August
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0640. Friday, 25 August 1995. (1) From: Chris Stroffolino <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 23 Aug 1995 12:50:28 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Re: SHK 6.0636 Re: "Content"; Scansion (2) From: John Drakakis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 24 Aug 1995 09:34:24 -0100 Subj: SHK 6.0636 Re: "Content"; Scansion (3) From: Peter L Groves <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 24 Aug 1995 17:13:30 GMT+1000 Subj: Re: SHK 6.0636 Re: "Content"; Scansion (1)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Chris Stroffolino <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 23 Aug 1995 12:50:28 -0400 (EDT) Subject: 6.0636 Re: "Content"; Scansion Comment: Re: SHK 6.0636 Re: "Content"; Scansion Dear Martin Green--thanks for your defense of Shakespeare as punster-- and citation, specifically, re "content"--Of course, I'd say pun's MAY HAVE been Shakespeare's CLEOPATRA--but that of course Shakespreare sides with CLEOPATRA more than many critics still give him credit for-- (however Godshalk may wish to claim DOLABELLA!)....chris stroffolino (2)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Drakakis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 24 Aug 1995 09:34:24 -0100 Subject: Re: "Content"; Scansion Comment: SHK 6.0636 Re: "Content"; Scansion I think in the light of the "new" New Bibliography we really need to revise our notions about puns in Shakespeare, don't we? John Drakakis (3)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peter L Groves <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 24 Aug 1995 17:13:30 GMT+1000 Subject: 6.0636 Re: "Content"; Scansion Comment: Re: SHK 6.0636 Re: "Content"; Scansion Kate: I'm afraid you're ascribing too much subtlety to the students in question; they just assumed (I suppose) that the _y_ in _Hippolyta_ was long, and therefore likely to be stressed, and thus produced the four-beat line *Now, FAIR HippoLYTa, our NUPtial HOUR...*. You're so right about those acting clues. What I find particularly interesting about the way WS uses metre to cue the actor's performance is that actors often pick it up even where editors have done their best to hide it. A good example of editorial botching is the first four lines of _Macbeth_ 2.2, printed more or less thus in the First Folio: That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold: What hath quench d them, hath given me fire. Hearke, peace: it was the Owle that shriek d, The fatall Bell-man, which gives the stern st good-night. Since the second line of the F text has only nine syllables, and the third only eight, every editor of the play since Rowe (with the sole exception of Charles Knight) has printed them with the following regularised lineation: That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold; What hath quench d them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shriek d, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern st goodnight. . . . This will of course scan in a satisfactory but relatively mechanical and not particularly revealing way, but actors who play Lady Macbeth (and I have tested this against every taped version of the play I have access to ) tend to ignore the modern lineation in performance and intuitively recover the Folio version, which is much more dramatically expressive. To utter line 2 of the Folio version with five beats, for example, you are forced to realize the contrastive accent on the antithetical pairs _them_ : _me_ and _quenched_ : _(given) fire_, giving the line (as WS wrote it) its sinister, gloating rhythm as Lady Macbeth is forced to linger on the last two words. In the next Folio line, the successive catalexes or monosyllabic feet (^Hearke! ^Peace!) produce a staccato rhythm consonant with Lady Macbeth s jumpiness, an effect (and an authorial direction to the actor) that is lost if as in the modern verison only one of those syllables is allowed to function as a beat. Good luck with your acting majors--and happy hunting for those performance cues!
