AYLI Act 2: Well, this is the forest of Arden.

So- i've had a strange jump from blog readers in Latvia. Hello to you...

and as an intro to Act 2- things move to a kind of vignette style for a bit now. there are 7 scenes in act 2 but they all kind of zip along....

2.1

a short scene introducing us to Duke Senior- the banished one. who seems to freaking love his banishment, or he's just REALLY good at making the best of things:

And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in every thing.
I would not change it.

We then hear of Jaques and how he has been mourning the deer they are killing and eating. The duke is amused my Jaques "matter"/dramatic reactions. I love Jaques. Maybe because I have a flair for the dramatic, maybe because I learned the ages of man speech long before I read AYLI, maybe because Professor Menzer referred to our graduating class as a hybrid between Bottom from Midsummer and Jaques (which which, for the most part, I emphatically agree). But more of Jaques when we actually get to him.

2.2

An even shorter scene back at court where Duke Frederick is rather upset that Celia and Rosalind have both run away. There's this gem of a line:

They found the bed untreasured of their mistress.

BEAUTIFUL.

then Frederick asks that Orlando be brought to him since he was informed the girls were talking about his wrestling performance. He also stipulates that if Orlando can't be found then his brother Oliver should come in his stead.

2.3

Adam informs Orlando that he needs to run away because Oliver is mad he did so well in the wrestling. Hmmm i wonder where he'll go? could it be THE WOODS?! Who wants to run AYLI and Into The Woods in rep?!?! LET'S DO IT! especially since AYLI is pretty damn musical/could easily be moreso- OH! what if you set some of the music to sondheim-ish melodies! My brain is really going now... I LOVE THIS IDEA! who wants to help me execute it/fund it?! come on universe. get to work!

anyway, back to charming old Adam, when Orlando expresses concern about begging Adam, his servant, replies:

But do not so. I have five hundred crowns,
The thrifty hire I saved under your father,
Which I did store to be my foster-nurse
When service should in my old limbs lie lame
And unregarded age in corners thrown:
Take that, and He that doth the ravens feed,
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,
Be comfort to my age!

That just makes me want to cry it's so genuine and sweet and faith filled. Orlando responds:

Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat but for promotion,

This makes me think of those of us in jobs for love vs. money. And how I can see acting this way for theatrical ventures/ on behalf of things or people i truly love (don't most of us? do you know many actors with absolutely healthy/on track 401K plans?) 

And Adam's response?

Yet fortune cannot recompense me better
Than to die well and not my master's debtor.

I hope I live to be old and can be that content with what I've given my life to all those years.

2.4

and now we're back to Rosalind and Celia, and who is the first to complain?

ROSALIND

O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits!

TOUCHSTONE

I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary.

Meanwhile, instead of complaining Celia just decides- i can't walk further. we're staying here. and lucky her because Rosaline replies

Well, this is the forest of Arden.

THEATRE MAGIC! The stage is now the Forest of Arden regardless of scenery just by saying so and that's that. It's like Oberon's I am invisible line. 

The talk of their new situation/surrounding is interrupted by some of the country natives- Corin and Silvius. 

Silvius & Phoebe- the comedic delights of this play. and so enjoyably self indulgent. Silvius articulates what I think is one of the recurring events of the play:

Or if thou hast not sat as I do now,
Wearying thy hearer in thy mistress' praise,
Thou hast not loved:

O Phebe, Phebe, Phebe!

Anyone I know who can't stand this play just gets SO SICK of hearing how much everyone claims to love everyone else in it. And I get sick of it too but i'm delighted by the mirror of human nature it shows/am tickled by the excess. Also, I think Corin is a fantastically underrated straight man throughout this comedy. 

Rosalind gets to turn on the manliness for the first time in front of Corin and Silvius and ask after lodging for the sake of the woman with her. After they are assured of food and lodging Celia declares:

CELIA

And we will mend thy wages. I like this place.
And willingly could waste my time in it.

No one else seems to have an agreement to this positive note, but that's OK, we know Duke senior shares her sentiments.

2.5

Amiens sings a song. there is the possibility for SO MUCH song and dance in this play. I'm astonished more high schools don't perform it!

When the song is over Jaques wants more and we get a first taste of his wit:

AMIENS

My voice is ragged: I know I cannot please you.

JAQUES

I do not desire you to please me; I do desire you to sing. 

and Jaques gets his way because most of the rest of the scene is singing and dancing.

2.6

Adam is faint with wandering in the wood and thinks he will die. Orlando comes through and encourages him:

Why, how now, Adam! no greater heart in thee? Live
a little; comfort a little; cheer thyself a little.

Orlando leaves to find Adam food and tells Adam him he better not die before the food comes!

2.7

The only scene in this act that actually feels like a full length scene.

Says very wisely, 'It is ten o'clock:
Thus we may see,' quoth he, 'how the world wags:
'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,
And after one hour more 'twill be eleven;
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;
And thereby hangs a tale.' 

This is one of those observations that it is just so difficult to think about how true it is and how painfully accurately Shakespeare deals with mortality.  I also love the continuing concept of the wise fool as well as the phrase thereby hangs a tale- i know its a popular saying but it is certainly not one I use much and I should. 

A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.

I love this. We'll talk more about the freeing nature of Motley/beeing a fool when we get to All's Well.

