June
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.1540 Friday, 21 June 2002 [1] From: Edward Stanton Brown <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 12:14:27 -0400 Subj: Re: SHK 13.1531 Re: William Catesby/Richard III [2] From: Don Bloom <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 11:41:54 -0500 Subj: Re: SHK 13.1525 William Catesby/Richard III [3] From: Brian Willis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 11:24:45 -0700 (PDT) Subj: Re: SHK 13.1531 Re: William Catesby/Richard III [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Edward Stanton Brown <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 12:14:27 -0400 Subject: 13.1531 Re: William Catesby/Richard III Comment: Re: SHK 13.1531 Re: William Catesby/Richard III William Catesby was a lawyer who rose from humble origins in Northamptonshire through service to several nobles, including the Duke of Buckingham, and was on both Edward IV's and Richard III's Council. He was executed after Bosworth. [2]------------------------------------------------------------- From: Don Bloom <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 11:41:54 -0500 Subject: 13.1525 William Catesby/Richard III Comment: Re: SHK 13.1525 William Catesby/Richard III Without looking up Holinshed (which would be exceedingly difficult under present circumstances), Catesby is the Cat of "The Cat, and the Rat, and Lovell our Dog / Ruled all England under a hog," a Lancastrian rhyme. The Rat is Ratcliff and the Hog is Richard, whose badge was a white boar. I would not concoct a theory of Richard being so extreme as a character that he is meant to be taken as the reverse unless I were doing it as a parody of theorizing. On the one hand, Richard fits with the extreme villains that the author had already used in TA, and that he inherited from Kyd and Marlowe (and they from Seneca). On the other hand, he fits with the Tudor Myth that WS seems to have otherwise accepted -- as it was both healthy and profitable to do. Cheers, don [3]------------------------------------------------------------- From: Brian Willis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 11:24:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: 13.1531 Re: William Catesby/Richard III Comment: Re: SHK 13.1531 Re: William Catesby/Richard III Perhaps Richard wasn't a hunchback or deformed. But Shakespeare's version was and makes a specific point of reminding us of that, every opportunity he gets. And then, when his reign begins to fall apart, he reminds us of his spiritual deformity as well. If I remember correctly, his final soliloquy is the only soliloquy he gives where he doesn't mention his physical deformity and chooses to dwell on his moral bankruptcy. I think that Richard's deformity is an excuse to satirize and embody the corruption of the spoils of war and the laziness of political victories and smugness. I think it can be a mistake to expect historical accuracy from Shakespeare. At times, especially with King John, he deliberately subverts and distorts historicism for his dramatic ends. The genre of history itself is fraught with difficulties. Perhaps the Folio listed them as such but the quartos often refer to them as tragedies or the intriguing title - The Life and Death of King John. Some of the tragedies themselves could be considered a kind of history since characters like Lear, Macbeth, Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra are legendary, yet historic figures. History is an elusive term. It is far more important to grapple with the issues Shakespeare is dealing with in the play, rather than the historical accuracy per se. Just as any Hollywood movie should not be looked to for historical accuracy, Shakespeare's storylines and characters, especially his "histories", were devised and reconceived for public entertainment, not as a historical textbook. Brian Willis _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.1539 Friday, 21 June 2002 [1] From: Eric Luhrs <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 12:15:36 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Re: SHK 13.1534 Flapdragons [2] From: Richard Sherrington <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 13:14:12 -0300 Subj: Re: SHK 13.1534 Flapdragons [3] From: Don Bloom <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 12:41:35 -0500 Subj: Re: SHK 13.1534 Flapdragons [4] From: Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 12:38:10 -0700 Subj: Re: SHK 13.1534 Flapdragons [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Eric Luhrs <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 12:15:36 -0400 (EDT) Subject: 13.1534 Flapdragons Comment: Re: SHK 13.1534 Flapdragons Speaking of the drink known as a `Flapdragon', Dave Johnson asks about "the exact nature of the drink, its floating contents, how it is made, and how it is consumed." OED 1.a. identifies the drink as brandy with burning raisins floating in it. See citation below for usage: 1. a. `A play in which they catch raisins out of burning brandy and, extinguishing them by closing the mouth, eat them' (J.); = SNAP-DRAGON. b. A dish of the material used in the game. 1599 B. JONSON Cynthia's Rev. V. iii, From stabbing of armes, Flap-dragons..and all such swaggering Humors. 1604 DEKKER Hones Wh. xiii. Wks. 1873 II. 83 Give me that flap-dragon. Ile not give thee a spoonefull. 