A Shakespearean Rosetta Stone

Take a controversial line from a controversial play, and then look at how that line is interpreted in 100 different languages.  That's the goal set by Dr. Tom Cheesman of Swansea University.

The play?  Othello.

The line?  “If virtue no delighted beauty lack, Your son-in-law is far more fair than black”.

Perhaps somebody can explain to me the controversy in that line?

I suppose the idea is interesting, and it brings to mind that old Hamlet in the Bush story (which, until now, I thought was a real thing) where a researcher attempts to demonstrate the universal appeal of Shakespeare by reading the play to a bunch of African natives.  They don't get it.  They don't see the big deal of Claudius marrying Gertrude, because of course the wife of a deceased man marries his brother.  And why did Hamlet even think about listening to the ghost? The only concept of ghost in their language is "demon", so of course it would have been up to no good.  And so on.  Does anybody know if that piece is legit, or was done as a joke?  I'd always assumed it to be real but when googling for it I found it linked on a April Fool's Day site, so now I'm not so sure.

On a related note that combines both those stories I'll point out my own little experiment in this arena.  I ran "To be or not to be" through a translator into a whole bunch of different languages to see how it differed, then made a poster out of it.  I think it came out pretty cool, and it's been one of the better sellers in my shop.

Coriolanus Read By CEOs

Here's an interesting project up in my neck of the woods (Boston) : a staged reading of Coriolanus by local chief executive officers.

Shakespeare and the law has now evolved into Shakespeare and business. On Thursday, a who’s who of Boston executives will take their positions at the Cutler Majestic for a reading of an edited version of “Coriolanus,” and then they’ll participate in a panel discussion about the leadership and management themes raised by the play. The cast/panelists will include Boston Foundation CEO Paul Grogan, Eastern Bank CEO Richard Holbrook, Boston Globe publisher Chris Mayer, Mass. Convention Center Authority director Jim Rooney, Tufts Health Plan CEO Jim Roosevelt and Bain & Co. senior advisor Phyllis Yale.

The project is co-sponsored by Boston's own Commonwealth Shakespeare, who will be performing Coriolanus on Boston Common beginning July 25.

Branagh to do The Scottish Play Next?

I missed this article last week where Kenneth Branagh received the Founder's Directing Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival...

Through the ‘90s, Branagh had a run of films that were met with mostly positive critical feedback, including two more Shakespeare adaptations with “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Hamlet.” In 2000, he hit a bit of a bump with his “Love’s Labour’s Lost” adaptation, an experience that he found humbling, though not debilitating to his career. Branagh explained, “It would be hard to say what exactly is ‘authentic Shakespeare’, but people have an idea of what it might be and they sometimes get disturbed when a strong or dominating or even disruptive idea comes in like setting it as a Hollywood musical in 1939. 

...but I'm glad they took the trouble to highlight the gem of the article for me in the title:

“I would like to make some more Shakespeare films. The film that I would like to make next has a title that I cannot mention in this building. But it’s a play by Shakespeare about a Scottish king.” 

Woohoo!  Branagh Shakespeare movies are always a good thing.

Need New Shakespeare Books?

I wonder if this is a regular thing - Six New Titles on Shakespeare, explaining exactly who wrote each, what they're about, who might like them, and so on.  Something to check out if you're interested in upcoming Shakespeare books but not normally in a position where you get access to this information.

The "Shakespeare's Shrine" one looks interesting, detailing Stratford and how it became what it is today (thanks in no small part to David Garrick, of course).

Must See Movie Event Of The Summer

Did Julie Taymor and Russell Brand leave a bad taste in your mouth?

Christopher Plummer's The Tempest is coming to the big screen!

This looks ridiculously good.

Even better?  Unlike many other Shakespeare films that barely see any widescreen release (ahem Coriolanus), the web site actually lists every movie theatre in every state where it will play!  And it's close to me in Massachusetts!

Note, however, that this is a *one time event* -- Thursday, June 14, 7pm.  Now I just have to hope I can make it!

Would You Buy ...

We have Shakespeare Geek merchandise.  You knew that, right?  Mostly t-shirts, but also some bags, bumper stickers ... the usual assortment.

What I've always wanted, though, is a polo shirt (short sleeve, pull-over, collared shirt in case that term is not well known) that has a little embroidered Shakespeare head as its logo.  I've never seen one for sale.  Since this is more common workplace-wear than a t-shirt, I would have a whole assortment of these in my closet if I could find them.

Logical question, can they be made?  Easier said than done.  I know how to have it done.  The problem is in the embroidery thing.  With a t-shirt you pretty much make a reasonably high resolution graphic and you're all set.  But for embroidery your graphic has to be turned into a pattern, and you need somebody who knows how to do this, you can't just automate it and hope for the best - otherwise your final product looks awful.

This is a service that costs a few hundred dollars to set up.  This is what's always stopped me from doing it.  I want the shirt, but I don't want to pay several hundred dollars just because I want it.

So I'll throw it out there, in something of a poor geek's KickStarter style...  If we were to set up a project to make such a shirt available, would you buy it?  Would you be willing to pre-order such a thing to help with the up-front cost?  How much would you be willing to pay for such a shirt?  You have to understand that this could not possibly ever be a $10 special - these custom things never are.  My best guess is that if it came in under $40/shirt I'd be pleased.  That's just from experience, I have not yet researched the project.

Naturally, if we were going to do it we'd have to make available a variety of sizes and colors.  Who knows, maybe we could even have different lines where some people like a little Droeshout portrait, but others prefer the Chandos.   *pause*  Ok, I just got myself excited.  The idea of having half a dozen of these shirts, each with a different little Shakespeare head on it?  That would be ridonkulously geeky.

If you would be seriously interested, email me and tell me.  I am not going to ask for any money yet, I have nothing set up (which is also why I'm not going to head to Kickstarter).  This is to see who is willing to say that they'd put some money up front for such a line of merchandise.  Honestly, if nobody is willing to do that, then we don't make them, and that's the end of it.  

Worth a shot, right?

Also do note that I am in no way married to the idea of having to make the shirt myself like some sort of business brainstorm.  I just want the shirt to exist.  If somebody out there knows how to make it happen via different means, I'm happy to hear about that.

The 7 Year Challenge

Today I realized that I haven't been in the blogging business *6* years, I'm coming up on *7* years. A little math told me that I've made 2364 posts in 2555 days, for something like a 93% hit rate.  The fact that I did not achieve a sustained 1 post/day average over this time troubles me.  I like round numbers.

So then I thought, can I do it?  Can I celebrate my 7 year anniversary by actually achieving that goal?  By my count that means I need to post 191 stories in the next 21 days.  That sounds impossible.

Doesn't mean I'm not going to try it. :)

Wish me luck!

