W. Shakespeare - Richard III - Plot

After a long civil war between the royal family of York and the royal family of Lancaster, England enjoys a period of peace under King Edward IV and the victorious Yorks. But Edward’s younger brother, Richard, resents Edward’s power and the happiness of those around him. Malicious, power-hungry, and bitter about his physical deformity, Richard begins to aspire secretly to the throne—and decides to kill anyone he has to in order to become king.
Using his intelligence and his skills of deception and political manipulation, Richard begins his campaign for the throne. He manipulates a noblewoman, Lady Anne, into marrying him—even though she knows that he murdered her first husband. He has his own older brother, Clarence, executed, and shifts the burden of guilt onto his sick older brother King Edward in order to accelerate Edward’s illness and death. After King Edward dies, Richard becomes lord protector of England—the figure in charge until the elder of Edward’s two sons grows up.
Next Richard kills the court noblemen who are loyal to the princes, most notably Lord Hastings, the lord chamberlain of England. He then has the boys’ relatives on their mother’s side—the powerful kinsmen of Edward’s wife, Queen Elizabeth—arrested and executed. With Elizabeth and the princes now unprotected, Richard has his political allies, particularly his right-hand man, Lord Buckingham, campaign to have Richard crowned king. Richard then imprisons the young princes in the Tower and, in his bloodiest move yet, sends hired murderers to kill both children.
By this time, Richard’s reign of terror has caused the common people of England to fear and loathe him, and he has alienated nearly all the noblemen of the court—even the power-hungry Buckingham. When rumors begin to circulate about a challenger to the throne who is gathering forces in France, noblemen defect in droves to join his forces. The challenger is the earl of Richmond, a descendant of a secondary arm of the Lancaster family, and England is ready to welcome him.
Richard, in the meantime, tries to consolidate his power. He has his wife, Queen Anne, murdered, so that he can marry young Elizabeth, the daughter of the former Queen Elizabeth and the dead King Edward. Though young Elizabeth is his niece, the alliance would secure his claim to the throne. Nevertheless, Richard has begun to lose control of events, and Queen Elizabeth manages to forestall him. Meanwhile, she secretly promises to marry young Elizabeth to Richmond.
Richmond finally invades England. The night before the battle that will decide everything, Richard has a terrible dream in which the ghosts of all the people he has murdered appear and curse him, telling him that he will die the next day. In the battle on the following morning, Richard is killed, and Richmond is crowned King Henry VII. Promising a new era of peace for England, the new king is betrothed to young Elizabeth in order to unite the warring houses of Lancaster and York.

W. Shakespeare - Sonnet LXI

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honour shamefully misplac'd,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd,
And strength by limping sway disabled
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
Tir'd with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

