The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 23.119 Monday, 19 March 2012
[1] From: Paul Barry <
Date: March 17, 2012 6:49:13 PM EDT
Subject: Re: SHAKSPER: Saloonio
[2] From: Charles Weinstein <
Date: March 17, 2012 11:28:18 PM EDT
Subject: Saloonio
[3] From: Larry Weiss <
Date: March 17, 2012 11:45:40 PM EDT
Subject: Re: SHAKSPER: Saloonio
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Paul Barry <
Date: March 17, 2012 6:49:13 PM EDT
Subject: Re: SHAKSPER: Saloonio
Hey, Allan, I thought Lady Mac’s first name was Ce-Ce, as in “Ce-Ce, our honored hostess.”
PAUL
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Charles Weinstein <
Date: March 17, 2012 11:28:18 PM EDT
Subject: Saloonio
Something similar pops up in Gilbert & Sullivan.
From H.M.S. Pinafore:
Go, ribald, get you hence
To your cabin with celerity.
Old D’Oyly Carte joke:
Who’s playing Celerity tonight?
Then there are the ephemeral silent characters in Shakespeare. Take Varrius, the mysterious personage who appears out of nowhere for no good reason in Measure for Measure IV.v, and promptly vanishes without speaking a line:
Enter Varrius
DUKE: I thank thee, Varrius, thou hast made good haste.
Come, we will walk. Thee’s other of our friends
Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius
(end of scene).
I knew a director who kept this moment while casting no one as Varrius: the Duke apostrophized an invisible man. It was an in-joke that failed to work with outsiders, i.e., the audience.
--Charles Weinstein
[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Larry Weiss <
Date: March 17, 2012 11:45:40 PM EDT
Subject: Re: SHAKSPER: Saloonio
I toyed with the idea of naming my cat “Thrice.”
[Editor's Note: Larry--drumroll please--and how many times did you toy with that idea?