4.1
A pretty short scene. Highlights: Aparently Antipholus likes calling everyone a shrew. his wife, his servant. it's just the word of choice...
I should have chid you for not bringing it,
But, like a shrew, you first begin to brawl.
and poor Dromio is still worried about his "spherical" lover:
To Adriana! that is where we dined,
Where Dowsabel did claim me for her husband:
She is too big, I hope, for me to compass.
Thither I must, although against my will,
For servants must their masters' minds fulfill.
4.2
I actually love this scene even though I find some of the messages problematic, but Adriana's words are just beautiful:
ADRIANA
I cannot, nor I will not, hold me still;
My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will.
He is deformed, crooked, old and sere,
Ill-faced, worse bodied, shapeless everywhere;
Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind;
Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.
LUCIANA
Who would be jealous then of such a one?
No evil lost is wail'd when it is gone.
ADRIANA
Ah, but I think him better than I say,
And yet would herein others' eyes were worse.
Far from her nest the lapwing cries away:
My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.
I think that last line is a fantastic motto for life for all married couples when those fights pop up. Or even for our "enemies" for that matter, right? Add it to my list of sayings for things in our imaginary etsy shop!
Then we get this wonderfully dry exchange:
LUCIANA
How hast thou lost thy breath?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
By running fast.
And then there's more of the same confusion. Again, this gets old really fast when reading it but it always keeps my attention when i'm watching it.
4.3
We finally get to meet the Courtesan. And this lady is scary and smart and a force to be reckoned with, but alas she is also talking to the wrong Antipholus, and A&D's response is amazing
Courtezan
Well met, well met, Master Antipholus.
I see, sir, you have found the goldsmith now:
Is that the chain you promised me to-day?
AofS
Satan, avoid! I charge thee, tempt me not.
DofS
Master, is this Mistress Satan?
The term Mistress Satan should really be used more... yet for standing her ground, the courtesan is quite fair of what she demands... if only this pair of men knew at all what she was talking about!
Courtezan
Give me the ring of mine you had at dinner,
Or, for my diamond, the chain you promised,
And I'll be gone, sir, and not trouble you.
4.4
We get Adriana and the Courtesan in a scene together and AMAZINGLY they are not cat fighting.
Courtezan
How say you now? is not your husband mad?
ADRIANA
His incivility confirms no less.
Good Doctor Pinch, you are a conjurer;
Establish him in his true sense again,
And I will please you what you will demand.
Ah yes, Doctor Pinch, possibly one of my favorite parts of the play because there are SO MANY ACTING CHOICES and you really can't go to big with his "curing" shenanigans. we also get another fantastic title from Antipholus:
Peace, doting wizard, peace! I am not mad.
So that's doting wizard and mistress satan. use them in your day to day interactions. GO!
ADRIANA
Dissembling villain, thou speak'st false in both.
AofE
Dissembling harlot, thou art false in all;
And art confederate with a damned pack
To make a loathsome abject scorn of me:
Just going to say that it is hard to feel sorry for a guy who's been seeing a courtesan while his wife waits at home for him to come to dinner and then he decides he should call her a dissembling harlot...
So let's get back to the Antipholus we like more. Just after AofE and DofE are taken away in comes the other pair:
[Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse with his rapier drawn, and DROMIO of Syracuse]
LUCIANA
God, for thy mercy! they are loose again.
ADRIANA
And come with naked swords.
Let's call more help to have them bound again.
Officer
Away! they'll kill us.
[Exeunt all but Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse]
AofS
I see these witches are afraid of swords.
THE GREATEST WITCHES LINE OF ALL TIME!!!!! and probably my very favorite line in the play.
and that's a good note to end on. one more act tomorrow and then on to KING LEAR
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Comedy Act 3: make the couplets stop
3.1
A of E starts this scene calling his wife shrewish- hmmm i wonder why i'm not crazy about him... He has confusion with his own dromio and Dromio responds with a very interesting image, especially since you all know by this poitn I am crazy about textual culture/images:
If the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink,Your own handwriting would tell you what I think.
A of E is at the gate of his own house and waiting to be let in for dinner. Of course, his brother is already inside with his wife... and because of that we get the delightful exchange between the two dromios, and while they do not get to see each other yet, they get to talk to each other so there's a lot of an actor to play with as far as vocal tone/speed/ways the one Dromio may or may not match the twin Dromio.
Dof
What art thou that keepest me out from the house I owe?
DofS
[Within] The porter for this time, sir, and my name is Dromio.
D of E
O villain! thou hast stolen both mine office and my name.
Dear God there is just SO MUCH RHYMING! I can't handle it!! After trying a few more times to get into his house, AofS decides screw this, i'm going to the courtesan I know to eat with her. That will piss my wife off and give me dinner:
I know a wench of excellent discourse, Pretty and witty; wild, and yet, too, gentle: There will we dine.
I'm thinking that in the battle of HORRIBLE husbands in Shakespeare... there are a lot contenders for the winner (though sadly I think there are clearer winners in his contemporaries...)
3.2
AofS an Luciana enter and it seems brothers fall for sisters because he is hitting on her a great deal. Of course Luciana seems either not to notice or knows how to play dumb (Isabella anyone?) and just instructs him to treat his wive better in general:
And may it be that you have quite forgot
A husband's office? shall, Antipholus.
Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs rot?
This line gives me hope that maybe, just maybe he didnt actually sleep with his brother's wife and called things off with Adriana after the eating before the love ties. Luciana then goes on to win horrible sister of the year with this advice:
Or if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth;
Muffle your false love with some show of blindness:
Let not my sister read it in your eye;
Super mindset. As long as your wife doesn't KNOW you're committing adultery it doesn't count right? UGH. AofS then responds with a horrible pick up line
O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,
To drown me in thy sister's flood of tears:
Sing, siren, for thyself and I will dote:
Mermaid.. I could... maybe buy? Other than its creepy to think of half fish times. but a siren? Who wants to be compared to one who makes men dash themselves upon the rocks? I do not think that's flattering at all. Then more rhyming times, though a fantastic play on words here:
LUCIANA
What, are you mad, that you do reason so?
AofS:
Not mad, but mated; how, I do not know.
Eventually Luciana leaves the scene, supposedly to talk with her sister about Antipholus' love for them or lack thereof for adriana... and DofS enters and thereafter follows perhaps my favorite scene in the whole show when he describes how the cook thinks he is DofA aka her lover:
D of S: Marry sir, such claim as you would lay to your horse; and she would have me as a beast: not that, I being a beast, she would have me; but that she, being a very beastly creature, lays claim to me.
Then the move to the extended metaphor of this huge woman as the globe (Side note: my first impression of Rick Blunt was watching him in this show and every time I read this play it is his exact inflection I hear when I read the line "she is spherical" SO GOOD.)
DofS:
No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip: she is spherical, like a globe; I could find out countries in her.
AofS:
In what part of her body stands Ireland? DofS
Marry, in her buttocks: I found it out by the bogs.
AofS
Where Scotland?
DofS
I found it by the barrenness; hard in the palm of the hand.
AofS
Where Spain?
DofS
Faith, I saw it not; but I felt it hot in her breath.
AND my personal favorite part of this game:
AofS
Where stood Belgia, the Netherlands?
DofS
Oh, sir, I did not look so low.
The Boys from Syracuse (couldn't help myself) decide it is best to leave this strange place:
I will not harbour in this town to-night: If any bark put forth, come to the mart, Where I will walk till thou return to me. If every one knows us and we know none, 'Tis time, I think, to trudge, pack and be gone.
And my personal favorite line:
There's none but witches do inhabit here; And therefore 'tis high time that I were hence.
there is just something hysterically funny to me about the line there's none but witches. And the rest of the scene is mainly setting up the rest of the series of errors with the forged chain shenanigans and when payment will be due/who will pay it/etc.
Act 4 actually has more than 2 scenes, so more to talk about tomorrow...
