Saturday, April 28, 2012

Comments and Contacting Me

Hi everybody,

Quick administrative note.  Lately I've had to take a stronger stance in removing comments that do not add to a given thread.  This frequently happens when somebody discovers the blog for the first time and wants to use the opportunity to say "Hey, have you seen this yet?" and provide me with a link.  This is not typically what I'd think of as spam, I think it's just overenthusiasm.

Still, though, the rule continues to apply - add something to the discussion.  If you want to provide a link, make it a relevant one.

For those that want to share links and have no way to contact me, I've added a link directly in the sidebar over there.  It's also fairly easy to get me via the Contact page.  I do see links when people send them to me that way, I have a number of regulars who constantly send me stuff.  So don't be afraid.

Fair enough?  I feel bad deleting comments that come from legit Shakespeare fans, but it's also not right for me to judge one worthy of deletion and one worthy of keeping.  So typically they all go.

- SG

Friday, April 27, 2012

Teaching With Shakespeare : A Game

Ok, for this game you are stranded on a desert island with a young child, and it is now your job to provide an education for this child.  For maximum points you must meaningfully introduce as many subjects as you can to your student.

Here's the catch - the only book you have to teach with is a First Folio.  You are allowed to supplement with visual aids, but only to the extent that you could create them with whatever rudimentary means might be at your disposal, such as scratching in the sand with a stick.  Nothing too complicated.

Easy example : You can teach poetry, by showing multiple examples of meter and rhyme scheme.

Harder example : Geography.   You could do a pretty good job of plotting where Prospero's island is, simply by looking at the description of the ship's return from Claribel's wedding in Tunisia.  (This is where I see no way around having to draw out a globe and start pointing to various places.)  There's actually an island that claims to have been Shakespeare's inspiration, based entirely on this method (given that there's no way Shakespeare could have ever been there).

What else can you come up with?  How about math?  Other than the dividing up of King Lear's soldiers I'm trying to think of how many math problems Shakespeare may have written out for us.

Science?  Given how much science has changed in 400 years this would be a tricky one, and it's not Shakespeare's fault.

History?  The case of Julius Caesar is probably the most well known.  How many kids graduate from high school never truly knowing what facts about Caesar's assassination are true, and which were created by Shakespeare?

How about spelling, or for that matter reading in the first place?  That would be interesting.  I bet with some study you could make a good list of words that are spelled in multiple different ways, and then use that to work on a basic phonetics lesson.

You are also welcome to make the case for more advanced classes such as "debating", "politics", "psychology" and so on.



Thursday, April 26, 2012

How To Categorize Shakespeare


Here's a question that comes up in my life a lot.  We talk about Shakespeare here. That's easy.  But when I go and add the site to various boards and services, inevitably I'm asked to place it into a category.


So, what's our category?

Art?  Education?  Books and Literature?  Theatre?  Entertainment?  History?

None of those is a perfect answer.  I often end up putting us into Education, because when I look at the big mission of the site it is about discussing Shakespeare and hence learning about Shakespeare.  But education is not always a very big category and doesn't get much traffic, so I feel like to just relegate us over there is not giving the site enough credit.

Curious to people's thoughts.  Of course, some sites do offer the opportunity to place multiple tags of your own creation, which is fine - then I can add the actual word Shakespeare and the rest becomes secondary.

But for those cases where you need to pick a single category, what are we?  Think of it from the perspective of the incoming potential audience - they're in category X, and they see Shakespeare Geek, what would their expectations be about the site?  And would we meet those expectations?

Thanks as always for helping to make the site better!

Shakespeare Geek on Pinterest

After the flood of pictures I took in Washington last week, I finally broke down and decided to join pinterest.com.  This site's never been heavy into pictures, but if that's what people want to follow these days, I'll do what I can to start adding more visual content.

Unfortunately somebody already beat me to "ShakespeareGeek" as a username, so you can find me as ShakesGeek.  Right now I've got two 'boards' set up -- one that will pin stuff directly from the blog (so if you're already following the blog in some fashion, you'll have seen it), and another for 'found Shakespeare' for all those random Shakespeare related images that I find floating around than don't always merit their own post.

[EDIT]   Oh, and you may also see a "Pin it!" button in the upper right corner of those posts with picture content.  If you are someone who uses pinterest and you like the content I'm putting up, sharing it in this way would be a great way to support the site.  Thanks!



Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Why We Do This : Your Turn

During my Shakespeare Day Marathon I posted 25 different items for people to talk about, ranging from links I'd queued up over the weekend, to information about Shakespeare and the Presidents, the Booth family ... leading up to actual images from my invited trip through Folger Shakespeare Library vault and culminating in pictures of Folio #1, The Most Beautiful Book In The World.

And yet the post that got the most clicks that day was my ... rant? diatribe? plea? ... entitled "Why I Do This : The Big Picture" (I'll give you a hint, it's not about my kids).  I don't know why that happened, exactly (I would have thought the pictures would generate more interest), but I'm glad it did.  That post, albeit a little over the top, was my reaction to the yearly Shakespeare's Birthday flood of attention where people come out of the woodwork to say how much Shakespeare means to them, in one or two nice little 140character tweets.

Prove it.

I don't want to hear what Shakespeare means to you.  I want you to show us what it means to you, and show us what you do about it.  Do you perform him, research him, teach him?  What about all those out there who, like me, can't claim to be doing this as any more than a hobby?

If Shakespeare means something to you, then you should consider yourself obligated to return the favor and do something for him.  For every post about "I love his poetry, his words sing to me!" I'll show you dozens upon hundreds of posts claiming he's not relevant anymore, shouldn't be taught, speaks a different language, banned from schools, too hard, too boring...  What are you doing about it?

Here's your call to action.  If you've got a place to post something, then post it there and link it here.   If you don't, then tell us in the comments what you're doing to bring your love of Shakespeare to the rest of the world.



