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THREAD: In 1555, a young Thomas North traveled with a delegation to Rome to reconcile England with the Pope. In a new book, Dennis McCarthy and June Schlueter argue the trip inspired #Shakespeare’s 1611 play #TheWintersTale. (1/11) #NorthByShakespeare #WhoIsThomasNorth @4threvolt
On April 25, 1555, North visited a church outside #Mantua, Italy, filled with polychromatic wax statues. In #TheWintersTale, a statue of Queen Hermione, who has been dead for 16 years, famously comes back to life. In the margin of his journal, North wrote, “miracles.” (2/11)
In #TheWintersTale, the statue is said to have been made by Giulio Romano, the only Renaissance artist #Shakespeare mentions in his plays. Scholars have wondered how Shakespeare knew about Giulio, much less why he called him a sculptor, when he was best known as a painter. (3/11)
In the same church, however, Thomas North would have seen a sculpture made by Giulio Romano atop the tomb of writer Baldassare Castiglione. In #Mantua, North could have also seen Giulio’s tomb, with the inscription that he made “sculpted and painted bodies breathe.” (4/11)
That same evening, North’s delegation visited #PalazzoTe, home to Giulio’s greatest works, including the chamber of Cupid and Psyche, covered floor to ceiling in frescoes of pagan gods at a banquet. (5/11)
McCarthy and Schlueter argue the imagery from these frescoes inspired another scene in #TheWintersTale: a pagan sheep-shearing festival featuring many of the specific gods and goddesses Giulio includes in this work. (6/11)
They include Flora, a goddess of the seasons, who spreads flowers on the table. In #TheWintersTale, Hermione’s exiled daughter Perdita dresses up as Flora and also spreads flowers. Other gods in both works include Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, Proserpina, Dis, and satyrs. (7/11)
McCarthy and Schlueter argue North used the journal from his Rome delegation to write an early version of #TheWintersTale in the 1550s, and #Shakespeare then adapted it into his play more than 50 years later. (8/11)
There’s good reason why he'd write such a play, they say: it’s an allegory for the restoration of Catholicism, the aim of the delegation North was accompanying. Perdita, the lost princess, is the Queen Mary I, and her mother Hermione is Mary’s mother Katherine of Aragon. (9/11)
Of course, there is no evidence that such a play ever existed, much less that it was written by Thomas North, the translator of Plutarch’s Lives and other works. McCarthy and Schlueter argue it was lost with the bulk of plays from the Elizabethan era. (10/11)
In addition to McCarthy and Schlueter’s own book on Thomas North’s Rome delegation journal, I explore this claim and more of their research in my upcoming book, #NorthByShakespeare, due out March 30 from @HachetteBooks. #Shakespeare #obligatoryplug https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316493244 (11/11)