Knock-Knock! The Definitive List of Shakespeare Knock-Knock Jokes (Guest Post)

From time to time, Bardfilm and Shakespeare Geek have tried putting a Shakespearean spin on some of the classic genres of humor. In the past, they’ve tackled light bulb jokes and dealt with why the chicken crossed the road.

Finally, the great challenge of the Knock-knock joke proved irresistible. Here are some Shakespearean knock-knock jokes that you can use to entertain or torment your friends, colleagues, and children.  No, you don't need advanced Shakespeare knowledge to get all of them - but it certainly helps sometimes!

Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Oberon.
Oberon who?
Oberon the other bank you might try to catch some fish.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Noah.
Noah who?
Noah’s the winter of our discontent.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Dogberry.
Dogberry who?
Dog bury a bone in my petunias again, dog get sent to the pound.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Julius Caesar.
Julius Caesar who?
Julius, seize her! She’s the one who stole my wallet!


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
The Earl of Oxford.
The Earl of Oxford who?
Exactly.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Wherefore means.
Wherefore means who?
No, “wherefore” means “why.” How many times do we have to go over this?


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Nay, answer me!  Stand and unfold yourself.
Long live the king?


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Laertes.
Laertes who?
Layer Ts and sweaters to stay dry and comfortable on the ski slopes.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
The Nightingale.
The Nightingale who?
Ha! Fooled you! It’s really the Lark.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Orlando.
Orlando who?
Or Lando or Leia or Luke or Chewbacca will pilot the Millennium Falcon.


Knock, Knock, Knock, Knock, Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Tom.
Tom who?
Tom R. O. and Tom R. O. and Tom R. O.  We creep in this petty pace from day to day.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Shelly.
Shelly who?
Shelly compare thee to a summer’s day?


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Hal.
Hal who?
Hal long until Henry IV dies and I can become king?


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Gracie Zar.
Gracie Zar who?
Gracie Zar’s Ghost!


Knock, Knock.
Who's there?
Et.
Et who?
Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Utah.
Utah who?
Utah me language, and my profit on it is I know how to curse!


Knock, Knock.
Who's there?
The cause, my soul.
The cause, my soul who?
Let me not name it to you!


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Leon.
Leon who?
Leon Macduff.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Rosencrantz.  No, wait, Guildenstern! *sigh*—let me get back to you.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Ferris.
Ferris who?
Ferris foul and foul is fair.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Lysander.
Lysander who?
Lie, Sander, and you'll get in trouble, Sander.


Knock, Knock.
Who's there?
Cordelia.
Cordelia who?
Oh, that's real nice, Daddy. I come all the way from France with an army to rescue you and that's the welcome I get.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Falstaff.
Falstaff who?
[Excessively Loud Belch]


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Will Shakespeare.
Will Shakespeare who?
Will Shakespeare or just stand there holding one as long as I get to be on stage.


Knock, Knock.

Who’s there?

Desdemona.

Desdemona who?

Nobody.  I myself.  Farewell.

Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Riese.
Riese who?
Riese and not the need.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
The Porter from Macbeth.
The Porter from Macbeth who?
The Porter from Macbeth, who wants to know how you like it! Knock, Knock. Knock, Knock. Knock, Knock. Knock, Knock. Knock, Knock. Knock, Knock. Knock, Knock. Knock, Knock.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Interrupting Chorus.
Interrupting . . .
O FOR A MUSE OF FIRE!


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Demetrius.
Demetrius who?
Just try to Demetri us before we Demetri you!


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Hamlet.
Hamlet who?
Ham let Ophee fall in love with him.


Knock, Knock.
Who's there?
Hamlet.
Hamlet who?
Hamlet the dogs out!  (woof, woof woof woof...)


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Helena.
Helena who?
Helena handbasket is where this world seems to be going.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Pericles.
Pericles who?
Well, I know it’s not Hamlet, but it’s not that unknown.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Rosaline.
Rosaline who?
Yeah, that’s what Romeo said as soon as he saw Juliet.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Lloyd.
Lloyd who?
Lloyd, what fools these moytals be.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Mary.
Mary who?
Mary, your manhood mew.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
William Shakespeare.
William Shakespeare who?
William Shakespeare cans so they explode when you open them.


Knock, Knock.
Who’s there?
Interrupting Richard the Third.
Interrupting Richard the . . .
HORSE!


Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Toby.
Toby who?
Wait—sorry. Not Toby.
Make up your mind! Who’s there?
Toby or not Toby, that is the question.

Our thanks for this guest post to kj, the author of Bardfilm. Bardfilm is a blog that comments on films, plays, and other matters related to Shakespeare.

My Brownie Adventure

So yesterday, I'm happy to say, was my first official "Stand up in front of a group of children not my own, and talk about Shakespeare."  Long time readers will know that I've had a number of false starts along this path, ranging from the time I read The Tempest to a bunch of first graders, to the time that the school principal shot down my plans to stage Dream among the second graders.

This time we went informal - my 7yr old daughter's Brownie (small Girl Scout) troop, which in this instance numbered just 4 girls.  5, if you count my older daughter who hangs out and keeps herself busy.  6, if you count my boy.

Yesterday I posted The Plan.  Aren't you just dying to know how it went?

So, I bring with me a bust of Shakespeare and my pop-up Globe theatre.  Spend some time talking about who Shakespeare was, when he lived, what he did.  I make a timeline on the board, showing them events that they know -- Abraham Lincoln, Columbus, Pilgrims -- and where Shakespeare was on that spectrum.

We then get into Talk Like Shakespeare.  I try to give some examples of the whole thee/thou, ist/wast, stuff like that, but I have no good examples.  I tried to pull some modern song lyrics that we could "Shakespeareize", but I was stuck in that world of not knowing what's appropriate for other people's children, so I had to punt on that one.  I used some simple examples ("Shakespeare would not have had someone say Good morning, how are you today?  He would have had somebody say An excellent morrow to you good mistress!  How art thou this fine morn?")

This led to the first game.  I really hyped on the whole "flowery" language thing, and how you would never just toss out one or two words when you could use a bunch and really sell it.  I have brought with me a hand made version of "The Compliment Game", which is kid-safe version of the more infamous Insult Kit.  I've taken a deck of index cards and written a word on each.  Each card is then labelled A/B/C on both front and back.  I spread out the entire deck (30 cards, total) on the floor around us and tell the kids that the rules are to pick up an A, B and C card, then pick one of your troopmates, start with "Thou", and then pay them a compliment.  Don't just read the cards, really sell it.  Pour it on.

They loved this, found it ridiculously silly.  My daughter was called a pigeon-egg and had no idea how that was supposed to be a compliment.  My other daughter called me a wafer-cake and thought this was just hysterical.  Some of the words were beyond their reading ability, but that didn't stop them from simply asking me to read it.

