Dear Colleagues,
I write to see if you help with the following research question.
>>The query is as follows:
>>In an apparently unpublished paper of which I have the text, the claim is
>>made that playgoers to Shakespeare's plays sometimes brought their
>>quills, paper and ink-horns to performances so that they could wrote down
>>on the spot attractive phrases and other bon mots for their commonplace books.
>> I am skeptical of this on practical grounds--this is a lot to carry to
>> a playhouse--and I think the documentation is pretty vague. I don't
>> doubt that people did remember such phrases and write them down
>> afterwards, much as seems to have been done by, e.g., those who heard
>> Queen Elizabeth's speech at Tilbury. But has anyone found examples of a
>> playgoer of writing such things down while seeing the play, as opposed
>> to remembering it for later recording? I'd love to have some
>> evidence...or to be sure that there is none.
>> Many thanks!
>>
>>
>>Bob Tittler