In the meantime and in other shakespeare news... we are looking forward to our production meeting for Midsummer tomorrow and working our way through preparing our script for rehearsals. More Shakespeare news to announce soon. (Probably in about 2-3 weeks) so look out for that!
A of E starts this scene calling his wife shrewish- hmmm i wonder why i'm not crazy about him... He has confusion with his own dromio and Dromio responds with a very interesting image, especially since you all know by this poitn I am crazy about textual culture/images:
If the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink,Your own handwriting would tell you what I think.
A of E is at the gate of his own house and waiting to be let in for dinner. Of course, his brother is already inside with his wife... and because of that we get the delightful exchange between the two dromios, and while they do not get to see each other yet, they get to talk to each other so there's a lot of an actor to play with as far as vocal tone/speed/ways the one Dromio may or may not match the twin Dromio.
Dof
What art thou that keepest me out from the house I owe?
DofS
[Within] The porter for this time, sir, and my name is Dromio.
D of E
O villain! thou hast stolen both mine office and my name.
Dear God there is just SO MUCH RHYMING! I can't handle it!! After trying a few more times to get into his house, AofS decides screw this, i'm going to the courtesan I know to eat with her. That will piss my wife off and give me dinner:
I know a wench of excellent discourse, Pretty and witty; wild, and yet, too, gentle: There will we dine.
I'm thinking that in the battle of HORRIBLE husbands in Shakespeare... there are a lot contenders for the winner (though sadly I think there are clearer winners in his contemporaries...)
3.2
AofS an Luciana enter and it seems brothers fall for sisters because he is hitting on her a great deal. Of course Luciana seems either not to notice or knows how to play dumb (Isabella anyone?) and just instructs him to treat his wive better in general:
And may it be that you have quite forgot
A husband's office? shall, Antipholus.
Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs rot?
This line gives me hope that maybe, just maybe he didnt actually sleep with his brother's wife and called things off with Adriana after the eating before the love ties. Luciana then goes on to win horrible sister of the year with this advice:
Or if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth;
Muffle your false love with some show of blindness:
Let not my sister read it in your eye;
Super mindset. As long as your wife doesn't KNOW you're committing adultery it doesn't count right? UGH. AofS then responds with a horrible pick up line
O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,
To drown me in thy sister's flood of tears:
Sing, siren, for thyself and I will dote:
Mermaid.. I could... maybe buy? Other than its creepy to think of half fish times. but a siren? Who wants to be compared to one who makes men dash themselves upon the rocks? I do not think that's flattering at all. Then more rhyming times, though a fantastic play on words here:
LUCIANA
What, are you mad, that you do reason so?
AofS:
Not mad, but mated; how, I do not know.
Eventually Luciana leaves the scene, supposedly to talk with her sister about Antipholus' love for them or lack thereof for adriana... and DofS enters and thereafter follows perhaps my favorite scene in the whole show when he describes how the cook thinks he is DofA aka her lover:
D of S: Marry sir, such claim as you would lay to your horse; and she would have me as a beast: not that, I being a beast, she would have me; but that she, being a very beastly creature, lays claim to me.
Then the move to the extended metaphor of this huge woman as the globe (Side note: my first impression of Rick Blunt was watching him in this show and every time I read this play it is his exact inflection I hear when I read the line "she is spherical" SO GOOD.)
DofS:
No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip: she is spherical, like a globe; I could find out countries in her.
AofS:
In what part of her body stands Ireland? DofS
Marry, in her buttocks: I found it out by the bogs.
AofS
Where Scotland?
DofS
I found it by the barrenness; hard in the palm of the hand.
AofS
Where Spain?
DofS
Faith, I saw it not; but I felt it hot in her breath.
AND my personal favorite part of this game:
AofS
Where stood Belgia, the Netherlands?
DofS
Oh, sir, I did not look so low.
The Boys from Syracuse (couldn't help myself) decide it is best to leave this strange place:
I will not harbour in this town to-night: If any bark put forth, come to the mart, Where I will walk till thou return to me. If every one knows us and we know none, 'Tis time, I think, to trudge, pack and be gone.
And my personal favorite line:
There's none but witches do inhabit here; And therefore 'tis high time that I were hence.
there is just something hysterically funny to me about the line there's none but witches. And the rest of the scene is mainly setting up the rest of the series of errors with the forged chain shenanigans and when payment will be due/who will pay it/etc.
Act 4 actually has more than 2 scenes, so more to talk about tomorrow...
In the meantime and in other shakespeare news... we are looking forward to our production meeting for Midsummer tomorrow and working our way through preparing our script for rehearsals. More Shakespeare news to announce soon. (Probably in about 2-3 weeks) so look out for that!
Monday, May 20, 2013
Comedy of Errors Act 2: I'm back!
Hello readers,
After taking a week away from the internet as part of working my way back through The Artist's Way, I was delayed a bit longer by saying goodbye to my sweet uncle who lost his battle with cancer this weekend. Needless to say, I am longing to look for the funny right now and if this week's posts aren't quite as insightful, you'll know why I'm distracted.
2.1
We finally get some women in this play! And some sexist/feminist fodder to boot.We are introduced to Adriana and Luciana- sisters who are very different types.
ADRIANA
Why should their liberty than ours be more?
LUCIANA
Because their business still lies out o' door.
Ah... in just the first few lines we get to talk housewives, liberty, asses,
Luciana talks on and on about how obedient and submissive wives should be and Adriana continues to call bull on the whole situation.
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much or more would we ourselves complain:
So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me,
But, if thou live to see like right bereft,
This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left.
Note all the cat in the hat like rhyme time couplets. A big red flag of Shakespeare's early works in my opinion...
The "girl talk" is interrupted by DofE's return. He get's the fantastic acting opportunity to play both himself and his supposed master during this delightful speech which is a fail proof acting exercize/ a great scene to work with in classrooms:
When I desired him to come home to dinner, He ask'd me for a thousand marks in gold: ''Tis dinner-time,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he; 'Your meat doth burn,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he: 'Will you come home?' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he. 'Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?' 'The pig,' quoth I, 'is burn'd;' 'My gold!' quoth he: 'My mistress, sir' quoth I; 'Hang up thy mistress! I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress!'
After this speech Adriana sends DofE out again and we see that she can be just as easily provoked to beat him as her husband. Luciana's reply after this violent send off?
Fie, how impatience loureth in your face!
Isn't loureth a wonderful word?!
Adriana replies with something that seems like an early Emilia speech from Othello about how if she has faults it is thanks to her husband. We also find out that Adriana is sure her husband is cheating on her:
I know his eye doth homage otherwhere, Or else what lets it but he would be here?
Luciana calls this mad jealousy and the scene ends there.
2.2
We are back with AofS, who meets DofS and mass confusion ensues as AofS accuses DofS about what DofE did. Confused yet? This is a PRIME example of where seeing a play is worth a thousand readings of it.
Poor DofS gets beaten for his confusion. A favorite piece of dialogue:
AofS
Shall I tell you why?
Dof S
Ay, sir, and wherefore; for they say every why hath a wherefore.
From there the scene goes on to typical fool riddles and jests about time and the mincing of words. Seriously, there's a ton of lines all revolving around baldness. and then come Adriana who thinks that AofS is AofE and has a monologue that, delivered to the right Antipholus would be quite moving/heartbreaking but delivered to the wrong one and seeing AofS's confused reactions, is pretty damn funny. An excellent teaching moment of how reacting is as important if not moreso than acting.
Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown:
Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects;
I am not Adriana nor thy wife.
The time was once when thou unurged wouldst vow
That never words were music to thine ear,
That never object pleasing in thine eye,
That never touch well welcome to thy hand,
That never meat sweet-savor'd in thy taste,
Unless I spake, or look'd, or touch'd, or carved to thee.
