Irish Bards in Shakespeare's Richard III and As You Like it

Title variants

PL

Irlandzcy bardowie w Ryszardzie III i Jak wam się podoba Szekspira

Abstracts

EN

Shakespeare alludes twice to Irish bards. In Richard III, the king mentions a prophecy by one of his imminent death; in As You Like It, Rosalind jokes on how Irish bards can supposedly rhyme rats to death. Both refer to supposed bardic powers of seeing the future and of ritual cursing of enemies. A survey of the literature shows satire and prophecy as going back to ancient times. There is in addition ample material on the (sometimes deadly) eects of satire in medieval and later Ireland, where it is known from chronicles, legal tracts, handbooks of poetry, and various surviving poems. There are in addition comic tales on how bards exploited their power, including an eleventh-century one on King Guaire's Burdensome Company, wherein the poet SenchÆn rhymes to death certain mice that had spoiled an egg reserved for him. Shakespeare's references can thus be related to traditions well-known in Gaul and medieval (or early modern) Ireland and Scotland.

Keywords

EN

Shakespeare; Richard III; As You Like It; Ireland; Bards; Satire; Celts

PL

Szekspir; Ryszard III; Jak wam się podoba; Irlandia; bardowie; satyra; Celtowie

• Publisher: Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa w Chełmie
• Journal: Language. Culture. Politics. International Journal
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 1
• Pages: 129-136

Dates

published

2021

Contributors

other

Andrew Breeze

• University of Navarra, Pamplona (Spain)

• https://orcid.org/0000000334297191

Identifiers

DOI

10.54515/lcp.2021.1.129-136

Biblioteka Nauki

1854142