Will Shakespeare

[Felix]

Today is the 446th birthday of William Shakespeare. Rumors of sightings of the poet in minor pubs and fish 'n chips shops are unreliable. Will really has left the building, but in spite of changing fashions in education and popular culture, retains a mighty presence in the English-speaking word, and in other parts, as well.

His friend, critic and sometimes rival, Ben Jonson, wrote a commendatory poem for the publication of the First Folio of Shakespeare's works. Part of that poem below. (no link provided; both men are slightly out of copyright)

. . .
Yet must I not giue Nature all: Thy Art,
My gentle Shakespeare, must enioy a part.
For though the Poets matter, Nature be,
His Art doth giue the fashion. And, that he,
Who casts to write a liuing line, must sweat,
(such as thine are) and strike the second heat
Vpon the Muses anuile: turne the same,
(And himselfe with it) that he thinkes to frame;
Or for the lawrell, he may gaine a scorne . .
...

No scorn for Shakespeare, he is the main man.

[LimitedRecourse]

To those who would sneer at Billy Shake:

"You are not worth the dust which the rude wind blows in your face."

&

"If thou art chang'd to aught, 'tis to an ass."

[ScarlettP]

The Bard, no doubt, penned some of the greatest stories ever told, and crafted the language like no other.

I just returned from seeing Clash of the Titans. Yet another butcher job on the classic tales. It wasn't a bad movie. It wasn't great either. I just couldn't believe how BORING they made the ancient tales sound when all the background information was given as dialog.

Once upon a long time ago, when the world was new and all, I read a child's version of Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey. I was only about 10 or 11 years old at the time and everyone was just AMAZED that I was reading the Iliad and loving it. Naturally, I was not reading the classic poem as it was written.

Through the years, I have often remembered how much I enjoyed those tales. I truely believe that having the basic knowledge of the greatest and oldest epics shaped my understanding of all story telling. One needs to know the roots of some myths to put future works in perspective.

Now, I lament that I was never forced to read Shakespeare in college. Like all modern people, I would struggle through the language and not truely enjoy it, then put the books down. To this day, I remain regrettably ignorant of the finer details of Shakespeare's stories.

While I know it would be a Herculean task, I would dearly love to see a set of books published based on all the great myths from Zeus / Jupiter to Beowulf to Arthur and Robin Hood to Juliet and Hamlet. These need to be written on the same level as Harry Potter and *gag* Twilight series so that the stories are in first person and told chronologically. I know that many, many books have been written on these stories, but I would love to see a collection of them.

Hmmm.... Just where my poor tired mind wanders off to when I'm over worked and needing a day off that I shall not receive.

[Tsavodiner]

The "Ebonics" master of his age....

[TNBear]

As a one-time Theatre Arts major I have built sets for, designed lighting for, operated lights for, acted in and attended more of Master Shakespeare's plays than you could shake a couple of sticks at. The above ignorant throwaway comment notwithstanding, the dude had a command of the English language second to none.

[Tsavodiner]

Hearken unto my heart and hearth when I telleth you that, upon my soul, ALL my comments are throwaway. Tis' not they are validated until, forthwith and mayhap, somebumbling sod picketh them from upon God's firmament that my soul art gladden by their repugnant obloquy.

Wiseguy, tell us what ELSE you've not finished in your misbegotten life....

[Felix]

What a concept Scarlett has proposed, sort of fanfiction for the classics. Somebody recently came up with Jane Austen with zombies, so maybe Scarlett is on to something. Let's see, Hamlet with his zombie father, Macbeth as The Diary of a Scottish Serial Killer, and on and on. Not exactly Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, but in the ballpark.

And I like this comment on himself by tsavo:

ALL my comments are throwaway.

Got to admire someone who does not take himself too seriously, a rarity on teh internetz.

[daworm]

Somebody recently came up with Jane Austen with zombies...

Been there, read that. Needs more zombies and less Austen.

[Warkitty]

Personally, I'd be horrified at the dumbing down of Shakespeare that would be inherit in writing modern versions of same. It's not like reading Chaucer, it's still modern English.

(and, Chaucer is pretty cool in the original too)

[Justin Thyme]

Shakespeare is evident in many pieces of modern literature from story themes (Westside Story) to character development (Captain Ahab). It doesn't horrify me that his works might be dumbed down, what horrifies me is that his works might be forgotten.

[daworm]

Dumbed down maybe (even though it did not change the actual words), but the movie version of Romeo and Juliet a few years back was one of the few things I liked Leonardo De Caprio in.

Hell, if they can make a modernized Bible, then Shakespeare shouldn't be much of a stretch.

[ScarlettP]

I wasn't actually purposing a 'dumbed down' version of Shakespeare. More like a children's version of the same. The exact same stories, only written in a language that a 10-12 year old could manage.

While some of the plot points were considered to be quite mature and even shocking at the time they were written, those points are somewhat tame by today's standards. While one would have a difficult time 'dumbing down' the fact that Jupiter raped Medusa on the floor of Athena's temple and that Athena felt no pity for Medusa, only disgust, thus cursing her with a hideous form.... It could be done. It all comes back to the general concept that it is WRONG to blame the victim of an attack.

People need to know where the basic stories came from. Most of these ancient tales and story lines have been re-written and re-told in so many different ways. I just think it would be a good idea for people to know the sources of the plagiarism -er- homage.

[Warkitty]

Assuming that's the version of Medusa's story you buy. Bullfinch has a very different version:

"She was once a beautiful maiden whose hair was her chief glory but as she dared to vie in beauty with Minerva (Athena), the goddess deprived her of her charms and changed her beautiful ringlets into hissing serpents."

Or from Pausanina in his "Descriptions of Greece":

[2.21.5] "In the market-place of Argos is a mound of earth, in which they say lies the head of the Gorgon Medusa.... After the death of her father, Phorcus, she reigned over those living around Lake Tritonis, going out hunting and leading the Libyans to battle. On one such occasion, when she was encamped with an army over against the forces of Perseus, who was followed by picked troops from the Peloponnesus, she was assassinated by night. Perseus, admiring her beauty even in death, cut off her head and carried it to show the Greeks.

[2.21.6] But Procles, the son of Eucrates, a Carthaginian, thought a different account more plausible than the preceding. It is as follows. Among the incredible monsters to be found in the Libyan desert are wild men and wild women. Procles affirmed that he had seen a man from them who had been brought to Rome. So he guessed that a woman wandered from them, reached Lake Tritonis, and harried the neighbours until Perseus killed her; Athena was supposed to have helped him in this exploit, because the people who live around Lake Tritonis are sacred to her."

but I understand your point. I'm just more of a "classic" to "modernized" kind of girl.