RSS Subscription
Cobbe Portrait of William Shakespeare
Monthly Archives: May 2013
“Make but my name thy love, and love that still,/And then thou lovest me, for my name is ‘Will.'”
Shakespeare Sonnet #136 SONNET 136 If thy soul cheque thee that I come so near, Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy ‘Will,’ And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there; Thus far for love my love-suit, sweet, … Continue reading
“All yet seems well…”
All’s Well That Ends Well Act Five, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ——————————– To conclude our examination of this most problematic of plays, All’s Well That Ends Well, I’d like to start with this from A.D. Nuttall’s Shakespeare The Thinker, … Continue reading
“If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly/I’ll love her dearly, ever, ever, dearly.”
All’s Well That Ends Well Act Five, Part One By Dennis Abrams —————————— Act Five: Bertram returns to France and is pardoned by the King. When he offers an engagement ring for Lafew’s daughter, however, the King recognizes it as … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Act Five, All's Well That Ends Well, bed trick, Bertram, Comedy, Diana, Elizabethan theater, entertainment, Helena, Henry IV, Lafew, language, literature, Parolles, problem comedy, problem play, ring, Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, writing
1 Comment
“Simply the thing that I am shall make me live.”
All’s Well That Ends Well Act Four By Dennis Abrams ———————————————– Act Four: The two plots move forward. Disguised as enemy soldiers, the Dumaine brothers ambush Parolles and interrogate him. When he nonchalantly slanders his comrades, they remove his blindfold … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Act Four, All's Well That Ends Well, bed trick, Bertram, Comedy, Diana, drum, Elizabethan theater, entertainment, Hamlet, Helena, honor, Jacobean, language, literature, Parolles, problem play, renaissance humanism, Shakespeare, virginity, William Shakespeare, writing
3 Comments
“When thou can’st get the ring upon my finger, which never shall come off, and show me a child begotten of thy body that I am father to, then call me husband, but in such a ‘then’ I write a ‘never.’”
All’s Well That Ends Well Act Three By Dennis Abrams ——————————— Act Three: The Countess’s delight on hearing the news of the marriage quickly turns sour when she receives a letter from Bertram declaring that he has fled. Helena announces … Continue reading
“I’ll to the Tuscan wars and never bed her.”
All’s Well That Ends Well Act Two By Dennis Abrams Act Two: The King agrees to Helen’s treatment and to her request that if she succeeds, he will guarantee her the husband of her choosing. He rapidly improves under her … Continue reading
“Twas pretty, though a plague,/To see him every hour, to sit and draw/His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,/In our heart’s table – heart too capable/Of every line and trick of his sweet favour.””
All’s Well That Ends Well Act One By Dennis Abrams ——————————– MAJOR CHARACTERS Countess of Roussillon, a widow Bertram, Count of Roussillon, the Countess’s son Helena, a doctor’s daughter and the Countess’s servant Lavatch, a clown in the Countess’s service … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged act one, All's Well That Ends Well, Bertram, Comedy, Elizabethan theater, entertainment, Hamlet, Helena, language, literature, Parolles, problem play, religion, Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, writing
2 Comments
“Fundamentally, we seem to misunderstand “All’s Well That Ends Well,” from Samuel Johnson, master of all Shakespeare critics, down to the present.”
Introduction to All’s Well That Ends Well By Dennis Abrams —————— On the surface, it’s a simple tale of a poor physician’s daughter who finds her prince and succeeds in marrying him, but exposed along the way is the realization … Continue reading
Shakespeare Sonnet #135…Plus a Bonus!
William Shakespeare SONNET 135 Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy ‘Will,’ And ‘Will’ to boot, and ‘Will’ in overplus; More than enough am I that vex thee still, To thy sweet will making addition thus. 4 Wilt thou, whose … Continue reading
“All of them die: the noble ones and the villains; the level-headed ones and the madmen; the empiricists and the absolutists. All choices are bad.”
Othello Act Five, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ——————– Let’s start by finishing up with Jan Kott: “They talk about her even before she has appeared. They shout that she has run away with a Negro. Her image is already … Continue reading
The Play's The Thing 