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The West Wing, Season 2, Episode 15, Ellie
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My review of DT Richard II for the first act is that he is literally playing Richard like he is my cat who walks around the house with her tail held up so high and nose in the air like she owns the place and we all have to be like…yes baby girl you are so impressive. yeasss you definitely own this place and we live here at your pleasure. But in reality she does not pay rent and she cannot even open chicken pate cans. That’s DT Richard II in a nutshell
re: greenblatt, most of what i know about him is criticism of twelfth night in fiction and friction where he argued that because of the galenic medical model in early modern england, which posited women as the physiological inverse of men ("inverted mirror images"), there was "an apparent homoeroticism in all sexuality." an admirable conclusion though TO be very honest i don't quite understand how he got there but that is probably a me problem
i also don't understand how he got here except a vague idea of like. defining things by their opposites paradoxically brings them together? but you know what stephen hell yeah. yeah. so true bestie [shrugging at the camera from behind his back]
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more thoughts from the imaginary production of hamlet i am carefully crafting in my mind palace:
to be or not to be is a weird speech, right? hamlet talks about dying like the afterlife is something uncertain and unfixed and about suicide as potentially courageous, even though we know from act one that 1. he curses the fact that suicide is a sin and 2. THERE IS A GHOST. HE SAW A GHOST. PEOPLE DO INDEED RETURN FROM THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. i've seen academics say (in the endnotes of the folger edition but also in the lockdown shakespeare podcast series on the speech) that you can easily read it as more philosophical debate than active breakdown, a "dispassionate mental exercise." you don't HAVE to read or perform it that way, but you could.
MORE than that, though: on a performance level, it is scary as all hell. because it's such a famous and iconic speech that it’s kind of transcended the context of the already iconic play called hamlet. everybody knows at least the concept of to be or not to be, even if they can't recite it or explain it. it's Thee Speech. how the fuck are you supposed to perform a speech with that concentration of accumulated historical and literary weight? how do you even sound natural doing it?
so. rather than duck away from that, i would love to see a 3.1 where hamlet becomes aware that claudius and polonius are eavesdropping (maybe ophelia discreetly signals as such), and hamlet decides, okay, fuck it, if they want a madman, i’m going to Act The Role Of Hamlet. because he knows what a revenge tragedy is like, and he knows the type of thing they expect from him. so he starts doing to be or not to be not just as a logical proof, but specifically like a mediocre shakespearean actor. i'm talking reading from a paperback Hamlet, speechifying in the I'm Reciting Shakespeare Now voice. i'm talking “high school student doing a stiff audition and leaning way too hard on the iambic pentameter” vibe. sure, okay, have a madman.
except. well. um. however it fits into the rest of the play, to be or not to be still has words, innit? it's still asking a question and the question is Should I Kill Myself. and even if you're just going through the motions, you're going to think a little about the words you're saying. and, uh, actually, maybe there is a point there? he can do his self-consciously melodramatic thing, but as the speech goes on, the question he's asking becomes more and more genuine. it starts "haha look at me i'm Being Hamlet," but somewhere in the middle it creeps over to a real begging of the question, from ophelia or the audience: why do we keep doing this? what if it just hurts from now until forever? and the mask starts to slip, and the constructed madness starts to collapse into despair, and when he hits "lose the name of action" he's out of momentum. there's no more facade. what the fuck is he supposed to do now?
So re: Hamlet, purgatory, the reformation, etc.
I'm just about to start writing a my final paper for a Reformation History class at university. I'll probably focus on the English reformation because I'm already familiar with Tudor/Elizabethan context. And I got a hunch that talking about Hamlet and ghosts and purgatory would be a great way to talk about the impacts of the reformation on Elizabethan English life.
You wouldn't happen to feel like info dumping some more about religious themes and conflicts in Hamlet would you? And/or drop some more books/papers/scholars that I can research and cite?
I will happily absorb any info you wish to dump!
i desperately wish i knew enough off the dome to burst into a monologue here, but most of what i know about hamlet and religion fits in the quote i posted from emma smith re: the catholic/protestant split. (apparently some people think shakespeare was a closet catholic? but i kind of doubt it.) not sure what your own religious background is, but it might be worth looking into general stuff about wittenberg/martin luther/protestantism during the time period--although if you're focusing on the reformation you may know a lot of this.
my first thought was stephen greenblatt's Hamlet in Purgatory, which i have not read but which is cited in the notes of my copy of hamlet. it's on jstor apparently but i don't have access. sad! but it seems to be honestly less about hamlet specifically and more greenblatt using hamlet as a wedge to explore conceptions of purgatory at the time, which sounds cool as fuck. (i'm not suuuuper familiar with greenblatt, but i remember liking his criticism in the norton shakespeare; YMMV.)