I must have liberty
Withal, as large a charter as the wind,
To blow on whom I please; for so fools have;
And they that are most galled with my folly,
They most must laugh. 

When I was teaching at MBC, and I'm sure I'll use this again if I teach a similar survey course, I tried to explain to my students that a lot of the satirical Greek/Roman plays (and obviously we can continue this throughout theatre history) were like the equivalent of our Daily Show or Colbert Report as far as engaging citizens with the politics in a way that's digestible thanks to the humor. When thinking back on this parallel it makes me wish I could see a production with Jon Stewart as Jaques and Colbert as Touchstone (though I'd love to see him as Silvius as well. because Colbert is one of my favorite people ever.) Anyway, the scene changes with the dramatic entrance of Orlando:

Enter ORLANDO, with his sword drawn

ORLANDO

Forbear, and eat no more.

Jaques does not seem phased by this threat

JAQUES

Why, I have eat none yet.

(don't you want someone on stage to do a makeshift rim shot noise in that moment?!) The openness/compassion with which Duke Senior deals with the situation is lovely and makes me wish we could solve all our criminal problems this way:

DUKE SENIOR

Art thou thus bolden'd, man, by thy distress,
Or else a rude despiser of good manners,
That in civility thou seem'st so empty?

ORLANDO

You touch'd my vein at first: the thorny point
Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the show
Of smooth civility:

The whole thing is very Les Mis without the misery to me. I always wonder how long the duke has been banished and/or just how hungry Orlando is if he does not recognize Duke Senior. Has he never seen him before? There is a kind of "reveal" at the end of the act that isn't really a reveal at all... anyway, as Orlando leaves to go get Adam, the Duke takes a moment to let this experience enforce his perspective/possibly change the perspective of those with him:

Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy:
This wide and universal theatre
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in.

Perspective. then Jaques breaks it down with his  all the world's a stage speech which. is. perfect. but I feel has been covered many time and I have nothing compelling to say about it aside from again, the mortality issue and looking that straight in the face is so compelling and necessary. So in lieu of commentary have this picture which sums it up: 

And now that Adam and Orlando enter the stage again, what else is there to do but go back to singing?

DUKE SENIOR

Welcome; fall to: I will not trouble you
As yet, to question you about your fortunes.
Give us some music; and, good cousin, sing.
SONG.

And on they go singing and dancing to close out Act 2. and when the singing's over, the Duke and Orlando go to talk about parentage/old frienships/etc. and that's Act II.

As You LIke It: act1

Since I'm doing all the histories in order... As you like it comes next as the 2nd play i studied in a high school Shakespeare course. I find this play deilghtful and I'm glad we get to explore 2 comedies in a row. I think one of the interesting things about this play is the way it feels so slow/almost dull/ rather clunky until everyone gets into the forest of arden. the difference between the courtly and pastoral feel and pacing is stunning. So today's blog post may skip a lot until we get to the forest (full disclosure: phoebe and silvius are my FAVORITE part of this play...)

1.1

the play begins with an old man and a young man. I love this. I'm keen on time and change these days.

This is it, Adam, that grieves me; and the spirit of my father, which I think is within me, begins to mutiny against this servitude: I will no longer endure it, though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it.

Oh Orlando, who wouldn't feel that way? I think this is universal the Catholic in me likes to think that the spirit of OUR FATHER makes us feel restless with all kinds of servitude in this same way...

After this Oliver, Orlando's mean brother comes and asks what he is making/marring. Orlando's clever response is

Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness.

GO EDUCATION! and work that feels fulfilling!

The brothers fight and the text seems to imply that Orlando could kick Oliver's ass if he watned to (prep for the wrestling scene?)

and in case we had any sense of pity for Oliver after how he treats orlando, his parting shot is calling the servant Adam an "old dog"

Is 'old dog' my reward? Most true, I have lost my teeth in your service. God be with my old master! he would not have spoke such a word.

oh adam, its ok, the audience loves you!! 

After Orlando and Adam leave, Charles the wrestler comes in and we get some kind of clunky exposition between he and Oliver about Rosalind and how she was not banished but her father was. She was not banished for the sake of Celia.

Does anyone else never believe that orlando could possibly get seriously hurt by wrestling? maybe i've just never seen a truly terrifying charles the wrestler but i feel like this original conflict is very obvious machinery. so let's move on to the stuff that interests me...

1.2

Rosalind and Celia- So we have one of Shakespeare's most loquacious females and one of his smartest and their friendship rivals that of hermia and helena. For instance, there's this:

CELIA

Herein I see thou lovest me not with the full weight that I love thee. If my uncle, thy banished father, had banished thy uncle, the duke my father, so thou hadst been still with me, I could have taught my love to take thy father for mine: so wouldst thou, if the truth of thy love to me were so righteously tempered as mine is to thee.

ROSALIND

Well, I will forget the condition of my estate, to rejoice in yours.

and Celia's claims get even sweeter:

for what he hath taken away from thy father perforce, I will render thee again in affection; by mine honour, I will;

and then the talk turns to falling in love which Rosalind seems to take in immediate interest with but Celia dismisses. I see a lot of the pre-Dan me in Celia, this is how i often felt. they play with words a bit and then in comes "the fool" touchstone who continues the banter. we also start the gender/cross dressing theme when touchstone asks the girls to swear by their beards.

