there's just a few more hours, that's all the time we've got

[angevin2]

...to listen to Edward II on BBC Radio 3, which I highly recommend you do, because it is in fact quite good, albeit with some really dodgy French accents. I listened to it last night with faithhopetricks and did not think of Dobby the House Elf at all.

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

Aargh, too late, I was going to record that :(

[angevin2]

Drat! And then I could have prevailed upon you for a copy!

[angevin2]

OMG I KNOW IT WAS SO AWFUL D:

[angevin2]

I was actually really squicked out by the sloshing water, too, since the dialogue establishes that they're basically keeping him in the septic tank. But yeah, HOLY SHIT TOBY JONES IS REALLY GOOD AT HORRIBLE HORRIBLE SCREAMS.

Every so often, incidentally, one comes across readings of Edward II that argue that Edward actually is meant to represent Elizabeth -- I mean, as a fellow monarch, of course he does, but you know what I'm talking about. Exactly what you said: that (according to this reading) Edward's besottedness feminizes him and this is meant as a critique of Elizabeth, and the frankness about sodomy (to use the early modern terminology) is a red herring, something the play can point to as the cause of Edward's downfall that isn't directly evocative of Elizabeth's court. (Stephen Orgel asks: "If Richard II had been presented as a sodomite, would it have been necessary to censor the deposition scene?") I think there is a lot wrong with that reading -- mostly that it assumes a false dichotomy between power and sex -- but also,