the ghost is the obvious Big Religious Issue of hamlet, but there's also the praying scene, the whole deal with ophelia's suicide, horatio coming from Protestant University R Us, and to be or not to be itself and what that speech implies about hamlet's religious view. i really like the lockdown shakespeare podcast about TBoNTB--i haven't listened all the way through because i'm awful but iirc they do touch on how weird it is that hamlet's musings about the afterlife seem to counter what you might assume about his religious opinions from the rest of the text.
the folger shakespeare library has further reading recs for every play on their page; skimming through this, you might be interested in richard mccoy's writing on memory in hamlet? emphasis mine:
McCoy examines the play’s four funerals (King Hamlet’s expedited obsequies, Polonius’s “hugger-mugger” burial [4.5.91], Ophelia’s “maimèd rites” [5.1.226], and the “somewhat incongruous” soldier’s funeral for Prince Hamlet) in the context of the ambiguity (“liturgical double-bookkeeping”) that marked the Elizabethan compromise over Catholic-Protestant funerary practices and intercessory rituals for the deceased. Informing the discussion is the doctrine known as “the King’s Two Bodies” (i.e., the Body natural and the Body politic), specifically the efforts of the “cult of Elizabeth” to continue what has been called “the migration of the holy” begun by Henry VIII’s reforms in which “ ‘the socially integrative powers of the host’ were transferred ‘to the rituals of monarchy and secular community,’ ” a shifting from the eucharistic real presence to the royal presence.
and also the roland frye book, though it is from the 80s (i am not up to date on modern shifts in historiography lmfao):
Among the events and documents Frye invokes are ... Protestant beliefs that ghosts were demons, beliefs shared by Catholics, who also believed ghosts might be souls from purgatory...
i do also recommend emma smith's book (and marjorie garber's. ack. so good) but those are less specific examinations of many plays, so idk how helpful they'll be. this is what i've got at the moment followers sound off if you have additions or comments
#max.txt#asks#hamlet#hamlet as a character is very catholic To Me. but i don't have historical contextual evidence for that#he strikes me that way because. well. first of all the guilt#'haha catholic guilt' is a joke but there is a sort of emphasis on self-sacrifice in catholicism as i experienced it#that resonates with me in terms of Feeling Guilt And Shame From No Specific Source#and secondarily because of the way hamlet is both obsessive about and sort of horrified by sexuality#because once again. catholic emphasis on purity; celibacy of priests; etc#but that's also just because i grew up catholic and it hit my ocd bad and now i kin him
hi i just want to say thank you for making that post about timeloop hamlet. I have an ongoing project where I watch timeloop episodes of tv shows and timeloop stories in other media and judge them as if "groundhog day-style time loop" was its own genre. I also saw Hamlet for the first time in September and I feel like it just slotted perfectly into the folds of my brain, I loved it. My friend sent me the post you made about timeloop Hamlet and I'm really excited to watch it
OH FUCK YEAHHHHHHHH. I REALLY HOPE YOU ENJOY! timeloop hamlet is so beloved to me... partially just because the aesthetic slaps and the character interpretations are so excellent, but also because it's so deeply fitting for the themes of hamlet and the afterlife of hamlet as a text. it's inescapable. it's always being repeated. you can't get out of the narrative. you have to deal with the pain of watching other people fall prey to themselves and to the world. sickening! sick and fucking twisted! i desperately wish i could have seen it live i think it would have killed me or maybe reset my entire brain
ALSO IT WAS DONE BY A COLLEGE TROUPE. THEY AHD A COLLEGE BUDGET AND THEY DID THIS. KENNETH BRANAGH HAD ALL OF HIS BRANAGH MONEY AND FOUR FUCKING HOURS AND HE NEVER EVEN CAME CLOSE TO THIS. DUDE
i logged out of shakespeare tumblr sooo long ago but it's heartwarming to see yall still posting about the plays
at this rate i am gonna be here until i die. i am gonna be applying to phds and having to lock this blog down so they don't find my posts from quarantine about richard iii's dick. im never going to become a professor becajse im gonna be on this damn blog
hi!! i’m rlly into shakespeare’s tragedies and am curious about the histories, but they’re pretty intimidating. i started to read henry viii a while back, but it didn’t click. what are your thoughts?
i’m curious most abt richard iii bc he’s a blorbo of mine historically (a sentence i never thought i’d hear, much less say)
oh i fucking LOVE the histories i have been going crazy about the histories lately. if you're looking for advice on how to parse the... well, history bit, this post may be helpful! the hardest part for me was the number of characters who change their names or have multiple names (i know it's often based on location/which part of england they're in charge of, but Oh My God), but if r3 is a blorbo of yours you might be ahead on that already.
