Bill Shakespeare...Alive and Well!

"Shakespeare is the true multicultural author. He exists in all languages. He is put on the stage everywhere. Everyone feels they are represented on stage by him."

Harold Bloom, Shakespeare scholar and critic

A painting that may be the only surviving portrait of William Shakespeare made in his lifetime
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"The picture, from 1610, six years before the playwright's death, has been in the possession of the Cobbe family since the early 18th century...."
 
Shakespeare and the Moon

"In King Lear Edmund dismisses his father’s worries about the power of lunar eclipses to affect events on earth, but in Richard II the Welsh Captain believes what is prophesied by disturbances in the skies:

The bay-trees in our country are all withered,
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven,
The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth,
And lean-looked prophets whisper fearful change…
These signs forerun the death or fall of kings."

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Drawn by Thomas Harriot in c1611, shows a map of the surface of the moon. Petworth Estate & Lord Egremont PHA HMC 241/9

"Shakespeare would surely have been interested to see this map, though his own references to the moon are for dramatic effect, particularly in the play most closely associated with the moon and its influence, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare seems to be determined to throw in as many references to the moon as he can and to remind us of our many, conflicting views of it. It’s a symbol of love, of madness, of chastity, to be feared or laughed at."

"Then at the close of the play Puck, a figure derived from English folklore, reminds us that the moon could also be dangerous."

Now the hungry lion roars
And the wolf behowls the moon,
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores
All with weary task foredone.
 
"Interview where Richard explains his role in Macbeth and how he got back at another actor who begrudged him for being Irish and playing a serious role."

Richard Harris gets sweet revenge in Macbeth role
 
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"To mark the 1916 tercentenary of Shakespeare’s death Israel Gollancz, literary scholar and chair of English language and literature at King's College, commissioned A Book of Homage to Shakespeare. Gordon McMullan looks at the range of contributions included from all over the globe, and what they can tell us about the attitudes to Shakespeare at the time. "


How was Shakespeare remembered 300 years after his death?
 
Tercentenary of Shakespeare's death 1916

"To commemorate the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the Sunday edition of the New York Times included a series of ten Shakespeare Tercentenary supplements, each of which printed a mixture of new and old Shakespeare-related articles, including poems, criticism, and other essays related to Shakespeare and his works."

"The leading article in this supplement, “Odds Against Shakespeare On Stage Today,” was written by Alexander Woolcott (1887-1943), a dramatic critic for the New York Times. Woolcott argued that “this is a generation in which theatre audiences have been carefully trained away from” Shakespeare. He wrote that the naturalistic, prose dramas of the day were creating audiences who could not appreciate Shakespeare, as well as actors who could not perform suitable Shakespearean roles. “The imagination is subvened in the playhouse today,” he concluded. “It has been pampered and Shakespeare is a strain upon it.”

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Creating A Character: Ben Gorman in "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised]"(2021)

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Q: Did Shakespeare visit Egypt or did he know where Egypt was located on the map when he wrote Antony and Cleopatra?

A: "We know virtually nothing about most of Shakespeare’s life, but it seems highly unlikely that he ever left the UK. Few people did back then except sailors, and Shakespeare was a working actor."

"But one of the most amusing things about Shakespeare is that the geography in his plays makes literally no sense. He talks about the “Bohemian coast”, or sailing between two landlocked cities (Verona and Milan). And for some reason he thought that Vienna was in Italy."

"However for Shakespeare, accuracy was not the main idea (you see this in lots of other aspects of his writing). He just wanted places to sound exotic and foreign, and he didn’t really care too much for any level of accuracy beyond that."
Colin Riegels, History geek
 
I took this course, from The Teaching Company on Shakespeare...

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/shakespeare-comedies-histories-and-tragedies

I would think that one could find it in many libraries, through interlibrary loan or just a used copy incredibly cheap on Amazon...

+++

Shakespeare is one of those topics that really has been subjected to extensive public rumor and gossip.

If you take this course, the professor clearly points out, that Shakespeare's life is EXTREMELY well documented, through endless letters and original source material.

It absolutely is not true that there is controversy about whether he wrote all the plays. He wrote all the plays. I think there are detailed letters of him describing the writing work. Endless documentation.

You quote some source that Shakespeare thought Vienna was in Italy? There is absolutely no possible way, he could have made that error. None. He was a man of letters, highly educated (even if mostly self-educated) for a man in his day. He certainly knew what country all the major cities of Europe were in.

He is widely misunderstood, because he wrote with depth. And some people don't want to entertain ideas at depth.

