Ben Crystal does Shakespeare in his Voice

I cannot imagine that anyone has had access to an actual sound recording of Shakespeare's voice, so the question is How does actor Ben Crystal, or anyone for that matter, know what his accent was?  My guess is that we infer from his writing, maybe from the Folio, and his poetry in particular.  In any case, I found this little bit of instruction informative and enjoyable, and I marvel at how verse and versatile actors have to be to perform Shakespeare.

Jim Meskimen does Shakespeare in Celebrity Voices

CLARENCE: O, I have passed a miserable night,

So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,

That, as I am a Christian faithful man,

I would not spend another such night

Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days--

So full of dismal terror was the time.

Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower

And was embarked to cross the Bergundy,

And in my company my brother Gloucester,

Who from my cabin tempted me to walk

Upon the hatches: thence we looked toward England

And cited up a thousand heavy times,

During the wars of York and Lancaster,

That had befall'n us. As we paced along

Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,

Methought that Gloucester stumblèd, and in falling

Struck me (that thought to stay him) overboard

Into the tumbling billows of the main.

O Lord! methought what pain it was to drown!

What dreadful noise of waters in mine ears!

What sights of ugly death within mine eyes!

Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wracks;

A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon;

Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,

Inestimable stones, unvaluèd jewels,

All scatt'red in the bottom of the sea:

Some lay in dead men's skulls, and in the holes

Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept

(As 'twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems,

That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep

And mocked the dead bones that lay scatt'red by.

I passed (methought) the melancholy flood,

With that sour ferryman which poets write of,

Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.

The first that there did greet my stranger soul

Was my great father-in-law, renownèd Warwick,

Who spake aloud, 'What scourge for perjury

Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?'

And so he vanished. Then came wand'ring by

A shadow like an angel, with bright hair

Dabbled in blood, and he shrieked aloud,

'Clarence is come -- false, fleeting, perjured Clarence,

That stabbed me in the field by Tewkesbury:

Seize on him, Furies, take him unto torment!'

With that (methoughts) a legion of foul fiends

Environed me, and howlèd in mine ears

Such hideous cries that with the very noise

I, trembling, waked, and for a season after

Could not believe but that I was in hell,

Such terrible impression made my dream.

Richard III (Act I, scene iv), by William Shakespeare

 

Kim Hall: How well does Othello speak to our culture?

Is Othello Shakespeare's American Play? is, I believe, an unfair, misguided question to ask, mainly because it's a closed-ended one.  As such, it begs simplistic, one-sided responses, and aborts what may very well be a very rich conversation or debate.  The better (open-ended) question is How well does Othello speak to our culture, our relations, our Zeitgeist?  Moreover, while there may be situations where a teacher ought to hold off on putting Othello or Merchant of Venice in the curriculum, I agree with Professor Kim Hall: The very open, even blunt rendering of race makes these plays terrific fodder for impassioned conversation and meaningful learning.

Kim Hall: What does it mean for Othello to be Black?

Professor Kim Hall is spot on:  While many students may wonder Was Othello Black? the more important questions are What does it mean for him to be Black, how does this shape his relationships with others, and what about the play resonates for us on such matters as love and romance, race and prejudice?

Kim Hall: What historical lessons can we draw?

One has to be careful to draw historical lessons from Shakespeare.  That is, because he freely dramatizes historical figures and events, we ought to take his plays as a prompt to research the facts behind this dramatization.  Of course, as masterful works of art, his plays may shed light (i.e. psychological, experiential or behavioral) on historical figures and events, which facts, in and of themselves, may fail to shed light on.  At the very least, as Professor Kim Hall points out, we glimpse Elizabethan views on the royal court in Shakespeare's time.  At the end of the day, as I have argued elsewhere, our understanding of anything in our world and history are all the richer, more complete when we account for both objective and subjective angles.

Shakespeare Does Iambs

Shakespeare's most poetic lines don't just talk about matters of the heart, they follow its rhythm.

As obtusely as Heinz Kohut (psychoanalyst) and John Ashbery (poet) wrote, I understood them and felt as if they spoke to me.  As surreal as were the paintings of Salvador Dali, they were a special language my unconscious understood.  So as entrenched as the English of William Shakespeare sounded to scores of people, I heard the poetry and drama in every word.  That is the underpinning of why I love iambic pentameter and accordingly why I adopt it in my poetry.

Shakespeare Talks Trash

I like Your brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage (though this isn't iambic pentameter [see next post]).

I like Thou art as loathsome as a toad.

I like Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese.