Titus Andronicus

My experience reading Titus was full of starts and sudden stops. I traveled abroad in the middle of the month and the kindle I took to continue reading lost its charge soon after I arrived. I was also sick for several weeks. Really sick: doctor, antibiotics, corticoids, bed. In the context of the mutilations and beheadings on the play, my Titus problems appear quite minimal. And regardless of my interrupted reading, Andronicus grabbed me and did not let go. 

I have not seen the Julie Taymor movie, although Anthony Hopkins's blue face has haunted me for years. I will watch it when I find it, especially since now I know that Marjorie Garber became a vegetarian after watching the pie scene. 

I have also refused to read Bloom's chapter on Titus. My recollection is that he believes Titus is a satire, that is how much outside the cannon he considers this play. I, on the other hand, shared the anguished and cried with Titus. I saw Lear in Titus. I saw all the disfunctional shakespearean families in the Andronicus and Tamora's clan. I did not care for the mutilated limbs or the flesh pies, but they were powerful on the page.

Titus grief was epic. I was there all the way. 

I also adored finding in this play all the seeds that blossom on the great tragedies. I believe that reading Titus is a must for all Shakespeare students. Recommended!

Two Gentlemen of Verona? Check!

I could not be any happier: it is only the 13th of the month and I finished reading this month's play and read Garber, Nuttall, Bloom and even Bate! 

I have actually enjoyed reading this play. I was eager to go back to the early plays and find out what themes and characters were swimming around in Will's head that would come out more fleshed out in later plays. 

Bate (page 92) includes a lovely quotation of a source for this play. He thinks Will must have seen it or even acted in it in his youth. 

I see where Bloom is coming from when he ranks this play as second to last only to Merry Wives of Windsor. But there is no denial that it is a comedy, and funny. I was impressed with Speed's puns and enjoyed the two Launce highlights: the description of his beloved and the Crab story. (Crab has climbed to the top of my list of dog names).

The chapters are now becoming entangled, but I believe it was Nuttall who declared his preference for the aspect of the play that leaves all other scholars scratching their heads: the part at the end where Valentine forgives Proteus and even offers to give Silvia to him, right after Proteus tried to rape her! Nuttall points out that the two young men's relationship could find a parallel in the love for the youth of the Sonnets! I am glad I have read a small chunk of the sonnets and will pick up the series starting tomorrow for the rest of the month. The sonnets have enhanced my understanding of the poetry in Shakespeare's plays. I now find it easier to read them, well, just a bit. I believe I am now aware of a different type of relationship between people of the same gender, which was common in Shakespeare's time. Valentine and Proteus: the lover and the inconstant. 

By far the best characters in this play are Julia and Silvia. They are bright and beautiful and cunning and perseverant. Loved that Julia dresses as a boy. Wills will use that in Taming of the Shrew and Merchant of Venice, among the plays I have already read. Bloom states that Launce was too big a character to be wasted on this play. Well, I think both Julia and Silvia are even bigger. Shakespeare had to practically gag them so they would not take over the show, slap the two youths silly and march on to Rome to take the papacy on behalf of women power. Silvia in particular, smart, confident Silvia, does not open her mouth as events pertaining are decided without her consent or input. Just so not Silvia-like. Proteus, the biggest cad in the history of literature does not deserve Julia at all. I hope she left her beau standing at the altar and skipped town!

So, in a nutshell, I enjoyed spending time with characters and themes and looking into Will's creative mind and development. 

Any other things you's like to talk about, my fellow pseudo WS scholar?
  

Nuttall Trivia Question

"Who in the plays of Shakespeare binds a woman, strikes her and makes her cry? The chances are that you will get the answer, 'Petrucchio.' The correct answer is 'Katherina.' She does all this to Bianca in Act II, Scene i, lines 1-24... Petrucchio never strikes Katherina."

A.D. Nuttall, Shakespeare the Thinker, page 71.

Chris

On this day, when we remember the murder of Martin Luther King, I think of Christopher Marlowe, murdered at 29. By the time if his death, both Chris and Wills had written 7 plays each. The Shrew is one of them. We can only imagine how many more and better plays could Chris have written had he lived longer. On the other hand, would Shakespeare be celebrated universally had he only written the three Henry VI, the Two Gentleman of Verona, the Comedy of Errors, Richard III and the Shrew? Probably not. Perhaps Marlowe was not as preternaturaly gifted as Wills, and nobody would even mention him except as a character in Shakespeare in Love.