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0639. Friday, 25 August 1995. From: G. L. Horton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 23 Aug 1995 12:07:04 -0400 Subject: Re: Shakes & Co SOS When I went to see the productions at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox over the weekend, I discovered that they are "threatened with eviction or severe restriction of programming by the Edith Wharton Restoration" where they have been in residence since before there WAS an "Edith Wharton Restoration" at the Mount -- once Wharton's home, and the company's since 1978. This would be a terrible loss. In addition to the company's excellent productions, and the training program that creates a supply of actors able to deal with the depth and complexity of verse drama, the company does teacher training and outreach in the schools that promises a future supply of people who love Shakespeare, theatre, and the English language. They are soliciting letters of support, to be sent to the company for forwarding at The Mount, Lenox, MA 01240; or to Frank Sanchis, VP National Trust for Historic Preservation 1785 Massachusetts Ave NW Washington, D.C. 20036 or to relevent congresspeople I urge conference members to write or email in support. This company is a national treasure! G.L. Horton
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0638. Wednesday, 23 August 1995. (1) From: Elizabeth Blye Schmitt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 22 Aug 1995 16:59:43 -0500 (CDT) Subj: Re: SHK 6.0620 Re: NYSF Tro.; Time; Edgar (2) From: John Mucci <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 22 Aug 1995 11:57:43 -0400 Subj: Salvini; Sleepwalking (1)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Elizabeth Blye Schmitt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 22 Aug 1995 16:59:43 -0500 (CDT) Subject: 6.0620 Re: NYSF Tro.; Time; Edgar Comment: Re: SHK 6.0620 Re: NYSF Tro.; Time; Edgar Specific ref to NYSF Did no one see Patrick Stewart in the TEMPEST? I heard rumors that it was great, but saw nothing on SHAKSPER. Could you be waiting for its Broadway run? Had I not been a)ready to give birth, and b) in Dallas, both my husband and i would have braved camping out in the Park to see this one. Come on somebody give over! Elizabeth Schmitt (2)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Mucci <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 22 Aug 1995 11:57:43 -0400 Subject: Salvini; Sleepwalking Since I've been going over the very curious article about Salvini which I found this summer, I thought I'd put in his two cents worth anent the questions of changing the texts for the sake of the directors' concept. In the 1870's, Helen Zimmern wrote an article about Salvini in "The Gentlemen's Magazine," and she quotes the Italian actor as saying: >"When I read this grand tragedy [of Macbeth] for the first time, >I expected to see the somnambulist scene of the wife followed by >one of the husband, and it was quite difficult to persuade >myself of the contrary. It seems extravagant this effect >produced on my mind, but yet it seems to me justifiable. The >somnambulist scene takes place at the beginning of the fifth >act, and up to then neither the waiting-maid nor the doctor has >given a hint of such a condition. No one expects it or has >reason to foresee it." It is Lady Macbeth who has ever been the >strong one, who has called him coward, laughed at his >hallucinations, "never a single words of remorse or repentance >from her lips. How then comes this resolute woman suddenly to >falsify the terrible but grand impression the audience has >gained of her up to now? And why has the author, ever rigidly >observant to maintain his characters the same from beginning to >end, made an exception for Lady Macbeth? Is it illness that >makes her weak and vacillating? It may be; but this scene seems >to me originally composed for Macbeth, and afterwards changed >for the benefit of some actor (actresses were not then employed) >who, perhaps, did not think the part he had to sustain >sufficient. I thank him from my heart for having taken it from >Macbeth; the burden of this role is sufficiently exorbitant." >An original idea certainly on Signor Salvini's part. What will >the Shakespeare critics say to it?> Salvini's further ideas about Macbeth, as well as Hamlet and Lear, are fascinating and unfettered by the thought of what "the Shakespeare critics" would say. (I will be happy to send the whole text to anyone who wishes--about 5,000 words). John Mucci GTE VisNet
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0637. Wednesday, 23 August 1995. (1) From: Dawn Massey <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 22 Aug 95 15:15:51 BST Subj: Re: SHK 6.0633 Qs: Graduate Programs (2) From: Rebecca C Totaro <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 22 Aug 1995 21:30:47 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Re: SHK 6.0633 Qs: Graduate Programs (1)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dawn Massey <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 22 Aug 95 15:15:51 BST Subject: 6.0633 Qs: Graduate Programs Comment: Re: SHK 6.0633 Qs: Graduate Programs Re: Graduate Programs in Shakespeare Studies and Renaissance Drama You may wish to consider The Shakespeare Institute, directed by Professor Stanley Wells, co-general editor of The Oxford Shakespeare (with Gary Taylor) and general editor of Shakespeare Survey, member of the board of governors of the RSC, etc., etc. While officially part of the English Department of the University of Birmingham, the SI is located in Stratford-Upon-Avon, offering excellent access to RSC and Shakespeare Center performance archive resources. The SI's own library resources for Renaissance Drama are superb. With regard t to approach, the SI undeniably has a reputation for traditional (some might say conservative) scholarship; however, my own experience has been that I have been given the trust and freedom to evaluate carefully all major critical practices so that I can develop my own synthesis. As for background, I don't feel I am in a position to make that determination. You should probably write directly to Dr. Martin Wiggins, The Shakespeare Institute, Church Street, Stratford- Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, CV37 6HP. That said, any number of recent anthologies can provide a good sense of the current debates in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama studies. For example, Dollimore and Sinfield's (eds) Political Shakespeare, Ivo Kamp's (ed) Shakespeare Left and Right, Drakakis's (ed) Shakespearean Tragedy and Alternative Shakespeares, Dutton and Wilson's (eds) New Historicism and Renaissance Drama, Kastan and Stallybrass's (eds) Staging the Renaissance, Parker and Hartmann's (eds) Shakespeare and the Question of Theory. The Dutton and Wilson is helpful as it historicizes New Historicism and Cultural Materialism and contains a useful glossary of terms. As far as other programs in England, you might consider Cardiff's cultural studies program, run I believe by Terence Hawkes and Katherine Belsey. Leeds and Sussex are also worth a look. One final feature to recommend British universities is access to the superior holdings of not only The Shakespeare Institute, but also, the Bodleian and the British Museum. Best of luck. If you have any specific questions, please don't hesitate to ask. (2)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Rebecca C Totaro <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 22 Aug 1995 21:30:47 -0400 (EDT) Subject: 6.0633 Qs: Graduate Programs Comment: Re: SHK 6.0633 Qs: Graduate Programs You must not overlook U. Mass at Amherst. I spent two years researching universities to find this one. The faculty is huge while the number of admitted grads is small. The Renaissance studies students can work for the noteable *English Literary Renaissance* journal and can select from among nearly 10 faculty members to work with, within this period alone. Further, students enjoy teaching-oriented professors who take pride in cultivating lasting colleagueships with their students. At the same time, students find that their professors are well know and respected in their field. I need only name Kathleen Swaim, Wally Kerrigan, and Arthur Kinney for starters. Finally, the campus and its location in Massachusetts' "Happy Valley" more than remind one that even when you're facing your orals, you've made the right choice to attend U.Mass, Amherst.
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0636. Wednesday, 23 August 1995. (1) From: Martin Green <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 22 Aug 1995 10:48:25 -0400 Subj: Re: SHK 6.0624, 0627 and 0632 Re: "Content" (2) From: Kate Wilson <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 23 Aug 1995 07:01:38 +1000 (EST) Subj: Content and Scansion (1)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Martin Green <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 22 Aug 1995 10:48:25 -0400 Subject: 6.0624, 0627 and 0632 Re: "Content" Comment: Re: SHK 6.0624, 0627 and 0632 Re: "Content" Since puns are (in my opinion) NOT Shakespeare's Cleopatra, but his crowning glory (because as used by him they infuse so many meanings and hence so much depth into his writings), I do not doubt that "content" can mean both "substance" and "satisfaction" in Lady Macbeth's speech. The word appears in the first of Shakespeare's Sonnets, where only by imputing to it these two meanings (in a sonnet written to a young man urging him to reproduce in order to perpetuate his beauty) can we discern all that Shakespeare is saying to a youth who in lines 5-6 is chided for being one who, contracted to his own bright eyes, feeds his light's flame with self-substantial fuel. Lines 9-12 continue this thought: Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament, And only herald to the gaudy spring, Within thine own bud buriest thy content And tender churl mak'st waste in niggarding. See also the entry under "Content(ion)" in Frankie Rubinstein's "Dictionary of Shakespeare's Sexual Puns and their Significance." (2)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Kate Wilson <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 23 Aug 1995 07:01:38 +1000 (EST) Subject: Content and Scansion Peter Ah the joys of scansion, they hath made us mad! Out of curiosity, what did your students make of the pronounciation. of *Hippolyta* in Now fair Hippolyta our nuptial hour/grows on apace. Did they stick on *nuptial* as well...wanting 3 syllables or 2...and did anyone stumble onto the value of strongly-accenting *Now*? I have a group of first-level acting majors who are discovering daily the acting *clues* (as John Barton puts it) in WS's text. Cheers Kate