Another reason to love Celia:

CELIA

By my troth, thou sayest true; for since the little
wit that fools have was silenced, the little foolery
that wise men have makes a great show.

SO WONDERFUL

Le Beau then enters with more exposition and then we get the wrestling scene which is dull to read but FANTASTIC to watch if you have actors skilled in either clown or combat. throughout the scene we see how frustrated celia is with her father and she encourages rosalind to talk with orlando Let us go thank him and encourage him:

I like that the girls seem to say less gushy things than Orlando in this play and by the end of the scene we already know he is head over heels for Rosalind.

1.3

Here we get the main plot of the play- Celia and rosalind decide to run away. We begin with this exchange:

CELIA

But is all this for your father?

ROSALIND

No, some of it is for my child's father. 

Oh snap. Shakespeare just highlighted the concept of a baby daddy. So now we know Rosalind has it just as bad for Orlando as Orlando does for her. They talk a while longer until we get an amazing character description:

ROSALIND

 Look, here comes the duke.

CELIA

With his eyes full of anger.

How do you play that?! eyes full of anger. or do you even need to and the audience will just transpose it. i know i'm reading way too far into this but that phrase just absolutely tickled me!!

Celia has some AMAZING lines/descriptions shortly after this, such as this decription of her love for Rosalind:

I was too young that time to value her;
But now I know her: if she be a traitor,
Why so am I; we still have slept together,
Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together,
And wheresoever we went, like Juno's swans,
Still we went coupled and inseparable.

Some people want to argue that there's a homosexual love here, I lean toward the homosocial. Mostly because i went to an all girls school and know what it is to love best friends as sisters and never want to part. Its a really lovely presexualized adoration that it would be a shame to discount. Celia then continues to encourage Rosalind to look on the bright side and focus on what's important:

Rosalind lacks then the love
Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one:
Shall we be sunder'd? shall we part, sweet girl?
No: let my father seek another heir.
Therefore devise with me how we may fly,
And do not seek to take your change upon you,
To bear your griefs yourself and leave me out;
For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale,
Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee.

alright, let's escape!!

ROSALIND

Why, whither shall we go?

CELIA

To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden.

I've really idealized the forest of Arden. its one of my imaginary visualization happy places... re-read the play. maybe it will become your too. but before we get to the happy place let's talk about a very real concern:

Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.

SCARY rape culture reference when I read that... anyone else feel that way?

anyway, instead of uglying up, Rosalind comes up with this idea:

Were it not better,
Because that I am more than common tall,
That I did suit me all points like a man?

OK, let's go with that game plan, we're set to run away now right? wrong. we need some really random addition first:

ROSALIND

But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal
The clownish fool out of your father's court?
Would he not be a comfort to our travel?

CELIA

He'll go along o'er the wide world with me;
Leave me alone to woo him. Let's away,

The care to explain why Touchstone shows up with them and that they want them there/its part of their plan is so interesting to me. especially since if touchstone is there they already HAVE a man to protect them/etc. 

But they dont seem to think of this/mind their state:

 Now go we in content
To liberty and not to banishment.

A theme i keep running into as I blog is any place can be paradise or can be hell based on who is with you and how they are making you feel.

Next time we'll get to pastoral times. woohoo!!!

PS: here's a picture from Roving Shakespeare's production of AYLI. I'd love to hear from them about their favorite moments of this play/ what they discovered! Props to my fellow MLitt/MFAers! and stunning work http://www.miscellaneousmediaphotography.com/

Much Ado Act 5: Wedding quotes & untidy endings

5.1

we open with Antonio trying to reassure Leonato and Leonato responding:

I pray thee, cease thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitless
As water in a sieve: give not me counsel;
Nor let no comforter delight mine ear
But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine.
Bring me a father that so loved his child,

yeah, a father that so loved his child now that he knows she's still a virgin... i don't believe your love is unconditional Leonato!!

also- no one is around to hear this so why is he still crying like hero is dead?

Don Pedro and Claudio enter, there's a lot of talk about dueling which makes Antonio particularly charming- or maybe im just biased towards him since he didnt say the awful things leonato did last scene...

Leonato and Antonio leave and in comes Benedick to fulfill his promise to Beatrice. I find this scene quite moving. Challenging someone who was a friend, and having to do it quietly so the prince can't officially interfere... and the way claudio says benedick invited him to a feast... pain. in my heart. so good.

After that, claudio and the prince start teasing benedick about beatrice, but instead of hurling witty banter back he firmly lets them know its not time to play any more:

BENEDICK

Fare you well, boy: you know my mind. I will leave you now to your gossip-like humour: you break jests as braggarts do their blades, which God be thanked, hurt not. My lord, for your many courtesies I thank you: I must discontinue your company: your brother the bastard is fled from Messina: you have among you killed a sweet and innocent lady. For my Lord Lackbeard there, he and I shall meet: and, till then, peace be with him.

wow. quite a turn around from the benedick we saw at the beginning of the play. the prince show's he's perceptive enough to be a good ruler by calling claudio on what really happened between he and benedick, and to confirm that benedick was right about don john running away, in comes Dogberry & Co. and while you think all sillyness will ensue, instead we get this beautiful confession from Borachio:

Sweet prince, let me go no farther to mine answer: do you hear me, and let this count kill me. I have deceived even your very eyes: what your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light: who in the night overheard me confessing to this man how Don John your brother incensed me to slander the Lady Hero, how you were brought into the orchard and saw me court Margaret in Hero's garments, how you disgraced her, when you should marry her: my villany they have upon record; which I had rather seal with my death than repeat over to my shame. The lady is dead upon mine and my master's false accusation; and, briefly, I desire nothing but the reward of a villain.