Taming (Day 1)

I was feeling a bit blasé about this Shrew business, but Shakespeare is like Christmas every day! I have read La Garber, Jonathan Bate (with whom I am now obsessed) and Nuttall. I skipped Bloom for now because I read him last Spring and I did not find anything of interest then.

It is amazing how these companion books enhance the reading experience. I am so grateful that I have them and hope to keep them by my side forever. Bate has such a beautiful mind, I love his finds. For example, he made me re-read the induction to find Wills in Christopher Sly's description of himself, with all the references to Warwickshire and the life path Shakespeare had trodden. (Pages 37-38) 

One Nuttall reference that excited me was that Petruchio uses falconry training methods to "tame" Katharina, an example of this is the sleep deprivation, which, however, requires that the tamer also does not sleep until his will prevails. 

Review of the Shrew

As Kate's submission is the oldest among our four plays assigned for these two months, I shall begin with the Taming of the Shrew. Let's see whether I discover anything new about this play, which has been done to exhaustion!

Thanks, Guys!

It is almost the end of the month and I am letting go of Julius Caesar. I am in love with this play. It seems so timeless and so current. Genius. 

I am haunted by Caesar, and I sense that my uneasiness with him is akin to Brutus's: power concentrated in one person is frightful. What happens when the rule of law becomes the rule of one? Decisions become arbitrary and capricious, justice disappears, liberties are curtailed. For Brutus, the idealist, this prospect is unacceptable and that moves him into action. I sense the same indignation laced with fear that prompts thousands of people to recklessly take to the streets to protest against their government. 

I was also convinced that Wills decided not to exploit the historical rumor that Brutus may have been Caesar's son, and these artistic choices fascinate me. Perhaps it is because we are reading all of Shakespeare, I am overall interested in Shakespeare's development as an artist, his influences, his context and especially the choices he makes as a writer, more than I am trying to catch every detail of every play. I believe that going back to his first plays will be very productive, as well as continuing reading the different biographical studies we have at hand.

I was captivated by Marjorie Garber's articulation of the central conundrum in the play: the conspirators go out to kill Caesar the public figure, the symbol, but they end up killing Caesar the man only. 

Although Cassius is drawn even with less detail than Caesar in this play, I feel very drawn to him: he is the obsessive compulsive, the skinny bundle of anxious energy, the smarty pants who drives the story. I'll agree with Bloom that he is a precursor for Iago, although Iago is the meanest son of a gun, while Cassius is just a disgruntled roman nobleman (noblesse obligue?)

I am still at odds with this young Mark Antony, although I admire how Shakespeare shows us his highs and lows in a very transparent way. He still has to grow into his toga to become the flawed tragic hero in Antony and Cleopatra.

One last tidbit before I say goodbye to this crew of romans: How awesome is it that Shakespeare killed Cinna de poet "for his bad poems" in an homage to his buddy Chris Marlowe? 

So bye for now, guys! I will get back to you as soon as I can!

Sweet time

I love it when I have finished reading the play, and even the complementary readings, and it is time to pick up gold nuggets from a mountain of books (ok, a small hill) that I now treasure. Let's take a look at some of today's finds:

Julius Caesar was the first play presented at the new Globe Theater, where our Wills had a 10% ownership share! Since the actor who played the fool back then was another co-owner, who had a falling out and left the company, WS wrote JC without a part for a fool. It is unexpected that they chose a historic play rather than a comedy for their inaugural run, but the play was relevant for the recent assassination conspiracy against Elizabeth, which listeners would have automatically identified. (Greenblatt 293).

JC includes a "leather" reference, as the cobbler in the play "resoles shoes made of neat's leather." (Greenblatt 56)

Prepare to be blown away by what I found in "Soul of the Age," better know as "el libro que me regaló Jesus." Between pages 104 and 106, the author explains how Parallel Lives by Plutarch shaped, not only Julius Caesar by providing the biographical clues to the main characters, but also informed the way William would write historical plays, by concentrating on telling lives, rather than histories, and posing questions, instead of providing solutions! Not to be missed!

