A Funeral Elegy – Shakespeare 2020 project

December 26, 2020December 22, 2020

The Phoenix and the Turtle and A Funeral Elegy: Video Introduction

Thank you to Adam G. Hooks for returning to introduce us to “The Phoenix and the Turtle” and “A Funeral Elegy.”

Adam G. Hooks is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and the Center for the Book at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Selling Shakespeare: Biography, Bibliography, and the Book Trade. Learn more at shakespeare.forsale.

In 2016, Adam curated the exhibition “The Books That Made Shakespeare” at the University of Iowa. You can access an online version of the exhibition here.

Read more about Adam’s teaching and research at the website Anchora, which includes several online essays, as well as some of the amazing resources, materials, and activities in book studies taking place at the University of Iowa.

Many thanks to my friend Joey Bianco of Whim Wham for the animated video elements.

December 26, 2020December 22, 2020

A Funeral Elegy: Additional Resources

“A Funeral Elegy” is no longer considered to be Shakespeare’s work. It was, for a short time in the late 1990s, thought to have been written by Shakespeare. The poem was included in the Shakespeare 2020 Project because the Project took its reading list from the Riverside Shakespeare (Second Edition), which was published in 1997 and includes the poem.

Here are some resources to help guide your way into “A Funeral Elegy”:

The January 14, 1996 New York Times article declaring the likelihood that Donald Foster had proven that “A Funeral Elegy” was written by Shakespeare.
The June 20, 2002 New York Times article reporting that Donald Foster had recanted his own work.
Listen to a complete reading of “A Funeral Elegy.”
Read “A Funeral Elegy” on MIT’s Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

December 26, 2020December 22, 2020

A Funeral Elegy: Artwork

Here’s a small handful of artwork inspired by or associated with “A Funeral Elegy.”