She goes on to say a lot of beautiful things about the uniting of two as one flesh in the sacrament of marriage. and calls Antipholus estranged from thyself since she and him are one and he's been so distant from her. Luciana actually takes her sisters part this time after AofS explains he has no clue who this lady is and that he just got here. DofS is now ensnared in the confusion as well. AofS thinks Luciana must be correct in her information since she can call them each by name.
There's this lovely piece of embedded stage direction:
Come, I will fasten on this sleeve of thine: Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine,
A of S then has a rather Sebastian from 12th night moment (SO excited to get to that play) Again, with super rhyming couplets:
To me she speaks; she moves me for her theme:
What, was I married to her in my dream?
Or sleep I now and think I hear all this?
What error drives our eyes and ears amiss?
Until I know this sure uncertainty,
I'll entertain the offer'd fallacy.
DofS is not so confident about this plan:
O, for my beads! I cross me for a sinner.
This is the fairy land: O spite of spites!
We talk with goblins, owls and sprites:
And then we set up the humor/confusion for the next scene:
Dromio, keep the gate.
Husband, I'll dine above with you to-day
And shrive you of a thousand idle pranks.
Sirrah, if any ask you for your master,
Say he dines forth, and let no creature enter.
Come, sister. Dromio, play the porter well.
So... they're dining above and keeping the door locked... anyone else get weirded out by the fact that this means AofS is probably about to sleep with his brother's wife? Those of you who have seen a production, did they play this up? or try and skip akwardly over it?
And that's act 2. another short and sweet.
Until tomorrow, friends, when next we meet...
(jeez... the couplets are contagious)
After taking a week away from the internet as part of working my way back through The Artist's Way, I was delayed a bit longer by saying goodbye to my sweet uncle who lost his battle with cancer this weekend. Needless to say, I am longing to look for the funny right now and if this week's posts aren't quite as insightful, you'll know why I'm distracted.
2.1
We finally get some women in this play! And some sexist/feminist fodder to boot.We are introduced to Adriana and Luciana- sisters who are very different types.
ADRIANA
Why should their liberty than ours be more?
LUCIANA
Because their business still lies out o' door.
Ah... in just the first few lines we get to talk housewives, liberty, asses,
Luciana talks on and on about how obedient and submissive wives should be and Adriana continues to call bull on the whole situation.
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much or more would we ourselves complain:
So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me,
But, if thou live to see like right bereft,
This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left.
Note all the cat in the hat like rhyme time couplets. A big red flag of Shakespeare's early works in my opinion...
The "girl talk" is interrupted by DofE's return. He get's the fantastic acting opportunity to play both himself and his supposed master during this delightful speech which is a fail proof acting exercize/ a great scene to work with in classrooms:
When I desired him to come home to dinner, He ask'd me for a thousand marks in gold: ''Tis dinner-time,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he; 'Your meat doth burn,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he: 'Will you come home?' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he. 'Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?' 'The pig,' quoth I, 'is burn'd;' 'My gold!' quoth he: 'My mistress, sir' quoth I; 'Hang up thy mistress! I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress!'
After this speech Adriana sends DofE out again and we see that she can be just as easily provoked to beat him as her husband. Luciana's reply after this violent send off?
Fie, how impatience loureth in your face!
Isn't loureth a wonderful word?!
Adriana replies with something that seems like an early Emilia speech from Othello about how if she has faults it is thanks to her husband. We also find out that Adriana is sure her husband is cheating on her:
I know his eye doth homage otherwhere, Or else what lets it but he would be here?
Luciana calls this mad jealousy and the scene ends there.
2.2
We are back with AofS, who meets DofS and mass confusion ensues as AofS accuses DofS about what DofE did. Confused yet? This is a PRIME example of where seeing a play is worth a thousand readings of it.
Poor DofS gets beaten for his confusion. A favorite piece of dialogue:
AofS
Shall I tell you why?
Dof S
Ay, sir, and wherefore; for they say every why hath a wherefore.
From there the scene goes on to typical fool riddles and jests about time and the mincing of words. Seriously, there's a ton of lines all revolving around baldness. and then come Adriana who thinks that AofS is AofE and has a monologue that, delivered to the right Antipholus would be quite moving/heartbreaking but delivered to the wrong one and seeing AofS's confused reactions, is pretty damn funny. An excellent teaching moment of how reacting is as important if not moreso than acting.
Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown:
Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects;
I am not Adriana nor thy wife.
The time was once when thou unurged wouldst vow
That never words were music to thine ear,
That never object pleasing in thine eye,
That never touch well welcome to thy hand,
That never meat sweet-savor'd in thy taste,
Unless I spake, or look'd, or touch'd, or carved to thee.
She goes on to say a lot of beautiful things about the uniting of two as one flesh in the sacrament of marriage. and calls Antipholus estranged from thyself since she and him are one and he's been so distant from her. Luciana actually takes her sisters part this time after AofS explains he has no clue who this lady is and that he just got here. DofS is now ensnared in the confusion as well. AofS thinks Luciana must be correct in her information since she can call them each by name.
There's this lovely piece of embedded stage direction:
Come, I will fasten on this sleeve of thine: Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine,
A of S then has a rather Sebastian from 12th night moment (SO excited to get to that play) Again, with super rhyming couplets:
To me she speaks; she moves me for her theme:
What, was I married to her in my dream?
Or sleep I now and think I hear all this?
What error drives our eyes and ears amiss?
Until I know this sure uncertainty,
I'll entertain the offer'd fallacy.
DofS is not so confident about this plan:
O, for my beads! I cross me for a sinner.
This is the fairy land: O spite of spites!
We talk with goblins, owls and sprites:
And then we set up the humor/confusion for the next scene:
Dromio, keep the gate.
Husband, I'll dine above with you to-day
And shrive you of a thousand idle pranks.
Sirrah, if any ask you for your master,
Say he dines forth, and let no creature enter.
Come, sister. Dromio, play the porter well.
So... they're dining above and keeping the door locked... anyone else get weirded out by the fact that this means AofS is probably about to sleep with his brother's wife? Those of you who have seen a production, did they play this up? or try and skip akwardly over it?
And that's act 2. another short and sweet.
Until tomorrow, friends, when next we meet...
(jeez... the couplets are contagious)
Monday, May 6, 2013
Comedy of Errors Act I: A play I like more than I would without the nostalgia...
I read this play the summer before I started Pepperdine because it was supposedly going to be the spring show and like a good actor I wanted to prepare as early as possible. That show ended up being changed to The Grapes of Wrath, which was probably for the best since Comedy has a lot fewer parts for females than The Grapes of Wrath does and being involved in that show meant so much to me! My next experience with this play was when I was touring MBC before I decided on whether or not I'd go there for grad school. I saw Comedy of Errors my 1st night there performed by the touring troupe at the ASC and I thought- wow, if they can make me this excited about a play I have tepid feelings for, think what they can do with pieces I love (and they showed me that the next night when I went to see their production of Hamlet.) In other words- I immediately fell in love, giving this play a warmer place in my heart than it would have had.
1.1
For a comedy, this play starts out with a scene that seems awfully depressing. One of the first lines:
Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall
And by the doom of death end woes and all.
yeah, sounds like we're in for a lot of fun. Not only do we have death, but we have painfully obvious exposition-
Unless a thousand marks be levied,
To quit the penalty and to ransom him.
Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;
and once the basic set up is fixed we have an even more depressing monologue that basically goes on forever, in fact, it goes on so long that even Aegeon- the character saying it, comments several times about how long he's been talking. But here's the basic set up of his story:
A joyful mother of two goodly sons;
And, which was strange, the one so like the other,
As could not be distinguish'd but by names.
