Death Masks and Undying Faces

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

So, I’m on vacation.  I wander into the living room of the house we’ve rented where my father-in-law is watching the History Channel, and I see the Chandos portrait on tv.  So you know what we’re doing for the next hour :).  Turns out that it is a show about “death masks”, not specifically Shakespeare.  We’ve just come in on his segment.

This is odd, I think – I would surely know about a new discovery like this.  (Turns out I did,back in 2006).  So it’s not a new show.  That makes sense.  Since we have 3 small children running around making noise it’s hard to get all the details, but the gist of it appears to be a comparison of the Chandos and Cobbe portraits to the death mask, but it’s unclear to me which they are assuming is real and which they are trying to prove.

Mentioning the show on Twitter led me to UndyingFaces.com, which in turn linked here, an article I could swear I’ve seen before about authenticating (or in this case, refuting) the Cobbe portait.  What I find unusual, that I don’t think I noticed the first time around, is this:

On comparing the Cobbe and Janssen portraits, and referring also to the Droeshout engraving and the four previously authenticated true-to-life images (the Chandos and Flower portraits, the Davenant bust and the death mask)

 (Emphasis mine). Ummm…really?  Chandos and Flowers are authenticated as true-to-life?  Now we’re back into “How did I miss that???” land.

I am still technically on vacation, writing this while the rest of the family has breakfast, so I can’t make it too long.  Anybody got comment?

Much Ado About Darwin

~ duane ~ 2 Comments

There is a quote you may have heard, attributed to Charles Darwin, where he claims that Shakespeare is “so intolerably dull, it nauseated me.”  I researched this quote and found that what Darwin was really saying was that in his youth he loved Shakespeare, and was actually somewhat sad that as he grew older he no longer found enjoyment in those things he once enjoyed.

At the time I’d not seen the following quote, courtesy Mr. Shakespeare, via Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing:

But doth not the appetite alter? a man loves the meat
in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of
the brain awe a man from the career of his humour?

 I love it.  He’s like Nostradamus for what it means to be human.  You *will* do this, you *will* feel this way about it.

An enterprise, when fairly once begun, should not be left till all that ought is won.

~ duane ~ 4 Comments

Status: Unlikely, but unknown.

I can not find this reference, or anything like it, in Shakespeare’s works.  The phrase “fairly once begun” in particular does not appear in my searches, and those three words seem fairly indicative of the spirit of the quote. In typical fashion, even though all the references on the web claim Shakespeare, not one of them cites the work in question.

I have no leads on a real source, however, so I have to leave this one in the “maybe” category.  Can somebody point to a version of this quote within the works that might have snuck under my radar?  Or, barring that, find a source that does not attribute it to Shakespeare?

Double extra interesting: Google Books shows references dating back as early as 1891 that claim Shakespeare as the author of this quote, which actually makes me think that I’m simply missing it.  But who knows?

Forgive and Forget

~ duane ~ 7 Comments
In my search for not-by-shakespeares today I stumbled across something I thought was interesting.  We all know that many of today’s popular cliches came from Shakespeare.  Turns out that “forgive and forget” is one of them.  Why’s that interesting?  Because Mr. Shakespeare seems to have been quite fond of the expression, and used it at least four times:

King Richard II  (Act I, Scene 1)
  1. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by
    me;
  2. Let’s purge this choler without
    letting blood:
  3. This we prescribe,
    though no physician;
  4. Deep malice makes
    too deep incision;
  5. Forget,
    forgive; conclude and be agreed;
  6. Our doctors say this is no month to bleed.
  7. Good uncle, let this end where it begun;
  8. We’ll calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son.

King Lear (act IV, Scene 7)
  1. You must bear with me:
  2. Pray you now, forget and forgive: I
    am old and foolish.

Cleomenes  (The Winter’s Tale, Act 5 Scene 1)
  1. Sir, you have done enough, and have perform’d
  2. A saint-like sorrow: no fault could you make,
  3. Which you have not redeem’d; indeed, paid down
  4. More penitence than done trespass: at the last,
  5. Do as the heavens have done, forget
    your evil;
  6. With them forgive
    yourself.

Queen Margaret (Henry VI Part 3, Act III Scene 3)
  1. Warwick, these words have turn’d my hate to love;
  2. And I forgive and quite forget old faults,
  3. And
    joy that thou becomest King Henry’s friend.

Given how freely he uses the expression he likely didn’t invent it, but was rather just repeating an expression that was in common usage at the time.  From the Bible, maybe?  Many people think so (it’s certainly a logical Christian sentiment), but no one’s able to point to a specific verse that could be the source.

Let The Punishment Fit The Crime?

~ duane ~ 2 Comments
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10571122

We’ve been talking about it, so I’m not going to rehash the details.  Crazy dude (allegedly, gah, I hate that I have to say allegedly) steals First Folio, mutilates it, then has the cajones to walk back into Folger and say “Hey, I found this, is it worth anything?” 

His trial’s been going on for awhile, and finally he’s convicted … not of stealing it, or mutilating it, but merely of “handling stolen goods.”  WTF?  Is that really how the system works over there, the only evidence you had to work with was the fact that the bloody thing was in his hands, so you get to charge him with handling it?  He didn’t even offer any words in his own defense, and now I think I understand why.  He didn’t need to.  Geez.

He hasn’t been sentenced yet, so what’s your guess at what he gets?  I recommend 375 years.  That’s how many years of stolen history he was handling.