Another Bate jewel starts on page 78,where from the exercises little William had to master latin grammar at the second form (or level, not sure what grade), he learns the rhetorical tools that will reach their highest flight in Mark Antony's oration. This is not to be missed!

I'll continue tomorrow with lessons learned from Bloom and then from Garber, who again impressed me with her profound analysis. 

La Palabra del Dia!

Today, Ricardo Soca, who gifts me every day with an email in which he choses a word and explains its origins, chose "pontífice," I imagine in honor of the new Pope. However, I wanted to memorialize in this blog that he brings in our fallen hero, Julius Caesar, who --can you now blame Cassius, Brutus and Company?-, took that title to signal him being the head of the state, the military and now RELIGION. Talk about abrogation of power in an empire that ha flourished as a Republic. Forget about Mark Antony's speech for a second: JC was a despot.

Speechifying

A.D. Nuttall (in Shakespeare the Thinker page 186) explains that Quintilian distinguished two styles of oratory: Attic and Asiatic. "The Attic style is refined, polished and free from superfluity; the Asiatic is swelling and exultant. Quintilian prefers Attic to Asiatic, and that is what Shakespeare gives Brutus." Needless to say, Mark Antony takes the day with his Asiatic oratory. Nuttall finds Shakespeare's choices here quite brave and inspired: He believes no one but Wills "knowing that Antony's speech must blow away any earlier words from Brutus" would give Brutus such a powerful, rational speech. Although Wills had painted himself a bit into a corner, when he had already mentioned that Brutus was known for his eloquence in public speaking. Nuttall also reminds us that Antony adopting the Asiatic style foreshadows Antony and Cleopatra, "a play that explores the tension between classical restraint and opulent Asian emotion."

Nuttall (Tony to his fans) highlights the participation of the "third plebeian," who after Brutus's thoughtful, rational explanation yells: "Let him [Brutus] be Caesar!" Which is a genius way of signaling that he (and the populace) did not understand a word Brutus said! In true Bloom fashion, Nuttall unequivocally states: "Those four words placed by Shakespeare in the mouth of the third Plebeian constitute the most telling political moment in the history of drama."

"Shakespeare had written just one oration on this scale earlier --the speech given by Henry V before the critical battle." (I just saw Henry V on stage last Friday, and perhaps as your Marlon Brando doing Antony's, I have Kenneth Branagh's Henry's speech etched in my heart and memory). Does each generation have their own Shakespearean actor? Olivier comes to mind, even though I have trouble watching his movies; Gielgud is also mentioned, and I hear Derek Jacobi mentioned before Branagh. Which leads me to believe there is a young man in London who already has created and recreated --and presented on stage- new versions of the beloved characters and a teenager who is, as we speak, committing those difficult texts to memory!

Julius Caesar: Read!

I loved this play! And to think that Wills basically pulled it from the headlines (if he had lived in ancient Rome...) The story is so rich, the characters so flawed. I especially disliked Mark Antony, who makes a stellar comeback in Antony and Cleopatra. He's such a liar and hypocrite here! Brutus also infuriated me, from now on, every time I make a horrible decision and am feeling down, I'll remember Brutus. Thanks Wills!

Bloom brought up the possibility that Brutus could have been JC's illegitimate son. It is highly unlikely for two reasons: they are only about 15 years apart, and parricide was a horrible crime in ancient Rome, so the plot would have ended up in a different direction. However, the circumstances are quite juicy: JC and Brutus's mom had been lovers for many many years and were still lovers at the time of his muder (Hamlet, anyone?)
To thicken the plot, Cassius was married to Brutus' sister Tercia. I wonder whether all if this was common knowledge at the time of the play, and Wills just expected audiences to add that layer to the plot.

Bloom says he is always expecting to see a staging of the play where the Oedipal question is integrated. I am willing to call Bloom's bluff: I am certain that if a director added a line of text to a Shakespeare's play, Bloom would scream bloody murder.

Tonight I'll start with Garber, Nuttall and Bloom and I look forward to mining gold in those three mines!

Shakespeare is Everywhere

On Friday, I felt Wills winking at me.

First I read an article shared by a facebook "friend" from El Universal, comparing Maduro to Mark Antony and Chavez to Cesar. Besides the LOL factor, I find it extraordinary that JC is still relevant to illustrate political maneuvering, transfers of power, treason and revenge. Like Bloom would say, arching his eyebrows: that is the richness of Shalespeare!

