Shakespeare for the Scholarly

Knowledge vs. Love? Those were the closing words of Nixon's post about Love's Labor Lost. That certainly is the dichotomy presented in this Shakespeare play. Or is it? It's certainly very silly, mocking just about everything under the sun; is it mocking this mindset as well? I'm not sure; to be honest I was struggling just to follow the plot and dialogue; perhaps further study of this play would reveal whether this was what Shakespeare intended or not. But Nixon's post, pointing out this mindset, as well as the discussion we had in class the other day, and Sarah's post about how society sometimes views love in the way it is mockingly portrayed in Love's Labor Lost made me start thinking about this mindset as well. In the play, the king and his buds all swear off women and make all kinds of strict vows including to fast once a week in order to become "scholarly" Act 4, Scene 3 really epitomizes this mindset: There's Beroune with his humorous internal struggle: "I will not love; if I do, hang me; i' faith, I will not. O! but her eye, — by this light, but for her eye, I would not love her; yes, for her two eyes. " And the King, with his misery loves company: "sweet fellowship in shame!" after each struggles with the temptation of women, and seeks to rationalize or find company in this "vice" they find out that each of the others has done the same. Then when they realize they are each in love, Beroune argues that experience is the best way to learn, or in other words, looking at a woman is the best way to learn beauty, and that their oath was inhibiting rather than complimenting their scholarship, and they go on to woo the women. But how often do people today have that same mindset? "My grades are bad because I'm in love." "I don't have time to date and be social." Academic and social endeavors are often set up as being exclusive. Maybe this is a idealistic view of the world and love, but I believe love and scholarship ought to be complimentary. When a balance exists between social and academic pursuits, they are mutually beneficial. Placing an extreme emphasis on either one certainly would lead to the detriment and eventual exclusion of the other, but if there is moderation diligent scholarship aids in the development of relationships worth perusing, and a relationship worth perusing would lead to increased motivation and focus on scholarship. I often hear of stories where people's grades improve after getting married. That is the kind of relationship look for and seek to develop: one where we help each other to become better and achieve our goals, rather than bringing each other down.

Shakespeare for the Suppressed

So, this post is mostly a comment on Nixon's post. I totally agree with what he says about the difficulty humans have in getting over their prejudices and old ways of looking at things and getting outside of their comfort zone. But I can think of a couple of cases where that was the case, though the process was long and laborious and required lots of sacrifice. One example I can think of is with women's rights. It has taken a long time for women to gain the ability to participate in society with as much freedom as men, and to gain the rights that were traditionally men, but I believe it has happened. As one of the few females in engineering, I am quite grateful for the progress that has been made on this front. There are still people who argue that we are not there yet, and there will always be those few that have their own personal prejudices and biases, but nominally those walls of bias and prejudice have been obliterated. Another example I think of is the Civil Rights Movement. This one has definitely been long and laborious (from the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 til today), but it has come a long way since slavery in the 1860s. It might not be over yet, but having a black President (however you feel about his politics) I think is a pretty big sign that for most of the country, we're getting there. Having lived in Mississippi for 14 years, I saw people (generally of the 60+ category) who still struggled with the idea of equality for all. Perhaps with all of these things, the old generation must first pass away before new ways of thinking "outside of the comfort zone" can be adopted, but with enough work and sacrifice and people standing up for what they believe, it has occurred in our country's past. Can it occur on the international scene, like Nixon was mentioning? I think a lot of it has to do with people letting go of age old prejudices, and at least in the US, that has happened for many groups of people. To tie it back to Shakespeare, he definitely addressed this idea of prejudice and the repercussions that result therefrom in Merchant of Venice. Though perhaps it was not a clear warning against the dangers of prejudice (and if it was, is fear of repercussion from the oppressed parties the best reason to avoid prejudice? Though the if you prick me speech was pretty powerful) , it certainly brought up this age old struggle.

Shakespeare for the Starved

Since we didn't have a new play to do this week, I took a bit of advice from Kent (which was first suggested to us by Dr. Burton) and checked out the BYU audio books. He was right. They're amazing. So amazing, in fact, that I will give you a link. Just click on Shakespeare Audio plays. It' now bookmarked on my computer. I had originally mixed in some Librivox with my reading of King Lear, and it was nice. I found it to be about the same as with Macbeth--some good actors, some bad, but still nice enough to listen to. I still haven't had any horrible experiences with Librivox, but maybe I'm not as discerning of a listener as Kent. I also think ramen tastes just fine, so I'm obviously not too picky. In fact, googling pictures of ramen made me so hungry I'm about to go home and eat now. But yes, BYU Library Audio versions are the way to go, so long as you have the happy privilege of studentdom. After that, Librivox is not too terrible of an alternative. Plus, by then you can afford a little more besides ramen anyway.

Shakespeare for the Speaker of the Public Variety

So, last week in my public speaking class, we had to give a speech where we picked a famous quote, provided setting and background information, and then delivered the quote. Having Shakespeare on the brain of late, of course, I chose a Shakespeare quote: Henry V's St. Crispin Day speech. I didn't deliver the entire thing for the sake of time, but I did deliver some of my favorite lines. I discovered quickly that I am not an actor, but I did my best, and it was kind of fun. Plus it made me look super scholarly to be quoting Shakespeare. :) My teacher was impressed.