That very hour, and in the self-same inn,
A meaner woman was delivered
Of such a burden, male twins, both alike:
Those,--for their parents were exceeding poor,--
I bought and brought up to attend my sons.
so basic story: two sets of twins. one high born. one set of servants. and he's looking for the one son who went in search of his brother. He's looking everywhere:
Five summers have I spent in furthest Greece,
Roaming clean through the bounds of Asia,
And, coasting homeward, came to Ephesus;
OK, I really had no reason to cite that line aside from the love of how Asia scans as 3 syllables a la how we said it during The Queens.... anyway, Aegeon's story is so sad that duke wishes he could switch the law but clearly this duke is not from the same school of ruling as the duke in Measure for Measure:
Now, trust me, were it not against our laws,
Against my crown, my oath, my dignity,
Which princes, would they, may not disannul,
My soul would sue as advocate for thee.
So he says he can't change the fate, but he can delay it a bit and try his hardest to get his hands on enough money to save his life.
Try all the friends thou hast in Ephesus;
Beg thou, or borrow, to make up the sum,
And live; if no, then thou art doom'd to die.
Have I mentioned this show clips along? because we are already done with that scene.
1.2
We then meet Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse. Dromio is sent to the inn they will stay at and Antipholus tells a merchant of their time together:
A trusty villain, sir, that very oft,
When I am dull with care and melancholy,
Lightens my humour with his merry jests.
the boys seem to have a friendly relationship with warmth and laughter. But the mirth of Antipholus disappears when left onstage alone. He has this beautiful speech:
I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop,
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself:
So I, to find a mother and a brother,
In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.
I love that. Such a beautiful image. If you are looking for a new monologue this one goes on a bit longer/could be lovely. Then, Shakespeare wastes no time in the identity confusion as who should enter the stage but Dromio of Ephesus. Yes, not only is this play about 2 pairs of twins, but 2 pairs of twins with the same name. to save on typing and confusion, when I am not copying from the text I will now refer to the twins as AofS, AofE, DofS or DofE. got it? OK. So DofE comes to AofS thinking he is AofE and madness ensues. as well as setting the theme of beatings/physical humor for the show which if not done in a slapstick style would really be rather horrific:
Return'd so soon! rather approach'd too late:
The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit,
The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell;
My mistress made it one upon my cheek:
AofS thinks that DofE is actually DofS and that he's making a joke that is not very funny. he tries to explain to dromio how not funny he finds him until finally he loses hit temper and partakes in the violence (This would be a very easy scene to introduce students to internal stage directions)
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face,
Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
What mean you, sir? for God's sake, hold your hands!
DofE leaves and AofS is severely confused, and we get this description of Ephesus that will most certainly come back throughout the play:
They say this town is full of cozenage,
As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,
Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,
Soul-killing witches that deform the body,
Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many such-like liberties of sin:
So while the duke may not be like the one in Measure, apparently this town also has a crazy reputation that makes me think of Vegas.
Remember when i said this play clips along? That's the end of Act 1! short, sweet, etc. more mountebanks, jugglers, and cozenage tomorrow, though if you are looking for soul-killing witches I'd click over to my Macbeth posts, since you aren't going to find any in this play...
1.1
For a comedy, this play starts out with a scene that seems awfully depressing. One of the first lines:
Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall
And by the doom of death end woes and all.
yeah, sounds like we're in for a lot of fun. Not only do we have death, but we have painfully obvious exposition-
Unless a thousand marks be levied,
To quit the penalty and to ransom him.
Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;
and once the basic set up is fixed we have an even more depressing monologue that basically goes on forever, in fact, it goes on so long that even Aegeon- the character saying it, comments several times about how long he's been talking. But here's the basic set up of his story:
A joyful mother of two goodly sons;
And, which was strange, the one so like the other,
As could not be distinguish'd but by names.
That very hour, and in the self-same inn,
A meaner woman was delivered
Of such a burden, male twins, both alike:
Those,--for their parents were exceeding poor,--
I bought and brought up to attend my sons.
so basic story: two sets of twins. one high born. one set of servants. and he's looking for the one son who went in search of his brother. He's looking everywhere:
Five summers have I spent in furthest Greece,
Roaming clean through the bounds of Asia,
And, coasting homeward, came to Ephesus;
OK, I really had no reason to cite that line aside from the love of how Asia scans as 3 syllables a la how we said it during The Queens.... anyway, Aegeon's story is so sad that duke wishes he could switch the law but clearly this duke is not from the same school of ruling as the duke in Measure for Measure:
Now, trust me, were it not against our laws,
Against my crown, my oath, my dignity,
Which princes, would they, may not disannul,
My soul would sue as advocate for thee.
So he says he can't change the fate, but he can delay it a bit and try his hardest to get his hands on enough money to save his life.
Try all the friends thou hast in Ephesus;
Beg thou, or borrow, to make up the sum,
And live; if no, then thou art doom'd to die.
Have I mentioned this show clips along? because we are already done with that scene.
1.2
We then meet Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse. Dromio is sent to the inn they will stay at and Antipholus tells a merchant of their time together:
A trusty villain, sir, that very oft,
When I am dull with care and melancholy,
Lightens my humour with his merry jests.
the boys seem to have a friendly relationship with warmth and laughter. But the mirth of Antipholus disappears when left onstage alone. He has this beautiful speech:
I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop,
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself:
So I, to find a mother and a brother,
In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.
I love that. Such a beautiful image. If you are looking for a new monologue this one goes on a bit longer/could be lovely. Then, Shakespeare wastes no time in the identity confusion as who should enter the stage but Dromio of Ephesus. Yes, not only is this play about 2 pairs of twins, but 2 pairs of twins with the same name. to save on typing and confusion, when I am not copying from the text I will now refer to the twins as AofS, AofE, DofS or DofE. got it? OK. So DofE comes to AofS thinking he is AofE and madness ensues. as well as setting the theme of beatings/physical humor for the show which if not done in a slapstick style would really be rather horrific:
Return'd so soon! rather approach'd too late:
The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit,
The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell;
My mistress made it one upon my cheek:
AofS thinks that DofE is actually DofS and that he's making a joke that is not very funny. he tries to explain to dromio how not funny he finds him until finally he loses hit temper and partakes in the violence (This would be a very easy scene to introduce students to internal stage directions)
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face,
Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
What mean you, sir? for God's sake, hold your hands!
DofE leaves and AofS is severely confused, and we get this description of Ephesus that will most certainly come back throughout the play:
They say this town is full of cozenage,
As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,
Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,
Soul-killing witches that deform the body,
Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many such-like liberties of sin:
So while the duke may not be like the one in Measure, apparently this town also has a crazy reputation that makes me think of Vegas.
Remember when i said this play clips along? That's the end of Act 1! short, sweet, etc. more mountebanks, jugglers, and cozenage tomorrow, though if you are looking for soul-killing witches I'd click over to my Macbeth posts, since you aren't going to find any in this play...
Sunday, May 5, 2013
M4M Act 5: How does it end/ what to do with Isabella's silence
there's only one scene in this final act. So here we go...
The scene begins with Angelo and Escalus meeting the Duke in public and the Duke giving over the top thanks for all of their service/Angelo's goodness:
O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it, To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, When it deserves, with characters of brass, A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time And razure of oblivion.
and of course that is Isabella's cue to correct this high praise. The theme of the day is: repetition. How often its repeated, where, etc. How many acting opportunities are missed by people who repeat things in the same way instead of giving them a different weight/motivation every time?! If you want to practice repetition, this is the perfect scene to do it, especially with Isabella's lines:
Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard Upon a wrong'd, I would fain have said, a maid! O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye By throwing it on any other object Till you have heard me in my true complaint And given me justice, justice, justice, justice!
More repetition plus fun with homonyms:
Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak Must either punish me, not being believed, Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, here!
And then we up the repetition stakes by using Angelo's own word and throwing it back in his face
ANGELO
And she will speak most bitterly and strange. ISABELLA
Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak: That Angelo's forsworn; is it not strange? That Angelo's a murderer; is 't not strange? That Angelo is an adulterous thief, An hypocrite, a virgin-violator; Is it not strange and strange?