OK, aside from the new weirdness revealed that not only did Margaret let Borachio call her Hero, she was also wearing hero's clothes.... that's a pretty heavy speech.

Now the boys are feeling pretty bad about their horrible behavior/ easy deception:

DON PEDRO

Runs not this speech like iron through your blood?

CLAUDIO

I have drunk poison whiles he utter'd it.

All i'm saying is its a good thing they weren't married already or hero could have been another Desdemona...

Leonato comes back on to see borachio and borachio clear's margaret of knowingly plotting against hero. claudio promises to write a glorious remembrance of hero and mourn for her. dogberry is proud of his work and exits the scene with his usual absurdity:

DOGBERRY

I leave an arrant knave with your worship; which I beseech your worship to correct yourself, for the example of others. God keep your worship! I wish your worship well; God restore you to health! I humbly give you leave to depart; and if a merry meeting may be wished, God prohibit it! Come, neighbour.

5.2

Another favorite scene. It opens with Benedick and Saucy Margaret making bawdy jokes as Benedick tries to get her to bring Beatrice to him. There's something really interesting in a woman who can be so sexual and enjoy that sexuality and never get punished for it. She's open about it but not malicious/manipulative. Its a strange character a little more like something I'd expect to see in a Fletcher play. 

Once margaret leaves we get Benedicks terrible song/poetry. The awfulness does not escape Benedick:

Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried: I can find out no rhyme to 'lady' but 'baby,' an innocent rhyme; for 'scorn,' 'horn,' a hard rhyme; for, 'school,' 'fool,' a babbling rhyme; very ominous endings: no, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms.

its almost as though while making fun of himself benedick is also making fun of all those lovers obsessed with showing they are a couple through using couplets.

Beatrice enters and they continue their usual spats but with an air of love. two of my favorite lines are in this scene, the first is:

BENEDICK

Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.

I tell Dan that all the time. :) and the other comes shortly thereafter, and is so applicable and lovely and perfect that Dan and I had it engraved on  what carried our rings at our wedding:

BENEDICK

Serve God, love me and mend. 

(Some of you may recognize the phrase from a Mumford & Sons song...)

 I think that's a solid phrase by which we can all live life... who the "me" is varies of course...

The scene ends with ursula calling them to see the results of hero's proven innocence.

5.3

a very short scene with Cladio's epitaph/song he's written for Hero. I feel like the success of this scene very much depends on how good the music is. 

5.4

the final scene!- the scene starts with a little I told you so from the priest. everyone is happy benedick didnt end up having to kill his friend and that hero isnt really dead.

Benedick tells friar francis he will need help with his own wedding soon.

I dont really have an interest in the weird story that Claudio is going to marry a replacement hero, i think that whole thing is done much better in winter's tale

im much more interested in, after their several confessions of love, Benedick and Beatrice then claim NOT to love each other again. and in keeping with the theme of things said being false but written being true...

CLAUDIO

And I'll be sworn upon't that he loves her;
For here's a paper written in his hand,
A halting sonnet of his own pure brain,
Fashion'd to Beatrice.

HERO

And here's another
Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket,
Containing her affection unto Benedick.

BENEDICK

A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts.

And thus we have my favorite couple in Shakespeare's Canon (yes, even more than A&C)

2 more points to mention before we wrap up this play:

1.  BENEDICK

First, of my word; therefore play, music. Prince,
thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife:

I love the reversal here. instead of hapring on ursula or margaret to get a husband it is now the prince's turn to have marriage pressure.

2. The complete ignoring of Don John and refusal to tie up loose ends:

Messenger

My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight,
And brought with armed men back to Messina.

BENEDICK

Think not on him till to-morrow:
I'll devise thee brave punishments for him.
Strike up, pipers.
Dance

Who needs justice/hunting down the bad guy when you've got a happy ending?! Everybody dance!

and that's my favorite, messy, slightly absurd shakespearean comedy.

I'm off to CA for the weekend to see a play at my alma mater. Next week we'll look at As You Like It!!

Much Ado Act 4: my favorite love scene

4.1

much like my mother, Leonato wants the priest to have the marriage ceremony go as FAST AS POSSIBLE and tells him to use the simplest form (unfortunately for my mother, Dan and I had an hour+ long full Catholic Mass.) OH, speaking of mass, there's a Protestant joke in this scene that always made our dear friend Jonathan comment to us about its protestant nature:

FRIAR FRANCIS

You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady.

CLAUDIO

No.

LEONATO

To be married to her: friar, you come to marry her.

Jonathan always loved to point out that in the Catholir rite, the husband and wife are the ones who literally do the marrying of each other. Its a really beautiful part of the sacrament/marriage ceremony that they have the power of marrying and the priest just officiates. (I wanted Jonathan to elaborate on the history behind this but he didnt get back to me in time. maybe i'll update here when/if he does. In a Catholic ceremony, When you put the rings on the other persons finger, they say the Amen, you marry each other through this, as opposed to the priest saying Amen...)

