WS ABC Shakespeare Cartoons - Last part

Please accept my grovelling apologies but, owing to technical problems, the second part has had to be split into two. here is the last section.

Richard III not only fell at Bosworth Field but he also fell victim to the cartoonist's pen.

Finally, a random selection to finish off with: 

                              Sorry, there isn't. he died 400 years ago!

Next time, we'll be a tad more serious and concentrate on Cressida, of "Troilus & Cressida" and Co.

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WS ABC Shakespeare Cartoons # 2

Last time we dealt with Shakespeare and cartoons I concentrated on those that were inspired by Hamlet, Yorick and To be or not to be.. This time the cartoonists inspiration will come from Shakespeare's own life and his questionable relationship with his wife, Anne Hathaway, as well as relating to Macbeth and even the Sonnets. 

Whoops, wrong Anne Hathaway. She is said to have looked more like the lady below.

Here for a start, in the eyes of three cartoonists, is a picture of the domestic life of the Bard of Avon.

From here we move on to the royal court where King James I was one of his chief fans. In fact he was so much so, that it is said that Macbeth was written with him in mind. According to tradition, this king who hated witches (and the new habit of smoking) asked our William for a Scottish flavoured play. As part of this play, it was said that the king, who was also King James VI of Scotland (and also son of the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots) was the last of the descendants of Banquo as shown by the Witches when Macbeth goes for the last time to seek their help.

Shakespeare wrote 154 Sonnets. The most popular one with cartoonists seems to be #18, Shall I compare thee to a summer's day... For some reason Sonnet 130, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" plus a full glowing description of his mistress and the rest of her anatomy, or Sonnet 73, "That time of year thou mayst in me behold" when he invokes images of old age and death do not merit a single line or squiggle. 

WS ABC Richard III - Special memorial Blog

                                            Richard III

Today, August 22nd is the 531st anniversary of the death of King Richard III. This king, the last of the Plantagenet dynasty, was killed at Bosworth Field, Leicester, UK trying to defend his country from the usurper, Henry, Duke of Richmond. Although this minor aristocrat was one of several who claimed the throne, he was the one who succeeded.

                                             Henry VII
Henry was a direct descendant of Henry V's wife, Catherine, who, after this king's untimely death from dysentery, married Owen Tudor, one of her serving men. Owen's son, Edmund became the father of the future Henry Tudor, Henry VII.

Richard III (1452-1485) was the younger brother of Edward IV and played a key role in helping his brother regain the throne from Henry VI during the Wars of the Roses. Richard was appointed Duke of Gloucester and Lord Protector of Edward IV's, son Edward V when Edward IV died in 1483. Soon after, Edward V and his brother, Richard Duke of York - 'the Princes in the Tower' - disappeared and Uncle Richard was crowned King Richard III.

He was suspected of killing his nephews so that they could not inherit the the throne even though, due to their illegitimacy, they would not have been allowed to do so in any case. 

Bosworth Field, Leicestershire, today.

Richard III's 'White Boar' flag at Bosworth Field today

'Richard's Well', Bosworth where he was reputed to have drunk   before his final battle. (Author's photos)

Richard reigned for only two years, 1483-85 but despite his popularity in the north of England, he was unable to win broad-based support as king. When Henry defeated him at Bosworth Field, this was his second attempt. Richard fought and died bravely and even Henry VII's official historian, Polydore Vergil, described Richard as a valiant warrior.

Shakespeare, whose play Richard III has permanently blackened Richard's reputation, has written the best and most effective piece of propaganda ever. Our William had vested interests in doing so. Assuming he wished to keep his head on his shoulders, or at least stay out of the Tower of London, Shakespeare had no choice but to describe Richard as 'a bottl'd spider, that foul hunch-back'd toad.' How could Shakespeare have written that his queen's grandfather, Henry VII, an anointed king, had killed another good and anointed king? Richard just had to be a 'foul defacer of God's handiwork.' 

Statue of Richard III today outside Leicester Cathedral (left) and his tomb in thee cathedral below.
(Author's photos)

Interestingly enough, even though Richard reigned for only two years, he is one of the most studied and intriguing of English kings. For many years there has been a thriving international Richard III Society and much noise was made when this maligned king's body was found buried below a parking lot in Leicester in September 2012. His body was found below the letter 'R'. His remains were re-interred in Leicester Cathedral complete with full royal and religious honours in March 2015. 

            King Richard III in the centre of Leicester today.

I will write more about the man and Shakespeare's ever popular play, Richard III, later in this blog, i.e. when I reach the letter R. Please, kind gentles, do be patient.

