http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/03/17/season_of_renewal_for_shakespeare_on_the_common/ When I heard that we’d be getting Shakespeare on Boston Common again, my first thought was “Really?  After all the financial whining that Citibank does?  Quite frankly I’m surprised.” Now, after reading the article in the Boston Globe about director Steve Maler, I’m not – they’ve cut ties, and he’s going it alone, and he needs to raise $350,000 to fund the planned 16 performances of The Comedy Of Errors.  I also understand that choice better now, as it is a small and strategic play without large and expensive set requirements. You see, now I want to give money.  More to the point, I want Citi to give me back the money I gave them, so I can give it to Mr. Maler. Link for donations on the second page, or just go straight to CommShakes.org and help them out!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/5005557/Academic-discovers-six-works-by-William-Shakespeare.html Funny I should mention “Arden of Faversham” just yesterday, innit?  Here we have a new scholar, Dr. John Cosson, with a new book called “Enter Pursued By A Bear.”  Cute title. Some of his “discoveries” include: Shakespeare’s first published poem, the Phaeton sonnet, his first comedy, Mucedorus, and his first tragedies, Locrine and Arden of Faversham. I truthfully don’t know how to parse that – is “the Phaeton sonnet” the name of the poem, or an independent thing? Anyway, he’ll also present evidence that Cardenio is a genuine work by Shakespeare and John Fletcher. I suppose we can chalk this up to yet another variation of conspiracy / authorship theories, but still, it’s interesting.  Doesn’t say much for the topic, though, that the article switches to coverage of the Cobbe portrait for the last 3 paragraphs.

http://blog.oup.com/2009/03/five_shakespeare_names/ When I read the title of that article I thought “Ok, this will be all about Lady Macbeth and such.”  So I was surprised that it is, in fact, a look at Shakespeare’s female characters who share a name with women from mythology.  Examples include Hero, Helena, Lavinia, Hermione and Diana.  I wish the writeups were longer, but it’s a start.  Somebody could probably take any one of those and do a college research paper on whether Shakespeare intended to make that exact connection, or if it’s just complete coincidence.  Diana and Helena are common enough names, but the only time I’ve ever seen “Hero” as a name is in Much Ado, and in the appropriate myth (Hero and Leander).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7943729.stm Now, see, I think this idea is great.  One of the big tourist attractions in Verona is “Casa Di Giulietta (Juliet’s House)” where everybody’s favorite romantic tragedy (tragic romance?) supposedly took place.  Yes yes, it’s a fictional story and all that, but the local argument is that this was once the home of the Capello family, who might have been the model for the Capulets. Either way, it’s quite the tourist attraction.  Although I’ve never been, my inlaws were – and they brought me back a nice painting of the balcony.  I’m told that there’s a statue of Juliet there as well whose chest has gone all lopsided because it’s good luck to cop a feel – but only the right side.  I didn’t get a painting of that, though.  Oh, well. 🙂 Anyway, on that romantic note.  Apparently you’ll soon be able to book a wedding at the balcony, which I think is just great.  It’s a small balcony, so I’m sure that it’ll be little more than a photo opportunity, but still.  Some people get engaged or married at the Eiffel Tower.  A Shakespeare geek would certainly love the idea of getting married in the middle of Romeo and Juliet.  [Let’s not go all cynical and talk about the tragedy bits, eh?  We know.]

http://www.executedtoday.com/2009/03/14/1551-alice-arden/ We last wrote about Alice Arden back in 2006, in reference to a possibly-Shakespeare worked called “Arden of Faversham”. The article linked here, in “Executed Today.com” no less, details the murder of Thomas Arden by his wife, Alice, and her lover, Richard Mosby.  Apparently they did him Rasputin-style :  poisoned, strangled with a towel, smash with a 14pound pressing iron, and stabbed 7 or 8 times. Every time I hear “Arden” I can’t help but think they are related to Shakespeare.  Remember that Shakespeare’s mom was Mary Arden.