BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: SHAKESPEARE

SHAKESPEARE'S MANUSCRIPTS

"Not a single Shakespeare manuscript survives, so, as with
Chaucer, we cannot be sure how closely the work we know is really Shakespeare's. Hemming and Condell consulted any number of sources to produce their folio -- printers' manuscripts, actors' promptbooks, even the memoriers of other actors. But from what happened to the work of other authors it is probable that have been changed a lot. One of Shakespeare's publishers was Richard Field and it is known from extant manuscripts that when Field published the work of the poet John Harrington he made more than a thousand changes to the spelling and phrasing. It is unlikely that he did less with Shakespeare , particularly since Shakespeare himself seemed singularly unconcerned with what became of his work after his death. As far as is known, he did not bother to save any of his poems and plays -- a fact that is sometimes taken as evidence that he didn't write them."

Bill Bryson. The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got that
Way (New York: William Morrow,1990
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GIVE UNTO CAESAR WHAT IS CAESAR'S 

" March 15 is too important a day to ignore. As the man who taught me to use a chainsaw said, it is immortalized 
by Shakespeare’s famous warning: “Cedar! Beware the adze of March."

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
MAR 16, 2024
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HERMIONE FERDINANDA GINGOLD ON HER NAME

"I think the Ferdinanda was in memory of my uncle
Ferdinand, and Hermione from Shakespeare's The
Winter's Tale, which she* was reading just before my
birth. I suppose I should be grateful it wasn't Hamlet
or I might  have been Ham. Actually, I'm now quite
glad my name is Hermione Gingold because it's
such a long name that on theatre marquees, there isn't
room for another name beside it."

* Her mother

Hermione Gingold. How to Grow Old Disgracefully: an
autobiogrphy  (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988)

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SOME GALLED GOOSE OF WINCHESTER

In Troilus and Cressida, Pandarus delivers the play's final speech. The concluding four lines are
                                    
 ...but that my fear is this,
Some galled goose of Winchester would  hiss.
Till then I'll sweat and seek about for eases,
And at this time bequeath you my diseases.

In The RSC Shakespeare edition, edited by Jonathan Bate and
Eric Rasmussen (New York: the Modern Library, 2010) the editors supply the following note:

goose of Winchester prostitute, so called because of the many brothels of Southwark, which was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Wijnchester

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SHAKESPEARE & THE TERCEL

The peregrine falcon appears in two forms in Shakespeare’s work. The general term of “falcon” only applies to a female peregrine falcon.1 A male peregrine falcon is called a “tercel” or “tassel-gentle.” “Tassel” and “tercel” mean “a third,” because the male peregrine falcon is one-third the size of a female peregrine falcon.
          2 In the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet appropriately describes Romeo as a male peregrine falcon when she calls him back to her window to continue their secret conference: 

Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 2, Line 169

JULIET: Hist, Romeo, hist! O, for a falc’ner’s voice
To lure this tassel-gentle back again!
Bondage is hoarse and may not speak aloud,
Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies
And make her airy tongue more hoarse than ⌜mine⌝
With repetition of “My Romeo!”

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGwHpQNPqBVQcDMnGZmrxlDJMQf
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SHAKESPEARE & TRIGGER WARNINGS

England's Royal Shakespeare Company placed a trigger warning on its new production  of The Merry Wives of Windsor, cautioning audiences  that the 'fat  knight' Sir John Falstaff is subjected to 'body-shaming' in the 1602 play.

THE WEEK (June 21, 2024)
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PAUL SCOFIELD AND VALERIE TAYLOR IN CYMBELINE

"But Paul could not help but smile when Valerie Taylor as Imogen,lapsed when reading from her letter;instead of
saying, "Thy mistress , Pisario, hath play'd the strumpet in my
bed," actually said "Thy mistress, Pisario, hath play'd the
trumpet in my bed."

Garry O'Connor. Paul Scofield:An Actor For All Season (New York:
Applause Books, 2002)
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ARIEL, MY ARIEL

Everyday, my Ariel.
I put the world behind me, but it shoot back.
One generation & the next.
Light as sunlight thrushing
As thru the Spanish Cedars flash
Comorants magnific with their hooked beaks.
Always a fitful cornucopia
To take the breath away.
I press my life to the jumping  dayshine.
What do I demand?
More space? More freedom?
Freedom to do what? Hungering for magic,
I stand on Prospero's Isle.
Could I have been so wrong about my life?
Far out on the ocean,
Replenished & green,
One anonymous sailor
Fastens his shroud.

Louis Phillips