I’m a sucker for a good word play and so my favourite sentence from Ben Crystal’s “Shakespeare on Toast” is catapulted into the title of this blog post. It makes me giggle and that can only be a good thing.
The problem with Shakespeare is that he is taught in schools when kids are just too young to appreciate him. Dry as dust explanations of iambic pentameter and even dryer reading aloud sessions can scar for life. I certainly haven’t read any Shakespeare since Henry IV Part I – my “O”-level text – and I was blessed with a cracking English literature teacher. I did go to the Citizen’s Theatre in Glasgow about 10 years ago with my son’s school class to see “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and I howled with laughter. I now watch the Kenneth Brannagh version whenever I need cheering up. Since then, I catch any play I can, when I can. It doesn’t mean that they’re all great- I didn’t enjoy Troilus and Cressida or Romeo and Juliet (’tis a disadvantage when you take a dislike to the lead actress in that play …). Tears of laughter once more at Twelfth Night.
My experience is that Shakespeare is better watched, not read and analysed to death. Forget the difficulty of the language. It only takes a couple of scenes into a play and the language suddenly clicks into place. Ben Crystal, an actor, agrees with me – arguing that we should see Shakespeare in the context of the Elizabethan theatre. Plays rolled off the production line in those days to satisfy a public who went to the theatre for entertainment, not analysis. It was their equivalent of television.
Crystal also demystifies the issue of Shakespeare’s difficult language. It’s not the vocabulary, for only 5% of Shakespeare’s language is no longer current! It’s this iambic pentameter thingy, isn’t it? The key, Crystal argues, is not to read Shakespeare, but to listen. De-dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum – that’s the iambic pentameter and Shakespeare’s default metre. It’s the variations he plays that injects life to his theatre, emphasises important issues and directs his actors all at the same time. Crystal fills his very readable and entertaining text with many examples of this, explaining with his actor’s eye (or rather ear) why King Lear Act 5, Scene 3, lines 304-7 are his favourite in the whole cannon and why line 306 is sheer genius.
LEAR
Why should a Dog, a Horse, a Rat have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never.
Pray you, undo this button.
The book is divided, quite appropriately, into 5 acts: Act 1, Setting the Scene; Act 2, Curtain Up; Act 3, Listen Carefuly; Act 4, Catch the Rhythm; Act 5, Enjoy the Play. Chapters in each act are scenes and Act 5 Scenes 6-8 capitalise on all previous content with a detailed analysis of Macbeth . Putting the play in its Jacobean context he first explains how the audience of the time would have found the witches truly terrifying, and how the murder of a king was a weighty subject in the days of the Gunpowder Plot. There follows a detailed and fascinating analysis of Act 2 Scene 2, the scene in which Lady Macbeth is waiting for her husband returning from killing Duncan. Analysing the language, he exposes the true nature of Macbeth’s marriage. Analysing the variations in metre, he exposes the beginning of Lady MacBeth’s madness and the unspoken direction that Shakespeare gives his actors.
This is a fascinating read – Shakespeare toasted lightly and buttered, slice by slice, by an author/actor whose passion for the subject shines through.
I recommend this book to all who bear the scars of a British secondary education. (Robaroundbooks, are you reading this?). I fear, however, that it may have sentenced my prized Folio Society Shakespeare edition forever more to the dust-collecting shelves. I’m now coveting the BBC Shakespeare DVD collection. I’m told, from reliable sources, that it contains many brilliant performances.
Clever use of the pingback there Lizzy, to shake me out of my lethargic stupor :o)
First off, on a material level I’ve got to say that I love the cover and the title for the book (although unlike yourself I fail to raise a smile at your chosen blog title – my fault due to having a lack of Shakespearean-esque wit :o)). Methinks the ‘fun’ cover is an attempt to break down any ‘stuffy’ misconceptions people have of Shakespeare (Tsk…I wonder where they could possibly get those from? :o)), and I think it does to some degree, because the book has peaked my interest. And for a guy who thinks Shakespeare is stuffier than a three hour lecture on Athenian tax laws, that’s got to be a result!
Secondly, nice review! Very well put together, and I can see Crystal’s (and your) point about getting more out of watching the work of the Bard rather than reading him. It stands to reason that any play would be better in its ‘played out’ form, and I was really starting to show a grain of interest, especially with all of the ‘laugh out loud’ passion you’re showing for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” :o). I was beginning to think that maybe Mr. Crystal’s book, along with a little help from Lizzy, may just show me that Shakespeare may not be all dull doom ‘n’ boring gloom after all.
Alas, then you started all of this talk of ‘iambic pentameters’, ‘variations’ and de-dum-de-dums, and now I’m back to square one i.e. Shakespeare = dull! dull! dull! Is it just me? Am I just plain incorrigible? Maybe those ‘scars of a British secondary education’ are much more embedded in me? Truth is I really don’t really know.
One thing I do know though is I’m neither arrogant enough, nor narrow-minded enough to completely discount anything out of hand simply because it seems to be a bit boring to me. Fact is Mr. Crystal’s book is the first one I’ve come across when I haven’t shirked at the mention of “Shakespeare” in its title, and that’s progress. Maybe I’m at the crossroads of something new here Lizzy? Maybe iambic pentameters are about to be the best thing that’s ever happened in my life?
So maybe I will give this book a try? Or perhaps I’m being a little too wishful, and it’s something I’ll never get around to doing? Either way thanks Lizzy for showing me that there may well be some glimmer of hope out there.
Warmest
Rob
Rob, you’re incapable of lethargic stupour. Putting a comment like that together at half past midnight (!), is all the proof that I need.
Anyway, iambic pentametres explained by an actor are much more interesting than they are in the hands of a blogger …..
Crystal is right. Shakespeare did not write his plays to be read in classrooms to young people. He intended his plays for acting before live audiences. This is the approach that should be used in schools. Attend live performances where possible, otherwise watch DVDs. There are plenty available in many different productions. The young person’s introduction to Shakespeare should always be visual. The text on the page can come later if there is enough interest.
Good review. I think this sounds like an interesting book.
And I think you’re right about seeing a performance. I did Antony and Cleopatra at A-level and we went to see a production before we even looked at the text and its still my favourite Shakespeare play I’ve studied. It was in Stratford too, whic was good, although not essential.
As I suffered a British education and came to loathe Shakespeare accordingly, this book sounds right up my street. As a teenager I loved Will but then for over 40 years I found I could not bear him, really because I could not understand him. I then took a short OU course on studying Shakespeare and suddenly I saw the light. Just read it through and don’t bother if you don’t understand each word – you will in the end.
I then went to see Sir Michael gambon at the National as Falstaff and was so stunned by this wonderful performance that I fell in love with Will all over again. I am now a friend of the Globe theatre and visit often. Saw the Merry Wives of Windsor there last summer and don’t think I have laughted so much in my life. House packed, all the groundlings down below heckling, shoulting, joining in, magnificent!
Re the BBC Bardathon – I, personally, find these pretty poor. Some of the casting is eccentric to say the least (John Clees as Petrucchio painful to watch) and it is full of hammy acting. Add to that the fact that the sets cost all of £10 and, well, sorry I would not recommend them. Borrow some from the library before committing over £100 for the set.
I inadvertently found this review; I was reading about poetic meter and conceived of something I thought clever: “I think, therefore iamb.” Hoping against hope with regards to the probability of its prior invention, I plugged it into Google, and this article was the first entry.
Though my independent discovery is a few months late and just short of truly novel, you did sell me on the book.
Jademus, welcome and 🙂