Comments | tempestsarekind: Shakespeare Solos starting February 1; Emma Rice and Shakespeare's language

tempestsarekind

Shakespeare Solos starting February 1; Emma Rice and Shakespeare's language

Jan 30, 2016 23:46

As part of the whole #shakespeare400 thing, the Guardian is posting videos of various actors (among them Adrian Lester, Roger Allam, and Eileen Atkins) performing Shakespeare speeches, starting on February 1 ( Read more... )

random shakespeare stuff, the great globe itself, my native english, words words words

Comments 4

litlover12 January 31 2016, 05:08:12 UTC

Roger Allam doing Shakespeare! YES! Thanks for the link! :-)

tempestsarekind January 31 2016, 05:16:55 UTC

Glad to be of service!

a_t_rain January 31 2016, 15:13:01 UTC

... Emma Rice's suggestion that it's better to change "chimney-sweepers" to "dandelions"...

Bwuh? But "dandelions" is a SECONDARY meaning -- a nice little bit of lagniappe if you know about it, but surely NOT the primary sense of the word "chimney-sweepers" in that line! We're supposed to see the children of the rich and the poor first, and the image of a dandelion being blown out second. Aargh, it's bad enough when people try to smooth out all the double meanings and ambiguities, but worse when they pick the wrong sense to retain!

I hope she never directs Hamlet, because she'd probably make him tell Ophelia to go to a whorehouse. Ugh.

tempestsarekind January 31 2016, 16:55:11 UTC

Yes! Someone pointed that out in the letters, I think: that replacing "chimney-sweepers" with "dandelions" makes the line stop making any sense! It's so odd when people think you can fix a pun by only providing one of the two (or more) necessary meanings.

she'd probably make him tell Ophelia to go to a whorehouse

Hee. "Why wouldst thou be a breeder of…wait, these lines don't make any sense together anymore, what am I saying?"