ELICA MIWA

Category: Shakespeare Quote

  • Ladies Were Played By Boys!

    Ladies Were Played By Boys!

    Hello, friends, it’s time for Today’s Shakespeare;  The Taming Of The Shrew.

    Let’s read through from Induction 1.

    We have done the first interaction of Sly and the Madam of an inn.  Because Sly didn’t pay, Madam push him out, and Sly just went to sleep.  There comes the Duke who governs the area.

    Lord:  What’s here?  One dead, or drunk?
    See, doth he breathe?

    2nd huntsman:    He breathes, my lord.

    Lord:  Grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine image!  

    ↑

    A pandemic called Black Death was covering all Europe and London was no exception. I can imagine how Sly was sleeping on the roadside.

    Lord:  What think you:  if he were conveyed to bed,
    Wrapped in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers,
    A most delicious banquet by his bed.
    And brave attendants near him when he wakes,
    Would not the beggar then forget himself?

    1st Huntsman:  Believe me, lord, I think he cannot choose.

    ↑

    The Duke offers a playful idea.

    Lord:  Even as a flattering dream of worthless fancy.

    ↑

    “Even as” means “just like”.
    Shakespeare is fascinated with dreams. He mentions dream in every play.

    Servant:  An’t please your Honour, players
    That offer service to your Lordship.

    Lord:  Now, fellows, you are welcome.  

    ↑

    It reminds me of Hamlet welcomes travelling players.

    A player:  So please your Lordship to accept our duty.

    Lord:  With all my heart.  This fellow I remember
    Since once he played a farmer’s eldest son.
    Well, you are come to me in happy time,
    The rather for I have some sport in hand
    Wherein your cunning can assist me much.
    Go, sirrah, take them to the buttery 
    And give them friendly welcome every one.
    Let them want nothing that my house affords.

    ↑

    Again it reminds me of Hamlet ordering Polonius to take care of the actors.
    And we see one of the actors in this play is a farmer’s eldest son.

    Lord: Sirrah, go you to Barthol’mew, my page;
    And see him dressed in all suits like a lady.

    ↑

    This phrase is the very evidence that boys play women’s part.

    Lord: Such duty to the drunkard let him do 
    With soft tongue and lowly courtesy,
    And say, “What is ‘t your Honour will command.
    Wherein your lady and your humble wife
    May show her duty and make known her love?”

    ↑

    The lord gives lines and acting directions to his servants, just like Hamlet to the players.

    Lord: And if the boy have not a woman’s gift
    To rain a shower of commanded tears,
    An onion will do well for such a shift,
    Which in a naplin being close conveyed
    Shall in despite enforce a waterly eye.

    ↑

    Revealing a secret of crying on stage!

    Lord: I’ll to counsel them.  Haply my presence 
    May well abate the over-merry spleen
    Which otherwise would grow into extremes.

    ↑

    I agree! Without the writer or the director, actors don’t know what to do, or do too much!

    It is so interesting that this short scene (Induction 1) can tell so much about the theatre and culture of the time.
    What we the theatrists should do is not to keep those information on the page, but to put it on stage.

  • Shakespeare Insults: The Taming Of The Shrew

    Shakespeare Insults: The Taming Of The Shrew

    The Taming Of The Shrew is full of extraordinary insults.  They are really funny and so good.  Let’s hear it.

    🎭 A pair of stocks, you rogue!

    A stock is a kind of ankle cuff of the time, a wooden bar with a hole and you put the criminal’s ankle in it to hold him.  It must have been used as a pair, so that both ankles were kept locked.  

    The hostess of the inn says, literally like “I’ll lock you at the gate, ankle cuffed, to humiliate in front of everybody, you rogue!

    The second one is:

    🎭 Y’ are a baggage.

    Sly the drunken man answers the Hostess.  A baggage meant a woman who takes in anything, which means a whore.  Hilarious

    The third one is:

    🎭 Let the world slide.

