tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-192382392024-03-07T10:01:59.822+02:00Shakespeare ExperienceMy reflections and thoughts on the works of William Shakespeare, how he inputs the world (dreadful way of putting it isn't it?) and how my world reflects on and is reflected in his work.Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.comBlogger182125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-70989624439831805822008-12-27T11:06:00.002+02:002008-12-27T11:18:34.608+02:00Gift horse in the mouthI have been thinking about gift giving in Shakespeare.<br /><br />There doesn't seem to be too much of it if I remember rightly.<br /><br />What there is tends to be more insult or cupboard love ... which is interesting.<br /><br />Timon goes over the top with gifts - which in this 'Christmas' season might not seem a bad thing. I am not so sure.<br /><br />I don't celebrate Christmas and I don't give (or take if I can avoid it) gifts. I've got around to a feeling of superficiality in both the giving and the taking - and there is certainly nothing spiritual in it.<br /><br />So what is Timon doing? Is he weak in the mind?<br /><br />I did give a gift this week though - and shall give another on Sunday.<br /><br />Because of the state of my health and the severe possibility that I shall be leaving Romania for a long time, I passed on to one of my young friends my complete DVD collection of Shakespeare and my precious Oxford Complete Works - I hope it gives much pleasure and starts him on a path of adventure and exploration.<br /><br />What I don't feel I've given is anything material. There was an intellectual gift there - and not a definitive one - it is more like a dowry, a source of future riches, a foundationAlan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-2271142898474196692008-12-24T09:52:00.005+02:002008-12-24T10:20:26.317+02:00Wood within a wood ...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Birnam_wood_macbeth.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 281px; height: 182px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Birnam_wood_macbeth.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Although the play has no evidence for it, I like to think of Macbeth looking out over the castle walls at Birnam wood and reflecting.<br /><br />Much in the way I have been reflecting on my tumour.<br /><br />I can actually see it - the doctor cut a 'vent' so he could take the biopsy and has left me a nice view of the problem. For those morbid enough (or with the stomach) it looks a little like a walnut - or half a walnut (the doctor, struggling for the correct English comparison, described it as a cauliflower - which is much too floral). It reminds me of my time in school when we dissected things - and the vengeance of the mouse is upon me - very mouse brain with alcohol dripped on it.<br /><br />Anyway, when you look at 'Birnam Wood' you see your fate - you have to face that fate, there is no alternative. You are looking into the probable end. Macbeth's initial reaction has to turn cold. It is not depression, it is not even depressing, there is a satisfaction as you look and reflect - a knowingness - of being tricked into a false security and of smiling at your own gulability.<br /><br />There is a determination too - OK, you've got me, but I'm going down strong. Not necessarily fighting (although in Macbeth it is that), not necessarily raging - but with whatever strength you can muster and with at least an attempt at dignity.<br /><br />There is a certainty of defeat - and this is possibly an English thing - fighting the game to take part, not to win. The battle will be the final one, and Macbeth has no illusions as to silly schoolboy ideals of glory - he has fought before and knows the hacking of limbs, the bathing in blood the agonies and screams - as I know the fight against pain of cancer - I've seen enough of my family fall to it not to have any illusions: There will be no dignity in the end, just the coughing up of blood,the manual evacuation and the balance between enough pain killer and not extinguishing life.<br /><br />There is no bravery possible, you have a choice of illusion or facing the fight - bravery is when you choose to fight when you do not have to - Macbeth has to, I have to.<br /><br />I am aware though of Macduff - Macbeth as he looks at Birnam knows nothing of him. I know there will come an energy sapping moment when defeat stares me very closely in the face. Macbeth, ever the soldier, 'lays on': I hope to goodness sake I can do the same.Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-72903881753800404542008-12-22T12:13:00.002+02:002008-12-22T12:26:30.626+02:00Nothing serious in mortalityIt is strange when Shakespeare pops into one's head.<br /><br />I was flat on my back in hospital last week coming out of a spinal block and several quotes and ideas popped into my head.<br /><br />Macbeth, of course - with an inevitability only to be expected - <br /><br /><blockquote>There's nothing serious in mortality ...</blockquote><br /><br />- but I'm concentrating on the lack of serious.<br /><br />Being recently diagnosed with a tumour, my sense of humour has been considerably sharpened. So too is Fate's - both the initial 'revelation' under local anesthetic, with the sound of 'jingle bells' (you need to think where the growth is spreading to get the full implication of that one) on the radio (strange music for the urologist I'd say) and then, recovering from the spinal block used for a more adventurous cutting expedition, to have to endure flat on my back without resistance more 'Christmas Cheer' - Angels are apparently singing - not about my plight I hope.<br /><br />No, there is nothing serious in mortality.<br /><br />The spinal block though was another Shakespeare moment.<br /><br />I couldn't help but think of Titus and limb chopping. To have the sensation of legs but no feeling and no possible movement ... it is a weird, frustrating incomprehensibility of a sensation - I'll be coming to the play not too far from now and hope to explore a little that moment.<br /><br />As regular readers of this blog will now understand ... my absence is fortold, but I do hope to get a bit further into the journey before the old antic pops his pin through brass.<br /><br />And I promise to try not to be as self-pitying as Richard.Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-67188860902972257032008-09-29T09:52:00.003+03:002008-09-29T10:06:50.588+03:00It's a miracle ...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/media/iot_marriagecana.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/media/iot_marriagecana.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />In Our Time (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/">link</a>) is back - and serendipitously hit on a related topic ... <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime.shtml">Miracles</a>. You can go and download the programme this week or listen on line in the future.<br /><br />What struck me with regard to '<span style="font-style: italic;">The First Part of the Contention</span>' was the difference between the Protestant and the Catholic attitude to miracles - apparently the miracles of the Elizabethan age would be regarded by the stronger sort of protestant as works of the devil rather than of God - the age of miracles was past - with the ascension of Jesus and the writing of the Gospels.<br /><br />The scene in St Albans then shows two interesting things - one, Gloucester's skepticism is very modern and links him to the right religion on Elizabethan England. Two, the King is stuck in the old dispensation ... he is a Catholic King dupped by a false religion - which accounts for the failure of his religiousness to produce.<br /><br />Much is made in productin of Henry's religious bent - perhaps Shakespeare's Henry was more ambiguously religious than we take him for ... he is not so much an innocent lamb as a fool (if holy one) like Gloucester's Duchess?Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-69014435203868379662008-09-28T09:24:00.007+03:002008-09-28T09:46:06.060+03:00Animal Magic!Lions and Lambs, Foxes and Chickens, Doves, Snakes, Wolves, Eagles, Crocodiles, Porcupines and Dogs … oh yes, and Caterpillars ... and a Calf and his dam.<br /><br />Not a list of creatures you can see in a zoo, but the menagerie invoked in the first Scene of Act 3 of The First Part of the Contention … (Henry VI, Part 2).<br /><br />It is quite a list – deliberately extending earlier references to both the domesticated and wild and linking them to the Duke of Gloucester (most are used with reference to him) the King and the realm of England itself.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1035/799299317_add895e529.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1035/799299317_add895e529.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a>Some carry a weight of obvious symbolism – the Lion, as king of the jungle is also the animal seen ‘rampant’ as representation of England itself (even Willy was a lion – the first ‘mascot in any Soccer World cup – now copied ad nausea and sub-intellect into every sporting event). Ravenous lions are a powerful image – but incorporate a residual (at least for the ‘true’ <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFhxY4wiakChZ-NQOGxTlAK72HS0kxdwG9qvaapz_tpzOWTdtwfxjoZfB-JnWphLHF3MHRLTFywFMNVI8fQedoO0Ippc2FQGIKS6wRPpgZ7yGH3TGUuBaQuKXGVJH2OhyphenhyphenfNm8i/s1600-h/wc1966m1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFhxY4wiakChZ-NQOGxTlAK72HS0kxdwG9qvaapz_tpzOWTdtwfxjoZfB-JnWphLHF3MHRLTFywFMNVI8fQedoO0Ippc2FQGIKS6wRPpgZ7yGH3TGUuBaQuKXGVJH2OhyphenhyphenfNm8i/s200/wc1966m1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250959047276919234" border="0" /></a>Englishman – and if you saw the mustache and leg hair on the average English beauty you’d know that was not sexist) jingoism and a degree of pride (sorry for the pun) in strength.<br /><br />Lambs take on the inevitable representation of sacrifice and the christian association with Christ – as well as provoking the sentimental in urban dwelling moderns: Not an ‘original’ Elizabethan sentiment perhaps.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://acuteproof.com/aldous/nov_7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://acuteproof.com/aldous/nov_7.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>And of course – the lion shall lie down with the lamb – not exactly a threat in the long term.<br /><br />A careful look at the list of animals reveals several ‘double edged’ and consequently ‘interpretable’ linkages.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1420/1094471258_bb6785ec12.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1420/1094471258_bb6785ec12.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a>If the fox is a predator on chickens he is also respected for his cunning – and as long as that cunning is used for good purposes it can be an appellation of respect ( it should be remembered that Shakespeare used ‘Foxes’ Book of Martyrs as a source) – chickens are silly, ‘headless’ creatures which make a lot of noise – begging the question, ‘Who, in this play, are the chickens?’<br /><br />The King – who in this scene loses all the respect gained during his last appearance and is revealed as weak and ‘empty headed’- could certainly be seen as the chicken – but if the king is the head, then the dukes and the Kingdom are in fact the fowl so foolish. There plots and counter-plots, their clucking complaints and their single-minded stupidities are the very reflection of a bunch of farmyard hens.<br /><br />Doves and snakes seem less ambiguous but both reference back to the ‘Book of Genesis’.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDxYNBAZp4PNr74g4v2tZ-nX4Ihtq8FCdw5Gm8M-XSPOZGeBPQ1M8El1Kkgf15ZG8m79KH4FvK0pXcX414qMhSERaeVQY5dgNynY7eu78N8Rds8JbK0jC0-AbRiZ9GFOpmh6cZ/s1600-h/image.php.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDxYNBAZp4PNr74g4v2tZ-nX4Ihtq8FCdw5Gm8M-XSPOZGeBPQ1M8El1Kkgf15ZG8m79KH4FvK0pXcX414qMhSERaeVQY5dgNynY7eu78N8Rds8JbK0jC0-AbRiZ9GFOpmh6cZ/s200/image.php.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250956592500640706" border="0" /></a>The Dove – as a symbol of love and peace – is the superficial reference made by most commentators … but in the play it is the King who first uses it in this scene – and his religiosity suggests the need to dig a little deeper: The dove is the bird that brings the leaf to Noah in his ark – a pointer to a future on dry land and final ‘saving’ after turbulent times.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5bKjUm9274_AWKQEGqxleHkxOb_v_1hJQzD1n5S1pkZOpXek9BYxIfUoj6CI8mNH7SabQn4O3svZz9DN-0aYGt7s-cRHitkvWq9t3ihGQhl5_alrLfh7LXJsAIZXpVaJGdatF/s1600-h/fl.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5bKjUm9274_AWKQEGqxleHkxOb_v_1hJQzD1n5S1pkZOpXek9BYxIfUoj6CI8mNH7SabQn4O3svZz9DN-0aYGt7s-cRHitkvWq9t3ihGQhl5_alrLfh7LXJsAIZXpVaJGdatF/s200/fl.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250956971968391778" border="0" /></a>The Snake – with its definite reference to Aesop and with a proverbial linkage - is also inescapably knee-jerk linked to the Satan/serpent of the Garden of Eden. For the Queen, daughter of Eve as she is (and French daughter of Eve at that), to raise the devil is an inevitable ‘back-fire’ with an audience schooled each Sunday in the sins of our progenitors.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfGBPnWF0ZD-WBigRbZJm1WW26vwYtCd-sYepqd4eH-a3GfFiooKSEHFrz4xpCLLZD0QXWQlNuhSxJJ_TdWMxLECLhraAg3L41M0fWqm5AiUeIx8MtP9PGIUHfvz0AiGxh-QyK/s1600-h/AWG_WolfPackAttack.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfGBPnWF0ZD-WBigRbZJm1WW26vwYtCd-sYepqd4eH-a3GfFiooKSEHFrz4xpCLLZD0QXWQlNuhSxJJ_TdWMxLECLhraAg3L41M0fWqm5AiUeIx8MtP9PGIUHfvz0AiGxh-QyK/s200/AWG_WolfPackAttack.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250957522501609538" border="0" /></a><br />The wolf is a pack animal – the Eagle is a noble bird: Not the intended meaning given by York as he hypocritically works against Gloucester and the King under the guise of legality.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://latin.bestmoodle.net/media/1501crocodile.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://latin.bestmoodle.net/media/1501crocodile.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Crocodiles and Porcupines are a touch exotic – and hence suspicious …weakening in this English context any power they might have and more suggestive of flights of fancy and trivial image making than serious insight.<br /><br />At which point I go back to my last post –<br /><br /><blockquote>and show itself, attire me how I can</blockquote><br /><br />the Duchess’s exiting lines and reminder that the truth will out in the end.<br /><br />Having been both a writer of references for people applying for higher education and employment, and a reader of references written, one thing is certain – bad comments say more about the writer than the subject. The instant you read a negative comment you ask – why have you put that? – you don’t say, ‘really, that’s not a nice thing’.<br /><br />Shakespeare’s loading of the negative comments here with the animal images is a fascinating exploitation of this phenomenon and a delicious insight (in our post-subconscious world) into the slip from domestic husbandry to vicious wildness that the country is making as it removes the final good shepherd from his post.Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-17232301690873080302008-09-26T11:38:00.005+03:002008-09-26T11:58:38.676+03:00Diptych; TriptychKey pointer to change in a stage performance is the passage of people – an empty stage is a far greater marker of end/beginning than the written word ‘<i>exaunt</i>’ (with or without a new scene or act number).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.armour.k12.sd.us/Mary%27s%20Classes/stage.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.armour.k12.sd.us/Mary%27s%20Classes/stage.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><span lang="EN-GB">The flow of people onto the stage – sometimes with a musical accompaniment, sometimes silently or with the </span><span lang="EN-GB">clashing of weapons, the marching of feet and waving of banners – is an important stimulus to pay attention – something new is going to happen; the draining away of all, leaving a bare wooden platform, is a sure fire kick-start to the question, ‘Well, what was all that about then?’