The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2124  Friday, 3 December 1999.

[1]     From:   Ed Taft <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 02 Dec 1999 11:23:50 -0400 (EDT)
        Subj:   Lechery

[2]     From:   Edward Pixley <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 02 Dec 1999 11:12:40 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.2107 Re: Lechery

[3]     From:   David M Richman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Fri, 3 Dec 1999 10:57:25 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.2116 Re: Lechery


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Ed Taft <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 02 Dec 1999 11:23:50 -0400 (EDT)
Subject:        Lechery

Dave Evett's account of how Kathleen Widdowes and William Hutt played MM
4.1 is delightfully suggestive, though I, like Dave, have a hard time
seeing the Duke as a guy who likes martinis (or Mariana, either, for
that matter).  The classic BBC production of MM gives the opposite
interpretation: this Duke makes it clear that Lucio's slanders are
indeed slanders and not at all true.

Two further quick points: I saw William Hutt play Falstaff in Merry
Wives at Stratford, Ont. (1977?), and he was absolutely superb.  Second,
there is a new book soon to be published on Measure for Measure, written
by our mutual friend Bob Bennett, entitled Romance and Reformation. In
Chapter 3, Bob argues that the real reason that Vincentio has not
enforced the law in Vienna is that his ethos-his reputation for goodness
and probity) has been tarnished "by calumny, his sexual adventures
invented and rumored about by Lucio or his kind" (79). Bob supports his
view by pointing to 1.2.1-6 in which Friar Thomas assumes that Vincentio
is at the monastery for purposes of an assignation (!)  The Duke is at
some pains to explain that this is not so!  Bob further argues that this
is the point where the Duke fully realizes what he is up against and how
hard he will have to work to right the ship of state in Vienna.

It's an intriguing argument, don't you think?

--Ed Taft

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Edward Pixley <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 02 Dec 1999 11:12:40 -0500
Subject: 10.2107 Re: Lechery
Comment:        Re: SHK 10.2107 Re: Lechery

> Ed Taft writes:
>
> > Mike Friedman's observation that Lucio is a "lech" is a good one that is
> > often missed.  This is because Lucio is a "hail-fellow-well-met" type
> > who, at first, we have some affection for.  After all, he does want to
> > save Claudio's life and seems like a good friend to both Isabella and
> > her brother. But there is another side to Lucio, as Mike points out, he
> > is irresponsible in his sexual life, and he also uses lower-class women.
>
> I think that one reason he seems to be liked is that he's a rebel, and a
> carnivalesque rebel at that, so it's assumed that he must be in keeping
> with some sort of dissident agenda.  Lucio, in fact, strikes me as a
> very good example of how mere dissidence is not in itself a worthwhile
> goal.
>
> Cheers,
> Se     

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