No, he was not anti-Semitic. That character was created to show the ignorance of people who engage in anti-Semitism.

Also, you know, this man was a genius. He was smarter than us. And not by a small amount. So, our own ability to come close to understanding him is going to be limited. Because we are judging from a place that is not even close to who he was.

There are great men (and women) in history. He was one.

People, including historians just love, love, love to throw mud on great figures and try to force them down to our level.

Sometimes, they are not on our level, but many steps beyond.
 
JonSR77 said:
I took this course, from The Teaching Company on Shakespeare...

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/shakespeare-comedies-histories-and-tragedies

I would think that one could find it in many libraries, through interlibrary loan or just a used copy incredibly cheap on Amazon...

+++

Shakespeare is one of those topics that really has been subjected to extensive public rumor and gossip.

If you take this course, the professor clearly points out, that Shakespeare's life is EXTREMELY well documented, through endless letters and original source material.

It absolutely is not true that there is controversy about whether he wrote all the plays. He wrote all the plays. I think there are detailed letters of him describing the writing work. Endless documentation.

You quote some source that Shakespeare thought Vienna was in Italy? There is absolutely no possible way, he could have made that error. None. He was a man of letters, highly educated (even if mostly self-educated) for a man in his day. He certainly knew what country all the major cities of Europe were in.

He is widely misunderstood, because he wrote with depth. And some people don't want to entertain ideas at depth.

No, he was not anti-Semitic. That character was created to show the ignorance of people who engage in anti-Semitism.

Also, you know, this man was a genius. He was smarter than us. And not by a small amount. So, our own ability to come close to understanding him is going to be limited. Because we are judging from a place that is not even close to who he was.

There are great men (and women) in history. He was one.

People, including historians just love, love, love to throw mud on great figures and try to force them down to our level.

Sometimes, they are not on our level, but many steps beyond.
Click to expand...
I'm glad the course paid off for you! I will have to investigate it. Thank you.
 
Meanderer said:
FUN FACTS AND TRIVIA
There are so many not well known facts about Shakespeare and here are a few of them:

All Uranus' satelites are named after Shakespearean characters.
Click to expand...
But would YOU name YOUR TWINS after characters from "A Midsummer Night's Dream?" (My relatives - sometimes....!)
 
Prince Charles visits RSC Costume Workshop redevelopment in Stratford
iu

(2020)
"THE PRINCE of Wales got a first hand look at the on-going project to transform the RSC’s costume workshop when he visited Stratford today."

"Prince Charles, who is president of the RSC, visited the Waterside workshop, opposite the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which is being restored and redeveloped at a cost of nearly £9million – some 70 years after it first opened."

"The revamp will see the historic grade II listed buildings conserved and extended. A new entrance will also be created using the former doors built for the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1887."
(READ MORE)
 
Royal Shakespeare Company’s redeveloped costume workshop to open to public

The team relocated for two years while the restoration and construction took place.
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The new Royal Shakespeare Company costume workshop

(June 9, 2021)
"The newly redeveloped costume workshop of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is to open to the public for the first time."

"The restored Grade II listed buildings in Stratford-upon-Avon now sit alongside newly created spaces capable of housing the 30-strong team – the largest in-house costume-making department of any British theatre."

"The workshop lies opposite the Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres on the site of the 1887 Memorial Theatre Scene Dock, which is now the new entrance to the building." (READ MORE)
 
Meanderer said:
FUN FACTS AND TRIVIA
There are so many not well known facts about Shakespeare and here are a few of them:

All Uranus' satelites are named after Shakespearean characters.
Click to expand...
Patient: "Doctor, am I going to be alright?"
Doctor: "I'm not too sure, Mercury is in Uranus now"
Patient: "But I don't know much about astronomy and space"
Doctor: “Neither do I, but I do know that my thermometer just snapped inside you.
 
Shakespeare found alive and well in Auckland (2016)
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[By Murray Dewhurst in Auckland, New Zealand]
"When I first heard that work on a ‘pop-up’ Globe had commenced in a carpark behind the Town Hall, I was totally skeptical – what a mad idea! So I went down for a look. I was surprised that after only a few days of work progress was well underway. The site was crawling with workers in orange high viz vests busily constructing what looked like a giant Meccano set. Described as ‘cutting-edge technology combined with 400 year old design’ the structure is almost entirely built from scaffolding. The site is sloped, so huge concrete slabs were being lowered into place to hold the whole thing down and stop it sliding down the hill. Finally it was clothed in corrugated iron."
Read More

iu
 
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