</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsfc3arVuQO4IR13L08zLQzP4UYrjc8ttdjugGvLkbKCyIpV1ejjaUkNmKCcrHj4318NEi57DJ-OL1NBra9Iz5wFSUuhoF8OJiTaNskjJL5cOylwby3wgedYGyUdZMDrFxAfyv/s1600-h/nelson.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsfc3arVuQO4IR13L08zLQzP4UYrjc8ttdjugGvLkbKCyIpV1ejjaUkNmKCcrHj4318NEi57DJ-OL1NBra9Iz5wFSUuhoF8OJiTaNskjJL5cOylwby3wgedYGyUdZMDrFxAfyv/s200/nelson.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250250300030423314" border="0" /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Part of the difficulty of ‘reading’ a play like <i>The First Part of the Contention</i> … is this lack of </span><span lang="EN-GB">definition – I am tempted to say it is the difference between seeing a postcard of Nelson on his column and being in Trafalgar Square, pigeons, traffic, tourists and all.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Paradoxically, a greater clarity of the individuality of scenes also leads to a sense of cohesiveness: Humans love to sum the parts.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /><span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It is a mistake to over emphasis the narrative as sole foundation upon which Shakespeare is building.<span style=""> </span>It is a</span><span lang="EN-GB"> mistake easy to make – especially with the History Plays which are based on a national narrative, pre-written and only adapted by the word-play-forger.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The director in me (small, sniveling, unfulfilled, deflated, vestigial<span style=""> </span>lump that it is) never lets go of Shakespeare’s lov</span><span lang="EN-GB">e of juxtaposition.<span style=""> </span>Examine any two scenes he placed next to each other and you will usually find a wealth of links – frequently, but not exclusively, in the form of a contrast.<span style=""> </span>Put three scenes side by side and the sum becomes greater than the parts.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Act 2 of <i>The First Part of the Contention</i> (Henry VI, Part 2) provides an example in scenes 2,3 and 4.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Quite frankly, they are not a good read.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /><span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">We have a complicated spoken genealogy guaranteed to confuse, even when re-read; a scene that seems to be taking place in a court – possibly a public execution place – with a short announcement and bit of a fight; then a scene in a street with more talk and next to no action: Nothing happens twice with a bit of<span style=""> </span>physical distraction in-between.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Overtly scen</span><span lang="EN-GB">e 2 is York’s explanation of why he is the rightful heir to the throne and why Henry is an usurper.<span style=""> </span>It is possible to dig out a genealogical table and follow his argument (although beware – Shakespeare, copying his source closely, gets a bit of it confused) – and come to the conclusion, ‘he has a point’.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Legally then, York should be King – but Shakespeare doesn’t leave it there – he adds a coda.<span style=""> </span>When Salisbury and Warwick have knelt and declared him King, York goes on to suggest the need for all three to be deceitful and pretend to be what they are not – with the purpose of disposing of Gloucester, ‘the shepherd’.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">At which point Mr Shakespeare empties the stage.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">So – what <i>was</i> that all about?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">We have a justified legal claim which sounds like ‘words, words, words’, and an intended illegal action in promotion of that claim.<span style=""> </span>Do actions subvert rights?<span style=""> </span>If York gets the crown this way is he in rightful possession?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">By which time the trumpets are sounding and in walks the un-rightful king – in full splendour (complete with the crown) and power.<span style=""> </span>He gives judgment in a court case – sentences, in full public view and with assurance (and a glimpse of god’s anointed majesty) to death evil-doers and, with rightful distinction, to internal exile their silly dupe (Gloucester’s wife).<span style=""> </span>The language used is clear, straight and unambiguous.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The criminals go off to ‘execution’ and in come the master and apprentice for the trial by combat.<span style=""> </span>One is drunk and getting drunker – the other almost insensible with fear.<span style=""> </span>The drunk has pro-claimed York true King and is a</span><span lang="EN-GB">ssured victory by both experience and physical size; the apprentice – and that meant boy – has no chance, even though right is on his side.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">But a ‘miracle’ happens – the excessive drink confounds the man and the boy wins.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Watching this is Henry, the ‘young’ King, York, Warwick, and the rest of the court … including all of those mentioned in the previous scene as subverters of the state and its laws.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">York, in two quick lines, sees not the actions of God, but the wine as cause of the victory; Henry, closing the scene in 6 lines (looking always for the interventions of God) heaven’s intent to punish and bring low the unrighteous, reward those true.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">And the stage empties again … with trumpets and display, cheering and the dragging off of a dead body.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Clearly there is a demonstration of ‘right over might’ – but York was on stage – and all those lords he was talking about … is Henry falsely secure?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">And where were the combatants standing?<span style=""> </span>Was Henry ‘above’ and the fight below?<span style=""> </span>Where was York (and his friends) standing in the scene before?<span style=""> </span>If York, then the witch and Gloucester’s wife, then the fight are all seen on the same spot – they are linked.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Why the drink?<span style=""> </span>The previous scene took place after the Lords had dined together – were any of them slightly drunk?<span style=""> </span>(It would make for a more entertaining scene if Warwick was slightly tipsy).<span style=""> </span>Excessiveness in drink is a metaphor for other excessiveness – and the armorer was the one who supported York’s claim to the throne – is there truth in wine or is it just oil for the wheels on the tumbrel?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">In silence, Gloucester enters.<span style=""> </span>He is here to watch his wife’s punishment and penance – was he ordered to?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://de.web-blaster.org/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Donne-shroud.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://de.web-blaster.org/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Donne-shroud.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><span lang="EN-GB"><span style=""> </span>Eleanor Cobham enters – dressed in a simple white sheet (a shroud?<span style=""> </span>Memento mori?<span style=""> </span>Gloucester and his servants <i>are</i> is mourning black).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Gloucester refuses to break the law and rescue her – but she, apparently learning nothing from her experience, berates him for allowing her public disgrace.<span style=""> </span>She invokes the image of Gloucester as a bird when she says a bush is being limed for his capture.<span style=""> </span>Gloucester gently rebukes her and tells her to keep faith with the laws of the land – she is being rightly punished for a crime she did commit.<span style=""> </span>She warns him that he will not live long – he is next in line f</span><span lang="EN-GB">or the chop.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">She is taken off to the Isle of Man and Gloucester leaving earlier to go to the King’s parliament.<span style=""> </span>Eleanor’s words close the scene – no matter how well dressed, she will always bear the ‘shame’ of the shroud.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The biggest contrast between scenes 3 & 4– and surely the one with the initial impact – is the costume: Scene 3 is all colour, all state, all heraldic splendor –<span style=""> </span>Eleanor Cobham is still ‘Duchess’ and is in her finery, the King in his robes of state, and the peers of England resplendent; Scene 4 is plain black and then white – the black of mourning and the white of the dead.<span style=""> </span>There is the martial uniform and weapons of the Sheriff and his men encasing the woman ‘caught in sin’ … and a brief reminder, in the person of the herald, of the previous colourful scene.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Eleanor’s closing words force us to think back to the previous scenes – and point to the future – we cannot hide our guilt in our surface appearances.<span style=""> </span>It is a common enough theme in Shakespeare – no less significant for its ubiquity.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8c/Harbaville.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8c/Harbaville.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span lang="EN-GB">These juxtapositions reveal interesting aspects of the play which might not be noticed as so significant if analysis is restricted to any individual scene (or the play ‘as a whole’) – but what happens if we look at the three of them as a triptych?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">One element that strikes me is the intensity with which the relationship between legality and right is put under the spot light.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It is clear that York has a legal claim to the throne – but has he any ‘right’?<span style=""> </span>The first doubt to his claim is found within the scene where he expounds that right – he is willing to cheat, lie and play false in order to win.<span style=""> </span>This is immediately brought into contrast with the Kingly Henry – for the first time (and possibly last) behaving as a true king – and with the condemnation of those who plot against the rule of God and the state.<span style=""> </span>The fight then emphasises the ultimate exposure of such falsity even when supported by might.<span style=""> </span>The drunkenness suggests an excessive intoxication as a cause of ultimate failure, which is a point acknowledged by York – but not absorbed.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The failure to act moderately results in death – both the physical death of the man (as the body carried off at the end of the third scene clearly indicates) and the spiritual death of Eleanor Cobham – who goes to her exile not repenting her sin, but repenting her fall.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Eleanor Cobham and York are paired in these three scenes – both have been driven by ambition, both are playing the Devil’s game, both wish to abuse the laws of the land for personal gain.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /><span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Henry appears in the central scene as a right acting rock standing against a battering sea of false aristocracy – he is ‘Peter’ – the name given to the winning apprentice – and the true rock on which the foundations of Christianity are laid.<span style=""> </span>He has a blind faith in right winning out in the end.<span style=""> </span>But we mustn’t forget - true justice <i>is</i> blind!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Which pairs him with Gloucester – the ‘<i>Good Duke Humphrey</i>’ of the plays original, full title.<span style=""> </span>For in the fourth scene Gloucester makes the claim that he cannot be harmed because he has committed no crime.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The second scene has prepared us to hear these words with a dramatically ironic ear – we know the plots and traps being laid for the old man, the limed twigs that will snare him<span style=""> </span>– but we have also just seen right winning in the end.<span style=""> </span>If York and Gloucester’s wife are linked – then the ultimate fate of both is also linked and no matter what deceptions York contrives, in the end he will be made to do penance for his crimes – and go to punishment after that penance.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It is worth remembering that Shakespeare’s play, despite its verisimilitude, has taken a great liberty at this point – it has moved the events of 1442 when Gloucester’s wife and the others were tried and condemned forward to 1448 when York and his two friends met in the garden.<span style=""> </span>This is not the accidental juxtapositioning of chronology – it is the deliberate artistic mixing of disparate events in a unified space.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-75842862784147464332008-09-20T15:12:00.007+03:002008-09-20T16:00:00.535+03:00Wind and fair weather friends… ?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYfQ4iD-D8pcD-sHyFaCAnmOUtZq673evrG4VtWP18MfcBhQ4cLIOVN7vPlzq5Z_byrvtgNABk4MJkHhWR2qfNHt7W6fQHNdL05la5-mRPhcg_T9JKFANkHaO70zyvpb07D9A3/s1600-h/falconry.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5248087401867140786" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYfQ4iD-D8pcD-sHyFaCAnmOUtZq673evrG4VtWP18MfcBhQ4cLIOVN7vPlzq5Z_byrvtgNABk4MJkHhWR2qfNHt7W6fQHNdL05la5-mRPhcg_T9JKFANkHaO70zyvpb07D9A3/s320/falconry.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><div><div><div><br /><div><br />After several days of wet miserable (English-style) weather, the rain dropped away and left a cool, billowy day yesterday.<br /><br />I sat in the Park. Wet drips from the trees and grey clouds canvas out the sky; I listened to/read the first scene in Act 2 (The First Part of the Contention).<br /><br />There were similarities – none more so than the difficulty the birds were having flying. Most of the ground level, tree flitting birds were OK – it was the cross the sky birds – the crows, the occasional adventurous pidgin and the Kestrel I usually see circling behind the cathedral tower that were having difficulties. They were there, they were getting on with their ‘birdie lives’, but it was difficult.<br /><br />Wind is exciting – ask any school teacher on playground supervision (do teachers do that sort of thing now?). Great childhood battles brew under Aeolia’s influence …; Juno bribed and browbeat the original in an attempt to destroy Aeneas; Chicago, the windy city, is famed for its gangs and violent crime.<br /><br />The Queen is under the influence of the wind – she enters the stage on a high. And if the behaviour of the Lords is anything to go by, they too have their schoolboy spirits stirred: Gloucester and the Cardinal plot, the others bicker. The King ignores, to his cost.<br /><br />It is marvellous how Shakespeare, in a few moments of dialogue, can sum up the basic human experience of exposure to nature. And the wind will be back …<br /><br />We are out in the wind with our ‘falcons’ – well, Taming the Shrew was an act of falconry and here, in the next play, the we are reminded again of that early marriage comedy – the King tells his wife to shut up – and she apparently does.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7cjyHOQmdi7acHYl42AJagadO-fkLzFORCNlgbEtW6CEGfaCgoUgQDIdv9am9OQ_gUGLrvAgmymkFE3VY7VV5jOUundG7tFZ1pMgAmbij4vO4Ltl8PvBl5RPbMtP1Y_bzCOXa/s1600-h/CrestNoShield.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5248083509463977938" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7cjyHOQmdi7acHYl42AJagadO-fkLzFORCNlgbEtW6CEGfaCgoUgQDIdv9am9OQ_gUGLrvAgmymkFE3VY7VV5jOUundG7tFZ1pMgAmbij4vO4Ltl8PvBl5RPbMtP1Y_bzCOXa/s200/CrestNoShield.jpg" border="0" /></a>Behind the dialogue, spurring it on, one might say, is Gloucester’s Heraldic crest. This included a hawk – so the jokes which follow are bound in with the identity of the Gloucester family in a way which modern audiences have no real way of grasping.