Now onto some Shakespeare snippets that have interested or amused me recently ... sadly I've been tempted to go the ABC route ... much more fun to draft up and allows me to let my mind wander!
A is for Avon ... Shakespeare’s Avon runs through Stratford, joining the River Severn on its way to Bristol.
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| A procession of Shakespeare's characters by an unknown 19th C artist |
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| Shakespeare Theatre on the River Avon in Stratford |
A is for Avon ... Shakespeare’s Avon runs through Stratford, joining the River Severn on its way to Bristol.
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| Copy of Mandela' s notation - note today the 16th December is a public holiday and in South Africa is called The Day of Reconciliation |
Coast of Bohemia ... was there one - but in Fermor's "A Time of Gifts" (see post 28 July 2016) - on page 308 ... he established that a Coast of Bohemia did exist - even if only for 13 years!
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| Miguel de Cervantes |
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| Don Quixote by Honore Daumier (1868) |
D is for Duck … Mallard Duck as roasted in Shakespeare’s day …
is actually what many of us eat now if we have duck … “To Boyle A Mallard with Onions” from the Shakespeare Cookbook …
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| Roses in our Sceptred Isle |
At the beginning of
Henry V where Shakespeare notes
companion planting and the need to keep some weeds to ensure the bees,
butterflies and others’ have food to grub for, and a place to build a home:
“The
strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And
wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighbour’d
by fruit of baser quality …’
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| Where the Boar's Head Tavern used to be |
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| The Boar's Head remembered |
The British Library has an exhibition on Shakespeare’s London - until 6th September.
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| Gatton Park, Millennium Stones with lounging sheep |
“There is
a tide in the affairs of men,
Which,
taken at the flood leads on to fortune;
Omitted,
all the voyage of their life
Is bound
in shallows and miseries
On such a
full sea as we are now afloat;
And we
must take the current when it serves,
Or we
lose our ventures.”
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| Making Ipocras in medieval times |
I
is for Ipocras - a spiced wine of note in the 1500 – 1600s … I wrote about it
in my Y is for Ypocras post in the A-Z of my cookery series in 2013 – whereby the
14th century recipe says “Passee
your wyne throu a Socke nine tymes untilled clear” … see the post …
For an historical take with more details on the spices used - see The Historical Food site
J is for Ben Johnson, the poet and dramatist, who predicted
that Shakespeare, his friend and rival dramatist, would be held in as high
regard as one of the great writers of antiquity.
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| Knit Knot tree - Yarn Bombing according to Wiki |
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit,
So that but one heart we can make of it;
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
To hold you in perpetual amity,
To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
With an unslipping knot, take Antony
Octavia to his wife: whose beauty claims
No worse a husband than the best of men.
Antony and Cleopatra
Britain in the 15th and 16th centuries
saw the spread of English as the vernacular language, rather than Latin, that
laid the foundation for the richly expressive literary tradition we now know.
This was when the King James Version of the Bible was transcribed between 1604 -1611, becoming recognised as the Authorised Version of the Bible.
This was when the King James Version of the Bible was transcribed between 1604 -1611, becoming recognised as the Authorised Version of the Bible.
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| You've got the play: The Tempest at the Minnack Theatre in Cornwall |
1
The Lion King (Based on Hamlet)
2
She’s the Man (based on Twelfth Night)
3
10 Things I Hate About You (based on The Taming of
the Shrew)
4
Warm Bodies (based on Romeo and Juliet)
5
Forbidden Planet (based on The Tempest)
6
Get Over It (based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
7
O (based on Othello)
8
Kiss Me Kate (based on The Taming of the Shrew)
9
My Own Private Idaho (based on Henry IV, Part 1,
Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V)
10 A Thousand Acres (based on King
Lear)
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| A model as to how NonSuch House might have looked |
N is for NonSuch House on London Bridge, that thriving centre of commerce, along with over 100 shops, houses, stalls … it is apparently the earliest documented prefabricated building – from the Netherlands. The name Nonsuch may have referred to Henry VIII’s, now vanished, Nonsuch Palace outside London … please see Wiki.
