Candy wrote: "Off the top of my head...I take the phrase about a sad tale in winter to mean that once we get older we see the sad side of life aswell as the hopes. I tend to see any reference to a season as ref..."
Candy, I also think the winter in the title has to do with the later stage of a person's life. Just because this is one of Shakespeare's later plays, it is tempting to see it as the author revisiting the tragic theme of jealousy with an "older and wiser" person's perspective and showing it as a mixture of tragedy and comedy.
Even within the text of The Winter's Tale, there is a lot of pontificating about the various stages of life. In Act 1, there is Polixenes reminiscing about his and Leontes' idyllic childhood, now lost to the cares of adulthood. Then there is the Shepherd in Act 3 who sums up hot-blooded youth (with, one can't help but thinking, a certain nostalgia...)
"I would there were no age between ten and three and
twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is
nothing in the between but getting wenches with child,
wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting- "
Of course, so far, we haven't really encountered any important characters old enough to give a "winter of life" perspective. So Martin's comment that winter refers to a state of the heart also has a lot to recommend it! ]]>
bookshelves: horror
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Thanks, all, that sounds easy! ]]>
bookshelves: classic, currently-reading, drama
"Antigone" by Sophocles, (play read 20090807) ****. Antigone's two brothers have killed each other in a battle for kingship over Thebes. Creon, the new king, issues an edict that the body of the usurping brother, Polynices, should not be given the honors of burial but must be left out to the ravages of the elements and wild animals. Placing her duty to family and to the gods higher than her obedience to the state, Antigone refuses to heed Creon's command and buries her brother. Antigone's and Creon's combined pride, stubbornness, and refusal to compromise results in yet another tragedy for the lineage of Oedipus. [Though Campbell's verse translation is somewhat old-fashioned, it suits the Greek tragedy genre very well and makes for an enjoyable read.:]
"King Oedipus" by Sophocles, (play read 20090830) ****. King Oedipus tries to discover and root out the cause of a plague, sent by angry gods, which afflicts his kingdom of Thebes. As the play progresses, this task increasingly dovetails with Oedipus' ominous-- and finally tragic--quest for self-discovery. Oedipus has lived his whole life to avoid fulfilling the prophecy that he would murder his father and marry his mother; but in trying to escape it, he has unwittingly brought it about. Forget the Freudian overlays. This is all about how even the cleverest, most capable individual can never escape the inevitability of fate, because they can never escape who they are.
"Electra" by Sophocles (play, read 20091108) ***. Electra lives under the sway and control of her mother, Queen Clytamnestra, and King Aegisthus, both of whom killed Electra's father, Agamemnon, when he returned from Troy. Electra's life is consumed with mourning for her dead father and with longing for her brother Orestes to return and revenge Agamemnon's death. Finally Orestes does return in secret and kills both Clytamnestra and Aegisthus. In one scene, Clytamnestra admits to her daughter openly that she killed Agamemnon, but she justifies the act as vengeance for Agamemnon's sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia. There is also a stark contrast made in the play between Electra who is unconsolable in grief and outspoken about her mother's and step-father's brutal crime, and her sister, Chrysothemis, who recognizes the futility (and outright danger) of railing against a situation that cannot be changed. Electra wilfully prolongs her sense of righteous anger and filial duty, even at the risk of her life, while Chrysothemis simply tries to get along under circumstances she dislikes but which are beyond her control.
"The Trachinean Maidens" by Sophocles (play, read 20091113) **. Deanira, faithful wife of Hercules, waits at home while her husband is abroad performing his fabled labors. After a very prolonged absence, Deanira rejoices to hear that her husband is about to return, but she soon despairs because he has brought with him a second, much younger wife. Foolishly following the advice of Hercules' former rival (a centaur killed by Hercules years earlier), Deanira sends a cloak with the rival's blood as a "love charm" to compel her husband's affection. With his dying words to Deanira, however, the rival had set in motion a scheme to kill Hercules. Instead of winning back her husband's love, the cloak dooms Hercules to an agonizing and prolonged death. Realizing her mistake, Deanira kills herself. While it is interesting to see that the "trophy wife" scenario dates at least as far back as ancient Greece, and Deanira has some worthy meditations on the unfairness of growing old, the play as a whole is not very compelling. ]]>
Martin wrote: "
... a bit more.
I mention Black Ram partly to remind you guys that there is Life outside America (joke), partly as a plug because I'm a sponsor.
They also did an excellent Twelfth Night earlier ..."
Great, Martin, so there'll be at least 3 of us for "The Winter's Tale" discussion... I've never been to Norwich, but if I do go there, I will definitely look up the Black Ram! (Any pubs nearby?)
Cheers,
Ray
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Ray
read and liked
Bill 's
review of Titus Andronicus (Folger Shakespeare Library):
"Like a "A Comedy of Errors," "Titus Andronicus" is part of a grammar-school-educated Shakespeare's crash-course substitute for a university education. In "Comedy of Errors," he imitated Plautine comedy's plot structure ...more "
"Like a "A Comedy of Errors," "Titus Andronicus" is part of a grammar-school-educated Shakespeare's crash-course substitute for a university education. In "Comedy of Errors," he imitated Plautine comedy's plot structure ...more "
I saw three plays at the ASC this past weekend, Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus" and "Henry IV, Part 1," and "The Rehearsal" (by George Villiers and others).
Although all three productions were very good, it was (surprisingly) "The Rehearsal" that stood out as the real gem. This seldom produced play from 1671 or 1672, is a hilarious lampoon of dramatic conventions and of a foolish playwright's unwise efforts to subvert them. The main character, Mr. Bayes, is a playwright with delusions of greatness, who obsessively pursues the "new" in his drama, not realizing that his innovations are a nonsensical mishmash of plagiarism and foolishness. The Bayes' character carries this play, and the actor in this production (Christopher Seiler) gave an outstanding, tour-de-force comic performance. "The Rehearsal" has a remarkably modern sensibility, and is as funny as classic Marx brothers routines. The text of the play can be found at the following link:
http://www.pierre-marteau.com/editions/1...
In "Henry IV, Part 1," Prince Hal leads a riotous life with Sir John Falstaff and a group of drunken louts and thieves, much to the disappointment and disapproval of his father, King Henry. In the course of the play, Hal reforms and shows true greatness, eventually facing the hot-headed rebel, Henry Percy on the battlefield.
I was also glad to see "Titus Andronicus" at last (appropriately enough on Halloween). In this play, a Roman hero exacts bloody revenge on those who have plotted against his family. Shakespeare's early revenge tragedy shows a lot of influences from Thomas Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy." It is violent and bloody, full of on-stage mutilation, murder, and mayhem. The ruling powers are evil and corrupt, and a nobleman must scheme and plot to exact revenge against them for the wrongs done against his family. The events and characters are over-the-top and unconvincing. The production was well done but this is just not one of Shakespeare's better efforts. ]]>