-
. The POTIS Project
I. Curculio: An Online Journal
II. My Other Sites and Pages
III. My Old Texts
IV. Favorite Sites
V. Blogroll
VI. Other Links
Recent Comments
- BAMBOS NEOPHYTOU on Callimachus on Heraclitus
- Raphael Soares on Artemis a Model for Widows?
- Raphael Soares on Artemis a Model for Widows?
- Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado on “Government by Clowns”?
- Philological Crocodile on Should an OCT Have a Table of Contents?
Category Archives: Culture: Plays
Marring Marlowe: A Low Pun in Edward II?
Contemporary humanists often seem to operate on the principle that any possible pun in Shakespeare and his contemporaries is real or intended (loaded word!) or somehow present to the alert reader, inevitably adding to the meaning of the passage. It … Continue reading
Curculio 6: Two Adjectives in Seneca’s Agamemnon
How’s that for a boring title? As a continuation of my experiment with publishing original scholarship on this site, I have just uploaded an eight-page PDF containing two conjectures on the text of Seneca’s Agamemnon, titled as above (link). (I … Continue reading
Posted in Culture: Plays, Curculio: Classics, Curculio: Latin, Latin Literature
Tagged Roman drama, Seneca the Younger
Leave a comment
Anachronistic Joke
The hero of John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi, the only decent adult other than the title character, is her steward, Antonio Bologna. With a name like that, I can’t help wondering if his middle-school classmates called him ‘Tony Baloney’.
Shakespeare Puzzle
Legal Disclaimer: There is no prize, and if there were, employees and customers of the American Shakespeare Center would not be eligible for it, since anyone who has seen the production already knows the answer. Can you identify the play … Continue reading
Typecasting Joke
In the last two years, Patrick Earl of the American Shakespeare Center‘s touring troupe has played Giovanni in John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore and Ferdinand in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. Each one is the brother of … Continue reading
Posted in Blackfriars, Culture: Plays, Jokes
Leave a comment
How Do You Make Hamlet Even More Tragic?
Do what the grad students in Shakespeare Studies at Mary Baldwin did in the performance I saw tonight (directed by Zach Brown): 1. Leave out Fortinbras entirely. 2. Have Horatio ignore Hamlet’s plea at the end of the play, drink … Continue reading
Posted in Culture: Plays
Leave a comment
Best Unintentional Pun Ever
Volume II of The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker, edited by Fredson Bowers (Cambridge, 1955), contains these five titles: The Honest Whore, Parts I and II The Magnificent Entertainment Westward Ho Northward Ho The Whore of Babylon Four out of … Continue reading
Posted in Culture: Plays
Leave a comment
Blackfriars Quiz
The following eight foodstuffs represent eight different plays presented at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia in the last three years. Can you identify them all? These are not verbal jokes, and the quantities (such as the three apples in … Continue reading
Posted in Blackfriars, Culture: Plays
Leave a comment
The Charms of the Irrelevant
Call me a pedant, but I thought the most interesting thing about Terry Teachout’s Youtubed clip from a BBC film of The Cherry Orchard is that it seems to be subtitled in Catalan.
Posted in Culture: Plays
1 Comment
Shakespearean Riddle
A very easy one, I’m afraid. Which play did I see at the Blackfriars Playhouse tonight? One that reminded me of something I hadn’t thought of in many years. Back in 1985 or so, I was working for a ‘beltway … Continue reading
Posted in Culture: Plays
1 Comment
Pedantry Pedantically Denounced
On a Latin play about Richard III by the master of Caius College, Cambridge (1579): . . . Legge’s was a poverty-stricken mind; his Latin versification might crimson the cheek of a preparatory schoolboy, and but for the sad fact … Continue reading
BBC Shakespeare On Sale
Since I wrote about the BBC Shakespeare DVDs two and a half years ago, prices have dropped on both sides of the Atlantic. You can now get the American discs for $99.99 per set, down from $149.99, but that still … Continue reading
Posted in Blackfriars, Culture: Plays, Theater Reviews
Leave a comment
The Merry Wives of Windsor (ASC vs BBC) I
Like everything else they’ve done, I’ve immensely enjoyed the American Shakespeare Center‘s production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, playing through the end of November, along with Much Ado About Nothing and Titus Andronicus (more about them later). 1 Henry … Continue reading
Posted in Blackfriars, Culture: Plays, Theater Reviews
Leave a comment
The Merry Wives of Windsor (ASC vs BBC) I
Like everything else they’ve done, I’ve immensely enjoyed the American Shakespeare Center‘s production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, playing through the end of November, along with Much Ado About Nothing and Titus Andronicus (more about them later). 1 Henry … Continue reading
Posted in Blackfriars, Culture: Plays, Theater Reviews
Leave a comment
Shakespeare at the Blackfriars Theatre in Staunton
I moved to Staunton, Virginia a year ago last week for a number of reasons, but primarily so I could go to plays at the Blackfriars Playhouse. I’d been driving 4 1/2 hours each way from Raleigh every few months … Continue reading
Posted in Blackfriars, Culture: Plays, Theater Reviews
Leave a comment
Racine: Phèdre (UK National Theatre)
I drove to Charlottesville today to see an HD broadcast of Racine’s Phèdre by the UK National Theatre, with Helen Mirren in the title role. Some desultory thoughts: At 56, I was probably younger than the median audience member. I … Continue reading
Posted in Culture: Plays, Theater Reviews
1 Comment
Quotation of the Day
An English English professor — I mean an Englishman who is also a professor of English — mocks the hard sciences to a mathematician: A great poet is always timely. A great philosopher is an urgent need. There’s no rush … Continue reading
Posted in Culture: Plays
1 Comment
I Wonder
When Orson Welles was filming Macbeth, Othello, and Chimes at Midnight, did the crew call him Horson Welles? Behind his back, or to his face, it would have been a thoroughly Shakespearian pun.
Posted in Culture: Plays, Movies, Nachleben
1 Comment
Little-Known Fact: BBC Shakespeares
Amazon and other retailers offer four BBC Shakespeare DVD box sets, of five plays each: Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, and Tragedies II. The list price is $149.99 per box, and Amazon doesn’t discount them nearly as much as most of their … Continue reading
Posted in Culture: Plays, Movies, Nachleben
1 Comment
Frederick the Great on Shakespeare
This is Richard Stoneman’s paraphrase of a German source: Frederick the Great . . . has strong views as to how these improvements to the German language shall be effected. For a start, something has to be done to prevent … Continue reading
Posted in Culture: Plays, Philosophy
Leave a comment
