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| Tennant: More than "the Doctor" |
I may be the only person in Britain who’s never seen a single episode of the TV series, Dr Who. And since Dr Who dates back to TV’s b&w era I’ve had to work hard to avoid it. Tell the truth, I always thought it was for kids.
I need to make this clear. On Sunday VR and I watched Hamlet (a play by William Shakespeare many find a trifle difficult) in which the title role was played by David Tennant. You would irritate me profoundly if you thought we watched it because David Tennant also played Dr Who.
From which you may conclude – justifiably – I am an intellectual snob. What, I would ask, has taken you so long?
In fact I “collect” Hamlets. And if I risked my snobbism with David Tennant (he was, coincidentally, terrific) how about Mel Gibson (surprisingly good)? Or Maxine Peake, a leftward-leaning British actress whom I otherwise admire but not – it gives great pain to say so – as the Prince of Denmark.
Anyone for Ethan Hawke? I have the DVD.
I started as a teenager when (I think) I heard a full BBC radio version – all 4½ hours – with Christopher Plummer. Wasn’t he in a famous musical?* Also on radio: Sir John Gielgud.
More recently Sir Kenneth Branagh and Benedict Cumberbatch. The most unusual? Gregor Kozintsev in a 1964 movie filmed in Russian. But with sub-titles.
Why Hamlet? All those hours! Gotta be more than snobbism. It is, of course. It keeps on giving.
The best lines?
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on’t! ah fie! ’tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.
Bless you Bill. Another non-gardener.
* I jest, I jest
I will cut and paste that quote into a word doc that will live on my computer until I die. I may pull it out from time to time to share with people, perhaps to convince them how world weary I have become, or perhaps to annoy them if they are
ReplyDeleteunreasonably positive types.
Why would you think we'd find Hamlet difficult?
Colette: Delighted that it grabbed you; we draw closer to being a matched pair.
DeleteWS difficulties. Here's a selection.
Summaries of the past. The history plays - but not Hamlet - tend to kick off with background stuff, what's been happening, who's doing what to whom. Reported speech, in fact. These passages can be be dull and obscure. Lists of names of people we've not yet met, longstanding political arguments, grudges.
The aristocracy. Most have several names. Richard III was the Duke of Gloucester, often shortened to just Gloucester. Also known as The Boar. Relations speaking of other relations talk about "my father" and "my uncle"; when everyone's reminiscing it can take half an hour to sort out who's who.
Words/phrases that have disappeared : Break thee off (Stop it.), Ancient (a corruption of the military rank of Ensign), troth-plight (maritally engaged), Pish (Nonsense!), that's the humour of it (the core), yield the crow a pudding (will die), my Doll is dead of malady of France (venereal disase)
Words that have changed their meaning: Sensible (sensitive), impress (people who have signed up), soft (hush), privy (nformed about), erring (wandering), mantle (clothing).
Concepts that are now hard to understand. Political associations. The viciousness of religious differences. Punishments by the courts. Servitude of the lower classes. The obligations that go with promises and vows. The enhanced demands of "honour".
David M. Gascoigne, has left a new comment on your post 'To avoid confusion...':
ReplyDeleteMy familiarity with Shakespeare is sadly limited. It was never part of my curriculum at school and I have never felt motivated to pursue it subsequently. I can trot out a few well known phrases, but beyond that, I am ignorant of The Bard of Avon. But speaking of Christopher Plummer, I can recount an interesting anecdote. My step-daughter was at one point the official photographer for the Stratford Festival Theatre, Canada’s takeoff on the real thing, and she was to do a photoshoot with Plummer who was starring in a major role that year. He was a little standoffish as she recalls it, and at one point she said to him, “If you could turn your head slightly, Mr. Plummer, we will get your best side,” to which he replied, “Young lady, I only have best sides!”
DMG: Sorry about that. Here's a temporary fix, I'll look into things further.
DeleteDMG: My education was "arsy versy" one might say, but eventally I profited from this. As I said I did badly at school not truly understanding why school was necessary. In any case, in those days a formal education (as opposed to experience) was considered a hindrance in journalism.
DeleteI only learnt to learn in the RAF; the subject matter - electronics - being pretty demanding. As a result I entered my twenties with a pristine mind, undisadvantaged by information I might have taken in by rote in my youth. Almost an adult, I developed a taste for difficult stuff simply because it was difficult. War and Peace, The Red and the Black, Père Goriot, Middlemarch and Moby Dick were gobbled up followed by Ulysses (three times), A la Recherche du Temps Perdu (twice - helped by a non-Moncrieff translation)), and Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (once and also in English - which is enough). I am convinced that this is the best frame of mind with which to tackle Shakespeare; schoolboys may be able - with a struggle - to follow the plots but very few appreciate the role poetry plays in expressing the characters. Much much later I even tred my hand at writing Shakespearean format sonnets.
This probably sounds like boasting and perhaps I may feel entitled to some degree. But you must remember that in terms of formal education I'm regarded as stunted. I left school at 15 and that was that. It is conceivable that a mid-life spent forming my own judgments, uninfluenced by dubious pedagogy, may have led to my quixotic decision about singing.
A final thought, not applicable to Canadians. Given the UK's present status I feel ashamed to be British. Revelling in English Shakespeare provides balance.
You did not include Olivier in your list of Hamlets. I first saw his interpretation of it when the whole of my grammar school was treated to it at a special performance in the local cinema. It was my first encounter with a professional performance and was a revelation to me.
ReplyDeleteThe following school year our form were studying it for 'O' Levels and the film helped me a lot. It was that film which hooked me on Bill for ever after.
One of my Hamlet favourites is
"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
I know it was that old bore Polonius spouting, but somehow it has always stuck.
Avus: My list wasn't intended to be complete. I did see Olivier's Hamlet but by then I'd begun to develop critical faculties. Squeezing Hamlet into 155 minutes meant that half the dialogue was cut and, as Wiki says, meant two of the characters disappeared. Needless to say when I watched Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" I felt Olivier had a lot to answer for..
ReplyDeleteI chose the quote I did because of its poetry as well as its practical application. I always thought Polonius should have considered his exhortation relative to Polonious; had he been "true to his own self" he might have decided to be less demonstrably pious. Also when WS, in effect, first wrote "as night follows day" it wasn't a cliché but its platitudineity ensured it would quickly become one.
The quote also raises a moral question: the exhortation assumes in looking inwardly we find only commendable qualities and these don't include, say, humility and self-criticism. True honesty about oneself would reveal defects as well as goodness. How should these be handled?
Needless to say, I cheat. The long long quote that is linked to the sub-title of this blog is too long to be memorised (I know; I've tried) but I doubt I could cut a single word. True mourning, I thought.