About Pandosto

Hi,


Robert Greene, who famously referred to Shakespeare as 'an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers...in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey", wrote the source material for The Winter's Tale.

Here are some links to some info about Pandosto:

The full text - with modern spelling
Pandosto at Wikipedia

It's worth considering the things that Shakespeare changed from the source material. As always, Shakespeare's language transforms the story to create a richness way beyond that of the source. The drama is heightened. It is infused with poetry and comedy.

Often, Shakespeare creates a character who either doesn't exist in the source or is very different - often a show-stealing character. Think Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. Or, in The Winter's Tale, both Autolycus and Paulina.

Also, throw in a bear and a statue - and you have an infinitely better (and weirder) piece of work.


Mr M

Y12: Where we are

Hi all,

Tony Bell as Autolycus at the Rose Theatre

With only a week and a bit left until Christmas, we really need to motor through to the end of the text. Our priority will be to focus on the aspects of comedy in The Winter's Tale which might make a good focus for an essay question.

Here's our short-term timeline as it see it at this moment:

1) Finish the play by Monday 15th December at the latest. There'll be another quiz!
2) You'll take away a list of coursework questions to brainstorm.
3) In early January, you'll submit a one-page outline essay plan.
4) We'll have some one-to-one discussions to approve your plan.
5) You will write a first draft (under 1500 words) by the end of January.
6) After getting feedback, you will have until after February half term to submit your final draft.

In lessons, we'll be mainly focusing on our novel, The Road, after Christmas. 

Mr M

Act 4 Scene 4: It's epic!

Hi,

Horticultural 'grafting' - a metaphor...

Next lesson, we'll be:

1) Doing a comedy theory quiz
2) Reading five pages of 4.4
3) Preparing to have a go at a short re-creative task based on the scene.

Today, we read a chunk of Act 4 Scene 4 (which is 40 pages long in my edition). To clarify the events and ideas in this long and complex scene, take a look here for a quick and easy summary. The first 21 bullet points take us up to where we are in the scene. Why not have a go at a quiz or two while you're there?

Click the image above to learn more about 'grafting' - then consider the relevance of this idea to the play.

Here's the scene with some helpful marginal notes.

Oops. I also forgot that we were going to go over Time's chorus at the start of Act 4. Keep hold of your notes - we'll do this next week.

Homework reminder:

1) Hand in essay (staging 4.3) on Thursday
2) Revise your comedy theory stuff.



Mr M

Shakespeare's Verse: An analysis (+ bear pics)

Hi folks,

Here's my effort at the homework.

I have:

1. Recorded how I'd stress the lines to consider how it fits with iambic pentameter (black)
2. Looked out for sound effects like internal rhyme, alliteration and assonance (green)
3. Picked out key images to highlight the tone of the language (orange)
4. Added a few comments about the effect + interpretations (black)

My overall conclusion from doing this? Well, Cleomenes and Dion are excited, enthusiastic and are positively gushing about their experiences in Delphos. Perhaps this explains the lines with extra syllables. They are not calm and controlled, and this is shown through the variations from the patterns of iambic pentameter. At the same time, it's poetic and musical. The rhymes and semi-rhymes, as well as the use of softer sounds (long vowels, fricatives, sibilance and liquid sounds) create a feeling of dream-like awe and wonder. The language of religion and the heavens helps to bear out this feeling of the sublime, the wonderful.

In other words, there's a connection between form, structure  and style - and subject matter/mood.

Now it's your turn. Don't nick my lines!

As a final present, here's a few of my favourite images of the bear on stage.

Enjoy, 

Mr M

Y12 Homework: Verse form and *reading around the bear*

Hi folks,

Sorry - we didn't get as far as I wanted today as it seemed necessary to spend more time on Shakespeare's verse form.

As a follow-up to our discussion today, I'd like to set you a short task. Here it is:

1) Pick out 3-4 lines of speech from a character in Act 3 which are rich or interesting in terms of their sound as well as imagery (Paulina in Act 3 Scene 2 is a good choice - or Leontes. In Act 3 Scene 1, Cleomenes and Dion are gushing about their experiences in Delphos - so perhaps poetry and musicality of language can be expected there? Antigonus in 3.3?)

