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[erikkwakkel]

Shakespeare’s handwriting - and why it matters

Studying ancient handwriting is a fascinating thing. To know that the oddly-shaped letters on the page were put there hundreds of years ago by an individual with a life, passions and things to do, can be sensational. Sometimes such ancient handwritten notes can teach us really important things. The page above was written by no other than William Shakespeare. A scholar in Texas compared the document to a handwritten addition in a copy of Thomas Kyd’s play Spanish Tragedy. And what turned out to be the case? The handwriting in the image above is the same as in the added text in Kyd’s play. Moreover, the two share the same spelling pattern. Ergo, the two were written by the same individual - Shakespeare. The newly identified “text” by Shakespeare (an addition of several hundreds of lines) will be included in The Bard’s new edition. It’s extremely satisfying to an expert of old script (as I am) that letter shapes proved vital for this important discovery.

Read all about it in this NYT article.

[rupelover]

Who is the Enemy of Man?

Enemy Of Man, a screen adaptation of Macbeth, starring Sean Bean, Charles Dance, Rupert Grint, Jason Flemyng, Sam Spruell, Neil Maskell and James D'Arcy.

[theshakespearefangirl]

Looking forward to seeing this

[ladymacbethsdaughter]

That moment when you realize reading too much Shakespeare has caused your sense of humor to permanently de-evolve into what (as you’ve recently learned) others regard as the lowest form of humor known to man: puns.

[theshakespearefangirl]

My daughter hates puns. I think from now on, when I share on and she rolls her eyes, I’ll just say “Blame Shakespear.” :D

[theshakespearefangirl]

If Disney had done Macbeth

Lord Macbeth: . . . and we we finish each other's-

Lady Macbeth: regicides

[theshakespearefangirl]

I wish I’d been able to see this. Love this play & seeing Cumberbatch in it would have been awesome. I guess I’ll have to hunt down the full video.

[theshakespearefangirl]

Aiming to visit every country in the world to commemorate the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, and the 400th anniversary of his death, it has visited 136 countries out of 196. The only country the company could not get permission and insurance to visit was Syria, so they performed in the Zaatari refugee camp on the Jordanian border to an entirely Syrian audience

(via Undiscovered country: the Globe's travelling Hamlet in a Jordanian refugee camp | Art and design | The Guardian)

[theshakespearefangirl]

Beloved Victorian actress Ellen Terry (1847–1928), whose daughter Edith Craig (1869–1947) was an ardent suffragist, argued in her lectures that Shakespeare’s women “certainly have more in common with our modern revolutionaries” than with early Victorian literature’s “fragile domestic heroines.”

(via Shakespeare and the suffragettes | OUPblog)

[theshakespearefangirl]

Helen Mirren among the guests to laud Julie Taymor at Shakespeare gala

‘As a woman director, she has faced great adversity,’ the Oscar-winner said about her onetime director.

[crazyangleofmine]

Coriolanus Trailer

[cumberbatchlives]

Benedict during fencing rehearsals for Hamlet (from Hamlet digital programme, available here for iPhone/iPad)

[bencdaily]

[everthefool-deactivated20180409]

More nursery rhymes transmogrified into sonnets.

[douglasbgibson]

wherefore

wherefore–for what reason? why?

Sometimes people mistakenly think “wherefore” means “where.”  

Actresses sometimes look around the stage as if searching when Juliet asks, “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?“ But the character isn’t asking the whereabouts of Romeo.  She is asking why he has the name he does—Romeo (and more troublesome, Montague). 

It makes more sense (and sounds much more romantic) in context:

           Juliet: O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

           Romeo [Aside]: Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?

           Juliet: ‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy; thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What’s in a name?  That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, and for that name which is no part of thee take all myself.

Word origin:  The word “wherefore” is attested to in various forms from the 1200′s.  Spelling wasn’t standardized so it was spelled various ways.  Here is a sentence in Middle English from around 1225 using a form of the word:  “Mi deorewurðe dohter, hwer fore uorsakestu þi sy ant ti selhðe?”  Middle English (ME) refers to the stage in development after the Norman conquest (1066) until the late 1400s.   Reflecting its Anglo-Saxon roots the word is cognate with Old Norse hear fyrir, Modern Swedish varfor and Dutch waarvoor.

More:

Romeo and Juliet–Zeffirelli–The balcony scene YouTube

Other Middle English spellings of “wherefore.”

Image source

[theshakespearefangirl]

[theshakespearefangirl]

Shakespeare's (English) Histories

King John: There is no freaking reference to the Magna Carta. WTF?

Richard II: He cries a lot. Also, thinks he's Jesus.

Henry IV Part 1: Everyone's name is Henry. Except for Falstaff.

Henry IV Part 2: Hal realizes what a jerk he's been.

Henry V: A bunch of Nationalistic Pride followed by some awkward wooing.

Henry VI Part 1: might be Shakespeare's first play? We can tell.

Henry VI Part 2: If we're being honest, we've all forgotten what happens in which Henry.

Henry VI Part 3: God, this play is long. OH! A New King.

Richard III: Evil. Evil. Evil. OH look! A Tudor! Aren;t they Great ;)

Henry VIII: GOD SAVE THE QUEEN! SHE IS SO GREAT! LET ME WRITE A POEM TO HER GREATNESS!

[sealochs]

*whispers* if Shakespeare could pass the bechdel test despite writing in an inherently patriarchal and routinely misogynistic society then you, modern day writers, have literally no excuse

[comesoutinmoron]