Boston Public Library Opens Its Shakespeare Collection

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

My kids are on school vacation this week and yesterday (April 22) we took the day off and went in town to do Boston things like go on a Duck Tour and have lunch in the North End (complete with cannoli from Mike’s Pastry).  

During the duck tour we passed by the Boston Public Library and I was reminded that they have quite a Shakespeare collection (which I have visited).  I had a fleeting moment to think that we should walk over when the tour is over and see if we can’t see it again, but the timing didn’t work, we were parked too far away, blah blah blah. I also had no idea if it’s normally open to the public.

Then I discover today that they’re opening their collection to the public for Shakespeare’s 400th. My first thought is, “Aw come on, and I was that close and missed it?!” Turns out they’re opening the collection starting in October.

So now we’ve all got plenty of time to plan a trip!   It’s a 10 minute drive from where I work. I wonder if I could make it on my lunch hour?

How Did Shakespeare Die?

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

I mention in another post that my brother in law shared with me his newly acquired Shakespeare knowledge, that our beloved bard drank “contaminated water” and died 30 days later.   Of all the stories I’ve heard, I’ve never heard that one.  Unless he was mixing contaminated water with his alcohol.

Since this is the big anniversary of his death, it’s nice that others are doing the work to recap the details are Shakespeare’s death. Basically we know that he was out drinking a few days before, and carried home. Was this a normal occurrence? Plenty of people get carried home drunk and they don’t die.  Was Shakespeare already sick and would have been dead anyway, and the drinking thing is just a coincidence where he happens to have been seen by witnesses? We’ll never really know.

I did not see the television special that my brother in law was referring to, and I wouldn’t really be surprised to discover that contaminated water was generally a problem for everybody in a world of black plague.  But would it have sickened and killed him almost immediately?  I would assume that if it was that common to drop dead that easily from contaminated water, surely the historians of the last 400 years might have thought of that as well. And like I said, I’ve never heard that theory. It’s far more common to hear people suggest that he had syphilis.

Presenting Shakespeare : A Video Review

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

A little something different for Shakespeare Day!  I’ve had a copy of Presenting Shakespeare for a little while, but wasn’t really sure the best way to review it.  It’s a hardcover book full of nothing but posters from Shakespeare productions.  So how do you talk about it?  I tried taking pictures (since I did not have any from the publisher) but that didn’t work very well.

So you get a rare video review!  Enjoy.

It’s a very cool book to appreciate the more visual side of Shakespearean interpretation. Admittedly that’s not me – I’m all about the words words words 🙂

The book is available at Amazon.

Geeklet’s Sugared Sonnets

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

My oldest had to write a sonnet for her homework.  The rules set down were, in order, that it should be:

  • 14 lines
  • 10 syllables per line
  • ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG scheme
  • iambic pentameter
“Most kids aren’t even going to attempt iambic pentameter,” she told me.
“You will,” I told her.  “Where’s the volta? The turn?”
“He’s never mentioned it.”
“Shame.  It’s not really a Shakespearean sonnet without a good volta.”
She has given me permission, as part of Shakespeare Day, to share her creation.  I told her that sonnets are not generally titled, but she insisted.

Fleeting Fall

The wind carries the scent of changing trees
While sticky sap drips down for tasty treats
And down the apples fall with light fall breeze
Becoming grandmother’s pie for dinner sweets
On busy streets the cider donuts wait
Soon hungry children come to eat their fill
Then racing home, they try not to be late
For pumpkin pie sits cooling on the sill
A lightly drizzling rain comes with the dawn
It washes everything away, anew.
And all too soon the life of fall is gone
When winter blankets everything in view
The fleeting scents of autumn all are flown
But winter brings aromas of its own.

Sword Fights Galore!

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

Sitting on my DVD shelf is the old 1936 Romeo and Juliet starring Norma Shearer.  I keep telling myself to watch it, but this the year 2016 and “watch the DVD” in this house means, “rip it on the computer, put it on the video server, and watch it at will on television.”  But of the four computers floating randomly around my house at any time – two modern Macbooks and two Chromebooks – none of them have a DVD drive. 🙁

So I was looking on YouTube for clips to post, and I discovered a channel called Sword Fights Galore! which is nothing but clips of sword fights from classic movies.  Awesome!

So, check it out – 1936 Romeo and Juliet, just the sword fights:

We start with Benvolio vs. Tybalt in the “Peace? I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues and thee” opening:

Then we jump right to Mercutio vs Tybalt.  “Come, you rat catcher! Will you walk?”

Doesn’t end well for Mercutio.  Enter Romeo the avenger! I love Tybalt’s death scene.

Poor Paris was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

One of these days I’ll get the DVD into my online collection and get to watch the whole thing.  Of course now I’ve spoiled it for myself by watching all the good parts 😉