re: henry viii: i feel like this is hands-down the worst one. so if that turned you off, rest assured it gets better than that. i am sure there are people who like henry viii and have said very smart things about it, but i could not tell you one damn thing that happens in that play besides the doctor being called doctor butts. because it is so fucking boring. HOWEVER! henry viii is outside of the main sequences of histories--not sure how familiar you are, but for you and anyone else who might not know, most of the histories are broken into two tetralogies, and then hviii and king john also exist. (and merry wives, i guess, but that's not really a history, it's just a falstaff play.) those being the war of the roses (written first but chronologically later historically--the three h6 plays and r3) and the henriad (r2, the h4 plays, and h5). so you don't need to read henry viii unless you are on a deranged completionist grind. which i was and i still don't remember what happens in it
as to richard iii--if you're nervous about jumping into the histories, you honest to god can just read that one first. it comes chronologically last (except hviii), but imo it's the history play most capable of standing alone, and also it fucking rocks. i love richard iii. i love the play and i love the guy. i don't know what the historical consensuses on Real Life Actual Richard III are, but i assume you know that shakespeare's ricky is, uh, um, well, he's not, like, good PR for richard's historical reputation. but he IS a deeply fascinating character that i fucking adore. every single scene he's just lying. he's like do you wanna see something fucked up? and then he does it. it's also a play with a lot to dig into re: disability especially (again. not very good rep on shakespeare's part, but lots of good scholarship/intertextual responses), but also gender (women haunting the narrative). awesome play i love it so much.
also, if you like richard (the guy), you may also like henry vi part 3, because he's there and killing people and carrying decapitated heads around; i am sorry to say that the first two henry vi plays are much less fun but they do exist. i am a henriadhead myself but there are lots of wars of the roses people on shakespeare tumblr who write excellent analysis, so here's an open call to the crowd if anyone has stuff to share esp. re: richard. if you have any specific questions about the histories, i'm also happy to try my hand at answering :3 english history is not my era of expertise but i am rereading through the plays right now so i'm having lots of thoughts about kingship and gender and such
#max.txt#asks#this is a lot of yapping. but that is the risk of talking to me#histories#richard iii#< for my tag. i don't know what's in there#also! you may enjoy teenage dick by mike lew. which is a high school adaptation#of richard iii that focuses on r3 as disabled character#i was going to say 'disability justice angle' but it's kind of more like. disability revenge angle.#disability scheming angle.
Love love love ur Hamlet posting he is soooooooo like I'm going thru a moment w/ him he just like me fr (derogatory) THANK U for spreading time loop Hamlet production I'm only like 30 minutes in and it's so good?????? the way Horatio swears by the sword and ends up like hugging it until he takes it w/ him beautiful chefs kiss MWAH B4 this ive only seen the Kenny or whatever Hamlet movie and uhhhh ye this is better by so much i think after this i might b ruined 4 other hanlets and im not even that far in
pologies 4 the long ask but uh yes I'm having Hamlet feels and ur Hamlet takes r so good! Have a lovely whatever time of day tis 4 u
TIME LOOP HAMLET IT MAKES ME FUCKING CRAZYYYYYYYY RAHHHHHHHH. I AM ALSO RUINED FOR OTHER HAMLETS I NEED THE METATHEATER I NEED THE GAY PEOPLE INSANITIES I NEED KENNETH BRANAGH TO DIE
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my butch was in a production of rii where richard was michael alig and england was the nyc club scene in the 90s, and i just think you’d get something out of that
OOH... i am not particularly familiar with the 90s club scene but im rotating it. im trying to grasp the vision. do they have production pics
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I have been in this gay ass room for ten thousand years
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cordelia could be so interesting if y'all would stop playing her as self-righteous
YES EXACTLY
YES!! SO RIGHT SO TRUE!!
my beloved mutuals know exactly what I'm talking about!!
cannot stop thinking about marjorie garber pulling out the balcony scene comparison i have been on this for weeks
[text in image:
See, see, King Richard doth himself appear, As doth the blushing discontented sun From out the fiery portal of the east When he perceives the envious clouds are bent To dim his glory. . . . (3.3.61-65)
The stage picture here, with Richard aloft on the battlement of the castle, is remarkably similar to the celebrated balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. Richad is the "sun," rising in the "east," here "blushing" as Juliet felt she should blush at being overheard by Romeo. Bolingbroke stands below, on the main stage, and speaks as he gazes up at the King. In act 3, scene 3, Richard will, like Juliet, invoke the figure of Phaethon, the ill-fated son of Apollo, who tried to control the horses of the sun. But the culmination of the sun image, and the end of Richard's kingship, will come in the deposition scene, when Richard, lamenting that he has "no name, no title," says...
/image cuts off.]
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Did a little Richard II to practice character design.