Romeo + Juliet - directed by B. Luhrman

In Looking for Richard, actor/director Al Pacino expresses his great hope for his film -- to extend his enthusiasm for the Bard's plays to a broader audience. In a very different way, that's what Baz Luhrmann is attempting to do with this radical approach to "Romeo and Juliet". Luhrmann hasn't fashioned this motion picture with the stodgy, elitist Shakespeare "purist" in mind. Instead, by incorporating lively, modern imagery with a throbbing rock soundtrack and hip actors, he has taken aim at an audience that would normally regard Shakespeare as a chore to be endured in school, not a passionate drama to ignite the screen.
Make no mistake, this Romeo and Juliet isn't the match of Franco Zeffirelli's unforgettable 1968 classic. While Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes make an effective couple, their romance doesn't burn with the white-hot intensity of Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey's. Nevertheless, this interpretation is so fundamentally different from anything to have come before it that there's no danger of repetition. By the same token, there have been two different "Richard III"s in the past twelve months, and no one is complaining.
For those who aren't aware, "Romeo and Juliet" tells the tale of two "star-cross'd" teenage lovers who secretly fall for each other and marry. Their families, the Montagues and Capulets, have been fierce enemies for decades, and, even as Romeo and Juliet say their wedding vows, new violence breaks out between the clans. In the end, their love is doomed. When Romeo mistakenly believes Juliet is dead, he poisons himself. And, when Juliet discovers that he is dead, she too commits suicide.
Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet (properly titled William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) takes the play and deposits it in a modern Verona Beach that is part decaying Miami and part Mexico City. By the director's own admission, this is a created world, borrowing aspects of its unique visual style from such diverse periods as the 1940s, 1970s, and 1990s, and using a variety of classic films (most notably Rebel Without a Cause) for inspiration. Fast cars with roaring engines replace horses. Guns stand in for swords and daggers. The resulting hybrid background is startling.
Romeo and Juliet's camera is restless, always moving. There are times when the rapid cuts and raging soundtrack might cause understandable confusion between the movie and a rock video. Indeed, with all the camera tricks, special effects (such as a roiling storm), and riotous splashes of color, it's easy to lose the story in the style. Luhrmann's intent was never to drown Shakespeare's dialogue in technique, but it happens, especially early in the film. In the process, the more subtle intangibles of the romance are irretrievably lost.
The movie settles down when Romeo (DiCaprio) and Juliet (Danes) first come face-to-face, gazing at each other through the transparent panes of an aquarium while a love ballad plays in the background. It's a delicately romantic moment whose magic is never quite matched by any other scene in the film. Danes makes a breathtaking Juliet, merging strength and fragility into one. DiCaprio isn't quite as successful as Romeo; there are times when his delivery of Shakespeare's dialogue sounds forced, and, on at least one occasion (when he learns about Juliet's supposed death), he goes way over-the-top.
The supporting cast has its share of successes and failures. John Leguizamo plays a particularly effective Tybalt, Juliet's Latino cousin. Despite a terrible accent, Miriam Margolyes gives a delightful interpretation of Juliet's nurse. In a daring move that works, Harold Perrineau's Mercutio is presented as a high-energy drag queen who gets a chance to strut his stuff to a disco tune with Shakespearean lyrics. Pete Postlethwaite (as Father Laurence) and Vondie Curtis-Hall (Captain Prince) are both at ease in their roles. Brian Dennehy's presence is, as always, imposing, but, as Lord Montague, he doesn't have more than a handful of lines. Less successful are Paul Sorvino's cartoon-like portrayal of Lord Capulet and Diane Verona's Blanche DuBois-flavored version of his wife. And a pair of characters, Paul Rudd's Paris and Jesse Bradford's Balthasar, are so ineffectual that they're virtually invisible.
There are moments of comedy in Shakespeare's play, and Luhrmann tries to transfer some of these over, in addition to adding a few of his own. One in particular, with Romeo ineptly scaling a trellis for the famous balcony sequence, is ill-placed. Also, there are times when the director gets a little too cute. A run-down theater in Verona is called "The Globe" (the name of the locale where Shakespeare's plays were originally performed), and the astute viewer will catch visual references to "The Merchant of Verona Beach", "Rozencranzky's", "Wherefore L'Amour", and "Out, Out Damn Spot Cleaners".
Ultimately, no matter how many innovative and unconventional flourishes it applies, the success of any adaptation of a Shakespeare play is determined by two factors: the competence of the director and the ability of the main cast members. Luhrmann, Danes, and DiCaprio place this Romeo and Juliet in capable hands. And, while such a loud, brash interpretation may not go down in cinematic history as the definitive version of the play, hopefully it will open a few eyes and widen the audience willing to venture into any movie bearing the credit "based on the play by William Shakespeare."

(a review by J. Berardinelli)

W. Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet

PROLOGUE
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
The continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

W. Shakespeare - Julius Caesar

ANTONY

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men--
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

William Shakespeare - Othello, the moor of Venice

OTHELLO

It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,--
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!--
It is the cause. Yet I'll not shed her blood;
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,
And smooth as monumental alabaster.
Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light:
If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
I can again thy former light restore,
Should I repent me: but once put out thy light,
Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat
That can thy light relume. When I have pluck'd the rose,
I cannot give it vital growth again.
It must needs wither: I'll smell it on the tree.

(Kissing her)

Ah balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
Justice to break her sword! One more, one more.
Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
And love thee after. One more, and this the last:
So sweet was ne'er so fatal. I must weep,
But they are cruel tears: this sorrow's heavenly;
It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.

W. Shakespeare - The Taming of the Shrew

KATHARINA

Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband's foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready; may it do him ease.

Shakespeare - Richard III - act 1, scene 1

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that 'G'
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here
Clarence comes.

