The Shakespeare Conference: . Monday, 10 March 1997.
[1] From: Tom Sullivan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, 08 Mar 1997 13:12:21 -0600
Subj: Branagh's "To be"
[2] From: David Crosby <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 9 Mar 1997 15:07:58 -0600
Subj: Re: SHK 8.0325 RE: A Lover and his Lass
[3] From: Mike Field <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 10 Mar 1997 10:00:19 -0500
Subj: Love's Labour's Won
[4] From: Jay T. Louden <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, 8 Mar 1997 08:42:39 -0800 (PST)
Subj: The Winter's Tale
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Tom Sullivan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, 08 Mar 1997 13:12:21 -0600
Subject: Branagh's "To be"
I thought Branagh's set up for the "To be..." soliloquy was wonderful -
it should be (IMHO) a reflective moment. I did not much care for the
inclusion of Claudius and Polonius which seemed to me a distraction. I
much prefer the grave treatment given the speech in the Zefirelli/Gibson
film.
Tom
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Crosby <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 9 Mar 1997 15:07:58 -0600
Subject: 8.0325 RE: A Lover and his Lass
Comment: Re: SHK 8.0325 RE: A Lover and his Lass
Words and music for "It was a lover and his lass" are included in _Songs
from Shakespeare's Plays and Popular Songs of Shakespeare's Time_,
compiled and edited by Tom Kines, published by Oak Publications, 1964.
The 60+ songs included are printed in modern spelling with modern
musical notation, including melody line and guitar chords. Simple but
effective if you want to teach yourself the songs. Kines provides a very
brief introduction to each song that could make finding more information
easy. My copy says the book was assigned Library of Congress catalogue
No. 64-66316.
David Crosby
Alcorn State University
[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mike Field <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Monday, 10 Mar 1997 10:00:19 -0500
Subject: Love's Labour's Won
I share Gabriel Wasserman's fascination with this "lost play" of
Shakespeare and tend to agree with his opinion that the other candidates
put forth--*Shrew* *Much Ado* and so forth-do not quite fit the bill.
After all, LLL ends with the most deliberate, effective "stay tuned for
the next episode" cliffhanger of a conclusion that I can think of. Will
the men perform their various services? Will they meet together again as
promised? Will marriage (the natural conclusion of comedy) ensue? I
don't think any of the suggested plays address these questions as they
have been asked.
Assuming there was a play, now lost, and assuming it was printed in
quarto and our bookseller friend had a copy in the early seventeenth
century, I ask fellow list members who are expert in Elizabethan
printing history, how many quartos were typically printed in a run? Are
there multiple copies of all the other known quartos, or only a handful
of each? In short, is it within the realm of the possible that
something mass-produced (and copied, I would assume, at least hundreds
of times) could now have utterly vanished-or more to the point, could
have vanished by the time the folio was being assembled? Are there
parallels of other known texts that have vanished?
[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jay T. Louden <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, 8 Mar 1997 08:42:39 -0800 (PST)
Subject: The Winter's Tale
Thanks to all who responded to my request for information regarding
productions of TWT. Our production will run March 13, 14 and 15 at UC
Irvine. If any of you are in the area and want to see what we've doen
with the show, the box office number is: 714/824-2787 or e-mail is
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. I believe we have a very exciting production and I would
welcome feedback from any of you after viewing the play. And if you
really want to get a full dose of TWT, A Noise Within is presenting the
play the same weekend in Irvine at the Irvine Barclay Theater.
Regarding anachronisms, TWT is full of them: references to 'grace', a
Christian concept, in what is supposed to be ancient Sicilia, Julio
Romano, The Sheep Shearing scene, which is straight out of Elizabethan
England, Bohemia's coastline, references to priests and Catholic burial
rites by the old Shepherd, the blessing of Perdita by Hermione in the
last scene, etc.
I, for one, believe that Will is intentionally combining these ideas in
order to create a 'tale' which transcends a particular time or place. In
directing the show, I have been continually struck by all of the
references to the act of playing. He repeatedly calls attention to the
actors and the stage. In addition, virtually every character speaks at
one time or another to-or about- the gods/goddesses. The prescience of
higher powers and the healing power of the feminine make this play
particularly relevant to modern audiences in a time when women are still
struggling to achieve equal status and so many people are striving to
find spirituality in their lives. I do not claim to be a scholar and my
primary concern is to find what is effective and affective on the stage.
Any responses?
Jay Louden
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.