Definitely a hit, as we went through one round, and they immediately wanted to go again and again until all the cards were used up.  We even had an odd number left and I had to bring in my older daughter to read that one, so that we could keep it fair and not have somebody left with an extra turn.

I then talk about how Shakespeare went ahead and just made up words as he needed them, and show them the word search puzzle I made for them to play with. Since I'd specifically been told to keep them up and active I treat this like "Here's something for you to take home."

This all leads into a discussion of rhyme and meter (after all, why did Shakespeare go through so much trouble to shuffle words around and make up new ones?  Because he needed them to fit a specific pattern).

So I break out my bigger game.  I've taken three famous speeches from three famous plays -- Juliet's balcony scene, the witches spell from Macbeth, and Puck's closing of Dream.  I've printed them out onto refrigerator magnet sheets, and cut them into strips.  I then give the kids the pile of lines, describe the three plays, and tell them to separate the lines into the logical piles.  "Juliet's speech is all about names, and about how things still have value even if you don't call them by the same words that everybody else does.....Macbeth's witches are whipping up a disgusting witches potion, so look for ingredients that might go into it ... Puck is a fairy who tells the audience that i they didn't like the play, they should just think that they dreamed it, so you want to look for words about dreaming, or about forgiveness."

This was the most active bit of the class, with all the girls up at the magnetic white board, reading the strips and trying to move them into the right categories.  Some were easy ("eye of newt?"), some were hard ("Take all myself").  Best moment for me came when one girl read aloud, "By the pricking of my thumbs....oh, wait! I saw something.....Something wicked this way comes. Those must go together."

*shiver*  Yes, my wonderful child, yes they do.  Of all the lines to pop out of this exercise, it had to be that one?  I love it.  That line is already spine tingling as it is.

(Side note -- when speaking of Macbeth I went ahead and told them about the curse, and the Scottish Play.  How if an actor says the M word inside a theatre, the other actors will take him away and he has to perform a magic spell to break the curse so nothing bad happens.  First they wanted to know if this was true, and I said absolutely.  Then they wanted to know what the magic spell was to break the curse, and I said I don't know, I'm not an actor.  But that I had in fact seen an actor say Macbeth in a theatre back in college, and I did indeed see his fellow actors take him away to perform the rite.)

This game was too big and too long, unfortunately.  I probably could have gotten by with one speech at a time (scrambled), rather than trying to separate three.  They started to lose interest toward the end.

So then I broke out my Complete Works and began reading the originals, so that they could see how close they came.  Actually they did very well, at least in terms of which lines went with which play.  Very hard to get them in the right order without a great deal of context.

I tried to do some acting - got one girl to volunteer to be Juliet, had her stand on a table/balcony, and then borrowed my son to be Romeo, hiding him behind a bookcase with instructions to yell "Here I am, Juliet!" when she was done.

Unfortunately this is where I lost them.  I've got one girl reciting, one girl listening, but then the other two drifted off to draw on the whiteboard.  Oh, well.

The witches spell was a little better, because I made them all interact.  We all stood in a circle, holding hands and chanting doing one line at a time (chorus on the "Double doubles").  I insisted that everybody give it their best witches' cackle, and for the most part they played along.  One girl did say that this was her favorite, and that she wanted that speech to use at Halloween.  (Interestingly enough?  Same girl that spotted the Something wicked.... line initially.  She's going to be a dark one when she grows up :))

At this point we were running long so I just read Puck's speech, but their attention spans were shot.  My wife suggested that maybe they could sit down and work on the puzzle, which is what we did, and that became the "wind down until the end of class" project.  Again, though - a big hit. I had not fully appreciated how an entire group of kids will tear into a puzzle, comparing notes and sharing information.

Overall?  Glad to have done it.  Need to come better prepared with actual notes about what to talk about next time - you can't wing that sort of thing, it comes off as really unprepared.  Games and activities have to be kept relatively simple - the compliment game and the word search scored big, the unscrambling of speeches started out strong but ended weak.

I plan to take this experience and roll it in to working with my older daughter's Girl Scout troop.  they are 9-10yr olds, and there are *18* of them.  Holy Toledo.  I've already said we're going to jump straight in to acting with them.  I've got a number of kid-friendly versions of the plays to try out.  That seems the best approach for a group that size and age.

Brownie Shakespeare (The Plan)

So this story broke on Twitter a couple weeks ago.  My wife runs a troop of Brownies (think "small Girl Scouts" if the term is unfamiliar) for my 7yr old daughter.  Last week her plans were scrapped due to rain, and she spontaneously said "Want to do some Shakespeare with them?"

Yes.

Cue mad scramble for teaching materials that I could use with a small (5 kids) group of 7yr old girls.  I literally had like less than half a day to whip something up.

End result of that little rush was that she came up with a backup backup plan and I was off the hook for such short notice - with plans to reschedule for the next meeting.

And here's the next meeting, tomorrow afternoon!

Thanks to everybody on email and Twitter who sent suggestions.  Here's the rough outline I've got planned:

* Introduce who Shakespeare was and give some quick history / bio stuff.  Born 400 years ago, Globe Theatre, that sort of thing.  Show props.  I have a number of Shakespeare toys, including a pop-up book with the Globe in it.

* Explain the rules of "Talk Like Shakespeare".  Thee thy thou, that sort of thing.  I'd love to play some sort of game of taking modern song lyrics and Shakespearizing them, but I don't have any good examples handy.  (Note to self, register the domain name "shakespearize.com" :) )

* Explain, very broadly, the coolness factor involved in writing a full length play that is also a really big poem.  Seque into iambic pentameter, the whole "stand your sentence on its head so you can make the rhyme come out", that sort of thing.

* Break out my game.  What I did was to go get some sheets of printable refrigerator magnet, and print some well known speeches ("Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" / "If we shadows have offended..." / "Double double toil and trouble...") onto them.  Then I cut them up into strips.  I explain to the kids the general idea of the three speeches ("One is spoken by Juliet about her new boyfriend Romeo", "One is a magic spell cast by the witches", "One comes from the ending of a play where a fairy comes out to talk to the audience.")  Then we work on reassembling the speeches, and when we have them right, we act them out.

I expect that, even with the explanation of the speeches, they'll need a lot of help.  I'm thinking about possibly breaking out my First Folio and using it like a big hint ("Does that sound right? Let's check...The Book.")

If I have time between now and then, I've got extra sheets of magnet so I'm going to print off some do it yourself "Shakespeare refrigerator poetry" to let them take home.

My plan, obviously, is to keep some level of speaking it without having to rely entirely on acting it.  I expect such a small group of such young kids won't immediately warm to the idea of playing roles (especially if they have to spout lovey romantic stuff to each other).  But I didn't want to do sonnets because I though those were too far removed from the idea of plot and character.  I can explain each of the three speeches from inside the play.  There are little hiccups - like discovering that there's 1 line in Juliet's speech that has 12 syllables instead of 10, but I think we can work around that.