Anywhoo...let's get to claudio being a jerk- WHO WAITS to do this kind of crap until they are in front of God and everyone at their own wedding? that is some BAD ju-ju. 

CLAUDIO

O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily
do, not knowing what they do!

holy antistrophe Cladio! We get it. you're calling her a whore. you feel like all you have power to do now is slut shame. I can't wait to see how sorry you are going to be...  its ok soon I'm going to dislike Leonato more than you.

Meanwhile poor Benedick who so clearly does not want to acknowledge this is not going well, awkwardly interjects:

BENEDICK

How now! interjections? Why, then, some be of
laughing, as, ah, ha, he!

Gosh, we do stupid things to break tension sometimes, huh?

This leads to more direct words- Claudio makes it clear that he thinks Hero is not a virgin, or to put it his way a rotten orange. 

Leonato wonders if Cladio was the one to take her virginity, which he waves away with common engagement/marriage practices that come under more scrutiny in Shakespeare's later problem plays, so we'll talk about it then... Claudio shoots this down. As things get more tense benedick sounds more and more stupid:

LEONATO

Are these things spoken, or do I but dream?

DON JOHN

Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true.

BENEDICK

This looks not like a nuptial.

Thank you captain obvious.

Things continue to escalate, Don John even speaks up- I always forget when reading that Don John is there. seriously HOW does he get away with this without ANYONE suspecting him even though he's proven untrustworthy several times without punishment again?! His words are particularly smarmy:

Fie, fie! they are not to be named, my lord,
Not to be spoke of;
There is not chastity enough in language
Without offence to utter them. Thus, pretty lady,
I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.

And then when Hero swoons Don John suggest they all just leave and not see what happens- and the stupid guys LISTEN TO HIM. WHAT?!

Luckily, Friar Francis has a plan (good name, love it even more now, and of course he is awesome.)

anywhoo... Friar Francis tells Leonato to calm the hell down after his monologue all about how he wishes he had no daughter and nothing can wash away her shame and he wishes she was dead etc etcetc. Friar Francis suggests to Leonato to maybe believe his daughter instead of the jerkface boys.

 Call me a fool;
Trust not my reading nor my observations,
Which with experimental seal doth warrant
The tenor of my book; trust not my age,
My reverence, calling, nor divinity,
If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here
Under some biting error.

even after this beautiful speech Leonato needs more convincing. Finally benedick says something intelligent in this scene:

The practise of it lives in John the bastard,
Whose spirits toil in frame of villanies.

So after Leonato, who never appologizes for what a jerk he's been, is at least convinced that he made a mistake and stops saying horrible things to his daughter, the friar reveals his plan. Let's still pretend Hero is dead so these guys can feel horrible and her modesty of dying in such a way will prove her innocence (huh? um... ok...) in Cladio's mind. Its a strange plan, but no less strange than some of the schemes coming up in the romance plays... and it gives us this beautiful line:

Come, lady, die to live: this wedding-day
Perhaps is but prolong'd: have patience and endure.

And then we get to my favorite scene in the play- the kill Claudio scene. and we start with Benedick going back to his awkward/stupid line tendency:

Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while?

YES, benedick- WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!

Tangent- when i was in undergrad, I was in a "period styles" class that was really just a shakespeare class as we didnt cover any other periods or styles... and the teacher coached/directed this scene as beatrice pulling a fast one on benedick/using her feminine wiles to get vengeance. and I hated it. everything inside me rebelled against it and i remember being glad to not play beatrice if this was the idea behind it, because i'd built her up in my head as this very genuine, flawed but funny and straightforward lady. I seemed to be the only one who had a huge problem with this interpretation though so i seethed quietly until I got to grad school and felt vindicated not only by a slew of classmates but also by Professor Cohen who on several occasions raved about how genuine and heartbreaking Dam Judy Dench was when she played Beatrice. so... all that to say to any of you directors/actors/teachers out there: dont trivialize my favorite characters. PLEASE.

that being said the way I read this scene, its touching how hard Beatrice tries NOT to ask benedick to take revenge for her, she knows they are friends, she knows its a cruel thing to ask but she's stuck. because she's a woman and can't do it herself.

then there's this:

BENEDICK

I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?

BEATRICE

As strange as the thing I know not. It were as possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as you: but believe me not; and yet I lie not; I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin.

BENEDICK

By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me.

There's something beautiful and solemn yet funny and mature yet giddy all at once about this scene which is why i love it and maybe why I think Dana and I fit into the benedick/beatrice mold so well (and let's not even get in to how much easier it was for Benedick to say he loved Beatrice than for her to say it back... oh Shakespeare and all your mirror up to nature business...) i think tying in with that, how many of Shakespeare's love scenes do you get in prose? 

Benedick keeps after Beatrice until she finally admits:

I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.

and then the scene turns:

BENEDICK

Come, bid me do any thing for thee.

BEATRICE

Kill Claudio.

BENEDICK

Ha! not for the wide world.

BEATRICE

You kill me to deny it. Farewell.

and just like that... these two people who are so clearly perfect for each other could fall apart. What sacrifices are you willing to make for the person you love? A sobering question...  and benedick just makes the situation worse when he says:

BENEDICK

We'll be friends first.

