Facts – Page 5 – Interesting Literature

Five Fascinating Facts about Gallus

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

1. The poetry of Gallus inspired a whole raft of famous Roman poets, but none of his work survives.

Author of the Metamorphoses, Ovid (pictured below right), praised Gallus alongside the Greek writers Homer and Sophocles (the author of the classic play Oedipus the King), and the celebrated Roman author Virgil. Virgil himself includes Gallus in two of his pastoral poems known as the Eclogues. Indeed, the tenth Eclogue is dedicated to Gallus. Propertius called him one of Rome’s first great love poets. Yet none of Gallus’ work survived antiquity.

Five Fascinating Facts about John Bunyan

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

1. He was nearly shot in the head while on guard duty one night – but fortunately, another soldier had taken his place.

This narrow brush with death helped to convince John Bunyan (1628-88) that he was one of the ‘Elect’ – the chosen few – and to start spreading the word. He most famously did this in The Pilgrim’s Progress, which brings us on to our second John Bunyan fact …

Five Fascinating Facts about Shakespeare’s The Tempest

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

1. Shakespeare is thought to have based his play The Tempest on a real-life shipwreck.

William Strachey’s A True Reportory of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight, an account of his experience during the wreck of the ship Sea Venture on the island of Bermuda, was written in 1609, and many scholars believe that the Bard read this account and used it as inspiration for The Tempest.

Five Fascinating Facts about Othello

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

1. Othello has given us some very famous phrases.

Whether we’re describing jealousy as ‘the green-eyed monster’, talking of sexual intercourse as ‘the beast with two backs’, or wearing our heart on our sleeve, we’re quoting Shakespeare’s Othello when we do so.

2. Quite where the name ‘Othello’ came from remains something of a mystery.

Probably derived from the name Otho, the name Othello doesn’t appear in Shakespeare’s source for the play, the short story ‘Un Capitano Moro’ (‘A Moorish Captain’, i.e. Othello; indeed, Desdemona is the only named character in the source text; every other character is referred to by his rank). ‘Othello’ was, then – like, it has been suggested, the name Imogen – a Shakespearean coinage.

Five Fascinating Facts about The Merchant of Venice

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

1. Contrary to popular belief, the ‘merchant of Venice’ in the title of Shakespeare’s play isn’t Shylock.

In the popular consciousness – i.e. among those who are aware that Shakespeare’s play contains a character named Shylock but who haven’t read or seen the play – Shylock is the merchant of Venice referred to in Shakespeare’s title. But of course the merchant is really Antonio, and Shylock the Jewish man who makes him a loan; as the scholar Stephen Greenblatt has observed, this popular misunderstanding says a great deal about how Shylock comes to dominate the play in which he appears, eclipsing all other characters.