OK, can we talk about how creepy and perfect the term "virgin-violator" is?! I LOVE that Isabella gets to use this incredible and bold language. Then Isabella ups her repetitive rhetoric with some good ol' polyptoton
It is not truer he is Angelo Than this is all as true as it is strange: Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth To the end of reckoning.
So now she's walked rhetorical circles around the mostly silent Angelo but obviously everyone thinks her accusation is still unlikely, to which she asserts:
Make not impossible That which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible
Add that to sayings we should use in our theoretical Shakespeare etsy store, ok?! because it is beautiful. and something we should remember. The duke now acknowledges Isabella's stunning use of language and reason-
If she be mad,--as I believe no other,-- Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense, Such a dependency of thing on thing,
Amid this tense scene, Lucio decides to speak up and give us some much needed comic relief. Thank Shakespeare for Lucio!
DUKE VINCENTIO
You were not bid to speak.
LUCIO
No, my good lord;
Nor wish'd to hold my peace.
DUKE VINCENTIO
I wish you now, then;
Then, poor Isabella, the priest that brought her here seems to turn against her. All part of the duke's strange and twisted plan:
I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard Your royal ear abused. First, hath this woman Most wrongfully accused your substitute, Who is as free from touch or soil with her As she from one ungot.
Isabella is taken away and Mariana starts to testify but all in riddles, as bed tricks are wont to make a person speak in. Lucio again comes to the comedic rescue:
DUKE VINCENTIO
Why, you are nothing then: neither maid, widow, nor wife?
LUCIO
My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife.
Mariana continues the riddle talk but at least makes Angelo known as the one she is talking about:
MARIANA
Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo,
Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my body,
But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel's.
ANGELO
This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face. MARIANA
My husband bids me; now I will unmask.
Shakespeare is obsessed with veils and unmasking. I always think those kinds of moments are funny, but I love them none the less. Then the duke mysteriously disappears leaving the proceedings to angelo and escalus, and returns as the priest, where he speaks in the kind of language that is always a dead give away that there's a prince or someone of power/vested interest disguised:
Be not so hot; the duke Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he Dare rack his own:
Seriously. Everyone should be aware of this kind of turn of phrase b/c it is used ALL THE TIME by people in disguise and it SHOULD give them away yet never does...
Once Angelo realizes he is caught, he has a pretty lengthy confession, self-inflicted judgement:
I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, To think I can be undiscernible, When I perceive your grace, like power divine, Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good prince, No longer session hold upon my shame, But let my trial be mine own confession: Immediate sentence then and sequent death Is all the grace I beg.
Grace... a key theme in the play.... but the duke just cares about getting angelo and marianna married. Of course this has to happen offstage for reasons I explained in my As You Like It post
Go take her hence, and marry her instantly. Do you the office, friar; which consummate, Return him here again
Once Angelo is married the Duke threatens to have him put to death almost immediately thereafter, and gives a little rhyming speech that hits the audience hard with the title of the play (in case you were wondering, the capitalization was done by the website I take the quotes from. it just emphasizes my point though...)
'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!' Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; Like doth quit like, and MEASURE still FOR MEASURE.
Mariana asks Isabel to appeal to the duke several times, to show the mercy to angelo that was not shown to her brother. and I think this is the most moving part of the play. to see the forgiveness, desperation, and grace shown by these two women. mariana's speech is lovely and the tension of whether or not Isabel will take her side is wonderful.
Isabel,
Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me;
Hold up your hands, say nothing; I'll speak all.
They say, best men are moulded out of faults;
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad: so may my husband.
O Isabel, will you not lend a knee?
After we decide Angelo won't die, in comes a whole mess of people including Claudio "muffled"/disguised, Juliet (some productions dont include her. others have her still super pregnant. others have her with a baby. these choices are wildly fascinating to me.) and Barnadine. And the Duke, having learned nothing from his time disguised/ his self admitted need to be a bit harsher on the law and still not understanding how to walk a middle ground when it comes to justice tells Barnadine:
Thou'rt condemn'd: But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all; And pray thee take this mercy to provide For better times to come.
So not only is Barnadine not going to die today, but apparently he's totally forgiven. Also, let's unmuffle claudio and shock isabella/hope she doesnt ask why she was deceived this whole time and put through the hell of thinking he was dead:
If he be like your brother, for his sake Is he pardon'd; and, for your lovely sake, Give me your hand and say you will be mine. He is my brother too: but fitter time for that
(additional problem to add to this problem play: what if the dude that comes out as "claudio" is not actually claudio? I once heard a scholar suggest that and it totally blows my mind to think of the implications and awesomeness/darkness of that performance choice.) What I love in that speech is the midline change of "but fitter time for that" which indicates to me that the duke's proposal is not going well/Isabella does not seem pleased or at least not willing to say yes right then and so he has to change his tactics. And he does. and eventually he gets to punishing Lucio who as a lovely line accepting his consequences:
If you will hang me for it, you may; but I had rather it would please you I might be whipt.
a fair desire/reasoning. but poor lucio is married to a whore on top of all his other condemnation and seems to get one of the worst fates int he play. The duke then tries to wrap everything up with some semblance of order:
She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore. Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo: I have confess'd her and I know her virtue.
Again- CREEPY that he ministered sacraments when he is not a priest. really upsetting. and now we come back to the proposal:
Dear Isabel,
I have a motion much imports your good;
Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline,
What's mine is yours and what is yours is mine.
So, bring us to our palace; where we'll show
What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know.
[Exeunt]
Now, the common reaction to that as the end of the play is... WHAT?!?!? Isabella never gets a line to respond to the proposal so there are SO MANY CHOICES to play with! Does she run into his arms, a clear acceptance? If so is the audience on board b/c we are taught to believe that marriages = happy endings? or deeply disturbed that this lying twisted man is going to marry the woman we've been cheering for? Or does she run for the convent? Or does she look in horror? IS she paralyzed realizing that due to his power she's more or less trapped in an angelo like blackmail only this time there's marriage along with the sex instead of just the sex? I thought I'd heard every theory on the end of the play until my friend Alex let me know about the ending of the production at the Goodman Theatre
(Picture above is from the Goodman Theatre's Facebook page) In this production, which closed in April so I don't mind spoiling their original ending, the play ended with a crazy disco dance at the end of celebration while Isabella looked to the audience as if she was trying to decide what to say to the proposal, only to have the recently pardoned Barnadine COME UP AND STAB HER. and that was how the play ended. I find this choice kind of amazing.
What do you think? How would you deal with Isabella's silence/ the end of this problem play?
Let me know. I could talk about this play for hours.
Next up: Comedy of Errors. WOO!
The scene begins with Angelo and Escalus meeting the Duke in public and the Duke giving over the top thanks for all of their service/Angelo's goodness:
O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it, To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, When it deserves, with characters of brass, A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time And razure of oblivion.
and of course that is Isabella's cue to correct this high praise. The theme of the day is: repetition. How often its repeated, where, etc. How many acting opportunities are missed by people who repeat things in the same way instead of giving them a different weight/motivation every time?! If you want to practice repetition, this is the perfect scene to do it, especially with Isabella's lines:
Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard Upon a wrong'd, I would fain have said, a maid! O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye By throwing it on any other object Till you have heard me in my true complaint And given me justice, justice, justice, justice!
More repetition plus fun with homonyms:
Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak Must either punish me, not being believed, Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, here!
And then we up the repetition stakes by using Angelo's own word and throwing it back in his face
ANGELO
And she will speak most bitterly and strange. ISABELLA
Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak: That Angelo's forsworn; is it not strange? That Angelo's a murderer; is 't not strange? That Angelo is an adulterous thief, An hypocrite, a virgin-violator; Is it not strange and strange?
OK, can we talk about how creepy and perfect the term "virgin-violator" is?! I LOVE that Isabella gets to use this incredible and bold language. Then Isabella ups her repetitive rhetoric with some good ol' polyptoton
It is not truer he is Angelo Than this is all as true as it is strange: Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth To the end of reckoning.