Maori Haka, and Parallel Universes

If you've not seen it yet, you first need to check out this video.  It's from the The Globe's season opener, Troilus and Cressida performed entirely in New Zealand's Maori language and opening with a "haka", something that I can best describe as a "war dance," popularized by the New Zealand men's rugby team:



This is already awesome on a number of levels when you go into it thinking "Ok, the Shakespeare people are doing a Shakespeare play in a language other than English." The idea that there's going to be 37 (38?) of these, each entirely unique, makes me giddy in anticipation.

Now imagine, if you can, coming at it entirely from the other angle.  Imagine you stumbled across this video with no context at all.  You start watching, you think, "Ok, this looks interesting...."  Then you realize that a story is being told.  You try to figure out characters, and plot (* this is only the trailer, of course - pretend for the sake of argument that you could get video of the entire production).  How long would it take you to realize "Hey....this story looks familiar!  I think this in the Trojan War story!  No, wait, is this Shakespeare?  Is this Troilus and Cressida???"

That's where my "parallel universe" comment in the subject comes from.  You see something like this and it's as if the essence of what drove Shakespeare's stories exists independently somewhere, capable of driving what is fundamentally the same story, in an infinite number of ways.  It is the same, and yet it is entirely different.  You know what I'm trying to say?  None of Shakespeare's words are going to be found, yet it's still Shakespeare.  It is the very definition of universal.

Enough geekiness, on to some more practical questions.  Can somebody with a better knowledge of the play identify some of the characters for us?  Can someone (possibly with knowledge of the language) give  us an idea of what's happening during this clip?

Or for an equal amount of fun, can someone with *no* knowledge of the play and *no* knowledge of the language take a shot?  That would sort of get back to my opening point. :)

Monday, April 23, 2012

Why I Do This : The Big Picture

Today's supposed to be the day where we talk about what Shakespeare means to us.  Honestly I find that a bit overly simplified.  I talk about what Shakespeare means to be every day (feel free to flip through my 2000 posts over 6 years to convince yourself), and I'm in the midst of a marathon that demonstrates the lengths to which I'll go.  I can't simply write a single post on that subject, much less squeeze it down into a single tweet.


What I can do, though, is talk about my "mission".  No, not my kids.  I've talked about them enough.  My kids are really and truly at the point where they make references to Shakespeare at will, and I love it.  All of them.  Somewhere amid the sea of posts you'll see today you'll find a reference to my 5yr old son recognizing portraits of Hamlet and Yorick in stained glass windows, and my two daughters, 7 and 9yr olds, both grabbing for books on Shakespeare's sonnets when given the freedom to pick something from the gift shop.  Heck, just the other night for dinner I'd broken out some decorative kids' plates in the shape of animals - a cow, a horse, a donkey.  My 9yr old got the donkey.  "Look," she said, "It's Bottom."

With the primary plan well underway, let's talk about the secondary plan.  Because there's a whole bunch of the world out there that is not my kids.  All I've done with them is plant a seed that may take generations to truly change the world.  That's only the beginning of what I hope to accomplish.

What happens to me now on a regular basis is that friends and coworkers come up to me and say, "I saw a Shakespeare thing the other day and thought of you."  Sometimes it is Shakespeare's name specifically that they heard.  Sometimes a movie reference, or a quote.  It's not important what they saw, because it's always something different.

What's important is that they *recognized* it.  Before these people met me I'm quite positive that Shakespeare references were coming and going all around them, in one ear and out the other.  You can't help it.  Chances are very good that the Saturday morning cartoons you grew up on were sneaking in the occasional Shakespeare reference on you.  They're ubiquitous.

And now, everybody that knows me can see them.  Where they were previously blind, now they see.  Not only does something in their brain click and say, "Hey! Shakespeare!  I should tell Duane about that."  Know what happens next?  They actually *listen*, because they want to know how to repeat it to me.  That's the next step.  If you hear it, and you pay attention to it, maybe you actually remember it.  And then you've learned something.

But guess what?  It gets even better.  Because when these friends and coworkers (some of whom I barely exchange anything but casual greetings with) come up to me with their found Shakespeare references, sometimes they want to discuss it.  They want to discuss it.  They want to discuss it.  How many times can I say that to have the point sink in how cool that is?  None of the people that I'm talking about are theatre people, or academics.  They're just regular folk who, because they happen to have stumbled into my social circle, have rejuvenated that long dormant high school knowledge of the Montagues and the Capulets, of To be or Not To Be.  And in me they've found someone who will talk with them, ever so patiently, for as long as they want.

That's the big picture.  Every single time somebody comes up to me, in person or by mailing me a link, that starts with "Saw this Shakespeare thing and thought of you ..."  the plan is working.

What's your mission? Why do you do this?  Tell us.

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Inside The Vault #6 (Conclusion): The Most Beautiful Book In The World

Before I'd ever left for my trip, I was speaking with Bardfilm about what I might hope to see in the vault.  He replied that I might ask to get a look at Folio #1, what Mr. Folger called, "The most beautiful book in the world."

And there I was, standing in front of a wall of Folios (a post unto itself!) and I went for it.  Garland Scott had told me that I might be able to see it, "if it's not out."  I assume that these sorts of items are often lent out to other institutions for study.   "Is Folio #1 in?" I asked.

"I think so," Georgianna replied, digging for something she wanted us to look at.  "It would be up there if it was."

That's how they refer to their Folios, apparently.  I want to curl myself up in the pages and go to sleep.  The folks that see them every day say, "Oh, that one is over there somewhere."

Why is #1 so special?  It's got a note (well, mostly a signature) from the original owner, stating that he'd received it as a gift from the printer, William Jaggard.  Though it would be a mistake to assume that this makes it the actual *first* First Folio, it's certainly evidence for being one of the very earliest.  After all, William Jaggard died in November 1623, shortly before the first actual purchase of a Folio took place. So if this book truly was a gift, it was most definitely a very, very early copy.