BEATRICE

You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine enemy.

now there's no stopping beatrice:

what, bear her in hand until they
come to take hands; and then, with public
accusation, uncovered slander, unmitigated rancour,
--O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart
in the market-place.

That O that I were a man is one of my favorite lines ever, I can't tell you how many times i have cried or screamed that line. what's lovely about seeing this scene on the page/screen is the way you can tell beatrice won't let benedick have a word in edgewise. she railroads him at every line and unlike her cousin SHE WILL NOT BE SILENCED. and then there's this, which I have often added to my O god, that i were a man prayers:

I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.

and Benedick can't hold out after this and agrees to challenge Claudio and leaves Beatrice with another assurance of his love for her.

And that scene makes this love story my favorite.

4.2

back to Doberry & Co.- and in this scene we see how TRULY obsessed with reading and writing Doberry is. he wants to be sure EVERYTHING is correctly written down/recorded. what's written is what's important gets emphasized over and over again. And for as crazy or foolish as dogberry seems... he's got a point. After a rather convoluted examination, we get the gist of what the "villains" did and the Sexton who is recording all this brings everyone up to speed:

Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away; Hero was in this manner accused, in this very manner refused, and upon the grief of this suddenly died. Master constable, let these men be bound, and brought to Leonato's: I will go before and show him their examination.

Hooray. The day will surely be saved now.

and now that we don't have to worry so much about hero we can get to laughing at dogberry more:

CONRADE

Away! you are an ass, you are an ass.

DOGBERRY

Dost thou not suspect my place? dost thou not
suspect my years? O that he were here to write me
down an ass! But, masters, remember that I am an
ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not
that I am an ass. 

Ass jokes... apparently they are humor gold.

Act 5 to come. 

much ado act 3: sorry for the delay!

So i've had some time off blogging to close all my sons and celebrate Holy Week... but now we're back! I wrote this post over the course of last week and just didn't get around to posting it until today...

3.1

Now its beatrice's turn to get tricked into falling in love. Interesting that Hero is a poetry times part in this heavily prose play. (scaffolding anyone?) and this whole scene remains in verse. a welcome variation to audience ears.

this scene completely mimics the gulling of Beatrice, but its a great deal shorter with now musician, etc.  My personal favorite line?
If it proves so, then loving goes by haps:
Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.

(I like to tell Dan that the trap for me was his endless supply of coffee...)

Not only does beatrice remain in prose, SHE STARTS RHYMING! oh she's got it bad for sure if such a strong rhyme scheme shows up...

3.2

the scene where everyone teases the hell out of Benedick. Best retort from him?

Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it. Fair statement. Pithy. Point for Benedick.

The teasing continues until Benedick asks to speak privately with Leonato (it is assumed that he wants to talk of marrying Beatrice) 

as soon as benedick leaves, Don John enters and spoils everyone's fun by saying he has ill news. He's particularly sparse with his words which makes them all the more cruel:

DON JOHN

I came hither to tell you; and, circumstances shortened, for she has been too long a talking of, the lady is disloyal.

CLAUDIO

Who, Hero?

DON PEDRO

Even she; Leonato's Hero, your Hero, every man's Hero:

leonato's hero, your hero, every man's hero.... its so slimy sounding! (does anyone else hear that line and think of the rhythm in Rocky Horror with "she's lucky, I'm lucky, we're all lucky!"??)

Yet more cruelty:

The word is too good to paint out her wickedness; I could say she were worse: think you of a worse title, and I will fit her to it.

Again, it disturbs me that Claudio seems more apt to believe this accusation than don pedro... but he joins the club soon enough:

And, as I wooed for thee to obtain her, I will join with thee to disgrace her.

The scene ends with:

DON PEDRO

O day untowardly turned!

CLAUDIO

O mischief strangely thwarting!

DON JOHN

O plague right well prevented! so will you say when you have seen the sequel.

Ha. the way Don John steals their language to move them forward in his plot for chaos...

3.3

and now we finally get to meet Dogberry... and he bursts on the scene with: Are you good men and true?

DOGBERRY

First, who think you the most desertless man to be constable?

First Watchman

Hugh Otecake, sir, or George Seacole; for they can write and read.

comment
It's really quite hard to blog about Dogberry because I think the lines are FAR funnier when heard than when read.... So instead of going through specific lines for the rest of the scene let me say that i think this is one of the hardest parts of the play to get right, but when done right it shines and when done poorly it is painful.
(side note: MLitt/MFA peers: how badly do you want to see Chris Johnston as Verges a la his characterization of Silence from 2 henry IV?!?! or to just have him write a 2 man show for that character because I could watch that for HOURS.)

Of course, as soon as dogberry and Verges leave the watchmen, Borachio and Conrad enter.

We find out its raining. there's a lot of silly drunken wordplay and Borachio confesses his villainy and is then promptly taken by the watchmen. who'd have thought they'd be so effective?!

3.4

commonly referred to as the beatrice has a cold scene, many productions cut this scene out completely but I think there are some truly lovely moment.

This scene is full of the giddyness Hero has about her wedding day and shows off the an all female space in a way that we rarely see onstage.

