ELICA MIWA

Tag: life in Japan

  • A Woman’s Reason [Shakespeare For You]

    A Woman’s Reason [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 I have no other but a woman’s reason:  I think him so because I think him so.

    — Lucetta, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-2

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Lucetta the maid says to her mistress.  A “woman’s reason” means there is no reason.  This phrase makes me smile to imagine young Shakespeare was told so from his girlfriend or from his mother, or maybe from one of his house’s maids.  I love to say this for once.  Anyway, act it proudly, positively, and definitely.

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  • Now We Are Alone [Shakespeare For You]

    Now We Are Alone [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 But say, Lucetta, now we are alone, Wouldst thou then counsel me to fall in love?

    — Julia, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-2

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Julia is to choose a husband from suitors, and ask advice from her maid, Lucetta. 
    This husband choosing with the maid scene is repeated in The Merchant of Venice’s Portia and her maid Nelissa. 

    Both Julia and Portia are going to disguise themselves to be a boy.  But think that you are going to perform both of them, then you must make big differences between these two ladies. 

    How would you do?

    Just to point out for fun that “now we are alone” resembles Hamlet’s “Now I am alone” just before he starts his third soliloquy.

  • My Horns Are His Horns [Shakespeare For You]

    My Horns Are His Horns [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 Why then, my horns are his horns, whether I wake or sleep.

    — Speed, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-1

    (I said scene 2 in the video; it is scene 1!)

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Speed is the servant to Valentine, and a comic character.  This Master/Servant pair is typical for Renaissance Italian comedy (Commedia Dell’arte), and shows Shakespeare is influenced by it.  So, be funny!  

    You may know the “horn” gag.  When a husband has a horn, it means his wife has betrayed him.  The horn on the head of a man is the proof that this man cannot sexually satisfy his wife.

    The servant is the property of the master.  Therefore, the servant’s property is his master’s.

    “Whether I wake or sleep” is deprived from the Bible.

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  • More Than Over-Shoes In Love [Shakespeare For You]

    More Than Over-Shoes In Love [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 That’s a deep story of a deeper love; For he was more than over-shoes in love.

    — Proteus, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    An example of their word association game.  Valentine’s former words leads Proteus to say this.  Valentine has referred to Greek mythical love story Hero & Leander.  Leander drowned himself in deep sea.  Valentine laughs at Proteus is shallowly in love.  Then, Proteus says this.  “More than over-shoes” means “head over heels”.

    In acting this, it is important to keep your humour, but you’ve got to be different from Valentine.  Need to talk with the actor of Valentine to make differences clear.

    Also, this line is a good example of iambic pentameter.

  • Shallow Story of Deep Love [Shakespeare For You]

    Shallow Story of Deep Love [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 That’s on some shallow story of deep love.  How young Leander cross’d the Hellespont.

    — Valentine, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    One of the “hard-to-understand” phrases for the modern audience.  Leander is a Greek mythological character who is in Hero and Leander story.  It is a love tragedy so popular during Shakespearean era.  Hero and Leander were in love secretly.  Leander swam the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles) to see her every night.  But one night, he lost the way and drowned.  Shakespeare refers the theme of Hero & Leander many times. 

    From this line, two gentlemen of Verona interchange conversation for a minute, on shallow, deep, love, and boots, aa a word-association game.  So, be playful.  Pick up the word you want to change the meaning upside down.  Win the game.

  • Wilt Thou Be Gone? [Shakespeare For You]

    Wilt Thou Be Gone? [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 Wilt thou be gone?

    — Proteus, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    You can say this in any tone, feeling, and style.  You can say this sadly.  You can say this nonchalantly as if he doesn’t really care, although he really doesn’t want him to go.  You can say this as if you had enough.  Or, you can say this as if he is your love, which is possible during Shakespearean era.

    The same phrase is used by Juliet in the famous bed scene.

  • I Am Not Worth This Coil [Shakespeare For You]

    I Am Not Worth This Coil [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 I would that I were low laid in my grave:  I am not worth this coil that’s made for me.

    — Arthur, King John 2-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Arthur is a young boy who is supposed to be the king of Ireland, England, and parts of France, but abducted and killed at the age of 16  This phrase is at the point he is surrounded by many bloody nobles and is about to forcefully separated from his mother.  He says this to his mother.

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  • Where Having Nothing [Shakespeare For You]

    Where Having Nothing [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 Where having nothing, nothing can be lose.

    — Earl of Warrick, Henry VI  3-3

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Be sincere.  Believe in what you say.

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  • We Wound Our Modesty [Shakespeare For You]

    We Wound Our Modesty [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 We wound our modesty and make foul the clearness of our deservings,
    When of ourselves we publish them.

    — Steward, All’s Well That Ends Well 1-3

    When you praise or boast of your own past good deeds, that will harm you.  You would be recognised as not modest, and people would doubt if  those good deeds were true, and you would lose your credibility.

    Don’t boast of yourself!

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  • For Orpheus’ lute was strung with poets’ sinews [Shakespeare For You]

    For Orpheus’ lute was strung with poets’ sinews [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 For Orpheus’ lute was strung with poets’ sinews,
    Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones,
    Make tigers tame, and huge leviathans
    Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands. 

    — Proteus, The Two Gentlemen in Verona, 3-2

    Shakespeare loves music.  The idea that music moves harden hearts appears repeatedly in many comedies of his.

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Proteus is talking to a man who is trying to attract a lady but she is not interested in him.  Proteus tells him to use music, for it will soften the hardest of the hardest.  But secretly, Proteus himself has fallen in love with the same lady.  He has a plot.  Thus, Proteus may act like a very tactful salesman.

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