Over on facebook, Colin Burrow comments: "Shakespeare certainly knew Ariosto and if he could afford Plutarch he could probably afford Harington's Ariosto. Field published Venus and Adonis as well as Ariosto so he was in a good position to negotiate a discount."
Re: Bermuda, Rudyard Kipling improved on Edmond Malone's suggestion about Strachey by arguing that Shakespeare might have heard about the shipwreck orally, from a surviving member of the crew. Pure speculation, but persuasively argued (in a 'letter to the editor' of 1898):
See also Kipling's much later poem The Coiner, which dramatises the meeting and has Shakespeare reply to the (by now drunken) sailor to the effect of "you think you've told me a tall story, but you wait till I've finished with it".
Certainly possible. It's pretty certain that Shakespeare knew Strachey, and he certainly knew *of* him: Strachey was a shareholder (one sixth) in Blackfriars Theatre, and involved in the London dramatic scene: he was a friend of Ben Jonson, and wrote a dedicatory sonnet for Jonson's "Sejanus", a play in which Shakespeare himself acted. Sh. might have heard all about the wreck from Strachey's own mouth, although there are issues with the dating on this: Sea Venture sank in 1609, Sh likely wrote "The Tempest" in 1610, and Strachey doesn't come back to England from the New World until late in 1611. None of the sailors involved in the wreck are likely to have come home before then: the survivors spent 10 months in Bermuda, building boats out of the wreck and local timber, and then sailed to Jamestown. It's possible Sh. wrote "Tempest" later than 1610 (the play was not entered into the Stationers' Register until November 1623, long after Sh.'s death) but as I understand it most scholars suggest 1610 is the most likely date.
Shakespeare was a rich man who could afford such a book. Also, I have read somewhere that booksellers had a market at St. Paul's Cathedral, and people were allowed to browse and read as much as they wanted.
Over on facebook, Colin Burrow comments: "Shakespeare certainly knew Ariosto and if he could afford Plutarch he could probably afford Harington's Ariosto. Field published Venus and Adonis as well as Ariosto so he was in a good position to negotiate a discount."
That's certainly an odd combination of images.
Re: Bermuda, Rudyard Kipling improved on Edmond Malone's suggestion about Strachey by arguing that Shakespeare might have heard about the shipwreck orally, from a surviving member of the crew. Pure speculation, but persuasively argued (in a 'letter to the editor' of 1898):
https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/journalism/how-shakespeare-came-to-write-the-tempest/htm
See also Kipling's much later poem The Coiner, which dramatises the meeting and has Shakespeare reply to the (by now drunken) sailor to the effect of "you think you've told me a tall story, but you wait till I've finished with it".
https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_coiner.htm
Certainly possible. It's pretty certain that Shakespeare knew Strachey, and he certainly knew *of* him: Strachey was a shareholder (one sixth) in Blackfriars Theatre, and involved in the London dramatic scene: he was a friend of Ben Jonson, and wrote a dedicatory sonnet for Jonson's "Sejanus", a play in which Shakespeare himself acted. Sh. might have heard all about the wreck from Strachey's own mouth, although there are issues with the dating on this: Sea Venture sank in 1609, Sh likely wrote "The Tempest" in 1610, and Strachey doesn't come back to England from the New World until late in 1611. None of the sailors involved in the wreck are likely to have come home before then: the survivors spent 10 months in Bermuda, building boats out of the wreck and local timber, and then sailed to Jamestown. It's possible Sh. wrote "Tempest" later than 1610 (the play was not entered into the Stationers' Register until November 1623, long after Sh.'s death) but as I understand it most scholars suggest 1610 is the most likely date.
I hadn't seen that Kipling poem before: very good.
Shakespeare was a rich man who could afford such a book. Also, I have read somewhere that booksellers had a market at St. Paul's Cathedral, and people were allowed to browse and read as much as they wanted.