I will let everybody know how it goes!  

What Have You Seen?

Once again this week I got into the "See it, don't read it!" debate with someone, and my faithful readers know that I weigh in on the "read it" side of this argument for the following very simple reason:

"Hey, I don't know anything about Richard III, I think I'll read it."
 "Don't read it, go see it!"
"Oh, ok.  Is it playing?"
 "...well, no."

And then people immediately jump into the defense of going to rent a DVD, even though you all know perfectly well that if there was a choice between seeing it live on stage and seeing a movie version, you wouldn't even have to think about it.  You only support movies because you know that "go see it as it was meant to be seen" is not a realistic argument, and you'll accept movies as a substitute.

But, I'm not here to make the argument again.  I want to try something.  Tell me, in the comments, which Shakespeare plays you have seen on stage?

I've seen:  Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Othello, R+J, Shrew, AYLI, All's Well, Dream, Much Ado, Comedy of Errors, LLL, Tempest, Winter's Tale.

14 plays.  You'll notice that the histories are sadly underrepresented.  Now, with more effort I'm sure I could add maybe half a dozen plays to that list, but that still only puts me in the range of about half.  I'd make the case that the only way I'm ever going to see some of those plays is if I make it a primary goal in my life to do so, and am willing to travel extensively to make it happen.

Most people in the world will never have the opportunity to see most of Shakespeare's plays on stage.  Every single literate person in the world has the opportunity to read them.

TL;DR - Read King John.

Character I'd Most Like To _______ With

I saw a "Favorite Shakespearean Character?" thread on another board, and it reminded me how completely unanswerable that question is - it's like asking who your favorite family member is.  Different pros and cons in different contexts.

I think I once asked "Which Shakespeare character would you want to go drinking with?" but didn't get any answers other than Falstaff. ;)

So, a more wide open game.  First fill in the blank, then give a character.  Who would you like to ...

... start a business with?

... go out on a date with?

... get into a mixed martial arts ring with?

... pick as your vice president?

Get the idea?

Loki Does Shakespeare

Good timing for me - just saw The Avengers last night.  Normally it's the good guys - Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo - that get all the press.  But if I say the name Tom Hiddleston would you know who I meant?

Well, trick question, I gave it away in the subject line ;).  Having just wrapped Henry IV for an upcoming BBC release, check out Loki himself giving us something the audience is more likely to recognize, a little Henry V.   Hiddleston plays Hal, alongside such names as Jeremy Irons and John Hurt.  Should be a good one!

Peter Brook, on the Authorship Question

I have to admit, I didn't realize that Peter Brook was still with us.  But I'm glad to have found this article where he discusses his thoughts on the Authorship debate:

Shakespeare was a genius, insists Brook, and “genius can arise in the humblest of backgrounds. No one doubts that Leonardo was truly Leonardo da Vinci, even though he was an illegitimate child from an Italian village.”

Mr. Brook is also the one to credit with a favorite quote of mine:

Each line in Shakespeare is an atom. The energy that can be released is infinite—if we can split it open.

Brook's is a name spoken with reverence for quite some decades at this point.  I first heard his name attached to a legendary 1970 Midsummer Night's Dream that predates my interest in Shakespeare by quite a little bit, although I have seen some clips.

Got any good Peter Brook experiences?

Riddle Me This, Folio Historians

So at long last I'm getting time - granted, 5-10 minutes at a shot, but still - to sit and enjoy my First Folio that I got for my birthday.

Wouldn't you know it, I found something to post about in my very first sitting.

I'm reading Much Ado About Nothing and noticed that on the bottom right corner of every page is a single word (or two), which turns out to be the start of the next page.  At first I thought this was a typo of some sort, and then noticed that it happens on every page.

See that "Bene. That" at the bottom?  Now check out the next page:

This happens all the time, whether it is one person who continues speaking, or the speaker changes.  It does not always have the opening word like that - in fact, in a quick flip through I didn't see any other examples where it included another word.

So my question is, what's this all about?  What purpose does that serve?  Some sort of script clue to the reader about what's about to happen on the next page, so there's no unexpected break in continuity?  That's the only thing I can guess, although using just a single word to do it seems pretty minimal.

(By the way, it does not go unnoticed that the speaker abbreviations are all over the place. Sometimes he is 'Bened', sometimes 'Bene', sometimes 'Ben'.  The computer scientist in me hates that.  Make a rule and stick to it, people!)

How The Feud Started (Guest Post)

David Blixt has got so many Shakespearean irons in the fire that I don't even know how to start summarizing him, so I'll just let his press bio do it: Author and actor, director and playwright, David Blixt's work is consistently described as "intricate," "taut," and "breathtaking." As an actor, he is devoted to Shakespeare. As a writer of Historical Fiction, his Shakespeare-related novels span the early Roman Empire (the COLOSSUS series, his play EVE OF IDES) to early Renaissance Italy (the STAR-CROSS'D series, including THE MASTER OF VERONA, VOICE OF THE FALCONER, and FORTUNE'S FOOL) up through the Elizabethan era (his delightful espionage comedy HER MAJESTY'S WILL, starring Will Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe as inept spies). His novels combine a love of the theatre with a deep respect for the quirks and passions of history. As the Historical Novel Society said, "Be prepared to burn the midnight oil. It's well worth it."

Living in Chicago with his wife and two children, David describes himself as "actor, author, father, husband. In reverse order."

What long time readers may also realize is that David's been one of the earliest contributors to Shakespeare Geek, for instance in this August 2008 post about how Romeo and Juliet is actually "a comedy where people die."

David has a literary (but not literal!) avalanche of new content coming out this week, and he's offered some it here for a sneak peek.  I've chosen something from a piece that I'm somewhat familiar with, as it is integral to the plot of The Master of Verona,  David's earlier novel, which I reviewed:

 [Excerpted from Origin of the Feud - Essays on Shakespeare's 'Romeo & Juliet' ]

I clearly didn’t need Lady Montague for the final scene – her husband just told us she’s dead. I flipped back to find her last scene. She’s listed as entering in Act Three, Scene Four, when Mercutio and Tybalt both buy it – but she’s strangely quiet in that scene. Lord Capulet, too, but at least people talk to him. No one addresses Romeo’s mom, even when her son is banished. In fact, looking at it harder, Lady Montague hasn’t been heard from since Act One, Scene One, in which she uttered a mere two lines! 

So this was my quandary – do I cut Montague’s lines at the end of the show? Why not? Here we are, the play is basically over. We’ve just watched the two romantic leads die pitiably, and young, kind, noble Paris croak it as well. Why do we care if some woman we barely remember is dead? 

But it continued to bother me. There had to be a reason she was dead. 

