You guys, do you know what would be fantastic? I think my local theater department needs to stage a Henry VI(-Edward IV-Richard III-Henry VII) marathon. The whole tetralogy, presented in a weekend. People can vote on their favorite play. They can give it a catchy name like "The (Wars of the) Roses Bowl." People would flock to it, right?
Right?
The coolest thing about reading the four plays back to back to back was watching the characters develop. It's no wonder I hated Richard III before -- it was a little like attending somebody else's high school reunion and wondering why I didn't get any of the jokes. Now I understand why it's so unexpected for the outcast (that'd be Richard) to take the cheerleader (that'd be Anne) to the prom.
I am going to keep trying to do a post on every play, which should get less onerous once I'm done with the big January push. Perhaps I shouldn't be complaining about onerous, given that a blog like this one exists. She's reading the complete works of Shakespeare this year and blogging all the way through it. I might have to rename this category: the Really Fairly Sane, Comparatively Speaking, Shakespeare Project.
A couple of bits and pieces I wanted to remember: Shakespeare refers repeatedly to people who are insane as "brain-sick." In view of the current emphasis on mental illness as a problem with physical roots, an organic problem based in the brain, it seems prescient of him. Of course, there's also plenty of talk about the influences of opposing planets &c., but it's interesting to see a little nugget of truth like that.
In case anyone needed a demonstration that mother blame is nothing new, I present the Duchess of York. "O my accursed womb, the bed of death!" she wails. "A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world." The deposed Queen Margaret agrees: "From forth the kennel of thy womb has crept / A hell-hound that doth hunt us all to death."
And on that cheery note, I'm wrapping it up for now.
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