July
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0797. Monday, 28 July 1997. [1] From: David Phillips <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Sunday, 27 Jul 1997 11:37:43 -0400 Subj: Re: SHK 8.0788 Re: Othello; Stewart [2] From: Stuart Manger <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Sunday, 27 Jul 1997 20:10:06 +0100 Subj: SHK 8.0788 Re: Othello/Desdemona Ages [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Phillips <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Sunday, 27 Jul 1997 11:37:43 -0400 Subject: 8.0788 Re: Othello; Stewart Comment: Re: SHK 8.0788 Re: Othello; Stewart I Those interested in the consummation debate would do well to consult the following: Nelson & Haines' "Othello's Unconsummated Marriage." <italic>Essays in Criticism</italic> 1983 January (vol. 33) and Nathan's "Othello's Marriage is Consummated." <italic>Cahiers Elisabethians</italic> 1988 (vol. 34). Also, Lynda Boose in "Othello's Handkerchief . . ." (ELR 5 and in Barthelemy's Critical Essays on Shakespeare's Othello) makes a good argument through her focus on the handkerchief and blood-stained wedding sheets. I tend to favor the argument that the marriage has been consummated. What, after all, have Desdemona and Othello been doing during Iago and Cassio's conversation in 2.3 after Cassio is dismissed? That scene begins before 10 P.M. and lasts until dawn, with Othello and Desdemona entering somewhere (I would guess) between 10 and midnight. For an interesting article on time in Othello, see Wentersdorf's "The Time Problem in Othello: A Reconsideration." SHJW 1985. All the best, David [2]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Stuart Manger <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Sunday, 27 Jul 1997 20:10:06 +0100 Subject: Re: Othello/Desdemona Ages Comment: SHK 8.0788 Re: Othello/Desdemona Ages >As to whether Othello is played old today, the difficulty I have with >the idea that he might by "around forty-five or so" is just that old >question of what age would have appeared "advanced into the vale of >years" to that audience compared with ours. I am convinced that >*disparity* in age is more important than the absolute ages of either >Desdemona or Othello. Still, for the purpose of strongly making the >point about disparate ages today, (what issues would arise today if >Desdemona were played as a twelve-year old?) wouldn't it be better if, >in performance, Othello didn't look too virile and strapping to have >such doubts about his sexual prowess? Active generalship on one hand >does not require advanced years; on the other hand a general may lead >long after physical strength is diminished; history provided examples of >both. Age of sexual consent is a key issue not only in 'Othello', of course; crucially it is raised in 'R and J': having just produced the show with R and J played by actors more or less the exact age Shakespeare calls for (J=14.5 years / R= 17 years), I can vouch for the visual / sexual frisson and validity of the gamble on stage. They simply looked absolutely right, and made the central dynamic of the play work so well and tragically. I think Desdemona is indeed young - many curled darlings have been pursuing her. She is overly-protected by Brabantio, and his shock and even disgust at the notion of her apparent sexual precocity is I imagine echoed in 90% of all fathers faced with suitors for their apparently sexually innocent offspring? BUT she is seen in important and distinguished company, apparently runs the house (Mrs Brabantio conspicuous by her absence?), and certainly feels strong enough to shock her father, and challenge him in public before the Doge himself, so 12?........... I think not. Maybe 17/18+? She's certainly older than Juliet, isn't she? Lot of the Act V Miranda in her? Othello's age is more interesting: 40+? Declined into the vale of years - yet that's not much? What does that mean? Not far into the vale? Or does the vale of years really matter? I agree with James that the key issue is disparity of ages: that is what Iago exploits. BUT he also exploits Othello's sexual insecurity about his own sexual attractiveness, maybe even experience? I'm afraid that a 40 year old can be just as tentative about his / her charms as an adolescent when bowled over by what is clearly a major passion, and age has very little to do with a sense of security about sexual identity in that context!! Shakespeare touches a ruefully raw nerve there, I feel!! Above all, the physical disparity on stage is important, however: too big, and he looks like a cradle-snatcher, she dangerously like a lovesick Lolita, or at least runaway child-bride, and there is for our own super-sensitive age