September
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 9.0924 Wednesday, 30 September 1998. From: Drew Whitehead <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 30 Sep 1998 14:07:01 +1000 (GMT+1000) Subject: Re: Marlowe Plays I have two questions for the list: 1/ Can anybody recommend a single volume edition of Marlowe's plays that has annotation on the level of say, the Revel plays series, or the Riverside Shakespeare? At present I only have the Penguin edition which I find is woefully inadequate. I have been to Amazon.com and seen a few editions for sale, however, there is too little information available to be able to discern between them. 2/ Has anybody come across an audio-book version of any of Marlowe's plays? If so are they still available? Thank-you Drew Whitehead
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 9.0923 Wednesday, 30 September 1998. [1] From: Barrett Fisher <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 11:48:00 -0500 Subj: Elopement and Escape [2] From: Bradley Berens <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 10:26:25 -0700 Subj: Re: SHK 9.0917 Elopement and Escape [3] From: Stuart Manger <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 23:13:47 +0100 Subj: SHK 9.0917 Elopement and Escape [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Barrett Fisher <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 11:48:00 -0500 Subject: Elopement and Escape Elisabetta Pavan wrote: >I have recently studied The Merchant of Venice for my English >Literature examination, and I was surprised to notice some affinities / >differences between 'The Merchant' and 'Othello' as far as Desdemona and >Jessica elopement/escape are considered. Even 'the stranger' >(Othello/Shylock) is worth to be compared. >Has anybody got any suggestions/ideas ? >I looked for some essays in the library - unsuccessfully. I would start with Susan Snyder's book "The Comic Matrix of Shakespeare's Tragedies" (Princeton, 1979). I don't recall whether Snyder addresses this particular connection, but her approach is the kind of analysis that might deal with such a parallel. (Similarly, you might note the Othello/Much Ado parallels, including deception, eavesdropping, patriarchalism, misogyny, and slander; in fact, in last spring's production of Much Ado at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Claudio was played by a black actor.) Barrett Fisher Bethel College (MN) [2]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Bradley Berens <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 10:26:25 -0700 Subject: 9.0917 Elopement and Escape Comment: Re: SHK 9.0917 Elopement and Escape Dear Friends, This email is for Elizabetta Pavan, about similarities between Othello and Merchant. You might enjoy Leslie Fiedler's book THE STRANGER IN SHAKESPEARE, which is long on useful insights and short on reliable scholarship. In other words, if he presents something that looks like it might be factual or historical information be suspicious, but if his more interpretative points can be quite rewarding. Also, don't forget the Prince of Morocco in Merchant: some of his language sounds VERY, VERY much like Othello's from the later play. A. Barthelme's book Black Face, Maligned Race might also have something useful for you. Finally, Stephen Booth has a smart, interesting, and characteristically eccentric essay on similarities between Othello and Twelfth Night in one of those SHAKESPEARE SET FREE volumes edited by Peggy O'Brien. It's worth a look and might be inspiring for ways to approach the Othello/Merchant parallels. Best, Bradley Berens Dept. of English U.C. Berkeley [3]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Stuart Manger <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 23:13:47 +0100 Subject: Elopement and Escape Comment: SHK 9.0917 Elopement and Escape Spectacular example of elopement is, of course, in MND: Hermia and Lysander. And interestingly, Shakespeare allows it to go wrong, as he does (following sources) in R and J. I wonder why?
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 9.0922 Wednesday, 30 September 1998. [1] From: Ed Taft <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 11:32:58 -0400 (EDT) Subj: *Edward III* [2] From: Yvonne Bruce <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 12:43:14 -0400 Subj: Re: SHK 9.0897 Re: Stoicism, etc., in Julius Caesar [3] From: Michael Friedman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 15:31:38 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Re: SHK 9.0572 Re: Shakespeare Videos [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ed Taft <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 11:32:58 -0400 (EDT) Subject: *Edward III* In response to the posts of Lee Zhao and Lee Gibson, an excellent article arguing that Shakespeare wrote *Edward III* is W.L. Godshalk, "Shakespeare's *Edward III,* *SRASP* 21 (1998): 69-84. For those who do not have a copy in your library, you can access volume 21 of *SRASP* through the WWW: http://www.marshall.edu/engsr/indexsr.htmlx I'm sure that Bill Godshalk, a frequent contributor to SHK will agree with my estimate of this essay. --Ed Taft [2]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Yvonne Bruce <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 12:43:14 -0400 Subject: 9.0897 Re: Stoicism, etc., in Julius Caesar Comment: Re: SHK 9.0897 Re: Stoicism, etc., in Julius Caesar Louis Swilley responded to my speculation about the unreliability of soliloquy in <Julius Caesar> by noting that, at least as far as Antony is concerned, there is no "point" in his speaking unreliably, and that his soliloquy is not characterized by the soul-searching that characterizes Brutus' soliloquy. Agreed. Let me qualify my remark by saying that Antony is not "purposefully fooling" anyone in his soliloquy, but that he still may be carried away by his own rhetoric. A critic whose name escapes