Day 151: Whither Day 151?

I just now realized that I never published my blog post for Friday, May 31st (Day 151). I must have hit "save" instead of "publish." It's that sort of inattention to detail that tells you how little to expect from this blog. However, here it is. It's about the character of Falstaff and it's called "Whither Falstaff?" Enjoy.

Whither Falstaff?

As I previously mentioned, the popular character of John (or Jack) Falstaff from King Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 was not an historical figure but was based on at least two different people, Sir John Fastolf and Sir John Oldcastle. But just who were they?

Eduard von Grützner:
Falstaff mit großer Weinkanne und Becher (1896)
(Falstaff with big wine jar and cup, 1896)
(via wikipedia)

Sir John Oldcastle

Sir John Oldcastle was a friend of Henry V and a famed English Lollard who long escaped prosecution for heresy because of his royal connections. Eventually though, he was brought to trial and executed for his Lollardy beliefs in 1417. It is believed that William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham and a direct descendant of Oldcastle, opposed Shakespeare's characterization of his relative and blocked him from using the name in his plays. In the published version of Henry IV, Part 1, Falstaff's name is always unmetrical, suggesting a name change after the original composition; Prince Hal refers to Falstaff as "my old lad of the castle" in the first act of the play, which further suggests that the character was originally called "Oldcastle."

Sir John Oldcastle burned for heresy (via wikipedia)

Sir John Fastolf

Sir John Fastolf was an English knight during the Hundred Years War, fought--and lost--against Joan of Arc, and was charged with cowardice for fleeing from the Battle of Patay, though he was later able to clear his name of that charge. Also, he was the owner of the real Boar's Head Inn, the favourite haunt of Shakespeare's Falstaff. John Fastolf appears as a character in the Henry VI plays, which were written earlier than the Henry IV plays.

Sir John Fastolf (via all-generals.ru)

Day 150: Shakespeare in Review-- "Henry 4" at the Sydney Opera House

The cast of Henry 4 | Drama Theatre, from crikey.com.au

I read a review of a recent Australian production of Shakespeare's King Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, titled "Henry 4," that called the play "the best place to start for Shakespeare novices." 

Reviewer Lloyd Bradford Syke gushes: "If there was ever a production designed to cure theatre novices of their aversion (to Shakespeare in particular, probably developed at high school), it’s John Bell’s deft adaptation of ye olde Bill’s history plays, Henry IV, parts one and two." 

REALLY? 

Henry IV?? THAT'S where you think the "Shakespeare averse" should start? That must have been one HELL of a production because I can't imagine recommending anyone start in the midst of the bard's histories as their first introduction to Shakespeare. 

But Syke has a huge boner for the modern language and bawdy characters. He goes on:

Lloyd Bradford Syke

"When one considers that Shakespeare never published any of his plays and that we’ve ever relied upon unauthorised versions transcribed posthumously (not by him, obviously), it seems fitting to transcend the falsely sacrosanct approach to his work and make it sensible for a contemporary audience."

Well, that may be technically true but it's not the best argument in support of translating Shakespeare into modern language. There are other, better arguments for that. Just saying "Shakespeare didn't publish this, therefore we don't know what the hell he actually said" isn't a good one. Dismissing Shakespeare's words entirely because some of the oldest written copies that have survived to this day were transcribed by his actors instead of by the man himself seems to go against the spirit of Shakespearean study. And I'm guessing the director of this particular play chose to modernize the language to make it more accessible, not because he didn't believe in the accuracy of the folios.

Later in that same paragraph, Syke writes:

"From the get go, it’s electric with with energy; the stage populated by sharply-drawn and defined characters, played by a fine ensemble of imaginatively cast actors" (emphasis mine). I guess Syke's article must have been an unauthorized transcription.

If you're curious to see the play that's getting such rave review, you're out of luck. It closed May 26. Bummer.

via

Now I have to get back to actually reading the damn thing. From what I can tell so far, it is pretty good and quite funny, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it "designed to cure theatre novices of their aversion to Shakespeare." I guess that was only the Sydney production. 

Day 149: Is there a Henry IV Part I word cloud? Why yes there is!

Hooray for SCC English and their wordles!