Candidates for Shakespeare

Mark Twain said Shakespeare was not written by Shakespeare but by someone else of the same name. Another humourist believes that “Bacon supplied the plots, Oxford the poetry and Shakespeare the jokes!”
In Shakespeare’s canon, in his Sonnets, in his two narrative poems, say sensitive critics, it is possible to hear many voices and detect many minds. These ‘contributions’ encompass many levels of knowledge – from the lower and base to the higher and finest, the human, the universal, the divine.
That may be just fanciful: the mechanics of mind mean we often hear what we want to hear, and one man’s ego’s delusions are another’s arguments against. Quite a few areas of his plays contain uneven writing, poor writing, hurried writing – read into all that what you may, but undoubtedly, the talent and genius that produced 36 plays in 25 or so years surely had its off-days.
He was writing, maybe collaborating for the stage, for his acting troupe, and not for posterity: it must have been a pressure-cauldron what with researching and writing, memorising, acting and ‘directing’ , meeting deadlines, and of course never forgetting his interests in ‘business’ as he steadily gathered wealth.
So many different names have been claimed serious contenders as Author of Shakespeare’s Works... and one critical giant in today’s literary world of Shakespeareana has confessed, just a year or two ago, that after decades of study and writing and teaching, still “I find the enigma insoluble”.
Let’s explore just a few names of those whom many see as “the real Shakespeare” and determine why the Mystery seems as dense as ever.

Francis Bacon Born into aristocracy and who eventually achieved office under Elizabeth and high office under James 1

Edward de Vere 17th Earl of Oxford, another of high aristocratic line, who was well educated, poet and playmaker

Christopher Marlowe Shakespeare’s contemporary playwright, equally revered but who died/did not die? too early

William Stanley 6th Earl of Derby, was well educated and well travelled and had knowledge of literature and theatre

Roger Manners 5th Earl of Rutland, well educated and well travelled, was young for Shakespeare? but knew Denmark well

Mary Sidney Herbert Countess of Pembroke, poetess with equal talent as patroness of many leading poets and writers (And, as an example of the “other 40” as claimants, there has been, in recent years, a persuasive argument made for Sir Edward Dyer as the hidden Shakespeare. The flaw, again, as with de Vere, is that he died early, in 1607).

(And, as an example of the “other 40” as claimants, there has been, in recent years, a persuasive argument made for Sir Edward Dyer as the hidden Shakespeare. The flaw, again, as with de Vere, is that he died early, in 1607).

Also have a look at this site:

http://home.eol.ca/~cumulus/Shakespeare/index.htm

The Elizabethan playhouse

To understand Shakespeare's plays, we need to appreciate the context in which they were first written and performed. The Elizabethan theatre was a thriving popular source of entertainment, with buildings, stagecraft and conventions (there were no actresses, for example, and female roles were taken by boys) which were all major influences on the texts created for them.

The playhouses
A copy of a drawing of a performance at the Swan Theatre, probably in 1596, by the visiting Dutchman Johannes de Witt is one of the very few contemporary documents which can help us visualise an Elizabethan playhouse.
As the scholar John Astington observes, this is "the only 'eye-witness' view of the interior of a large Elizabethan playhouse we know of today. It shows a large platform stage with doors and balcony at the rear, a stage roof carried on elaborate pillars rising from the stage, a playhouse flag and a trumpeter announcing a performance, and a yard and three-storey ring of gallery seating surrounding the performing area." ("Playhouses, players, and playgoers in Shakespeare's time", in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, Margreta de Grazia and Stanley Wells, eds., Cambridge, 2001, p. 101.) The foundations of the Rose Theatre in London, which were uncovered during building work in 1989 and subsequent archaeological work on the site, have been especially significant in supplementing what is known about Elizabethan theatres. It can be calculated that a full house here would have held about 2,000 people, whereas the nearby Globe is believed to have held up to 3,000. Many would have stood in the open central court, while others sat, for a higher cost of admission, in three tiers of galleries. The raised stage was narrower at the front than at the rear, with a maximum depth of about five metres. Whilst this is the standard picture of the late sixteenth-century theatre, not every playhouse of the time conformed to this model. In 1608 Shakespeare's company began to use the Blackfriars playhouse as well as the Globe. This was located in a large medieval hall with a roof and windows. An audience of perhaps 600 would have enjoyed a more intimate experience here, watching a drama gloomily lit by candles and torches. Performances, however, were staged in the afternoons, just as they were in the outdoor theatres where performances seem to have begun at two o'clock. Other spaces in London, such as the hall of the lawyers' Middle Temple, were also used as venues for performances, and it is recorded that Twelfth Night was staged here in February 1602. Any such venue had to provide only a stage and a backstage 'tiring house' (for actors to [at]tire themselves), separated by a wall or curtain. Almost all of the action could then be accomplished by moving the actors around, on and off a platform stage.