me has noted the difficulty of determining Antony's point of view in his funeral oration: is he inspired to such rhetorical brilliance by righteous anger at the conspirators, or does he, with the rhetorical suavity that characterizes the play, just kind of seize the moment? And don't forget Kenneth Burke's "Antony in Behalf of the Play," which takes up this notion of excessively self-conscious rhetoric. Several critics have noted the theatricality peculiar to this play: successful politicking equals good acting. This seems especially apt for Antony, else how could the other conspirators be so clueless about the threat he poses (Cassius suggests he be killed with Caesar, and then that he be refused leave to speak at Caesar's funeral; both times he is stupidly overruled by Brutus)? Before I belabor this, I'd like to hear what others think about the rhetoric of stoicism in the play. Does "soliloquy" occur in <Julius Caesar> as it occurs, generally speaking, in the other tragedies-as a thinking out loud-or does the individual voice lose something by being forced to speak in the highly stylized, politicized and communal voice of early imperial Rome? Since everyone can probably guess which side I come down on, let me add that this "Roman voice" is a problem not only in <Julius Caesar> (its soliloquies are carefully doled out, one significant solo speech each to Brutus, Cassius, and Antony; and its rhetoric is also notably consistent; ie, there is not a variety of speaking styles) but in <Coriolanus>, a play that lacks soliloquies. Mr. Swilley, in the same posting, also expressed dismay over productions of <Julius Caesar>. He is disturbed by, among other things, the universal directorial acceptance of Caesar as great, when Shakespeare shows him to be vain, cowardly, superstitious, etc. This problem is compounded, writes Mr. Swilley, by Caesar's becoming great the moment he is killed. Once dead, Brutus and Antony praise him to the heavens, and even in soliloquy Antony exclaims over Caesar's awesome presence. Mr. Swilley has put his finger on something that continues to vex me in my current work, and is not limited to <Caesar> (and don't forget that Antony does an about-face once Brutus dies, too). At the end of <Coriolanus>, after Coriolanus' death, Aufidius goes from "My lords, when you shall know-as in this rage, / Provoked by him [Coriolanus], you cannot-the great danger" to "My rage is gone, / And I am struck with sorrow" in eight lines. Eight lines. At the end of <Antony and Cleopatra>, Caesar displays pretty much the same reversal after Cleopatra's death. These are better than the bed trick. And Shakespeare is not alone in pulling them off. This same hatred-vented-into-admiration occurs in <Caesar's Revenge> and Thomas Lodge's <Wounds of Civil War>, among others. Any comments? Please? [3]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael Friedman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 15:31:38 -0400 (EDT) Subject: 9.0572 Re: Shakespeare Videos Comment: Re: SHK 9.0572 Re: Shakespeare Videos I'm surprised that no one, as yet, has mentioned anything about the new film "What Dreams May Come" starring Robin Williams. I haven't seen it myself, but I'm wondering whether anyone else out there has, and whether it has any relationship to Shakespeare other than the title. Michael Friedman University of Scranton
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 9.0921 Wednesday, 30 September 1998. [1] From: Mike Jensen <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 09:23:25 -0700 Subj: SHK 9.0912 Re: Bankside Globe [2] From: Gabriel Egan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 15:03:54 -0400 Subj: Re: SHK 9.0912 Re: Bankside Globe [3] From: Drew Whitehead <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 30 Sep 1998 09:04:42 +1000 (GMT+1000) Subj: Re: Globe Season [4] From: H. R. Greenberg <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 22:35:43 EDT Subj: Groundlings, real and otherwise was Re: SHK 9.0908 Re: Bankside Globe [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Mike Jensen <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 09:23:25 -0700 Subject: Re: Bankside Globe -Reply Comment: SHK 9.0912 Re: Bankside Globe -Reply I have been following the audience behavior at the Globe messages with interest. As usual, I have more questions than answers, but let's begin with a story. Eight years ago next month I attended a Hamlet conference in Berkeley. The Globe came up, not surprisingly since Sam Waterston was there. As an experiment, the audience was encouraged to react while John Vickery acted a speech from Hamlet. Vickery, still the best received Hamlet in Bay Area history, was encouraged to play to the crowd. I didn't much care for the result. Vickery was alright, but the audience, as Sam said, overplayed its part. It was unnatural. Spontaneous, maybe, since we didn't know what Mr. Vickery would read and our reactions were not written and cued, but the audience jumped on any excuse to react. OK, given that an audience has a tendency to do that if encouraged, what do you do? If you do not encourage a reaction, a lifetime of polite theater going will tend to make auditors of us all. Perhaps we need a nudge to move us to behave like an Elizabethan audience? Or not? The reaction is self-conscious and not a natural reaction, so it is not a trustworthy parallel for the reactions of the Tudor audience. Does that invalidate the experiment? One solution is to not encourage a reaction, see if there is one, let it develop over time. But 400 years later, with some in the audience possessing knowledge that the Elizabethan auditors reacted, are the results a trustworthy parallel? Given crowd dynamics, it is possible that the Elizabethan audience overplayed its part as well. If one member got a pretty good laugh, it may have encouraged others to try. If we had a time machine, would Sam go back and accuse Tudor