Shakespeare
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"Antres" is among the rarest of rare words. Shakespeare's Othello speaks of "antres vast and deserts idle" in the magnificent oration in which he takes issue with the Venetian bigotry that claimed that he was only able to win white Desdemona by employing drugs and witchcraft. No, it wasn't because he was a sorcerer; it was because he was accomplished, heroic, romantic. "Antres"…
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The Takacs Quartet graces us with six superb concerts a year. It's true that they sometimes hanker after strange new composers — Psathos, Part etc. — whose compositions set my teeth on edge like the vile squealings of the wry-necked fife or like a brazen canstick turned or like the gratings of a dry wheel on an axletree — but…
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Here's a puzzle about a character's name that will interest detectives or dedicated Shakespeareans – and perhaps only the most dedicated of Shakespearean detectives. As everyone knows, the "heroine" and dominant figure in Twelfth Night is an audacious, sensitive, and intelligent young lady to whom Shakespeare gave the name Viola. It is Viola who, shipwrecked on the Illyrian shores, disguises herself as a man, enlists herself…
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i''ve read All's Well that Ends Well many times (thrice just in the last week), always with puzzlement and dissatisfaction. It's a confused and confusing play. My best guess is that Shakespeare got going on some appealing but intractable material and struggled with it for many years but was never able to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion. …
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Even moderately serious baseball-watchers know that we've just experienced a disaster of the Mickey Owens-Willie Davis-Bill Buckner variety. Poor Brooks Conrad, a journeyman infielder, playing for the Atlanta Braves in an important playoff game, committed three horrible errors. He bobbled a ball, dropped a popup, and then, with the game on the line, let a…
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The artistry of Romeo and Juliet I.v.30-41 is, I fear, under-appreciated. It's an utterly revolutionary moment in the history of the drama, but it's so subtle, so art-that-hides-art, that it easily slips under the radar. Let me quote in full. Capulet. Nay sit, nay sit, good cousin Capulet, For you and I are past our dancing…
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I sometimes think that I must be the world's number one fan of Shakespeare's Cymbeline, which I have just re-read twice during the past week. Here's a play that is seldom performed, infrequently read, rarely referenced, and omitted from most university courses on Shakespeare. Although it's generally grouped with the last plays or, as they…
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Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is a moderately successful play but not among Shakespeare's greatest hits. Nevertheless, there are two fragments of first-class witty dialogue that continue to tickle me even after all these years. The first is Falstaff's indignation at Parson Evans's Welsh-accented transformation of the words "cheese" and "butter." EVANS: Seese is…
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There are many curious ideas and events in Shakespeare's Tempest. Here's a trivial one that both bothers and amuses me. For what reason does Prospero keep Caliban in his service and close to home even after he has tried to rape Miranda? Here's the puzzling explanation offered by the great magus himself: "We cannot miss…
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Not only Shakespeare specialists, but lay readers and playgoers are puzzled by Caliban's mysterious "scamels." From the context, it's clear that scamels are an easily obtained food. Listen as Caliban lists some of the items he can gather from his island's prodigious storehouse: I prithee let me bring thee where crabs grow; And I with my…