Heith wrote:
I seem to recall someone (Omoksha?) mentioning to me that Shakespeare and John Dee met, and there is some metaphysical influence in Shakespeare's work from mr. Dee.
RPSTOVAL wrote:
Shakespeare and Dee met? what?
I'll have to look into that!
This is speculative, so not a definitive view, and there is nothing in written record to prove it as fact. It is however a thought shared among some, and it is one that I like to consider as at least possible, even if just amorously.
But practically speaking, it isn't as outrageous as it at first seems. A young Shakespeare would have been alive at the same time as an older Dee, both (at times) in Elizabethan England. And Dee, at one time at least, had the largest and most renowned library in Europe, which was located at his home in Mortlake and would have still been in tact when Shakespeare first went to London (I think).
Vincent Bridges has said and written some interesting things regarding this, and is worth reading/listening to if this musing is of interest.
But whether they met or not, I certainly view a metaphysical, and particularly an alchemical thread from Dee in some of Shakespeare's work. Particularly in The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Shakespeare's understanding of the motivations, tragedies, workings, sufferings, musings and mechanics (etc) of man are, to me at least, pretty much unsurpassed. And there are endless alchemical and spiritual threads to the workings of man within his work, as well as of course the more visceral and 'human' conditions that are perhaps more obvious.
And he expressed this huge depth of understanding and intuition within some of the most stunning poetry and drama ever written.
I admit my subjective bias here : p