Day 105: What I Learned: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, or Goddammit! This play has rape in it too? I'm so freaking sick of this!

Luigi Schiavonetti, “Valentine, Proteus, Silvia and Julia”
from “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (1852)

Oh come on, Shakespeare! Can't a just read a play that doesn't condone rape? Apparently not this month, I can't. After the horror that was Titus Andronicus, I was looking forward to a light comedy in the form of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. 

Be careful what you wish for because Shakespeare's "light" comedies usually involve something horrific.

What would it be this time? Racism? Anti-Semitism? Physical violence? Well, yes, to an extent. All of the above. Oh and rape.

One of the "gentlemen," Proteus, is "in love" with Silvia (he's "in love" with all the female characters at one point or another, not that there are very many of them) and if she doesn't feel the same way, why he'll just "woo you like a soldier, at arms' end, and love you 'gainst the nature of love,--force ye...I'll force thee yield to my desire." Charming.

But never fear! Valentine is here! He "saves" Silvia. I say he "saves" her in that he stops the rape, but then Proteus apologizes--more to Valentine than to Silvia--and how does Valentine respond? He basically says, "Aw shucks. That's okay. As long as WE'RE still friends." And then he gives Silvia to Proteus as a sign of their friendship! 

Oh and did I mention that Julia, another woman that Proteus has claimed to be in love with, sees this and freaks out because she wanted Proteus to herself? HOLY SHIT.

You know, plays like Macbeth and King Lear and Othello make me appreciate just how wonderful and timeless Shakespeare's words can be. But honestly, if he were only famous for plays like Titus Andronicus and Love's Labour's Lost and The Two Gentlemen of Verona...well I doubt he'd be famous at all. 

If you're looking to read ALL of Shakespeare's plays because, like me, you're on some sort of personal Shakespeare-based mission, then yes, you'll have to read these ones. But if you're just looking to get better acquainted with the bard to find out why he's still talked about and studied over 400 years later, then move on. These are not the plays you are looking for. 

Go back to the ones that are really, really famous. Turns out people like those ones best for a reason.

Day 97: Book Review: Shakespeare Saved My Life

Here's a book that I reviewed recently on my other blog, Cozy Little Book Journal. It's called Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard, A Memoir. At first I thought author Laura Bates was, herself, in solitary confinement for ten years, reading Shakespeare (and then writing a book about it) and I thought, "Great! EVERYONE'S reading Shakespeare before I do!" Turns out she's actually an English professor who spent ten years teaching Shakespeare to prisoners, many of whom were in solitary. But yes, those prisoners did read Shakespeare. And they were great at it.

Shakespeare Saved My Life: 

Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard

Author: Laura Bates

Publisher: Sourcebooks

Publication Date: April 1, 2013

Buy Now on Amazon.com

Buy Now on Amazon.ca

Turns out that prison--especially solitary confinement--sucks (of course it does) in just about every way but it IS great for catching up on your reading. Or at least the reading that you're allowed to have, since many things--including heavy books--are contraband. Dr. Bates had to give her students their reading assignments a few pages at a time, a week in advance. That meant that each week, she met with a group of men who had spent the last seven days poring over the scenes she had photocopied for them (they had very few other reading materials available to them in most cases) and they had a LOT to say about them. The prisoners' insights about certain plays were my favourite part of the book, for sure.

And that got me thinking. I always used to say that The Complete Works of Shakespeare was my Number One choice for my "desert island list." You know, as in, "If you were trapped on a deserted island, what one book--or three books or whatever--would you want to have with you?" I always said Shakespeare because if I were stuck on a deserted island, at least I'd have no choice but to finally get around to reading it! Now that I've committed to read the entire Complete Works this year, I guess I'll need a new answer to that question.

But the truth is, almost nobody is really stuck on a "deserted island." It's a party game question. But lots of people are stuck in prison. And the fact that Laura Bates got some of them to read Shakespeare--carefully and with great insight--is pretty fucking awesome.

Hit the jump to read the full review I posted on my other blog.

Day 41: More Lego Shakespeare!

Othello

Here are some more Lego Shakespeare, this time from brickshelf. Enjoy!

Day 39: Sock Monkey Othello and more!

Sock Monkey Othello, by David Jones (fineartamerica)

I love these Sock Monkey Shakespeare designs by David Jones! He has a whole bunch of them (I previously posted his Sock Monkey Merchant of Venice, which is beyond awesome). I'll post more very soon, but in the meantime you can check them out at FineArtAmerica.com.