the unpleasant sensation of child-abuse? Of course, the Elizabethans would have had no such qualms at all. But we, like Brabantio, might find the idea of such a pair making the beast with two backs a bit yukky? I think as a producer I'd go for a 40/20 age range? She would be old enough to feel confident of her own sexual identity, old enough to feel daddy's chains clogging, and certainly alive enough to life to find Othello's stories status/experience exciting, and he would be already successful, but had spent all his main years building a reputation that shuts out the notion of relationships that end in marriage, certainly to someone of such high-status as Desdemona? I'd be very unhappy with playing her as overly young, or Othello ditto, OR Othello as overly old: he must be convincingly sexually active/attractive to make the grip between the two lovers valid for the audience, and the outrage we feel as Iago unhinges it all totally disgraceful and tragic? If either party is too young / old, then all we might feel is what a relief! Hope there's something here to chew on? Stuart Manger
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0796. Monday, 28 July 1997. [1] From: Georgianna Ziegler <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 26 Jul 97 11:14:00 PDT Subj: Simon Forman [2] From: Bruce Golden <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Sunday, 27 Jul 1997 17:07:02 -0700 (PDT) Subj: Re: SHK 8.0789 Help re Forman and Montrose [3] From: Adrian Kiernander <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 28 Jul 1997 13:51:35 +1000 (EST) Subj: Re: SHK 8.0789 Forman [4] From: Phyllis Rackin <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 28 Jul 1997 10:28:12 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Re: SHK 8.0789 Help re Forman and Montrose [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Georgianna Ziegler <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 26 Jul 97 11:14:00 PDT Subject: Simon Forman Judy Kennedy inquired about A.L. Rowse's book "The case books of Simon Forman." This is the title given when his "Simon Forman: Sex and Society in Shakespeare's Age" (Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 1974) was re-published as a Picador paperback by Pan Books in 1976. Barbara Traister of Lehigh University is completing an edition of Forman's manuscripts from Oxford. Georgianna Ziegler Folger Library [2]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Bruce Golden <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Sunday, 27 Jul 1997 17:07:02 -0700 (PDT) Subject: 8.0789 Help re Forman and Montrose Comment: Re: SHK 8.0789 Help re Forman and Montrose My copy of a Picador paper edition [no date] reads, _The Case Books Of Simon Forman: Sex and Society in Shakespeare's Age_. The quote and Josten reference are on page 31 of this edition, but Forman's "dream" passage, is fn. 2 cited from p. 226 of Josten. Rowse's fn. 1 seems to refer to Jung's quote concerning Elias Ashmole's dream notes, not Forman's. -Bruce GoldenThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [3]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Adrian Kiernander <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 28 Jul 1997 13:51:35 +1000 (EST) Subject: 8.0789 Forman Comment: Re: SHK 8.0789 Forman I have in front of me as I type this a paperback copy of A. L. Rowse, _The Case Books of Simon Forman: Sex and Society in Shakespeare's Age_ (London, 1974), published by Pan Books in a Picador edition. The description of Simon Forman's dream is indeed printed on p.31.' There is a note that it was first published in the same year (presumably in hardback, by Weidenfeld and Nicholson. [4]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Phyllis Rackin <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 28 Jul 1997 10:28:12 -0400 (EDT) Subject: 8.0789 Help re Forman and Montrose Comment: Re: SHK 8.0789 Help re Forman and Montrose I don't know the answer to your question, but I know who would: Professor Barbara Traister of Lehigh University, who has conducted an extensive study of Forman and his casebooks.