As I’ve said elsewhere, I have a soft spot for the BBC Shakespeare Collection.
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BBC Shakespeare Collection digital download on sale
Month: January 2017
You’ll put down strangers?
This isn’t a political blog, at all. It’s not supposed to be, at least.
But, for shame. I can’t sit by. Nor, I’d like to think, would Shakespeare …
Lou Reed sung, in ‘Dirty Boulevard’:
Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor I’ll piss on ’em
That’s what the Statue of Bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses
Let’s club ’em to death
And get it over with and just dump ’em on the boulevard
And Shakespeare?
Shakespeare’s ‘Salad Days’. Expectations of HVI part 1
‘Please Please Me’ or ‘Abbey Road’?
‘Surfin’ Safari’ or ‘Pet Sounds’?
‘Hangin’ Tough’ or ‘The Block’?
[please note – I’ve only ever listened to just four of those albums. Promise. I hope you can infer which they are!]
As I approach the first monthly instalment of my Arden Amble, what are my expectations from a work I know relatively little about? Why start the journey of a thousand steps with a month reading and blogging about Henry VI Part 1?
Continue reading “Shakespeare’s ‘Salad Days’. Expectations of HVI part 1”
Volumes that I prize above my dukedom …
Amongst the cosmetic changes I’ve made over the past few days, you might have noticed the arrival of a new page: The Boar’s Head Bookshelf.
What’s that all about?
Come, and take choice of all my library
… and so beguile thy sorrow (Titus Andronicus)
An era ended on Thursday this week …
Like Hyperion to a satyr …
Back in November I compared the next President of the USA to Richard III. A little reluctantly, given I have some sympathy, and a degree of fondness, for Richard.
Exit, pursued by Redditors
I find it interesting that many students are aghast when I tell them that whilst I don’t do Facebook, I DO spend some time on Reddit.
Usually, it’s the more sensible ones who register the most shock. It’s not the horror of having someone as old as their dad (increasingly I seem to be older, actually), trying to be ‘down with the kids’ – they seem more worried that I’m entering the big cat enclosure in the zoo wearing one of those outfits that seem to be made entirely of slices of bacon …
Beat the Teacher (part 1)
I know this; and thus I challenge it. (Henry V)
How do you get a bunch of giddy Year 8s to do some ‘proper’ contextual research for HW, rather than just ripping stuff off Wikipedia, printing it without actually reading it?
Roughly Chronological Re-read Week 1: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
I’m a “grow old disgracefully” sort of guy, but some prefer to “live fast, die young“, of course …
If you’re more Jimi than Jagger, more Buddy Holly than Bruce Springsteen, you might want to tune in to Jen’s blog, where she is looking at a play per week. Mad as a hatter!
I think she knows her Shakespeare shit …
Date: Between 1589 and 1592.
First read: In 200…5, I think? At some point in my early 20s I read my Arden Complete Works cover to cover. Then I re-read it in 2011 when I worked on a couple of scenes from it at Mountview.
Productions seen: None – just that couple of scenes at drama school.
Productions worked on: As above.
Edition I’m using: Good old Dover Thrift.
Observations:
- I read the play aloud with Mark and Flavia. We noticed that the locations weren’t consistent across the editions – sometimes one of us had Milano and another Verona, sometimes one had Mantua and another Padua. I wish we’d actually noted the differences, but we didn’t… What I can tell you is that I was using the Dover Thrift pictured above, Mark had the Arden Complete Works and Flavia was using the text…
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Cheaper than a Harley. Easier than growing a ponytail …
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
Why this? Why now? And why so slow? What on earth would prompt someone to commit to a read-through of Shakespeare’s plays?
I decided to do this about 6 weeks ago, let’s say about the end of November 2016. In many ways this post is a way to work through my motivations, as well as finally committing to the project.
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The Boar's Head, Eastcheap 