Actions from https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnJHN-8_30_4-pqWvW5VI6reE3-UAn1QcIMovable Type Pro 5.22013-03-30T01:16:24Zhttp://www.antipope.org/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=feed&_type=actions&blog_id=1&id=2286Commented on The map is not the territory. in Charlie's Diarytag:www.antipope.org,2013:/charlie/blog-static//1.3582#12168582013-03-30T01:16:24Zhttps://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnJHN-8_30_4-pqWvW5VI6reE3-UAn1QcI
Actually not. Shakespeare was born a Catholic and married into a Catholic family at a time when Protestantism was the (enforced) state religion, and when practicing Catholicism was tantamount to treason. It was a time when the monarchy was essentially an institutionalized hereditary dictatorship. One obtained a government position by appointment, and those appointed did not have to answer to an electorate. People were routinely arrested, imprisoned, tortured, convicted and executed without due process and not infrequently on the basis of their religion or on totally trumped up charges. Shakespeare's plays had to be vetted by a government official to make sure they contained nothing which that official considered "treasonous" (and he could be arrested and the play banned if that official thought it did). His theatre (among others) could be and was shut down arbitrarily on the say-so of an official appointed by the crown, etc., etc.
]]>