March
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 15.0655 Thursday, 11 March 2004 From: W Lin <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: 10 Mar 2004 15:53:26 +0000 Subject: 15.0628 Shakespeare, the Famous English Chunk Writer Comment: Re: SHK 15.0628 Shakespeare, the Famous English Chunk Writer I think whether teaching chunks or selected whole plays, what is being taught is still just an extract from Shakespeare's complete works. Anyway, I believe most Shakespeare teachers teach both a/a couple of complete play(s) with several passages from other plays. It seems to me what a Shakespeare teacher can do in class is limited, compared to what he/she wishes to. As long as the teacher makes it lucid to students that the set texts in class is not all that there is, and as long as students are aroused the desire to read more or willingness to learn more about Shakespeare, I guess the classroom hours are not spent in vain. Even if the teacher tends to teach to the test, it is still possible to remain inspiring and intriguing at the same time. Some teachers appear to be 'preachers of Shakespeare' who force students to read/learn Shakespeare plays and who believe those who don't are doomed to stay in the category of the ignorant or the uncultured, but like Martin Steward mentioned, 'we must not simply assume that reading Shakespeare offers to everyone or anyone some kind of mysterious key into a transcendent knowledge, understanding, humanity, happiness, sophistication, or whatever.' I don't think Martin Steward provides a reason not to study Shakespeare at all (according to Sean Lawrence), but rather, it sounds to me like a starting point where we, students of literature, can ever read Shakespeare as it is, instead of learning it simply for cultural heritage's sake. Shakespeare does not need such sacred reputation to be passed on. Like Larry Weiss asked 'do we want to teach students to truly read (and perhaps enjoy) Shakespeare or do we simply want to acquire some vague "appreciation" for a cultural icon?' it is worth revaluating why teach Shakespeare and what students in fact learn from it. I'm working on a similar research topic so please send me any comments or more advice. Many thanks. Wan-yu Lin, MPhil/PhD student in the University of YorkThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 15.0654 Thursday, 11 March 2004 From: Tanya Gough <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 10 Mar 2004 12:06:59 -0500 Subject: Hamlet On Film Query Follow Up Many thanks to the many who responded to my query regarding Hamlet productions on film. It is clear to me now that I hadn't gotten the questions quite right - that it was Sarah Bernhardt who first performed Hamlet on film and that Hepburn's Morning Glory recitation was the first time the speech "To be or not to be" was spoken in film. No doubt I accidentally confused Bernhardt with Asta Neilsen because the latter was foremost on my mind while working on the catalogue. It's too late now to append the information to the catalogue, but I'd like to confirm that this is the case for my own peace of mind. Ken Meaney mentions a recitation by Donald Calthrop in the Elstree Calling revue of 1930, but was this a vaudeville type assemblage of acts, or was the To Be speech integrated into a story line? Does it make a difference, or is the first occurrence the first, no matter what form it took? And now that I have the Bernhardt issue sorted out, does anyone have an earlier Hamlet on record? Sorry to have taken so long to follow up on this. Tanya Gough The Poor Yorick Shakespeare Catalogue www.bardcentral.com _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 15.0653 Thursday, 11 March 2004 From: Bill Lloyd <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 10 Mar 2004 07:19:00 EST Subject: 15.0611 A Thought for St. David's Day Comment: Re: SHK 15.0611 A Thought for St. David's Day Falstaff tells Hal "There's neither honesty nor manhood nor good fellowship in thee," if he will not come robbing. He claims robbery as his vocation and says, "Tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation." Apparently this is part of his essential Welshness... Here's a story from C Mery Talys [100 Merry Tales] the Tudor jest book that Benedick claims as the source of Beatrice's good wit. [It's also the source of several incidents in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, a play that Shakespeare probably acted in c1602.] It contains a number of 'Welsh jokes'. In common with other subdued foreigners [e.g., Mexicans as seen by Texans, the Wild Irish as seen by Tudor Englishmen, the rest of the world-- barbaros-- as seen by the ancient Greeks] the Welsh are regarded as laughingstocks, violent and ignorant, who live across the border and speak an incomprehensible gibberish. "A Welshman, dwelling in a wild place of Wales, came to his curate in the time of Lent and was confessed. And when his confession was in manner at the end the curate asked an he had any other thing to say that