Day 148: New Play Tuesday! Henry IV, Part I

Falstaff and Prince Hal, Henry IV, Part I (Act II, Scene iv) via mystudios.com

Contrary to popular belief (okay not popular belief, just my lazy assumption), Shakespeare wrote the Richard II and the Henry IV plays AFTER he wrote Henry V and the Henry VI plays. There was no Henry VII as far as I can tell. OR WAS THERE? (No, there was not.)

And apparently Falstaff, that old crowd favourite, was actually supposed to be called Oldcastle, based on a real guy, except that he still had living relatives in Shakespeare's day who were very influential and they threatened to...whatever the Elizabethan version of suing for defamation was. So he changed it to Falstaff, based on John Fastolf...who had no living heirs to complain. Or at least that's what Wikipedia says.

Day 147: What I Learned from Richard II

There are parts of Richard II that remind me a little of Harry Potter. And it's not just because I kept reading it while playing Harry Potter in the background (although I did). No, it's the part where Bolingbroke has taken the throne and is now King Henry IV and the Duke of York is in a panic because he wants to appear loyal to the new king (even though he was against him, like five minutes ago). So in order to prove his loyalty he immediately decides to sell out his own son, who had been a close ally to Richard II. His wife, the Duchess of York, flips the fuck out and tells him they must do everything they can to protect their only child, especially because she's not getting any younger and it's not like they're going to have more kids. But he doesn't care. All he wants to do is ingratiate himself to the new king at all costs.

Kind of like Lucius Malfoy.

Remember that part in The Deathly Hallows (and a little bit in The Half-Blood Prince) when Voldemort wants Draco to do this really dangerous thing for him and he'll probably get killed and Lucius is all like, "Yeah, serve the Dark Lord!" and his mom is all like, "EEK! NO! NOT MY SON!"? And then at the end when all the forces of good and evil are fighting and it looks like Voldemort's totally going to win and all hope is lost and Narcissa's all like, "Where's Draco? Is Draco alive?" AND THAT'S TOTALLY ALL THE FUCK SHE CARES ABOUT?

Yeah, it was like that.

tumblr.com

So what did I learn? Well I learned that if you have the Harry Potter movies on in the background when you're reading, it's going to seep into your brain.

Next up: Harry IV, Part I 

Day 146: Richard the Second in prison

     "Old boy Richard was right," Newton told me when I arrived at his cell the following week.     "About what?"     "Pacing. We all do it. Man! Where does Shakespeare get this insight?"     I had come to prison to teach prisoners about Shakespeare, but I would learn from them at least as much as I would teach to them. "Maybe he did time in prison himself," I told him. "We just don't know much about his life at all. Some people doubt that he even existed." Then I added, "Tell me about the pacing."     "Everybody does it, even if they don't acknowledge it," Newton explained. "Just like animals. When you lock an animal in a cage, for a while it just sits there and waits, but over time, once it accepts its confinement, it starts pacing, and that's when caregivers start worrying. When tigers start to pace, it's taken the wild out of them. The psychological shift is happening. We do the same thing. If you had cameras on, you'd see that's exactly what we do: sit around a while, get involved on the range, but over time, after the novelty wears off, we start pacing--just like the cats, you know what I mean? Doing the exact same thing. Everybody paces. And that's what they're all doing: playing out these fantasies in their head. You know, like old boy Richard."

from Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard,
by Laura Bates

If Dr. Bates can get prisoners in solitary confinement, many of whom have no more than a fifth-grade education, to study this play and come up with real insights, then I guess I should be able to keep going with it. I'll let you know how it goes.

Day 145: EEK! I forgot to write something...AGAIN

Oops! I forgot to write something. I actually did fall asleep reading Richard II last night. Well, reading Richard II and watching Harry Potter. Here's what I've learned so far.

Richard II is a blowhard king and nobody likes him. Bolingbroke and this other guy (Mowby or something) are having a fight and the king intervenes. Turns out they're arguing about who killed a third guy--the Duke of Gloucester or something--but actually it was the king who killed him all along. OH and everyone actually knows that already. But Richard is a dick (HEY! Like his name!) and makes them dual anyway. Then he stops the dual and declares them both losers and banishes him. Like I said, he's a dick.

Then it starts to get fuzzy. I think Bolingbroke is banished to an island where he meets a giant who teaches him magic spells and he comes back and seeks revenge on Richard and the whole Slytherin house. Then he flys off on a broomstick and everyone shouts "Hooray!"

Or something.

