Christopher Marlowe and the Baines Note

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

I am no Marlowe scholar. I had never heard of the Baines note.  I asked Bardfilm about it, as I do with all these things, and he replied, “Long written about, seldom seen.”

Until now, because the British Library is making the Baines note public.

The note is reportedly a conversation between Marlowe and police informant / part-time spy Richard Baines, compiled by Baines.  In it, “Marlowe casts doubt on the existence of God, claims that the New Testament was so “filthily written” that he himself could do a better job, and makes the eyebrow-raising assertion that the Christian communion would be more satisfying if it were smoked “in a tobacco pipe”. Not to mention the whole “gay christ” thing.

Baines then adds a personal note that, “All men in Christianity ought to endeavour that the mouth of so dangerous a member may be stopped.”The Baines Note

A few days later, Marlowe is stabbed to death. (“A great reckoning in a little room.”)

Apparently there’s question about the authenticity of the story, and that it was created specifically to get Marlowe is trouble with the authorities.

I love learning new things.  Have we got any Marlowe scholars in the audience?  Tell us more!

I found a link where you can read the transcript of the Baines note, too, if anybody’s interested.  I can’t make out a blessed word.

 

 

Who is Ophelia’s Brother?

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I never know what to say when I see questions like this in my logs. But then I think of it like this – if I invited my coworkers to see Hamlet, and during intermission one of them asked me, “I’m confused, which one is Ophelia’s brother?” I’m not going to point and laugh and say, “How dumb are you? It’s right there on the page!”  Instead I’m going to appreciate that this person is engaged enough to be here in the first place and is trying to follow along, but sometimes it’s not that easy.

Even though we typically think of Ophelia as Hamlet’s girlfriend, we never actually see them “together”. We first hear about their relationship first from Ophelia’s older brother Laertes before he leaves to return to school:

For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour,
Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,
A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more.

Typical big brother stuff – you think Hamlet’s into you, but he’s really not, so don’t let him break your heart. This is typical of all the men in Ophelia’s life, they tell her what to do.

LaertesWe don’t see Laertes again until their father Polonius has been killed. He is then witness to Ophelia’s madness and eventual death. At her funeral he cannot bear the grief and jumps into her grave:

Hold off the earth awhile,
Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:

[Leaps into the grave]

Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead,
Till of this flat a mountain you have made,
To o’ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head
Of blue Olympus.

What he does not realize is that Hamlet has also returned and, seeing this over the top display, starts a fight over which of them loved her more:

I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

What Hamlet does not know is that Laertes and Claudius have concocted a plan to let Laertes have his revenge, by poisoning Hamlet.  This plan either works perfectly or horribly depending on whether you see the glass half full or empty, because at the end of it Hamlet does end up dead.  But so do Claudius and Laertes. With his last breath, Laertes asks Hamlet’s forgiveness for betraying him.

Giveaway! Free Copies of “If We Were Villains” by M.L. Rio

~ duane ~ 10 Comments

UPDATE:  Contest over!  Thanks to everyone for participating. Winners will be notified shortly.

We haven’t done a book giveaway in a long time, so let’s fix that right now with a good one!  Introducing If We Were Villains, by M.L. Rio:

As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: If We Were Villainsconvincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.

“This is a rare and extraordinary novel: a vivid rendering of the closed world of a conservatory education, a tender and harrowing exploration of friendship, and a genuinely breathtaking literary thriller. I can’t recommend this book highly enough, and can’t wait to read what M. L. Rio writes next.” —Emily St. John Mandel, New York Times bestselling author of Station Eleven
Read a full length excerpt from Scene 1 here!
Sound like your cup of tea? Or something you might enjoy reading over a cup of tea? Well we’ve got five copies to giveaway!

Rules

  1. Since the book is being released on April 11, that’s when we’ll pick our winners. Five winners will be drawn at random from eligible entries received prior to midnight on April 10, 2017.
  2. To enter, leave a comment here on the blog (not on Facebook or Twitter) answering the following question:  You’ve decided to quit your day job and become a full time villain. Which Shakespearean villain is your role model, and why?
  3. Entries must include an accurate, reachable email address, so we can contact you in case you win!
  4. Limit 1 entry per email address.
  5. Contest open to U.S. shipping addresses only.
  6. Publisher will handle  shipping books to the winners.
Any questions?  Good luck!

Review : Wool by Hugh Howey

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I first heard about Wool in the same context as The Martian, one of these self published runaway hits that is already fast tracked to become a movie. It’s a pretty standard dystopian story of people living in an artificially constructed society where the worst crime is to express a desire to go “out”. What’s outside and why are they in? The answers seem pretty obvious if you’ve read any of a dozen other books with this same premise.  I guess this came out  back in 2011 and was originally eight books, now it’s been republished as three bigger ones.
So why are we talking about it here? Because for some strange reason it’s loaded with Shakespeare references. There’s even a character named George Wilkins, and I challenge casual fans of Shakespeare to recognize that reference!
The main character’s name is Juliet (or Juliette, I have it on audiobook so who knows), and I keep waiting for a Romeo to appear and the longer he doesn’t the more I’m thinking, “Oh, good, we can actually have a character named Juliet without it requiring the Shakespeare story.”
Soon enough, though, we’re flashing back to when she’s a kid and sees a production of the play. She’s even given a script that she then carries around for the rest of the story.  Once the explicit R&J connection is made, the different sections (chapters? again, audiobook, hard to tell) suddenly become quotes from the play.
I don’t get it. There’s no Romeo and Juliet story here, and I’m stretching to come up with one.  I’m wondering if there’s more Pericles in it (see George Wilkins, above ;)).  I’m not nearly familiar enough with that play.
So, surely others out there have already read this one, and probably the whole series.  Is it right in front of my face and I’m missing it? I once read a Hamlet story told from the perspective of super-intelligent dogs, and I managed to figure that one out (eventually).  Does it come up more in later books? Or did the author just feel like sprinkling around some Shakespeare?  The latter seems unlikely, but you never know in the self-published world, things don’t have to stay strictly to formula.  Besides, there’s no way that he drops George Wilkins into the story and expects anybody to recognize the Shakespeare connection!

UPDATE May 2023

As originally mentioned, the book is now a series on Apple TV+ called Silo. I’ve only just started watching it but we’ve met the Juliet character. Maybe I’ll learn more about where all the Shakespeare references lead us!

At Last, A “Happy” Romeo And Juliet

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They’re making a “Romeo and Juliet style musical” about the life of Pharrell Williams, according to the Hollywood Reporter.  If you don’t recognize the name, and thus my joke fell completely flat, he’s the guy behind many things, but probably most notable in recent memory for Happy, a song so catchy that people literally made 24hr loops so it would never stop playing.

Back to the story, there’s some big names attached who have contributed to American Idiot, Spring Awakening, and Toy Story 4, though we’ll forgive that last one.  (Toy Story 1-3 were one of the great movie trilogies and I’m frightened that 4 is just a straight money grab that won’t hold a candle to the originals.)

I also won’t be the first to point out the obvious — given that Mr. Williams is alive and well, clearly their version of the story isn’t going to end the same.  So I am expecting that this is that thing I’ve always talked about when the Lion King comes up, how every “oh noes, boy and girl can’t be together because they’re from two different worlds” story ends up being branded a Romeo and Juliet story.  They do get a bonus that Williams grew up in Virginia Beach, and Virginia/Verona is an easy switch :).

At least we know it’ll have good music.