I asked again, once we'd seen a few things and I get the feeling our time in this particular room is coming to an end.  "Any chance I can see #1?"

And, just like that, I can.  Georgianna pulls it down from its shelf, opens the gigantic box that contains the book, and lays it out on the table for me.  I am staring at a one of a kind, almost 400-year-old book.


And there it is.  The picture is not the greatest, but you can see the mark in the upper right corner that identifies this as a gift from Jaggard (posthumously, I've learned).  Amazing.  No, I did not flip through it.  I consider myself lucky to have gotten to see it.

Oh, and to do this.


Best estimates have that book as one of the top 3 most valuable in the world, possibly approaching $10 million.  For the record, I'm not touching it, nor tasting it.  I was quite careful. But I know that my guardians were ok with this particular boldness because not only did Georgianna not have heart failure, she took my camera from Garland and took the picture herself because she didn't like the way Garland was doing it! :)

Today I showed this picture to a coworker.  "You look so happy!" she said.  "Look how happy you look!  It must be amazing to be that passionate about something that it can make you that happy."

Yes.  Yes it is.

Though this was not the last stop on my tour, this is the last post in my "In The Vault" series.  Once again, a tremendous and sincere Thank You to Garland Scott and Georgianna Ziegler for allowing my family and I this once(?) in a lifetime opportunity!

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Happy Birthday To ... Me!


A week before we left for D.C., my wife asked what I wanted for my birthday (which is coming up a few days after Mr. Shakespeare's).  I smiled and said, "We're about to visit the Folger Shakespeare Library.  I'm pretty sure I'll find something."

Fast forward to actually standing in the middle of the Folger Gift Shop.  What should I get, what should I get?  Posters? Jewelry?  Music?  Something about the man, about a specific play, about the sonnets? One of everything, please.

Who are we kidding, I made a beeline straight to what I knew I had to have.

 The First Folio of Shakespeare: The Norton Facsimile

Looking at that Amazon price I see that I just paid more than perhaps I should have, but what can ya do.   I will forever be able to say that I got this one from the Folger itself.  Should have gotten somebody to sign it. ;)


My girls both grabbed for books on the Sonnets, if you can believe that, and I had to talk them out of it.  Not because I don't think that's good study material, but because neither of them was any sort of "Sonnets for Kids" translation.  Both were heavy academic books, and I knew that they wouldn't understand a bit of it.  Instead we settled on some books from one of the Shakespeare for Kids series - one got a book on Shakespeare himself, the other got a translation of Midsummer.  They've already read them, and switched. Multiple times.

The boy, on the other hand, went with a cool jester hat (see "Foolish Games" post).  With bells.  Wore it for the rest of our trip, and was a big hit wherever he went.  Bonus, everybody kept saying "Where'd you get that hat?" and I kept saying, "The Folger Shakespeare Library!"  When he was feeling particularly bold he'd then proclaim, "To be or not to be, that is the question!"

I would open up my prize and flip pages, but my wife promptly stole the book back and announced that I cannot have it until my actual birthday.  Bummer!  But, that gives me a whole other reason to post in a few days :)

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Inside The Vault # 5 : Alan, and The Globe

Down, down, down we travel into the deepest floor of the vault, and there we find Alan Katz (hope I spelled his name correctly!) and Garland introduces me.  "I've left quite a few comments on your blog," he tells me.  I wonder if he's reading now?  Hi, Alan!  Let me know if I've spelled your name correctly!

Georgianna and Garland discuss what cool stuff we might see down here, and they confer with Alan.  "Well," he says, "There's The Globe."  Georgianna agrees that this would indeed be cool.  Garland has apparently never seen what we're about to see, or has forgotten that they had it.

Alan disappears into the stacks and rolls out ...


How cool is that!  I actually got a picture of my kids all standing around it, like a doll house.  I currently have a message in to Garland trying to learn more about this item - what time period it's from, what was it's purpose.  But I knew that I had to include it in my photo tour whether I had the research or not.

Update, directly from Alan (who has promised to post more in comments as he finds it):
The Globe was patented by H. Ernest Conklin, of Roslyn, Long Island, born in 1892. He was a scholar at Cornell and Princeton and professor at Rice in the 1920’s. The model was built no later than 1935 and is on a 3/8”:1’ scale.
Funny story - at the end of our tour of the lowest levels, we travelled back up the elevator and Georgianna took a moment to show us just how heavy and secure the vault doors (yes, multiple doors) are.  As she closes and locks the cage I whisper back down the hall, "Good night, Alan!"  Turning to Georgianna I ask, "You do remember to feed him, right?"

Later, while we were at tea (a Folger tradition!) we saw that Alan had escaped.  Garland had to share my joke with him.  "That's what the book lift is for," he replied, "So they can send down my food."

The tour's stunning and spectacular conclusion is next!

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Inside The Vault #4 : Magic, Magic, Magic!

Harry who?

If your kids want to pretend that they're wizards and witches, let's show them a real magic book!



More from the Folger page:
One of the treasures in the Folger collection is a handwritten book of magic spells that is over 400 years old. The book is written in English, but also includes magical terms like "abracadabra" and drawings of angels, demons, dragons, and other supernatural creatures.

This book was used by many people over many, many years. Owners added their own notes into the margins, and one person even wrote in page numbers.

Although people in the Middle Ages and even during Shakespeare's time used magic for lots of different reasons, including healing sick people, helping to find lost objects, or finding the guilty person when a crime was committed, magic was often done in secret.

I wanted to make some sort of King James reference, since he was supposedly more heavily into the whole witchcraft thing?  But this book dates from 1580. I wonder what Shakespeare's actual experience with this sort of magic might have been?





The trip continues...


This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Inside The Vault #3 : Beasts!

I wish I'd gotten more pictures of this book:


This "Historie of Fovre-Footed Beastes" has a publication date of 1607 by William Jaggard, who'll come back up later in a different Folio story.

The book itself was fascinating.  Note the color?  No, color printing was not available at the time.  This would have been hand colored.

