Think of Valentine’s Day and we think of love, and poetry. And who did it better?  Over the years we’ve hit on this Hallmarkiest of holidays a few times, so I thought I’d go back and grab some favorites:
[Originally posted January, 2007]
Once, a coworker asked me if I knew any good love quotes from Shakespeare.  Apparently it was his anniversary and he was working on something for his wife.  I asked him to be more specific.  While there’s plenty of love to be found in the works, there aren’t too many happy marriages :).  (I think we ended up with something from Romeo and Juliet).
Anyway, as Valentine’s Day approaches I thought I’d go combing for some of the more obvious Cupid references.  At first Sonnet 153 leapt right out at me, but then I saw Sonnet 154.  I’m not a big student of the sonnets, so maybe somebody can explain this to me?

SONNET 153 Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep: A maid of Dian’s this advantage found, And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep In a cold valley-fountain of that ground; Which borrow’d from this holy fire of Love A dateless lively heat, still to endure, And grew a seething bath, which yet men prove Against strange maladies a sovereign cure. But at my mistress’ eye Love’s brand new-fired, The boy for trial needs would touch my breast; I, sick withal, the help of bath desired, And thither hied, a sad distemper’d guest, But found no cure: the bath for my help lies Where Cupid got new fire–my mistress’ eyes.

SONNET 154 The little Love-god lying once asleep Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand, Whilst many nymphs that vow’d chaste life to keep Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand The fairest votary took up that fire Which many legions of true hearts had warm’d; And so the general of hot desire Was sleeping by a virgin hand disarm’d. This brand she quenched in a cool well by, Which from Love’s fire took heat perpetual, Growing a bath and healthful remedy For men diseased; but I, my mistress’ thrall, Came there for cure, and this by that I prove, Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love.

Are those not almost the exact same sonnet?  I don’t really have the attention span here at work to dissect the whole thing, so I’m going to assume that the ending is fundamentally different for each, but the setup’s certainly the same, isn’t it?  Cupid falls asleep, the nymphs come and steal his little bow and arrow and shove it in the water to cool it off.  Only instead of cooling it off, it produces a hot spring that men come to soak in.  153’s ending makes clear sense – Cupid see’s my mistress’ eyes and that is enough to light his torch again, and the cure for the poet’s ills is not the hot bath, but his mistress’ eyes as well.  But what’s 154 mean?  He went to the bath to try to stop thinking about his mistress, and it didn’t work for him?

[ Originally posted Feb, 2009 ]

I’m a pretty big believer in that whole “eyes are the windows to the soul” thing.  Ask me if there’s beauty in a person, and I’ll look at the eyes first.  Does that make me an eye man?  Ain’t nothing in the world like a big-eye’d girl, as the song goes…;)

But let’s talk Shakespeare.  When I picked Sonnet 17 to be “our” sonnet (that being my wife and I, not you my dear reader), it was this one line that stood out:


If I could write the beauty in your eyes, and in fresh numbers number all your graces, the age to come would say “This poet lies, such heavenly touches never touched earthly faces.”

(Yes I was lazy with the syntax of the original there.)

For Valentine’s this year, on the card for my wife’s roses, I wrote this:


The bath for my help lies where Cupid got new fire – my mistress’ eyes.

That’s from Sonnet 154.

Then of course there’s the famous sonnet 130, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun…”
I’m at work and don’t really have time to write a small novel on the subject, so I thought I’d throw it out there for discussion – were eyes a particular theme of Shakespeare’s more so than other things?  Am I just seeing what I want to see?  I went combing through the sonnets last night and actually found him referring to his own eyes (most often in the context of “I get to see how beautiful you are”), but very often he does speak of “thine eyes” or “mistress’ eyes” and so on.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6eaac536-11e4-11df-b6e3-00144feab49a.html We’ve talked about Shakespeare sequels here before.  So how about Macbeth?  Seriously.

“About five years ago there were a lot of productions of Macbeth,” Greig recalls. “And I remember thinking, ‘This is interesting because obviously it is to a certain extent a response to the fact that we’re at war.’ And yet Macbeth is a play about the toppling of a tyrant. It seemed to me that the interesting story was what happened after you toppled the tyrant.

The same could be said of all the tragedies – what of Fortinbras? Or Albany?  Surely none of the tragedies truly have a neat ending.