<br /><br />Nowadays we are familiar with the Logo of sports teams and manufacturers of sports wear … a few people might recognise the heraldic devices of a few countries, some still carry them on their flags – but for most, the shield and the livery are quaint ideas, symbols of decadence or mere decoration. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4vzgRsIDJihY0sR_dv4wgV0MPfYKyV8wi-nD9SJsSRfXm3SL-V9Im8vTJ_xi744LOQhJMQirowPLJnHWrworqN93sCm0GRZqySHz7XbjETcpJ1EmWG_rgNfXI9G0vDm71l2MA/s1600-h/Shakespeare1COA.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5248080744530296690" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4vzgRsIDJihY0sR_dv4wgV0MPfYKyV8wi-nD9SJsSRfXm3SL-V9Im8vTJ_xi744LOQhJMQirowPLJnHWrworqN93sCm0GRZqySHz7XbjETcpJ1EmWG_rgNfXI9G0vDm71l2MA/s200/Shakespeare1COA.png" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Not so to Shakespeare – he after all, went to get his own coat of arms drawn up. It is worth noting that Shakespeare was not the only stage professional who did this – Augustine Phillips also applied … which would suggest that the heraldic was something of meaning and worth at least to the theatre people. One of the written pieces of evidence for Shakespeare as a writer is in the account books of the Earl of Rutland – payment to Burbage (a carpenter who could act and paint!) and Shakespeare for making/painting/writing a heraldic device and accompanying poem to be used at a ‘joust’ celebrating a visit of James I/VI .<br /><br />Punning on the meaning of such devices must have been a very powerful ‘weapon’ in the political armoury of the play … giving the right ‘nickname’ to an opponent can be very revealing – children may shout out, ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me’ – but they will go home and cry about it in the secrecy of their own bedrooms.<br /><br />And the fact that the jokes about towering and raising above don’t reflect the person of Gloucester doesn’t negate the fact they do reflect his ‘family’ in the person of his wife – who we have just seen arrested and the news of whose arrest brings the scene to an end.<br /><br />Which brings us to the second part of the scene – the revelation of false miracle and reminder of the ever-present ‘low-life’ undertow to the play.<br /><br />What interests me at this point is plums (testicles) and climbing plum trees (sexual intercourse). We have some overt punning going on here. Again, likely to be lost to modern audiences – and to have been crystal clear to the early watchers of the play.<br /><br />When ‘the wife’ says:<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><blockquote>…, and bought his climbing very dear<br /></blockquote><br />a set of levels of meaning are activated – which resonates through all on stage.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd0tNF0UExl9CPzNCrTmJMka3zsBz0NOrh3oEXM2GL7ac9NbVa4hHmS9cfY5-5fAQe4iJ_J0azldNze4M0_4fT1ugwnFhhmxvXMcbT9quqZ24SSTmh5ideFgRFZIimYaUsrGCh/s1600-h/004-emblem-1-serpent-eve-q75-402x500.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5248085926263778498" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd0tNF0UExl9CPzNCrTmJMka3zsBz0NOrh3oEXM2GL7ac9NbVa4hHmS9cfY5-5fAQe4iJ_J0azldNze4M0_4fT1ugwnFhhmxvXMcbT9quqZ24SSTmh5ideFgRFZIimYaUsrGCh/s200/004-emblem-1-serpent-eve-q75-402x500.jpg" border="0" /></a>Simpcox must surely be regarded as ‘driven’ by his wife – or led through his lust for her. His wife has possibly led him on using his uncontrolled passions.<br /><br />On stage, we see Gloucester – he is about to fall, like Simpcox, because of his wife – although it is not Gloucester’s fault – but his wife’s blindness to god which will make her husband lame. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0R-zcP02ks4tuyVo3nj0WCgExePkymBUqVi2WGPxR35yF1mVNLp8ssCf52ZDW8A1SWIc3I6YfcHCWzyRSbBdd1177qkEmJn8aYlYiSL_JSML-x8_riGj3ciFhTMeJoTsYW0bL/s1600-h/boy_7185_md.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5248086351351249138" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0R-zcP02ks4tuyVo3nj0WCgExePkymBUqVi2WGPxR35yF1mVNLp8ssCf52ZDW8A1SWIc3I6YfcHCWzyRSbBdd1177qkEmJn8aYlYiSL_JSML-x8_riGj3ciFhTMeJoTsYW0bL/s200/boy_7185_md.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The Queen, who is still playing a virtuous game (Henry VI Part I, has not yet been written) is going to go the way of ‘The Wife’ and use a man’s lust to bring down the Lancastrian family fortunes.<br /><br />The lustful man is surely William de la Pole – Suffolk: He, like Simpcox, will defy God and, attempting to climb into the Queen’s Plum Tree, fall and break his head.<br /><br />Finally, another, easy to miss element is the onlookers – the crowd who will accompany Simpcox and his wife in the direction of fortune, cheering them on – and then join as heartily in the jeers as they are whipped through the towns – the playground crowd watching the for any excitement and excuse to coagulate. </div></div></div></div></div>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-17117285489718022822008-09-13T15:21:00.004+03:002008-09-13T15:29:58.288+03:00Black Marks, on Skin of Calf ...<p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ambivalent Writes, Certain Deaths</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">A little ‘sub-text’ developing in the play is<span style=""> </span>concerned with writing.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/images/Silentium.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/images/Silentium.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><span lang="EN-GB">The written word has made a number of appearances so far – too many to be accidental?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Each of the occasions has also shown a degree of falsehood and/or innate disaster.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The play starts with a written contract – the marriage contract; the petitioners try to present<span style=""> </span>written petitions; Eleanor’s questions and the spirits answers are inscribed and recorded.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It is not hard to see the reaction of Cade to lawyers (hang all of them) and writing as potentially justified in the light of these documents.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The marriage contract is seen as disastrous – Gloucester has a fainting fit when he </span><span lang="EN-GB">first reads it and it sets off the whole chain of events of the play.<span style=""> </span>As I mentioned earlier, it is a contract binding unequal partners in a ‘til-death-do-us-part’ union.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The petitioners rightful grievances, once written, are either taken and used as a weapon against someone not concerned in the original petition (York) or are simply ripped up and prove impotent – although costly, for a scribe will have had to have been paid, and a lawyer consulted.<span style=""> </span>Can we say it is the written word that ultimately causes the battle between the apprentice and his master – and the death of one of them?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">In this last scene of the first act we have the written word associated with evil – it is used to write down the words of a Devil, and York, even though he knows the seriously ambivalent nature of what is written, still holds on to it.<span style=""> </span>Again, the written words will</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.letterarypress.com/images/products/large/B020.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.letterarypress.com/images/products/large/B020.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span lang="EN-GB"> be used in a court to condemn people – and whilst Eleanor gets sent to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man">Isle of Man</a> (a living death) the others are killed.<span style=""> </span>It is noticeable that the one person really responsible for the getting together of the condemned ( Hume – truly a devil’s advocate) escapes the power of the words to entrap.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">For a playwright, written words are ambivalent – she or he puts into the written form meaning and intent - but the performance of any play will never equal the intent.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /><span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Shakespeare, as an actor and playwright was well aware of this.<span style=""> </span>Indeed, all three of the plays he has so far written have shown considerable propensity to ‘interpretation’ – the words do not pin down to a single meaning, the actor has scope to interpret and almost completely invert<span style=""> </span>the meanings.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There is a strong belief held by many (meaning me) that Shakespeare didn’t want his play texts published – that he didn’t want them read – precisely because they are not complete on the page – that as writing they are open to the evil of distortion and misjudgment – used to make a trap for fools – and, until in the mouth of the actor, they are incomplete.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Did Shakespeare play Cade?<span style=""> </span>Did he want all the lawyers and dealers in written words, the teachers and those who can read, executed – Academics and readers of Shakespeare as literature, beware!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-62919680440887800932008-09-12T12:33:00.007+03:002008-09-12T12:50:27.850+03:00Devil in t' tale ...<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Nothing separates me further from the average Elizabethan than belief in the supernatural.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There not only was a God, but a Devil – that personification of Evil</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvdtOGe9aKiY-n5apqQO3b2QpUTRoK6T7lb4JDRI8WBtIPoaF62xevb5t7xyAJyBQLjdQUekfP_9jTBhlKwQB32bVhbgsSdbEW6waSx-RFHM-j1KKAs9B0vus_R7ub68L4f8V5/s1600-h/devil.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvdtOGe9aKiY-n5apqQO3b2QpUTRoK6T7lb4JDRI8WBtIPoaF62xevb5t7xyAJyBQLjdQUekfP_9jTBhlKwQB32bVhbgsSdbEW6waSx-RFHM-j1KKAs9B0vus_R7ub68L4f8V5/s200/devil.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245068096166622050" border="0" /></a><span lang="EN-GB"> was a physical reality which was capable of manifesting itself and which had servants, both human and other.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It is quite ‘remarkable on’, that, in this first of the History plays, Shakespeare brings on to sta</span><span lang="EN-GB">ge one such ‘servant’ and several human exploiters of Evil – and provides what must have been a sensational end to the first act (if he was thinking in acts at the time).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">When I say sensational, I am using the term in a way that indicates the stimulation of the senses rather than ‘original’ – because it is not very o</span><span lang="EN-GB">riginal - it is one of the older tricks in the book – for what is raised for the Duchess is very much a Mediaeval Mystery Play deceiving devil – the chase-through-the-crowd with horns and pitchfork devil which must have been a mix between clown at the circus and horror movie thrill.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There is not a great deal of subtl</span><span lang="EN-GB">ety in it – and Marlowe and Greene, both write around the same time plays which include spirit raising.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3mAw6vcUXag5BdpZbdzABn82b6JpzawIw3MzvEXYpBCOHXalRxTh49UfzwD33GzxJUzPz2EqNjP7gMoikxONwpmU1HVT2JrCFDJ_NjVysAkozRmKgmxUz3y64TEd1YEfEaQ8/s1600-h/fpimage3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3mAw6vcUXag5BdpZbdzABn82b6JpzawIw3MzvEXYpBCOHXalRxTh49UfzwD33GzxJUzPz2EqNjP7gMoikxONwpmU1HVT2JrCFDJ_NjVysAkozRmKgmxUz3y64TEd1YEfEaQ8/s200/fpimage3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245068819203538514" border="0" /></a><span lang="EN-GB">What is the supernatural doing in a retelling of History?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The obvious answer is that it was in the history books – the characters named and the events portrayed on stage were, more or less, in the chronicles.<span style=""> </span>This, more than anything else, should hammer home the way the spiritual was ingrained in the early modern mind’s perceptions of reality.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">What Shakespeare does is shift the timing – moving the downfall of Eleanor Cobham forwards into the time frame of the play – in reality she had committed her witchcraft (which included the making of a doll of the King for an ‘attempt on his life’ – things Shakespeare cuts) before </span><span lang="EN-GB">Margaret came to England – they never actually met.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Why?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Two reasons fall into place for me – one to do with Shakespeare’s exploration of the metap</span><span lang="EN-GB">hor of marriage and one to do with the ‘theatrical’.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">In direct disobedience to her husband and all the warnings of </span><span lang="EN-GB">religion, Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester consorts with evil spirits.<span style=""> </span>She does so in order to promote her own status in search of the crown of England.<span style=""> </span>This heady combination of ambition and disobedience is played out several times in the play – with consequences.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcSPE3me7gYABuOlikBucBjmTajrAjkJBuDnBMUab9PIg4CdiX-ChIpZAycPQdVTaLL4epx6hvzFiVFLDKs7wWxqlMfDOfZYlgi-G1yBefAdPKgxGuy_qwmEtM1-hbDll5z8k1/s1600-h/Play37+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcSPE3me7gYABuOlikBucBjmTajrAjkJBuDnBMUab9PIg4CdiX-ChIpZAycPQdVTaLL4epx6hvzFiVFLDKs7wWxqlMfDOfZYlgi-G1yBefAdPKgxGuy_qwmEtM1-hbDll5z8k1/s200/Play37+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245069047138730354" border="0" /></a><span lang="EN-GB">It is not only the female characters (for this is what Margaret does, and Simpcox’s wife) but, if we take the idea of husband equating with King, also the Cardinal and York – in fact, it is at the root of nearly every dispute and disagreement.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The only character who seems true to both king, country, religion and family is Gloucester … ironically enough.<span style=""> </span>It is Gloucester who maintains the faith – as is shown in the previous scene where he sentences to trial by combat, despite the obvious physical disparity, York’s armourer and his apprentice.<span style=""> </span>He is saying, ‘God’s will be done’.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This is not the passive Christianity of Henry – it is a forceful assertion.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /><span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Eleanor goes against her husband – showing as strongly as possible the doctrine of free will and independence of judgment.<span style=""> </span>In Shakespeare’s previous play (The Shrew), Katherine submits to Petruccio not through force – but through realisation of the rightness of her submission.<span style=""> </span>As a consequence, what will Petruccio not do for his wife?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">So too with Gloucester – as long as it is within the bounds of morality, what will Gloucester not do for his wife – he has raised her to the status of second woman in the realm … but she wants more.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">To get it she chose the summoning of spirits … and how could Shakespeare not exploit the theatrical possibilities of such an opportunity?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">As I mentioned above, there is the thrill and excitement of such an enactment – sound effects and special effects (the stage directions of the time call for them) were possible – if the play is being performed on stage there is the chance to raise the devil through the trap on stage: The stage picture itself emblematic – a semi-circle of conjurers around the chalk marks on the platform, one man with pen – putting to paper the words spoken and on the upper platform, standing at the apex of a triangle, Eleanor.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Eleanor doesn’t speak – her words are transmitted – through writing: Later, in Macbeth, Shakespeare (or Middleton) dares go one further and have a direct between the questioner and the answerer.