Whose wit is dull, whose words are but a tool
To spread thy ignorance and petty spite,
And cast aspersions on a lady's plight.
Thou speakest of the Bard with reverence due,
Yet fail to see the point, which should be true:
That women of that time were oft denied
The chance to let their talents be espied.
Thou makest false comparisons, weak and vain,
Of siblings who in diff'rent spheres did reign.
'Tis not of footage or of dunks we speak,
But of the chances lost, the voices meek.
Thy words betray a mind that's closed and small,
That cannot see beyond its narrow wall.
Thou rail'st against the learned and the wise,
Yet 'tis thy own defects that meet our eyes.
So hold thy tongue, thou churlish, clownish knave,
And let the truth, once hidden, now be grave.
For Joan, though overshadowed by her kin,
Deserves to have her story writ therein.
The title is misleading. All 7 of shakespeare's siblings are documented and known. What was unknown was the religious faith of shakespeare's younger sister Joan. The article is about how libraries opening up digital archives makes life easier for researchers.
But this being 2024, of course, political gibberish has to be injected into everything.
> There are hundreds of thousands of words surviving from her brother, and until now none at all, of any description, from her.
Because her brother was Willaim Fucking Shakespeare. Shakespeare had 3 brothers - Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. How much of their words does the writer of the article know? Is the author really whining that we have much more surviving words from one of the greatest writers of the english language than from his sister?
The amount of idiocy from universities is remarkable. I'm all for discussing the problems of sexism that women and men of that era faced. But I've had enough of the bizarre and illogical arguments put forth by worthless politcal hacks. What's next? University of Bristols is going to cry about how we have more footage of lebron james dunking in the NBA than from his brother? Are they going to cry about how we have more movies from ron howard than from his less talented brother?
It's an article about how digital archived allowed researchers to discover that the 'J shakespeare' who pledged their allegiance to the pope was Joan Shakespeare ( sister ) not John Shakespeare ( father ). Heck, if it wasn't for william shakespeare, nobbody would have even cared.
Also, shakespeare isn't even the most documented person of his own era. It was Queen Elizabeth. Maybe the geniuses at the university might have heard of her. So sick of this nonsense. And what's worse is that the nonsense isn't even in good faith.