Inside (maybe I'll see if Folger's got some more pictures I can use) was a very wide array of animals that my son had a field day identifying.  Lions!  Goats!  Otters!  Otters?  Yes, even though the otter was apparently not known in England at the time, there was a picture of an otter.  Interesting how knowledge travels.

Speaking of beasts, how about this book on hunting?   If this one looks a little funny, that's because it's covered in deer fur.


The trip continues ...

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Shakespeare's Most Disturbing Deaths

I'm not sure what definition of "disturbing" the Huffington Post used, but the usual suspects are all here in their list of Shakespeare's Most Disturbing Deaths.


Lavinia of course, and Cordelia. Dedemona. All disturbing in their own different ways.

Macbeth?  Well, I suppose.  We see Macduff walking around with his head later.  That's pretty disturbing.

Hamlet's dad.  Hamlet's dad?  He doesn't even die in the course of the play!  He makes the list because of the ghost's *description* of how he died.  Ummm.....that's a bit of a cop out.

Cleopatra? After admitting that she dies happily (and voluntarily)? You put her on your list of disturbing deaths just because "we think it'd be a pretty bad way to go"?  I call shenanigans.


What do you think? In their padding of a few questionable entries, did they miss any better, more disturbing deaths? 

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!


Inside The Vault #2 : Quartos Quartos Quartos


So there we are in the vault.  Georgianna goes digging for something to show us next, and Garland tells me, "Around the corner are the Quartos."  I take my oldest and we head around the corner.  Yes, you could say that there are Quartos.




Since we were just looking and no one was explaining the significance of these particular volumes, I can't really say what we are looking at.  I highly doubt that "original" (or close to it) editions are shoved on top of each other like that.  If you look carefully you will see a Romeo and Juliet dated 1599, however.  That's pretty cool!  These are almost certainly not original bindings, so maybe it's not such a big deal to have them rubbing up against each other.  It's what's on the inside that counts. Don't judge a quarto by its cover!

Oh, and Bardfilm also suggested that I ask about the only known Q1 edition of Titus Andronicus in existence.  There's a big Titus on the far right end of that first picture. Think that's it?

I had no idea they were so small.  Well, I mean, I knew they were small, but after having seen the Folios all spaced out on their own shelves with nothing else surrounding, to turn the corner and see all these tiny books at once.

"You can't be back there!" I hear Georgianna call.  "Sorry, it's the rules, I'm not back there with you.  That's actually why there's two of us here, Garland is my backup."

"Yes," says Garland, "Technically I'm supposed to tackle you if you make a break for it."

What's funny is that I don't know if this is really a rule, or if they didn't appreciate my sense of humor.  See, in arranging this visit I was going back and forth over email with Garland, and conferring with Bardfilm (who has been to Folger) on what I should see.  What he jokingly suggested, and what I jokingly wrote back to Garland, was
Oh, and @Bardfilm said you've got Quartos just lying around and asked me to grab him one on the way out. :)
Now it all makes sense!

The trip continues...

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Shakespeare Under Water

Dr. Carl Atkins, a regular contributor to this site, sent me a link to this amusing article that he was sure I would not have seen.  What kind of article do you get when you're friends with a legit medical doctor who is also an author of Shakespeare books?

Why, an article from one of his medical journals, of course.  About drownings in Shakespeare.

Starting with the story of 5yr old Jane Shaxspere (who may have been the inspiration for Ophelia?) the article moves on through Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Richard III, Merchant of Venice and even King John, all of which demonstrate their own variations on drowning, falling, submerging, and the fear of these things.  Just how prevalent was drowning in Shakespeare's day? Was it the sort of thing where you woke up in the morning and thought, "I hope I don't drown today!"

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Inside The Vault #1 : Folios Folios Folios

Through a bank vault door, down a haunted elevator, and we were there.  Led by Georgianna and backed up by Garland we made our way into what appeared to be another average library room.  Shelf after shelf of books.  A table that runs the length of the room, on which several books are strewn about.

"Back there are the Folios," Georgianna says.

There, along the back wall of the room and around a corner, is a wall of books, all laying flat.  Various colors, sizes and bindings.  First Folios.  I was there.

As Bard as my witness I had an honest to goodness weak in the knees moment.  I grabbed the shoulders of whichever child I'd been leading into the room a little tighter. My eyes widened. My smile widened.  I whipped my head around to look at Garland, in what I can only hope was the wordless "Oh My God I'm Actually Here" face I was attempting, and then whipped back around to look at my wife with the pure and utter bliss I had in that moment.  Center of the universe.

Georgianna had chosen a particular Folio for us to look at - #78.  Why?



This particular Folio has a number of child's drawings throughout.  I love it.  I love the idea that all 82 of their copies has its own individual story.  Also shows that my tour guides knew a little something about how to keep children occupied, always showing them things that children would find interesting (not something you might expect in a Shakespeare research center!) and keeping them in the conversation.

And this was just the first of many memorable moments.  To be continued....

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Shakespeare and the Presidents : Thomas Jefferson

Next up in our series comes Thomas Jefferson (as always, brought to us by Folger Shakespeare Library's Shakespeare in American Life series).

Jefferson sounds like my kind of guy:

Still, like John Adams, Jefferson usually treated Shakespeare’s plays as something to be read. In one letter, he recommended Shakespeare for reading in the evening, explaining that “Shakespeare must be singled out by one who wishes to learn the full powers of the English language.” When a friend asked him to recommend books to buy, Jefferson encouraged him to include some works of fiction, like Shakespeare’s plays, as a guide to virtue, arguing that “a lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity that were ever written.”
Did everybody catch that "something to be read?"  I'm just sayin.

Seriously, though, I love how that passage nails what I've been trying to say for years -- if you want to know what it means to be a human, look to what Shakespeare put on the stage.

