BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: SHAKESPEARE

WHY SO MANY PRODUCTIONS OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS UNTIL AFTER WORLD WAR I WERE SO-CALLED TRADITONAL PRODUCTIONS

"It used to fire my imagination when I realized that our stage 'business' was derived from the actual business used in Shakespeare's time. Benson played with Irving, who had in his company an actor who had played with Kean. He communicated this knowledge to Irving. Kean had in his company actors who had played with Garrick. Garrick had as members of his company actors who had played with Betterton, and Betterton, in his turn, had as fellow-actors some who had played at the Blackfriars and the Globe, where Shakespeare's 
plays were originally presented. All these old actors were the marathon runners who handed on the torch of traditional stage business through the generations down to Benson's day. So it is little wonder that we Bensonians were somewhat consumed by tradition. But we were the last of the old brigade. 	
       When Benson died, the torch sputtered and burnt out."

     Reginald Denham. Stars in My Hair (New York: Crown Publishers, 1958)

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SHAKESPEARE & LUXURY

"Many people today would like to live a life of luxury, but back in the 1300s, if you told someone you were seeking luxury, you might raise an eyebrow or two. Originally, the English word “luxury” meant “sexual intercourse,” and by the end of the century, “lasciviousness,” “debauchery,” and “lust.” This all came from the Latin luxuria, used to express ideas of desire, excess and deviation from a standard. Shakespeare used the word — in its lustful sense — in the 1600 play Much Ado About Nothing, when Claudio accuses Hero of being unchaste: “She knows the heat of a luxurious bed. / Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.” At some point during the 17th century, the word began to lose its provocative connotation and took on its current usage, referring to great comfort, extravagant living, and the use of wealth for nonessential pleasures."

Word Smarts Website (May 17, 2025)
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CRESTON CLARKE (1865-1910) was a nephew of Edwin
Booth.

A REVIEW OF CRESTON CLARKE'S PERFORMANCE AS KING LEAR

"He played the King as though under momentary apprehension that someone else was about to play the ace."
                                              Eugene Field

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THE MOVIE BARBIE & SHAKESPEARE
'
Gerwig plays all this with knowing humor, and has talked about how “Shakespeare’s comedies” informed Barbie’s screenplay
 (co-written with Noah Baumbach). As she clarified: Shakespeare was a maximalist. There wasn’t anything that was too far 
or too crazy  that couldn’t be worked through, and then there’d be something in the middle that felt quite human. I was thinking about [Barbie] in those terms: a heightened theatricality
 that allows you to deal with big ideas in the midst of anarchic play.



https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/
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QUESTION:

The first chapter of this well-known English mystery opens with an  epigraph from Othello -- "O Who hath done this deed?". The final chapter of the book opens with yet another line from Othello -- "Nobody; I myself,  farewell."  Can you identify book and author?
 

Answer below somewhere.
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" 
Constable Dogberry in Shakespeare’s "Much Ado About Nothing"

The Bard wasn’t just skillful at poetry and prose — he liked to create new words, such as “swagger” and “bandit,” when no existing terms would suffice. He also had characters use malapropisms, or incorrect words, usually for comedic effect. Take Constable Dogberry, the bumbling officer in Much Ado About Nothing. When leaving the royal court, he shouts, “Adieu: be vigitant, I beseech you.” The line always earns a laugh from vigilant audience members.
The term “Dogberryism” is a lesser-known synonym for “malapropism,” but the Shakespearean reference came first. Much Ado About Nothing was published in 1623, and “malapropism” came from a reference in a 1775 play.

Creating Compound Words

"Shakespeare’s love for wordplay included creating original compound words or terms by fusing two existing words. The OED credits Shakespeare with the first recorded use of several now-common compounds, including “lackluster,” “skim milk,” and “shooting star.” In Richard II, he wrote, “I see thy glory like a shooting starre fall to the base earth,” coining the phrase that would become a staple in the English language. He also contributed to our animal vocabulary with terms such as “watchdog” (from The Tempest) and “puppy dog” (from King John).
It’s hard to imagine our modern language without Shakespeare’s immeasurable influence on words, phrases, and expressions. From puppy dogs and shooting stars ...

Rachel Gresh

WORD SMARTS WEBSITE (January 4, 2024)
https://wordsmarts.com/shakespeare-changed/
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TAKING HAMLET PERSONALLY

"The only book i brought from Ireland  is the 'Complete Works of Shakespeare ," which I bought in O'Malley's bookshop for thirteen shillings and sixpence, half  my wages  when I worked at the post office delivering telegrams. The play Ilke best is 'Hamlet,' because of what he had to put up with when his mother carried on with her husband's brother,Claudius, and  the way my own mother in Limerick carried on with her own cousin Laman Griffin. I could  understand Hamlet raging at his mother the way I did with my mother the night I had my first pint and went home drunk and slapped her face,.I'll be sorry for that till the day I die."
Frank McCourt. "New in Town" in The New Yorker (February 22-March1, 1999)
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JERRY LEE LEWIS AS IAGO

In 1968, there was a short-lived production of Othello in Los Angeles, a dream project of producer Jack Good, who wrote a loose adaptation filled with rock ‘n roll songs. He called the production Catch My Soul. Catch My Soul beat Jesus Christ Superstar by 2 years, and was a harbinger of the rise of the rock opera. (It was turned into a film in 1974.)
The title came from Act III, scene 3, when Othello declares his love for Desdemona, showing the dangerously destabilizing nature of … everything:
Perdition catch my soul
But I do love thee! And when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again.
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Jack Good's Catch My Soul is based on William Shakespeare's play Othello. Good's musical contained many of the elements of Shakespeare's original work and largely mirrored its source. The subsequent film version directed by Patrick McGoohan changed the structure, setting and songs to an extent that make it a substantially different work. 

In the synopsis for allmovie.com Sandra Brennon states that in the film story:

"Othello is a wandering evangelist who happens onto Iago's remote commune. There he marries the lovely Desdemona much to the chagrin of Iago, who also loves her. The conniving commune leader then manages to quietly pressure Othello until murder and tragedy ensue."
          WIKIPEDIA 
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Answer to TRIVIA:   CLOUDS OF WITNESS by Dorothy L. Sayers.

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STANDING IN THE SHROUD-HOODED MEADOW

Standing in the shroud-hooded meadow
Where wave upon wave
Of green lives deepen,
I watch the sun's ardent climb.
In one day the entire world ripens,
Nothing too soon.
Underfoot the earth is vital stained.
I think of my life as
A white sleeve billowing.

Louis Phillips