So now she's walked rhetorical circles around the mostly silent Angelo but obviously everyone thinks her accusation is still unlikely, to which she asserts:
Make not impossible That which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible
Add that to sayings we should use in our theoretical Shakespeare etsy store, ok?! because it is beautiful. and something we should remember. The duke now acknowledges Isabella's stunning use of language and reason-
If she be mad,--as I believe no other,-- Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense, Such a dependency of thing on thing,
Amid this tense scene, Lucio decides to speak up and give us some much needed comic relief. Thank Shakespeare for Lucio!
DUKE VINCENTIO
You were not bid to speak.
LUCIO
No, my good lord;
Nor wish'd to hold my peace.
DUKE VINCENTIO
I wish you now, then;
Then, poor Isabella, the priest that brought her here seems to turn against her. All part of the duke's strange and twisted plan:
I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard Your royal ear abused. First, hath this woman Most wrongfully accused your substitute, Who is as free from touch or soil with her As she from one ungot.
Isabella is taken away and Mariana starts to testify but all in riddles, as bed tricks are wont to make a person speak in. Lucio again comes to the comedic rescue:
DUKE VINCENTIO
Why, you are nothing then: neither maid, widow, nor wife?
LUCIO
My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife.
Mariana continues the riddle talk but at least makes Angelo known as the one she is talking about:
MARIANA
Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo,
Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my body,
But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel's.
ANGELO
This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face. MARIANA
My husband bids me; now I will unmask.
Shakespeare is obsessed with veils and unmasking. I always think those kinds of moments are funny, but I love them none the less. Then the duke mysteriously disappears leaving the proceedings to angelo and escalus, and returns as the priest, where he speaks in the kind of language that is always a dead give away that there's a prince or someone of power/vested interest disguised:
Be not so hot; the duke Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he Dare rack his own:
Seriously. Everyone should be aware of this kind of turn of phrase b/c it is used ALL THE TIME by people in disguise and it SHOULD give them away yet never does...
Once Angelo realizes he is caught, he has a pretty lengthy confession, self-inflicted judgement:
I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, To think I can be undiscernible, When I perceive your grace, like power divine, Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good prince, No longer session hold upon my shame, But let my trial be mine own confession: Immediate sentence then and sequent death Is all the grace I beg.
Grace... a key theme in the play.... but the duke just cares about getting angelo and marianna married. Of course this has to happen offstage for reasons I explained in my As You Like It post
Go take her hence, and marry her instantly. Do you the office, friar; which consummate, Return him here again
Once Angelo is married the Duke threatens to have him put to death almost immediately thereafter, and gives a little rhyming speech that hits the audience hard with the title of the play (in case you were wondering, the capitalization was done by the website I take the quotes from. it just emphasizes my point though...)
'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!' Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; Like doth quit like, and MEASURE still FOR MEASURE.
Mariana asks Isabel to appeal to the duke several times, to show the mercy to angelo that was not shown to her brother. and I think this is the most moving part of the play. to see the forgiveness, desperation, and grace shown by these two women. mariana's speech is lovely and the tension of whether or not Isabel will take her side is wonderful.
Isabel,
Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me;
Hold up your hands, say nothing; I'll speak all.
They say, best men are moulded out of faults;
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad: so may my husband.
O Isabel, will you not lend a knee?
After we decide Angelo won't die, in comes a whole mess of people including Claudio "muffled"/disguised, Juliet (some productions dont include her. others have her still super pregnant. others have her with a baby. these choices are wildly fascinating to me.) and Barnadine. And the Duke, having learned nothing from his time disguised/ his self admitted need to be a bit harsher on the law and still not understanding how to walk a middle ground when it comes to justice tells Barnadine:
Thou'rt condemn'd: But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all; And pray thee take this mercy to provide For better times to come.
So not only is Barnadine not going to die today, but apparently he's totally forgiven. Also, let's unmuffle claudio and shock isabella/hope she doesnt ask why she was deceived this whole time and put through the hell of thinking he was dead:
If he be like your brother, for his sake Is he pardon'd; and, for your lovely sake, Give me your hand and say you will be mine. He is my brother too: but fitter time for that
(additional problem to add to this problem play: what if the dude that comes out as "claudio" is not actually claudio? I once heard a scholar suggest that and it totally blows my mind to think of the implications and awesomeness/darkness of that performance choice.) What I love in that speech is the midline change of "but fitter time for that" which indicates to me that the duke's proposal is not going well/Isabella does not seem pleased or at least not willing to say yes right then and so he has to change his tactics. And he does. and eventually he gets to punishing Lucio who as a lovely line accepting his consequences:
If you will hang me for it, you may; but I had rather it would please you I might be whipt.
a fair desire/reasoning. but poor lucio is married to a whore on top of all his other condemnation and seems to get one of the worst fates int he play. The duke then tries to wrap everything up with some semblance of order:
She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore. Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo: I have confess'd her and I know her virtue.
Again- CREEPY that he ministered sacraments when he is not a priest. really upsetting. and now we come back to the proposal:
Dear Isabel,
I have a motion much imports your good;
Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline,
What's mine is yours and what is yours is mine.
So, bring us to our palace; where we'll show
What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know.
[Exeunt]
Now, the common reaction to that as the end of the play is... WHAT?!?!? Isabella never gets a line to respond to the proposal so there are SO MANY CHOICES to play with! Does she run into his arms, a clear acceptance? If so is the audience on board b/c we are taught to believe that marriages = happy endings? or deeply disturbed that this lying twisted man is going to marry the woman we've been cheering for? Or does she run for the convent? Or does she look in horror? IS she paralyzed realizing that due to his power she's more or less trapped in an angelo like blackmail only this time there's marriage along with the sex instead of just the sex? I thought I'd heard every theory on the end of the play until my friend Alex let me know about the ending of the production at the Goodman Theatre
(Picture above is from the Goodman Theatre's Facebook page) In this production, which closed in April so I don't mind spoiling their original ending, the play ended with a crazy disco dance at the end of celebration while Isabella looked to the audience as if she was trying to decide what to say to the proposal, only to have the recently pardoned Barnadine COME UP AND STAB HER. and that was how the play ended. I find this choice kind of amazing.
What do you think? How would you deal with Isabella's silence/ the end of this problem play?
Let me know. I could talk about this play for hours.
Next up: Comedy of Errors. WOO!
Friday, May 3, 2013
m4m Act 4: NOT TODAY.
4.1
The act starts with Mariana and a little boy (her & angelo's little boy?! probably....) and the young boy is singing this super depressing but potentially perfectly beautiful song:
Take, O, take those lips away,
That so sweetly were forsworn;
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights that do mislead the morn:
But my kisses bring again, bring again;
Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain.
Gorgeous. The talks about kisses and seals reminds me of the Song of Songs and the musical piece that was written as an adaptation of a section from that biblical passage (A song that I happened to use at my wedding... of course that is like the alternative happy proper marriage version of what the song in this passage is... )
Mariana stops the sad singing when she sees the duke entering
Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice
Hath often still'd my brawling discontent.
[Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before]
I think it is worth noting that stage direction- Mariana recognizes him in his disguise as a priest so we know this is not the first time the duke has pulled some of these shenanigans...hmmmmm.
Isabella shows up shortly thereafter and they talk about the bedtrick they plan to pull. I think it's interesting that we don't get to see the scene where she consents to Angelo. Probably b/c it is far more uncomfortable in imagination than it could ever be onstage? also because it seems that part of this scene included walking her through exactly where she should meet him, etc.
ISABELLA
In action all of precept, he did show me The way twice o'er.
DUKE VINCENTIO
Are there no other tokens Between you 'greed concerning her observance?