I might have to re-read that last bit.

via fanpop

Day 144: What I Do When I Should Be Reading Shakespeare

I read a lot. I really do. It's my main hobby. I maintain several book blogs and I take on extra reading projects, like this year's Shakespeare year (next year I'm planning a year of reading classic literature). I read so much that sometimes I have more reading plans than I have time.

And that's where the procrastination comes in.

It's not that I don't WANT to read Shakespeare, or any of the other books I've put on my own reading list. It's just that, well, you know. Why does anyone procrastinate? It isn't always because the thing you're supposed to be doing is boring or difficult. Sometimes it's just because it's the thing you're SUPPOSED TO BE DOING. 

So what do I do when I'm supposed to be reading Shakespeare?

Well...

I add even more books to my To Be Read pile. I know, I know, it's the absolute worst thing I can do, but I can't help it. It's like a person with a debt problem going out for "retail therapy" or a person who is trying to lose weight "stress eating." When I have too many books to read, I order more books. It's a problem really.

My favourite way to get more books is through book blogger programs. There are several sites that are dedicated to matching book publishers with reviewers, many of whom are just regular readers with a blog. I write honest reviews on my blog (some positive, some negative, but always honest) and also post my reviews on sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads and LibraryThing. In exchange for that, many authors and publishers are more than happy to send me--and bloggers like me--free copies of all kinds of books. Sometimes they send print copies, often they send digital ones, and usually I get to read the books months before it is available in stores. It's a great system really.

But it does not cut down on my excessive book problem.

If you have a blog and you'd be interested in reviewing books, here are some great book review sites for bloggers (after the jump):

Day 143: Aggh! This was supposed to be a group effort!

The time has come. The moment in My Shakespeare Year that I was most dreading. I have arrived at the histories. I began with The Life and Death of King John last week. I'm supposed to be reading The Tragedy of King Richard the Second this week. That still leaves seven Henrys (SEVEN!) and another Richard to go. I'm never going to make it.

This is the part in my year when my partner Mike was supposed to swoop in and help me. He would read the plays along with me, he said. He was looking forward to the histories, he said. He knew a lot about Tutor history because of HBO, he said. But aren't you also a history teacher, I asked? Oh yeah, that too, he said. Well now they're here and where's Mike? He's here, but he's most certainly not reading Shakespeare.

I am adrift in a sea of English kings. HELP! Somebody read these with me. I can't be the only one trying to make sense of why I should care about successions to the crown as told in iambic pentameter! Somebody? Anybody?

This is how seriously I take the throne. Pool noodle serious. (via imgur)

Day 142: Richard II Word Cloud

Love those SCC English wordles! There seem to be a lot of names in this one. And 'II' is said a lot. Hmmm....I think it might be more useful if they didn't include the stage directions and character names (unless they're spoken by another character). Then again, seeing how big a character's name is does give an indication of how much they speak. But wait, why is Bolingbroke in there twice?

I'm starting to get addicted to these word clouds. Maybe I could print them out and make them into paper to decoupage a bookshelf or drawers...

Day 141: New Play Tuesday! Richard II

source

This isn't the "winter of our discontent" one (that's Richard III) but it is the one with the banishment, which factors heavily in the book Shakespeare Saved My Life, by Laura Bates (I'm pretty sure). 

I'm reading the histories in chronological order of when they take place, so I won't get to Richard III until after all the Henrys (except Henry VIII) and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Day 140: What I Learned: King John

King John from KoboBooks

Well first of all I learned that a lot more famous quotations came from The Life and Death of King John than I originally thought. I thought it was one of Shakespeare's least popular plays (and these days it is) but it was apparently hugely popular in Victorian times, so a lot of expressions that we think of as Victorian phrases actually come from King John. For example:


That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling Commodity,
Commodity, the bias of the world. (2.1.573) 

Talks as familiarly of roaring lions
As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs! (2.1.470)

Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton, Time. (3.1.324) 

Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back,
When gold and silver becks me to come on. (3.3.12) 

Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form:
Then have I reason to be fond of grief. (3.4.92) 

Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man. (3.4.108) 

Heat me these irons hot. (4.1.1) 

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. (4.2.7) 

Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones! (4.3.10) 

Here walk I in the black brow of night
To find you out. (5.6.17) 

Now my soul hath elbow-room. (5.7.28) 

I can see why this play was popular in Victorian England, since it deals almost entirely with the issue of succession to the throne and the adversarial relationship between France and England, things to which Britons could relate. It's for all of these reasons I suspect the play was never as popular in North America, which is kind of a shame because it also contains lines like this:

O prudent discipline! From north to south
Austria and France shoot in each other's mouth. 
(Act II scene i)

What a shame that university students in North America have missed out on years of giggling over THAT phrasing!

