For All Time

The final post--Part IV of the PBS series "In Search of Shakespeare." Check out Part I, Part II, and Part III and why I am interested in learning about the life of William Shakespeare.

doublet & breeches

When Queen Elizabeth died, King James of Scotland stepped up to take the throne. He was known as a philosopher prince, surrounding himself with the arts. Consequently, Shakespeare's company was made the King's men. Michael Wood shows a document stating that Shakespeare and some of the men of his company were issued with a 4 yard roll of scarlet cloth. This amount of cloth was sufficient to make a doublet and breeches for the King's coronation. During the coronation of King James Shakespeare was one of the ushers that carried the canopy over the King. Needless to say Shakespeare was well favored among all the classes of his time.

The Christmas holiday meant providing entertainment for the royals for 2 long weeks. While reading a record about the Christmas holiday, Wood found a document with another funny spelling of Shakespeare: "Shaxberd." Maybe that's why we don't know much about Shakespeare's life...no one could spell his name right!

In this PBS series, the Royal Shakespeare Company follows Michael Wood on his tour through the life of Shakespeare. The company explained that during a normal season the RSC puts on 151 performances of 5 plays. During the same amount of time Shakespeare's company also performed around 150 times but they put on 38 plays, 21 of which were NEW. As Max explained in class, no wonder the term "winging it" came from play performances in the Elizabethan era.

Once again, political turmoil springs in November of 1609. Wood calls it the "Jacobian 9/11" when terrorists tried to blow up the royal family and Parliament. King James hunted the terrorists, which consequently purged England of catholics, since these were times of religious unrest. On the stage in London plays reflected the political atmosphere. It was at this time when Shakespeare wrote Macbeth--the murder of a Scottish king.

The Duty of a Poet

Part III of the PBS series "In Search of Shakespeare." You can read Part I, and Part II if you're interested in Shakespeare's earlier years. These interesting facts and finds presented by Michael Wood in "In Search of Shakespeare" are information I will refer back to as I focus on the familial aspect of Shakespeare. Of course Shakespeare's own experience as a son, husband and father is something that enriches, taints and shapes his literature.

The last episode ended with Shakespeare earning a living to support his family back in Stratford. In 1593 the plague strikes and the playhouses are closed so Shakespeare has to look elsewhere to find money. He then focuses on poetry and comes out with his first published work "Venus & Adonis." He dedicated this book to Henry Earl of Southampton (who just inherited a fortune) hoping to get patronage, prestige, and money.

August 11, 1596 Shakespeare's only son Hamlet died at the age of 11. He may have been buried even before Shakespeare got the news. Michael Wood said Shakespeare reacted in these ways:

Rise to Fame

I've decided to tweak my focused learning plan a bit (already?!) and spend this week posting about the rest of the PBS series "In Search of Shakespeare". It's providing an excellent foundation of Shakespeare's life upon which I can further my focus of the familial aspect in Shakespeare's works. By learning more about Shakespeare's personal life, I can glean out important information that may parallel with his view and attitude towards the family and how it is reflected in his works. I ended my last post, part one of the series, with Shakespeare as a husband and father at the very young age of 19 years-old.

In order to support his new family, William Shakespeare lived and worked in the Lancaster countryside as a teacher under the alias of William Shakeshaft. February 2, 1585 was the baptism of Shakespeare's twins. Now Shakespeare's family included his two girls, one boy and his wife Anne. In other family matters, John Shakespeare, William's father, continued to make a bad name for the family when he was booted out of politics, again, when William was 22 years old.

There was a group called "The Queen's Men" who traveled all around Great Britain. They were a popular attraction and a humorous group, but their main purpose was a propaganda tour for Queen Elizabeth. This was during the time of the Spanish Armada when the Protestant Winds conquered Spain. One of the famous players in the Queen's Men was William Nell. He was murdered and so the company was short one actor. Michael Wood believes that this was when Shakespeare joined the Queen's Men and left his family behind to tour with the company. They were one of the first to portray the villainous character of Richard III. They also put on the old play of King Lear.

In 1588 the Queens Men arrived in London and Shakespeare left them to be out on his own. Seen in tax records, we find Shakespeare's first address in London is Bishop's Gate. He lived among the middle class and worked in Shoreditch where he began to write plays.

Not Your Average 19 year old

I thought the best place to start my familial focus of Shakespeare's works would be to go to the roots of Shakespeare's life. I came across the PBS series "In Search of Shakespeare" earlier this semester. It's a four part series that follows Shakespeare's life from the cradle to the grave:

"...the core of the series is a biography. The story of one Elizabethan, his life, family and friendships, his triumphs and disasters, his loves and his losses....it is the first time that a full-scale life of William Shakespeare has been attempted on TV. Presenter-led, mixing travel, adventure, interviews and specially shot documentary and live action sequences with the RSC on the road..." 

see PBS's website "In Search of Shakespeare" 

I know we've all heard how mysterious Shakespeare's life is and that there isn't much out there, but this series fills in some of the missing pieces with the back round of other family members and the history of the time. Most of the information recorded during Shakespeare's early life is by "informants" or royal spies that were all over the country, as well as government and religious records. 

