Bit of bard

[LegendInMyOwnMind]

Here ya go: Judi Dench recites that for us!

OMG thank you stickgirl.

 

[stickygirl]

Plenty of gender bending in Twelfth Night. Everyone has fallen for the gender bending twins, Cesario and Viola. Orsino is especially confused

'Diana’s lip
Is not more smooth and rubious. Thy small pipe
Is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound,
And all is semblative a woman’s part.'

'Cesario, come,
For so you shall be, while you are a man,
But when in other habits you are seen,
Orsino’s mistress, and his fancy’s queen.'

 

[LegendInMyOwnMind]

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.

Off topic, but speaking of Baz Luhrmann, have you heard this?

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Off topic, but speaking of Baz Luhrmann, have you heard this?

I had not and I regret that now. Thanks.

 

[caleb35]

Writing much ado about nothing?

All the time

 

[Kat90xx]

From A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream:

Bottom (as Pyramus) - O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall.
Flute (as Thisbe) - I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.
Bottom (as Pyramus) - Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?
Flute (as Thisbe) - Tide life, tide death, I come without delay.
Snout (as Wall) - Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so; And being done, thus Wall away doth go.

Old Bill loved the public lavs methinks…

 

[Voboy]

I had to memorize a Hamlet soliloquy some 35 years ago, and incredibly I still have it in my neurons. The bit I like best goes like this:

Oh god! how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on it! Ah, fie; 'tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely.

I typed that from memory. Now I go to check whether or not I got it right!

 

[stickygirl]

I had to memorize a Hamlet soliloquy some 35 years ago, and incredibly I still have it in my neurons. The bit I like best goes like this:

Oh god! how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on it! Ah, fie; 'tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely.

I typed that from memory. Now I go to check whether or not I got it right!

I'm not a fan of Mel Gibson at all, but I never really understood the famous Hamlet speech until I saw his version

 

[Voboy]

I had to memorize a Hamlet soliloquy some 35 years ago, and incredibly I still have it in my neurons. The bit I like best goes like this:

Oh god! how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on it! Ah, fie; 'tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely.

I typed that from memory. Now I go to check whether or not I got it right!

We had to recite it live in front of the class. I really tried to get it "right," and to be honest? I've had to read a lot of Shakespeare in my day, but that's the soliloquy I understand best: because I had to think about how to say it while conveying what I thought its meaning was.

I think merely "reading" these plays is of marginal value for at least 90% of the students forced to do so, and it's a real shame. Seeing it performed, or performing it oneself, is where the value lies I think.