It's a little shorter of a podcast this week than in the previous few weeks, but no less awesome of material. This week I selected six sonnets by William Shakespeare to read in this week's podcast. Perhaps some of the more familiar of Shakespeare's sonnets, but always worth delving into again I should think.
I can't think of much more to say by way of introduction. The sonnets were originally published eight years before Shakespeare's death. One of the great mysteries of literature is his dedication of the book to "Mr. W.H." which has lead to centuries of scholarly speculation as to who that may have been. One of the more mundane and obvious speculations is William Herbert who bank-rolled the publication of the First Folio of Shakespeare's works. Although William Hart was Shakespeare's nephew. I think Bertrand Russell suggested that it was a misprint of Shakespeare's own initials (and, indeed, Elizabethan printers seem to have observed less consistent grammar, spelling, and letter use than we in our present enlightened age.) Oscar Wilde even wrote a short story about it, suggesting someone named Willie Hughes because of the recurring words "will" and "hues."
Be that as it may, as usual, you can listen to the podcast here:
Or, you can go download it through this link:
http://www.archive.org/details/ReadingTheClassicsWithPaulMathersPodcast10
Enjoy.
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