The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 23.119  Monday, 19 March 2012

[1] From:        Paul Barry < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

     Date:         March 17, 2012 6:49:13 PM EDT

     Subject:     Re: SHAKSPER: Saloonio

[2] From:        Charles Weinstein < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

     Date:         March 17, 2012 11:28:18 PM EDT

     Subject:     Saloonio

[3] From:        Larry Weiss < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

     Date:         March 17, 2012 11:45:40 PM EDT

     Subject:     Re: SHAKSPER: Saloonio

[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------

From:        Paul Barry < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

Date:         March 17, 2012 6:49:13 PM EDT

Subject:     Re: SHAKSPER: Saloonio

Hey, Allan, I thought Lady Mac’s first name was Ce-Ce, as in “Ce-Ce, our honored hostess.”

PAUL

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------

From:        Charles Weinstein < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

Date:         March 17, 2012 11:28:18 PM EDT

Subject:     Saloonio

Something similar pops up in Gilbert & Sullivan.

From H.M.S. Pinafore:

Go, ribald, get you hence

To your cabin with celerity.

Old D’Oyly Carte joke:

Who’s playing Celerity tonight?

Then there are the ephemeral silent characters in Shakespeare.  Take Varrius, the mysterious personage who appears out of nowhere for no good reason in Measure for Measure IV.v, and promptly vanishes without speaking a line:

Enter Varrius

DUKE:  I thank thee, Varrius, thou hast made good haste.

           Come, we will walk.  Thee’s other of our friends

           Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius

(end of scene).

I knew a director who kept this moment while casting no one as Varrius:  the Duke apostrophized an invisible man.  It was an in-joke that failed to work with outsiders, i.e., the audience.

--Charles Weinstein

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------

From:        Larry Weiss < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

Date:         March 17, 2012 11:45:40 PM EDT

Subject:     Re: SHAKSPER: Saloonio

I toyed with the idea of naming my cat “Thrice.”

[Editor's Note: Larry--drumroll please--and how many times did you toy with that idea?