I noted in a previous post that, when Adams and Jefferson went to visit Shakespeare's birthplace, Adams was disappointed. What did Jefferson think?  He "noted the costs of going there, including the entry fees."  Which lead to a later biographer imagining "Jefferson's teeth obviously grating" as he jotted down the fees.

That's interesting to me.  You mean to tell me that in 1786 they were already charging fees to visit the birthplace of Shakespeare, as a tourist attraction? I had no idea.  I suppose we can trace it directly back to the influence of David Garrick, a few decades before this, who made Shakespeare such an attraction?

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Shakespeare and the Presidents : George Washington

Since I was vacationing in Washington D.C, Home of the Presidents, I thought it would be fun to go hunting for Shakespeare connections.


Washington, as you could well imagine, was all over the place.  We spent our Friday at Mt. Vernon, as a matter of fact.  Toured his house, saw his study.  Spoke with a lady doing her best Martha impression. No Shakespeare to be found at all.

Disappointing, really, especially given how much we know that Lincoln did with Shakespeare.

I went googling when I got back to the hotel, and low and behold I found Folger's Shakespeare in American Life series, so I'll just let them do the talking:
 As president, Washington lived in Philadelphia, the nation’s temporary capital. There he once hosted an amateur Shakespeare production, probably in the winter of 1790. William Duer, assistant to the treasury secretary, wrote that Duer “had the honor of appearing before him as one of the dramatis personae in the tragedy of Julius Caesar... in the garret of the Presidential mansion, wherein before the magnates of the land and the elite of the city, I performed the part of Brutus to the Cassius of my old school-fellow, Washington Custis.”
There's also record of his attendance at a Hamlet, and I believe a Tempest as well.  Not too much of a connection with the father of my country.

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Shakespeare and the Presidents : John Adams

Continuing my mashup of presidents and Shakespeare, let's look at John Adams.  Once again, this information all courtesy Folger's Shakespeare in American Life series.

“Let me search for the clue which led great Shakespeare into the labyrinth of human nature. Let me examine how men think.”


Compared to Washington, John Adams appears to have been all about the Shakespeare.  He and his wife Abigail frequently quoted Shakespeare in their letters to each other, and in 1786 Adams went to Shakespeare's birthplace along with Thomas Jefferson (who we'll look at in a separate post).  Adams was disappointed, writing that
The house was “as small and mean as you can conceive,” wrote Adams in his diary. “There is nothing preserved of this great genius... which might inform us what education, what company, what accident turned his mind to letters and drama.” 
 Bummer. What did Jefferson think?  Well, that's another post. :)

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Shakespeare's Restless World

A new BBC program, Shakespeare's Restless World, examines the life and times of our bard one object at a time.  Topics for the first week alone range from communion to snacks to swordplay.

4 weeks, 5 audio programs each week.  You know what I need for this? I need some sort of podcast, or other way to just automatically get it on my iPod.  It's the sort of thing that I'd love to listen to, I just never find the time between *finding* it and actually remembering to go back each week and get the next episode.

Hey wait, I just discovered the podcast link!  Ok, I'm all set. Awesome.

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Visiting With Folger

[ These have apparently gotten out of order, darn it.  This obviously should have come out before the Foolish Games post!  -d ]

So after taking the appropriate amount of  pictures outside, in we went.

Straight ahead is a theatre (empty, there is no show right now).  I spy a guest book!  I write Duane "Shakespeare Geek" Morin in it.  Ha!

My wife, with the kids, wanders into the theatre.  The security guard wanders in right behind them.  He's not scooting them out, however - he's encouraging them to go down and take pictures, just not to get on the stage.  We did get pictures, but since they all have my kids in them I can't post them here.

He asks if we're big fans of Shakespeare.  I tell him that we're here by invitation of Garland Scott (Director of External Relations) to tour the vault, he tells me how lucky I am.  I agree.  (For the record I did not say it like that, I just wrote it like that for link purposes - I said "We're here to see Garland.")

He shows us the gift shop, where we're supposed to meet at 2pm.  It's early, so we wander around for a little while, looking for stuff to buy (or, rather, stuff to not buy as I am starting with the assumption that I'll take one of everything, and then put stuff back one thing at a time :)).

Georgianna Ziegler, Head of Reference, wanders over, spies my shirt, and says "You must be my two o'clock!"  Indeed I am.  Introductions are made all around, and I sign in with security.  Again, I write "ShakespeareGeek.com" as my Company.  For posterity, don't ya know.

At this point Garland was not with us, so Georgianna begins the tour solo but has to call for a backup.  I learn later that this is one of the rules, for security.

We learn about Mr. and Mrs. Folger. I had no idea that Mr. Folger died before the library was complete, so he never got to see it.  This has led to plenty of ghost stories about Folger walking the stacks, and Georgianna shares her own story of the ghost elevator opening itself at will.  This fascinates my boy, who spends the rest of the tour asking whether we too would be going on the ghost elevator. I can't tell if he's excited about this or terrified.

I would have taken about a million more pictures, but this was a library after all and we were trying to be particularly quiet - which meant about 110% of my attention spent on praying that my boy didn't get me kicked out.  Luckily Georgianna let us continue, and I let the little geeklet live.

Shortly Garland joined us, and it was down into the vaults!  I most definitely did get pictures down there (after asking permission), so stay tuned for a whole series of what I got to see!

My trip continues ...

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

These Foolish Games (Inside Folger!)

So, picture it.  Georgianna has begun our tour of the Folger Library, and we're in this very cool dining hall decorated with stained glass representations of characters from the plays.  She asks my son whether he can name a particular piece.

"That's Hamlet," my boy replies, pointing at one before I can even figure it out.  "Because he's talking to a skeleton."

 "Very good," Georgianna replies.  "Now can you find someone else from that play?"


Again, before I can take it all in (I think I spy Polonius, actually), the boy points to another window and says, "Over there!  The Joker!"


I laugh.  "No," I tell him, "I think that's the Fool from King Lear."

"No, he's right!" Georgianna tells us  "See the skull that he's stepping on? We've always taken that to mean that this is Yorick." 