The players
Actors in the Elizabethan theatre worked together in groups which often enjoyed the patronage of a nobleman. These groups shared investments (in plays, costumes and the like) and such profits as were achieved, and they also trained new members. part of the recently-formed Lord Chamberlain's Men, which had an association with Lord Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain at Queen Elizabeth's court. The company quickly established themselves as one of the leading groups in London, and were rivalled only by the Admiral's Men, led by the actor Edward Alleyn. Much of what is known about the operation of such companies is thanks to the survival of the papers known as the Diary of Philip Henslowe, an entrepreneur associated with the Admiral's Men. Membership of the Lord Chamberlain's company, for whom Shakespeare acted and wrote an average of two plays a year, brought the playwright profits both from the commercial activities of the company and from a share in the ownership of their playhouses. By 1597 it appears that Shakespeare was one of six shareholders, along with Richard Burbage. Not only was Burbage acknowledged as the leading tragedian of his time, but he was also the son of the builder of the first purpose-built playhouse in England, the Theatre, where the company performed until December 1598. Companies had an extensive active repertory, and would frequently play five different dramas on consecutive days. "At any given time during a season", Astington observes with admiration, "a player would have to have been prepared to perform in nine or ten plays, knowing the lines for perhaps two or three roles in each play. Shakespeare wrote many of his plays while maintaining such a schedule". ("Playhouses, players, and playgoers in Shakespeare's time", in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, Margreta de Grazia and Stanley Wells, eds., Camrbidge, 2001, p. 107.)
Plague outbreaks often forced the authorities to close the playhouses, especially during the summer months. This was the time when companies took to the road, travelling to Norwich, Coventry, Gloucester and many other towns throughout England. The first printed edition of Hamlet in 1603, for example, notes that it had been given in Oxford, Cambridge "and elsewhere". A new season would begin in September, and in the following months the monarch's Office of the Revels would select performances to be given at the court over Christmas. Few if any clues exist about the acting style of the Elizabethan theatre. While this lack may have been beneficial to subsequent generations of players, who have felt no need to respond to an "authentic" presentation, it is particularly frustrating to students of the age. What is known is that costumes were an essential component of the Elizabethan theatre, and were probably more significant than props, although key scenes would have demanded the use of a bed or a table. Boy actors were dressed in lavish women's gowns to take the female roles, but all of the actors were colourfully and richly dressed. A 1598 inventory of costumes notes the use of velvet, damask, silk, and cloth of gold, with fur and metallic lace trimmings. Leading actors, however, would have been expected to provide their own costumes; Richard Jones of the Admiral's Men is recorded as having paid £3 for "a men's gown of Peach colour in grain" when his annual income would most likely have been no more than £30.

The playgoers
Until the turn of the seventeenth century, the London audience for plays was concentrated at the Rose and the Theatre, with perhaps 2,000-3,000 people attending on an average day. Working people would have attended only on holidays so, according to Thomas Nashe in Pierce Penniless in 1592, the audience for the afternoon performances was composed of courtiers, legal students and soldiers. Women from the middle-classes and the gentry were also prominent playgoers. Basic admission cost one penny at the Curtain in 1590, with the best seats available for three pence. Admission to the indoor playhouses was more expensive, and cost at least sixpence, thus restricting the numbers who could afford entry. The audience at the Globe and elsewhere, however, was socially mixed, although the gentry would have expected the players to come to them and the very poor would not have been able to spare even a penny. Satirical depictions of rowdy audiences are comparatively common, but these are likely to have exaggerated the distractions provided by the crowd. The audience would almost certainly have been more integrated throughout the performance in the stage action; they were after all not seated in the dark as today, and some of their more favoured or richer members would have been given places on the edge of the stage itself. But it is not to be doubted that playgoers took pleasure from listening carefully, as is evidenced by words given to the character "An Excellent Actor" by an anonymous writer in 1615: "you will think you see so many lines drawn from the circumference of so many ears, while the actor is in the centre.

You can also visit the following sites:

http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/dramavenues.htm
http://www.william-shakespeare.info/elizabethan-theaters.htm
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/theatre/theglobe.html