She was named after Elizabeth I; according to pamphleteer John Reynolds, ‘She inherited the name and virtues, the majesty and generosity of our immortal queen Elizabeth.’ -- is there a sense in which Shax is ardently pushing the fertility myth in contrast to Queen Elizabeth's barrenness. Odd historical trick of the fact that she ends up being known as the 'Winter Queen' because of her short reign (although n.b. that this isn't the first performance)

literally v. Cleopatra's ascension to the monument

like the sensuousness of Cleopatra's language of death! in both the sensuality can push us to believe in an inversion (Cleopatra: death = desirable, she is constant, Rome and Egypt's confusion) (WT: life imitates art, dead = alive)

who gets to decide whether or not this is relevant?? hard to entirely discount the context of the story -- surely some of the audience would have known this instinctively

must necessarily recall Perdita's disdain for 'art'. is a simulacrum, an aping, something we want??

virtuoso demonstration of art's power over time -- and thus in a sense memorial power

memory and interiority tightly bound -- central section seems to forget about the tragedies of the first couple of acts, only for it to hit us again in full swing in act 4

VERY similar period to Barthes

key element here of desire

idea of an encounter with the body suggests an a priori separation of body and (mind? spirit?). also think about Knight's point that an encounter in Barthes is almost always sexual -- almost a sexual encounter with onseself

which itself suggests the almost mystical, magical status of the body

to what extent is this a utopian ideal?

explains the repetitive nature of Sade's writing -- using the same basic units (postures + operations) in a variety of different contexts, but at the end of the day still speakign in the same (fairly limited) language

in a way doesn't everyone do this to some extent?

almost Empedoclean

but this seems like almost the opposite thesis to the death of the author?

relevance for English paper VI?

might be interesting to look at this, to see what differentiates him from the parody (and what's similar!)

and i think this is evident when reading it!

sounds interesting??

source of his fame is in conflict with the old school

returns to the idea of the pleasure of reading ? idiosyncrasy of both reader and writer