October
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1718 Friday, 7 October 2005 [1] From: Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 6 Oct 2005 12:54:22 -0400 Subj: SHK 16.1706 Clocks and Bells [2] From: David Richman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 6 Oct 2005 13:42:43 -0400 Subj: Re: SHK 16.1706 Clocks and Bells [3] From: Martin Steward <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Friday, 7 Oct 2005 09:11:43 +0100 Subj: SHK 16.1706 Clocks and Bells [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Terence Hawkes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 6 Oct 2005 12:54:22 -0400 Subject: Clocks and Bells Comment: SHK 16.1706 Clocks and Bells Steve Sohmer writes 'there's a good deal of inferential evidence that clocks and bells were audible within the Globe' True, and so were other sounds. The screams and general uproar from the nearby bear-baiting arena is an example. The degree to which these might be made integral to the performance of certain plays is an interesting question. T. Hawkes [2]------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Richman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 6 Oct 2005 13:42:43 -0400 Subject: 16.1706 Clocks and Bells Comment: Re: SHK 16.1706 Clocks and Bells In an outdoor or partially outdoor theatre, noise must necessarily become part of the show--for better or worse. In a production of "The Tempest," on Appledore Island, one of an archipelago off the coast of Portsmouth, NH, the gulls became parts of the show. Here are the salient sentences from the article on this show from Alex Kafka's article in the Oct. 7 issue of "The Chronicle of Higher Education." "A couple of months before, the cast might have had to carry sticks over their heads, as Mr. Kaye did when he was scouting locations, because the thousands of gulls, in full assemblage, would target the highest point they could find. Fewer and calmer in late August, however, they prove a wonderfully spontaneous, natural element in the staging. One, for instance, makes an emphatic cameo, its cry punctuating Prospero's warning to Ferdinand against breaking his newly beloved Miranda's "virgin-knot" before marriage." Acting Prospero, I was and remain most grateful for this avian counterpoint. David Richman [3]------------------------------------------------------------- From: Martin Steward <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Friday, 7 Oct 2005 09:11:43 +0100 Subject: Clocks and Bells Comment: SHK 16.1706 Clocks and Bells Steve Sohmer's musings about the bells ringing outside the Globe presuppose a high degree of meticulousness in the planning and pacng of the dramatic performance, which might just about be convincing in this age of atomic clocks, wristwatches and train timetables... but is there evidence that the general population in the pre-railway age had a truly universal and accurate sense of time, right down to minutes and seconds (which is what would be required to get everyone into the Globe well in time to start the performance at exactly the right moment in the first place, and to monitor the pace of the performance so that the apposite moment in the playtext coincided the noise from outside? m _______________________________________________________________ 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 16.1717 Friday, 7 October 2005 [1] From: Arnie Perlstein <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 6 Oct 2005 09:08:32 -0400 Subj: Portia's Mysterious Letter [2] From: John Drakakis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 6 Oct 2005 15:57:53 +0100 Subj: RE: SHK 16.1703 Portia's Mysterious Letter [3] From: Larry Weiss <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 06 Oct 2005 14:09:25 -0400 Subj: Re: SHK 16.1703 Portia's Mysterious Letter [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Arnie Perlstein <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 6 Oct 2005 09:08:32 -0400 Subject: Portia's Mysterious Letter First, Larry, thank you for engaging with me on my speculations: "ME: she now disguises her gift for him as a piece of good fortune. LARRY: An interesting conjecture, but it does not bear analysis. We must assume that Antonio was familiar with his vessels and merchandise and the manning of his ships. If Antonio's actual ships were lost, how would Portia be able to replace them with identical bottoms, carrying the same cargo and manned by the same master, mate and crew?" 1. Perhaps Antonio is well aware that this is not a providential event, and that Portia has arranged this. By arranging things as she did, she allowed him to save face by playing along with that cover story. His saying "I am dumb" may mean, "You win, you are a magnificent Machiavellian. My lips are sealed"; and/or 2. Perhaps the ships were in fact never lost, but merely (as in The Tempest) held "in escrow" by Shylock's piratical allies, pending his further instructions. Then Portia, aided by the Salads, takes over "the helm". "ME: I see Shylock as having authorized the "hit" on Antonio's vessels, but this time not to get richer, but to get revenge. So he calls in some pirate favors. LARRY: This is more plausible, but the theory does not hold up if we consider that the ships were wracked, not pirated. And I think WS would have given us a little bigger hint if Shylock were responsible." 1. What if they were not really wrecked? Who is our source for saying they were wrecked anyway? Isn't it one of the Salads? I forget. 2. Even if they are wrecked, see my answer, above. "ME: It sure sounds like Salarino and Salanio knew a whole lot more than they were letting on" LARRY: Perhaps they had paid a visit to Macbeth's witches, who controlled the winds." C'mon, play fair! If you don't try to explain it naturalistically, then you're conceding my point. And speaking of those damned witches, they were like modern day palm readers, they didn't have, or need, any supernatural gifts to figure out how Macbeth was going down. ;) Arnie Perlstein Weston, Florida [2]------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Drakakis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 6 Oct 2005 15:57:53 +0100 Subject: 16.1703 Portia's Mysterious Letter Comment: RE: SHK 16.1703 Portia's Mysterious Letter Florence Amit's analysis is all very interesting but what really does it have to do with Shakespeare's play? Enquiring minds wish to know. Cheers, John Drakakis [3]------------------------------------------------------------- From: Larry Weiss <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 06 Oct 2005 14:09:25 -0400 Subject: 16.1703 Portia's Mysterious Letter Comment: Re: SHK 16.1703 Portia's Mysterious Letter >the release of Antonio's vessels would well be within the >knowledge of Portia ~ (daughter of the Nasi clan) according >to the analogy. I had forgotten that Portia was also a Jew. Perhaps someone can point me to the passage where this is made clear. _______________________________________________________________ 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 16.1716 Friday, 7 October 2005 From: David Evett <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 6 Oct 2005 15:35:35 -0400 Subject: 16.1700 Epstein's LEAR Comment: Re: SHK 16.1700 Epstein's LEAR There are links to most of the reviews of the Actors Shakespeare Project *Lr* on the company website, www.actorsshakespeareproject.org, including several not mentioned in Geralyn Horton's post. I particularly recommend the one that appeared today in the Boston Phoenix, and the one in Variety, which convey the fullest sense of the production's tonal variety and richness. Also a link to the company's interactive journal, with blogs from various hands (including mine) and a chance to post comments of your own. Those of you in reach of the production should know that tickets are going fast (several perfs. already sold out) but that the run has been extended a week, until Oct. 30. David Evett _______________________________________________________________ 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 16.1715 Friday, 7 October 2005 From: John D. Cox <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 6 Oct 2005 09:09:59 -0400 Subject: 16.1704 Shakespeare's "Unsatisfactory" Endings Comment: RE: SHK 16.1704 Shakespeare's "Unsatisfactory" Endings I suppose the image of Isabella blowing the Duke off is no more surprising for British readers than the image of Lucio knocking up Isabella at the convent is for American ones. Two great peoples separated by a common language, as Churchill observed. Best, John Cox Hope College _______________________________________________________________ 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 16.1714 Friday, 7 October 2005 From: Peter Goldman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 06 Oct 2005 09:27:00 -0600 Subject: 16.1698 A Shrew Comment: Re: SHK 16.1698 A Shrew See Lukas Erne in SHAKESPEARE AS LITERARY DRAMATIST who brilliant examines (and resolves) the problem of the so-called 'bad quartos.' ~Peter _______________________________________________________________ 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.