Shakespeare’s plays have always inspired debate. How could someone write so prolifically and remain incomparable? There have even been theories stating that Shakespeare was not one but several persons, but now a plagiarism software has caught the writer in the act of copycat. Although he has not been accused of plagiarism per say, more of influence, references that Shakespeare has made based on George North’s A Brief Discourse of Rebellion and Rebels have caused scholars of the Bard of Avon to sit up and take notice. Read more here: Plagiarism Software Unveils a New Source for 11 of Shakespeare’s Plays by Michael Blanding.
Coffee or tea? A harmless choice of beverage, but British food historian Pen Vogler reads a lot into such choices. I read about her new book where she talks about the author Charles Dickens and Victorian food. Food and the lack of it play an important role in Dickens’s books. The author observes how Dickens uses food to outline some basic generalizations such as tea drinkers are on the whole less villainous than coffee-drinkers. One of the villainous mothers he has created, Ms Jellby is a philanthropic coffee-drinking mother who ignores her own children. There are many other villainous coffee drinkers including the Marquis in The Tale of Two Cities and Harold Skimpole in Bleak House. Read this delightful story by Nina Martyris: Coffee Or Tea: In Dickens’ World, It Might Be A Choice Between Good And Evil.