Now, I'm quite sure that this full time employee of the center of the Shakespeare universe knows more about this stuff than I do.  But it strikes me as odd.  Not only is every other window a major character - Henry V, Cleopatra, Portia, Julius Caesar - but, as far as I can tell, each play is only represented once. Why then would Hamlet be represented not only by two windows, but with a minor character that never even appears in the play?

I must know!  Surely somebody reading this has been in that room and knows the story of those windows.  Clue me in!



This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

A Natural History of Shakespeare


During my browse through that "Alphabet of History" I also spotted the really cool Natural History of Shakespeare.  This is not a book *about* Shakespeare, per se - this is a collection of quotes from Shakespeare's work, organized by what bits of nature he mentioned:



A pretty neat way to flip through the works if you're looking for something specific.  I love this old public domain stuff, and which I had reference books like this on my shelf at times.  I suppose they exist in various forms now, and I could go create a library of this stuff, but the 100yr old ones have a sort of simplicity to them that I really like.  I think that we've gone a bit off the scholarly deep end in more modern editions.  100 years ago they're written as if they're saying, "Anyone at all might have an interest in this stuff."  Now they're written like, "Ok, you'll only want this if you're already a Shakespeare scholar."

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

The Good Booth

While in Washington D.C. we of course visited Ford's Theatre (see post on the subject, possibly coming soon) so of course I spent most of the time talking about the Booths and their Shakespeare connection.

What I did not realize is that Edwin, the good one, is buried right here in Massachusetts. What do you think, does the picture of him look anything like the engraving on his tomb?  I don't see it.  Then again the tomb version I'm sure was of him as an older man. Bonus history geek points if you already knew the ironic (?) story about Edwin saving the life of Lincoln's son when he pulled him out of the way of an oncoming train.

If you ever get the chance, don't miss Prince of Players - starring Richard Burton as Edwin himself.  An absolutely fascinating movie that has a surprising amount of Shakespeare in it, and manages to tell the story of the man who shot Lincoln as nothing but a subplot. I loved it.

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Lincoln, on Shakespeare

We've certainly covered the relationship between President Abraham Lincoln and William Shakespeare previously.  So when I went to visit Ford's Theatre, I wasn't sure how much Shakespeare I'd find. Who am I kidding, if I'd spotted any Shakespeare at all I would have considered it a win.


Win!

I wish I could read Lincoln's writing to learn more about the argument.  Who is this James Hackett person, and why is Lincoln having correspondence with him about Hamlet analysis? It's one thing to hear about presidents who were in the habit of reading or quoting Shakespeare (there were a lot of them).  Here we've got an example of the president in active discussion about the play.  Not only that, he's making a case not typically made (from my own personal experience).  I wonder why the President of the United States of America is making the case that King Claudius' private admission of how heavily the guilt for his crimes weighs upon him is greater than "To be or not to be," widely regarded as one of the greatest soliloquies in our language?  

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Shakespeare at Ford's Theatre

Heading down the stairs into the Ford's Theatre Museum I was wondering how much Shakespeare I'd see.  Turns out, quite a bit!  They have a whole kiosk (if you can call it that) dedicated to the subject.

First up we have Miss Charlotte Cushman, performing "3 of her most artistic impressions", including Hamlet!  This is curious to me.  I'm sure I've heard the name Charlotte Cushman before.  In fact, I heard it just today in the same story where I read about Edwin Booth's grave (in a separate post).  Somebody tell us more about her?  I thought Sarah Bernhardt (late 1800's) was the first great female Hamlet?  Or, rather, that's what I always assumed, I suppose.

If you want Hamlet at this time period, though, I'm thinking you wanted the master himself - here is the card for an Edwin Booth performance.

We know the story of Edwin already, so there's not too much I can say here (especially given the next card).  There's a curiosity on this poster, though - does anybody know who S.K. Chester might have been?  I find that name curious because he's playing Claudius, while "Mrs. S.K. Chester" is listed as well, playing "An Actress."  So it sounds like Mr. Chester was important enough to request a role for his wife. They each have a page on the Internet Broadway Database, but it provides no information that's not already on this poster.

But, I've got one more very cool poster to show....


Look at that.  The whole Booth family, starring in Julius Caesar.  Junius Brutus Booth, the father, as Julius Caesar.  Edwin as Brutus.  John Wilkes as Marc Antony.  Insert some sort of clever observation here about how maybe "the bad one" should have played Brutus?  Also of note, there's a "Mr. C.K. Chester" in the credits - I wonder the relation to S K Chester above?

The poster clearly shows this performance as some sort of special occasion.  I'll bet it was!  Does this show mark a historic event of some sort?  That is, do we know more about it?  When was the date relative to Lincoln's assassination?  Was it a travelling show, or a one time event?  Were Edwin and his brother rotating parts?

I have one more picture of the Shakespeare booth (ha!  get it?  booth?) from Ford's Theatre, but I'm saving that for another post...

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

Just Some Old Friends

I don't really have a good place to put these pictures, but I can't resist posting them.  These are what greeted me a I first approached the Folger building.  I didn't get a wide shot of any of them, mostly because I was deathly afraid of being seen walking on the grass, but I'll bet that you can figure out who they're supposed to be!







My trip continues ...

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

An Alphabet of History

First spotted on Reddit, this 1905 Alphabet of History has more than just the page on "Shakspeare" that the original commenter spotted.


First of all, you have to love a children's ABC book that uses a Shakespearean villain as one of the letters. Does that mean that kids would have read Othello and known who this was?  The actual verse for Iago doesn't seem very good, but I like how it suggests that he doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves.


A page on Ben Jonson? Really?  No schoolchildren today would know Jonson or his works, certainly.  I wonder when he fell out of popular study?


And, of course, our star.  This verse has all kinds of great stuff going for it, starting with the spelling of his name. Was that the most common spelling 100 years ago?  There's part of the verse that deals with people bidding on his rare signatures, I wonder if we could pin the 1905 date to some special event in the history of the known signatures, that would have been a newsworthy item right around this time.

