Olivia Hussey, Sheepdogs, and Poison Boots

Plus: Coriolanus drops the mic

“Thou (adorable) prick-ear’d cur of Iceland!”

When I saw the headline, “Icelandic sheepdog, breed mentioned by Shakespeare, is a pedigree at last” I was sure the reference would be from that bit in Macbeth where Shakespeare suddenly goes all Melville¹ and starts straight-up listing types of dog.

But no, it’s from Henry V when Pistol insultingly calls Nym a “prick-ear'd cur of Iceland.” Given how adorable the Icelandic sheepdog looks, that insult doesn’t feel like it quite lands anymore. They also look quite a bit friendlier than Macbeth’s “demi-wolves,” however The Scottish Play still holds the top “Spot” for Shakespearean dog names. (Who doesn’t want to yell, “Out damn Spot” when it’s time for a walk?)

“How Many Kicks, Chino?”

I linked to this story about the potential consequences of Romeo forgetting his dagger in a footnote in a previous newsletter…

…it turns out the musical version is not immune from such mishaps.²

Quick Links

• Olivia Hussey has died. She played Juliet in the Zeffirelli film and lived at the director’s villa during the film shoot. He proceeded to be an absolute jerk.

• An underwater archaeologist found 19th c. Shakespeare merch in a river.

• The National Theatre’s Coriolanus starring David Oyelowo is available for streaming and you can watch him literally mic-drop “common cry of curs.”

• Napoleon banned a production of Coriolanus in 1806.

• A mathematician from Weymouth and his eleven-year-old son have figured out how to do a card trick from Henslowe’s Diaries.

• The first episode of Not Without Right: Shakespeare in the Public Domain podcast is available featuring JaMeeka Holloway and Sam White with host Dawn Monique Williams.

• Jamie Lloyd’s Tempest starring Sigourney Weaver has gotten extravagantly un-excellent reviews. At least tickets are cheap(er)?

• Footage of Justice Jackson in & Juliet.³

• A (“not convincing”) argument for Thomas Kyd as the author of King Leir.

• Shakespeare + Bach.

• The verb “to elbow” first appears in King Lear.⁴

• A Room of One’s Own is now in the public domain along with other cool stuff.⁵

• Halina Reijn, director of “Babygirl” with Nicole Kidman, played Kate in Taming.

• James Shapiro’s thoughts on Broadway’s Romeo + Juliet.⁶

• OSF wants to market to Young Folk.⁷

• "It's kind of like telenovela meets Game of Thrones."

• What Lear says about family estrangement.

Recommendations

• I have a deep and abiding affection for 18th century cabinets with secret compartments.⁸

• Why artists confuse economists

• “There is an immersive and psychotropic quality to great opera.”

• Have you ever seen a radish Pieta?

• A recipe for “flutemaginely.”

• An immersive witch trial experience.

1. Or Guest, if you prefer nuts to whales.

2. How the scene is supposed to go.

3. A reminder that Grown-Up Theater Kids Run the World and Justice Jackson had Matt Damon as her scene partner in college.

4. Not to be confused with “d’elbow” which appears in Henry V.

5. Woolf imagines that, if Shakespeare had an equivalent-brilliant sister, she “would have been so thwarted and hindered by other people, so tortured and pulled asunder by her own contrary instincts, that she must have lost her health and sanity.”

6. He notes a detail that I completely missed:

“When at his party Juliet’s father drank from a plastic container filled with a gallon of cherry-colored liquid, the Gen Z-ers in the house knew that this was a BORG—short for ‘blackout rage gallon’—a party accessory filled with vodka, powdered drink mix, and electrolytes, whereas my first thought had been to wonder why Capulet was lugging around what many in my generation would have identified as a colonoscopy prep.”

He also points out that “the youth are voting” poster was taken down. It is worth making a NYRB account to read this one. (or email me for the PDF)

7. Obligatory Slings & Arrows reference.

8. The ultimate expression of the genre is at the Met Museum.