RSS Subscription
Cobbe Portrait of William Shakespeare
Monthly Archives: March 2012
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand/This holy shrine, the gentler sin is this:/My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand /To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”
Romeo and Juliet Act One, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ————————– The twentieth century actor and director Harley Granville-Barker, commenting in his Preface to Romeo and Juliet, wrote “this is a tragedy of youth, as youth sees it,” and some … Continue reading
“Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?”
Romeo and Juliet Act One Part One of Two By Dennis Abrams ———————- Act One: Verona is torn apart by a feud between the Capulets and the Montagues, powerful local families. Even a minor skirmish between servants rapidly escalates into … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged act one, books, lady montague, literature, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare
12 Comments
“It is a play of itself the worst I’ve ever heard in my life.”
Romeo and Juliet An Introduction By Dennis Abrams ———————————————- The earliest known critic of the play, Samuel Pepys, wrote in his diary in 1622 that “it is a play of itself the worst I’ve ever heard in my life.” Yet … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
7 Comments
“This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,/To love that well which thou must leave ere long.”
Shakespeare’s Sonnet #73 By Dennis Abrams ————————— ————————— SONNET 73 That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin’d choirs, where … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
7 Comments
“Our wooings doth not end like an old play;/Jack hath not Jill.”
Love’s Labour’s Lost Act V, Part Two By Dennis Abrams —————————— To continue my love letter to this play, I wanted to briefly discuss Holofernes and his sidekick Nathaniel, who, it seems to me, provide an extreme example of what … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
13 Comments
“A time, methinks, too short/To make a world-without-end bargain in.”
Love’s Labour’s Lost Act Five, Part One By Dennis Abrams Loved it. LOVED it. I can, I think, understand why Bloom holds the play in such high esteem – it is the first play we’ve read so far of Shakespeare’s, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Act V, Berowne, Comedy, Love's Labour's Lost, Rosaline, William Shakespeare
Leave a comment
“Love’s Labour’s Lost is not the greatest of Shakespeare’s plays, but it is one of the most perfect.”
Love’s Labour’s Lost Four Critical Takes By Dennis Abrams ————- As we read our way through the play’s conclusion, I’ve got to say that I am really enjoying it – in some ways far more than I remember enjoying it … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
“Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves,/Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths.”
Love’s Labour’s Lost Act Four By Dennis Abrams —————————————– Act Four: Finding the ladies out hunting, Costard produces Don Armado’s letter by mistake. Without realizing his error, Costard goes on to deliver the other letter to Jaquenetta (anyone surprised?), and … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
4 Comments
“It is this foppery of delicate language, this fashionable plaything of his time, with which Shakespeare is occupied in Love’s Labours Lost.”
Love’s Labour’s Lost Critical History By Dennis Abrams —————————————— Since I gave you an extra couple of days to read Act 4, I thought I’d get into a brief discussion of the play’s critical history. Perhaps not surprisingly, until the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Comedy, drama, language, Love's Labour's Lost, Pater, renaissance humanism, william hazlitt, William Shakespeare
Leave a comment
“And among three, to love the worst of all,/A whitely wanton with a velvet brow,/With two pitch-balls stuck in her face for eyes;”
Love’s Labour’s Lost Act Three By Dennis Abrams ——————- Act Three: Don Armado makes a move for Jaquenetta by employing Costard (who he has released from custody), to send her a passionate love letter. Thinking along the same lines, Berowne … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Berowne, literature, Love's Labour's Lost, Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, writing
1 Comment
The Play's The Thing 