And then of course there's the Bacon reference, although I think the author put that in there entirely for the "ham" joke.  Mark Twain, noted Baconian, died in 1910.  And Helen Keller was get getting started.  So the Bacon theory seems to have been in full swing.

This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

To The Memory of My Beloved, and What He Hath Left Us

Since this week has been all about First Folios for me, and since today is such a very big day in the Shakespeare world, allow me to present something that many casual readers may have not yet read:  Ben Jonson's dedication to his lost friend:


To the memory of my beloved,
The Author

MR. W I L L I A M S H A K E S P E A R E :
A
 N D
what he hath left us.
To draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy name,
Am I thus ample to thy Booke, and Fame;
While I confesse thy writings to be such,
As neither Man, nor Muse, can praise too much.
'Tis true, and all men's suffrage. But these wayes
Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise;
For seeliest Ignorance on these may light,
Which, when it sounds at best, but eccho's right;
Or blinde Affection, which doth ne're advance
The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance;
Or crafty Malice, might pretend this praise,
And thine to ruine, where it seem'd to raise.
These are, as some infamous Baud, or Whore,
Should praise a Matron. What could hurt her more?
But thou art proofe against them, and indeed
Above th' ill fortune of them, or the need.
I, therefore will begin. Soule of the Age !
The applause ! delight ! the wonder of our Stage !
My
 Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lye
A little further, to make thee a roome :
Thou art a Moniment, without a tombe,
And art alive still, while thy Booke doth live,
And we have wits to read, and praise to give.
That I not mixe thee so, my braine excuses ;
I meane with great, but disproportion'd
 Muses :
For, if I thought my judgement were of yeeres,
I should commit thee surely with thy peeres,
And tell, how farre thou dist our
 Lily out-shine,
Or sporting
 Kid or Marlowes mighty line.
And though thou hadst small
 Latine, and lesse Greeke,
From thence to honour thee, I would not seeke
For names; but call forth thund'ring 
Æschilus,
Euripides, and Sophocles to us,
Paccuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead,
To life againe, to heare thy Buskin tread,
And shake a stage : Or, when thy sockes were on,
Leave thee alone, for the comparison
Of all, that insolent
 Greece, or haughtie Rome
Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come.
Triumph, my
 Britaine, thou hast one to showe,
To whom all scenes of
 Europe homage owe.
He was not of an age, but for all time !
And all the
 Muses still were in their prime,
When like
 Apollo he came forth to warme
Our eares, or like a
 Mercury to charme !
Nature her selfe was proud of his designes,
And joy'd to weare the dressing of his lines !
Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit,
As, since, she will vouchsafe no other Wit.
The merry 
Greeke, tart Aristophanes,
Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please;
But antiquated, and deserted lye
As they were not of Natures family.
Yet must I not give Nature all: Thy Art,
My gentle
 Shakespeare, must enjoy a part;
For though the
 Poets matter, Nature be,
His Art doth give the fashion. And, that he,
Who casts to write a living line, must sweat,
(Such as thine are) and strike the second heat
Upon the Muses anvile : turne the same,
(And himselfe with it) that he thinkes to frame;
Or for the lawrell, he may gaine a scorne,
For a good
 Poet's made, as well as borne.
And such wert thou. Looke how the fathers face
Lives in his issue, even so, the race
Of 
Shakespeares minde, and manners brightly shines
In his well toned, and true-filed lines :
In each of which, he seemes to shake a Lance,
As brandish't at the eyes of Ignorance.
Sweet swan of
 Avon! what a fight it were
To see thee in our waters yet appeare,
And make those flights upon the bankes of
 Thames,
That so did take Eliza, and our James !
But stay, I see thee in the Hemisphere
Advanc'd, and made a Constellation there !
Shine forth, thou Starre of
 Poets, and with rage,
Or influence, chide, or cheere the drooping Stage;
Which, since thy flight fro' hence, hath mourn'd like night,
And despaires day, but for thy Volumes light.
B E N: J O N S O N.
(from http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/folio1.htm)


This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!

My Visit With The Folger


And, here we go!  This is me, sitting outside the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. and I'm pretty sure that's the first picture of me that's graced this blog.  What you were expecting?

You'll see I went with my Mercutio Drew First shirt.  This was the subject of much debate in the hotel room that morning, as I was torn between actually looking *nice*, or, well, looking like a Shakespeare Geek.  I figured that to wear such a shirt where I had the greatest possible opportunity for people to actually *get* it, was too good to pass up. I went with it.  This did not stop me from worrying about the decision for the rest of the afternoon, trying to decide whether I had time to get back to the hotel to the change, before finally there was no time left and the decision was made for me. ;)

I've got a bunch of pictures that I'm going through, so I'm going to try and spread the visit out of several posts so we can discuss the interesting bits separately.  I figure that this picture represented the kick off, the proof that I'd at last arrived.  


This posting marathon, in celebration of Shakespeare Day, is brought to you by nothing but my time, my resources, and my love for the subject. While we'll always be the original Shakespeare blog, it takes a significant amount of effort to make us the best in the digital universe.  If you've not yet seen how you can show your support, now's a great opportunity.  If you've already done so, thanks very much!



A Shakespeare Marathon for Shakespeare's Birthday

Hello Everyone!

In celebration of William Shakespeare's Birthday every year I like to do something special.  With the big day falling on a Monday just after school vacation, and me having just returned from the Folger Shakespeare Library, I knew that I'd either end up doing nothing (no time!) or something big.

May I present, something big.

For the remainder of the day I'm going on a Shakespeare Marathon.  I don't know how many posts I'll end up with, but I can promise that it will shatter my previous record (which, judging by April 2010, was 11 posts in a day. I know that I've already got more than double that queued up). Many of these posts will include pictures of my experience inside the Folger Vault, something that many people will simply never see in their lifetimes. If you want to talk about Shakespeare today, you're going to have plenty of opportunities to do it.