Will return to Shakespearean cartoons next time.
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WS ABC Part 19 - Shakespeare Cartoons

There are many ways of judging how popular a writer is or for how long his/her name and reputation stay with us over the years. This may be done through the quantity of their sales; how many times their books are turned into films or plays or perhaps, how many of their most famous lines and quotes enter the language on a regular basis.

If we take the above criteria into account, it is obvious that our Will beats them all. His name is known by all, his plays have been turned into dozens of films and speeches and lines such as, there's the rub, pomp and circumstance, it was Greek to me and he has eaten me out of house and home have become a standard part of our everyday parlance. 

And not only that, but dozens of authors have used Shakespearean phrases as the titles of their books. William Faulkner took The Sound and the Fury from Macbeth, J.M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan wrote Dear Brutus, Somerset Maugham took Cakes and Ale from Twelfth Night and Dorothy Sayers wrote a novel called Gaudy Night, its title coming from Antony and Cleopatra. 

Perhaps another way of judging how perennially popular the Bard is, is to see how many times, the Man from Stratford and/or his plays and sonnets appear in cartoons in newspapers and magazines. If you look at Google, you will find pages and pages of them. I have chosen only a few here to make my point. What is interesting is, that even if the reader cannot identify the exact speaker or action in the cartoon, he or she will recognise that it is based on Shakespeare and his works.

Which play and character appear the most in these cartoons? From a quick survey of the many I have looked at I have come to the conclusion that the "To be or not to be" speech and the graveyard scene from Hamlet are the most popular with cartoonists.

Here is a sample selection: 

Note: This idea has appeared in several variations.

And now for the graveyard scene:

And as it says at the end of the "Tom and Jerry" and other cartoons, "That's all folks!"

Next time, more cartoons from the Sonnets, Richard III et al.
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WA ABC Curse and Shakespeare - part Two

Perhaps the most famous curse in the Shakespeare canon is not a specific profanity hurled at someone, but a curse connected to a whole play. The play I am referring to is Macbeth. In the world of the theatre it is considered to be extremely bad, and even dangerous to mention the name Macbeth back stage or while the play is being performed. Instead it is usually referred to as 'the Scottish' or the 'M' play' or something similar. Just don't call this play by its name. Why? Throughout the history of this play's productions, many terrible and fatal things have happened.

* During the play's first performance in 1606, Hal Berridge, the    boy playing Lady Macbeth, died backstage. According to    
   tradition, our Will took over and played the part.

* In 1672 in Amsterdam, the actor playing Macbeth used a real    dagger and in front of the audience, killed the actor playing    
   Duncan.

* In 1865, the newly re-elected President Lincoln met up with a   few friends to read the play. The following night he went to   
  Ford's theatre and.... the rest is history.

* In 1937 at the Old Vic theatre in London, a 25 pound weight   
   came crashing down from above the stage narrowly missing   
   Laurence Olivier who was then playing Macbeth. During this 
   same production, the director and the actress playing lady  
   Macbeth were involved in a car crash and the famous    
   actress, Lilian Bayliss died of a heart attack on the day of the      dress rehearsal.

* In 1942, the actor John Gielgud produced a very fatal version    of the play. Three actors - Duncan and two of the witches -      
   died and the set designer committed suicide.

* In 1947, the actor, Harold Norman was stabbed to death as 
   someone had substituted a real  dagger for the false one.

* In the 1950s in Moscow, actor Paul Rogers, playing Macbeth,    clashed so violently with Macduff that his claymore    
   (broadsword) flew out of his hands. It stuck in the seat where    President Kruschev was destined to sit three hours later.

*In 1954 in Dublin, the company manager broke both of his    
  legs; the stage electrician electrocuted himself and the actor    
  playing Banquo committed suicide. 

* In 2001, in a production by the Cambridge Shakespeare   
  Company, Lady Macbeth hit her head; Ross broke a toe;   
  Macduff injured his back and two trees fell down which   
  destroyed the set.

* Other Macbeth calamities include: 
   Charlton Heston suffered from severe burns when his tights,      accidentally soaked in kerosene caught fire.
   Actress Sybil Thorndyke, playing Lady Macbeth  was nearly      strangled by another actor.
   Paul Schofield, Orson Welles and Stanislavski were also   
   injured in some memorable way.

* However, all of the above pale into insignificance in 
   comparison to what happened in 1849 in New York. Two 
   different and rival dramatic companies both staged Macbeth      one evening. A riot broke out between the rival groups of   
   spectators and as a result, TWENTY PEOPLE died!

Is there a cure for this curse? Fortunately there is. 
Anyone found uttering the 'M' word in a dressing room has to leave the room, turn around three times and ask for permission to re-enter. They may also be asked to quote a line from Hamlet, (Act I, sc.iv) "Angels and ministers of grace defend us."

