Snug raps, play scrapped, and a new Shakespeare manuscript turns up in Georgia (maybe)
Plus: Want to play Harry Potter? Start with Shakespeare.
“H-a” “H-a” “H-a” Or, “Did Shakespeare Write This?”
And if so, why? And if not, then “untold numbers of books, articles and dissertations that attributed parts of the play Sir Thomas More to Shakespeare will be undermined.”
Shakespeare scholar Eric Rasmussen bought a manuscript at a Georgia auction house for $100 that might be in Shakespeare’s handwriting.
When Rasmussen received the manuscript and began studying it carefully, he quickly identified a quirk of handwriting that scholars long have associated with Shakespeare, and only with Shakespeare. The playwright wrote with a distinctive, looping hand whenever he encountered words with a combination of the letters h and a — words such as “that,” or “shalt,” or “hang” or “Shakespeare.”
The text is “a portion of a previously unknown English translation of a Catholic theological text written in the 5th century by the French monk Vincent of Lerins.”
The Shakespeare-to-Potter Pipeline
When casting Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, director John Tiffany says that “experience with Shakespeare really helps…The ‘Harry Potter’ world is very similar.”
Midsummer at the Royal Exchange canceled over Gaza and trans rights references
If anyone had this on their bingo card I don’t believe you.
At the end of the now-cancelled production, one member of a group of rappers in the adaptation called the 'mechanicals', called Snug, performs a rap in which there are references to 'ceasefire now'; genocide; and 'mass bloodshed', the M.E.N. has been told. Two other rappers join and make references to 'trans' rights, it is understood.
Recycled glass Ophelia measures temperature, transparency
Not everyone is a fan of the new underwater Ophelia statue in the the River Stour. The sculptor, Jason deCaires Taylor, was inspired by a blogpost about the case of Sir James Hales in the 16th century and designed the sculpture to help monitor the river.
“Coriolanus is a much better play than people give it credit for”
Coriolanus is a warrior. He does something quite specific, and because he does that thing incredibly well, there is a notion that he is worthy of leadership, that those skills have somehow earned him the right to do other things.
Oregon Shakespeare Names New Executive Director
Watch an interview with Gabriella Calicchio here.
Romeo and Juliet Links
“If you want to make somebody fall in love really quickly, use Puccini”
Consider not sending death threats to Juliets.
Everything Else
Where’s the Richard III sequel about election fraud?
He alleged that, although he and another veteran of the Tudor side of Bosworth, Sir Thomas Leighton of Church Stretton, had been the choice of the electors, Talbot had made a false return…
An argument that the “collaboration between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe in the Henry VI plays may have been overstated”
Smart people answer the question “What do you think was Shakespeare's most popular play in his own lifetime? (Titus, Pericles, Richard III, and Henry IV are among the contenders.)
Chicago Shakespeare’s Henry V starts pre-show: “I was standing at the bar…when I noticed the unsettling figure in gray camo pants, a sweaty gray tank-top, combat boots and a ski mask leaning against one of the lobby’s surrounding glass walls.”
The dinner scene in Taming is always bonkers, but the Globe continues to kick it up a notch.
Early English Playbook nerds rejoice! The database of same received a major update.
If you weren’t already capitalizing “About” in “Much Ado About Nothing,” the Chicago Manual of Style would like you to start, please.
Andrew Scott on Hamlet: “There’s a real reverence to Shakespeare that makes me angry.” The Oxford Union hosts a ridiculous number of interesting people, check them out.
Recommendations
Emily Wilson on translating Odysseus’ epithet polytropos. (For me, it will always be “man of many wiles” in Derek Jacobi’s voice.)
Boomers using gen-z slang is the lowest form of social media pandering and I am absolutely here for it. To quote Senior Curator Mark Murray-Flutter, “The vibes are immaculate.”