And as promised, here are two more Sock Monkey Shakespeare pictures from David Jones (check out his other work at FineArtAmerica.com). Look at the scene from Macbeth above. SMM (Sock Monkey Macbeth) is so scandalized by the sock monkey witches! Sooooo good! Hit the jump to see them.

Day 32: Shakespeare Lego!

I'm still slogging through The Merchant of Venice. "Slogging" is a terrible word. I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit, I'm just having trouble staying as motivated to read quickly as I had been. Maybe it's because Mike is a play behind and I can't talk about Shylock with him. Or maybe I'm just like the hare in that parable, lounging around because I feel I'm so far ahead in the race.

Either way, here, enjoy some Shakespeare lego, courtesy of mocpages.com:

Macbeth Act V, Scene 8

Day 28: What I Learned: Macbeth

John Singer Sargent's Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (1889)

Macbeth is DARK. I expected it to be bloody, but I thought it would be "stage bloody" like The Tempest is "stage stormy." No, it's BLOODY. There are murdered children, visions of bloody babies and onstage decapitation. WHAT THE HELL, SHAKESPEARE? Thanks for the nightmares, bard!

I can see why this play has captured the imaginations of actors and actresses for generations. There are so many meaty parts. (Oh no, now I'm thinking about all the murder and dismemberment again. Ick.) Plus there are so many parts for women, very few of which are just as simpering daughters or doting wives. The women in Macbeth--particularly Lady Macbeth--mean business. Plus there are so many opportunities to portray desperation, fear, madness, the whole gamut. It's the sort of play that would excite me to no end if I were an actor. 

And it would probably intimidate me. I mean, if you can't make Macbeth spectacular, what's wrong with you? It's already spectacular (and bloody, did I mention bloody?). All you have to do is live up to it. I would find it a little nerve-wracking. Maybe that's the real reason for all those Scottish play superstitions.

It's an eraser!!

Day 27: Shakespeare on film: A Playboy Macbeth??

I was searching for the definitive "Macbeth movie" and I came up a little short. Is there one? I'm not sure. But here are some of the ones I came across...

Scotland, PA (2001)

Scotland, PA (2001) was a modern retelling of Shakespeare's tragic play, following the life of Joe Mcbeth, a line cook at a greasy spoon called Duncan's. Of course his wife has big plans for how he can advance his career...

I remember really wanting to see Scotland, PA when it first came out and now I wish I had because it's kind of hard to find online. Bummer.

Day 26: The Scottish Play

via

Everyone knows the superstition. Don't say "Macbeth," when referring to the play, especially when in the theatre in which it is being performed. Call it instead "The Scottish Play," or possibly "MacBee" or the play about "Mr. and Mrs. M." The so-called curse has been blamed for all manner of misfortunes over the years, particularly the Astor Place Riot of 1849.

Some claim that there are ways to reverse the curse, such as running around the theatre three times, or reciting various silly chants (see the scene from Black Adder above) or my personal favourite, reciting lines from The Merchant of Venice, considered to be a lucky play. And it just so happens, The Merchant of Venice is the play I'm reading right after Macbeth The Scottish Play, so I'm covered!

Day 25: Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

So the witches in Macbeth may seem absurd or even a little silly today (why did they have so many ingredients in their brew? Surely some of those ingredients were much harder to get than the thing they were making the potion in order to get...) but they were serious business for Shakespeare's contemporary audience. Witchcraft in the early 1600's was scary and could get you killed. So seeing witches spewing curses on stage was, as Ben Crystal points out in Shakespeare on Toast, probably a little like seeing terrorists build a bomb on stage today. 

Sexy flapper witches, from Approaching Shakespeare's page about teaching Macbeth to middle-graders, which I think is a terrible idea because Macbeth is HELLA DARK!

Still, some of those witches' curses may have had some long-lasting effects. Apparently the infamous "curse of Macbeth" which causes amateur and professional theatre folk alike to refer to it only as "The Scottish Play" when in the vicinity of the theatre, may have its origins in the belief that Shakespeare cursed the play by including "real spells" in the witches' dialogue. So, silly or not, those witches still cause some fear, even if it is just in the form of theatrical superstition.

Day 23: Macbeth word cloud...funny the words "Scottish play" aren't in it

I guess they weren't afraid of bad luck because they said "Macbeth" A LOT. Love these Wordle word clouds!

Day 22: New Play Tuesday! MacBeth!

This is--by far--the play I'm most excited to read this year. I've never read it and I've always meant to. I had debated forcing myself to leave it until the end to give myself something to look forward to, but I don't think I can. I'm really excited!

via

On the other hand, I hope I don't hate it because it might sour me from completing the rest of the year. Oh well, it's the risk I'll have to take. 

Let's go, Scottish play. Let's go.