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/lit/ - Literature

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23228295 No.23228295 [Reply] [Original]

Shakespeare was obviously the greatest writer of the English language but is he great because of some otherworldly, divinely inspired relationship he had with the English language that was totally unique to him or because English in comparison to other languages has quite a poor literary tradition? Do other countries simply lack a figure who displays a mastery of their language on par with Shakespeare or do they in fact have multiple artists who possess a similar skill and therefore veneration is not concentrated on one figure?

>> No.23228298

>>23228295
Shakespeare wrote for an audience of unmarriageable lawyers who could fuck whores all they want. Later he was revived as arse plays ("Restoration Shakespeare."). Later the romantics basically lionised him.

Only one of his plays is any good. Titus.

>> No.23228301

>>23228295
Both, they have multiple great figures because they have no one of Shakespeare's quality

>> No.23228316

>>23228295
Shakespeare's mastery of the English language is not unique among English poets, what is unique is his genius and influence. Dante is the Italian equivalent, determining the entire language of Italy and being unrivalled in his genius to this day. But genius goes beyond mere linguistic mastery.

>> No.23228362

>>23228298
You should develop your argument more because it reads like bait. Why do you consider Titus to be his greatest play?

>>23228316
Which other English poets do you consider an equal to Shakespeare? Moreover, don’t you think him having a far greater influence is indicative of him possessing some level of skill unparalleled in the English literary tradition? Also, I do not think Dante is an apt comparison because it is not considered almost heretical to suggest Dante isn’t the greatest Italian writer in the same way it would be for Shakespeare.

>> No.23228367

>still thinking shakespeare wrote shakespeare

>> No.23228373

>>23228362
>Which other English poets do you consider an equal to Shakespeare?
As far as mastery of the English language is concerned, Chaucer, Spenser, Donne, Pound, etc. But this has nothing to do with the genius of how one uses the English language.

>> No.23228377

>>23228295
Same reason the KJV Bible sounds like "the best" English, even though people at the time in the early 1600s didn't like it and still preferred the 1560 Geneva Bible, which remained easier to understand in most passages. It came just as English began being "standardized" and circumstances led to English being "standardized" around things like Shakespeare and the KJV Bible. They are "good English" because "good English" itself was determined by them.

>> No.23228455

>>23228377
Imagine not being able to identify the virtues of English which it shares with other languages.

>> No.23228462

>>23228455
You mean all the Latinate words English got from the KJV borrowing from the Douay-Rheims borrowing from the Vulgate?

>> No.23228526

>>23228462
It's about style, not the words themselves, stupid.

>> No.23229581

The controversy regarding the true author of Shakespeare's plays comes from the fact that he was a glib popularizer of then-current thoughts and phrases.

>> No.23229722

>>23228362
>You should develop your argument more because it reads like
a test to see whether readers have done basic history / history of reception of Shakespeare
>Titus
case in point. If you don't have an opinion on Titus…

whc 2hu wdl u fugq?

>> No.23229767

>>23228298
>>23228367
>>23228377
>>23229581
You're ants raging at a giant. You are soulless bugman who purpose to prop yourselves up by tearing down the greatest writer who ever lived. You are no different than BLM niggers tearing down statues of rayciss wy men. You will never be loved. You will never be human. You will never be poets. Shakespeare will ALWAYS be the greatest no matter what your ilk says.

>> No.23229778

>>23228295
Noone has ever surpassed shakespeare in the english language and that's saying a lot.

>> No.23229867

Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, is better than Shakespeare

>> No.23230156

>>23228373
You literally wrote “what is unique is his genius and influence”