3.27 Measure for Measure (1603) in Full

Film Adaptation

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Director Desmond Davis based the brothel in the play on a traditional Western saloon and the prison on a typical horror film dungeon.  The role of the Duke was originally offered to Alec Guinness. When he turned it down, the role was offered to a further thirty-one actors, before Kenneth Colley finally accepted the part.  The set for the episode was a 360-degree set backed by a cyclorama, which allowed actors to move from location to location without cutting - actors could walk through the streets of Vienna by circumnavigating the studio eight times.  For the interview scenes, Davis decided to link them aesthetically and shot both in the same manner; Angelo was shot upwards from waist level to make him look large, Isabella was shot from further away so more background was visible in her shots, making her appear smaller. Gradually, the shots then move towards each other's style so that, by the end of the scene, they are both shot in the same framing.

Reference:  Measure for Measure, Behind-the-scenes.

Kate Nelligan, as Isabella 

I was enamored with actress Kate Nelligan, who suffused my view of Isabella in the play with a longing and a romance.  Drawn so, I was glad for the Duke's machinations.  He deftly turned the amorous, ill-intentioned Angelo from having forbidden sex with Isabella, to having sex with his estranged but lawful wife.  It is this seedy scheming that makes "Measure for Measure" a dark comedy.    

Full Theatrical Reading

Complete Text

Measure for Measure

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.27) and publication year (1603), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.23 As You Like It (1599) in Full

"As You Like It" is a 1936 film, directed by Paul Czinner and starring Laurence Olivier as Orlando and Elisabeth Bergner as Rosalind. It is based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name. It was Laurence Olivier's first performance of Shakespeare on screen.

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"As You Like It" is one I have pegged for a Shakespeare Talks! on gender and identity.  Consider this:  In Shakespeare's time, young men played the role of women.  In this case, it's Rosalind.  Who pretends she's a man, in an effort to get close to, and woo, Orlando.  Once they've built up a friendship, she persuades him to do a role play, with her (secretly disguised as man) as lady (which of course she is already).  You get the picture.

Full Theatrical Reading

Complete Text

As You Like It

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.23) and publication year (1599), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.16 The Merchant of Venice (1596) in Full

Film Adaptation

The 2004 adaptation follows the text very closely, only missing occasional lines. The director, Michael Radford, believed that Shylock was Shakespeare's first tragic hero, who reaches a catastrophe due to his own flaws:  Thus the film does not show Shylock purely as a villain, but partly also as a victim. It begins with text and a montage of how the Jewish community is abused by the Christian population of Venice. One of the last shots of the film also brings attention to the fact that, as a convert, Shylock would have been cast out of the Jewish community in Venice, no longer allowed to live in the ghetto.

Reference:  The Merchant of Venice (2004 film).

Full Theatrical Reading

Complete Text

The Merchant of Venice

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.16) and publication year (1596), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.7 Richard III (1592) in Full

Director Jane Howell also saw the unedited nature of the tetralogy as important for Richard himself, arguing that without the three Henry VI plays "it is impossible to appreciate Richard except as some sort of diabolical megalomaniac," whereas in the full context of the tetralogy "you've seen why he is created, you know how such a man can be created: he was brought up in war, he saw and knew nothing else from his father but the struggle for the crown, and if you've been brought up to fight, if you've got a great deal of energy, and physical handicaps, what do you do? You take to intrigue and plotting."

Richard III falls under my umbrella of Shakespearean villain extraordinaire, alongside Iago and Lady Macbeth.  But this production from the BBC Television Shakespeare suggests I ought to read those Henry VI plays to get a better grip on him and perhaps recast his character.  Alas, these plays are among the few I haven't read, yet.

Full Theatrical Reading

Complete Text

Richard III

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.7) and publication year (1592), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

"Where the Bee Sucks," There Sucks Ariel

Where the bee sucks, there suck I:
In a cowslip’s bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat’s back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

Where the Bee Sucks, There Suck I is a poem by William Shakespeare, sung by Ariel in Act V, scene i  of "The Tempest."

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A very lovely performance by Amy Koop and Michael Mikulin, wonderfully arranged by Mikulin, in this audio recording:  Where the Bee Sucks (There Suck I):

This song from The Tempest is sung by Ariel, a sprite who is in the service of the sorcerer Prospero. Prospero decides to renounce his magical powers (“I’ll drown my book”). Ariel sings this song while helping to attire Prospero, as the sorcerer removes his wizarding robes and dresses in his city clothes, in preparation for leaving his magical powers behind. The song lyrics reflect Ariel’s anticipation of gaining freedom from service and being returned to the natural world.

"O Mistress Mine" of Feste the Clown

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"O Mistress Mine," by mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal with the Ensemble Chaconne

O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love’s coming,
That can sing both high and low:
Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man’s son doth know. 

What is love? ’Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What’s to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies not plenty;
Then, come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.