Next up: Richard II. Is that the winter of discontent one?

Day 139: Speaking of Shakespeare in Space...

I'm a little late with this, but I just noticed it on Geeks of Doom (pretend you're reading this two weeks ago):

"This July, Quirk Books will be releasing William Shakespeare’s Star Wars, which, as the title suggests, is a retelling of the first Star Wars film in the style of William Shakespeare. 

In honor of May The Fourth, a.k.a, Star Wars Day, the publisher organized a themed flashmob on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

During the event in front of the highly populated famed museum (the “Rocky steps”), members of Urban Playground and the Drexel University’s Dragon Jedi performed three scenes from the book, using props such as placards for the opening credits (creatively used here), mock lightsabers, and an inflatable R2-D2, who of course, stole the show.

Check out the video here below, which includes the lightsaber duel between Darth Vader and his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi!"

[Source: Quirk Books]

Day 138: Shakespeare in Space? Make it happen, James Franco

from Baldwin Wallace Theatre & Dance (source)

In James-Franco-is-a-stoner-and-I-don't-have-anything-else-to-write-about-today-news, James Franco is a stoner who has decided to write a review for Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of The Great Gatsby in Vice magazine. He argues that critics are being overly harsh about the director's adaptation, saying:

"Would anyone object to a production of Hamlet in outer space? Not as much as they object to the Gatsby adaptation, apparently...Maybe that's because Gatsby is so much about a time and a place, while Shakespeare, in my mind, is more about universal ideas, ideals, and feelings. Luhrmann needed to breathe life into the ephemera and aura of the 20s and that's just what he succeeded at."

'The Great Gatsby'/James Franco (Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures/Getty Images) (from Yahoo! Movies)

Please please please let that mean that chronically scattered James Franco is planning an adaptation of Hamlet in space!

I'd also like to point out that this is not completely outside the realm of possibility. James Franco previously adapted Gus Van Sant's 1991 movie, My Own Private Idaho--which was loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV and Henry V--by re-editing the original footage to showcase star River Phoenix, calling the resulting film My Own Private River. Then he wrote an article about it which appeared in the book Living with Shakespeare.

So what I'm saying is this: James Franco could totally decide to do Hamlet in space. YES! That is exactly the level of crazy ideas the world needs.

Speaking of space, let's all just watch Col. Chris Hadfield be amazing one more time, shall we?

Day 137: What Shakespeare Character Are You?

Which Shakespeare Character are You?

Your Results:

I am Hamlet!

"To be, or not to be: that is the question." -- HAMLET, ACT 3 SCENE 1.

Ohhh I was hoping for Lady Macbeth! Well I guess it could be worse... You can take the quiz at Shakespeare Uncovered on pbs.org:

Day 136: Awww look at the cute little Shakespeare doll...

I don't have that much to say about King John yet so instead let's all coo over this adorable Shakespeare "Little Thinker" doll from The Unemployed Philosophers Guild Nationmart store.

The best part? Check out the quote they use to describe it:


There's toys abroad: anon I'll tell thee more. -King John; Act I, scene 1

Aha! It's from KING JOHN! See? I can stay on track!

You can buy the doll (and check out other great literary toys) here.

Day 135: More about The Lion in Winter and King John

Check out this great synopsis of The Lion in Winter on lamamama's tumblr:

And see? It shows the connection to King John. Nice.

Day 134: New Play Tuesday! King John

Poster for King John at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia

I've had a bit of a Shakespeare hiatus for the past few weeks. I know, I know, you barely noticed because of the outstanding quality of my blog posts. It's true, I'm amazing. Remember that one that was just a picture of a sock monkey or a lego toy with a link address? Yeah, that one took me hours. 

What may surprise you is that most of those were actually done weeks ago and scheduled in advance. See, I had a few plays on my schedule that were either easy reads or ones I had read several times before and could therefore blow through pretty quickly. So that's what I did. Then I gave myself a big long break while I caught up on other things (like my two other book blogs and, you know, real life). 