    Sly says “I don’t care”.  If the world slides, let it.  Hmm, some people may think like that to see our world of politics and wars.

    The last one for today is:

    🎭 Go to thy cold bed and warm thee.

    Well, I am not allowed to say or write in this public space.  Your bed is cold.  That means you don’t have a company to sleep with.  Thee means you, which means you must warm yourself.  Yes, this literally means “Go Four-Letter-Word yourself”.

    Would you like to use some of them in quarrel?

    Thank you for warching, from ELICA MIWA.

  • New Series Shakespeare For You: The Taming Of The Shrew

    New Series Shakespeare For You: The Taming Of The Shrew

    Hi, folks!  This is ELICA Miwa, Theatre director, actor, writer in Japan.  I am going to start a new series of One Phrase Shakespeare.  The first season was on The Two Gentlemen of Verona.  We still don’t know which one is Will’s first play.  But we surely know The Taming Of The Shrew is one of the earliest plays he wrote.  Yes, it is a problematic play in this age when many of we women think we should not be suppressed by men.  How can we read the play now?  Is the play still relevant to our age?  Let us think about it together.

    This play has a peculiar form.

    Many of you know Romeo & Juliet has a prologue; it gives us a form of a story-teller telling a story of another time and place.

    The Taming Of The Shrew starts with a drunken man called Sly.　　He falls asleep and tricked by his Lord to believe he is the Lord now, and actors give a play for him:  it is a play about a shrew’s marriage.

    So, the character Sly becomes the audience to watch a play The Taming Of The Shrew, with us the real audience.  Quite strange style to give a play.  I also need to think why Shakespeare needed this structure.

    Anyway, the first word of the play is this:

    I’ll pheeze you, in faith.

    Being kicked out of an inn by the hostess, heavily drunk, and without a penny.

    The hostess left him outside.

    And Sly falls asleep.

    And there comes…  That I will tell you next cast.  See you, Bye!

  • One Feast, One House, One Mutual Happiness [Shakespeare For You]

    One Feast, One House, One Mutual Happiness [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭That done, our day of marriage shall be yours; 
    One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.

    —Valentine, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    This is the closing line of the entire play.

    What a happy celebrating phrase. We can use it on any wedding day!

    The meaning of “that” in “That done” is “Proteus should hear the story of Julia on the way home (Milan).

    The gentlemen of Verona and Duke of Milan are happy.

    For Turio, we may pot his shoulders and say “be a better man”.

    But what about the girls?

    I learned in the 90s, that Shakespeare’s later comedies didn’t feel comedies, for one or two main characters didn’t get their happy ending, and we called them as “Problem comedies”.

    Well, this play has problems!!

    Two ladies witnessed with their own eyes that their boyfriends barter their girlfriends like their property!

    And this is one of his very first plays.  I am going to do “The Taming of th Shrew” next.  It is a problem comedy, too.

    Male audience might have not seen these female characters’ “not truly happy ending” as a problem.  But in this age of 21st century, we know girls also think, feel, and frustrated and have rights to question the male-oriented social system.

    Wow, that’s it!

    The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

    I hope you enjoyed each short beautiful, funny, deep words.

    I enjoyed making the series sooooo much!

    Thank you for your encouragement!

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #valentine #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan #kimono

  • I Hold Him But A Fool [Shakespeare For You]

    I Hold Him But A Fool [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 I hold him but a fool that will endanger 
    His body for a girl that loves him not.

    — Turio, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Turio was just told from Valentine that if he were to claim Silvia, he would be seen as an enemy of Verona.

    Thus he immediately changed his mind and said this.

    He is a petty, trivial man, whom you may know so many of such kind near you.  You know how to play him.

    We also know that he is not in love with Silvia any way, but with the future position of Duke of Milan, by marrying her.