2) Write your lines across a page of A4.

3) Annotate your lines in as much detail as possible, focusing on:

•    stressed and unstressed syllables
• rhyme/half-rhymes
• alliteration (and sibilance) and assonance
• punctuation and the flow of the verse

In addition, consider how word choices and imagery enhance the effects of the tone created through sound.

If you need help, here are a few things to get you thinking...

First, my powerpoint from today:

Also, have a look at this video in which actors playing Macbeth and Lady Macbeth discuss the effect of iambic pentameter on their performances:

If you are still not sure, I'll do one of my own and post it here tomorrow so you can see what I'm after.

I'd also encourage you to consider interpretations of the bear and its impact. Here are a couple of places to start:

http://www.shmoop.com/winters-tale/bear-symbol.html
http://www.roh.org.uk/news/exit-pursued-by-a-bear-how-do-you-approach-shakespeares-famous-stage-direction

Have a search around for more bear discussion and be prepared to share next week.


Cheers,


Mr M

The Oracle at Delphi

Hi,
 

Consulting the Oracle by John William Waterhouse

I wanted to point you in the direction of further information about one of the classical references in The Winter's Tale: the Oracle at Delphi. Here, I mean classical in the sense of 'pertaining to Greek and Roman antiquity, especially with reference to literature and art'. The presence of the Oracle in the play puts it in a pre-Christian, pagan setting - despite some anachronistic Christian references.

Check out this link for more about the Delphian Oracle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle

Or if you want to dig deeper:

http://www.shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/wp-content/uploads/Oxfordian2007_Showerman-Death.pdf

Finally, a rich understanding of classical mythology can really help you to develop a deeper understanding of Shakespeare's plays. If you're interested in the classical world or ancient myths, check out one of Shakespeare's favourites: Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Also great: Ted Hughes's Tales from Ovid. 


Mr M

What Shakespeare knew: The Universe

Hello all,

The Pleiades Cluster - which also stars in Auden as the 'seven sisters'.

For those of you that ditched the lesson today in favour of Maths, I'd like you to read Act 2 Scene 1 of The Winter's Tale. If you need any help getting your head around the text, try using this.

As well as reading the scene, we looked at Shakespeare's references to the earth and the stars. The Elizabethan period was an exciting time in astronomy, and Shakespeare's contemporaries included Galileo and Johannes Kepler.

Here's two competing theories about how the Universe worked.

It appears that Shakepeare believed in Ptolemy's model, which was widely taken for granted for centuries, placing the Earth at the centre of the universe. Ptolemy (and Shakespeare?) believed the earth was fixed, the sun rotated around it with the planets, and the 'fixed stars' were set in an outer sphere which rotated. His theory of the 'epicycles' of some of the planets was a complicated and awkward way to explain the retrograde motion of the planets.

But in Shakespeare's time, another theory did exist which made more sense (still wrong though). Shakespeare's writing seems to suggest that he didn't believe in Copernicus's model - but it's likely he knew about it:



It's also possible that Shakespeare took Ptolemy's model as 'common knowledge' and used it for his audience. We'll never know.

Of course, science went with pseudo-science in the early 17th century, and Shakespeare is full of references to astrology (the reading of the stars for omens or to explain a person's fortunes) too. Here, Shakespeare mentions astronomy and astrology in consecutive speeches in Act 2 Scene 1:

• Leontes. No; if I mistake
  In those foundations which I build upon,
  The centre is not big enough to bear
  A school-boy's top. Away with her! to prison!
  He who shall speak for her is afar off guilty
  But that he speaks.

• Hermione. There's some ill planet reigns:
  I must be patient till the heavens look
  With an aspect more favourable. 

The retrograde motion of Mars - a headache for early astronomers.

If you'd like to know more, take a look at these:

http://www.universetoday.com/100002/shakespeare-wrote-of-an-earth-centered-sola/
http://www.shakespearedigges.org/ox2.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/10599438/William-Shakespeare-the-king-of-infinite-space.html
http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-astrology.htm

I'll blog later on some of the classical references in The Winter's Tale.


Mr M

PS. If, like me, you love all this geeky science and the universe stuff, you can still catch an amazing hour of TV on iPlayer: The Human Universe. Mind-blowing!