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">In the theatre, you remember this scene – on the page it looks somewhat limp and silly.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There is another element which is worth comment.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giotto_di_Bondone">Giotto</a>, an Italian painter who looks somewhat dated to us</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7B_3pxYpwb8bAuMFikwLQ4hyPqu4BmthnUEwRlFv2WQJrJJFmnixs7c-Wx90UAcwfv26aHjDyGsRPfUHDBF1LN0NgE1FQQJrp_a_Ti2iTZAS7EFu1F0p2h55rc6p0tco3_rQC/s1600-h/_1769744_devil300.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7B_3pxYpwb8bAuMFikwLQ4hyPqu4BmthnUEwRlFv2WQJrJJFmnixs7c-Wx90UAcwfv26aHjDyGsRPfUHDBF1LN0NgE1FQQJrp_a_Ti2iTZAS7EFu1F0p2h55rc6p0tco3_rQC/s200/_1769744_devil300.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245067060741757650" border="0" /></a><span lang="EN-GB"> (although with his frescoes nicely cleaned he has a great line in blue), has claim to be the first great modern man – certainly in the world of arts.<span style=""> </span>Before Giotto, the visual representation of people was somewhat formulaic – and very one dimensional.<span style=""> </span>With a few strokes of his brush he gave a reality to his people – three dimensional bodies.<span style=""> </span>It was the start of a roller coaster leading to perspective, the portraits of the Renaissance and even the Sistine Chapel roof painting.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Shakespeare’s first ‘spirit’ manifestation has something of that renaissance makeover feel too.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">If it is the child of the Medaeval Mystery Devil – gone is the flatness.<span style=""> </span>This is a devil in torment.<span style=""> </span>The language spoken, nodding in the direction of ritual and Latin (kick at the Catholic church?) is clearly a modern English – and the modernness of it is an extra source of fear … this is possible, this is real, this could be us.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Cutting edge or what?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-40180121005142666932008-09-06T12:44:00.004+03:002008-09-06T12:57:12.093+03:00Base Cullions ...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://adizabava.weblog.ro/usercontent/34566/BlazonPolitehnica1921%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://adizabava.weblog.ro/usercontent/34566/BlazonPolitehnica1921%5B1%5D.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The need to protest against a perceived injustice runs deep in all of us.<span style=""> </span>It is an expression of faith in the power of those that hear to redress the injury.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">A couple of days ago Romanian football threw up another <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/feedarticle/7775256">occasion</a> for spontaneous popular protest.<span style=""> </span>The machinations of the footballing barons, the disputes over ‘territory’ and the helplessness of ordinary against the powerful, resulted in several hundreds of fans protesting publicly, a minor skirmish or two (complete with broken heads), the temporary blocking of traffic and a loud march to the centre of the town.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It was quite exciting – I followed the crowd in the hope of seeing some action but in the end was disappointed as it fizzled out – the protesters were leaderless and, by the time they’d made it to Opera Square, it was late.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Although this made the national press little has appeared outside of Romania - which is strange, because it was such a minor protest in the same city<span style=""> </span>of Timisoara which caused the Revolution of 1989, which brought down </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/574200.stm">Nicolae Ceausescu</a><span lang="EN-GB"> (I won’t say communism) to start.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The difference, I guess, is the comparative political stability now.<span style=""> </span>The spark of a minor grievance is not enough to set a significant social blaze – but should be heeded as a warning by those in power.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Shakespeare gives us a similar ‘protest’ at the start of the third scene of ‘The First Part of the Conflict …’.<span style=""> </span>The protesters are the petitioners – men with a grievance they wish to make public and have redressed by the powers that be (in their eyes, the Lord Protector: Gloucester).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">They are not able to get access to the person who counts (much as the Timisoarian protesters, who really need UEFA and FIFA<span style=""> </span>to listen don’t get their voices heard through international media indifference).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The Queen, showing a severe lack of insight, sends them off with an:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><blockquote>‘Away, base cullions.’</blockquote></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">She might as well have said, ‘Let them eat cake’!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">In less than 40 lines, shifting from the seriously dangerous devil-dabblings of<span style=""> </span>Gloucester’s wife, to an ‘all is not well’ in the body politic Shakespeare has given the foundations for all that is to follow – here we have the rule (and importantly spirit) of right and justice being swept aside, earlier we had basics of ‘respect’ and<span style=""> </span>‘God-given authority’ being ignored.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The protesters in Timisoara appear to have been as unsuccessful as those in Shakespeare’s play … All they need is a Jack Cade though to feed on their genuine grievances.</span></p>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-33856599778083693122008-09-04T12:53:00.005+03:002008-09-04T13:09:47.030+03:00Family Values ...<o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><br/> <w:worddocument><br/> <w:view>Normal</w:View><br/> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom><br/> <w:compatibility><br/> <w:breakwrappedtables/><br/> <w:snaptogridincell/><br/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/><br/> <w:useasianbreakrules/><br/> </w:Compatibility><br/> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel><br/> </w:WordDocument><br/></xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><div class="youtube-video"><object<br/> classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui></object></div><br/><style><br/>st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }<br/></style><br/><![endif]--><style><br/><!--<br/> /* Font Definitions */<br/> @font-face<br/> {font-family:"Comic Sans MS";<br/> panose-1:3 15 7 2 3 3 2 2 2 4;<br/> mso-font-charset:0;<br/> mso-generic-font-family:script;<br/> mso-font-pitch:variable;<br/> mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;}<br/> /* Style Definitions */<br/> p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal<br/> {mso-style-parent:"";<br/> margin:0cm;<br/> margin-bottom:.0001pt;<br/> mso-pagination:widow-orphan;<br/> font-size:12.0pt;<br/> font-family:"Comic Sans MS";<br/> mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";<br/> mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";<br/> mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;}<br/>@page Section1<br/> {size:612.0pt 792.0pt;<br/> margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt;<br/> mso-header-margin:36.0pt;<br/> mso-footer-margin:36.0pt;<br/> mso-paper-source:0;}<br/>div.Section1<br/> {page:Section1;}<br/>--><br/></style><!--[if gte mso 10]><br/><style><br/> /* Style Definitions */<br/> table.MsoNormalTable<br/> {mso-style-name:"Table Normal";<br/> mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;<br/> mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;<br/> mso-style-noshow:yes;<br/> mso-style-parent:"";<br/> mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;<br/> mso-para-margin:0cm;<br/> mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;<br/> mso-pagination:widow-orphan;<br/> font-size:10.0pt;<br/> font-family:"Times New Roman";}<br/></style><br/><![endif]--><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Comic Sans MS"; panose-1:3 15 7 2 3 3 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:script; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Comic Sans MS"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;} @page Section1 {size:595.45pt 841.7pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p>The fun and games going on over the other side of the pond with regard to illegitimate</span><span style=""> babies, women in politics and ‘redneckidness’ might seem to be far removed from Shak</span><span style="">espeare and Elizabethan Theatre, but I’m not so sure.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">One of those constant metaphors (in western society at least) seems to be to view </span><span style=""><img style="max-width: 800px; float: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" src="http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2008/08/29/vp-maccain-cp-5416664.jpg" width="105" height="143" /></span><span style="">the body politic as a family.<span style=""> </span>There is the head of the family, the family itself and, in earlier t</span><span style="">i</span><span style="">mes at least, the servants.<span style=""> </span>The very powerful combination of man and wife in </span><span style="">harmony, with </span><span style="">c</span><span style="">hildren growing under their </span><span style="">protection, operating within a sometimes hostile world is a very strong idea – just look at the galvanizing effect the ‘Republican ticket’ has had.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Shakespeare starts his first History play (The First Part of the Contention) with this image.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Henry is united with Margaret and they go off to unite with the state in her coronation.<span style=""> </span>But there is a degree of family disharmony – the elder statesman, </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="">Gloucester</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style=""> is not hap</span><span style="">py with the settlement – this is not a marriage of equals and too much has been spent – there is a danger to the stability of the family – his ‘uncle’ argues and goes behind his back, others do the same … just as in any normal family.<span style=""> </span>Instead of looking to the family, each (perhaps with the excepti</span><span style=""><img style="max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPCH_PbxXuSBVLodZqW5hKs4_kLgkEXET0CaFaCyr3hKjQhWTg2F05L4c2t8JGe8MmUCFS_gwvmxeRQyhroJygFSuPliiBRVirgZiVA2mSm0d-nS4E9M2XvEwCm4Ia6xd-7Kk/s400/SiblingRivalry.jpg" width="155" height="111" /></span><span style="">on of </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="">Gloucester</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="">) is looking to himself.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">It is the job of the head of the family (and his wife) to control this natural sibling rivalry – and it is the responsibility of the children to follow the rules of the family … to the Elizabethan, this was a God-given responsibility: I suspect, to a number of dweller</span><span style="">s</span><span style=""> across the seas, the same would apply.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">We are so used these ideas we forget the element which was so exciting to the Elizabethan was the changing role of the woman in all this.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">As I point</span><span style="">ed out in an </span><span style="">earlier <a href="http://shakespearence.blogspot.com/2008/08/shakespeares-matrimony.html">post</a> –</span><span style=""> the significant role of the junction of man and wife as a religious, moral and ideal unit was a consequence of Protestantism and Shakespeare’s promotion of this ideal could be considered almost revolutionary.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">In his two previous plays he dealt with the issues directly in terms of comedy – of male uniting with female.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Here, in the first of a new genre of play for the writer, he deals with a more a</span><span style="">bstract, almost philosophical conception – the power of an ordered group over the disorder of chaos – the need for a natural balance with people fulfilling their roles, accepting both </span><span style="">the</span><span style="">ir strength and limitations.<span style=""> </span>The play which follows from the union of Henry and Margaret is in a direct line </span><span style="">to the speech of Katherine at the end of The Taming of the Shrew.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">But what we get here is not Petruccio and Katherine’s story – it is that of the Widow and Hortensio, or of Bianca and Lucentio.<span style=""> </span>The necessary submission for unity is not going </span><span style="">to be made.</span><span style=""><img style="max-width: 800px; float: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" src="http://www.donkeydish.com/images/gallery/the-obama-family_443x400.jpg" width="172" height="154" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">I think it is very telling that the first very public, very political scene is followed by the private domestic scene between </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="">Gloucester</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style=""> and ‘Nell’, his wife, the ‘Duchess’</span><span style="">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Central at this point is Gloucester – he is the only one in the previous scene </span><span style="">who </span><span style="">seems to have the ne</span><span style="">eds of ‘King and Country’ foremost in his mind – he is rebelled against by everyone, behind his back … and when he is at home, his wife preaches reb</span><span style="">elli</span><span style="">on and treachery – and (significantly) goes behind his back and disobeys his orders – for her own benefit rather than the countries or even her family.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">But Shakespeare isn’t only drawing a parallel here, he pushes it one stage fu</span><span style="">rther –</span><span style=""> it involves consorting with the powers of evil, with a going against God and consulting the devil and his sub</span><span style="">ordinates … and these actions are linked to a supposed holy man (the Car</span><span style="">d</span><span style="">inal Uncle) and others of the political commonweal.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Rebellion<span style=""><img style="max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" src="http://www.hobos8ns.com/Pics/Redneck.gif" width="92" height="141" /></span><span style=""> in the family, rebellion in the state and rebellion of the soul against the heavenly ordained.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">The red</span><span style="">neck Cade and his followers are merely and extension – the wild consequen</span><span style="">ce of a breakdown in the values enshrined in the family.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">What is </span><span style="">playing out in the <i style=""><span style="color:red;">U</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">S</span> of <span style="color:blue;">A</span></i> at the moment is an echo of this first history play – and is an exp</span><span style="">loration in real life of the issues Shakespeare explored (based quite closely on real life) several centuries ago.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-16160546446024146462008-08-31T09:30:00.003+03:002008-08-31T09:35:09.940+03:00The Olympics, Democtatic Convention ...<o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceName"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceType"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><div class="youtube-video"><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object></div> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Comic Sans MS"; panose-1:3 15 7 2 3 3 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:script; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Comic Sans MS"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;} @page Section1 {size:595.45pt 841.7pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;" align="right"><span lang="EN-GB">and Shakespeare’s first history play.