Bit of bard

[onehitwanda]

The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve.
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

 

[onehitwanda]

Caliban:
Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices,
That if I then had waked after long sleep
Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again.

Hearing this spoken by Kenneth Branagh to the backing of Elgar during the London 2012 opening ceremony was the bit when I i went from Meh to Oh Fuck It's Happening.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

​

O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market-place.

Beatrice in “Much ado about nothing” has some great lines. It’s one of the plays where the relative position of women in society is really scrutinised.

I have no idea whether Shakespeare himself was genuinely feminist, and obviously the women within this play still have to retain their places in society, but the fact it is questioned, and you have this strong, cerebral woman lashing out in frustration at the limitations of her position due (unsaid) to the patriarchal nature of society, had to have been something of a moment for society at that time.


Bearing in mind Elizabeth 1st was on the throne during Shakespeare’s lifetime - maybe this contributed to some genuine change - I don’t know - but this particular part of Beatrice’s speech has always stood out to me.​

A lot of the mentions of women's role in society are jokes, because the women were played by teenage boys. "I wish I were a man" from a boy's mouth in women's garb was the height of low humour.

Given pantomimes still have the Principal Boy (Aladdin, Dick Whittington etc) played by a young woman in tights and shorts, you could say Brits haven't changed much.

Honourable mention:
Edmund (in King Lear): Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

 

[KittyOfSteele]

The end.

Ok, I jest... but only a little. Shakespeare tormented my school days. I believe he's taught appallingly for the most part, and from talking to many colleagues of different nationalities, in the main non-English teaching of Shakespeare is far superior to the crap us natives get. We're supposed to 'get' Shakespeare by fucking osmosis, which is just useless for a bunch of thirteen-year-olds, as my class were when we had Macbeth plopped down on our desks in front of us. And despite studying 'The Scottish Play' for two semesters, it took another decade before I realised that the Bard put a five minute break in the middle for the Porter to tell toilet jokes. Why my dumbass teacher didn't lead with that escapes me to this day...

Honestly, I feel you. My first exposure to Shakespeare felt like that, and it doesn't help that I'm not a native English speaker, so you can tell how appalling the translation was, so I agree. In fact, Miguel de Cervantes suffers the same issue.

My opinion on the bard changed when I took drama in university and found myself in love with the puns. I've been meaning to consume more though.

 

[BeechLeaf]

I realized that my Richard III quote above was a scene where she said his behaviour was heinous. Cue for song. (Sorry, just hoping I can work out how to insert a video link.)

 

[Kumquatqueen]

The end.

Ok, I jest... but only a little. Shakespeare tormented my school days. I believe he's taught appallingly for the most part, and from talking to many colleagues of different nationalities, in the main non-English teaching of Shakespeare is far superior to the crap us natives get. We're supposed to 'get' Shakespeare by fucking osmosis, which is just useless for a bunch of thirteen-year-olds, as my class were when we had Macbeth plopped down on our desks in front of us. And despite studying 'The Scottish Play' for two semesters, it took another decade before I realised that the Bard put a five minute break in the middle for the Porter to tell toilet jokes. Why my dumbass teacher didn't lead with that escapes me to this day...

I was lucky - my English teachers went through all the dirty jokes with us. The pinnacle of my acting career was probably doing the "I do not bite my thumb at you sir - but I do bite my thumb" from R&J, in the style of Lance from Home and Away.

For anyone who can access it, I highly recommend the CBeebies versions of The Tempest and Midsummer's Night Dream (they've now done Twelfth Night, too), designed to entertain the under-fives by the BBC. They have Justin Fletcher as Shakespeare backstage, explaining to the dim pirates from Swashbuckle what is going on, and despite editing them down to half an hour and making them accessible to small kids, keep a remarkable amount of the original language and tone.

Then my kids got introduced to edited Shakespeare Stories at primary school, along with the David Tennant film of Macbeth (he was known to them as Doctor Who at the time), leading to complaints that they didn't do enough Shakespeare at secondary and eldest in particular enjoys going to the theatre with me.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Honestly, I feel you. My first exposure to Shakespeare felt like that, and it doesn't help that I'm not a native English speaker, so you can tell how appalling the translation was, so I agree. In fact, Miguel de Cervantes suffers the same issue.

My opinion on the bard changed when I took drama in university and found myself in love with the puns. I've been meaning to consume more though.

Schiller's Maria Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots) could really have done with some toilet humour. Or humour. Great play in translation, but gruelling Shakespearian-era German for me at 16. And we had to use Reklam editions (tiny little paperbacks with Bible-type paper pages and almost no white space for notes), as the only edition available not in Fraktur font...

