Jonathan Bate (Umasked, G2, 21 April) tracks Shakespeare’s storytelling of “the old, old story” back to the “magic, myth and metamorphosis” of Ovid but perhaps there are trace elements of even earlier times that he brought to the stage. The excavation of 10,000-year-old red deer antlers from Star Carr in Yorkshire are now thought to have been part of ritual headdresses. The modern Abbots Bromley horn dancers bear antlers that have been carbon-dated to the 11th century. And in As You Like It, an Elizabethan version of Helston’s Hal-an-Tow song (“Take no scorn to wear the horn…”) refers to “he that hath killed the deer” wearing his “leather, skin and horns” to “sing him home”. The mask may turn out to be even older than Ovid.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire
• Jonathan Bate rightly says that Shakespeare’s sonnets show his belief that art can give immortality. But that’s about his love for art and beauty, not for the supposed beloved. For instance, Sonnet 18, digested (with apologies to John Crace): You’re more lovely than a summer’s day at the moment, but soon you’ll wither and age. However, luckily for you, my brilliant poem about you will last forever. Digest, digested: me, me, me.
Chris Hughes
Leicester
• Martin Kettle (Shakespeare’s greatest achievement is that he lives inside all our heads, 22 April) states that “he transcends the pernicious class divisions of the British education system or the generational patterns of cultural consumption”. Too true: I recall an episode of The Archers some years ago where Nelson Gabriel patiently explained the plot of King Lear to Dan Archer over a pint in The Bull. Can’t get more culturally inclusive than that.
Dr Ken Bray
Bath
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