Stratford Malt Trader's Work Comprehends History Of Western Civilization
Elizabeth Weir
Shakespeare's work, seen as a whole, comprehends what today would
be called a history of western civilization. Only in the light of
this history can Shakespeare's deepest intention--to be the poet-
philosopher of the English-speaking peoples, the teacher of its
citizens, statesmen, and legislators be comprehended.
-- Harry V. Jaffa
I wonder if Jaffa has read The Advancement of Learning.
Greg Reynolds
I doubt you have, Elizabeth.
You are our own modern personification of what
Sir Francis Bacon found to be ill in the world...
Elizabeth Weir practices the very distempers of learning
that Bacon so opposed. His remedies as presented in
Advancement of Learning would squelch, silence, and
deactivate Elizabeth Weir's offensive, wasteful posturings.
To wit:
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2. There be therefore chiefly three vanities in studies,
whereby learning hath been most traduced. For those things we
do esteem vain, which are either false or frivolous, those
which either have no truth or no use: and those persons we
esteem vain, which are either credulous or curious; and
curiosity is either in matter or words: so that in reason, as
well as in experience, there fall out to be these three
distempers, as I may term them, of learning: the first,
fantastical learning; the second, contentious learning; and the
last, delicate learning; vain imaginations, vain altercations,
and vain affectations; and with the last I will begin.
--Francis Bacon
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This is the system I will now forever use to sort Elizabeth Weir's distempers.
Bacon's categories are as follows and I've added explanations from the site
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/b/bacon.htm#Literary Works
>Fantasical Learning or vain imaginations
>
>By fantastical learning (ěvain imaginationsî) Bacon had in mind
>what we would today call pseudo-science: i.e., a collection of
>ideas that lack any real or substantial foundation, that are
>professed mainly by occultists and charlatans, that are carefully
>shielded from outside criticism, and that are offered largely to an
>audience of credulous true believers.
>In Baconís day such ěimaginative scienceî was familiar in the
>form of astrology, natural magic, and alchemy.
So, in criticizing much subject matter of the sonnets, Bacon
also rips a new one for Weir for her insubstantiable melange.
Examples are so abundant I needn't attach.
>Contentious Learning or vain altercations
>
>By contentious learning (ěvain altercationsî) Bacon was referring
>mainly to Aristotelian philosophy and theology and especially to
>the Scholastic tradition of logical hair-splitting and metaphysical
>quibbling. But the phrase applies to any intellectual endeavor in
>which the principal aim is not new knowledge or deeper
>understanding but endless debate cherished for its own sake.
This is why Weir considers usenet her forum.
She's plays a character in our playhouse.
Had she read Advancement of Learning she'd know it
conflicts with Shakespeare's intent.
>Delicate Learning or vain affectations
>
>Delicate learning (ěvain affectationsî) was Baconís label for the
>new humanism insofar as (in his view) it seemed concerned not
>with the actual recovery of ancient texts or the retrieval of past
>knowledge but merely with the revival of Ciceronian rhetorical
>embellishments and the reproduction of classical prose style.
>Such preoccupation with ěwords more than matter,î with
>ěchoiceness of phraseî and the ěsweet falling of clausesî-- in
>short, with style over substance -- seemed to Bacon (a careful
>stylist in his own right) the most seductive and decadent literary
>vice of his age.
Such as playwriting! And Sonnetwriting!
Wow, so not only does Bacon decry Shakespeare's art, he blasts
Weir's theatrics! What do you see in the guy, Elizabeth?
Greg Reynolds
bobgr...@nut-n-but.net
> Shakespeare's work, seen as a whole, comprehends what today would
> be called a history of western civilization. Only in the light of
> this history can Shakespeare's deepest intention--to be the poet-
> philosopher of the English-speaking peoples, the teacher of its
> citizens, statesmen, and legislators be comprehended.
> -- Harry V. Jaffa
>
>I wonder if Jaffa has read The Advancement of Learning.
Who the hell is this moronic bardolator? I never heard of him.
--Bob G.
Tom Veal
Harry V. Jaffa is a well-known and respected political scientist whose
metier is the dramatic overstatement. In context, the quotation is
undoubtedly less bardolotrous. I'm sure, BTW, that Dr. Jaffa has read
more of Bacon, with far more understanding, than any "Baconian".
Bob Grumman
Well, I can't think of a context that would make it sanely non-bardolotrous, but
we all say silly things at times, I guess. And we all want to make Shakespeare
most truly a hero in the field we see ourselves as heroes in, in Jaffa's case,
political science, it would seem. In my case, drama.
--Bob G.