Of course, in Shakespeare’s day, there was a very good reason. The actor who played Lady Montague was probably needed in another role - the exigencies of the stage. Even realizing this, though, I couldn’t let go of the line. My wife is dead tonight. The rules of dramatic structure nagged at me. A death like that is supposed to be symbolic. But of what? Clueless, I shrugged and finished the cuts. I left the line in, hoping my actors could figure it out. 

In the event, they didn’t have to. I was going about my business later that week when it hit me – the Feud! The thing that gets closure at the end of the show is the feud. Montague and Capulet bury the hatchet. They’re even going to build statues to honor their dead kids.
Could Lady Montague’s death be symbolic of the end of the feud? The only way that could work would be – If she were the cause of the feud. I remember stopping dead in my tracks as the idea took form – a love triangle a generation earlier, between the parents! Romeo’s mother, engaged to a young Capulet, runs off with a young Montague instead. That’s certainly cause for a feud, especially if young Capulet and Montague were friends. Best friends, childhood friends, torn apart by their love for a woman. A feud, born of love, dies with love. 

What do you think of that idea?  David's told me that he'll be around, so leave some comments and see if you can't get some discussion going!  If you like this sort of interaction with the author we can do it with more excerpts from his other works as well.  Maybe next time some Macbeth?

For more information on these and all of David's other works, please visit his Amazon author page.

Comments and Contacting Me

Hi everybody,

Quick administrative note.  Lately I've had to take a stronger stance in removing comments that do not add to a given thread.  This frequently happens when somebody discovers the blog for the first time and wants to use the opportunity to say "Hey, have you seen this yet?" and provide me with a link.  This is not typically what I'd think of as spam, I think it's just overenthusiasm.

Still, though, the rule continues to apply - add something to the discussion.  If you want to provide a link, make it a relevant one.

For those that want to share links and have no way to contact me, I've added a link directly in the sidebar over there.  It's also fairly easy to get me via the Contact page.  I do see links when people send them to me that way, I have a number of regulars who constantly send me stuff.  So don't be afraid.

Fair enough?  I feel bad deleting comments that come from legit Shakespeare fans, but it's also not right for me to judge one worthy of deletion and one worthy of keeping.  So typically they all go.

- SG

Teaching With Shakespeare : A Game

Ok, for this game you are stranded on a desert island with a young child, and it is now your job to provide an education for this child.  For maximum points you must meaningfully introduce as many subjects as you can to your student.

Here's the catch - the only book you have to teach with is a First Folio.  You are allowed to supplement with visual aids, but only to the extent that you could create them with whatever rudimentary means might be at your disposal, such as scratching in the sand with a stick.  Nothing too complicated.

Easy example : You can teach poetry, by showing multiple examples of meter and rhyme scheme.

Harder example : Geography.   You could do a pretty good job of plotting where Prospero's island is, simply by looking at the description of the ship's return from Claribel's wedding in Tunisia.  (This is where I see no way around having to draw out a globe and start pointing to various places.)  There's actually an island that claims to have been Shakespeare's inspiration, based entirely on this method (given that there's no way Shakespeare could have ever been there).

What else can you come up with?  How about math?  Other than the dividing up of King Lear's soldiers I'm trying to think of how many math problems Shakespeare may have written out for us.

Science?  Given how much science has changed in 400 years this would be a tricky one, and it's not Shakespeare's fault.

History?  The case of Julius Caesar is probably the most well known.  How many kids graduate from high school never truly knowing what facts about Caesar's assassination are true, and which were created by Shakespeare?

How about spelling, or for that matter reading in the first place?  That would be interesting.  I bet with some study you could make a good list of words that are spelled in multiple different ways, and then use that to work on a basic phonetics lesson.

You are also welcome to make the case for more advanced classes such as "debating", "politics", "psychology" and so on.

How To Categorize Shakespeare

Here's a question that comes up in my life a lot.  We talk about Shakespeare here. That's easy.  But when I go and add the site to various boards and services, inevitably I'm asked to place it into a category.

So, what's our category?

Art?  Education?  Books and Literature?  Theatre?  Entertainment?  History?

None of those is a perfect answer.  I often end up putting us into Education, because when I look at the big mission of the site it is about discussing Shakespeare and hence learning about Shakespeare.  But education is not always a very big category and doesn't get much traffic, so I feel like to just relegate us over there is not giving the site enough credit.

Curious to people's thoughts.  Of course, some sites do offer the opportunity to place multiple tags of your own creation, which is fine - then I can add the actual word Shakespeare and the rest becomes secondary.

But for those cases where you need to pick a single category, what are we?  Think of it from the perspective of the incoming potential audience - they're in category X, and they see Shakespeare Geek, what would their expectations be about the site?  And would we meet those expectations?

Thanks as always for helping to make the site better!

Shakespeare Geek on Pinterest

After the flood of pictures I took in Washington last week, I finally broke down and decided to join pinterest.com.  This site's never been heavy into pictures, but if that's what people want to follow these days, I'll do what I can to start adding more visual content.

Unfortunately somebody already beat me to "ShakespeareGeek" as a username, so you can find me as ShakesGeek.  Right now I've got two 'boards' set up -- one that will pin stuff directly from the blog (so if you're already following the blog in some fashion, you'll have seen it), and another for 'found Shakespeare' for all those random Shakespeare related images that I find floating around than don't always merit their own post.

[EDIT]   Oh, and you may also see a "Pin it!" button in the upper right corner of those posts with picture content.  If you are someone who uses pinterest and you like the content I'm putting up, sharing it in this way would be a great way to support the site.  Thanks!

Why We Do This : Your Turn

During my Shakespeare Day Marathon I posted 25 different items for people to talk about, ranging from links I'd queued up over the weekend, to information about Shakespeare and the Presidents, the Booth family ... leading up to actual images from my invited trip through Folger Shakespeare Library vault and culminating in pictures of Folio #1, The Most Beautiful Book In The World.

And yet the post that got the most clicks that day was my ... rant? diatribe? plea? ... entitled "Why I Do This : The Big Picture" (I'll give you a hint, it's not about my kids).  I don't know why that happened, exactly (I would have thought the pictures would generate more interest), but I'm glad it did.  That post, albeit a little over the top, was my reaction to the yearly Shakespeare's Birthday flood of attention where people come out of the woodwork to say how much Shakespeare means to them, in one or two nice little 140character tweets.

Prove it.

I don't want to hear what Shakespeare means to you.  I want you to show us what it means to you, and show us what you do about it.  Do you perform him, research him, teach him?  What about all those out there who, like me, can't claim to be doing this as any more than a hobby?

If Shakespeare means something to you, then you should consider yourself obligated to return the favor and do something for him.  For every post about "I love his poetry, his words sing to me!" I'll show you dozens upon hundreds of posts claiming he's not relevant anymore, shouldn't be taught, speaks a different language, banned from schools, too hard, too boring...  What are you doing about it?