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0795. Monday, 28 July 1997. [1] From: Tanya Gough <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 26 Jul 1997 09:27:58 -0400 Subj: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio [2] From: John Owen <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 26 Jul 1997 11:48:32 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio [3] From: Patricia E. Gallagher <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 26 Jul 1997 10:56:17 -0500 (CDT) Subj: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio [4] From: David Joseph Kathman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 26 Jul 1997 12:16:14 -0500 (CDT) Subj: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio [5] From: Douglas M Lanier <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 26 Jul 1997 19:22:23 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio [6] From: Kenneth S. Rothwell <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Sunday, 27 Jul 1997 13:44:43 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio [7] From: David M Richman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 28 Jul 1997 09:40:31 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tanya Gough <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 26 Jul 1997 09:27:58 -0400 Subject: 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio Comment: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio Hugh - We've just got a line on that series. I don't have a price yet, but anyone interested can contact us, Poor Yorick atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or through our new website: http://granite.cyg.net/~yorick Cheers, Tanya Gough [2]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Owen <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 26 Jul 1997 11:48:32 -0400 (EDT) Subject: 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio Comment: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio In reply to Hugh Davis, The Shakespeare in Hollywood series has been reissued a number of times. I have the LPs released by Fonodisk under the Ariel label, and cassette versions of two of the series from Radio Yesteryear. The address on the liner notes for these is: Radio Yesteryear Box C Sandy Hook, Conn 06482 Although be cautioned that I got these a good ten years ago, so the address may have changed, and you may need to do a little Web surfing to get the latest info. I have to disagree with Bogie's biographer. Bogart's performance is altogether praiseworthy, except for a couple of minor stumbles (it was live, after all and underrehearsed). He has no trouble at all conveying Hotspur in all his vitality. Walter Huston's diction is flawless, but he and Aherne are definitely outacted. And a word might be said also for Walter Connolly's excellent Falstaff. Get this if you can, by all means. One revelation of this series is actor Thomas Mitchell. He plays Lear and Brutus and is very good, especially in the latter part, and Lord knows it is difficult to make Brutus interesting. (Note-The radio yesteryear series also includes a rare recording of the great Old Vic production of Peer Gynt with Richardson and Olivier that is worth investigating.) [3]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Patricia E. Gallagher <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 26 Jul 1997 10:56:17 -0500 (CDT) Subject: 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio Comment: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio In reference to radio broadcasts of Shakespeare, some years ago I purchased two lp sets (back in the days when records still existed) called "Hollywood Immortals Perform Shakespeare" and "Shakespeare in Hollywood" The first lp contains 5 original radio broadcasts: The Taming of the Shrew with Edward G. Robinson; Much Ado About Nothing, with Leslie Howard and Rosalind Russell; Julius Caesar with Claude Rains, Walter Abel & Thomas Mitchell; Henry IV with Humphrey Bogart; and Twelfth Night with Orson Welles, Sir Cedric Hardwicke a& Tallulah Bankhead. The second lp contains 4 programs; Twelfth Night, Much Ado and Shrew programs from above, and As You Like It with Frank Morgan & Elissa Landi. I'm not sure if these are still available. If anyone needs the exact information about these old records, let me know. Patricia E. Gallagher [4]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Joseph Kathman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 26 Jul 1997 12:16:14 -0500 (CDT) Subject: 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio Comment: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio Three episodes of the CBS Shakespeare Theater, including the H4 with Bogart, are available on tape from Radio Yesteryear, a company in Sandy Hook, NJ which sells tapes of old radio shows. The three are: The Taming of the Shrew with Edward G. Robinson, first broadcast July 3, 1937 (item LRB-41) Henry IV with Walter Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Brian Aherne, and Dame May Whitty, first broadcast August 23, 1937 (item LRB-42) Twelfth Night with Orson Welles, Tallulah Bankhead, and Sir Cedric Hardwicke, first broadcast August 30, 1937 (item LRB-43) The tapes cost $4.98 each plus postage, and can be ordered by calling Radio Yesteryear at 