Later that evening I had the extraordinary luck of going to "hear" (as folk in the late 15 hundreds would say) a staging of Hery V at the Folger's hystorical Theater. Adriana bought the tickets for my birthday and the two of us were going to go, but she had to stay in Pittsburgh, so I went with Jesus. I ended up seeing more than I heard, but I enjoyed it sooo much!

What surprised me the most was the laughs! Some people must have known the play very well or were great listeners. Nobody laughs at my house when I'm reading the plays. It adds a delightful layer of togetherness with the audience,

Act 2 Scene 1

I am enjoying Julius Caesar more than I expected! While advancing in the reading of the play, I have also peeked at Marjorie Garber's chapter and listened to the whole Bloom lecture in my car. Garber makes a fantastic observation about how relevant this play was to Shakespeare's (and Elizabeth I's) time. The queen of England did not have descendants. Caesar did not have descendants. How does a monarchy (or an empire) deal with the transfer of power without the nation unraveling into civil war? 

On the other hand, Bloom, who is forever interested in the psychology of the character goes deeply into Marcus Brutu's psyche (versus Garber, who always maintains a three-prong approach: the historic time where the play takes place, the time when the play was written and performed and, last but not least, our time, when we read and analyse the plays enriched by our own referents and biases). Well, Bloom is fascinated by the fact that Shakespeare did not make any reference in the play of what Plutarch says was common knowledge in Caesar's day, that Brutus may have been the natural child of Caesar. Bloom spins a complete analysis of how this unspoken nexus would inform Brutus' decision to join the conspiracy to murder Julius Caesar.

Act 1 Scene 3

I must be a gentle sheep, unlike Cassius, whol will not allow anyone to be superior to him. This possibility so offends him that he will murder, and draw others into his crazy murder plot.

Reminds me of Francis Underwood, the character played by Kevin Spacey in House of Cards. (I'm more than half way through this first season). Francis and Cassius will not be governed or outmaneuvered. Am I being sexist if I say that is a quality I find very masculine?

Act 1, Scene 2

Cassius offers Brutus to be his mirror, so he can show him his reflection. The mirror is a universal symbol of truth, but oh, how distorted we --and Brutus- see ourselves reflected on others. As a matter or fact, it is the human impulse to see ourselves reflected --in mirrors, in others- that confounds our self image. Are we even capable to see our true image in the mirror? Even worse, how can we --or Brutus- see our true selves reflected in the opacity of another human being's motives, which remain hidden to us? 

Wills shows Caesar in a very favorable light. He is humble, sure of his place in the world, and does not believe in superstition. He is also a good judge of character, feels that Cassius is not on his side. Of course everyone knows what will happen to Caesar, but Wills is setting this up nicely.

Till then, think of the world.

Julius Caesar Day 1 (Scene 1)

I had a rough Macbeth last month and that play is suspended in my Shakespeare report card. I'll make it up later...

My plan is to finish reading JC by the ides of March! (Great timing, right?).

Scene 1 was very funny because I had just heard and then read about the old pope's new shoes, and the windfall of fame and fortune awaiting the mexican cobbler from Leon. So the cobbler in scene 1 was a pleasant surprise.

JC, which I read in the eighth grade, promises to be an interesting analysis of democracy and power. I'm excited!

Goodbye Othello

Nuttall wrote that Othello is about a hero who went into a house. Anyone who goes out of their comfort zone, becomes vulnerable. Stripped off the trappings of war and leadership and the public life, Othello lost his north and eventually even his discourse.
I've spent a month with the hero and the angel and Satan and the feminist. I've thought about them and read what others, far smarter than me, thought and wrote.

On to Macbeth...

Proof

Yoshino points out something that I loved: the handkerchief, so maligned in this play as a poor substitute for the ocular proof of Desdemona's affair (although it nevertheless demolished Othello), ended up being a powerfull ocular proof. But it was for Emilia! The hankie made her realize of how everyone had been played by Iago, and this is the beginning of his demise. Go Emilia!