Margaret gets a chance to show off her love of bawdy humor/life choices that makes us understand how she may have thought it normal to be called Hero by Boraccio during their night time tryst. one example:

HERO

These gloves the count sent me; they are an
excellent perfume.

BEATRICE

I am stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.

MARGARET

A maid, and stuffed! there's goodly catching of cold.

oh margaret, you saucy minx. Margaret also seems to think that what beatrice needs to cure her cold is a good dose of Benedick. and she stands her ground.

BEATRICE

What pace is this that thy tongue keeps?

MARGARET

Not a false gallop.

the scene ends with the ladies leaving to finish helping hero get ready for her wedding. 

3.5

Dogberry and Verges try to warn Leonato of what Don John is up to but Leonato doesnt have the patience to really hear them and leaves for the wedding. Oh leonato, i am about to really hate you for a while. something fierce. 

Dogberry realizes what they need to be understood is to have someone who can write record their questioning of Borachio. False things come via word of mouth but the truth comes written down is one of the odd thematic recurrences in this show...

till next time friends (hopefully tomorrow!)

Much Ado Act 2: some Rom Com tropes are nice...

2.1

The scene starts by highlighting how Don John does not want to partake in the festivities/ is clearly a sketchy dude. Of course, like in everything else, Beatrice has to bring the subject back to Benedick:

He were an excellent man that were made just in the
midway between him and Benedick: the one is too
like an image and says nothing, and the other too
like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling.

From there we move to the talk of getting Beatrice a husband and it seems, for a moment we are going to go in the direction of my LEAST favorite play...

LEONATO

By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a
husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.

ANTONIO

In faith, she's too curst.

And just when i think I'm going to have nightmares about Taming of the Shrew... they let Beatrice play along and never bring up taming her brilliant wit at all. (in the nurture/nature debate, maybe kate would have been like Beatrice if her family wasn't full of abusive times)

BEATRICE

Just, if he send me no husband; for the which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening.

Beatrice then goes on to explain how every man is flawed in her own way and that she intends to live a bachelorette so she can go to heaven and sit with the bachelors. What a fantastic monologue. Right about now I start remembering just how much prose is in this play!

He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man: and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him

I particularly like that last phrase- Beatrice has a strenght and sexuality that it seems she is not ashamed of or punished for. After this, Beatrice's audience on stage continues to ask her about if she is sure she will not want a husband and she answers as if she and Hamlet could have been best buds if it werent for his whole not trusting any women thing:

Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a pierce of valiant dust?

After this we lead into:

THE MASQUE- in all its strangeness and flirting times. how do you stage this? what music? what dance styles? This scene is a PLAYGROUND for actors/directors. Antonio's strange flirting, everyone lying to each other and who can identify vs not identify each other (even when its pretty obvious to the audience most of the time who is who based on body type, etc. and WHY does Claudio pretend to be Benedick? (unless there's a seed of jealousy in him even before don john's accusations and he will play false to feed that jealousy... in which case I have some serious concerns for Hero.)

A favorite piece, of course, is the beatrice/benedick exchange. Does beatrice know its benedick in the mask or not? just another fun choice, and then Benedick gets to respond at such length that the audience knows he must be a little crazy for Beatrice as well, or he would pay her no mind... 

O, she misused me past the endurance of a block! an oak but with one green leaf on it would have answered her; my very visor began to assume life and scold with her. She told me, not thinking I had been myself, that I was the prince's jester, that I was duller than a great thaw; huddling jest upon jest with such impossible conveyance upon me that I stood like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at me. She speaks poniards, and every word stabs: (it's so funny what you pick up on based on which play you read just before, huh?) if her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her; she would infect to the north star. I would not marry her, though she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed: she would have made Hercules have turned spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make the fire too. Come, talk not of her: you shall find her the infernal Ate in good apparel. I would to God some scholar would conjure her; for certainly, while she is here, a man may live as quiet in hell as in a sanctuary; and people sin upon purpose, because they would go thither; so, indeed, all disquiet, horror and perturbation follows her.

Even Benedick realizes how long he's talking about Beatrice and tells himself to stop, but he can't help himself! he loves her.

Next the focus shifts to Beatrice and Don Pedro in one of the most interesting and telling exchanges:

DON PEDRO

Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of
Signior Benedick.

BEATRICE

Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one: marry, once before he won it of me with false dice, therefore your grace may well say I have lost it.

THIS. This descritption/admission is terribly interesting to me. I start wondering all sorts of things about the past interactions between Beatrice and Benedick and how much fun it would be to create that story in production. Not to mention the images and words are just stunningly beatufiul! The conversation then shifts to Claudio and Beatrice describes him as: civil as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion. 1. I love the strange image of being orange with jealousy instead of green 2. I use the phrase civil as an orange as much as possible. It just sounds right with a perfect amoung of snark. And this was written before this grating video!!

Everything is cleared up between Claudio and Don Pedro about Hero and it seems that marriage and happy times are all that's ahead:

BEATRICE

Speak, count, 'tis your cue.

CLAUDIO

Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much.

I love that. I'm not sure it is ALWAYS true as most of the happy moments i can think of have some kind of sound attached to them, but mostly those sounds are non-verbal. Words can't describe... even though that's there job. words words words have nothing on true happiness.