1-800-243-0987, by e-mailing them atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or by faxing 1-203-797-0819. It's possible there may be other tapes of the CBS Shakespeare series available, since they claim to have 50,000 radio shows that are not in their catalogue. They'll send a report on the availability of up to three programs for free with an order (or for $3 without an order). Dave KathmanThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [5]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Douglas M Lanier <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 26 Jul 1997 19:22:23 -0400 (EDT) Subject: 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio Comment: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio Dear Hugh Davis, You can probably get copies of both of the Shakespeare radio programs you mention from RADIO YESTERYEAR, Box C, Sandy Hook, CT 06482. Order line is 800 243-0987, or Fax 203 797-0819. I've ordered copies of many of Barrymore's radio Shakespeare programs from them, and the quality of the cassettes is excellent. When you call, ask for the search form-they can search their huge database of radio programs according to any criterion you wish. One warning: the price of tapes is rather steep ($12.00 per hour of recording). I hope this helps. I hope you'll post any other information you run across about radio Shakespeare. Cheers, Douglas LanierThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [6]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Kenneth S. Rothwell <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Sunday, 27 Jul 1997 13:44:43 -0400 (EDT) Subject: 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio Comment: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio Dear Hugh Davis, Most of the Shakespeare on radio shows that you have inquired about are available in a boxed set from Radio/Video Yesteryear, Box C, Sandy Hook, Conn. 06482. Call 203-426-2774. They are of excellent quality in my opinion. All the best, Kenneth Rothwell [7]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: David M Richman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 28 Jul 1997 09:40:31 -0400 (EDT) Subject: 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio Comment: Re: SHK 8.0786 Shakespeare on Radio I have an old Columbia recording of five episodes of the Shakespeare on Radio series broadcast on CBS in 1937. I admire Bogart's Hotspur-impassioned, a bit dangerous. He doesn't like being toyed with by a manipulative crafty old king. Each play is cut down to just under an hour. I picked these up in a used record store about twenty years ago. I have no idea as to their current availability. David Richman
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0794. Saturday, 26 July 1997. From: Tanya Gough <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Friday, 25 Jul 1997 15:32:53 -0400 Subject: Poor Yorick Website You asked for it, you got it. My graphic designer par excellence has been working day and night to get us up and running - three months ahead of schedule, thanks to you lot. Come visit our Shakespeare Multimedia Catalog at: http://granite.cyg.net/~yorick Yours, Tanya Gough
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0793. Saturday, 26 July 1997. From: Joanne Woolway <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: FriDAY, 25 Jul 1997 08:31:59 +0100 (BST) Subject: EMLS 3.1 Please cross-post _"All's Well that Ends Well," "Love's Labour's Lost," "A Midsummer Night's Worst Nightmare": Or, How Early Modern Literary Studies 3.1 Finally Came to Fruition._ This lamentable tale of the delay of EMLS 3.1 begins in March 1997 with a deliberate decision to move EMLS's publication schedule to May, September, January, to avoid clashing with beginnings and ends of term and the MLA's December convention. Our timing slightly out of joint, we nonetheless felt confident that all was on schedule. But then a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning was heard overhead and the Oriel College ethernet connection was hit by a bolt from the heavens. Suddenly, e-mail was no more, the internet receded into virtual unreality, and EMLS's non-existent funding was channelled into trans-atlantic phone-calls. The journal did not appear. Happier news was on the horizon, though, as a post-doctoral fellowship beckoned Ray Siemens to the University of Alberta. A welcome offer, its only drawback was that it meant him packing up and sending off his books and files and computer to these distant lands. And still the journal did not appear. Back in Oxford, meanwhile, and Joanne Woolway's other job (Adviser to Women Students) got her involved in a lengthy harassment case, which wiped out two