The best of Shakespeare's puns make you wince, knowing he's calling your attention to a serious point. Like:

Lady Macbeth (while Macbeth is covered in blood from killing Duncan):
I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Once a student of leadership, my favourite Shakespeare was Henry V. From it:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

My spine still shivers at that.


WRT teaching the bard to teenagers, I've often thought one could do worse than running Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet before diving into the text.

 

[LegendInMyOwnMind]

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

 

[LegendInMyOwnMind]

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

I would sell my soul to have someone I could say that to with my whole heart.

 

[Writer61]

The line I use the most is:

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends"

King Henry, in Henry V

 

[Writer61]

I am constantly amazed by how many and how often Shakespeare's lines crop up.

 

[AlinaX]

Having an English teacher who is passionate about the language and unafraid to dramatise it makes a huge difference.

The realisation that hearing and watching it as a play makes so much more sense than trying to read the bloody thing also makes a huge difference.

Discovering that a good chunk of Shakespeare is irreverent mischief adds so much to it.

 

[stickygirl]

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

I would sell my soul to have someone I could say that to with my whole heart.

Here ya go: Judi Dench recites that for us!

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Venus to Adonis: ​

Graze on my lips, and if those hills be dry
Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.​

'Pleasant fountains' describes the vulva pretty well.

 

[SimonDoom]

"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit."

Twelfth Night.

I was fortunate to have good English teachers in high school who taught Shakespeare well, and I've always loved his plays and poetry. It helped that we saw live performances, and I've seen his plays performed on an Elizabethan-style outdoor stage, which is a whole different (and much recommended) experience.

I added it up, and I've read or seen 30 of his 37 plays, and I think at one point or another I've read all the sonnets.

 

[SimonDoom]

This is from memory, so pardon my errors:

This story shall the good man teach his son
And Crispin Crispian's shall ne're go by
From this day to the ending of the world
But we in it shall be remembered,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother,
Be he ne're so vile, this day shall gentle his condition.
And gentlemen of England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not here
And hold their manhoods cheap,
Whiles any speaks, that fought with us on Crispin's Day.

Henry V (a good movie, too, with Kenneth Branagh)

 

[12oclocktales]

Early in the Judi Dench clip she talks about how everyone quotes Shakespeare and it reminded me of radio comedians Bob and Ray (I think) and how one would say, “And as Shakespeare said,” then he’d pause, everyone expecting some great quote . . . “Good morning!” Pause again, “Well, he must’ve said it sometime!”

 

[stickygirl]

Venus to Adonis: ​

Graze on my lips, and if those hills be dry​

Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.​

'Pleasant fountains' describes the vulva pretty well.

Oooer! They kept that a secret at school!!

 

[caleb35]

Venus to Adonis: ​

Graze on my lips, and if those hills be dry​

Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.​

'Pleasant fountains' describes the vulva pretty well.

I've been looking for more ways to say vulva -- I might use this (steal from the best, people).

 

[caleb35]

This is from memory, so pardon my errors:

This story shall the good man teach his son
And Crispin Crispian's shall ne're go by
From this day to the ending of the world
But we in it shall be remembered,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother,
Be he ne're so vile, this day shall gentle his condition.
And gentlemen of England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not here
And hold their manhoods cheap,
Whiles any speaks, that fought with us on Crispin's Day.

Henry V (a good movie, too, with Kenneth Branagh)

From memory, huh?

 

[SimonDoom]

From memory, huh?

Yep.

 

[Writer61]

It wasn't until I saw some performances (Merchant of Venice live, others on TV) that I began to get it.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I've been looking for more ways to say vulva -- I might use this (steal from the best, people).

Writing much ado about nothing?

I image anyone getting this far in this thread is well aware that 'nothing' and 'country matters' and 'tail' all meant 'cunt'.

Or slightly more subtly, one could speak dreamily of the curvy shapes of her writing - honest - with "her Cs, her Us, 'n' her Ts... with which she makes her great Ps..."

Why yes, Malvolio is making a piss reference. And then you get Andrew Aguecheek going "Her c’s, her u’s, an' her t’s? Why that?" just to make sure every slow speller in the audience has time to get it...

Seems cunnilingus was a popular subject, eg Petruchio talking about putting his tongue in Kate's tail. When I did the Shrew at uni we assumed it meant rimming, mistaking tail for arse, but y'know, close enough.

Mercutio seemed to get all the clear arse jokes. If she were an open-arse, and thou a poperin pear!

 

[BeechLeaf]

It don't say arse in my edition, which would explain why I've never seen that before. Is this a Folio/Quarto difference?

And just above that, the quivering thigh and adjacent demesnes.