"She speaks poniards, and every word stabs."
Last week, we linked to two articles about Shakespeare. In "Bardolatry" (3.9.2004), we linked to a terrific piece in The Village Voice, "The Taming of the Bard." Delicious reading. A sample — Jonathan Miller on King Lear:
Something else the play acquired in Lamb's period is the notion that Lear is a cosmic play. This is a deep misunderstanding. It's an extremely domestic play. Simply because there are five minutes of thunder, people think it's cosmic. The characters are not up against the cosmos; they're up against each other. It's about social disorder, which follows from the disappearance of authority, an authority we may no longer have time for—the absolute power of monarchy. The play isn't cosmic. It's social and political, and intensely domestic.
The link in our 3.10.2004 entry, "To read or not to read," came, as we mentioned, from joannejacobs.com.
Joanne revisted the subject yesterday in an entry entitled "Hating Shakespeare." She quoted a "Shakespeare hater":
I wonder about people who can read Shakespearean language. Why did they spend so much time learning Shakespeare when they could have been studying something useful? Snobbery is about the only reason I can come up with.
One can only wonder what this writer would deem "useful." Regular readers of "Mental multivitamin" will appreciate it when I repeat Joseph Epstein's remarks about snobbery:
High standards generally — about workmanship in the creation of objects, about what is owed in friendship, about the quality of art, and much else — far from being snobbish, are required to maintain decency in life. When the people who value these things are called snobs, the word is usually being used in a purely sour-grapes way. "Elitist," a politically super-charged word, is almost invariably another sour-grapes word, at least when used to denigrate people who insist on a high standard... Delight in excellence is easily confused with snobbery by the ignorant.
It's helpful to remember that last bit as you make your way through the workaday world, fellow readers, thinkers, and autodidacts. "Delight in excellence is easily confused with snobbery by the ignorant." Don't spend too much time struggling to win the ignorant over, either.
It's futile.
Last night, I shared with my husband and son the essence of the virtual "debate" being waged over the value of "the inventor of the human" (i.e., Shakespeare). My son grabbed his chest and stage-staggered about the living room. "'She speaks poniards, and every word stabs!'"
"Ah, son," mocked my husband, "enough Shakespeare. You should be learning something useful... like The Importance of Being Earnest." (We had just finished watching an excellent production of Wilde's confection.)
And that was funny in so many ways, nearly all of which would have escaped the "Shakespeare Hater," consumed as he or she is, by that which is "useful."
Something else the play acquired in Lamb's period is the notion that Lear is a cosmic play. This is a deep misunderstanding. It's an extremely domestic play. Simply because there are five minutes of thunder, people think it's cosmic. The characters are not up against the cosmos; they're up against each other. It's about social disorder, which follows from the disappearance of authority, an authority we may no longer have time for—the absolute power of monarchy. The play isn't cosmic. It's social and political, and intensely domestic.
The link in our 3.10.2004 entry, "To read or not to read," came, as we mentioned, from joannejacobs.com.
Joanne revisted the subject yesterday in an entry entitled "Hating Shakespeare." She quoted a "Shakespeare hater":
I wonder about people who can read Shakespearean language. Why did they spend so much time learning Shakespeare when they could have been studying something useful? Snobbery is about the only reason I can come up with.
One can only wonder what this writer would deem "useful." Regular readers of "Mental multivitamin" will appreciate it when I repeat Joseph Epstein's remarks about snobbery:
High standards generally — about workmanship in the creation of objects, about what is owed in friendship, about the quality of art, and much else — far from being snobbish, are required to maintain decency in life. When the people who value these things are called snobs, the word is usually being used in a purely sour-grapes way. "Elitist," a politically super-charged word, is almost invariably another sour-grapes word, at least when used to denigrate people who insist on a high standard... Delight in excellence is easily confused with snobbery by the ignorant.
It's helpful to remember that last bit as you make your way through the workaday world, fellow readers, thinkers, and autodidacts. "Delight in excellence is easily confused with snobbery by the ignorant." Don't spend too much time struggling to win the ignorant over, either.
It's futile.
Last night, I shared with my husband and son the essence of the virtual "debate" being waged over the value of "the inventor of the human" (i.e., Shakespeare). My son grabbed his chest and stage-staggered about the living room. "'She speaks poniards, and every word stabs!'"
"Ah, son," mocked my husband, "enough Shakespeare. You should be learning something useful... like The Importance of Being Earnest." (We had just finished watching an excellent production of Wilde's confection.)
And that was funny in so many ways, nearly all of which would have escaped the "Shakespeare Hater," consumed as he or she is, by that which is "useful."
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