For those coming late to the party and want to see all posts, keep checking this link to all posts for April 23, 2012.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare!


- Duane, aka Shakespeare Geek


Friday, April 13, 2012

When Shakespeare Does His Taxes (Guest Post)

At this time of year, even Shakespeare’s thoughts turn to getting the income tax forms in on time. Bardfilm and Shakespeare Geek have compiled their resources to give us some insight into what’s going on in his mind:

  • My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun. I think that means I can claim her ophthalmologist visits as a deduction!
  • When I'm a lender, the interest income paperwork is ridiculous. But when I'm a borrower I'm paying interest and then still getting taxed on the income to boot! Note to self: Don't be either one of those.
  • If I can only get rid of that second-best bed (Note: What if I will it to Anne?), I'll be in a lower tax bracket.
  • Grief fills the room up of my absent child. That means I can still claim him as a dependent! Yay!
  • Three dollars to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund? No. I think I’d rather pop in between the election and their hopes.
  • If I drown my books, I wonder if I could deduct that as flood damage?
  • Oh, come on! We dismantle and move one little theatre and now I need to pay real estate tax on it twice?
  • What? That’s how much I owe? What do they want from me? A pound of flesh? Zounds!
  • O, for a muse of fire . . . or at least another week to get these forms together.
  • A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse! Then I could claim it as a capital gains loss.
  • You know what? Next time I'm voting for Ron Paul.
  • Should I put Brutus down as a Capitol gain or a Capitol loss—or both?
  • The most frustrating thing about this whole process is that Marlowe pays less taxes than his secretary.
  • Is this a dagger that I see before me, the handle toward my hand? No, it's just Form 8233: Exemption From Withholding on Compensation for Independent (and Certain Dependent) Personal Services of a Nonresident Alien Individual. [That's a real form, by the way.]

Our thanks for his contributions to this guest post to kj, the author of Bardfilm. Bardfilm is a blog that comments on films, plays, and other matters related to Shakespeare.


. . . and we didn't even have to resort to a "Do I need Form 2B or not?" joke! —SG

. . . at least not until now! —kj

A 1607 Spelling Lesson

Spotted this link today on Twitter, courtesy of Folger Research.  "When you ask a powerful woman to be your child's godmother & the queen intervenes: a 1607 letter".

What's most fascinating to me is the very real example of spelling.  Sure, we have plenty of examples from Shakespeare's work, but it would be easy to put him on a separate shelf and say, sure, that's how *he* wrote.  For the stage.  That's not how normal people wrote.

Want to bet?

I only wish that I could read more of it.  There are several spots where odd abbreviations are used (something that looks like La with a ps, an m with a tie above it, etc...) and plenty of places where I just can't read the writing -- there's a word that looks like it could be "sefte" but given the giant descenders they used for S I thought maybe it was a"juste" when I first saw it, so who knows.

Anyway, neat stuff indeed.  I wonder if there's anybody reading who does indeed study this stuff and can tell us what it says?  I get the general idea, mostly from the title -- the person writing the letter had asked the recipient to be the godmother to his child, but the queen stepped in.  Whether she stepped in because she doesn't like her countesses to do such things, I didn't quite get.  It does seem to end along the lines of "If something happens to make the queen change her mind, we'll let you know."

Anybody got a better reading than that?




Mr. Geek Goes to Washington

For those folks that aren't with us on Twitter, you may not have heard that I'm taking the family to Washington D.C. next week for April vacation.  For some that would mean the White House, the Washington Monument, and all that semi-cool, 200year old stuff.

You know what I'm going for.  I want to see me some 400 year old books.  Specifically of course I'm talking about the Folger Shakespeare Library, what I describe to people who ask as "The Shakespeare Smithsonian.  The Center of the American Shakespeare World."  (Come on, I need to give the Stratford Birthplace people at least a little acknowledgement :)).  I don't know if it's the common way or not, but I just call it "The Folger" in the same way I'd say "The White House" or "The Smithsonian."

Want to hear something funny?  In my house I have a bust of Shakespeare (a small one), from the Folger. The thing is, I don't remember getting it.  It had to have been during college when we went to DC for a conference.  I do remember going into town with friends.  But whatever period that was in my life, it wasn't the same as it is now, and I obviously wandered in picked up Mr. Shakespeare, and brought him home in a very unmemorable event.

I expect next week, with wife and geeklets in tow, to be just a wee bit different.  :)  I'm actually hoping/planning to meet people that I know.  The funny thing is that the following week is my birthday, and my wife asked me what I wanted.  "We're going to be at the Folger Shakespeare Library.  I'm pretty sure I can find a few things."

So, watch this space because one of a number of possible things might happen:

* I am so busy running around to all the sites that I have no time to post.
* I am so impatient about my trip to the Folger (Thursday) that I post every day between now and then to talk about it.
* I post a small (or possibly not so small) novel of my experiences starting Thursday night.
* I show up on the national news after I am arrested for attempting to eat a First Folio.

Anybody need anything while I'm out?  Bardfilm asked me to grab him a quarto, he said they've got them just lying around and you're supposed to help yourself.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Thai Macbeth

Normally I  would have skimmed over this story as only having relevance to a wider international community (that this site doesn't necessarily attract), but numerous people have sent me links so let's talk about Thailand banning 'Shakespeare Must Die', a film adaptation of Macbeth.

 The movie does hit close to home, as it features actual images from the October 1976 student uprising in Bangkok and the May 2010 violent dispersal of pro-Thaksin red shirt protesters in the capital. (Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a coup in 2006 but he remains hugely popular. His sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is now Thailand’s prime minister).
That seems to hit right at the center of the problem, doesn't it?  This isn't a case of banning Shakespeare, as I see it.  This is a director who had something to say about the current state of his (her?) government, and used Shakespeare as a backdrop.

Discuss?