Fantastic Source for Othello

Reading Kenji Yoshino' book on Shakespeare and justice (christmas gift from Annabelle) I found the following 1600 text from John Leo's A Geographical Histoire of Africa (Leo was a Moor and is describing his countrymen):

"Most honest people they are, and destitute of all fraud and guile, very proud and high-minded, and wonderfully addicted unto wrath... Their wits are but meane, and there are so credulous, that they will beleeue matters impossible, which are told them... No nation in the world is so subject unto jealousie; for they will rather leese their lives than put up any disgrace in the behalfe of their women".

What likely picked Shakespeare's curiosity and attracted him to the book was the official visit of the King if Barbary to London in 1600. Leo writes about the ambassador in his book.

Fascinating to discover how authors construct their characters!

(Funny context for this entry... I was at the radiologist, getting a mammogram and took along Yoshino's book for the waiting room. I decided to copy this paragraph and ended up doing it on my phone (one finger) inside the tiny curtained changing room. I was interrupted in the middle and then had to finish when I was already dressed. Well, the radiologist came to ask me why I was still in the changing booth, dressed up, if she had told me to leave 10 minutes ago!)

Marjorie Garber is a Bright Light

I read Garber's chapter on Othello. I was enthralled, charmed, challenged and just all-around flabbergasted!

What Professor Garber did with this play is extraodinary. She went deeper than both Bloom and Nuttall. Color me happy!

Yesterday I watched a documentary about an elementary school teacher in a very poor part of Los Angeles, who miraculously opens his 10 year old pupils's minds using Shakespeare (among other authors and methods). Rafe Esquith is famous for doing this and in the documentary, both Ian McKellen and Michael York stop by the classroom to watch Hamlet rehearsals and chat with the mini bardologists. York said that back in Shakespeare's time, people said "Let's go hear a play" rather than see or watch as we would now say. Words matter and we have to focus on language rather than visuals or we will lose the ability to understand them!

Too much information?

I finished reading Harold Bloom's chapter on Othello. I even highlighted it (it pains me to deface books, I know, silly concern). Bloom stays within the issues that interest him, he really goes deeply into character analysis of Iago and Othello.

I also read the brief chapter in Nuttall, fascinating! And now (It is very late but I am afraid that the pot of tea I drank may have contained caffeine..) I started with Garber's chapter. I am trying to figure out how I will process all this information. What will stick and become part of my repertoire? We'll see...

Emilia RIP

I just finished reading Othello. In a parking lot, waiting to go yo battle (just slightly exaggerating here... Hearing to fight license suspension).

I am very intrigued about Emilia now: her feminism, her strength, her bravery.

Act Four

As promised, I read Act 4 tonight. I'm so excited to be about to finish reading the play and while it is fresh in my mind, I'll dive into the complementary readings, video and CD. Reading in the 21 century is a multimedia layer cake. In actuality, the play itself is just the melody, I feel that until I go deeper than the text, I have not really read.

I heard one thing on the Bloom lecture that seems very interesting: One learns a about the writing process and the author when reviewing the different versions of the play. Apparently, Shakespeare revised the other parts, but Iago is the same in every version of the play. When you crank the volume to 11, you can't do much with subtlety. Iago makes every move in a cruel chess game that he has invented pure evil. Once Iago and Othello start discussing murder, we've all gone too far. I am done with Othello, he is thick and cruel. 

Back on Track: Othello, Act 3

Yikes, I've been sick for a week. The infamous influenza plague of 2013. I felt like modern-day Lady Lavinia, but I did not die, and Matthew did not leave me for Lady Mary (oh, but  I AM Lady Mary...)
It is evident that the two first episodes of season three of Downton were the bookends to my flu.

Now there is no excuse, so I am back hitting the book. I finished Act 3 tonight and will read Act 4 tomorrow and Act 5 the following day. I need to start reading all my gurus: Harold, Garber, Nuttall, et al.

This evening, as I was driving to and from he TV station to tape my legal segment, I listened to Harold. What struck me again, as I have listened to this lecture several times now this month, is that Desdemona resembles Juliet: she is also a teenager, 14 or 15 years old, and independent thinker, an original soul and a good and loyal individual. I also enjoyed Harold's defense of Othello. Othello has gotten a lot of slack in the last century for being so easily manipulated by Iago. To some critics, that takes away from his character and therefore from his heroic stature. Harold asks us to evaluate him as a military hero, for his valor, his loyalty, his decisiveness, his strength. For me, the jury is still out on big O.