SMART of the duke to check on this point. we don't want any ring mix ups getting in the way of their plan (oh... i'm getting ahead of myself again, have I mentioned that I.CAN'T. WAIT. to talk about All's Well and how badly I want to do that play again?!?!?!?) Isabella fills in Mariana on the situation- mostly reminding her to be quick and quiet in the whole thing:
Little have you to say
When you depart from him, but, soft and low,'
'Remember now my brother.'
Mariana is on board with all of this, not needing much convincing at all, again, just pointing this out so I can contrast it later... just this one last passage to bring up:
MARIANA Fear me not.
DUKE VINCENTIO
Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all.
He is your husband on a pre-contract:
To bring you thus together, 'tis no sin,
Wait... WHAT?! isn't that exactly what Claudio is in jail for?! or if not the same but for a technicality of a witness which I'm sure lucio could have provided? Or is it only no sin as long as no one is notably pregnant before the actual official marriage is recognized? ok, you know what let's just move on...
4.2
We are back to the prison and the bawd is offered an exchange for his time in prison/expected punishment:
Here is in our prison a common executioner, who in his office lacks a helper: if you will take it on you to assist him, it shall redeem you from your gyves; if not, you shall have your full time of imprisonment and your deliverance with an unpitied whipping, for you have been a notorious bawd.
Yeah... unsurprisingly he's on board with this switch and becomes very verbal about the life of an executioner.... and the provost moves onward to his other business.
Provost
Where's Barnardine?
CLAUDIO
As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour
When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones:
He will not wake.
Note the pregnancy term. also- sleeping seems like a very useful prison activity, especially the drunk sleeping in which Barnadine engages. The duke enters and asks if there's been any word from angelo and shortly thereafter they get their answer:
Messenger
[Giving a paper]
My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this further charge, that you swerve not from the smallest article of it, neither in time, matter, or other circumstance. Good morrow; for, as I take it, it is almost day.
Provost
I shall obey him.
So... it seems Angelo did not keep his promise about saving claudio. surprise. surprise. The duke tries to fix the situation and asks about Barnadine. The provost answers:
A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of mortality, and desperately mortal.
feerless of what's past, present, or to come... that sounds hardcore. The duke then comes up with this crazy idea:
Call your executioner, and off with Barnardine's head: I will give him a present shrift and advise him for a better place. Yet you are amazed; but this shall absolutely resolve you. Come away; it is almost clear dawn.
So the plan is to pull a huntsman from the Snow White story and instead of substituting hearts they will just substitute heads...
4.3
The executioner comes for Barnadine. (It's worth noting the executioner's name. say it out loud a time or two...)
ABHORSON
Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your prayers; for, look you, the warrant's come.
BARNARDINE
You rogue, I have been drinking all night; I am not fitted for 't.
Again, Barnadine seems to have a sound strategy- drink your way through prison. Not only that, but he won't participate in the show of execution:
BARNARDINE
Friar, not I I have been drinking hard all night, and I will have more time to prepare me, or they shall beat out my brains with billets: I will not consent to die this day, that's certain.
DUKE VINCENTIO
O, sir, you must: and therefore I beseech you Look forward on the journey you shall go.
BARNARDINE
I swear I will not die to-day for any man's persuasion.
I loved this whole exchange from the first time I read it. I loved it even more in my gateway class for grad school when professor cohen talked of his love for it. and now that I've read game of thrones, I love it EVEN. MORE. Because let's face it:
Seriously.
So once Barnadine makes his stand on not dying the Provost comes up with another option:
Here in the prison, father,
There died this morning of a cruel fever
One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate,
A man of Claudio's years; his beard and head
Just of his colour.
WHAT PROVIDENCE. this dude even looks more like Claudio, plus, how do you get a better lin/random character than RAGOZINE A MOST NOTORIOUS PIRATE. LOVE IT. FYI: ragozine is a potential name for if dan and I ever get a dog. I love that it's obvious what the provost is going to do, but in case the audience was disappointed that they didn't get to see any heads roll we get this moment:
[Re-enter Provost]
Provost
Here is the head; I'll carry it myself.
Perfect. because why not add a bloody head to your play?! beheadings and sheep seem to be a key go to...
Isabella comes in shortly after this and this line is what makes the Duke truly twisted and despicable in my eyes:
The tongue of Isabel. She's come to know If yet her brother's pardon be come hither: But I will keep her ignorant of her good, To make her heavenly comforts of despair, When it is least expected.
WHY?! why does the duke want to go through this whole charade in the first place when he could call angelo out fairly easily and when he could call him out with the note about condemning claudio without putting isabella through the hell of believing her brother is dead? it's just cruel. The only upside, we are reminded of how fierce this would-be nun is:
O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!
there's something so disturbing/disconcerting about messing with people's eyes and shakespere uses his eyes moments so well...
ISABELLA
Unhappy Claudio! wretched Isabel!
Injurious world! most damned Angelo!
DUKE VINCENTIO
This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot; Forbear it therefore; give your cause to heaven.
I'd have some choice words to say to the duke at that moment. Can we give the woman a few minutes to grieve please? Instead the duke continues:
Command these fretting waters from your eyes With a light heart; trust not my holy order, If I pervert your course.
Except, of course, that he has never taken holy orders... but whatever...
Lucio then comes in and tries to comfort Isabella as well:
O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see thine eyes so red: thou must be patient
Then seals his fate by confessing this to the disguised duke:
LUCIO
I was once before him for getting a wench with child.
DUKE VINCENTIO
Did you such a thing? LUCIO
Yes, marry, did I but I was fain to forswear it; they would else have married me to the rotten medlar.
DUKE VINCENTIO
Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well. LUCIO
By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end: if bawdy talk offend you, we'll have very little of it. Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr; I shall stick.
I love that description of being a burr and sticking to people so they can't shake him off.
4.4
The duke and escalus get conflicting letters/information about the duke's return:
His actions show much like to madness: pray heaven his wisdom be not tainted!
Angelo, I think the duke was a bit mad to begin with. but I understand why you are particularly concerned with his coming back... GUILT.
This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant
And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid!
And by an eminent body that enforced
The law against it! But that her tender shame
Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,
How might she tongue me!
This whole speech is also fantastic, but i particularly want to not the phrases "makes me unpregnant" and "how might she tongue me". the first just continues our look at pregnancy language throughout/as a major theme and the second is just one of the best uses of anthimeria ever. The best part of this speech though? The regret he has about claudio/confession of doing wrong/potential change that could happen in the next act.
Would yet he had lived!
A lack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not.
The final line makes me want to tell all of you to go read everything Stephen Booth ever wrote on what is and is not all at once.
4.5
Every time I read this random short scene, which basically lets us know of more letters the duke is sending about is arrival/sowing more confusion I wonder what the point of this scene is... and who the heck is varrius?!
4.6
the final scene in this act primarily between isabella and Mariana. Isabella is a bit concerned about this whole plan and what he's been excpected to do, but what other choice does she really have at this poitn?
Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure
He speak against me on the adverse side,
I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic
That's bitter to sweet end.
the other priest-francis enters and ushers them on to the final single scene act of the play:
Come, I have found you out a stand most fit, Where you may have such vantage on the duke,
Back with the final act tomorrow or Sunday. In the meantime- remember Barnadine's advice. and have a super weekend.
The act starts with Mariana and a little boy (her & angelo's little boy?! probably....) and the young boy is singing this super depressing but potentially perfectly beautiful song:
Take, O, take those lips away,
That so sweetly were forsworn;
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights that do mislead the morn:
But my kisses bring again, bring again;
Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain.
Gorgeous. The talks about kisses and seals reminds me of the Song of Songs and the musical piece that was written as an adaptation of a section from that biblical passage (A song that I happened to use at my wedding... of course that is like the alternative happy proper marriage version of what the song in this passage is... )
Mariana stops the sad singing when she sees the duke entering
Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice
Hath often still'd my brawling discontent.
[Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before]
I think it is worth noting that stage direction- Mariana recognizes him in his disguise as a priest so we know this is not the first time the duke has pulled some of these shenanigans...hmmmmm.
Isabella shows up shortly thereafter and they talk about the bedtrick they plan to pull. I think it's interesting that we don't get to see the scene where she consents to Angelo. Probably b/c it is far more uncomfortable in imagination than it could ever be onstage? also because it seems that part of this scene included walking her through exactly where she should meet him, etc.
ISABELLA
In action all of precept, he did show me The way twice o'er.
DUKE VINCENTIO
Are there no other tokens Between you 'greed concerning her observance?
SMART of the duke to check on this point. we don't want any ring mix ups getting in the way of their plan (oh... i'm getting ahead of myself again, have I mentioned that I.CAN'T. WAIT. to talk about All's Well and how badly I want to do that play again?!?!?!?) Isabella fills in Mariana on the situation- mostly reminding her to be quick and quiet in the whole thing:
Little have you to say
When you depart from him, but, soft and low,'
'Remember now my brother.'
Mariana is on board with all of this, not needing much convincing at all, again, just pointing this out so I can contrast it later... just this one last passage to bring up:
MARIANA Fear me not.
DUKE VINCENTIO
Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all.
He is your husband on a pre-contract:
To bring you thus together, 'tis no sin,
Wait... WHAT?! isn't that exactly what Claudio is in jail for?! or if not the same but for a technicality of a witness which I'm sure lucio could have provided? Or is it only no sin as long as no one is notably pregnant before the actual official marriage is recognized? ok, you know what let's just move on...
4.2
We are back to the prison and the bawd is offered an exchange for his time in prison/expected punishment:
Here is in our prison a common executioner, who in his office lacks a helper: if you will take it on you to assist him, it shall redeem you from your gyves; if not, you shall have your full time of imprisonment and your deliverance with an unpitied whipping, for you have been a notorious bawd.
Yeah... unsurprisingly he's on board with this switch and becomes very verbal about the life of an executioner.... and the provost moves onward to his other business.
Provost
Where's Barnardine?
CLAUDIO
As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour
When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones:
He will not wake.
Note the pregnancy term. also- sleeping seems like a very useful prison activity, especially the drunk sleeping in which Barnadine engages. The duke enters and asks if there's been any word from angelo and shortly thereafter they get their answer:
Messenger
[Giving a paper]
My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this further charge, that you swerve not from the smallest article of it, neither in time, matter, or other circumstance. Good morrow; for, as I take it, it is almost day.
Provost
I shall obey him.
So... it seems Angelo did not keep his promise about saving claudio. surprise. surprise. The duke tries to fix the situation and asks about Barnadine. The provost answers:
A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of mortality, and desperately mortal.
feerless of what's past, present, or to come... that sounds hardcore. The duke then comes up with this crazy idea:
Call your executioner, and off with Barnardine's head: I will give him a present shrift and advise him for a better place. Yet you are amazed; but this shall absolutely resolve you. Come away; it is almost clear dawn.
So the plan is to pull a huntsman from the Snow White story and instead of substituting hearts they will just substitute heads...
4.3
The executioner comes for Barnadine. (It's worth noting the executioner's name. say it out loud a time or two...)
ABHORSON
Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your prayers; for, look you, the warrant's come.
BARNARDINE
You rogue, I have been drinking all night; I am not fitted for 't.
Again, Barnadine seems to have a sound strategy- drink your way through prison. Not only that, but he won't participate in the show of execution:
BARNARDINE
Friar, not I I have been drinking hard all night, and I will have more time to prepare me, or they shall beat out my brains with billets: I will not consent to die this day, that's certain.
DUKE VINCENTIO
O, sir, you must: and therefore I beseech you Look forward on the journey you shall go.
BARNARDINE
I swear I will not die to-day for any man's persuasion.
I loved this whole exchange from the first time I read it. I loved it even more in my gateway class for grad school when professor cohen talked of his love for it. and now that I've read game of thrones, I love it EVEN. MORE. Because let's face it:
Seriously.
So once Barnadine makes his stand on not dying the Provost comes up with another option:
Here in the prison, father,
There died this morning of a cruel fever
One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate,
A man of Claudio's years; his beard and head
Just of his colour.
WHAT PROVIDENCE. this dude even looks more like Claudio, plus, how do you get a better lin/random character than RAGOZINE A MOST NOTORIOUS PIRATE. LOVE IT. FYI: ragozine is a potential name for if dan and I ever get a dog. I love that it's obvious what the provost is going to do, but in case the audience was disappointed that they didn't get to see any heads roll we get this moment:
[Re-enter Provost]
Provost
Here is the head; I'll carry it myself.
Perfect. because why not add a bloody head to your play?! beheadings and sheep seem to be a key go to...
Isabella comes in shortly after this and this line is what makes the Duke truly twisted and despicable in my eyes:
The tongue of Isabel. She's come to know If yet her brother's pardon be come hither: But I will keep her ignorant of her good, To make her heavenly comforts of despair, When it is least expected.
WHY?! why does the duke want to go through this whole charade in the first place when he could call angelo out fairly easily and when he could call him out with the note about condemning claudio without putting isabella through the hell of believing her brother is dead? it's just cruel. The only upside, we are reminded of how fierce this would-be nun is:
O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!
there's something so disturbing/disconcerting about messing with people's eyes and shakespere uses his eyes moments so well...
ISABELLA
Unhappy Claudio! wretched Isabel!
Injurious world! most damned Angelo!
DUKE VINCENTIO
This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot; Forbear it therefore; give your cause to heaven.
I'd have some choice words to say to the duke at that moment. Can we give the woman a few minutes to grieve please? Instead the duke continues:
Command these fretting waters from your eyes With a light heart; trust not my holy order, If I pervert your course.
Except, of course, that he has never taken holy orders... but whatever...
Lucio then comes in and tries to comfort Isabella as well:
O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see thine eyes so red: thou must be patient
Then seals his fate by confessing this to the disguised duke:
LUCIO
I was once before him for getting a wench with child.
DUKE VINCENTIO
Did you such a thing? LUCIO
Yes, marry, did I but I was fain to forswear it; they would else have married me to the rotten medlar.
DUKE VINCENTIO
Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well. LUCIO
By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end: if bawdy talk offend you, we'll have very little of it. Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr; I shall stick.
I love that description of being a burr and sticking to people so they can't shake him off.
4.4
The duke and escalus get conflicting letters/information about the duke's return:
His actions show much like to madness: pray heaven his wisdom be not tainted!
Angelo, I think the duke was a bit mad to begin with. but I understand why you are particularly concerned with his coming back... GUILT.
This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant
And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid!
And by an eminent body that enforced
The law against it! But that her tender shame
Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,
How might she tongue me!
This whole speech is also fantastic, but i particularly want to not the phrases "makes me unpregnant" and "how might she tongue me". the first just continues our look at pregnancy language throughout/as a major theme and the second is just one of the best uses of anthimeria ever. The best part of this speech though? The regret he has about claudio/confession of doing wrong/potential change that could happen in the next act.
Would yet he had lived!
A lack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not.
The final line makes me want to tell all of you to go read everything Stephen Booth ever wrote on what is and is not all at once.
4.5
Every time I read this random short scene, which basically lets us know of more letters the duke is sending about is arrival/sowing more confusion I wonder what the point of this scene is... and who the heck is varrius?!
4.6
the final scene in this act primarily between isabella and Mariana. Isabella is a bit concerned about this whole plan and what he's been excpected to do, but what other choice does she really have at this poitn?
Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure
He speak against me on the adverse side,
I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic
That's bitter to sweet end.
the other priest-francis enters and ushers them on to the final single scene act of the play:
Come, I have found you out a stand most fit, Where you may have such vantage on the duke,
Back with the final act tomorrow or Sunday. In the meantime- remember Barnadine's advice. and have a super weekend.
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