"O Mistress Mine" is a poem by William Shakespeare, from his play "Twelfth Night" (Act II, scene iii):

These lines are sung by Feste, one of the more complex comic foils to appear in a Shakespearean work. He is something of a jester, of course, but he has an unmistakably philosophical underside (“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit”), pressing characters to abandon their self-pity, to recognize that life always brings its burdens — but pressing them also to seize the moment of love, which brings life’s rewards. All of this is very much the message of this sweet, simple, and yet poignant song, which attained celebrity in its own right in Shakespeare’s lifetime. Part of that celebrity was owed not to Shakespeare, however, but to the man who composed the music by which the words came to be known. 

Listen to the setting of “O Mistress Mine,” one of the last works composed by Thomas Morley, a student of William Byrd’s who died shortly after the play opened, in the fall of 1602. Although he was an organist at St Paul’s Cathedral and he attempted to write some serious church music, Morley is best known for his perfection of the consort style (the introduction of the “broken consort,” in which wind instruments are added to the conventional strings) and of the English madrigal.

Reference:  Shakespeare/Morley — “O Mistress Mine.”

A lovely instrumental performance, by the Stockholms Barockensemble.  

An accomplished performance, by Alfred Deller with the Deller Consort.  

Forlorn "Willow Song" of Desdemona

The poor soul sat sighing
By a sycamore tree,
Sing willow, willow, willow,
Wth his hand in his bosom
And his head upon his knee,
Oh, willow, willow, willow,
Shall be my garland.
Sing all a green willow,
Aye me, the green willow
Must be my garland. 

He sighed in his singing
And made a great moan,
Sing...
I am dead to all pleasure,
My true love he is gone, etc.
The mute bird sat by him
Was made tame by his moans, etc.
The true tears fell from him
Would have melted the stones.
Sing... 

Come all you forsaken
And mourn you wth me.
Who speaks of a false love?
Mine's falser than she.
Sing...
Let Love no more boast her
In palace nor bower;
It buds but it blasteth
Ere it be a flower.
Sing... 

Thou fair and more false,
I die with thy wound.
Thou hast lost thy truest lover
That goes upon the ground.
Sing...
Let nobody chide her,
Her scorns I approve.
She was born to be false
And I to die for love.
Sing... 

Take this for my farewell
And latest adieu;
Write this on my tomb
That in love I was true.
Sing...

"The Willow Song" is a song William Shakespeare wove into his play "Othello" (Act IV, scene iii).

As Desdemona [wife of Othello] is preparing for bed the night she will be murdered, she starts singing a song about willow trees. This song, supposedly sung originally by one of Desdemona's mother's servants who loved a crazy guy, reflects Desdemona's own situation. She herself is worried that the man she married has gone crazy and will desert her. Willows at the edge of water are a traditional symbol of women deserted by their lovers.

Reference:  The Willow Song.

Desdemona describes her source of the song to Emilia while dressing:

My mother had a maid call’d Barbary;
She was in love, and he she lov’d prov’d mad,
And did forsake her. She had a song of “Willow,”
And old thing ’twas, but it express’d her fortune,
And she died singing it. That song tonight
Will not go from my mind, I have much to do
But to go hang my head all at one side
And sing it like poor Barbary.

Reference:  The Willow Song.

Othello smothered Desdemona to death - not merely deserted - out of a horribly, but wrongfully, implanted belief by Iago that she was unfaithful to him.

A Lutish Lover and his Lovely Lass

I can hear the music wafting from Shakespeare's poetry, whenever I read his plays, but to listen to a lovely performance like this by soprano Valeria Mignaco and lute player Alfonso Marin makes the reading more special.  Thomas Morley was the composer for "It was a Lover and his Lass," and while he and Shakespeare were contemporaries, there is no evidence (yet) that they collaborated directly on this or other pieces.  

It was a lover and his lass,
   With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o'er the green corn-field did pass,
   In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

Between the acres of the rye,
   With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
These pretty country folks would lie,
   In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

This carol they began that hour,
   With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
How that life was but a flower
   In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

And, therefore, take the present time
   With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
For love is crown`d with the prime
   In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.

It was a Lover and his Lass is a poem by Shakespeare, in his play "As You Like It" (Act V, scene iii).

3.24 Hamlet (1599) in Full

Film Adaptation

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Shakespeare's immortal "To be, or not to be" takes on a whole new meaning (and medium) as classical stage and screen actors David Tennant and (recently-knighted) Sir Patrick Stewart reprise their roles for a modern-dress, film-for-television adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC) 2008 stage production of Hamlet.

Reference:  Hamlet.

Full Theatrical Reading

Complete Text

Hamlet

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.24) and publication year (1599), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.  