weeks of term. This bode some strange eruption to our state . . . A job offer (Lecturer at Oriel College) added further distraction, though this time of a more welcome nature. So still the journal did not appear. Close to completion, the files were mounted on the EMLS site, carefully proof-read by a new team of editorial assistants, Sean Lawrence, Gillian Austen, and Jennifer Lewin (now in charge of interactive EMLS, with Paul Dyck). But some mischievous spirit had altered an access password and the homepage only showed issue 2.3. (O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set this right, said Joanne) And still the journal did not appear. To be or not to be?: that really was the question. But finally, it has appeared, and we now present this issue to our patient audience. The table of contents is below, and the EMLS site can be found at http://purl.oclc.org/emls/emlshome.html Included alongside issue 3.1 is the first in the EMLS Special Issue Series, edited by Ian Lancashire and Michael Best, and entitled _New Scholarship from Old Renaissance Dictionaries: Applications of the Early Modern English Dictionaries Database._ EMLS is always happy to consider submissions and new ideas for publication: full submission details, contact addresses, etc. can be found on the site. Happy reading! Raymond G. Siemens Joanne Woolway Early Modern Literary Studies = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Early Modern Literary Studies 3.1 (May 1997): Editor: Joanne Woolway, Oriel College, Oxford Articles: Steve Sohmer. "12 June 1599: Opening Day at Shakespeare's Globe." Randall Martin. "Isabella Whitney's 'Lamentation upon the death of William Gruffith.'" Emma Roth-Schwartz. "Colon and Semi-Colon in Donne's Prose Letters: Practice and Principle." Note: Jeffrey Kahan. "Ambroise Pare's Des Monstres as a Possible Source for Caliban." Reviews: Patricia Parker. Shakespeare from the Margins: Language, Culture, Context. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1996. Mary Bly, Washington University, St. Louis. Chris Fitter. Poetry, Space, Landscape: Toward a New Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995. Garrett A. Sullivan, Jr., Pennsylvania State University. William S. Carroll. Fat King, Lean Beggar: Representations of Poverty in the Age of Shakespeare. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1996. Michael Long, Oriel College, Oxford University. Mark Breitenberg. Anxious Masculinity in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995. Stephen Longstaffe, University College of St Martin. Hilary Hinds. God's Englishwomen: Seventeenth-Century Radical Sectarian Writing and Feminist Criticism. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1996. Mark Houlahan, University of Waikato.. Melanie Hansen and Suzanne Trill, eds. Voicing Women: Gender and Sexuality in Early Modern Writing. Renaissance Texts and Studies, Keele, Staffordshire: Keele UP, 1996. Elizabeth Hodgson, University of British Columbia. David Lindley. The Trials of Frances Howard: Fact and Fiction at the Court of King James. New York: Routledge, 1993. Bryan N.S. Gooch, University of Victoria. Lady Mary Wroth. Lady Mary Wroth: Poems. A Modernized Edition. R. E. Pritchard, ed. Keele, Staffordshire: Keele UP, 1996. Joyce Green MacDonald, University of Kentucky. S. P. Cerasano and Marion Wynne-Davies, eds. Renaissance Drama by Women: Texts and Documents. New York: Routledge, 1996. Patricia Ralston, Covenant College. EMLS Special Issue Series 1 (April 1997): New Scholarship from Old Renaissance Dictionaries: Applications of the Early Modern English Dictionaries Database. Ian Lancashire and Michael Best, eds. Editorial Preface. Ian Lancashire, University of Toronto, and Michael Best, University of Victoria. "That purpose which is plain and easy to be understood": Using the Computer Database of Early Modern English Dictionaries to Resolve Problems in a Critical Edition of The Second Tome of Homilies (1563). Stephen Buick, University of Toronto. Renaissance Dictionaries and Shakespeare's Language: A Study of Word-meaning in Troilus and Cressida. Mark Catt, University of Toronto. Did Shakespeare Consciously Use Archaic English? Mary Catherine Davidson, University of Toronto. An English Renaissance Understanding of the Word "Tragedy,"1587-1616. Tanya Hagen, University of Toronto. Understanding Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and the EMEDD. Ian Lancashire, University of Toronto. Reflections of an Electronic Scribe: Two Renaissance Dictionaries and Their Implicit Philosophies of Language. Jonathan Warren, University of Toronto. "A Double Spirit of Teaching": What Shakespeare's Teachers Teach Us. Patricia Winson, University of Toronto.