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #turio #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan #kimono

  • That One Error Fills Him With Faults [Shakespeare For You]

    That One Error Fills Him With Faults [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 That one error 
    Fills him with faults; makes him run through all the sins.
    — Proteus, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    There is a Japanese proverb; Ichi-ji ga Ban-ji, meaning:  one thing leads to all.
    Proteus realizes the same.

    To play the words, I would say Proteus must be filled with remorse.

    I am not yet quite sure what, for Proteus, is the first “that one error”.

    When I don’t yet know the answer, I try acting all the possibilities.

    Was the first error to leave Verona?
    Or to obey his father?
    Remember the first lines of Act 2, Scene 6, when he counterbalanced the weight of the sins he was about to commit.  

    “O sweet-suggesting Love, if thou hast sinned,
    Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it!”

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #proteus #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan

  • Were Men But Constant [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 O heaven, were man
    But constant, he were perfect.

    — Proteus, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Finally!!  Proteus clearly sees his fault and is really sorry.

    But this line also sounds like a joke.

    I would think Shakespeare intends the audience laugh, after succession of harsh, rather dark, tensed scenes.

    Proteus isn’t joking, of course.

    Being serious and funny at the same time acting is quite tricky!

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #proteus #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan

  • Women To Change Their Shapes [Shakespeare For You]

    Women To Change Their Shapes [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭. It is the lesser blot, modesty finds,
    Women to change their shapes than men their minds.

    — Julia, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Finally Proteus has found out this young boy named Sebastian is Julia in disguise.

    Julia strongly blames how cruel Proteus has been, and says this.q

    Remember, Julia has been acted as a boy.

    Through that, she must have found strength and straightforwardness in her.

    I would perform the scene with my heart hurt, broken, sad, losing hope, and with direct, strong, honesty.

    I may be crying or shedding tears, but never pity-forcing.

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #julia #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan

  • O Me Unhappy! [Shakespeare For You]

    O Me Unhappy! [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 O me unhappy!

    — Julia, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    This Act 5, Scene 4 is really not understandable for reasonable people.

    Listening to Valentine, Proteus apologized.

    And what happens?
    Valentine gives Silvia for thanks to his apology.

    Whaaaaaat???!!!

    And Julia says this.
    And she swoons.

    Swoon means one faints out of extreme emotion.
    That’s what we have to act.

    But how?

    How are we going to go through extreme emotion safely on stage?

    Part of us must be really take control over the character.
    By doing so, let the character go.

    Very very difficult.

    There are many safe ways to make extreme emotions.
    If you do not know the safe way, you and the people around you would be in danger (mentally, physically, socially).  

    So, have a proper acting coach during the rehearsal of this kind of scene.

    #shakespeare #english #actingtips #directing #julia #twogentlemenofverona #lifeinJapan #kimono

  • The Private Wound Is Deepest [Shakespeare For You]

    The Private Wound Is Deepest [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 The private wound is deepest:  O time most accurst, 
    ‘Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst!

    — Valentine, Two Gentlemen of Verona 5-4

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Valentine, hiding in the woods to see Silvia is about to be raped by his best-friend Proteus, jumped out to stop him.

    He means that this is the most hideous time to know his friend is in fact the very enemy.

    There are so many ways to play this scene.  He speaks some lines before saying this, which means he cannot shout all the time.  He appears with shouting, maybe.  But after this, I would try “how am I to tell what I feel”.

    It is not just cascading his awful feeling.

    It is a way to make Proteus understand and see things more clearly so that he could gain his proper mind back.

    In fact, after this line, Proteus says sorry, and it feels too easy for me to grasp the change in his mind.

    If I make the audience feel the same, the play is not successful.

    That’s why I think I need much more time and varied skills to make Proteus really feel sorry, right after Valentine speaks the whole lines.

    However, another way of acting and directing is to make Proteus really a villain and he never feel truly sorry and just give a “sorry” word as if it is a true word for Valentine.  Yes, a type of LOKI.