The more he worked on the story, the more vivid the 11th-century world became. The play focuses on Siward’s genuine impulse to help but it also envisages the aftermath of a war from the viewpoint of those who have been liberated.

Like all war-themed theatre these days, the parallels to Iraq and Afghanistan are deliberate and obvious.  Personally that turns me off,but I may be in the minority there.  I don’t read Shakespeare and ask what the political climate was when he wrote it, so I don’t want to sit through modern theatre wondering the same thing. Dunsinane opens on February 17, Hampstead Theatre, London,www.hampsteadtheatre.com

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98140-Would-Shakespeare-Have-Been-a-Good-Game-Designer I was hoping that the release of the new video game Dante’s Inferno would generate some discussion about classic literature as a source of modern videogames.  Yay! How about a videogame Macbeth? We’ve talked about Shakespeare and games many times before.  The massive online world of Arden didn’t really pan out.   There are, however, no end of Flash games, board games, cellphone games… so the canon is certain rich with material. I think part of the trick is to not let people think they’re learning.  Have you seen the Dante’s commercial?  It is this : Massive effing demon steals girl, takes her to the Underworld. Warrior hero, without a moment’s hesitation, dives in after them.  He’s then swarmed by some big muthafrickin monsters and demon hordes, trying to get to what I can only assume is his beloved.  There’s your plot.  How much of the actual Dante’s Inferno is in there, I have no idea.  But I don’t think most gamers care. Looking at today’s videogame console standards, what Shakespeare would make a good game?  Macbeth’s certainly a good choice – crazy warlord who think he’s immortal, and wants you dead.  The histories, particulary Henry V, would also seem to be a natural if a little obvious fit.  What else?  Anything more creative than that?  How about Julius Caesar?  Richard III?

How to Become A Videogame Tester!

We’ve done the “You know you’re a Shakespeare geek when” schtick from time to time, but after last night I thought I’d spin it around.  Confession time, you tell us when you’re feeling your most geeky. Last night I’m reading a “Magic Treehouse” book with my 7yr old daughter. It is no Lord of the Rings.  It’s a silly little book with short sentences and simple dialogue, about two kids who travel through time to the great areas of history and have adventures.  In this particular case they travel to 1600 England and meet William Shakespeare (turns out they actually get up on stage as fairies).  (To the book’s credit part of the plot involves the children rescuing a bear from the “bear gardens”, though it does not go into great detail about what bear-baiting was.) While progressing through this simple little book (we are half way through) all I could think was stuff like, “Well, which fairies are they going to play?” and “What do you mean Puck is being played by a big fat guy?” and, mostly, “Do the lines, do some lines, please dear god I hope they get to do some lines….”  Because I swear if I get to hear “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows” come out of my kid I may fall down in an ecstatic fit on the spot. … This morning before getting dressed for school the kids were all watching an old “Pink Panther” cartoon on the Boomerang channel.  What their fascination is with 30+yr old cartoons is beyond me.  But the Inspector was running away from a monster, and the chief yelled “Cowards face a thousand deaths, the valiant taste of death but once!” at his fleeing back. “Shakespeare,” I said. “What?” they said. “William Shakespeare said that first.  Julius Caesar.” I know they have no idea what I’m talking about, but I can’t help myself.  I don’t post nearly half the times I spot such references.  In Charlie Brown’s Valentine’s Day special there’s a segment where Snoopy sits atop his doghouse, typewriter at the ready, banging out love notes while Lucy criticizes.  At one point he writes something, tears off and hands it to her, and she reads, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”  Sitting in the dark family room on movie night I am the only one to throw my hands up in the air and yell “Woo!  Shakespeare!” … This morning at breakfast the 5 yr old said, out of the blue, “Daddy, I think you’re teaching us about Shakespeare.” “Ya think?” I asked. 😉

That’s right, you heard me. Hanks and Winfrey are teaming up to produce the movie version of Edgar Sawtelle, which is based on Hamlet:

"Edgar Sawtelle" is about a mute boy who runs away from home after the murder of his dog-breeding father and other subsequent misfortunes. He travels through the wilderness of Wisconsin and Canada followed by three pups from a litter he’d been raising himself until he decides to return home and face the man he suspects is the killer.

I’ve been looking at that book, wondering whether to pick it up, but I always skip it.  I’ve got a stack of books I’m not reading already, I don’t need to make it bigger.  This one will definitely go in the “see the movie instead” pile.