But now my break is over and it's time for me to start reading again. Actually, for the rest of the year I'll be reading plays I've never read before so it's unlikely that I'll be able to blow through any of them as quickly as I did A Midsummer Night's Dream or Hamlet. And certainly not with King John. I know NOTHING about it. 

Mike told me it was like The Lion in Winter but later. That helped me not at all. I asked him which one Spencer Tracy was in it, and he looked at me pityingly and said that Spencer Tracy wasn't in The Lion in Winter. Then he wondered how I didn't know that because we've definitely watched the movie together at least once. I told him that I knew Katharine Hepburn was in it so I just assumed. He shook his head and I was no closer to understanding the plot of King John.

I guess I'll just have to read it. Or watch The Lion in Winter.

Katharine Hepburn and Not Spencer Tracy in The Lion in Winter (1968)

Day 133: What I Learned: Hamlet

Hamlet (1990)
via

Yay! It really was as good as I remember. Genius. Pure genius.

Day 132: To Be or Not to Be...

It's one of the most famous soliloquies in all of Shakespeare's plays. In fact it's probably the only reason I even know the word "soliloquy." It was the first (and possibly only?) Shakespearean passage I ever memorized (oh, wait, not only...I also used to have parts of "Venus and Adonis" memorized). Here's an homage to Hamlet's famous speech, "To Be or Not to Be."

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Day 131: My personal favourite Hamlet in film...

There are a lot of film adaptations of Hamlet, some direct and some indirect. I mean, it's a tremendously influential play. But my favourite is probably from the William Peter Blatty's little-known 1980 gem, The Ninth Configuration. It's not a retelling of the play, but the plot is influenced both literally and thematically by Hamlet.

You can watch the whole film on YouTube, but skip to the 31:30 mark to see Jason Miller explain his adaptation of Shakespeare's plays for dogs!

Day 130: Aww...look at the cute lil skull! Hamlet Lego

Day 129: Hamlet word cloud

So it's pretty clear that the play's about Hamlet, right? I love these wordles from SCC English!

And for another take on the word cloud, check out the poster below (sorry it's hard to see):

This one's a little harder to see, but it's the entire play on one page, from SpinelessClassics

Day 128: Sock Monkey Hamlet!

Sock Monkey Hamlet, by David Jones (fineartamerica)

Silly monkey gravediggers! You don't even have thumbs!

Day 127: New Play Tuesday! Hamlet

Ophelia, by John Everett Millais (via WikiCommons)
My friend Adrienne told me that the model for this painting was in a claw-footed bathtub heated by candles for hours, so the artist could capture the effect of water on the dress. Unfortunately, the candles went out, the water got cold, and the model got pneumonia and died. I'm not sure if that's true though.

No matter how much I've disliked some of the plays I've read so far, I am genuinely excited to be re-reading Hamlet this week. I remember it as a nearly perfect play: thought-provoking, emotional, memorable and just plain genius. I'm excited.

Day 126: What I Learned: A Mid-Summer's Night Dream

Is this supposed to look like a bastardized nativity scene? (via)

So it was all an elaborate revenge on the women for not doing exactly what their husbands and fathers said? And what happened to the Indian boy that Titania adopted? The one that Oberon was so mad about? Oh yeah, he took the child away from her in the end, "shamed" her by having her fall in love with an ass, and then she forgave him and was in love again by the end of the night. Uh, that'll show her?

I hate this play. I know it's a lot of people's favourite, but I hate it.

Luckily, tomorrow I start Hamlet. I freaking LOVE Hamlet. Yay!!!

Day 125: There's a Midsummer Night's Dream LEGO MOVIE?

Aww...look at the cute little Midsummer Night's Dream Lego...

via brickshelf

Tee hee. How did they make the Lego donkey head? I want to make this.

Awww...look at his little face. His little ass face.

Also, there's a Lego movie of A Midsummer Night's Dream? Wow! Don't get too excited, it's pretty awful. On the one hand, it's a cool concept. On the other hand, it's also the shittiest thing I've ever seen. Why is everyone played by Lego George Lucas? What the hell is going on?

This was posted a year ago on YouTube and has 24 views. I'm not sure how that's even possible. I don't think I've ever seen a video that has only 24 views. Well, it just got the My Shakespeare Year bump so we'll see if that helps (except that I think it's dreadful).

Oh, you want to see something with better production value but WAY higher creep factor? Check out this puppet Midsummer Night's Dream:

How fucking creepy is that?