52 in 52 Week 10: The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

By Smatprt (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Now I know where the title for the musical "Kiss Me, Kate" comes from! I vaguely remember Elizabeth Taylor screaming in the movie version that came out when I was eight years old. (I wish my library had it. I really want to see it now.)

This is a very sexist play, but it is all in fun. The characters are sort of confusing, and it made it really confusing when librivox had women being men AGAIN! UGH! But I found it in my library with the Arkangel audio series, and I may just listen to it again.

Fun!

52 in 52 Week 10: King Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare

My favorite audio drama people (www.naxosaudiobboks.com) have not done a recording of this. The digital library just had an abridged version. So, I settled for the FREE www.librivox.org recording, but sometimes they cast women as men, and some voices are clearer and better than others. So, I got this bright idea to go to my library and see if they had them on CD. 

BINGO!

They had the COMPLETE plays, and they are all beautiful renditions. Too bad I had listened to all of this play and The Taming of the Shrew before I realized that they might have them!

This made me want to listen to Part II. I love the history I am learning from Shakepeare!  

52 in 52 Week 10: The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

I loved this play! I don't think it is a comedy though. I would definitely put it in the "tragicomedy" category. Aha, I see that The Book of Great Books:A Guide to 100 World Classics agrees with me. :)    

                                                                                                                                                                                    This is the first time I have ever read it, but I saw the movie with Al Pacino as Shylock. Oh my, he was good as Shylock. Definitely worth watching (Warning: There is one unnecessary scene with women’s breasts that came out of nowhere. We have ClearPlay now. So, we don’t have to worry about those kinds of surprises anymore!).

What a play. It might be my favorite of the "comedies," but I have never read Measure for Measure but saw it on stage and LOVED the moral dilemma in that wonderful play! 

Portia is a strong woman in this play, but I feel like Shylock is the sympathetic character here. The court scene is so excruciatingly painful for me. The famous quote by Portia is contained in Act 4, Scene 1: 

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenUpon the place beneath. It is twice blest:It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 

This quote makes me think of my thoughts about revenge last week, and this quote from Nelson Mandela:

"Resentment is like drinking poison 

and waiting for it to kill your enemy." 

When we extend mercy to another, we are blessed. Must ponder all of this more. 

I have such sympathy for Shylock. A part of me loves Portia strength but makes me so dislike her too. Did she extend mercy to Shylock? I think not! Shylock was a person who was in grief. He had "bullied" all his life. 

This leads me to think of the recent school shooting in Ohio. I don't condone school shootings, but I feel sympathy for some who have been bullied so mercilessly. (The jury is still out as to whether this boy was bullied.)  But again, I go back to extending mercy to others and you will be free!  Jesus could have exacted revenge with all of His power, but He chose mercy, and I am so grateful for that! 

Shakespeare is everywhere. Look what I came across just last week while studying the parable of the Prodigal Son and the subject of repentance in Luke 15:17-19:

"“But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! ‘I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.” ’" (Luke 15:17-19, NASB95) 

To “repent” means “to change one’s mind,” and that is exactly what the young man did as he cared for the pigs. (What a job for a Jewish boy!) He “came to himself,” which suggests that up to this point he had not really “been himself.” There is an “insanity” in sin that seems to paralyze the image of God within us and liberate the “animal” inside. Students of Shakespeare like to contrast two quotations that describe this contradiction in man’s nature. 

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!

(Hamlet, II, ii) 

When he is best, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

(The Merchant of Venice, I, ii)

(Wiersbe, W. W. (1996, c1989). The Bible exposition commentary. "An exposition of the New Testament comprising the entire 'BE' series"--Jkt. (Lk 15:11). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books)

I love Shakespeare! This is the last one from my list, but I came down loaded down with more CD's from the library. I am such a nerd, but there is something about Shakespeare that is so relaxing and challenging to my soul.


A word about audio versions! There is a new one by NAXOS AUDIOBOOKS that sounds fantastic (probably the best), and I listened to the first scene for free, but I am too cheap to buy it. The digital library didn't have one. So, I went and got a free version from Librivox, but halfway through it, I realized that my library probably had a CD version, and they have ALL the plays on CD. So, I am sorry I wasted my time downloading the Librivox versions. Some of the actors were very good in this particular play, but nothing beats trained Shakespearean professional actors! 