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It’s a sort of weird brace of metaphor for:</span></p><p style="text-align: left;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"> ‘THE FIRST PART OF THE CONTENTION BETWIXT THE TWO FAMOUS HOUSES OF YORK AND LANCASTER’.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaRWVQGio-09YBtizV8z0w7gqHsTpgTiCNKLN1zrefEWIgNRPBrdyvkPamZJCvYnV2AcoRFcgqmo6kNRnSWg3FnovhsF1qIOUmaKGsAASF7fKpe3iQwn83o_mjhRTdeJMd9aFm/s1600-h/flags.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaRWVQGio-09YBtizV8z0w7gqHsTpgTiCNKLN1zrefEWIgNRPBrdyvkPamZJCvYnV2AcoRFcgqmo6kNRnSWg3FnovhsF1qIOUmaKGsAASF7fKpe3iQwn83o_mjhRTdeJMd9aFm/s320/flags.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5240566313131909922" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">During the Olympics I couldn’t help thinking of the way in which people were <i style="">investing</i> the participants with a sort of representative nationality – by this I mean they became like the ‘coronated’ <span style=""> </span>king (yes, I know the word should be crowned but I wanted to ‘mark’ the idea); the sporting hero went out as a single champion (even if they were in a team) and fought not so much for a national pride as for that part of ‘me’ I had deposited in the symbol of ‘you’.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">A bit abstract maybe ….</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It was easy with Thorpe: Henry V if ever there was one.<span style=""> </span>What a hero, what a fund of pride … and strangely, like Shakespeare’s Henry V, his magnificent success transcended any nationalism.<span style=""> </span>By the end, all but the meanest minded wanted him to succeed … even if at the expense of ones own favourite.<span style=""> </span>Bolt was more a Hal than a grown king – his antics not quite mature.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">For Henry VI there were a number of contenders … we need a sportsman who shows a lot of early promise but who hasn’t quite lived up to them.<span style=""> </span>The obvious contender is the British diver, young Mr Tom Daley: The build up he got, the press coverage and the general media attention lead a lot of people to expect … and what a flop (except, it wasn’t …) !<span style=""> </span>No medal, lost hopes, wasted investment.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><img style="max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" src="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/olympics/daley438.jpg" width="147" height="106" />No blame to the young man himself – it was our over expectation, our unsolicited demands, our unreasonable faith in a maturing boy … sound familiar?<span style=""> </span>Henry VI is expected to perform in the same way … especially in competition with </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">France</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB">.<span style=""> </span>He doesn’t … and at the start of this play, we feel that disappointment.<span style=""> </span>The magnificent ceremonial hype of trumpets and hautboys … and the immediate disaster of the loss of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">France</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">But the Henry VI of this play is not Mr Daley - he is older … maybe Tom is the Henry of Henry VI Part 1.<span style=""> </span>(And I want to make it <i style="">very</i> clear <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/olympics/2008/08/proud_of_daleys_display.html">the boy done good</a> – I am talking here of the expectations of others and the disappointment their wrong placed expectations result in.)</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">We need to look for an older, high expectation, low performance competitor … someone like Andy Murray?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><img style="max-width: 800px; float: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44919000/jpg/_44919735_murrays_exit_226g.jpg" width="180" height="135" />Tennis got a bit of a rough ride from the English sporting press (well it might) for not really being an Olympic sport … there are much more important events for it than the Olympics (bet Mr Nadal and certainly Mr Federer would beg to differ).<span style=""> </span>Murray wasn’t taking the competition seriously, he hadn’t prepared, he was focussed elsewhere.<span style=""> </span>He thought he could swan in and get somewhere reasonable and people would be happy …</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Now, that is more like the Henry VI of the ‘First Contention’.<span style=""> </span>Henry is more focused on the </span><st1:place><st1:placetype><span lang="EN-GB">Kingdom</span></st1:placetype><span lang="EN-GB"> of </span><st1:placename><span lang="EN-GB">Heaven</span></st1:placename></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> than that of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">England</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB"> … his paradise is not of this earth, he is not so interested in an </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Eden</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB">, although he doesn’t mind being there whilst he waits for a more important job of work over in the Flushing Meadows of … perdition.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">But we are stuck with Murray – he’s the English number one, but there are obviously much better foreign princes and real monarchs out there … he is never going to perform, not even at home.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span><span lang="EN-GB"><img style="max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" src="http://www.tenniscelebs.com/images/getty/Murray_Flag_72639790.jpg" width="76" height="107" /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">But, hold on, he’s not English … he’s really not entitled to the job of representing me … isn’t there someone else with a better right to do that?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Welcome to the American Political Conventions!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span lang="EN-GB"><img style="max-width: 800px; float: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" src="http://democratic-convention.org/shared/images/denver_convention.jpg" width="101" height="71" />In the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">UK</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB"> speechifying is about as important as … learning grammar: People nod in the direction but realise it is an outdated and impotent way of getting things done.<span style=""> </span>The press conference and the sound bite are much more important (like genre and texting).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Not so in the quaint old US of A!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /><span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The conventions (origin: with talk although I had hoped it was with wind) are back to back speech making getting prime time coverage and swamping a nation already deaf to meaning with more meaningless but impassioned sounds.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">And we are back to Shakespeare’s play.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">As soon as Henry enters, his warm-up man, </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Suffolk</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB">, gives us a speech.<span style=""> </span>It is one sentence long, lasts for around 15 lines and drops a lot of names.<span style=""> </span>Great start to the convention.<span style=""> </span>Set the ground, pull out all the supporters and place yourself at the centre of attention whilst nodding in the direction of the guy currently in power.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><img style="max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" src="http://images.wikio.com/images/p/5a49/change-candidate-s-obama-kennedy-mirror-the-democrats-1980-convention-debacle.jpg" width="179" height="140" />The new Queen throws in a similar but more fawning speech … great to be here, happy with the husband and the land (Mrs Obama or what? – God Bless </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB">!).<span style=""> </span>Then it’s the turn for the heavyweight contenders to way in … old powers first, </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB">Gloucester</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB"> … (read Kennedy) and Cardinal Beaufort (read<span style=""> </span>Clinton – which one I’ll lead you , and the results of this November’s election to decide).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">But this is not the convention of today … this is a ‘certain loser’ convention.<span style=""> </span>As soon as the candidate leaves the stage the speeches of descent start – each speaker jockeying for position.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I will watch the Republican convention with interest …<o:p></o:p></span></p>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-23813248587634014142008-08-23T14:31:00.002+03:002008-08-23T14:33:17.123+03:00Playing Tag ...<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><div align="center">Strange game for grown people ...<br /><br /><img src="http://www.sacksfineart.com/images/syviawald.jpg" style="max-width: 800px;" height="218" width="310" /><br /></div><br />However, seeing as <a href="http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2008/08/tag.html">El Geek</a> has set the challenge I will go, so far, with it ... with a difference:<br /><br />1) My first 'big' role in a school play (apart from doing 'all' the singing<img src="http://www.cinematical.com/media/2006/02/vg_judimsd.jpg" style="max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" height="110" width="188" /> in earlier productions) was as Oberon - and Theseus ... and my costume was on hire from the RSC - as worn originally by ...Ian Richardson, I am not sure - but I think it was the one worn in the production Judy Dench played Titania and Helen Miren one of the lovers - so my costume 'big' resonance.<br /><br />2) My mother, when she was at school, had stared in a performance of 'Midsummer Nights Dream' as Titania ... and was on her way to being a professional until<img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1251/1389720398_058ef177c5_o.jpg" style="max-width: 800px; float: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" height="180" width="129" /> struck down with TB. She always claimed to have been pushed in her pram by a young Charlie Chaplin and his brother Sid - but after she died we discovered it wasn't her but her older sister, Madge, who had that honour ... my grandmother, also invalided off the stage ran a 'guest house' for Music Hall performers in Manchester.<br /><img src="http://www.mqmagazine.co.uk/issue-13/issue-13-images/p-38-1a.jpg" style="max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" height="195" width="97" /><br />Her 'god father' was George Robey, the Prime Minister of Mirth which sort of compensates for her claiming more of a connection than she really had to greatness ... I of course would never dream of doing such a thing!<br /><br />3) Willy Russell once described my acting as being, 'like that of Orson Welles' - he described me as a 'King Actor' ... and then added the somewhat deflationary, 'not necessarily good, but certainly big.' That was at a time he was casting his play, 'Blodd Brothers' first productin in Australia ... which eventually included Russel Crowe in the <a href="http://www.murphsplace.com/crowe/blood-bro.html">cast</a>.<br /><br />4) I attended the first ever public performance at the New Londo<img src="http://www.freefoto.com/images/31/31/31_31_5---The-Globe-Theatre--South-Bank--London_web.jpg" style="max-width: 800px; float: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" height="79" width="120" />n Globe - quite by accident. I was on holiday in London and had heard the place was opening ... went along with a friend to see it and they were selling tickets ... so, we bought a couple for the yard and that was it ... i was one of many, my friend, the first Romanian ever to see a production at the Globe!<br /><br />5) When I was training to be a teacher I did my teaching practice in 'Mirfield', which is in Yorkshire - and many would regard it as the armpit of England. It is a town with two famous inhabitants .. one, the Yorkshire Ripper ... the other Patrick Stewart. He, as you may be aware, has gone on to greater things ... although I did teach at the school he attended, it was some time after he left - and no one knew in the school just what a star they had on their hands.<br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6ODD1fyBr8o/SJM5o31dA1I/AAAAAAAABU8/a0fDJVLJX1E/Hamlet7_David-Tennant-Stewart.jpg" style="max-width: 800px; width: 335px; height: 223px;" /><br /></div><br />6) And a final Shakespeare (not spectacular) Farrar experience - Hamlet (above) is being played by Doctor Who ... the actor who played the Doctor before, Christopher Eccleston was taught drama by the boy (grown to man) who played Lysander in the production of <em>The Dream</em> I appeared in at school ... he also went on to teach the most recent 'Othello' at the RSC.<br /><br />Small world isn't it ...<br /><br /><br /></div>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-66715858438054336522008-08-23T10:32:00.001+03:002008-08-23T10:43:56.153+03:00Wiving it at the Globe<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">It was, to say the least, an interesting day.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><a href="http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/">National Gallery</a> in the morning – complete with red dressed, blond-haired Virgin; <a href="http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/">Globe Theatre</a> for the ‘Merry Wives’<img style="max-width: 800px; float: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" src="http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/img/Box%20Office%20thumbnail.jpg" /> in the afternoon; a quick dash to ‘<a href="http://www.soundofmusiclondon.com/">The Sound of Music</a>’ in the evening.<span style=""> </span>We ended squeezed in the last tube to </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="">Victoria</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style=""> … tired and somewhat satiated.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Nothing was quite what was expected.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">I like Shakespearean comedy – you might have noticed.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">What I didn’t know (because you sometimes forget that it is the ‘experts’ that have told you – and you should always be cautious and careful of expert opinion) is how good a play <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merry_Wives_of_Windsor"><i style="">The Merry Wives of Windsor</i></a> is.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">I don't understand why there are not more school productions ... it would make an excellent school play.<br /><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">After the Globe production I can’t understand why it isn’t better known or better loved.<span style=""> </span>Verdi chose it for his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falstaff_%28opera%29">operatic masterpiece</a> and he obviously realized something – it is very funny.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">It is also remarkably ‘feminist’ – the only sensible and solid people are the two wives … merry, and virtuous.<span style=""> </span>All the men seem to be missing something – usually restraint. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">In this production the women got good solid performances: As with the Romeo and Juliet <a href="http://shakespearence.blogspot.com/2008/07/global-satisfaction.html">production which visited </a></span><a href="http://shakespearence.blogspot.com/2008/07/global-satisfaction.html"><st1:city><st1:place><span style="">Timisoara</span></st1:place></st1:city></a><span style=""> last month, it is an ensemble production – although with a full cast.