But it seems this just makes everyone want Beatrice to get married even more! I am always interested if Don Pedro's semi-proposal to Beatrice is genuine or playful. I've seen it both ways and teh genuine is certainly more affecting, and prepares the audience for a change in mood that they should get used to given what's about to come the next act.... but they both seem to bounce back and rebound so quickly you need some very skilled actors to play the change successfully (I'm lucky enough to have seen several casts of skilled actors do just that...)

DON PEDRO

Will you have me, lady?

BEATRICE

No, my lord, unless I might have another for working-days: your grace is too costly to wear every day. But, I beseech your grace, pardon me: I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.

Now if that isn't the classiest way to turn a guy down, I don't know what is. 

I think it is interesting the way no one mentions this encounter to Benedick. Beatrice has no desire to make Benedick jealous or stir up trouble between his group of friends. The light way Beatrice is able to dismiss things leads Don Pedro to tell beatrice: you were born in a merry hour. To which Beatrice responds:  No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born. I love that. The ASC sells clothing with that line printed on it. When the time comes for a Baby T to enter the world, just know that i'd love to dress my child in that onesie. Beatrice leaves the stage wtih well wishing: Cousins, God give you joy!

And again the conversation goes to coupling Beatrice, only now more specifically with Benedick. There's a fabulous description of Beatrice that I especially love as I have woken myself with laughing:

There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord: she is never sad but when she sleeps, and not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say,she hath often dreamed of unhappiness and waked herself with laughing.

Then there's this little bout of adolescent-like impatience (who knows, maybe they ARE adolescent...)

DON PEDRO

County Claudio, when mean you to go to church?

CLAUDIO

To-morrow, my lord: time goes on crutches till love have all his rites.

LEONATO

Not till Monday, my dear son, which is hence a just seven-night; and a time too brief, too, to have all things answer my mind.

I love that Leonato squashes that rush... but only delays the marriage a bit longer. There's something adorably childish/stupid? about claudio's wanting to get married IMMEDIATELY.

Anyway, back to the men plotting to get beatrice a husband... I love that this is the description we get of Benedick:

And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that I know. Ringing endorsement of your friend there buddy. and Don Pedro gets even more lovely and absurd with this line, which should really be quoted a lot more in life

we are the only love-gods. YES!!!

2.2

A Short don john and borachio scene to lay the plot for tripping up Claudio and Hero... as a means of getting back at Don Pedro?! Oh Don John... stupid lines of logic must run in y'alls family.

So the basic idea is that Borachio is going to get with Hero's waiting woman Margaret and do her in a visible place where they will call each other different names than there own... and here is the BIGGEST logical problem with the scene:

hear me call Margaret Hero, hear Margaret term me Claudio;

WHAT?!?! wouldn't that make claudio think hmmm... that's not me up there but she's using my name... something is weird here. once again, THIS PLAN MAKES NO SENSE and its so contrived its painful and yet i LOVE WATCHING/barely think of this when i'm watching the play vs. reading it. (not to mention that Margaret and Borachio are apparently pro the strangeness of kinky semi-public displays and role playing)

2.3

OH GOD BENEDICK'S GULLING!!!

There's a big long speech about how he doesnt get how people can fall in love and act so stupid. which means we can't WAIT to see him fall in love and act just as stupid as everyone else. What I love about this scene is the way it echoes Beatrice's earlier speech about different kinds of men.... everything works together to say MEANT FOR EACH OTHER MEANT FOR EACH OTHER MEANT FOR EACH OTHER. its like the original ROMCOM in that we know whats going to happen but it doesn't deplete how wonderful it is to watch the characters figure out what we already know.

I love the use of music in this scene. Sigh no more... basically anything that Mumford appropriates for their songs is a win.

and what is the theme in this song? Men were deceivers ever the musician practically warns everyone that maybe they should trust the women not the men... but no one listens... (note: i do not think one gender has the monopoly on being honest/deceivers)

So Don Pedro, Leonato, and Claudio trick benedick into thinking beatrice loves him. The great choice for actors here are 1. how well/poorly benedick disguises himself or hides during this scene and 2. how good the gullers are at lying. either way, this line is comedic gold:

I should think this a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it: 

 there's some 2 gents sounding talk about beatrice tearing a letter into a million pieces (I seriously subscribe to Katy Mulvany's theory that this is shakespeare's great big apology for screwing up stories with women so badly earlier in his career)  and then there's this:

CLAUDIO

And she is exceeding wise.

DON PEDRO

In every thing but in loving Benedick.

this will echo later. the echoes in this show are lovely.

and while beatrice won't boast of don pedro's affections, benedick gets to hear about them anyway:

DON PEDRO

I would she had bestowed this dotage on me: I would have daffed all other respects and made her half myself.

then the conversation turns to how she'd die if benedick knew because...well, because he's been a dick to her (sorry, you have to make the bad pun sometimes...) when they leave benedick has what I think is his greatest speech in the show, starting with the make the audience feel infinitely smarter than the main character line: This can be no trick. and getting even better when he adds 

The world must be peopled!  When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.

Amen Benedick. Amen. you and me both. 

The scene ends with beatrice inviting benedick in to dinner in her usual snarky way, but benedick only interprets love. meaning is made by the audience, right?

finally there's joke making fun of jews that is uncomfortable for today's audiences and then we're on to act 3.