Just how well do you know Julius Caesar?
Some time ago, I mentioned that I’d decided to write a scheme of work for Julius Caesar for our place. And I had a LOT of fun working on it whilst school was closed, but never posted anything about it …
Continue reading “Riddle me this, JC …”We each owe a death. Let’s examine that of Harry Hotspur: a hero too big to be allowed to survive …
PTS read-through: 1 Henry IV, Act IV
“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”
Stephen King, ‘On Writing: A Memoir’ (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2000)
Blame Phil Beadle, and his book ‘Rules for Mavericks: A Manifesto for Dissident Creatives‘ – he made me come back. Not knowing how long I’m here for, just testing the water, I thought it better to simply crack on and see how I felt afterwards: no cringing excuses or apologies for my lengthy absence; no promises either … publish and be damned, if you like.
First-time visitor? Click here and here to find out what Ponytail Shakespeare is all about. Then come back, read, and comment. Please do.
Let’s finish this magical play together, shall we?
‘You REALLY don’t know about The Garden of Eden?’
Your starter for ten – which long running TV quiz programme is parodied here?
Bonus questions: 5 points each (answers at the bottom of the post):
Never mind isolation and social distancing, it’s ‘slogan fatigue’ that’s slowly killing me …
Shakespeare IS political – understand that, and move on
There have been plenty of times when I’ve felt the need to apologise for being political in a blog about Shakespeare. I think it makes my employers nervous, despite the fact that they never get named, and the blog is entirely independent of them.
Everyone remembers the ‘Egg’, but not who his father is …
Not ALL those who wander are lost. But I think I have been, for a while …
And he himself wander’d away alone,
No man knows whither. (Richard III, IV.iv)
Tentatively, I feel like my self-imposed exile might be over.
You ought to know me by now, after almost 4 years and not far off 400 posts …
Not overly-blessed with common sense (as my Dearest Partner of Greatness) would confirm; prone to flights of giddy excitement, silliness even; with a pretty good memory for quotations and an eye for intertextual connections; but usually sceptical when it comes to wild conspiracy theories, especially about Shakespeare.
So I want to be clear that this is not one of the latter.
Thomas Cogswell, James I: The Phoenix King (Penguin Monarchs), (London: Allen Lane, 2017)
Thomas Cogswell’s biography is recognisably one of the Penguin Monarchs series. That means it’s concise (just 109 pages) and informative; a good general introduction to the king who succeeded Elizabeth. For those studying Shakespeare or the Early Modern period, the information about James’ early life is useful and potentially revealing.
It’s also often neglected.
Continue reading “[book review] Thomas Cogswell, James I: The Phoenix King”
Be warned: today’s post has little to do with Shakespeare per se, except as an example of my own peculiar insanity, and a way of getting rid of an ‘ear-worm’ that has been plaguing me since May.
The Boar's Head, Eastcheap 