Asimov's Guide To Shakespeare
I remembered finding a book in my high school library, lo these many years ago when dinosaurs walked the earth, in which Isaac "the modern Renaissance Man" Asimov turned his formidable writing talents to the complete works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the miracles of keyword searching, I located both volumes in the University library, and I've been marvelously entertained.
The idea, as Asimov says in the introduction, is not to give exhaustive analyses of each play, but to narrate the basic plot, spice it up with some well-chosen quotes, and (this is the good part) fill in with bits of observation and explanation of historical and cultural allusions that Shakespeare's audience would have understood, but that we don't get any more. Highlights include:
-- a convincing theory that the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets appears to be pretty much on its last legs, and that it's Juliet's childish romanticism and Romeo's youthful foolishness that farks up their story more than anything else.
-- more Roman history, more entertainingly told, than you get in most educational settings outside of graduate work in Roman history.
-- an analysis of the political tension between Hamlet and Claudius, what Hamlet really wanted (the throne of Denmark and the approval of the Danes), and where he screwed up (in trying to damn Claudius as well as kill him).
-- notes on Shakespeare's politics, and his skills at tailoring plays to please very specific audiences, as the Scottish play for James VI/I.
-- the speculation that the Scottish play was originally longer and more coherent, and that what we have now is an abridged version for which another author had written some songs. Pure speculation, but it does leave us with the entertaining mental image of Macbeth, the Musical!
-- Asimov's wry humor, especially commenting on a particular character in King Lear. He quotes Kent as saying "Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor so old to dote on her for anything. I have years on my back forty-eight." Asimov then explains:
"In our own society, an age of forty-eight does not make a man old.* It did, however, in Shakespeare's time, when the life expectancy was considerably less than it is now and when the quality of diet and medical treatment was much worse than it is now. People whom we would today call middle-aged would be in Shakespeare's time in far poorer physical shape (on the average) and far more past the median age of the society." (V. 2, pp. 26 - 27.)
He adds, in a footnote at the asterisk:
"The author of this book, as it happens, has, at the time of this writing, years on his back forty-eight, and he repels any suggestion of being ancient and reverent with scorn and contumely." (V. 2, p. 26)
Honestly, between this book and the most excellent work of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, there's not much more that one needs for a basic grounding in the Bard.
The idea, as Asimov says in the introduction, is not to give exhaustive analyses of each play, but to narrate the basic plot, spice it up with some well-chosen quotes, and (this is the good part) fill in with bits of observation and explanation of historical and cultural allusions that Shakespeare's audience would have understood, but that we don't get any more. Highlights include:
-- a convincing theory that the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets appears to be pretty much on its last legs, and that it's Juliet's childish romanticism and Romeo's youthful foolishness that farks up their story more than anything else.
-- more Roman history, more entertainingly told, than you get in most educational settings outside of graduate work in Roman history.
-- an analysis of the political tension between Hamlet and Claudius, what Hamlet really wanted (the throne of Denmark and the approval of the Danes), and where he screwed up (in trying to damn Claudius as well as kill him).
-- notes on Shakespeare's politics, and his skills at tailoring plays to please very specific audiences, as the Scottish play for James VI/I.
-- the speculation that the Scottish play was originally longer and more coherent, and that what we have now is an abridged version for which another author had written some songs. Pure speculation, but it does leave us with the entertaining mental image of Macbeth, the Musical!
-- Asimov's wry humor, especially commenting on a particular character in King Lear. He quotes Kent as saying "Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor so old to dote on her for anything. I have years on my back forty-eight." Asimov then explains:
"In our own society, an age of forty-eight does not make a man old.* It did, however, in Shakespeare's time, when the life expectancy was considerably less than it is now and when the quality of diet and medical treatment was much worse than it is now. People whom we would today call middle-aged would be in Shakespeare's time in far poorer physical shape (on the average) and far more past the median age of the society." (V. 2, pp. 26 - 27.)
He adds, in a footnote at the asterisk:
"The author of this book, as it happens, has, at the time of this writing, years on his back forty-eight, and he repels any suggestion of being ancient and reverent with scorn and contumely." (V. 2, p. 26)
Honestly, between this book and the most excellent work of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, there's not much more that one needs for a basic grounding in the Bard.