audiences of overplaying their parts? (Successful hecklers in modern comedy shows may parallel that dynamic.) I don't know the answers, but the questions suggest that some of the comments on this subject may be a bit simplistic. They may also have been right. It depends on the answers. Mike Jensen [2]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Gabriel Egan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 15:03:54 -0400 Subject: 9.0912 Re: Bankside Globe Comment: Re: SHK 9.0912 Re: Bankside Globe William Williams asks for > specific examples of the Globe management > actively encouraging, demanding, hyping, etc. > the audience's involvement in the performance? Try Marianne MacDonald, 'Globe director looks forward to the bear pit', The Independent, 2 August 1995. As I recall, the title was an accurate reflection of Rylance's comments in the interview-more or less `come and pelt us'. Gabriel Egan [3]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Drew Whitehead <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 30 Sep 1998 09:04:42 +1000 (GMT+1000) Subject: Re: Globe Season I have a friend who will be in the UK Nov-Jan, and she is very keen on seeing a performance at the New Globe. Can anyone inform me as to what plays will be being performed during this period? Drew Whitehead [4]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: H. R. Greenberg <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 22:35:43 EDT Subject: and otherwise was Re: SHK 9.0908 Re: Comment: Groundlings, real and otherwise was Re: SHK 9.0908 Re: Bankside Globe Dear Prof Simone I too thought about the 'speak the speech' references to the groundlings when I was at the Globe. I'm not a scholar in this area, but would be very interested in whether the uproar, gibes, provocations, etc of the "general" varied considerably from play to play or were the ruder sort always there and always inclined to join in the "action"? I would imagine they were, but even they were capable of being moved, and deeply so, by S's eloquence and poignancy into something approaching silence. I somehow free associate to the tribune's angry remonstrances to the crowd at the beginning of Julius Caesar in this connection-referring to them as "blocks" "worse than stones" or somesuch, chiding them for their shallowness short memory re Pompey etc similar stuff in Coriolanus indeed very fulcrum of the play is C's fury at the "groundlings" Anyone with further thoughts on the subject? hr greenberg md
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 9.0920 Wednesday, 30 September 1998. [1] From: Dale Lyles <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 12:23:05 EDT Subj: Re: Q: Citation for "Shakespeare as television writer?" [2] From: Richard A. Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 15:41:50 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Re: Q: Citation for "Shakespeare as television writer?" [3] From: Nora Kreimer <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 19:35:05 -0300 Subj: Re: Q: Citation for "Shakespeare as television writer?" [4] From: Peggy O'Brien <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 22:11:44 -0500 Subj: Re: Q: Citation for "Shakespeare as television writer?" [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dale Lyles <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 12:23:05 EDT Subject: Re: Q: Citation for "Shakespeare as television writer?" Television? I always tell students and actors that Shakespeare wrote for radio. "So this is the forest of Arden.." "But room, fairy, here comes Oberon..." "Come, bloody Clifford, rough Northumberland..." Dale Lyles Newnan Community Theatre Company [2]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Richard A. Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 15:41:50 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: Q: Citation for "Shakespeare as television writer?" I have heard more frequently that Shakespeare would write for Hollywood. This view was articulated on the A & E biography that aired in 1997. [3]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Nora Kreimer <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 19:35:05 -0300 Subject: Re: Q: Citation for "Shakespeare as television writer?" In IS SHAKESPEARE STILL OUR CONTEMPORARY, edited by Joh Elsom, 1989, Routledge- London and New York, ISBN 0 415 04404 9, there is an session you might find useful, on the topic of Shakespeare as a TV writer. "Does Shakespeare write better for television?". Nora KreimerThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [4]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peggy O'Brien <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998 22:11:44 -0500 Subject: Re: Q: Citation for "Shakespeare as television writer?" > Here's why I'm in need: in my third chapter I talk about the old cliche > that if Shakespeare were working today he'd be a television writer-that > is, he'd be working in the ultimate mass medium. Does anybody know > where this cliche comes from? Where I can find a reference to it in > print? Have any of y'all written it down in an essay that has then been > published? "Old cliche?" Damn! Who in their right mind is exactly going to rush to the aid of someone who has just labeled something they've written an "old cliche?" But never mind-the world is a wonderful place. I'm not sure that I have ever written it, but I have said it more than dozens of times to all kinds of audiences, especially student audiences. I believe this-and quite apart from any of the context that you mention, Brad. My thoughts have to do with storytelling and the sexiest, most dynamic way to tell stories and receive them. Having gone from a good long time exclusively in the world of Shakespeare at the Folger Library to a now semi-long time at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, I believe that old cliche now more than ever. Agedly yours, Peggy O'Brien