This is the first of a couple of weeks of
limbo as our trip to London approaches. It’s been a quiet week but the
Shakespeare sightings are a bit unusual.
From Davis and Frankforter’s The Shakespeare Name Dictionary.
- London Bridge was the only bridge across the Thames in Shakespeare’s day, indeed until 1750. It was not the first London Bridge but built in stone in the 13th century and included buildings as well as a road. It figures in Henry VI:1 and Henry VI:2.
- Londoners themselves are only said by D&F to be mentioned in Henry VIII but of course they are in many if not all of the history plays. Mistress Quickly and Doll Sheet come to mind and Falstaff and Prince Hal were certainly at home in Cheapside.
Shakespeare sightings:
- In a trailer for the film Tristan and Isolde they said, “Before Romeo and Juliet there was Tristan and Isolde.”
- In the film The Libertine
- John Malkovich’s King Charles II says to Johnny Depp’s Earl of Rochester: “Elizabeth had her Shakespeare. You can be mine. Give me a major piece of literature...”
- Rochester tells Samantha Morton’s Lizzie Barry that he will make her a great Ophelia. He coaches her but she’s the one who makes herself a great Ophelia.
- She also mentions doing Desdemona.
- In the film Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky Bob, the literary pub waiter, says to Mr Saunders who’s written a sonnet in the Petrarchan manner, “The Petrarchan is different from the Shakespearean sonnet,” then goes on to the amazement of his colleagues and the other clients to explain the difference.
- On a very pleasant boat outing yesterday to an island in the Stockholm archipelago with Hal and a couple of good friends, I overheard a family discussing Romeo and Juliet. I refrained from participating.
Further since last time:
- Continued reading aloud with Hal: Antony and Cleopatra in preparation for seeing it at the Globe in a couple of weeks.
- Continued reading Shakespeare and Film – a Norton Guide by Samuel Crowl.
Posted this week:
- This Monday report.
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