Shakespeare for the Sharer thereof

It seems like half the time when I try to share Shakespeare meaningfully with other people, they end up sharing it meaningfully with me. Last weekend I was talking to my friend who had come to the Merchant of Venice, and of course Shakespeare came up. We started talking about Henry V, and of course the St. Crispin's Day speech. Turns out, when he was younger, his father had offered each of the kids $20 to memorize the speech, which he promptly did. His dad loved that speech because when he was on his mission, his mission president gave a talk where he talked about the St. Crispin's Day speech, and after his mission, he went home and looked up the speech and loved it. So now, it's a tradition in their family to watch the movie each St. Crispin's day.

Shakespeare for the Sisters

So last week when I was doing my reading for Hamlet (before class), my sister happened to be over at my apartment while I was reading, and she started reading over my shoulder out loud. We started reading together, each taking a character, and alternately taking new ones on as they entered the scene. We tried being very theatrical about it, and since it was late at night and we were tired, we were pretty successful. It was a lot of fun, but also harder than I expected to be smooth but also filled with the emotion the scenes deserved while combating with the language of Shakespeare. It gave me more sympathy for the liberbox people. In any case, it was great sister bonding.

Shakespeare for the Social

Saturday was a day of Shakespeare for me. While sitting around with my roommates, we began discussing how many words and lines in the English language have come from Shakespeare. More on that later. Then I went to the Merchant of Venice with 2 old roommates and of the 2 of my friends from dinner last Sunday. I was unfortunately feeling ill and had to jet after the play and didn't have time to stick around for the post-play analysis. But such early jetting led to a facebook invite from one of my friends to come over and discuss Shakespeare later. Then that night, my attendance at the Merchant of Venice sparked a discussion of the play on my date, which was fortunate because I still wasn't feeling a whole lot better than I had been earlier that day and easy conversation was quite welcome. So, un-anticipated by me, Shakespeare is everywhere, and opportunities to discuss it are not only readily available, but lead to excellent and enjoyable conversation in a multitude of social situations. Who knew Shakespeare would be good for my social life?

Shakespeare's influence on the English language:

I noticed that the program for Merchant of Venice also contained some of this information, about how much of our language comes from Shakespeare, but the following quote my roommate found contains even more words than the program. It's fascinating how much of our vernacular we owe to Shakespeare, which is ironic since many people associate him with difficult to understand and archaic speech.

“If you cannot understand my argument, and declare ‘It’s Greek to me,’ you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is farther to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool’s paradise – why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare;… if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then –

to give the devil his due – if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head), you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or blinking idiot, then – by Jove! it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.”

– Bernard Levin in The History of English by McCrum, et al

Children's Theater: Merchant of Stratford?

Having procrastinated buying my tickets, I ended up sitting on the floor, which was kind of fun, minus the fact that I didn't get to sit with the company I had invited. Like several other people have mentioned, I loved the interaction with the kids. I thought the actors were clever in their interactions with them and getting them to appear to say things even when the kids were too shy to say them. The way they cast the characters also very much highlighted which characters were essential to the plot and which were not. I was surprised when Nerissa was chosen from the audience because she seemed to me that she had been quite essential to the plot, and I was curious how they would have the little girl do everything she did, but it made me realize that she really was not that essential to the plot--she was just a side kick for Portia. The casting of Antonio as Antonia also surprised me, and like Rebecca, I initially thought it was because they had more guys than girls. But the scene in court where Antonia is facing her last moments and Bassanio is comforting her is definitely different when Antonia is a girl, rather than a guy. In the play they had Bassanio comforting Antonia in a physical way, and I happened to be sitting right next to them both, and I could see this interaction very closely. I could also hear Bassanio whispering things to Antonia, which nobody else could hear, or likely was intended to hear--to the majority of the audience, all they could see was them in very close and intense whispered consultation. I was super curious to hear what the actors would actually be saying, when nobody was intended to hear, but it turns out it was right in character with the rest of it. He kept saying, "Look at me, don't worry" and comforting her with similar phrases, which struck me definitely more the way a man would comfort a woman. I thought this was a departure from the way Shakespeare had written it, but Rebecca thought maybe it really was that way--intended as a homosexual relationship. I'm not sure, but it's an interesting thought for sure. That's how the company we were watching seemed to interpret it. And it certainly makes Portia's outrage at the loss of the ring more understandable. I'd been thinking she was kind of a jerk for reacting so dramatically. But if he was giving it on Antonia's recommendation...that makes it more serious.

Shakespeare for the Sabbath-Observer

Yesterday, which conveniently happened to be Sunday and thus lent itself so nicely to my alliterative title, in true Sabbath style my apartment invited some people over for dinner. Dr. Burton mentioned that it would be easy to find Shakespeare everywhere, and I've been surprised at how true that has been. This episode of sharing Shakespeare meaningfully just fell into my lap with no effort (besides making dinner). Upon mentioning that I was taking a Shakespeare class, I found that the uncle of 3 of our guests taught Shakespeare and that they themselves had taken Shakespeare at BYU, which led to a discussion of said topic, which eventually turned more into a discussion of digital learning when we started talking about the pros and cons of using blogging as a educational tool. I also found out that one of my friends, whose high recommendation for the class led me to consider taking it in the first place, is planning to go see the Merchant of Venice on Saturday, and so we decided to go together.