Here's your call to action.  If you've got a place to post something, then post it there and link it here.   If you don't, then tell us in the comments what you're doing to bring your love of Shakespeare to the rest of the world.

Maori Haka, and Parallel Universes

If you've not seen it yet, you first need to check out this video.  It's from the The Globe's season opener, Troilus and Cressida performed entirely in New Zealand's Maori language and opening with a "haka", something that I can best describe as a "war dance," popularized by the New Zealand men's rugby team:



This is already awesome on a number of levels when you go into it thinking "Ok, the Shakespeare people are doing a Shakespeare play in a language other than English." The idea that there's going to be 37 (38?) of these, each entirely unique, makes me giddy in anticipation.

Now imagine, if you can, coming at it entirely from the other angle.  Imagine you stumbled across this video with no context at all.  You start watching, you think, "Ok, this looks interesting...."  Then you realize that a story is being told.  You try to figure out characters, and plot (* this is only the trailer, of course - pretend for the sake of argument that you could get video of the entire production).  How long would it take you to realize "Hey....this story looks familiar!  I think this in the Trojan War story!  No, wait, is this Shakespeare?  Is this Troilus and Cressida???"

That's where my "parallel universe" comment in the subject comes from.  You see something like this and it's as if the essence of what drove Shakespeare's stories exists independently somewhere, capable of driving what is fundamentally the same story, in an infinite number of ways.  It is the same, and yet it is entirely different.  You know what I'm trying to say?  None of Shakespeare's words are going to be found, yet it's still Shakespeare.  It is the very definition of universal.

Enough geekiness, on to some more practical questions.  Can somebody with a better knowledge of the play identify some of the characters for us?  Can someone (possibly with knowledge of the language) give  us an idea of what's happening during this clip?

Or for an equal amount of fun, can someone with *no* knowledge of the play and *no* knowledge of the language take a shot?  That would sort of get back to my opening point. :)

Why I Do This : The Big Picture

Today's supposed to be the day where we talk about what Shakespeare means to us.  Honestly I find that a bit overly simplified.  I talk about what Shakespeare means to be every day (feel free to flip through my 2000 posts over 6 years to convince yourself), and I'm in the midst of a marathon that demonstrates the lengths to which I'll go.  I can't simply write a single post on that subject, much less squeeze it down into a single tweet.

What I can do, though, is talk about my "mission".  No, not my kids.  I've talked about them enough.  My kids are really and truly at the point where they make references to Shakespeare at will, and I love it.  All of them.  Somewhere amid the sea of posts you'll see today you'll find a reference to my 5yr old son recognizing portraits of Hamlet and Yorick in stained glass windows, and my two daughters, 7 and 9yr olds, both grabbing for books on Shakespeare's sonnets when given the freedom to pick something from the gift shop.  Heck, just the other night for dinner I'd broken out some decorative kids' plates in the shape of animals - a cow, a horse, a donkey.  My 9yr old got the donkey.  "Look," she said, "It's Bottom."

With the primary plan well underway, let's talk about the secondary plan.  Because there's a whole bunch of the world out there that is not my kids.  All I've done with them is plant a seed that may take generations to truly change the world.  That's only the beginning of what I hope to accomplish.

What happens to me now on a regular basis is that friends and coworkers come up to me and say, "I saw a Shakespeare thing the other day and thought of you."  Sometimes it is Shakespeare's name specifically that they heard.  Sometimes a movie reference, or a quote.  It's not important what they saw, because it's always something different.

What's important is that they *recognized* it.  Before these people met me I'm quite positive that Shakespeare references were coming and going all around them, in one ear and out the other.  You can't help it.  Chances are very good that the Saturday morning cartoons you grew up on were sneaking in the occasional Shakespeare reference on you.  They're ubiquitous.

And now, everybody that knows me can see them.  Where they were previously blind, now they see.  Not only does something in their brain click and say, "Hey! Shakespeare!  I should tell Duane about that."  Know what happens next?  They actually *listen*, because they want to know how to repeat it to me.  That's the next step.  If you hear it, and you pay attention to it, maybe you actually remember it.  And then you've learned something.

But guess what?  It gets even better.  Because when these friends and coworkers (some of whom I barely exchange anything but casual greetings with) come up to me with their found Shakespeare references, sometimes they want to discuss it.  They want to discuss it.  They want to discuss it.  How many times can I say that to have the point sink in how cool that is?  None of the people that I'm talking about are theatre people, or academics.  They're just regular folk who, because they happen to have stumbled into my social circle, have rejuvenated that long dormant high school knowledge of the Montagues and the Capulets, of To be or Not To Be.  And in me they've found someone who will talk with them, ever so patiently, for as long as they want.

That's the big picture.  Every single time somebody comes up to me, in person or by mailing me a link, that starts with "Saw this Shakespeare thing and thought of you ..."  the plan is working.

What's your mission? Why do you do this?  Tell us.

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Inside The Vault #6 (Conclusion): The Most Beautiful Book In The World

Before I'd ever left for my trip, I was speaking with Bardfilm about what I might hope to see in the vault.  He replied that I might ask to get a look at Folio #1, what Mr. Folger called, "The most beautiful book in the world."

And there I was, standing in front of a wall of Folios (a post unto itself!) and I went for it.  Garland Scott had told me that I might be able to see it, "if it's not out."  I assume that these sorts of items are often lent out to other institutions for study.   "Is Folio #1 in?" I asked.

"I think so," Georgianna replied, digging for something she wanted us to look at.  "It would be up there if it was."

That's how they refer to their Folios, apparently.  I want to curl myself up in the pages and go to sleep.  The folks that see them every day say, "Oh, that one is over there somewhere."

Why is #1 so special?  It's got a note (well, mostly a signature) from the original owner, stating that he'd received it as a gift from the printer, William Jaggard.  Though it would be a mistake to assume that this makes it the actual *first* First Folio, it's certainly evidence for being one of the very earliest.  After all, William Jaggard died in November 1623, shortly before the first actual purchase of a Folio took place. So if this book truly was a gift, it was most definitely a very, very early copy.

I asked again, once we'd seen a few things and I get the feeling our time in this particular room is coming to an end.  "Any chance I can see #1?"

And, just like that, I can.  Georgianna pulls it down from its shelf, opens the gigantic box that contains the book, and lays it out on the table for me.  I am staring at a one of a kind, almost 400-year-old book.

And there it is.  The picture is not the greatest, but you can see the mark in the upper right corner that identifies this as a gift from Jaggard (posthumously, I've learned).  Amazing.  No, I did not flip through it.  I consider myself lucky to have gotten to see it.

Oh, and to do this.

