The Times of London -- 20 April 2000
(London, April 20 2000)
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Shakespeare?
Il Bardo?
From Professor Emeritus G. H. McWilliam
Sir,
There is no new thing under the sun. Clearly the retired Sicilian teacher who claims that Shakespeare was born in Messina as Michelangelo Florio Crollalanza (report, "Shakes-peare? He's one of us, say Italians", April 8; letter, April 11) has denied himself the pleasure of reading my Shakespeare's Italy Revisited (1974) where I recorded the equally preposterous claim by one Paolo Vigaṇ over half a century ago that Shakespeare was born Guglielmo Crollalanza at Sondrio in Northern Italy.
In The Taming of the Shrew we find people "coming ashore" at Padua.
In Two Gentlemen of Verona Panthino warns Launce that he will lose the tide if he tarries any longer. Verona is situated too far above sea-level to be affected by any tide, and even if it weren't, the tide of the Adriatic, as Mario Praz once wryly remarked, is "far from conspicuous".
In The Tempest, Prospero describes to his daughter how they were put aboard a small boat at the gates of Milan and borne out to sea.
Yours sincerely,
HARRY McWILLIAM,
Lewins, Lewins Road,
Chalfont St Peter SL9 8SA.
harrymcwil@aol.com April 11.
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