The Bosphorus
Will Shaksper is stated to have died on the 23rd April, 1616. The same year George Sandys published Journey, in which, referring to the Pontic sea, he says: "This sea is ....much annoyed with ice in the winter. The Bosphorus setteth with a strong current into Propontis."
Is it a coincidence that in the play of "Othello" in the First Folio, we find almost the same words? They read:
"Like to the Pontic sea whose icy current
.....keeps due on to the Propontic?'
Othello 3.3.451
These words could not have been used by Will Shaksper, who had died shortly after Sandy's book was published. They do not appear in the play of "Othello," published in quarto in 1622. They first appeared in The First Folio of 1623. Is it also a coincidence that the two seas east and west of the Bosphorus are mentioned under similar names both by "Shakespeare" and Bacon? Shakespeare calling them "Pontic and Propontic," and Bacon in his treatise entitled "De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris," calling them "Pontus and Propontis?"
No comments:
Post a Comment