The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 11.2093 Wednesday, 15 November 2000.
[1] From: Kevin J. Donovan <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 11:06:51 -0600 (CST)
Subj: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
[2] From: Mike Jensen <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 09:41:24 -0800
Subj: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
[3] From: Stuart Manger <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 18:44:28 +0000
Subj: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
[4] From: Peter Paul Schnierer <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 20:41:00 +0100 (MET)
Subj: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
[5] From: Evelyn Gajowski <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 11:57:46 -0800 (PST)
Subj: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
[6] From: Thomas Berger <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 16:50:53 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
[7] From: Marti Markus <
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Date: Wednesday, 15 Nov 2000 00:35:14 +0100
Subj: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
[8] From: Dana Shilling <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 23:06:37 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Kevin J. Donovan <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 11:06:51 -0600 (CST)
Subject: 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
Comment: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
A few memorable ones that spring to mind include the directions for the
death-scene of the eponymous hero of _Cambises, King of Persia_
following his explanation in clunky fourteeners of how his sword has
shot out of its scabbard and stabbed him through the side: "Heere let
him quake and stir." Then there's the description of Isabella's
reverence to her husband's picture in _The White Devil_: "shee kneeles
downe as to prayers, then drawes the curtaine of the picture, doe's
three reuerences to it, and kisses it thrice. . ." (they just don't make
wives like that anymore). And finally this startling stage direction in
_The Devil is an Ass_: "He grows more familiar in his courtship, plays
with her paps, kisseth her hands, &c." I don't have a copy of Peele's
_Battle of Alcazar_ handy, but Muly Mahomet's entry with a great hunk of
meat on the end of his sword, supposedly taken from a lioness to feed
the fainting Calypolis ("meat of a princess, for a princess meet"), is
also memorable.
Kevin Donovan <
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Middle Tennessee State University
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mike Jensen <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 09:41:24 -0800
Subject: 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
Comment: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
Paul, I don't find the stage direction for Hieronoimo to bite out his
tongue at all silly. It makes sense in context. What I find silly is
giving him a knife a bit later. Did they really think he'd use it get a
better point for writing? How stupid is that? (And since I have not
read the play in a decade and a half, how silly am I if I'm saying all
this while misremembering the action of the play?)
Mike Jensen
[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Stuart Manger <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 18:44:28 +0000
Subject: Far-fetched Stage Directions
Comment: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
And the despair for modern stage managers when confronted with The
Tempest- 'and with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes'.
Oh, REALLY?
What quaint device? How vanishes? Help!
[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Peter Paul Schnierer <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 20:41:00 +0100 (MET)
Subject: 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
Comment: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
Do plays set in Jacobean London count? That would accommodate my current
favourite, Stephen Jeffreys' stage direction upon the death of the old
Queen in *The Clink* (1990): "Elizabeth is turned into a legend."
Other than that, Marlowe's "The King rageth" (*Edward II*, Act V, scene
1) is both concise and pointless.
Cheers,
Peter Paul Schnierer
[5]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Evelyn Gajowski <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 11:57:46 -0800 (PST)
Subject: 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
Comment: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
How about "Enter GIOVANNI with a heart upon his dagger" from John Ford's
*'Tis Pity She's a Whore* 5.6? Not particularly "humorous," to my mind,
but pretty "far out" there, especially in terms of the anatomization of
the female, a la Petrarch, et al.
[6]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Thomas Berger <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 16:50:53 -0500
Subject: 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
Comment: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
The teenager in me loves the following stage direction from _Love's
Cure_, by who knows, in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon:
Enter Vitelli, purused by Alvarez and Sayavedra, Clara beating off
Anastro.
tom berger
[7]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Marti Markus <
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Date: Wednesday, 15 Nov 2000 00:35:14 +0100
Subject: 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
Comment: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
To bit out one's tongue? A trifle. Anybody could do that. My favourite
stage direction is not as sensational, it is just: "[Calantha dies]".
But how does good Calantha die??? Mark her words: "One kiss on these
cold lips; my last. [Kisses Ithocles' corpse] Crack, crack!..." (John
Ford, "The Broken Heart", V.III. 77)
Yes, she breaks her own heart! So much for performative utterances.
Markus Marti
Basel University
http://www.unibas.ch/shine/
[8]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dana Shilling <
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Date: Tuesday, 14 Nov 2000 23:06:37 -0500
Subject: 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
Comment: Re: SHK 11.2091 Far-fetched Stage Directions
Paul E. Doniger said:
>What Elizabethan/Jacobean stage
> directions do you find most ridiculous? Far fetched? Far out? or just
> plain humorous. For me, the number one absurdity is from _The Spanish
> Tragedy_ 3.3: "He [Hieronimo] bites out his tongue."
Actually, this sounds like simplicity personified to me--the actor just
has to put a sponge soaked in red liquid in his mouth and spit it out.
Fun for the whole family!
Dana Shilling
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