Melville House Books

“While it has been suggested that Shakespeare dabbled with espionage and Catholic political activism,” a new, rather more radical theory about the Bard will be presented next month at the restored Globe Theater: that Shakespeare was an adherent of a sect of Sufism. According to Vanessa Thorpe in a report for The Observer, “The respected academic Dr Martin Lings will put forward this thesis” in a lecture being delivered “as part of a week of events focusing on Islam to address concerns raised by the ‘war on terror’ and improve understanding of the links between Islam and British culture.” Among other examples, Lings “argues that the journey of Edgar, in King Lear, is like the Sufi’s search for truth, in which the seeker is helped by angelic characters and impeded by diabolic agents.” He also says, “The famous line of Prospero’s ‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on’ is a complete fit, he claims, adding that King Lear’s words also eerily echo Sufi ideas when he tells his faithful daughter: ‘Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, the gods themselves throw incense.’”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.