Three podcasts (played at 1.5 because I am a philistine, according to the wife anyways) while I fed the moorhens, ducks and swans. Spybrary Spy Podcast: Paranoid Visions - Spies, conspiracies and the secret state in British television drama Am currently devouring the Adam Hall Quiller books (probably too quickly, to be honest). So found... Continue Reading →
Yesterday I humblebragged that I was “done with Shakespeare” - in the sense that I had now read all the plays that - in April - I’d listed as either low or zero knowledge. This led to someone asking for a top ten they should read, and with much/further ado here it is. My rough... Continue Reading →
A couple of days ago the child that would grow up to be Queen Elizabeth the first was born. Or rather, I read the final scenes of Henry VIII, a play Bill Shakespeare co-wrote at the very end of his career, and QE1 was spat out by Anne Bullen... This was the (anti?)climax of me... Continue Reading →
Year written: 1594 Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): Possibly his first play? Or first comedy, anyway. Plot in a paragraph: Valentine and Proteus are bezzies. Valentine heads to Milan and falls in love with the Duke’s daughter, Silvia. Proteus wanted to stay in Verona and woo Julia, but... Continue Reading →
Year written: 1594 Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): - there’s a story, too good to be true, that Shakespeare was given two weeks to write a play about Falstaff in love. Given by who? Well, good queen Bess… Plot in a paragraph: Falstaff thinks he can con some... Continue Reading →
Year written: any time between 1598 and 1608!! Plot in a paragraph: Helen wants to marry Bertram, and cures a king to force matters to a head. Bertram flees to the wars, and is then tricked into consummating the marriage with Helen. And they’re all going to live happily ever after? Probably not… Things that... Continue Reading →
Year written: 1603-4 Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): xx Plot in a paragraph: The Good Duke goes on a trip, leaving Vienna in the hands of his deputy Angeo, who has a stick up his ass about “fornication”. A guy called Claudio is condemned to death for impregnating... Continue Reading →
The good news is that I have in fact been continuing with the Shakespeare stuff, the "remedial accumulation of cultural capital"). I just, for various reasons, haven't been putting up posts. So, over the next few days, you will get Measure for Measure, All's Well That Ends Well, Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like... Continue Reading →
Number 5 in my "bard to the bone" project. Year written: 1608 Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): The theatres were closed (Plague) and there was a “colourful” guy who had written a novel on Pericles. Bill wrote Acts 3 to 5 Plot in a paragraph: Pericles, a pince,... Continue Reading →
Yes, Cymbeline is an anagram of Imbecile-y. You can call it anagrammatical determinism if you like…. The play: Cymbeline Year written: 1609 or so Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): srsly, who cares? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymbeline Plot in a paragraph: I’d need more than a paragraph. It’s a mess. Cymbeline is... Continue Reading →
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