Category: Shakespeare Geek

Inside The Vault #3 : Beasts!

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

I wish I’d gotten more pictures of this book:

This “Historie of Fovre-Footed Beastes” has a publication date of 1607 by William Jaggard, who’ll come back up later in a different Folio story.

The book itself was fascinating.  Note the color?  No, color printing was not available at the time.  This would have been hand colored.

Inside (maybe I’ll see if Folger’s got some more pictures I can use) was a very wide array of animals that my son had a field day identifying.  Lions!  Goats!  Otters!  Otters?  Yes, even though the otter was apparently not known in England at the time, there was a picture of an otter.  Interesting how knowledge travels.

Speaking of beasts, how about this book on hunting?   If this one looks a little funny, that’s because it’s covered in deer fur.

The trip continues …

 

Inside The Vault #2 : Quartos Quartos Quartos

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So there we are in the vault.  Georgianna goes digging for something to show us next, and Garland tells me, “Around the corner are the Quartos.”  I take my oldest, and we head around the corner.  Yes, you could say that there are Quartos.

Since we were just looking and no one was explaining the significance of these particular volumes, I can’t really say what we are looking at.  I highly doubt that “original” (or close to it) editions are shoved on top of each other like that.  If you look carefully you will see a Romeo and Juliet dated 1599, however.  That’s pretty cool!  These are almost certainly not original bindings, so maybe it’s not such a big deal to have them rubbing up against each other.  It’s what’s on the inside that counts. Don’t judge a quarto by its cover!
Oh, and Bardfilm also suggested that I ask about the only known Q1 edition of Titus Andronicus in existence.  There’s a big Titus on the far right end of that first picture. Think that’s it?
 
I had no idea they were so small.  Well, I mean, I knew they were small, but after having seen the Folios all spaced out on their own shelves with nothing else surrounding, to turn the corner and see all these tiny books at once.
 
“You can’t be back there!” I hear Georgianna call.  “Sorry, it’s the rules, I’m not back there with you.  That’s actually why there’s two of us here, Garland is my backup.”
 
“Yes,” says Garland, “Technically I’m supposed to tackle you if you make a break for it.”
 
What’s funny is that I don’t know if this is really a rule, or if they didn’t appreciate my sense of humor.  See, in arranging this visit I was going back and forth over email with Garland, and conferring with Bardfilm (who has been to Folger) on what I should see.  What he jokingly suggested, and what I jokingly wrote back to Garland, was

Oh, and @Bardfilm said you’ve got Quartos just lying around and asked me to grab him one on the way out. 🙂

Now it all makes sense!The trip continues…

 

Inside The Vault #1 : Folios Folios Folios

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Through a bank vault door, down a haunted elevator, and we were there.  Led by Georgianna and backed up by Garland we made our way into what appeared to be another average library room.  Shelf after shelf of books.  A table that runs the length of the room, on which several books are strewn about.

“Back there are the Folios,” Georgianna says.

There, along the back wall of the room and around a corner, is a wall of books, all laying flat.  Various colors, sizes and bindings.  First Folios.  I was there.

As Bard as my witness I had an honest to goodness weak in the knees moment.  I grabbed the shoulders of whichever child I’d been leading into the room a little tighter. My eyes widened. My smile widened.  I whipped my head around to look at Garland, in what I can only hope was the wordless “Oh My God I’m Actually Here” face I was attempting, and then whipped back around to look at my wife with the pure and utter bliss I had in that moment.  Center of the universe.

Georgianna had chosen a particular Folio for us to look at – #78.  Why?

 

This particular Folio has a number of child’s drawings throughout.  I love it.  I love the idea that all 82 of their copies has its own individual story.  Also shows that my tour guides knew a little something about how to keep children occupied, always showing them things that children would find interesting (not something you might expect in a Shakespeare research center!) and keeping them in the conversation.

And this was just the first of many memorable moments.  To be continued….

Shakespeare’s Most Shocking Moment?

~ duane ~ 11 Comments

While discussing Emilia’s big final scene over in another post, I thought of a good question.

There’s plenty of killing in Shakespeare’s works.  Macbeth kills Duncan in his sleep, Hamlet kills Polonius (thinking him the king) in front of his mother, Tybalt kills Mercutio (accidentally?) and Romeo kills Tybalt (probably not accidentally).

Which do you feel is Shakespeare’s most shocking moment? The one that you absolutely do not see coming?  Plenty of people die in Macbeth, but I’m not sure if any of the deaths is shocking.  After all, when people aren’t dying or killing, they’re talking about it.  Lot of blood in that one.  The murder of Macduff’s family is scary, but you also know that the murderers have been dispatched, so you see it coming (even if you do see it from between your fingers, underneath your seat).

Mercutio’s death is pretty shocking, no doubt. Once upon a time we talked at length about how, up until this point, Romeo and Juliet is a romantic comedy. And then when the audience is least expecting it? Bang, likeable sidekick, dead. I think in fact that this one is so shocking that it takes a little while to sink in.  There’s still half a play left to go.

Hamlet’s attack on a defenseless arras is certainly up there.  He’s talking to his mom.  He hears a noise.  Thinking it *her husband*, not to mention *his uncle*, and oh by the way, *the frickin king*, he jumps up and without another word blindly stabs him. For a guy that’s spent the entire first half of the play saying “Let’s think this through…” it’s a pretty bold move.

But I think I’m going to give the prize to Iago murdering his wife Emilia right in front of everybody, to shut her up.

You think that we’ve already hit the climax of the play. Othello has
killed his wife, Emilia has discovered the truth, the authorities are
now on the scene and we’ve essentially moved into what I love calling
“the Horatio scene” where we wrap up all the loose ends before we go
home.  Or are we?

EMILIA

O thou dull Moor! that handkerchief thou speak’st of
I found by fortune and did give my husband;
For often, with a solemn earnestness,
More than indeed belong’d to such a trifle,
He begg’d of me to steal it.

IAGO

Villanous whore!

EMILIA

She give it Cassio! no, alas! I found it,
And I did give’t my husband.

IAGO

Filth, thou liest!

EMILIA

By heaven, I do not, I do not, gentlemen.
O murderous coxcomb! what should such a fool
Do with so good a woman?

OTHELLO

Are there no stones in heaven
But what serve for the thunder?–Precious villain!

He runs at IAGO
IAGO, from behind, stabs EMILIA, and exit

GRATIANO

The woman falls; sure, he hath kill’d his wife.

We know that Iago is an evil bastard before this, of course.  But he’s always been the schemer and manipulator. Now he’s in a room filled with the equivalent of a police squad ready to arrest him for his crimes.  Does he just run?  No, he *stabs his wife in front of everyone* first, and then he runs. That is just full on crazy, right there.  Afterward you can argue “Sure, it was always clear he was capable of something like that,” but that’s a world apart from seeing it coming.

I love to read Gratiano’s line as, “WTF, did he just kill his wife?!” like even the characters on stage can’t believe what just happened.

Any other contenders?  Make your case.

How Much Marlowe?

~ duane ~ 7 Comments

How often did Shakespeare lift whole lines right from Marlowe’s (or others’, I suppose) work?  I’m curious.  Currently reading a novel about Shakespeare’s life, and Kit Marlowe is a character.  Just this evening I read a funny bit where Marlowe is complimenting Shakespeare on his Henry VI and says, “I particularly liked the such-and-such part…….wait, didn’t I write that?”