<span style=""> </span>There were no star performances – but that is what makes these comedies … they are not vehicles for individuals.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Falstaff was a part – and only a part, but an excellent part.<span style=""> </span>He is balanced in the play with a “bugger”ing French doctor; a jealous, knuckle biting, husband; a language crunching schoolteacher and a small cheeky boy.<span style=""> </span>And the production did just that – balanced.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><img style="max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Eh6LG2d00l4/SHppJVKMeAI/AAAAAAAAAL8/GeWv5m5vvuI/DSC02699.JPG" height="165" width="221" />The Globe experience is partly the stage and staging – the speed of the production (not breakneck like Romeo and Juliet) and the closeness to the audience all contribute to make the play user friendly.<span style=""> </span>However, I was a little uncomfortable with the set – it had been extended into the courtyard with a walkway which seemed one step too far,<span style=""> </span>I also don’t really think there was any necessity to cover the back of the Globe’s stage with a ‘mock-Elizabethan’ house front.<span style=""> </span>This forced a lot of the action forward and made it difficult at times to see (I chose to try standing at the side of the stage and was acutely aware of how little the back area of the stage was used<span style=""> </span>- in a previous visit I’d noticed how well it was used).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Maybe a danger for the modern productions at the globe is the designer … maybe they should just have a costume wo/man and dump the superfluous modern element of design (which was, strangely enough, the big problem of ‘The Sound of Music’ – all very impressive technicals interrupting the music)?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">But that was a mere niggle: On a rain-threatening afternoon I stood for a couple of hours and laughed rather a lot … at a witty play with a social conscience delivered by a group of excellent performers giving the audience exactly what they need – an uplifting theatrical experience.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Having travelled across </span><st1:place><span style="">most of Europe</span></st1:place><span style=""> for the day to see it … I was not disappointed. In fact, I'm looking at a way of doing it again.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> Technorati Tags: <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Shakespeare" rel="tag">Shakespeare</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Globe%20Theatre" rel="tag">Globe Theatre</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Merry%20Wives%20of%20Windsor" rel="tag">Merry Wives of Windsor</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/London" rel="tag">London</a>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-38301611764091864822008-08-16T10:30:00.002+03:002008-08-16T10:33:52.936+03:00Now, I didn't know that ...<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">When the Globe <a href="http://salempress.com/Store/samples/great_events_from_history_seventeenth/great_events_from_history_seventeenth_globe_theater.htm">burnt down</a> in 1613, there was a ballad written (knew that): <em>On the Pitiful Burning of the Globe Play-house </em> (<a href="https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/html/1807/4350/poem65.html">link</a> and <a href="http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-sonnet-upon-the-pitiful-burning-of-the-globe-p/">link</a>)<br /><br />What I didn't know was that it mentions in it:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" name="KonaFilter"><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" > Then with swoll'n eyes, like drunken Flemings,<br />Distressed stood old stuttering Hemings.<br />Oh sorrow, pitiful sorrow, and yet all this is true.</span></span><br /></blockquote><br />Now, cast your mind back to '<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138097/">Shakespeare in Love</a>' and the character who delivers the <a href="http://www.shakespeare-literature.com/Romeo_and_Juliet/1.html">prologue</a> at the start of Romeo and Juliet (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138097/">video</a>).<br /><br /><div><div class="youtube-video"><object height="322" width="512"><param value="http://d.yimg.com/static.video.yahoo.com/yep/YV_YEP.swf?ver=2.2.17" name="movie"> <param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"> <param value="#000000" name="bgcolor"> <param value="id=4566494&vid=1312732&lang=en-us&intl=us&thumbUrl=http%3A//us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/sch/cn/v/v3/w773/1312732_400_300.jpeg&embed=1" name="flashVars"> <embed flashvars="id=4566494&vid=1312732&lang=en-us&intl=us&thumbUrl=http%3A//us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/sch/cn/v/v3/w773/1312732_400_300.jpeg&embed=1" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://d.yimg.com/static.video.yahoo.com/yep/YV_YEP.swf?ver=2.2.17" height="322" width="512"></embed> </object></div><br /><a href="http://video.yahoo.com/watch/1312732/4566494">Shakespeare in Love:prologue and aftlogue</a> @ <a href="http://video.yahoo.com/">Yahoo! Video</a></div><br /><br />He stutters ... and I thought it was all a directors or writers idea - in fact it is based on a real actor (although the character in the film is not Hemings).<br /><br />The real stutterer was' of course, behind the printing of the folio! He also seems to have apprenticed as a grocer, become a freeman of London and died wealthy ... acting was as profitable then as now.<br /><br />(Sorry about the size of the video - not Geek enough to make it smaller!)<br /><br />Technorati Tags: <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Shakespeare" class="performancingtags">Shakespeare</a>, <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Shakespeare%20in%20Love" class="performancingtags">Shakespeare in Love</a>, <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Actors" class="performancingtags">Actors</a></div>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-54429803885020048642008-08-16T06:21:00.001+03:002008-08-16T06:21:12.469+03:00Play Shakespeare off my list<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Despite my having deleted all my entries to the play Shakespeare forum, I see they have been re-instated ...<br/><br/>I suggest anyone posting there be aware of the way the board management is willing to ignore the wishes of the people who post.<br/><br/>I, for one, will not be posting anything over on that site again.<br/><br/>Technorati Tags: <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Play%20Shakespeare' class='performancingtags'>Play Shakespeare</a></div>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-79063129081951472302008-08-13T08:16:00.000+03:002008-08-13T08:22:12.396+03:00What the BBC did with it ...<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img width='134' height='164' src='http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z3KA7G5EL._SL500.jpg' style='max-width: 800px; float: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;'/>I have to start out by making it clear, it was the BBC production of the three Henry VI Plays which got me hooked on the History plays - yes I knew Henry V and Henry IV Part 1, I'd endured Richard the Second and seen <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_%281955_film%29'>Larry</a> hamming up the Third for all it was worth. But it was the BBC that made me register 'History Play' as something different. And they still keep up the good work: <a href='http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7283166.stm'>How well did Shakespeare know history?</a><br/><br/>The BBC though took a path I am not taking - they did the three <a href='http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/459382/'>Henry VI</a> plays in historical chronological order, I am looking at them in a <a href='http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/static/cs/uk/10/minisites/shakespeare/readmore/chronology.html'>reconstructed order of their writing</a>.<br/><br/><img src='http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41436000/jpg/_41436659_henryvi203.jpg' style='max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/>The three plays as a sequence I will leave until later on - possibly when I have finished the three Henry VIs, possibly when I look at the whole of the history plays.<br/><br/>Here I want to take a look at what the opening of '<b><i>The First Part of the Contention ...</i></b>' was like - taking into consideration what I posted last and those rather irritating Olympics which have me glued to the TV even as I write.<br/><br/>I've blogged on the opening ceremony of the Olympics over on <a href='http://akfarrar.blogspot.com/'>Thoughts from the Edge</a> and won't tread the same ground - I will say though that both Shakespeare and the BBC open this exploration of a national history in the same spirit - big loud and colourful.<br/><br/>Which is precisely what the BBC production gave us - well, not so big (as befits a stage play) but certainly loud and colourful.<br/><br/>Trumpets blared, drums rolled, crowds cheered and in marched the key agents to the play which will follow - each preceded by a flag, each marching in and nodding to the king, who we don't see as the camera is peeping over his shoulder, and each taking up his appointed place.<br/><br/>The colours are all there - mainly in the costume but also in the painted wood of the 'bear-pit' the production is placed in, and in all the fluttering flags and shiny clothes.<br/><br/>Then, with all the 'athletes' in place, in comes the 'torch' on the hand of an upstart - rose-petal like discs of coloured paper fluttering around Margaret and Suffolk just as after a wedding - but this is a bride who has not yet married although a 'troth' has been plighted.<br/><br/>This has the essence of an Olympic ceremony and is as much an attempt to claim national identity and significance as any such splendours played out nowadays.<br/><br/>You get a 'feel good factor' - there is pride and there is hope.<br/><br/>Suffolk, speaking as only the politician in front of a national audience can, declares, "... <em>in sight of England and her lordly peers</em> ..." to have fulfilled all that was requested of him.<br/><br/>And you just know, in the original production - that <em>sight of England</em> was accompanied by a gesture to the assembled theatre - already dragged in emotionally by the music and flag waving.<br/><br/>You didn't quite get that from the TV. Although the voice made clear its importance - we are watching you - the world is watching you; Cue camera and roll.<br/><br/>Henry, weak of voice, pale of colour (although with lively eyes) responds.<br/><br/>He thanks Suffolk, then kisses his bride - and, if you are expecting warmth and love, excitement and passion, forget it. In a triumphal theatrical moment, Henry kisses the hand of Margaret. She had moved to kiss cheeks or lips and is visibly surprised.<br/><br/>This is back to the question of the marriage relationship - Henry, as a devout man, as a Catholic King esteems the Platonic above the lustful. Whatever, union is about to be sanctified, it is not going to be carnal. Friendship before equality? And, after the three kisses of 'The Taming of the Shrew' what clearer indication could you have of all not being well?<br/><br/><img width='184' height='115' src='http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00788/olympics-opening-fo_788699c.jpg' style='max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/>There is a disappointment - it is as if you were to discover the fireworks opening the Beijing Olympics were a computer trick, or the cute girl <img width='127' height='71' src='http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44915000/jpg/_44915689_mime512.jpg' style='max-width: 800px; float: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;'/>singing the Chinese national anthem was miming to someone else's voice.<br/>The difference, of course, being we do not discover 'til after the event, the slight of hand in China - here the BBC give us, in the middle of the ceremony, disappointment and unease.<br/><br/>And they haven't finished with us yet ...<br/><br/><br/><br/>Technorati Tags: <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Shakespeare' class='performancingtags'>Shakespeare</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Henry%20VI' class='performancingtags'>Henry VI</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/BBC%20Shakespeare' class='performancingtags'>BBC Shakespeare</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Olympics' class='performancingtags'>Olympics</a></div>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-55192732856613801802008-08-06T17:23:00.001+03:002008-08-06T17:26:35.224+03:00And the trumpet shall sound<img style="max-width: 800px; float: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" src="http://www.waits.org.uk/pictures/innsbruck.jpg" height="230" width="245" /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The first thing to strike you as the play opens is the noise – as my new ‘<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/William-Shakespeare-Complete-Works-Oxford/dp/0199267189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218032737&sr=8-1">Complete Works</a>’ (2<sup>nd</sup> edition) informs me, <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;" align="center"><span lang="EN-GB">trumpets flourish, <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;">then hautboys</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">which is a pretty impressive, if loud, way to open.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">You do notice it – there is a majesty, and a ceremony about it.<span style=""> </span>A good trumpet ‘flourish’ – none of your wishy-washy blowing – this is a growing vigorously, a grand gesture, a flaunt, a boom!<span style=""> </span>And then the hautboys follow – which is the signal for the stage to be processed (as in procession) on to … for a hautboy <i style="">is</i> to be processed to.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I like a good hautboy flourish almost as much as I like a good trumpet flourish.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Neither of Shakespeare’s previous plays even thought of opening like this – they both sort of … started:<span style=""> </span>Which fitted their ‘domestic’ themes.<span style=""> </span>Here we are in a different world – and, for the original Theatre audience, a more familiar world. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">This is to be a play about England - this is to be a play about Dukes and Kings, about Duchesses and Queens, their lovers and rebellion – above all, rebellion: Overt, physical fighting and secret caterpillar creepings and crawlings; rebellion in the state, in the town, in the countryside and in the family.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><img style="max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1035/799299317_add895e529.jpg?v=0" height="174" width="233" />And what colours and materials soon fill the stage!<span style=""> </span>The royal velvety reds and rich shimmering blue silks, the sparkling cloth of golds, the lions and unicorns rampant, the full panoply of state laid out for both a royal wedding and a coronation.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">For the young Henry VI, King of England is to meet for the first time his espoused bride and straight away lead her into Westminster Abbey for their wedding and her installation as Queen.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Which is when you notice that there is a link to both the previous plays – this is yet another play about marriage.<span style=""> </span>Here the marriage is the actual union of man and woman, complete with all the associated ‘Shrew’ commands of mutuality and respect; but it is also the greater marriage of subject to state, for Henry is England; further, as God’s representative on<img style="max-width: 800px; float: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" src="http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Original_Photo/2005/04/11/1113246063_1664.jpg" height="225" width="144" /> Earth, wedding Henry is a holy marriage.