In the evening I mean, not the usual academic junk. Would you believe Shakespeare? Really, I’ve never read it before except in small occasional bits. I’ve never even seen an entire play either. Or movie. I’ve watched a few minutes here and there of Branagh’s films but never all the way through. It’s. . . .tough. I started with Macbeth and now am going through Othello. You really have to concentrate to understand what’s going on. I might have been lost in Macbeth had I not read a summary beforehand. But I am reading Othello cold to see if I can follow it. I find I have to really imagine the words being said by actors rather than just reading them (if that makes sense); makes it easier to understand just what is being said. I’m slowly getting used to the language and hoping it will come a bit more easily and be more enjoyable, or at least not so much of a slog. Sometimes I have to go back and read entire passages again just to figure out what the heck just happened.
He’s got some naughty bits strewn in. Such as Iago telling Brabantio “I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.”
Mostly I imagine Patrick Stewart saying most of the lines.
Sheakespeare … first half of the ’90’s somewhere, i saw Romeo and Juliette on Dutch tv by very young actors. In exact the original Shakespearean phrases. Not my mothertongue at all, but very convincing. So, not such a bad idea i think, seeing good actors in your mind performing the story on these beautiful texts. Wish you a nice weekend with this. And who knows, enjoying [a link to] that performance i once have seen / would like a lot to see again?
Comment by Toos — October 30, 2009 @ 6:05 pm