One last note: I was curious to find out how the famous handkerchief makes its appearance and was not disappointed: Desdemona wants to rap Othello's head with it to cure his headache. I had pictured it as a small hankie, but to wrap around someone's head, it is a pretty substancial chunk of fabric. I also liked that it has a berry design on it. Very feminine. I'll try to get one like that, even if it is just to keep it in my underwear drawer (and I'll make sure Iago does not get a hold of it).

Harold points out to Othello's rage, which he believes it has not been equalled in all of literature. Also, he opines that Shakespeare took sexual jealousy to it's epitome in literature, and not even Freud or Proust have conquered its dark corners like our boy William. I like to think my jealousy was also dried out by the suns of my childhood, but sometimes all of us let that monster take hold of us, like Emilia warns.

Othello, Day 5

Iago

Othello is Iago's Play. I am quoting Bloom here and will be paraphrasing him today. There is nothing dishonest in my appropriation of Bloom's ideas. I am (hopefully) a glass half full. I am trying to apprehend in what I believe it to be the tradition of Western Civilization, there, in capital letters. Ideas reverberating and boiling and echoing. Ideas being invented and borrowed and stolen. If not, what is the purpose of libraries and universities? Ok, that taken care of, let's go back to Iago.

VILLAIN

Iago is the prototype for all of literature's villains. As a matter of Bloom fact, Milton based his Satan on Iago. He brought this up as he was trying to explain the motivation for Iago's villainy: Bloom borrows Milton's "injured merit." Iago and Satan are both passed up for whom they perceive to be less worthy candidates. And they are irreparably hurt.


Actually, Iago's job fascinates me. He is the ancient, the flag bearer, sworn to die before he give up the flag. So he is the bravest of the bunch. Per Bloom, Othello admires this bravery, but knows that Iago would not make a good second in command because he is a scorch-the-earth-warrior, no political skills, not good for peace. So he chooses Cassio, who is an intellectual. That is apparently his only credential. I have not read far enough, but hopefully Cassio's character will justify Othello's decision. We'll see.

INTELLIGENCE

Bloom, in what made me gasp, compared Iago's intelligence with Hamlet's. I have been listening to Bloom harp about Hamlet not only being the brightest intelligence in literature but  more self-aware than any actual human being who ever lived and will ever live. So being put on the same sentence with Hamlet is high praise for our little ancient. I keep picturing him with Kenneth Brannagh's face, which is driving me nuts.

COLD

Iago has no feelings. He is incapable of feeling so he pretends he feels things. He is all head, no heart. I'll check on this, so far I have not read enough to verify such bold statement.

Bloom in the Car

Magnificent Extraordinary Harold

I told you. I knew it. Just 45 minutes of listening to Harold, in the car, radically enhanced the Othello experience for me.

A few years ago, I bought online a set of Bloom CDs from a collection called the Portable Professor. It is a Barnes & Noble production that is out of print (that is probably the wrong term for CDs). Actually, let me backtrack. A few years before that, my sister gave my husband a set of Portable Professor CDs by Professor Lependorf that taught you how to understand classical music. She could have given him lunar rocks, he could not figure out what to do with them, so I "inherited" them (ok, I took them without asking and kept them in my car ever since.) After that pleasant experience, I purchased Bloom's course. Aptly subtitled The Seven Great Tragedies. Because with Bloom, this is how it goes. He makes the most categoric statements and you have to accept them as holy communion. And everyone is happy. It just works.

Well The Seven Great Tragedies has long resided in my car next to Professor Lependorf's Masterpieces of Western Music. Except I was only able to listen, again and again, to the Bloom lectures on the few plays I had actually read. When the Shakespeare Now or Never project launched, I knew these CDs would come handy.

For Antony and Cleopatra and King Lear, Annabelle and I went on long drives just to listen to Professor Bloom, or Harold, as we like to call him. It is hard to explain how powerful his lectures are. There is something about the human voice that is fascinating and charming and soothing and stimulating. I have the Bloom book on Shakespeare, and this is a million times better. Unfortunately, it is only seven lectures, for the seven plays that he has decided are THE seven GREAT tragedies. There are lots of all caps in his speech. Lots of superlatives. Would love to have Bloom lecture me on every subject under the sun. In CD format only, please.

