November
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2004 Tuesday, 16 November 1999. From: Karen Peterson-Kranz <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 16 Nov 1999 17:49:23 +1000 Subject: The Top 100 I thought some list members might get a (masochistic?) kick out of this. Amazon.com apparently did some kind of poll, asking for the "top 100 books of the millenium." Or they may have just used their sales records- unsurprisingly, there is no detail about their polling methods. The results are about what you might expect: a truly bizarre compendium. However, Shakespeare did make the cut (sort of). The Random House complete works came in at #16, and the Signet Hamlet came in at #17 (beaten in the rankings by not one, but two Ayn Rand titles). What is truly enlightening, however, is to go to the "read more" section and go through the reader comments. Some touching, some appalling, some just scary. Here's my favorite, from the Hamlet reader reviews: "Hamlet and his family have lived in Denmark. They stay in a castle at Elsinore. A short distance on the estate is an orchard with cool shade. The time is the afternoon. The king leaves to get some rest in the orchard. Time passes, and he does not return. The family becomes worried. Someone goes to the orchard and finds the king. The rumor is that he has been killed by a poisonous snake. A madness has fallen on Hamlet. Thus the deceased king's apparition is clearly seen and heard. For a time members of the family and others detect Hamlet's queer demeanor. As time passes, it is seen more frequently. It sounds as though he spent much of his salad days with the jester. A reader is not as easily mousetrapped as other readers about Hamlet's motives. The historical record shows that Emperor Claudius was poisoned by his wife so that her son, Nero, would inherit a throne. " Despite the above, the reader did give Hamlet five stars. Those not faint of heart may find more such perspectives at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/features/c/century/millennium-books-1-25.html/102-6677764-0005667 Cheers, Karen Peterson-Kranz University of Guam
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2003 Tuesday, 16 November 1999. From: H. R. Greenberg <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 15 Nov 1999 14:42:04 EST Subject: 10.1984 Re: Curative Waters Comment: Re: SHK 10.1984 Re: Curative Waters Thanks to all for this post. HRGreenberg mD ENDIT.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2002 Tuesday, 16 November 1999. From: Stuart Manger <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 16 Nov 1999 00:49:29 +0000 Subject: Something Scary Comment: SHK 10.1991 Something Scary I wonder if Hamlet the Musical is scarier than Otello the Opera? Or Hamlet the ballet? Or 'My Private Idaho' as history play? Interesting point: did serious lovers of Dickens find 'Oliver!' the Bart musical, as scary then? Is the only way we can deal with desperation by guying it? I really don't know what the answer is here.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2001 Tuesday, 16 November 1999. From: John Velz <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 15 Nov 1999 14:47:06 -0600 Subject: Apocryphal Gospels Sorry Mike Jensen for being slow to answer your query about "gnostic gospels". I have been away from the computer and my library for a few days. The best known apocryphal gospel in the late Middle Ages was the *Gospel of Nicodemus* or as it was called in Latin, the Gesta Pilati. The fact that it was translated into Middle English Verse is prob. responsible for its widespread influence on the drama. York, Chester and Wakefield all draw on it for the harrowing of hell sequences and for some legendary material about the Crucifixion and its immediate aftermath as well. My knowledge of apocryphal gospels is at second hand; suggest you start with Rosemary Woolf *The English Mystery Plays*. U of Calif. Pr., 1972. See index s.v. gospels. Also Hardin Craig's English Religious Drama of the Middle Ages Oxford: Clarendon 1955/1960. s.v. Gospel of Nicodemus. There are other sources, prob. V.A. Kolve, The Play Called Corpus Christi Stanford U.P. ca. 1965, but I cannot find my copy just now. The two sources I cite above are only concerned with Nicodemus/Gesta Pilati. There were other gospels current in the M.A. and taken seriously. I remember titles like *Joseph the Carpenter* , The Girlhood of Mary, The Life of the Boy Jesus, etc. but do not remember just where I read about them when studying medieval drama 35 years ago. The influence is said to be indirect in some cases, as the Stanzaic Life of Christ and the Legenda Aurea both owe something to the apocryphal gospels and these two sources doubtless contributed to the drama. I expect you can do better than this, but this will get you started. Cheers for apocrypha, John
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2000 Tuesday, 16 November 1999. [Editor's Note: With this post, SHAKSPER reaches YK2 for the first time in its history. Never in a single year of its ten-years have there been as many separate digests as this. Believe it or not the postings below were the very next in line in my mailbox. I did not pre-select the subject to mark this occasion, but a smile came to my face when I realized that SHK 10.2000 would be labeled Shakespeare in the Toilet. Here's hoping that this digest does not cause the end of the world to your hard drives, and thanks for the memorable years, Hardy] [1] From: F. Nicholas Clary <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 15 Nov 1999 15:24:44 -0500 Subj: Shakespeare in the Toilet [2] From: Jerry Bangham <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 16 Nov 1999 07:38:50 -0600 Subj: From Yahoo News [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: F. Nicholas Clary <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 15 Nov 1999 15:24:44 -0500 Subject: Shakespeare in the Toilet A colleague in our Political Science department shared this news item with me: Shakespeare in the Toilet LONDON (Reuters) - A British theater company is putting on a run of plays in an old Victorian toilet. The Bog Standard Theatre Company spent three years and $6,475 converting the facilities into a 12-seat venue with a tiny stage in the western English town of Malvern. ``Shakespeare said all the world's a stage so I guess that includes toilets,'' the troupe's Dennis Neale told the Sun tabloid. ``Ironically we don't have room for a loo the audience have to run across the road to public ones.'' Cheers, Nick Clary [2]------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jerry Bangham <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 16 Nov 1999 07:38:50 -0600 Subject: From Yahoo News UK Shakespeare troupe finds odd stage for the bard LONDON, Nov 15 - A British theatre company is putting on a run of Shakespeare's plays in an old Victorian toilet. The Bog Standard Theatre Company spent three years and 4,000 pounds ($6,475) converting the facilities into a 12-seat venue with a tiny stage in the western English town of Malvern. "Shakespeare said all the world's a stage so I guess that includes toilets," the troupe's Dennis Neale told the Sun tabloid. "Ironically we don't have room for a loo -- the audience have to run across the road to public ones." ---------------------------------------------------------------- Should we discuss what would be an appropriate repertoire? Jerry BanghamThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. http://www.win.net/~kudzu/