@... (Philadelphia Area
> Consortium of Special
> Collections Libraries
> lblanchard@... (all other mail)
> Home office: 215-985-1445 voice, -1446 fax
> http://pobox.upenn.edu/~lblancha
>
>


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At 06:43 AM 1/22/03 -0800, you wrote:

>
>Actually, there is controversy about whether More
>actually wrote More's book on Richard III. One of the
>English Historical Review articles, probably the 1889
>one,

That woud be Sir Clements Markham, "Richard III -- A Doubtful Verdict
Reviewed," right? I don't think there's a shred of outside evidence to
support his notion that Morton actualy wrote More's history, and --
stylistically speaking -- More's fingerprints are all over that history. I
think it's far more likely that More wrote it for reasons of his own: to
imitate Roman history, to take potshots at current tyrannical practices by
attributing them to someone safely dead and disgraced, or for the simple
joy of taking his intellect out for a walk.

that I have in PDF format in my yahoo briefcase,
>goes into that and presents a good case. If you send
>me your yahoo ID I can give you access to the folder
>theya re in.
>

--
Laura Blanchard
lblancha@... (Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special
Collections Libraries
lblanchard@... (all other mail)
Home office: 215-985-1445 voice, -1446 fax
http://pobox.upenn.edu/~lblancha

Dora Smith22/01/2003 15:43tiggernut24@...

> Shakespeare based his account on More

Shakespeare actually based his "history" on Holinshed and Hall's Histories,
which were in the case of Richard, based on Polydore Vergil, and on;y
possibly More, whose account I'm not sure was known generally at the time
the Bard was writing.
Paul

At 12:15 AM 1/23/03 +0100, you wrote:
>Dora Smith22/01/2003 15:43tiggernut24@...
>
>> Shakespeare based his account on More
>
>Shakespeare actually based his "history" on Holinshed and Hall's Histories,
>which were in the case of Richard, based on Polydore Vergil, and on;y
>possibly More, whose account I'm not sure was known generally at the time
>the Bard was writing.

Actually, Dora is right. The beginning of Holinshed's "The Historie of King
Edward the Fift. and Kinig Richard the Third unfinished" bears the subtitle
"written by Maaister Thomas More then one of the vunder shiriffes of ondon
about the yeare of our Lord 1513, according to a copie of his owne hande,
printed among his other Works." Large chunks of the subsequent history are
verbatim More, with occasional marginal notes by Holinshed saying "This
that is heere bettween this marke (*) & this marke was not written by him
in English but is translated out of this historie which he wrote in Latine."

One gets a singularly up close and personal look at sources while preparing
them for the web...

--
Laura Blanchard
lblancha@... (Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special
Collections Libraries
lblanchard@... (all other mail)
Home office: 215-985-1445 voice, -1446 fax
http://pobox.upenn.edu/~lblancha

Laura Blanchard23/01/2003 3:19lblanchard@...

> Actually, Dora is right.
I've not been called Dora before. Well not in my hearing anyway!<g>
Paul