Sooooo.... On my way to meet clients this morning, I popped in the first lecture on Othello and now I feel as though I have to re-read the first act again, because I missed much of the magnificence I should have caught on to. It will take me many many listens to unpack most of the extraordinary insight I was made a party to. I'll go little by little and share it with you.

Othello, Day 4

January 4

False alarm regarding Rhodes. The darn turks were just doing a pit stop to get more boats for their side on their way to Cyprus.

Finished Act 1. Loved the sexual chemistry between Othello and Desdemona! Older black guy, young italian woman. Sparks, sparks, sparks! He's taking her to war, for goodness sake, because they can't stand being apart. Their passion reminded me of Antony and Cleopatra's, except Desdemona seems reasonable, unlike that crazy Egyptian. Othello has flawed-larger-than-life-tragic-hero written all over him.

What I was most moved about was Brabantio. He was deeply hurt by Desdemona absconding in the middle of the night to marry dad's friend, a man he trusted (he's also furious at him). Brabantio's combination of wrath and pain reminded me of family passions I have been witness to and part of.

Iago is still a smarty-pants in my estimation. Not feeling him yet. I will listen to my Bloom CD in the car tomorrow on my way to work and he will likely turn my opinion around on this issue in no time. Throw in some Bloom hyperbole and Iago will become literature's master schemer. I'll report back on this point...

I am one day behind on my reading. Will try, try, try, to read a bit more tonight in order to catch up. I turned and tossed all night, worried about my motions hearing today. Had to be in court by 7:30, so did not even get 5 hours of sleep. Motions were continued and I ended up waiting around in court. Should have sneaked the book in, but had to carry so many files, I would have had to carry it in my mouth!

Othello, Day 3

Falling Behind on my Reading

It is almost midnight and I will probably not read another line of Othello tonight, as I am preparing for a motions hearing tomorrow morning. This afternoon I did read a couple of pages while I was waiting in court for my case to be called. It is the first time I take Shakespeare to court and I felt a tinge of excitement: Yes, your Honor, guilty of reading non-legal materials in court! Well. I did not have to "cop a plea," but I left the court wondering why the Venetians were so far away from Venice, fighting the Turks either in Cyprus or Rhodes. I guess it was the route to the silk road, in the google maps of the renaissance: directions from Venice to China, sail south then make a left, refuel in Rhodes, hop to Cyprus and when you get to the mainland, continue east; destination will be to your left.

Anne's Revenge

I don't like musicals. Not at all. Well, except for my two childhood favorites: Fiddler on the Roof and The Sound of Music, but that is a nostalgia thing, not an informed option.

So Les Mis is utterly and completely out of the question. Except that I have a weak spot for Anne Hathaway. William Shakespeare's forgotten wife, the one he left behind, the older woman that seems he's almost embarrassed about, never mentioned, never celebrated. UNTIL 400 years later she is reincarnated in this exquisite, talented actress who can do no wrong! Way to go Anne! So I may, just may, subject myself to three hours of torture just to be a party to Anne's revenge.

Othello, Day 1

January 1

Read two scenes and had to stop because I had to be in Court at 8:45 and it was really really late. Grabbed Nuttall and read something that I've been kicking around all day: Othello is not a jealous man, Othello is insecure because he is an outsider, a moor (which I understand it is being used as a synonym of African). Had Othello been a venetian patrician, Iago would have been unable to capitalize on this weak spot. I know EXACTLY the type of insecurity Othello feels as an outsider. It is painful, paralyzing, a million times worse than jealousy. This type of insecurity makes you dread that you will lose everything, that you cannot control your destiny, that you are dammed. My preconception has always been that this is a play about sexual jealousy, but it may be something even deeper...

On the other hand, I am having a hard time picturing Iago looking anything but like Kenneth Brannagh. Has he played Iago? (I'm sure he has, but have I seen it on that part?) Or is it that I have a hard time extricating Brannagh from Shakespeare? Brannagh's Hamlet is the best one I have seen, so is Brannagh's Henry V, but this is too much!

The Plan

The Plan

This study plan is designed to complete 35 plays (37?) and the Sonnets in time for Shakespeare's 400 anniversary of his passing, which will be remembered April 23, 2016.

