The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0495 Tuesday, 23 May 2006
From: Elliott Stone <
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Date: Monday, 22 May 2006 21:43:05 -0400
Subject: Richard III
It was at least 10 years ago since the day I was in Chicago and took in a
wonderful Richard III at the Shakespeare Theatre. As I was leaving the
theatre I noticed the two young brothers who had just performed as the
Young Princes in the play. They probably were waiting for their mom to
pick them up. I approached the younger one and asked him why he thought
Shakespeare had the lines in the play concerning the question to
Buckingham about the Tower. "Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?"
He answered, "I don't know those are my brother's lines." The brothers
then jumped into their mom's car and drove off leaving me perplexed all
these years
Well, I was just thumbing through the Fourth Shakespeare Companion which
contained an excellent explanation by David Scott Kastan in his article on
"Shakespeare and English History p 167 @ 178. I will leave it to the
reader to seek out his explanation.
Kastan earlier in his article quotes the line from Jonson's "The Devil Is
An Ass" 2.4.8-14 where the dense but cunning Fitzdotrel points to his
source of superior historical knowledge which is not the Chronicles "No, I
confess I had't it from the play-books/ and think they're more authentic".
I admit to being one of the Shakespeare lovers who take very seriously
Prince Hamlet's admonitions. One of which is "The players tell all"!
I also think that I now understand in Richard III why the Bishop of Ely is
sent out for the strawberries III iv 46. They did not have a footnote on
that in my high school text but they never do when it concerns a matter of
sex!
Best,
Elliott H. Stone
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