1622 FLETCHER Beggar's Bush V. ii, I'le go afore and have the bon-fire made, My fire-works, and flap-dragons, and good back-rack. c. A raisin or other thing thus caught and eaten. 1588 SHAKES. L.L.L. V. i. 45 Thou art easier swallowed then a flapdragon. 1599 MASSINGER, etc. Old Law III. ii, I'd had..my two butter-teeth Thrust down my throat instead of a flap-dragon. 1791-1823 D'ISRAELI Cur. Lit. (1866) 287 Such were flap-dragons, which were small combustible bodies fired at one end and floated in a glass of liquor, which an experienced toper swallowed unharmed, while still blazing. Cheers, Eric Luhrs [2]------------------------------------------------------------- From: Richard Sherrington <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 13:14:12 -0300 Subject: 13.1534 Flapdragons Comment: Re: SHK 13.1534 Flapdragons It's usually raisins in cognac or brandy with the brandy set on fire. You have to pick the raisins out with your mouth. Still played as a children's game. Richard [3]------------------------------------------------------------- From: Don Bloom <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 12:41:35 -0500 Subject: 13.1534 Flapdragons Comment: Re: SHK 13.1534 Flapdragons Kathleen M. Lynch, perhaps following the OED, offers this gloss on "flap-dragon" in her edition of *The Way of the World*: a raisin snatched from burning brandy and extinguished by closing the mouth and swallowing, hence something valueless. It is spoken by Sir Wilful, the country squire, when his foppish brother Witwoud pretends not to know him. The context would indicate the valuelessness, since it is parallel to "hare's foot" and "hare's scut." I am, however, still puzzled even by Lynch's more complete explanation. How is it snatched from the burning brandy -- by fingers or some implement or what? If by fingers, how can you escape being burned? Similarly, how can you escape having your tongue, palate and throat burned by the hot raisin? Finally, why should this be an image of valuelessness? I can see why the hindquarters of a lagomorph might be the antithesis of something desirable, especially if they are smelly (are they?), but the flapdragon baffles me. The OED suggests that the meaning sometimes transfers to any raisin at all and that might explain it. "If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man reason upon a compulsion, I." don [4]------------------------------------------------------------- From: Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 12:38:10 -0700 Subject: 13.1534 Flapdragons Comment: Re: SHK 13.1534 Flapdragons Johnson's dictionary is quoted by the OED: "
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.1538 Thursday, 20 June 2002 From: Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, June 20, 2002 Subject: Brief Update on SHAKSPER
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.1537 Thursday, 20 June 2002 [1] From: Richard Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 17 Jun 2002 09:43:04 -0400 Subj: More Shakespeare on Film in Asia [2] From: Richard Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 17 Jun 2002 11:05:43 -0400 Subj: Insomnia [3] From: Richard Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 18 Jun 2002 08:34:50 -0400 Subj: One more Shakespeare on Film in Asia entry [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Richard Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 17 Jun 2002 09:43:04 -0400 Subject: More Shakespeare on Film in Asia I have found two more examples since my lastpost: Chopra, Vidhu Vinod. 1994. 1942: A Love Story. India. Eros. Sound, col., mins. (There's a Hindi Romeo and Juliet performance.) On DVD. Kato Mei, dir. 1977. Wanpaku Pakku--Manatsu no yoru no yume / The Impish Puck-A Midsummer Night's Dream. Japan. Sound, col., mins. It is based on a story by Inoue Hisashi, but the basic plot features children putting on a musical version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Not available on video or DVD. I also forgot to add From Hell, which begins and ends in a Chinese opium den. [2]------------------------------------------------------------- From: Richard Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 17 Jun 2002 11:05:43 -0400 Subject: Insomnia There's a mention of Shakespeare in the Insomnia remake (starring Al Pacino). [3]------------------------------------------------------------- From: Richard Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 18 Jun 2002 08:34:50 -0400 Subject: One more Shakespeare on Film in Asia entry There's also a quotation from Julius Caesar in MAHABHARAT (1965) PRADEEP KUMAR, PADMINI, AMBIKA, JEEVAN, DARA SINQH, ABHI BHATTACHARYA, TIWARI Produced By: A.G.FILMS Directed By: BABU BHAI MISTRI Music By: CHITRAGUPTA http://us.imdb.com/Title?0242636 It's available on DVD. _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.1536 Thursday, 20 June 2002 From: H. R. Greenberg <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 20 Jun 2002 08:38:34 EDT Subject: Time and the Conways not WS Thought the Manhattan area readership would be interested in the fact that TIME AND THE CONWAYS, by JB Priestley, is being given a well reviewed performance off Broadway for at least the next week or so. We caught it several seasons back at Stratford, Ontario, and it is quite a remarkable piece. Look at recent NY Times or usual places for listings. I don