Thanks to Bardfilm for pointing out this list of the 30 Best Shakespeare Blogs. Best, of course, is in the eye of the beholder — look at instead as a survey across the wonderful world of Shakespeare Blogging. How much it’s grown in 5 years!
Many of our friends made the list. Congratulations to Mad Shakespeare, Shakespeare Place (JM’s site), Shakespeare Teacher, American Shakespeare Center, Bardfilm, Folger, Shakespeare Standard … great work, everybody!
Urban Shakespeare Legends
Open topic for discussion. What “fact” about Shakespeare is commonly known, but probably has no basis in reality?
I'm … Stumped.
Would you believe I actually found a good, unique question on Yahoo Answers? Maybe it’s been asked before, but in all my time I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.
What play, or type of play, do you think Shakespeare *enjoyed* writing most?
People these days find reason to debate the very identify of Shakespeare, so the idea that there’s hard and fast evidence about whether he enjoyed his work sees a bit ridiculous. But is it unanswerable? I’m not so sure.
Wasn’t it Midsummer that’s basically his only original story? Maybe we could argue that was a favorite. (Wasn’t Shrew an original story as well, though?)
I think that today we point to Hamlet and Lear as his masterpieces, but I wonder if that has simply come with time, and if he didn’t think of them as just another tragedy. Didn’t I read somewhere that Titus Andronicus would have been one of his more popular shows at the time? Shakespeare was a business man, that must have appealed. Then again, that would happened after he wrote it, so we can’t really use that as evidence that he enjoyed writing it.
Who knows, maybe it’s too hypothetical. But I thought it was a neat question.
Lear's Math Skills
In the lunch room today two of the managers were joking about how they were late getting in their budgets. “The last guy to turn in his budget just gets what’s left,” I said. “That would be the greatest motivational tool ever.”
This brought to mind the opening scenes of King Lear, where Lear says that he will divide up his kingdom among his three daughters, and give the best piece to the one that loves him best.
And here, as I’m sure many of you have noticed, he then starts divvying up his land as each daughter speaks, fundamentally breaking his own game. By the time Cordelia speaks, the most she can hope to get, regardless of what she says, is “whatever’s left.” Mathematically, the correct way to play the game would be to let them all speak first, and then to decide who won, and divide up the kingdom accordingly.
So, since Lear clearly does not do that, here’s my question. Is this just a Shakespearean “mistake” (though perhaps “oversight” might be a better word)? Or, and here’s where I think it’s more interesting, did Lear already save the best portion for Cordelia, assuming that she would be the one to win his little game?
I like that idea. I like the idea that he knew Regan and Goneril were backstabbing little ingrates, and he gave them a bare minimum portion. He knew Cordelia loved him best, and the whole game was just an opportunity (albeit it a selfish one) to stick it to the annoying two and prove how much he loved his youngest – after she proved that she loves him, of course. If this was his plan, then her unexpected speech about exactly how much she does love him must have been absolutely heartwrenching to him. Which, in turn, caused his temper to go off the charts. And, well, we all know what happens next.
What think you all?
Challenge Extended : Starlings
Ok, who’s up for some research?
On Twitter, someone questioned the story of Eugene Schieffelin, who in 1890 released several dozen (I’ve seen reports of 40-80) starlings into Central Park in New York City. Why did he do this? Legend has it that he wanted to bring all the birds of Shakespeare’s work to the United States.
The problem is that there appears to be no evidence to back up this story. Plenty of people tell it, but none of us can find any corroborating evidence. I’ve done what research I can on Google Books from that era, and there are plenty of 1890 publications citing Mr. S’s starling release (and apparently some sparrows as well), but at the time there are no references linking Schieffelin and Shakespeare. At all.
The closest I found was this book, Tinkering With Eden, which makes multiple references to Eugene’s obsession with “birds of the poets.” However, this is a 2002 book and it’s unclear to me where she gets all this information.
Has anybody got better supporting evidence? The ideal would be some reference to Schieffelin’s Shakespeare quest that is either authored by him or at the very least dated back during his lifetime. Worth mentioning – I’ve emailed the author of that book. Why not? I’ll report back if I get any good answers.
UPDATE: April 12, 2022 Duke University Press covers everything you’d ever want to know about this story, from “Yes, it’s fiction” to where the confusion stems from in the first place. I only wish that I’d gotten a reference, I’ve literally been trying to get people to fix this story for over a decade!