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Now that is cause for the trumpets to flourish – and well might the hautboys ‘en-music’ the march to the alter.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">How will Henry and Margaret measure up to the standards set by Petruccio and Katherine?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span lang="EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>Technorati Tags: <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Shakespeare" rel="tag">Shakespeare</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/The%20First%20Part%20of%20the%20Contention" rel="tag">The First Part of the Contention</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/History%20Plays" rel="tag">History Plays</a>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-85255414450813883702008-08-05T08:52:00.001+03:002008-08-05T08:52:00.470+03:00Must reads<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>... From the <a href='http://www.shakespearepost.com/'>Shakespeare Post</a>:<br/><br/><a href='http://www.shakespearepost.com/2008/08/04/gregory-doran-explains-how-he-picked-david-tennant-for-hamlet/'>Gregory Doran Explains</a> How He Picked David Tennant for Hamlet<br/><br/>and<br/><br/><a href='http://www.shakespearepost.com/2008/08/04/scientists-henry-viii%e2%80%99s-mary-rose-sank-because-crew-didn%e2%80%99t-speak-english/#comment-110'>Mary Rose</a> Sank Because Crew Didn’t Speak English<br/><br/>The first because it is interesting, the second because it shows the international nature of the English navy and suggests all sorts of reasons why Shakespeare was so second-hand-knowledgeable about foreign climes (yes, I know Henry was before Shakey's time).</div>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-91101345045096620922008-08-05T08:34:00.001+03:002008-08-05T08:40:54.276+03:00Natural pleasures and feathered friends<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>To be honest, I'm not convinced too many of my readers will be able to make use of a communication I received this morning:<br/><br/><blockquote><p class='MsoNormal'><font size='2' face='Arial'><span style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;'>I write to ask whether you would be willing to include a link to (or even write a blog entry about) the WINGS tour “<a title='http://wingsbirds.com/tours/view/124' href='http://wingsbirds.com/tours/view/124' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Birds and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival</a>,” conducted each June by <a title='http://wingsbirds.com/leaders/view/18' href='http://wingsbirds.com/leaders/view/18' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Rich Hoyer</a> and <a title='http://wingsbirds.com/leaders/view/6' href='http://wingsbirds.com/leaders/view/6' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Bryan Bland</a>. This imaginative combination of birding and culture follows in the tradition of our popular <a title='http://wingsbirds.com/tours/categories/birds-and-music/birds-and..../' href='http://wingsbirds.com/tours/categories/birds-and-music/birds-and..../' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>“Birds and Music” and “Birds and Art” tours of Europe</a>. After a delightful morning of birding that includes famously delicious picnic breakfasts and lunches in stunningly gorgeous surroundings, we return in time for a daily performance in the the Iaters just a block from our hotel.</span></font></p></blockquote> <br/>But to me it looks a wonderful combination!<br/><br/>I suspect that the two people leading the tour have found a cheap way to indulge themselves ... If only I had the energy (and knowledge) to do the same.<br/><br/>As I've blogged before - many times - there is a very strong sympathy between Shakespeare and '<a href='http://shakespearence.blogspot.com/2008/05/shakespeare-intelligence.html'>Natural intelligence</a>' - in fact, as I was listening to 'The First Part of the Contention' I was again struck by the number of references to birds and animals.<br/><br/>Unless <a href='http://akfarrar.blogspot.com/2008/08/three-splashes-flash-and-then-e-mail.html'>my dream</a> last night has confused me (and it might have, it was bird filled) this chap, [to be seen on the tour]:<br/><br/><div align='center'><img width='332' height='379' src='http://wingsbirds.com/img/tours/124/gallery/18-orbs-white-headed-woodpecke.jpg' style='max-width: 800px;'/><br/><div align='left'> <br/>...is the American equivalent of one of the stars of Shakespeare's first History Play!<br/><br/>If anyone reading this blog does get to go on the tour - enjoy!<br/><br/></div></div>Technorati Tags: <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Shakespeare' class='performancingtags'>Shakespeare</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/WINGS' class='performancingtags'>WINGS</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Oregan%20Shakespeare' class='performancingtags'>Oregan Shakespeare</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Birdwatching' class='performancingtags'>Birdwatching</a></div>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-38010165300378890172008-08-03T08:56:00.007+03:002008-08-04T08:29:15.901+03:00Shakespeare's Matrimony<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtwSOqwDdCAnNC_Full5t3BQ8QL1wV-Kdo86stdz_pqGFT8W8-cbQRGXilbknoLMOHdhrrRw5R5Elk7O3Y8kZmC-9RP_f9VgOxVX92lLvlWcPKkQ-sLI2ISRLWSZoXbNQ8dy1/s1600-h/Marriage.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtwSOqwDdCAnNC_Full5t3BQ8QL1wV-Kdo86stdz_pqGFT8W8-cbQRGXilbknoLMOHdhrrRw5R5Elk7O3Y8kZmC-9RP_f9VgOxVX92lLvlWcPKkQ-sLI2ISRLWSZoXbNQ8dy1/s320/Marriage.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5230168027022063714" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I wasn't going to post this here as it's a bit too 'school essay' - it was written for a different site.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> But, having just gone through a couple of performances of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The First Part of the Contention</span> (Henry VI, Part 2) <span style="font-style: italic;">I thought I better put down some markers -</span><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Marriage has become such a common theme in Literature, and the works of Shakespeare so well known, that it is hard for us to realise that back in Elizabethan England ideas about marriage were very much up in the air.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Until the Reformation, the ideals of virginity, chastity and widowhood; of platonic relationships; of friendship - all rated higher than marriage.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">With the coming of Protestantism, ideals changed.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Shakespeare was at the forefront of portraying these changes and many of his plays could be said to act as promotional tools for the act of marriage.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">If Stanley Wells and his friends are right, Shakespeare's first two plays are both comedies - The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Taming of the Shrew.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">It is interesting to see how Shakespeare tackles the themes of the marriage debate in these plays - and it reveals several interesting aspects of the plays, some of which are much misunderstood.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The Two Gentlemen is a play about friendship - Valentine and Proteus start the play off with a dialogue making it very clear these two are ideal, youthful friends.<span style=""> </span>What happens during the play undermines this ideal - deliberately so.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The thing that weakens their love for each other is love for a female: Shakespeare seems to be asking us if this is inevitable - will inter-gender love overpower, necessarily, intra-gender love?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">But nothing is as simple as that in Shakespeare - Valentine has a one-to-one relationship with Silvia; Proteus already had an attachment to Julia, and then switches to the (un-reciprocated) love of Silvia.<span style=""> </span>This, despite the exchange of rings and other tokens.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">One is reminded of the idea of the fickleness of love at this point - and in several plays Shakespeare has young men switching their attentions (Demetrias, don't forget; and Romeo). <span style=""> </span>Love is a necessary condition for a relationship, but is not sufficient.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Another doubt is raised by the way in which Valentine 'loves' Silvia - I am not alone in thinking there is almost a 'Platonic' basis to it - he is in love with an ideal, not with a real human.<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The 'clown' Lance with his letter has progressed a little further than either of the two 'Gentlemen': His contract itemising the qualities of a potential wife widens the conditions; thought ought to be given to issues such as money and temperament, to weaknesses as well as strengths - it is very much a dead end in this play, the youth of the main protagonists seems to exclude them from making a sensible decision.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">But Shakespeare hasn't quite finished with his exploration of the theme of friendship - there is one horrendous moment, towards the end of the play, where, after Proteus has attempted to force himself on Silvia, been stopped, and repented his sins, Valentine 'gives' Silvia to him.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Julia faints at this point - and well she might.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">We need to realise that, far from condoning this action, the audience is meant to be as outraged as Silvia must be, as shocked as Julia.<span style=""> </span>Portraying such a gross act Shakespeare is again questioning the ideal of friendship.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">The Two Gentlemen quickly resolves itself into marriage - but we are left with an empty feeling.<span style=""> </span>There is something not quite right in the pairings and the anything-but-gentlemen seem to get off lightly.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Perhaps Shakespeare felt so too, because his next play, The Taming of the Shrew, shows the successful pairing of a well matched couple - and some less than satisfactory fringe partnerships.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I've already written about Katherine and Petruccio (in <a href="http://shakespearence.blogspot.com/2008/08/katerina-just-deserts.html">Katerina's Just Desserts</a>) and don't want to go over the same ground, but I do think it is important to point out their relationship is about a mutual sharing and suitability.<span style=""> </span>What isn't talked about much is love.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">There is a 'love' relationship in the play though, Lucentio and Bianca.<span style=""> </span>At the time of their marriage, their are still issues to resolve - Bianca's refusal to come at the request of her husband is meant to signify the incompleteness of the match-making.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">So too is the widow's refusal - where the marriage is based on financial, rather than emotional, compatibility.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">What Katherine and Petruccio have done before this point, is worked through all the conditions needed to secure a successful and fecund marriage.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">But there are other marriages in the Shrew - Sly, who appears in the Induction, is "married" twice, once to the page boy, and once to a real wife.<span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">We ignore the Induction at our peril.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Sly is a drunk who is so full-up he falls asleep in the street.<span style=""> </span>He is married to a 'shrew' (if we accept 'A Shrew' as indicating further additions to the Folio text) and who can doubt they deserve each other?<span style=""> </span>This is a funny version of the need for a mutual relationship in marriage. Worth noting about Sly's real marriage is the apparent 'respect' he has for his wife - she is not 'madam' but a name - he wants to keep her as Alice or whatever .... surely an indication of social difference and criticism of the aristocratic?<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Sly's other marriage is a reminder to the audience that what you are watching is not real, there is a pretence going on here - you are being presented with a dramatic fiction.<span style=""> </span>All of the marriages Shakespeare represents on stage need to be viewed in this light - none are real, all are explorations of limited aspects of the state of matrimony.</span></p> <span style="font-style: italic;">Just how all this fits with Shakespeare's first History play I'll let you know in the next post.</span>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-14938373610180246452008-08-01T15:37:00.001+03:002008-08-01T15:40:14.389+03:00To begin, at the beginning ...<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div align='center'><img width='363' height='528' src='http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/Henry_VI_pt_2_quarto.jpg' style='max-width: 800px;'/><br/><div align='left'><br/>We don't have any of the playbills which were posted to announce the performance of a Shakespeare play - although it has been suggested that the frontispieces of the early editions of the plays very much resembled them. With that in mind, I move on from the two early comedies to the first of the Histories ...<br/><br/>The announcement is up ... a new play by - well, it doesn't say. So, Mr Shksperd ain't yet well known enough - but the material is fairly extensively explained.<br/><br/>We start off with the announcement it is the first part - so this is like that Marlowe play - the one with Tamburlaine in it ... two parts.<br/><br/>And its about the fighting between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians ...<br/><br/>In fact - a lot of the plot is told - Humphry dies, Suffolk gets banished and dies, a Cardinal dies, tragically, and there's a rebellion - Jack Cade's.<br/><br/>Lot's of fighting and death then ... sounds a bit of an action movie to me ... just the sort of thing to fill in a cold winter's afternoon ...<br/><br/><br/></div></div>Technorati Tags: <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Shakespeare' class='performancingtags'>Shakespeare</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Henry%20VI%20Part%202' class='performancingtags'>Henry VI Part 2</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/The%20First%20Part%20of%20the%20Contention' class='performancingtags'>The First Part of the Contention</a></div>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-18509140410337010682008-08-01T10:53:00.002+03:002008-08-04T08:29:57.153+03:00Katerina's Just Desserts ....<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">(Some notes on Gender Relations in Taming of the Shrew)<br /><br />There is a tendency to portray Katherine as some sort of abused everywoman and Petruccio as a typical misogynist male. Indeed, this is the line taken in many classrooms and leads to a mistaken understanding both of the play and of Elizabethan society. Support for the stance can be found in the text – as long as you are selective in your reading - and is frequently supplemented by ‘common knowledge’ about the relationships between men and women in times past.<br /><br />I would like to suggest that, far from being socially conservative in his views of male-female roles and promoting the status quo, Shakespeare is in fact questioning a centuries old acceptance of the inferior status of marriage (as opposed to virginity, celibacy and widowhood) and suggesting, in the words of Germaine Greer, the ‘complimentary couple’ as ‘the linchpin of the social structure’ (Greer, Shakespeare, A Short Introduction: pg 138).