shakespeare

[Corpsey]

What these history plays allow Shakey to do, which I'm sure he does in many other plays butnevermind, is juxtapose the high heroic iambics of nobility with the slangy prose of the commoners. Which is one way in which Joyce is Shakesperean, too.

 

[Corpsey]

Craner’s Shakespeare Scorecard

(Including plays written in collaboration but excluding those of seriously dubious authorship and the poems. Even though he had magnificent contemporaries, the collaborations are among those with the weakest marks.)

Two Gentleman of Verona – Not read

Taming of the Shrew – C

Henry VI (3) – C

Henry VI (1) – D

Henry VI (2) – B

Titus Andronicus - D

Richard III – B

Edward III – Not read

Comedy of Errors – C

Love’s Labour’s Lost – B (just missed out on an A)

Richard II – A

Romeo and Juliet – A

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – A*

King John – Not read

Merchant of Venice – A

Henry IV (1) – A*

Merry Wives of Windsor – C (saved from being a D because I quite like the fact it was designed as a cynical vehicle for the popular Falstaff, and I enjoyed the silly
bawdiness, like a crap 70s Italian sex comedy starring Edwige Fenech!)

Henry IV (2) – A*

Much Ado About Nothing – B

Henry V – A

Julius Caesar – A

As You Like It – A

Hamlet – A*

Twelfth Night – A (this play used to irritate the crap out of me until I saw a stunning RSC production that lit up the text, not often you can really say that about
contemporary theatrical performances.)

Measure for Measure – A

Othello – A

All’s Well That End’s Well – C

King Lear – A*

Timon of Athens – C

Macbeth – A*

Antony and Cleopatra – A

Pericles – D

Coriolanus – A

Winter’s Tale – A

Cymbeline – Not read

Tempest – A

Henry VIII – Not read

 

[Corpsey]

The work of a correct and regular writer is a garden accurately formed and diligently planted, varied with shades, and scented with flowers; the composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in which oaks extend their branches, and pines tower in the air, interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelter to myrtles and to roses; filling the eye with awful pomp, and gratifying the mind with endless diversity. Other poets display cabinets of precious rarities, minutely finished, wrought into shape, and polished unto brightness. Shakespeare opens a mine which contains gold and diamonds in unexhaustible plenty, though clouded by incrustations, debased by impurities, and mingled with a mass of meaner minerals.

 

[craner]

I have no recollection of writing that post.

 

[version]

Watched Welles' film about making Othello last night. It's similar to F for Fake but with less of the trickery. You get him telling stories then discussing the film and the play with one of his actors and a friend followed by a clip of him taking questions from an audience after a screening. It's really good.