Here is the version I listened to:


 

The cast was superb which includes: 


Portia - Hadyn Gwynne
Shylock - Trevor Peacock 
Bassanio - Julian Rhind-Tutt
Antonio - Bill Nighy
Gratiano - Will Keen
Lorenzo - Matthew Delamere
Jessica - Sara-Jane Holm
Nerissa - ALison Reid

52 in 52 Week 10: Macbeth by William Shakespeare

I had no idea what this play was about. I knew it was a tragedy, and you would have to had lived under a rock to not have heard the Three Witches (or weird sisters) quoted:


"Double, double toil and trouble                Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." (IV,i)

At the very beginning, I could tell that ambition (both Macbeth's and Lady Macbeth's) would be their downfall. The descent into evil and degeneration of character was so unsavory for me. He has a conscience in the beginning, but he listens to those witches and his wife! 

Apparently, there really was a Macbeth in Scottish history, but he was an honored monarch. 

Shakespeare borrowed the story from several tales in Holinshed's Chronicles, a popular history of the British Isles known to Shakespeare and his contemporaries. In Chronicles, a man named Donwald finds several of his family put to death by his king, King Duff, for dealing with witches. After being pressured by his wife, he and four of his servants kill the King in his own house. In Chronicles, Macbeth is portrayed as struggling to support the kingdom in the face of King Duncan's ineptitude. He and Banquo meet the three witches, who make exactly the same prophecies as in Shakespeare's version. Macbeth and Banquo then together plot the murder of Duncan, at Lady Macbeth's urging. Macbeth has a long, ten-year reign before eventually being overthrown by Macduff and Malcolm. The parallels between the two versions are clear. However, some scholars think that George Buchanan's Rerum Scoticarum Historia matches Shakespeare's version more closely. Buchanan's work was available in Latin in Shakespeare's day.^[10]

From Wikipedia: MacBeth 

As I listened and walked, I heard Macbeth tell Lady Macbeth:

Away and mock the time with fairest show;

False face must hide what the fall heart doth know. (I,vii)

Then I remembered that the title of the book, TrueFaced: Trust God and Others with Who You Really Are, that I read last year was based on this quote!  


This wasn't my favorite play. It was just OK. 

52 in 52 Week 10:The Tempest by William Shakespeare

 

". . . We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep." (Prospero, Act IV, i)


I feel as though in a dream. I loved this play. What is it about Shakespeare that brings me such peace. I know not what.


In one of my books, this is under the "Romances." If that is the case, it is my first one. Another book puts it in the "Comedies" of which I have read many (I believe it is wise to start with the Comedies to warm yourself up to the Bard).  The Book of Great Books classifies it as a "Romance; tragicomedy" which makes it fit in all categories but the Histories! 

Do I take part: the rarer action isIn virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,The sole drift of my purpose doth extendNot a frown further. Go, release them, Ariel.My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore,And they shall be themselves (V,i)

It is a moral tale, and Shakespeare hits the right notes. I knew nothing about this one before I set sail with it upon the tempestuous sea except that my previous book, Brave New World,  derives its name from one of the lines in Act V,i:

How many goodly creatures are there here! 

How beauteous mankind is! 

O brave new world! 

That has such people in it! - Miranda

 This is play is so delightful! I don't want to spoil the plot. Look at the picture  of the cover, and you will get an idea of the beginning. This play has all the elements that make for delight: good, evil, love, forgiveness, and freedom!


About the Naxos Audio version: BRAVO!!!! I continue to say this, Shakespeare was meant to be acted rather than read. So, this was lovely to listen to as I followed along. I knew the gentle father and Miranda were familiar voices. So, I was delighted to discover it was Ian McKellen and Emilia Fox! Then, my joy was made complete to hear another British favorite, Benedict Cumberbatch, as the wonderful, Ferdinand.  


Here is the full cast: 

CAST

Alonso, King of Naples – Roger Hammond
Sebastian, his brother – John McAndrew
Prospero, Duke of Milan – Ian McKellen
Antonio, his brother, the usurping Duke of Milan – Neville Jason
Miranda, daughter of Prospero – Emilia Fox
Ferdinand, son to the King of Naples – Benedict Cumberbatch
Gonzalo, an honest old councillor – David Burke
Adrian, a lord – Simon Treves
Francisco, a lord – Tim Bentinck
Caliban, a savage and deformed slave – Ben Onwukwe
Trinculo, a jester – Ian Talbot
Stephano, a drunken butler – John Hodgkinson
Master – Simon Treves
Boatswain – Tim Bentinck
Ariel, an airy spirit – Scott Handy
Juno – Elaine Claxton
Ceres – Laura Paton