<br /><br />Let me start with the abusive Katherine. <br /><br />Few commentators dwell too long over the physical and emotional batterings Katherine doles out to all around her. She is clearly the most violent person in the play striking anyone she feels like: Three times she assaults men – Hortensio’s head is ‘broke’, Petruccio is slapped, and she beats Grumio: But her biggest abuse is reserved for her sister who she ties up, drags onto the stage and subjects to far worse treatment than anything she herself will suffer at the hands of Petruccio. It is worth noting that at no point (according to the script) does Petruccio strike Katherine.<br /><br />If you add to this the ‘you don’t love me’; ‘you treat my sister better than me’; ‘you’re not a real man’ and other such jibes and comments which flow continuously from her mouth, she is not an attractive human being (although is great fun to watch on stage).<br /><br />Presenting Katherine as ‘downtrodden victim’ is absurd. She is clearly out of control and her behaviour is causing misery to all around her. More importantly, in Elizabethan terms, she is also in danger of her soul – she is damaging not only her earthly marriage prospects, but her immortal ones too.<br /><br />By the end of the play, Katherine has become a dignified, self-controlled rock; half of the foundation of what will become a strong family unit. Equally important is the fact she is now able to play a role in society (which includes lordship over the male servants) and is firmly on the path to a happy afterlife.<br /><br />What brings on the metamorphosis is her pairing with a complementary force – Petruccio. The key word here is complementary – Petruccio balances Katherine, he is not the same and he is not ‘better’.<br /><br />When he talks, early in the play, of ‘two raging fires’ burning themselves out, he admits his similarity to Katherine, with a difference – he is ‘pre-emptory’, she , ‘proud minded’. Together they will be in balance.<br /><br />This is the point in the play at which the financial deal is done – again much misunderstood. <br /><br />Both sides bring money – Petruccio, who has just inherited a considerable fortune, is sensibly seeking an equal amount: This will benefit both himself and his wife – and lay in a strong inheritance for any children. Marriage is all about family, it is an economic and social union – as much today as in Elizabethan days.<br /><br />What people miss in this exchange is Petruccio’s leaving of everything to his ‘widow’ in the event of his early death: Katherine gets everything – she becomes an exceptionally wealthy woman. There is no need to bargain over this point – it is freely given. It shows Petruccio has complete faith in his wife-to-be’s sense and economic astuteness (hence the need for a female from an equal house). It also disproves the ‘goods and chattels’ view of the relationship regularly suggested – since when have goods and chattels inherited themselves?<br /><br />Which brings me on to another frequently expressed view – Petruccio is only interested in the money. He certainly says such a thing when he is talking to Hortensio – but he uses an interesting expression to do so, he talks of finding a woman rich enough to be his wife, then he goes on to use the word wealth – “to wive it wealthily”.<br /><br />The word wealth is suggestive of more than money – could it be that Petruccio is being deliberately ironic in his choice of word? Later in the play, when Katherine has been deprived of the expensive fashionable gown and hat, Petruccio says, “for ‘tis the mind that makes the body rich” and points out the jay and adder have earthly looking riches but inwardly are not better than other creatures.<br /><br />Petruccio has seen Katherine’s potential – as an equal, not as an inferior. He has chosen her as a balance … and negotiated with her father for her hand.<br /><br />And her father has given as much as he can of her – but he demands, before agreeing, that Katherine agree. He demands Petruccio win Katherine’s ‘love’.<br /><br />We do not see the intervening days between the first encounter of Katherine and Petruccio and their wedding day – but there is ample opportunity for Katherine to stop the marriage – she doesn’t. She waits for Petruccio on the steps of the church – she would be asked in church if she accepts Petruccio, and she must have said, before God, she does.<br /><br />All of this suggests, whatever public face she puts on it, Katherine has accepted Petruccio – it is a mutual not an enforced marriage.<br /><br />Katherine’s last speech, rather than being an act of submission to oppression, is a recognition that the former firebrand Katherine was counter productive – there is always a stronger than you. It is a contract laying out the conditions needed for peace and prosperity, for right balance and mutual benefit.<br /><br />But it is only half a contract – Petruccio is as bound by unspoken bonds which lay duties and commitments on him. He binds himself to her with a kiss – and physically they become one – not lord and servant, but a unity.<br /><br />Shakespeare, in The Taming of the Shrew, is laying out, possibly for the first time on the English stage, a view of society where the mutual support of man and wife is the foundation of peace and contentment for society as a whole. It expresses not a view that women are subservient to men – but that only by mutual support can fulfilment be attained.<br /><br />The battle of the sexes, shown at the start of the ‘Shrew’ play-within-a-play, is destructive and holds back both the individual and the community. Only by joining with the balancing power of a marriage partner of the right fit can life find a fuller, and more soul-fulfilling path.<br /><br />Technorati Tags: <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Shakespeare" class="performancingtags">Shakespeare</a>, <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Taming%20of%20the%20Shrew%20Gender%20Relations" class="performancingtags">Taming of the Shrew Gender Relations</a></div>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-22337487937812427502008-07-31T10:27:00.002+03:002008-07-31T10:31:13.236+03:00Funny Shakespeare ?<a href="http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/">Geek</a> is asking hard questions again – basically, “What is funny about the Shakespeare Comedies?”<br /><br />Well, having just ‘done’ his first two plays – both of which (if Wells is right) were comedies, I suppose I ought to have something to say about it.<br /><br />The first thing I notice when thinking about both Two Gentlemen and The Shrew is that they are marriage linked – and so too are all of the ‘comedies’ (hesitant, just a little, about that statement).<br /><br />The comedies seem to be about union, about coming together and communal success – they ‘celebrate’ successful unions which are expected to be fruitful and, if not uneventful, at least lasting.<br /><br />This pairing is more than an individual event – it is public and accepted as important for the common-weal – for the good of the community.<br /><br />This in itself is not belly laugh material – but it is celebratory – it is inductive of happiness.<br /><br />[This fits in with what is thought to have been the origin of the word comedy – which translates to something like song of the village – as opposed to tragedy which is goat song (don’t ask).]<br /><br />The happy ending is rarely presented in Shakespeare as an ending though – After Two Gentlemen we feel a rough ride coming up … but don’t doubt an eventual satisfaction; The Shrew ends with a more conclusive union for the primary protagonists – but only a fool would imagine that these two madcaps have burnt out – that is going to be a hot marriage (and goodness knows what fun the children will bring!).<br /><br />You do sometimes read that the comedy title given by the Elizabethans really just meant happy ending – which is basically a way of saying it isn’t a tragedy or a history.<br /><br />There might be a reason for this – earlier than Shakespeare and into his career as a writer, the professional theatre was new, and only just defining itself. The idea of genre itself was not a comfortable thing for the actors – a play was something to be adapted to fit the audience – if it was one type of scholastic audience, pump up the poetic; lower-life pub crowds would need less poetry and more prat-fall.<br /><br />With Two Gentlemen we have more of the former, The Shrew, more of the later … but both plays are sometimes regarded as ‘incomplete’ – the first has been called a touring script; the second has the irritating A Shrew rumbling away in the background – could that be the pub version?<br /><img style="float: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" src="http://www.richard-nathan-scripts.com/shakespeare.gif" height="277" width="225" /><br />Interesting at this point is the Hamlet instruction to actors – there are two points relevant here:<br /><br />1. Hamlet and the actors both expect to be able to mess around with the story – to adapt it to suit a particular audience and to fit in contemporary material and thus make the play more relevant;<br /><br />2. Hamlet specifies a type of acting – he wants this ‘aristocratic’ type of acting for this play with this audience – and he specifies, cut the comedy.<br /><br />Too often this speech is assumed to be Shakespeare’s thoughts on how to act – it isn’t – it, like everything else in the plays, is from the mouth of a character and indicative of that character: But it is very revealing about the adaptability of all types of plays and also the way comedy and tragedy were more techniques than genres.<br /><br />(Thanks also to <a href="http://www.bardblog.com/">The Bard Blog</a> for reminding me to have a rant about the Hamlet instructions.)<br /><br />Technorati Tags: <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Shakespeare" rel="tag">Shakespeare</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Shakespeare%20Comedies" rel="tag">Shakespeare Comedies</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Taming%20of%20the%20Shrew" rel="tag">Taming of the Shrew</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Two%20Gentlemen%20of%20Verona" rel="tag">Two Gentlemen of Verona</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Hamlet" rel="tag">Hamlet</a>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19238239.post-80681582004415973712008-07-29T13:05:00.001+03:002008-07-29T13:10:24.750+03:00One Step back - and then Two Steps forward:<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div align='center'><big><big>The Arkangel on Earth!</big></big><br/></div><br/><br/>I’m fairly new and naïve in the world of mp3 and the like – I think I’ve said it before, I actually pay for my downloads: Rewards however, are earthly – The <a href='http://www.audiopartners.com/shakespeare/mainpi.cfm'>Arkangel</a> Complete Works of Shakespeare is buyable for download, one play at a time, and I’ve been able to indulge.<br/><br/><img src='http://www.audiopartners.com/shakespeare/images/shake_ft_icon.gif' style='max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/>On Sunday I ‘<i style=''>Shrewed</i>’’ – and a fine performance it was too.<br/><br/>We use the word audience too lightly. Shakespeare’s, and his contemporaries’, plays were appreciated primarily through the ear. With a different play every day there was no time or need for elaborate staging and people went to hear a play anyway.<br/><br/>I suppose performances were more like staged readings than anything else; the sort of thing that gets done nowadays on the radio in front of a live audience.<br/><br/>One of the ‘insights’ gained from the touring Globe’s fast <i style=''>Romeo and Juliet</i> (which visited Timisoara earlier this month) was the difference in what you pick up through the ear when things are taken at speed – and I’ll add to that now, what you pick up through the ear when it is unsupported by the visual.<br/><br/>Recently I’ve read a couple of editions of The Taming of the Shrew (The Oxford School edition and The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works, Second Edition, edition) and I’ve seen two performances on DVD – the BBC Shakespeare and the Zeffirelli; additionally I watched the Shakespeare, The Animated Tales version.<span style=''> </span><br/><br/>I gained something from all of these experiences (not the least being how essential it is to see the comedies – how the characters don’t read well, how the humour is essentially human and social).<br/><br/>Listening to the Arkangel ‘straight’ audio version gave an extra dimension (which is odd if you think about it – take away the images and gain something).<span style=''> </span>I’ll have to use the word ‘connectivity’ – a nasty word; a technician’s stringy, sticky-old-cobweb of a word; a soulless word.<span style=''> <br/> </span><br/>Nevertheless, use it I must, for it is the only one I can think of that describes the nexus created by the physical experience of certain sound repartitions.<br/>Listening gave you connectivity – an awareness of links across the scenes and across the plays.<span style=''> </span>I must have heard and seen and read, but never noticed the word ‘pink’ in ‘The Shrew’ several times – it took the audio version to make it register – and connect it to Romeo and Juliet – and shoes: It brought with it a degree of contempt for fashion and a memory of big loud Mercutio: Which is the wrong way round – it is Petruccio who is in Mercutio.<br/><br/>Sly, talking of dreams, echoed all the way to Bottom’s dream – for surely Sly is a proto-Bottom.<span style=''> </span>And Petruccio also sent an echo to The Dream bouncing off the walls – his ‘poorest service is repaid with thanks’ is surely Theseus on taking kindly what is kindly meant.<span style=''> </span>Biondello (why does that sound like bordello?) went back to Speed – now sidelined as we are dealing with a mature marriage as opposed to playful courtship.<br/><br/>Part of the reason is, unsurprisingly, the Arkangel version used the full text – both the BBC and the Film cut.<span style=''> </span>The criminality of wrongful cutting shone out.<br/>But it is something else too – an Elizabethan audience was more aural – when they went to church and listened to the sermon or the Homily for the day sound patterns were set down – Shakespeare and his kin exploit these patterns.<span style=''> </span>I’ve argued before about the word wealth and the strange use of it made by Petruccio – what I’d not noticed ‘til I listened was his, <br/><br/><blockquote>‘<i style=''>tis the mind that makes the body rich</i><br/></blockquote><i style=''><br/></i> – and <br/><br/><blockquote><i style=''>honour peereth in the meanest habit</i>.<span style=''> </span><br/><span style=''/></blockquote><span style=''><br/></span>These are keys that open the vaults to a deeper concept of the play and tie it to a much wider and wealthier world of human bond-ship and bondage.<span style=''> </span>It is the wealth of the homilies and Protestantism of his time.<span style=''> </span>Looking at these words on the page doesn’t make them penetrate the way hearing them spoken does – even now, as I look back at this paragraph.<p/> <p class='MsoNormal'><span lang='EN-GB'>Another aural shift came with Katherina – she is as violent as Petruccio (if not more so) – and by taking away the stage business, you become aware of this.<span style=''> </span>What is tied up in laughter and slapstick unravels to reveal not an innocent victim of male aggression, but a female aggressor equal to any man. She is remarkably nasty – and ‘deserves all she gets’ at the hands of Petruccio. Her treatment of her sister is far worse than anything Petruccio does to her. And she assaults at least two men in the play.<br/></span></p><p class='MsoNormal'><br/><span lang='EN-GB'/></p><p class='MsoNormal'><span lang='EN-GB'>I’ve downloaded the next play – The First Part of the Contention (2 Henry VI) and will be listening to it soon.<span style=''> </span>I’ll watch the BBC version first, and possibly read it. <br/><br/>But before that I’ll be going back a step – to The Two Gentlemen of Verona.<span style=''> </span>I’m going to listen to that tonight – but I don’t intend blogging on it – it’s mine, and I’m gong to just enjoy the performance.</span></p>Technorati Tags: <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Shakespeare' class='performancingtags'>Shakespeare</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Taming%20of%20the%20Shrew' class='performancingtags'>Taming of the Shrew</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Arkangel%20Shakespeare' class='performancingtags'>Arkangel Shakespeare</a></div>Alan K.Farrarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12930353547190453742noreply@blogger.com0