Best estimates have that book as one of the top 3 most valuable in the world, possibly approaching $10 million.  For the record, I'm not touching it, nor tasting it.  I was quite careful. But I know that my guardians were ok with this particular boldness because not only did Georgianna not have heart failure, she took my camera from Garland and took the picture herself because she didn't like the way Garland was doing it! :)

Today I showed this picture to a coworker.  "You look so happy!" she said.  "Look how happy you look!  It must be amazing to be that passionate about something that it can make you that happy."

Yes.  Yes it is.

Though this was not the last stop on my tour, this is the last post in my "In The Vault" series.  Once again, a tremendous and sincere Thank You to Garland Scott and Georgianna Ziegler for allowing my family and I this once(?) in a lifetime opportunity!

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Happy Birthday To ... Me!

A week before we left for D.C., my wife asked what I wanted for my birthday (which is coming up a few days after Mr. Shakespeare's).  I smiled and said, "We're about to visit the Folger Shakespeare Library.  I'm pretty sure I'll find something."

Fast forward to actually standing in the middle of the Folger Gift Shop.  What should I get, what should I get?  Posters? Jewelry?  Music?  Something about the man, about a specific play, about the sonnets? One of everything, please.

Who are we kidding, I made a beeline straight to what I knew I had to have.

 The First Folio of Shakespeare: The Norton Facsimile

Looking at that Amazon price I see that I just paid more than perhaps I should have, but what can ya do.   I will forever be able to say that I got this one from the Folger itself.  Should have gotten somebody to sign it. ;)


My girls both grabbed for books on the Sonnets, if you can believe that, and I had to talk them out of it.  Not because I don't think that's good study material, but because neither of them was any sort of "Sonnets for Kids" translation.  Both were heavy academic books, and I knew that they wouldn't understand a bit of it.  Instead we settled on some books from one of the Shakespeare for Kids series - one got a book on Shakespeare himself, the other got a translation of Midsummer.  They've already read them, and switched. Multiple times.

The boy, on the other hand, went with a cool jester hat (see "Foolish Games" post).  With bells.  Wore it for the rest of our trip, and was a big hit wherever he went.  Bonus, everybody kept saying "Where'd you get that hat?" and I kept saying, "The Folger Shakespeare Library!"  When he was feeling particularly bold he'd then proclaim, "To be or not to be, that is the question!"

I would open up my prize and flip pages, but my wife promptly stole the book back and announced that I cannot have it until my actual birthday.  Bummer!  But, that gives me a whole other reason to post in a few days :)

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Inside The Vault # 5 : Alan, and The Globe

Down, down, down we travel into the deepest floor of the vault, and there we find Alan Katz (hope I spelled his name correctly!) and Garland introduces me.  "I've left quite a few comments on your blog," he tells me.  I wonder if he's reading now?  Hi, Alan!  Let me know if I've spelled your name correctly!

Georgianna and Garland discuss what cool stuff we might see down here, and they confer with Alan.  "Well," he says, "There's The Globe."  Georgianna agrees that this would indeed be cool.  Garland has apparently never seen what we're about to see, or has forgotten that they had it.

Alan disappears into the stacks and rolls out ...

How cool is that!  I actually got a picture of my kids all standing around it, like a doll house.  I currently have a message in to Garland trying to learn more about this item - what time period it's from, what was it's purpose.  But I knew that I had to include it in my photo tour whether I had the research or not.

Update, directly from Alan (who has promised to post more in comments as he finds it):

The Globe was patented by H. Ernest Conklin, of Roslyn, Long Island, born in 1892. He was a scholar at Cornell and Princeton and professor at Rice in the 1920’s. The model was built no later than 1935 and is on a 3/8”:1’ scale.

Funny story - at the end of our tour of the lowest levels, we travelled back up the elevator and Georgianna took a moment to show us just how heavy and secure the vault doors (yes, multiple doors) are.  As she closes and locks the cage I whisper back down the hall, "Good night, Alan!"  Turning to Georgianna I ask, "You do remember to feed him, right?"

Later, while we were at tea (a Folger tradition!) we saw that Alan had escaped.  Garland had to share my joke with him.  "That's what the book lift is for," he replied, "So they can send down my food."

The tour's stunning and spectacular conclusion is next!

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Inside The Vault #4 : Magic, Magic, Magic!

Harry who?

If your kids want to pretend that they're wizards and witches, let's show them a real magic book!

More from the Folger page:
One of the treasures in the Folger collection is a handwritten book of magic spells that is over 400 years old. The book is written in English, but also includes magical terms like "abracadabra" and drawings of angels, demons, dragons, and other supernatural creatures.

This book was used by many people over many, many years. Owners added their own notes into the margins, and one person even wrote in page numbers.

Although people in the Middle Ages and even during Shakespeare's time used magic for lots of different reasons, including healing sick people, helping to find lost objects, or finding the guilty person when a crime was committed, magic was often done in secret.

I wanted to make some sort of King James reference, since he was supposedly more heavily into the whole witchcraft thing?  But this book dates from 1580. I wonder what Shakespeare's actual experience with this sort of magic might have been?

The trip continues...


This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Inside The Vault #3 : Beasts!

I wish I'd gotten more pictures of this book:

This "Historie of Fovre-Footed Beastes" has a publication date of 1607 by William Jaggard, who'll come back up later in a different Folio story.

The book itself was fascinating.  Note the color?  No, color printing was not available at the time.  This would have been hand colored.

Inside (maybe I'll see if Folger's got some more pictures I can use) was a very wide array of animals that my son had a field day identifying.  Lions!  Goats!  Otters!  Otters?  Yes, even though the otter was apparently not known in England at the time, there was a picture of an otter.  Interesting how knowledge travels.

Speaking of beasts, how about this book on hunting?   If this one looks a little funny, that's because it's covered in deer fur.

The trip continues ...

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Shakespeare's Most Disturbing Deaths

I'm not sure what definition of "disturbing" the Huffington Post used, but the usual suspects are all here in their list of Shakespeare's Most Disturbing Deaths.

Lavinia of course, and Cordelia. Dedemona. All disturbing in their own different ways.

Macbeth?  Well, I suppose.  We see Macduff walking around with his head later.  That's pretty disturbing.

Hamlet's dad.  Hamlet's dad?  He doesn't even die in the course of the play!  He makes the list because of the ghost's *description* of how he died.  Ummm.....that's a bit of a cop out.

Cleopatra? After admitting that she dies happily (and voluntarily)? You put her on your list of disturbing deaths just because "we think it'd be a pretty bad way to go"?  I call shenanigans.

What do you think? In their padding of a few questionable entries, did they miss any better, more disturbing deaths? 

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Inside The Vault #2 : Quartos Quartos Quartos

So there we are in the vault.  Georgianna goes digging for something to show us next, and Garland tells me, "Around the corner are the Quartos."  I take my oldest and we head around the corner.  Yes, you could say that there are Quartos.

