Polonius, Apuleius, Will Kempe, & Hidden Lovers
My blog entry last week dealt with Polonius, Jephthah, William Cecil, the Elizabethan Bond of Association, and the theme of bad vows in the Biblical Jephthah tale. This week I continue exploring ideas related to the character of Polonius: possible connections to Apuleius, author of The Golden Ass , a rambling tale (what some in the U.S. might characterize as a "shaggy dog tale") containing many diversions, perhaps resembling the verbal style of the royal counselor. [Title page from John Price's Latin edition of Apuleius' novel "Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass" (Gouda, Netherlands, 1650). Public domain.] Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream especially shows familiarity with The Golden Ass , which is in part about a man changed into a donkey. [Lucius takes human form, in a 1345 illustration of the Metamorphoses (ms. Vat. Lat. 2194, Vatican Library). Public domain.] [ Edwin Landseer, Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream (1851), public...