Edward IIIFor anyone saying, "Huh?" right now, let me say that EIII is one of the "Apocryphal Plays" that have been credited wholly or in part to Shakespeare at one time or another but that do not have conclusive proof of authorship by Big Bill Rattlepike. In the Second Edition of the Oxford Shak...
"The course of true love never did run smooth;" is a famous, often-quoted line - a truism throughout all ages and cultures. Where does it come from? It is spoken by a character called Lysander, in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, and articulates possibly the play's most important th...
A few years ago I read a review of some film that had come out and I was sure I would never see – read the review almost carelessly while flicking through the arts section of the paper on a Saturday morning, no, I must have been clicking over The Age Home Page. The woman who wrote the review com...
We may well wonder how our greatest playwright took one of England’s most colourful monarchs and made one of his most colourless plays. This is not to say that Henry VIII is a bad play. It has many points of interest, and is certainly a vast improvement on the puerile Titus Andronicus, Shakespear...
Who does not know the story of Romeo and Juliet? And these immortal lines,"O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?""But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.""Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow,That I shall say good night till it...
Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon, in Spain, is coming to Messina, the capital of Sicily, for a little R&R, just having defeated his treacherous half- brother, in battle, (with few casualties, nobody important), Don John (the "Bastard"), they are now reconciled again ! His army needs it, Rest and Rel...
Shakespeare's Final Play2 April 2015tIt can be really annoying as you read a book and pick up all of these wonderful ideas about the themes and suddenly discover that you have forgotten them by the time you get around to writing the review. Honestly, it happens to me all the time, and it is even ...
To celebrate William Shakespeare on his birthday in April, my plan is to locate a staging of six plays. I'll listen to and watch these on my MacBook, following along to as much of the original text as is incorporated by the production. Later, I'll read the entire play in the modern English versio...
You stiffly force the turn of the revolving door flanked by glass panels flashing the buzz of the downtown street. You traverse the shimmering lobby floor and sway with your shifting weight as you await the arrival of the elevator. When it arrives, you leap from the doors as a rush of people floo...
Shakespeare's gory revenge play, "Titus Andronicus" seems like the Tarantino flick of its day, complete with amputations, cannibalism and every note of human cruelty and resentment. The titular character is a honor-fixated Roman general who returns from years of warfare to a populace that wants t...
Reading the sonnets was an entirely different experience than I had anticipated. I often had to re-read a poem three or four times before the meaning finally revealed itself. That wasn't the unexpected part, however. I was surprised by the similarity of the sonnets. For example, at least ten of t...
For we which now behold these present days,Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise. This Pow’rful Rhyme EternalTennyson is famously to have declared Shakespeare 'greater in his sonnets than in his plays'. While the reader who might not soar as easily along the paths described by these So...
Whether you consider King Richard III to be a villainous hog or a tragic hero, there is no denying that William Shakespeare has immortalized a character driven by hate, greed and evil in its purest form. As is common knowledge, Shakespeare was a playwright living during the Elizabethan (and Jacob...
Even for those whose introduction to Shakespeare has afforded them a positive experience -- thanks, perhaps, to a solid production of "Macbeth" or "Midsummer's Night's Dream" -- I think there's some trepidation about the history plays. I was no exception, feeling that my complete ignorance of the...