3.14 A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595) in Full

Film Adaptation

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A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1935 American film of William Shakespeare's play, directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, and starring Ian Hunter, James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Olivia de Havilland, Joe E. Brown, Dick Powell, and Victor Jory. Produced by Henry Blanke and Hal Wallis for Warner Brothers, and adapted by Charles Kenyon and Mary C. McCall Jr. from Reinhardt's Hollywood Bowl production of the previous year, the film is about the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors, who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the story is set. The play, which is categorized as a comedy, is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world. Felix Mendelssohn's music was extensively used, as re-orchestrated by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The ballet sequences featuring the fairies were choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska.

Full Theatrical Reading

Complete Text

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.14) and publication year (1595), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.  

3.13 Romeo and Juliet (1595) in Full

Film Adaptations

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Romeo and Juliet is a 1968 British-Italian romance film based on the tragic play of the same name by William Shakespeare. 

The film was directed and co-written by Franco Zeffirelli, and starred Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey. It won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design; it was also nominated for Best Director and Best Picture.  Laurence Olivier spoke the film's prologue and epilogue and reportedly dubbed the voice of the Italian actor playing Lord Montague, but was not credited in the film. 

Being the most financially successful film of a Shakespeare play during that time, it was popular among teenagers partly because the film used actors who were close to the age of the characters from the original play for the first time. Several critics also welcomed the film enthusiastically.

I've seen many productions of "Romeo and Juliet," but the Zeffirelli one is my favorite. 

Behind-the-scenes.  Rebecca Saire was only fourteen when the production was filmed, an unusually young age for an actress playing Juliet (even though she is only thirteen in the play itself). During publicity for the production, Saire gave several interviews in which she criticised director Alvin Rakoff, stating that in his interpretation, Juliet is too childlike and asexual, much to the horror of the series producers, who cancelled several scheduled interviews with the actress in the lead up to broadcast.

Saire's criticism notwithstanding, I have a special fondness for the BBC productions, because they came on TV just as I had discovered Shakespeare and was falling in love with his plays.

Full Theatrical Reading

Complete Text

Romeo and Juliet

Note.  The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.13) and publication year (1595), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.28 Othello (1603) in Full

Film Adaptation

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Othello is a 1995 film based on William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. It was directed by Oliver Parker and stars Laurence Fishburne as Othello, Irène Jacob as Desdemona, and Kenneth Branagh as Iago. This is the first cinematic reproduction of the play released by a major studio that casts an African American actor to play the role of Othello, although low-budget independent films of the play starring Ted Lange and Yaphet Kotto  predated it.

Fishburne and Branagh are standouts as the accomplished hero and as the scheming Iago.  "Othello" is a Fall of Man drama - at the hands of evil, that is.  The fact that Iago undoes Othello so methodically and effectively is breathtaking.

Full Theatrical Reading

Complete Text

Othello

Note.  The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.28) and publication year (1603), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.

3.31 Macbeth (1606) in Full

Film Adaptations

High school was very much a time of mathematics, chemistry and Spanish.  But university was a radical shift to psychology, philosophy and literature.  For example, I studied Shakespeare, Drama and Poetry, each, for a year.  I excelled in the hard sciences, but I gravitated to the arts and did just as well there.

As a student at Northwestern University, then, I was enthralled to find out about the BBC Television Shakespeare.  "Macbeth" aired in 1983.   

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This 1997 production was directed by Jeremy Freeston, and stars Jason Connery (yes, son of the famous Sean) as the murderous Scottish King and Helen Baxendale as his eviscerating wife.  I especially liked the cinematography and soundtrack of this film.  So, for example, at points in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's evil deed, the camera goes hand-held (i.e., shakes) and we feel their balance- (i.e., order-) jarring purpose.

The couple unravel mentally and emotionally, each in their own ways, so I would've preferred that the Freeston captured this through more disheveled clothing, more disjointed speech, more horrific expressions.  Macbeth, for instance, seemed too put-together, still, after having just stabbed Duncan to death.  In fact, he was absolutely horrified at what he had done.

In all, this was a captivating production, and it impressed me with how compressed the plot was.  "Macbeth" was one of his shortest.  The descent from celebrated war hero, to beheaded murderer was rapid indeed.

Full Theatrical Reading

Complete Text

Macbeth

Note. The numbers in the title refer to the play number (3.31) and publication year (1606), which Wikipedia noted based on the Oxford chronology.  

A Chronology of Shakespeare's Plays

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Arden presents the plays alphabetically without any attempt to construct an overall chronology. Oxford, Riverside, Norton and RSC all present chronologies which differ from one another. Accordingly, dates in the following lists are approximate means. This list adopts the Oxford Shakespeare chronology, although none of the major chronologies has any real authority over any of the others.

Reference:  Chronology of Shakespeare's Plays.

In the 1980s, I sought a chronology for a simple, practical purpose.  I wanted some recognized order by which to set my many Shakespeare books on the shelf.  What I chose was that of the Signet Classic.  But the following from the Oxford edition serves the purpose perfectly fine:

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