Poor Paris. He seems like such a decent guy. A chump, certainly, but a decent guy.
Nobody remembers Paris.
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THURSDAY
This coming Sunday, the first of March, is St. David's Day! Poor old St. David doesn't get nearly as much international acclaim and love as his hard-drinking Irish counterpart does, but among Shakespearean circles his feast day is heralded for primarily one reason. And that reason is...
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| Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant Hapus! |
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SATURDAY
By now we've all heard the news that Leonard Nimoy has died. As a Star Trek fan, this is, of course, terribly saddening, but fortunately there is so much to celebrate about Nimoy's life and work. Here is my own painfully inadequate tribute:
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As I was drawing this comic, I stumbled across a now much-shared letter that Nimoy wrote in response to a biracial girl asking him for advice. It just goes to show what an absolutely top-class human Nimoy was.
Live long and prosper, everyone.
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The Week in Social Media
I took my St. David's Day festivities to Instagram this week with this snapshot: |
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A photo posted by Good Tickle Brain (@goodticklebrain) on Feb 27, 2015 at 10:43am PST
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In case you ever need to lay your hands on a miniature leek for some reason, I can attest that a scallion cut to size and then tinted with a green marker works passably well.
I participated in #ShakespeareSunday, @HollowCrownFans's weekly Shakespeare quote-fest on Twitter. This week's theme was "Angels and Heavenly Creatures". Having recently seen two productions of The Tempest, I had this quote on the brain: |
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| And finally, over on Tumblr, I posted this handy-dandy guide to one of the most over-used names in Shakespeare. |
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| There is Nothing Like a Dane/Thane (Clive Francis) |
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In these two slim volumes, actor and caricature artists Clive Francis takes aim at two of Shakespeare's most exalted tragedies: Hamlet and Macbeth. Francis has combed carefully through the historical record and selected quotes, anecdotes, reviews, sketches, and parodies related to the two plays, dating back several centuries. The result is a light-hearted survey of over two hundred years of Hamlet and Macbeth in performance. Here are a few examples:
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| In 1775, a critic objected to real skulls and bones in the grave-yard scene [inHamlet] and suggested a wooden substitute be made by a carpenter. To meet such susceptibilities in Scotland, grave-digger handed Hamlet "a small, consumptive and rather grimy turnip," instead. |
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One night when Henry Irving was playing Hamlet, he noticed an old lady in the front row of the pit dissolved in tears, and, delighted at this apparently appreciation of his acting, sent round word that he would like to see her after the performance.
'Madam," said Irving, "I perceived that my acting moved you very much."
"Indeed it did," she replied, still drying her eyes. "You see, I've a young son play-acting somewhere up north, and it broke me up to think that he might be no better at it than you!" |
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| According to Timothy West, Peter O'Toole played Macbeth in baseball boots. He received the best laugh of the evening when he came on stage after the murder of Duncan drenched from head to toe in gore. Blood dripped in great dollops from his hands and hair, and also from the points of both daggers. He stood for what seemed an eternity in this gory state, before announcing gravely, "I have done the deed." |
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| The actor playing Setyon in Donald Wolfit's production had become bored of rushing on every night and informing Macbeth that the Queen was dead, and had asked for a larger part. Wolfit refused, and was so angry at his impudence that he sacked the lad just before a performance. When the about-to-be-unemployed actor arrived that evening to deliver the tragic news, he got his revenge on Wolfit by reporting loudly, "The queen, my lord, is much better, and is even now at supper." |
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In addition to these snippets and anecdotes are longer excerpts from the likes of Wodehouse and Dickens, as well as musical parodies and historical notes, all interspersed with caricatures by Francis of notable Hamlets and Macbeths through the ages.
These slender compilations might not deepen your understanding of Hamlet and Macbeth, but they should, at least, make you chuckle and give you an insight into the history (both comical and tragical) of two of Shakespeare's most famous plays. |
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