grieved his conscience; which sore abashed [he] answered no words a good while. At last by exhortation of his ghostly father he said that there was one thing in his mind that greatly grieved his conscience which he was ashamed to utter, for it was so grievous he trowed God would never forgive him. To which the curate replied that God's mercy was above all, and bad him not despair in the mercy of God, for whatsoever it was, if he were repentant, that God would forgive him. And so by long exhortation he showed it and said thus: 'Sir, it happened once that as my wife was making a cheese upon a Friday, I would have 'sayed whether it had been salt or fresh and took a little of the whey in my hand and put it in my mouth; and ere I was 'ware, part of it went down my throat against my will, and so I broke my fast.' To whom the curate said: 'An if there be no other thing, I warrant God shall forgive thee.' So when he had comforted him with the mercy of God, the curate prayed him to answer a question and to tell him truth, and when the Welshman had promised to tell the truth, the curate said that there were robberies and murders done nigh the place where he dwelt and divers men found slain, and asked whether he knew aught pointing to any of them. To whom he answered and said yes, and said he had been privy to many of them and did help to rob and slay divers of them. Then the curate asked him why he did not confess him thereof. The Welshman answered and said he took that for no sin, for it was custom amongst them that when any booty came of any rich merchant riding that it was but a true-neighbor deed, one to help another when one called another, and so they held it but for good fellowship and neighborhood." I'd say there's a "whiff of potential disorder" in this Welshness... Lloyd the Bookstore _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 15.0652 Thursday, 11 March 2004 From: Rolland Banker <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 9 Mar 2004 22:32:58 -0800 (PST) Subject: The Three Sons in Hamlet I bought some Shakespeare tapes from the Teaching Company awhile ago and in appreciation received this fascinating article from the Atlantic Monthly c/o Teaching Company. The Three Sons in Hamlet By Jean Paris; June 1959 An excerpt: "....But in the very opening scene, and before the Ghost has spoken, we are given an inkling of the fact that the tragic cycle goes back further than that. When the two sentinels, Marcellus and Bernardo, wish to know why the kingdom is in such a frenzy of military preparation, Horatio explains to them that some time before, the late king, Hamlet, had taken on Fortinbras, king of Norway, in single combat, had slain him and annexed a large portion of his lands. To regain them young Fortinbras, his son, "of unimproved mettle hot and full," was now busy gathering together a force of "lawless resolutes," and this, I take it, Is the main motive of our preparations, The source of this our watch, and the chief head Of this post-haste and romage in the land. Strange as it may seem, I know of no major Shakespeare critic or scholar who has given to this speech of Horatio's the attention it would seem to deserve. This is all the more extraordinary in that it occurs at the very beginning and was apparently intended to point up the genesis, the "original sin," in the fateful cycle of events that make up the tragedy of Hamlet. If we want proof of this, we can find it in the gravedigger's scene in the last act. When asked by Hamlet how long he has been digging graves, the gravemaker replies: I came to't that day that our last king Hamlet Overcame Fortinbras . . . the very day that young Hamlet was born-he that is mad, and sent into England. There is no reason to suppose that Shakespeare gave the gravedigger these pregnant lines to establish an odd coincidence. It seems clear enough that in this scene, one of the most meaningful in the entire play, ...." I found it fascinating and The Teaching Co. told me to share it so here 'tis: http://www.teach12.com/ttc/ThreeSonsHamlet.asp?ai=16417 If that doesn't work I can send the whole article by email if anyone is interested. _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 15.0651 Thursday, 11 March 2004 From: Bill Lloyd <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 10 Mar 2004 07:37:39 EST Subject: 15.0636 Much Ado Questions Comment: Re: SHK 15.0636 Much Ado Questions On the subject of whether 'case' is properly regarded as a sexual pun, I don''t think I've seen Mistress Quickly quoted... In the Latin lesson in 4.1 of Merry Wives of Windsor, Sir Hugh is quizzing young William Page: Sir Hugh: What is your genitive case plural, William? William: Genitive case? Sir Hugh: Ay. William: Genitivo: 'horum, harum, horum'. Mistress Quickly: Vengeance of Jenny's case! Fie on her! Never name her, child, if she be a whore! 'Case' was, like 'captain' and 'occupy', apparently an excellent good word before it was ill-sorted... Bill Lloyd _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.