Since we were just looking and no one was explaining the significance of these particular volumes, I can't really say what we are looking at.  I highly doubt that "original" (or close to it) editions are shoved on top of each other like that.  If you look carefully you will see a Romeo and Juliet dated 1599, however.  That's pretty cool!  These are almost certainly not original bindings, so maybe it's not such a big deal to have them rubbing up against each other.  It's what's on the inside that counts. Don't judge a quarto by its cover!

Oh, and Bardfilm also suggested that I ask about the only known Q1 edition of Titus Andronicus in existence.  There's a big Titus on the far right end of that first picture. Think that's it?

I had no idea they were so small.  Well, I mean, I knew they were small, but after having seen the Folios all spaced out on their own shelves with nothing else surrounding, to turn the corner and see all these tiny books at once.

"You can't be back there!" I hear Georgianna call.  "Sorry, it's the rules, I'm not back there with you.  That's actually why there's two of us here, Garland is my backup."

"Yes," says Garland, "Technically I'm supposed to tackle you if you make a break for it."

What's funny is that I don't know if this is really a rule, or if they didn't appreciate my sense of humor.  See, in arranging this visit I was going back and forth over email with Garland, and conferring with Bardfilm (who has been to Folger) on what I should see.  What he jokingly suggested, and what I jokingly wrote back to Garland, was

Oh, and @Bardfilm said you've got Quartos just lying around and asked me to grab him one on the way out. :)

Now it all makes sense!

The trip continues...

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Shakespeare Under Water

Dr. Carl Atkins, a regular contributor to this site, sent me a link to this amusing article that he was sure I would not have seen.  What kind of article do you get when you're friends with a legit medical doctor who is also an author of Shakespeare books?

Why, an article from one of his medical journals, of course.  About drownings in Shakespeare.

Starting with the story of 5yr old Jane Shaxspere (who may have been the inspiration for Ophelia?) the article moves on through Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Richard III, Merchant of Venice and even King John, all of which demonstrate their own variations on drowning, falling, submerging, and the fear of these things.  Just how prevalent was drowning in Shakespeare's day? Was it the sort of thing where you woke up in the morning and thought, "I hope I don't drown today!"

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Inside The Vault #1 : Folios Folios Folios

Through a bank vault door, down a haunted elevator, and we were there.  Led by Georgianna and backed up by Garland we made our way into what appeared to be another average library room.  Shelf after shelf of books.  A table that runs the length of the room, on which several books are strewn about.

"Back there are the Folios," Georgianna says.

There, along the back wall of the room and around a corner, is a wall of books, all laying flat.  Various colors, sizes and bindings.  First Folios.  I was there.

As Bard as my witness I had an honest to goodness weak in the knees moment.  I grabbed the shoulders of whichever child I'd been leading into the room a little tighter. My eyes widened. My smile widened.  I whipped my head around to look at Garland, in what I can only hope was the wordless "Oh My God I'm Actually Here" face I was attempting, and then whipped back around to look at my wife with the pure and utter bliss I had in that moment.  Center of the universe.

Georgianna had chosen a particular Folio for us to look at - #78.  Why?

This particular Folio has a number of child's drawings throughout.  I love it.  I love the idea that all 82 of their copies has its own individual story.  Also shows that my tour guides knew a little something about how to keep children occupied, always showing them things that children would find interesting (not something you might expect in a Shakespeare research center!) and keeping them in the conversation.

And this was just the first of many memorable moments.  To be continued....

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Shakespeare and the Presidents : Thomas Jefferson

Next up in our series comes Thomas Jefferson (as always, brought to us by Folger Shakespeare Library's Shakespeare in American Life series).

Jefferson sounds like my kind of guy:

Still, like John Adams, Jefferson usually treated Shakespeare’s plays as something to be read. In one letter, he recommended Shakespeare for reading in the evening, explaining that “Shakespeare must be singled out by one who wishes to learn the full powers of the English language.” When a friend asked him to recommend books to buy, Jefferson encouraged him to include some works of fiction, like Shakespeare’s plays, as a guide to virtue, arguing that “a lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity that were ever written.”

Did everybody catch that "something to be read?"  I'm just sayin.

Seriously, though, I love how that passage nails what I've been trying to say for years -- if you want to know what it means to be a human, look to what Shakespeare put on the stage.

I noted in a previous post that, when Adams and Jefferson went to visit Shakespeare's birthplace, Adams was disappointed. What did Jefferson think?  He "noted the costs of going there, including the entry fees."  Which lead to a later biographer imagining "Jefferson's teeth obviously grating" as he jotted down the fees.

That's interesting to me.  You mean to tell me that in 1786 they were already charging fees to visit the birthplace of Shakespeare, as a tourist attraction? I had no idea.  I suppose we can trace it directly back to the influence of David Garrick, a few decades before this, who made Shakespeare such an attraction?

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Shakespeare and the Presidents : George Washington

Since I was vacationing in Washington D.C, Home of the Presidents, I thought it would be fun to go hunting for Shakespeare connections.

Washington, as you could well imagine, was all over the place.  We spent our Friday at Mt. Vernon, as a matter of fact.  Toured his house, saw his study.  Spoke with a lady doing her best Martha impression. No Shakespeare to be found at all.

Disappointing, really, especially given how much we know that Lincoln did with Shakespeare.

I went googling when I got back to the hotel, and low and behold I found Folger's Shakespeare in American Life series, so I'll just let them do the talking:

 As president, Washington lived in Philadelphia, the nation’s temporary capital. There he once hosted an amateur Shakespeare production, probably in the winter of 1790. William Duer, assistant to the treasury secretary, wrote that Duer “had the honor of appearing before him as one of the dramatis personae in the tragedy of Julius Caesar... in the garret of the Presidential mansion, wherein before the magnates of the land and the elite of the city, I performed the part of Brutus to the Cassius of my old school-fellow, Washington Custis.”

There's also record of his attendance at a Hamlet, and I believe a Tempest as well.  Not too much of a connection with the father of my country.

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Shakespeare and the Presidents : John Adams

Continuing my mashup of presidents and Shakespeare, let's look at John Adams.  Once again, this information all courtesy Folger's Shakespeare in American Life series.

“Let me search for the clue which led great Shakespeare into the labyrinth of human nature. Let me examine how men think.”

Compared to Washington, John Adams appears to have been all about the Shakespeare.  He and his wife Abigail frequently quoted Shakespeare in their letters to each other, and in 1786 Adams went to Shakespeare's birthplace along with Thomas Jefferson (who we'll look at in a separate post).  Adams was disappointed, writing that

The house was “as small and mean as you can conceive,” wrote Adams in his diary. “There is nothing preserved of this great genius... which might inform us what education, what company, what accident turned his mind to letters and drama.” 

 Bummer. What did Jefferson think?  Well, that's another post. :)

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!