If this is the first time you’ve read an essay here, please take a look at this post before proceeding.
Now that he has everyone in his power, we might expect him to use his magic spitefully and violently. Interestingly, this scene acts as a kind of volta in the plot: the conversation changing Prospero’s philosophy and actions forever.
GCSE Essay based on AQA specimen question paper, and marked as follows:
Continue reading “The Tempest: GCSE Model Essay for my Y11s”
Whilst it sounds trite, I’m increasingly beginning to believe this.
Part of this comes from the Pony Tail Shakespeare project, I’m sure. With a gap of 400+ years now between the works and our readings, we’re constantly confronted with attitudes which are at a variance with ours. Example? This month it’s The Taming of the Shrew, with some ‘interesting’ ideas about marriage, domestic violence, and ‘men vs. women’.
Mostly, though, it comes from being a teacher of Shakespeare …
Continue reading “You don’t read Shakespeare. Shakespeare reads YOU.”
subtitled: The Middle Child, and Darth Vader
It seems an eternity since that I fell into this play, full of fears for my adopted country, and so it has been. My views on how work has impacted on my ability to blog over the last month or so probably need to wait until I’m not feeling as ‘wasp stung and impatient’ as Harry Hotspur. Anyway, as we hit the end of this play my fears for England have receded, at least. In fact, I’m struggling to feel fearful at all. I’m a spectator, but a fully engaged one.
Continue reading “PTS 02/013: The Force is strong in you, young Skywalker”
HENRY VI part II: Act IV
‘death, a necessary end, will come when it will come’ (JULIUS CAESAR: Act II, sc ii)
subtitled: ‘The not very tragic or lamentable death of the serial rotter, Suffolk, and the deservedly doomed distraction caused by Cade.’
It’s not quite acts three or four of Antony and Cleopatra, but this act does get into double-figures in terms of scenes – something I find irritating as a reader, in a way that I don’t find when listening to or watching the plays. Still, basically, Act IV boils down into two episodes, as the subtitle suggests.
As I’ve said elsewhere, I have a soft spot for the BBC Shakespeare Collection.
Continue reading “BBC Shakespeare Collection digital download on sale”
‘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”
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?
… and so beguile thy sorrow (Titus Andronicus)
An era ended on Thursday this week …
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.
O, is it all forgot?
All school-days’ friendship, childhood innocence?
What does the Shakespeare curriculum look like in the UK in 2017?
The Boar's Head, Eastcheap 