When Shakespeare wrote that there were more things in heaven and earth that were dreamed of in our philosophy, was he talking about dark matter?
Probably not, but that doesn't mean space science didn't influence his work, says an author giving a free talk next week.
The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's (RASC) Edmonton branch is hosting a free talk by science journalist Dan Falk Monday on the science of Shakespeare – also the title of Falk's latest book.
Shakespeare isn't usually top of mind for most astronomers when they're stargazing, says St. Albert astronomer Murray Paulson. But the plays themselves contain many references to astrological phenomenon – stars, comets, eclipses, the day/night cycle, for example.
But Shakespeare has had great influence over astronomy, notes Bruce McCurdy, RASC member and astronomer at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton. Asteroid 2985 Shakespeare was named after him, for example, while many of the moons of Uranus are named after characters in his plays.
Major astronomical breakthroughs such as the discovery of the telescope and the laws of planetary motion also happened in William Shakespeare's time, he notes.
Shakespeare and Galileo even share the same birth year, Falk said in an interview from Regina, Sask.
"This was the very first phase of the scientific revolution, and Shakespeare was there for it."
Scientific sonnets?
A long-time fan of the Bard, Falk says he found the coincidence interesting and decided to research astronomical history through the lens of Shakespeare about four years ago.
"I want to try and rework how we think of Shakespeare."
Shakespeare's plays are littered with astronomical references. An eclipse plays a big part in King Lear, for example, and the conspirators in Julius Caesar argue over the position of the sun on the horizon at sunrise.
"I think Shakespeare had some sort of fascination with how the heavens worked and how the universe was put together," Falk says, particularly in terms of how they might affect human nature.
While it's unlikely that astronomy had much influence on the plots of Shakespeare's plays, a close reading suggests one or two tips-of-the-hat to the latest developments, Falk says.
The play Cymbeline, for example, features an appearance by the god Jupiter where four ghosts orbit the main character, Posthumus. Gods almost never appear on stage in Shakespearean plays, so some scholars suspect this may have been a reference to Galileo's discovery of the moons of Jupiter, which he perceived as four ghostly spheres in his telescope, Falk says.
Big chunks of dialogue in The Tempest are cribbed from the works of French scholar Michel de Montaigne, who wrote about questioning established beliefs and critical thinking during Shakespeare's time, Falk says.
And then there's that star in the opening scene of Hamlet.
In it, just before the ghost of Hamlet's father materializes, a guard says that it typically shows up "when yond same star that's westward of the pole" is at a certain point in the sky. Falk says scholars have long puzzled over the identity of this star, as there's no star or planet that seems to fit the bill.
One recent theory is that the star might have been a supernova spotted by astronomer Tycho Brahe around 1572 – one that Shakespeare may also have witnessed.
"A new star appearing in the sky was a really big deal," Falk says, and would have drawn considerable attention in Shakespeare's time.
This nova was also in the constellation Cassiopeia, which is "westward of the pole (star)," Falk notes. Brahe also happened to have two relatives named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – the same name as two characters in Hamlet.
"That's pretty interesting!"
The free talk is at 7:30 at the Telus World of Science on March 9. Visit edmontonrasc.com/ for details.
