#robert armin

[shakespearenews]

The King's Lynn man who made Shakespeare funny

Robert Armin was Shakespeare's principal comedian and his work "fundamentally changed comedy".

shakespearenews.com

[desertdreamingariver]

Bernadette Peters performing at the Backlot in Los Angeles

Photos: Robert Armin

[theredgravearchive]

Vanessa Redgrave photographed by Robert Armin, 1970s

[sublimegentlemanalpaca]

(THIS MIGHT GO A BIT LONG) A Proposed Mesenenger. Or technically Mesengers. A somewhat foolish company of sottes.

Before I begin on the subject of messengers, let me first give a bit of background regarding one of the best subjects ever. Shakespearean Fools(I will try to not tone down any Bardolatry). Now, many if not most of Shakespeare’s Plays contain Fools or Clowns. The earlier ones( prior to 1599) mostly being Clowns. The Ones post 1599 mostly being Fools. More specifically ‘set’ or ‘artificial’ Fools. Those whose fooling is a job for which they have a happy talent, rather than those who are just considered well...to use the term of the time...natural. Of course there are many historical Fools of great renowned ( if you have any interest in Fools or Jesters I give the Highest of Recommendations to Fools are Everywhere by Beatrice K. Otto), I should get back on topic. Shakespeare’s Fools. Now, Shakespeare’s Fools were played primarily by one of two Actors. The Earlier Clowns ( Bottom, Dogberry, or Sir John Falstaff) played by one William Kemp. For one reason or another Kemp left the Chamberlains Men(later the Kingsmen) in 1599. Following Kemp’s departure the other Fools were performed by a man named Robert Armin. Armin, was a guy who knew his stuff when it came to Fools having published a book about the Subject (Fool upon Fool, or Six sorts of Sottes). It is thought Armin with his understanding of Fools was a Great help to Shakespeare regarding this new sort of Dramatic Fool. Armin brought to life such Fools as Feste, Lear’s Fool, Touchstone, The Porter, the Grave digger and others. He was considered so great at playing Fools that when Shakespeare collaborated (I think it was a collaboration) in Henry the Eighth, The reason ( to my understanding) that Will Sommers (A Fool who served Henry, Mary, and Elizabeth) wasn’t in it was because Armin had retired by then. Now, onto how this relates to the series and Mesengers and this ridiculous Headcanon of mine. One of the three Caretakers of Shakespeare’s Time was the Playwright Kit Marlowe. Marlowe defected to the ICS, and was also later Murdered. Leaving two Caretakers if I reckon correctly. Now what I think, is Shakespeare thought to induct Armin as a Caretaker, however came to the idea( under ProsperPoe’s advice) he’d work better as a Mesengers. So, upon Armin’s retirement from Acting he was introduced to things. After some proof (from a ProsperPoe) he was on board. However due to is Prime time soon ending it was decided he’d be taught to make a Tulpa. Only Armin decided instead to make Six instead. No Blake’s Seven but what are you going to do? So Robert Armin ended up making six Tulpas and began work as a Mesengers. However, he (they) decided to have a bit of fun with things. Each Armin answers to a different name regarding something from his acting or Writing career. One just answers to Robert Armin (or Bob). One answers to Clonico Munda Snuffe (one of several aliases he published under) One answers to Signior Truncheon ( a name he gave a baton that he’d have an Elizabethan Ventriloquist act with. Seriously) One answering to Feste (one of Shakespeare’s best Fools imho). One answering to Just Fool (as in Lear’s Fool). And one simply answering to Grave Digger. They of course change clothes now and then to screw with people. They would likely also be insistent on being called their chosen Alias. The only ones who can just address them as Robert Armin (if it isn’t just Robert Armin) is Will because they are cool with Will. Also ProsperPoe, because ProsperPoe frightens him ( he also got chased by Bees one time like Trinculo). As for what this ragtag group is called, Shakespeare’s Fools, Armin’s Fools, the Ship of Fools, the Nest of Ninnies, or the Motely Messenger(s). They have probably lost one of their members (Fool). And to call them, usually Will or Poe (usually Poe until Shakespeare’s act falls) call out, ‘DUCDAME DUCDAME DUCDAME’. So, there’s that. Tear it to shreds if you like, or make of it what you will. Just some foolish fun on my part.

[shakespearenews]

‘Fool’ by Peter K. Andersson review

Fool: In Search of Henry VIII’s Closest Man by Peter K. Andersson is the first full length study of William Somer’s life and posthumous myth

Andersson begins with posthumous myth, as found in the anonymous 1637 jest book A Pleasant History of the Life and Death of Will Summers, for example. (The revised name was probably the work of Thomas Nashe for his 1592 play Summer’s Last Will and Testament, in which the ghost of ‘Will Summers’ comments on the action.) From there Andersson works backwards, circling the evidence until he arrives back at the man himself.

The approach has much to recommend it, not least because our idea of the fool is indelibly shaped by those in Shakespeare, and in particular the fool in King Lear. Shakespeare wrote that part for Robert Armin, who also originated the roles of Feste and Touchstone. Armin wasn’t merely an actor, however; his book Foole Upon Foole (1600) studied the lives and natures of six fools, Somer among them.

[shakespearenews]

The First Comedian - Los Angeles Review of Books

Jason Crawford discusses the career of Robert Armin, the first modern comedian.

IT’S THE SUMMER of 1599, and a stand-up artist has just come on at the Curtain. He paces downstage, an arresting presence, visibly atypical, numinously strange. The crowd looking on knows already that this bristling figure isn’t going to be like the other clowns they’ve seen on the Curtain stage. He doesn’t do jigs or pratfalls. He doesn’t smile. He doesn’t offer winks or reassurances. And he doesn’t intend to make this easy, for himself or anyone else. But these 2,000 paying customers must also know that Robert Armin, a.k.a. Snuff the Clown, has something else to offer. They are here, after all, for him.

There’s a potential role for Armin in everything Shakespeare wrote from 1601 to 1611, from Lavatch (All’s Well That Ends Well) and Thersites (Troilus and Cressida) to Autolycus (The Winter’s Tale) and Caliban (The Tempest).

[shakespearenews]

Walking Shadows | Ed Simon

Meet the actors who first brought Shakespeare’s characters to life.

Scholar Stanley Wells explains in Shakespeare & Co. that “after Armin’s recruitment Shakespeare began to create clowns who are more wistful, introverted, and musical: semi-choric commentators on the action.” These included Touchstone in As You Like It, Feste in Twelfth Night, and Lavatch in All’s Well That Ends Well. The disturbing, nihilistic clown who accompanies King Lear on the element-blasted hearth—“I am better than thou art now; I am a fool, thou art nothing”—was a role supposedly written with Armin’s particular genius in mind, as was Iago from Othello (though there is far from a scholarly consensus on the casting). Critic Frank Kermode speculates in The Age of Shakespeare “that if Armin had not joined the company these roles might not exist in the forms familiar to us.”

[frimleyblogger]

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What Is The Origin Of (262)?...put on your thinking cap and the much more satisfyiing considering cap

Put on your thinking cap

If you are about to engage upon the lengthy consideration of a question or a problem, particularly when you might be thought to require some inspiration or guidance, you might be encouraged to put on your thinking cap. This metaphorical cap presumably warms the little grey cells in your brain ensuring a more considered opinion or the right answer, if you are…

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