I just interviewed Ian Mckellen!

I just came across a gem! There is a website called Stage Work Mckellen where you can hold your own interactive interview with Ian Mckellen about Shakespeare and Richard III. How cool is that?! You can ask him questions like:

Is the play Richard III historically accurate?

Why is the play so popular?

Should we have sympathy for Richard?

But before he'll answer you, YOU have to give him your response to these questions. He also gives his own critique and interpretation of speeches and stage and film renditions of the play. Ian Mckellen as a Shakespeare professor! He explains that his version of the opening speech in Richard III  was shortened for film purposes, and that words were put that Richard said in Henry VI part 3, like we talked about in class yesterday. You can find the screenplay Ian Mckellen wrote, with more notes, at www.mckellen.com or click here for a direct link his screenplay.

If you're not interested in Richard III, you can also ask him questions about Shakespeare like:

Should Shakespeare be read so that it's obvious it's written in verse?

Is it ridiculous to make 14 year-olds study Shakespeare?

Was Shakespeare interested in politics?

If what I wrote didn't make much sense, here's a video that explains Stage Work Mckellen.
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• How does it serve the play and the study of Shakesepare? I think this site is an excellent source for those studying Richard III. Ian Mckellen provides an interpretation of the beginning speech and gives you and opportunity to ask questions about it. He also offers other versions of the speech on film and stage for you to watch and compare yourself. The questions about Shakespeare in general are a little more tailored to Ian Mckellen and his career, so it's not the best resource for Shakespeare overall. 
• How well does it use available media? It links to videos, texts, and many other resources. Just the format of the site in general makes use of all sorts of media. 
• Will this reach audiences? Referring to the literal answer to this question I'm not too sure about this, since I don't think this site is marketed very well. It was by chance that I came along and found it. Will is reach into the lives of those who do happen to find it? Yes. It combines popular culture, modern references and historical references.
• Is it just a gimmick or is this a substantial contribution to the study of Shakespeare? I think this is a substantial contribution to the study of Shakespeare. Just like our blogs, this is a way to learn about Shakespeare through someone elses eyes! Ian Mckellen is passionate about Shakespeare, and he really does know his stuff. I think this would be a perfect media to use in a classroom setting to get students involved and interested in Richard III and Shakespeare.

 Now take a look at this site! It's a unique resource about Shakespeare through the mind of someone who knows a thing or two about him, to the say the least.

Richard III Review

Tonight I watched Ian Mckellen's Richard III. It's set in 1930 England, undoubtedly paralleling Richard with Hitler. I think this was such a creative and insightful way to shape the play because it sends the message that yes, Shakespeare may have over-dramatized Richard, but sadly enough we have allowed leaders like him in our day rise to power with a bloody trail behind them. 

The movie was captivating and some actors put an interesting twist on their characters--like Robert Downey Jr. playing a alcohol, drug and sex fiend Lord Rivers. That was...interesting, because Lord Rivers didn't seem very important to me while reading the play. Some lines showed up in different scenes and some murders were different, but over all it stayed pretty close to the script. One thing I did not understand was the rating: R?? Why? My husband seems to think that it's because it showed blood. I think it's safe to say that it didn't live up to the R rating. Dr. Burton mentioned to me in class that it was probably some marketing ploy, I'm assuming, to make Richard III seem more dramatic. Ian Mckellen succeeded, by far, in bringing the soliloquy of a guilty conscience in Act V Scene III to life. While reading it I couldn't exactly understand the frame of mind Richard III was in, but his performance made his struggle with guilt very clear.

I give this movie 4 stars based on how true it stayed to and how well it portrayed the original Shakespeare text. It didn't receive 5 stars from me on the basis that it after watching the movie, I didn't feel like there was much more that I gained from it than if I had only read the text. Shakespeare does so well in making the characters come alive, and the movie made some of the characters more tame than my mind did while I was reading. That was a disappointment.

"And that's the greatest thing ever written"

After such an overwhelmingly crazy week in school, this is how finishing Hamlet felt:

Phew.

taken from Whitney

Thankfully I found some more comic relief along the way.

(don't mind the quality)

Sorry Simpsons, but you didn't get the death order right...

Laertes gets stabbed by his own sword, which is poisoned, so he slowly dies from that.

Hamlet gets stabbed by Laertes poisoned sword, and starts to slowly die.

The Queen drinks from the poisoned goblet and dies.

Hamlet stabs the King and forces him to drink out of the poisoned goblet, so the King dies.

Laertes finally dies.

Hamlet dies.

The End.

But not the end for this blog--Hamlet will be revisited.