PACE: One play per month, Sonnets in two months

ASSIGNMENTS: Read the play, then read the chapters in Bloom, Garber, Nuttall. Read pertinent part in recommended biographies.Watch movie if available. Discussion with other course participants.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Shakespeare the Invention of the Human, by Harold Bloom

Shakespeare After All, by Marjorie Garber

What a Piece of Work is Man, audio recording by Harold Bloom

OPTIONAL: 

Shakespeare the Thinker, by A.D. Nuttall

RECOMMENDED BIOGRAPHIES:

Soul of the Age, by Jonathan Bate

Will in the World, by Stephen Greenblatt

Shakespeare, by Bill Bryson

DISCUSSION: Will take place either in person, via gmail chat, via phone, via email, via video conference or any other technology that may develop between 2012 and 2016.

READING:

Spring-Summer 2012: Informal reading of Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Tempest

October 2012: Antony and Cleopatra

November 2012: King Lear

December 2012: Richard III

January 2013: Othello

February 2013: Macbeth

March 2012: Julius Caesar

April-May 2013: Review of Spring 2012 reading: Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, the Tempest

June 2013: 77 Sonnets

July 2013: 77 Sonnets

August 2013: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

September 2013: Titus Andronicus

October 2013:  Henry VI part 1

November 2013: Henry VI part 2

December 2013:Henry VI part 3

January 2014: The Comedy of Errors

February 2014: Love's Labour's Lost

March 2014: A Midsummer Night's Dream

April 2014: Richard II

May 2014: King John

June 2014: The Merchant of Venice

July 2014: Henry IV part 1

August 2014: Henry IV part 2

September 2014: The Merry Wives of Windsor

October 2014: Much Ado About Nothing

November 2014: Henry V

December 2014: As you Like It

January 2015: Twelfth Night

February 2015: Troilus and Cressida

March 2015: Measure for Measure

April 2015: All Well That Ends Well

May 2015: Timon of Athens

June 2015: Pericles

July 2015: Coriolanus

August 2015: Cymbeline

September 2015: The Winter's Tale

October 2015: Henry VIII

November 2015: The Two Noble Kinsmen

December 2015: 

January 2016:

February 2016:

March 2016:

April 2016: parties and celebrations!

Maria and Annabelle's Excellent Adventure

An Introduction

Early in 2012, Annabelle gave herself an ultimatum: Shakespeare: Now or Never!
She tried to embark her friends back home in this project, and they did not have the heart to turn her down, but the plan fizzled out to watching a movie based on a Shakespeare play about once a month, whenever a few of them could get together. Some tried to juggle reading Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest and The Taming of the Shrew with their very complicated lives, but it was just too much to ask of them just to humor Annabelle's whim.

Annabelle and I live about 2,800 miles apart. We live close-by only three months a year, but I was eager to jump on the Shakespeare bandwagon with her regardless of the distance. I followed her plan loosely, reading the plays assigned and doing some additional reading, but I was unable to find a way to contribute to any discussion on the subject, and apparently, the discussions did not blossom. 

When she came to the States in October, I immediately pushed a Shakespeare plan: Let's read a play a month, with the additional materials and discuss them when we got together on Saturdays. How about a book club for two? Or three or four, if we include Harold Bloom and Marjorie Garber, our Shakespeare gurus, or six, if we add Bill Bryson and Stephen Greenblatt, whose William Shakespeare biographies we have handy, or seven, if we count A.D. Nuttall, or even eight with Jonathan Bate.... See? Our book club was quickly getting populated, although our fellow members were not present in the flesh!

We started with Antony and Cleopatra, and gave ourselves plenty of reading time, basically an act a week. We ended up devouring the play and the chapters in Bloom, Garber and Nuttall. Our discussions were lively and interesting. It was working!

In November we read King Lear. Another resounding success! 

December was for Richard III, and the evil kingdom enthralled us! (even though Bloom does not like it that much and dismissed it in a very flimsy chapter).

Now, Annabelle is back home. Again thousands of miles separate us. Our plan is to read the 35 (37?) plays plus the sonnets in time for the 400 anniversary of Shakespeare's death. in April of 2016. Annabelle has confided that she hopes she is still alive by then, and I'll drink to that!

This simple blog is my attempt to memorialize this excellent adventure, which has already been delightful and I am thinking will change us forever. I am grateful to Annabelle for this gift of Shakespeare, which will keep me very busy for the next 40 months.

Maria