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| Othello played by Russian actor Konstantin Stanislavsky in 1896 |
Hamlet: ‘To be
or not to be’ (Adrian Lester, 2m 58secs)
Romeo and
Juliet: ‘The mask of night is on my face’ (Joanna Vanderham, 1m 30secs)
King Lear: ‘Blow,
Winds, and crack your cheeks’ (Roger
Allam, 1m 53secs)
Othello: ‘I do
think it is their husband's faults …’ (Eileen
Atkins, 1m 11secs)
Richard
III: ‘Now is the Winter of our Discontent…’ (David Morrissey, 2m 42secs)
A
Midsummer’s Night Dream: ‘These are the Forgeries of Jealousy
…’ (Ayesha
Dharker, 1m 59secs)
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| The photo I used for my previous Pond Pudding recipe |
P is for Pond Pudding and Farts of Portingale … the Pond Pudding described in the Shakespeare Cookbook is like a Sussex Pond Pudding … a steamed suet pudding with dried fruit in a well of butter inside the pud. Again my version as described in my P forPond Pudding in the Cookery Series for our 2013 A-Z posts.
Now Farts of Portingale – I had to put in … didn’t I?! Portingale to clarify refers to Portugal …
the ‘Farts’ – well … no description is given except for ‘Fists’ … which are
bigger than ‘Farts’ …
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| These be small Farts of Portingale! |
Q is for Shakespeare and our Queen, who celebrated her 90th
birthday this year: 400 years does not look so long does it? Shakespeare had to adapt after Queen Bess
died and James succeeded her …
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| Rosemary in bloom |
R is for Rosemary … “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember.” Spoken by a grief-stricken Ophelia in ‘Hamlet’ …
S is for Second Best Bed … the playwright’s bequest of that bed to his widow was not a slight but an affectionate addition to his will – his first best bed was for his death.
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| A google image ... showing some of the changed names: Titus Andronicus and King Lear are usually Westminster entrances; Macbeth is Embankment; while James I is Waterloo |
… then tells us about how the Underground has renamed each station and area with a Shakespeare theme (plays and characters) … very clever: please pop over (Ian Visits blog) …
U is for Shakespeare Unravelled … the book recently published
by Michael and Pauline Black … was Shakespeare real or were the plays written
by others and put together into a folio?
Regardless of your thoughts – this book gives a good historical coverage
of Shakespearean England … I have put a review up on Amazon for it.
V is for Verjuice, Vinegars, Vegetables … Charles Estienne in
1550 writes that vinegar is the corruption of wines whether made from grapes,
fruit or grains … which was developed rather for use in flavouring or to excite
the palate or appetite: use sparingly …
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| Some information gleaned from this book |
Vegetables … the few known were included into meals (spring
vegetables), not served separately as we would do today, or made into a sauce and used that
way; Sorrel sauce, Spinach tart or pie … spinach
was a novelty in Shakespeare’s England … having finally from Roman times made
its way across the Channel.
W is for Wine … which was imported, hence expensive; grapes
did not grow wild, and cultivated grapes were far too valuable to be picked
before they were ripe. The usual drink
was ale, cider, and meads from various sources.
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| see Bloomsbury link |
X is for Tang Xianzu's China … 1616 also saw the death of the famous Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu. Four hundred years on and Shakespeare is now an important meeting place for Anglo-Chinese cultural dialogue in the field of drama studies. For more please read here c/o Bloomsbury …
Y is for Yarn … from All’s
Well That Ends Well:
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn,
Good and ill together;
Our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not;
And our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our
own virtues.
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| Giving insights into Shaka Zulu |
Sir Anthony, as he is now, was born in Cape Town, came to the
UK in 1968 … again there is a telling piece on his Wiki page about how he felt
the need to hide his identity on many fronts … South African,
Lithuanian-Jewish, sexuality … how succinctly put that para is when read with
the Telegraph article:
An insight into South African life … acting breaks, mimicking
to hide his past and present … do take a moment to quickly check both links ...
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| The 7 Ages of Man - sculpture by Richard Kindersley, who sculpted the statues in Gatton Park above. This is in Queen Victoria Street. |
The tour commenced on the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, 450 years ago [23rd April 2014] and finished on the anniversary of his death four hundred years ago: 23rd April 2016.
… actors worked nine weeks, had three weeks off … one Horatio
was Nigerian, one Ophelia came from Hong Kong, one Hamlet came from Jamaica …
… a dog came on stage in Tuvalu … it sat and watched; they played to Syrian refugees in Jordan; played as the first mixed-sex group in Saudi Arabia; and only one country refused to participate – guess where … North Korea.
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| A copy of the First Folio |
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| Google's Doodle on Shakespeare's settings |
More about the Hamlet world tour project mentioned towards the end of the post: About the Project: Globe to Globe (see here for where in 1608 the play was performed ... you will be astonished ....)
Once again 'tis long ... sorreeeee ...
Hilary Melton-Butcher
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