                *                    *                    *                   *

Finally, there is the famous curse that is written above Shakespeare's grave in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon. This curse was probably written to prevent anyone disturbing the grave in order to use this site for another burial. The following true story proved that this curse worked.

In 1852, Delia Bacon, (1811-1159 an American English literature teacher from New Haven, Connecticut, sailed over to England to prove that Sir Francis bacon (no family connection) was the real author of Shakespeare's works. One night she entered Shakespeare's church in Stratford with a pick and a spade, with the idea of digging him up. One look at the curse written on the stone above his grave persuaded her otherwise. 

She returned to her lodgings, became ill, and later sailed back to the USA. There she wrote a long 600-page boring book,  Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespere Unfolded, a tome that sold very few copies. Soon after this she went mad and died in an asylum. Her book became the first serious book tat claimed that our Will had not written the works attributed to his name.
Some curse!

Next time, to lighten up, a few Shakespearean cartoons.
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WS ABC Part 17 Shakespearean Curses -1

OUR FRIEND MR. SHAKESPEARE WAS DEFINITELY NOT A GENTLEMAN, at least, when it came to using, er, ripe language, curses and bawdy in his plays. Many academic tomes and popular works have been written about this, but within the next few paragraphs, I'm going to just give a cursory outline about this salacious aspect of the Bard's writings. 

Language changes. In Shakespeare's time, cursed or curst usually meant: bad-tempered, cantankerous, cross and irascible.
For example, the peevish Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew is referred to as, Kate the curst and Lady Percy in Henry IV (Part 1) talks about thick-ey'd musing and curs'd melancholy,when referring to how her husband has been treating her.

Bearing this in mind, it should also be remembered that our William was one of a dozen shareholders in the Globe theatre. That meant that if they were to show a profit, they would have to pack the crowds in. The population of London during his lifetime was about 200,000. This meant that a) his theatre had to have a fast turnover of plays, b) it had to show plays that were attractive so as to rival other theatres and forms of public entertainment, such as bear-baiting and c) the plays themselves had to be 'crowd-pullers.' As the saying goes, "bums on seats is cash in pockets." This was as true then as it is today when it comes to talking about public entertainment - as well as for financing colleges and courses etc.

To make sure that the crowds would indeed be pulled in, apart from writing some of the finest English that has ever existed, our William had to appeal to the lowest common denominator and write some pretty humourously ribald scenes which contained colourful curses, intimate insults and extreme execrations. Without going into the subject too deeply, these expletives were not deleted and a large percentage of them were to do with sex, love and marriage.

On the first page of one of my favourite Shakespeare reference books, Shakespeare's Insults: Educating Your Wit, Wayne F. Hill & Cynthia J. Ottchen say, "People need insults. Most people behave so abominably that they cry out for abuse. Charity moves us to meet this need. Abuse is a form of attention, and a little accommodating attention makes anyone feel human again." The authors go on to say that "Shakespeare gets the last word," and he certainly does. Who else could include enough blasphemous gems such as valiant flea, foul and ugly witch and whoreson cullionly barbermonger to fill a 308 page book? It is true that many of the Bard's choicest obscenities are dated. Who today would feel insulted if someone hurled king of codpieces at them or called them a most profane coxcomb?

However, it is only recently that we have been able to appreciate and be fully aware of, i.e. to see, hear and read the full range of the Bard's oath-filled quill. When another of my favourite Shakespearean reference books, Shakespeare's Bawdy was published in 1947, its editor, Eric Partridge, wrote in the 1968 edition, that when this book first appeared, only one thousand copies were printed at the cost of two guineas per copy. Partridge noted that for this sum you could then buy forty-two Penguin paperbacks.  Fortunately this book sold well and today it is easily accessible via your local bookstore, as where I bought mine or through Amazon etc.

A result of this prude attitude meant that school copies of Shakespeare's plays were heavy bowdlerised while scholarly editions of this period often omitted sexual glosses. Even the first edition of the important and (almost) all inclusive Oxford English Dictionary (1888-1928) ignored much of WS's more evocative sexual vocabulary. (On a personal note, my own school 1955 edition of Macbeth was given this treatment in II.iii when the Porter praises and curses the effect of strong liquor, saying that it makes and mars the drinker, it sets him on, and it takes him off...it makes him stand to, and not stand to.") It was only in the 1960s that a more liberal attitude to the Bard's sexual references and ripe language became more accessible in school editions and other academic works.   

Next time: A cursed WS play and how Shakespeare's own  personal curse affected an American school mistress.

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