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Cobbe Portrait of William Shakespeare
Tag Archives: Henry V
“We look back at Shakespeare and regret our absence from him because it seems an absence from reality.”
Conclusion to The Play’s The Thing Part Two By Dennis Abrams ———————————- Honestly, I can’t believe it’s over. For two and half years, We’ve been reading and talking and thinking about Shakespeare. And to help bring this to a close, … Continue reading
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Tagged A Midsummer Night's Dream, All's Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, Comedy, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, drama, Falstaff, Hamlet, Henry IV, Henry IV Part I, Henry IV Part II, Henry V, Henry VI Parts One Two and Three, Henry VIII, Julius Caesar, king henry iv, King John, King Lear, language, Love's Labour's Lost, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Pericles, Prince Hal, problem play, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard II, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, sonnet, The Comedy of Error, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Winter's Tale, Timon of Athens, titus andronicus, tragedy, Troilus and Cressidas, Twelfh Night, Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare, writing
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‘”Henry VIII’ is an elegy for Shakespeare’s world-altering achievement in poetic drama, and consciously bids farewell to the playwright’s highest powers.”
Henry VIII (All Is True) Act Five By Dennis Abrams ——————————— Act Five: The new Queen is soon pregnant, but the news only antagonizes the King’s secretary Gardiner, who vows to attack her and Cranmer, Henry’s virtuous Archbishop of Canterbury … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Five, Anne Boleyn, Anne Bullen, Archbishop Cranmer, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Cardinal Wolsey, Cardional Wolsey, Cranmer, drama, Elizabeth I, entertainment, finale, Funeral Elegy, Gardiner, Henry V, Henry VIII, Henry Wotton, Henry Wriothesley, history, history play, Iago, Katherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII, language, literature, Lucifer, Macbeth, orations, politics, Prospero, Queen Elizabeth I, Richard II, Shakespeare, The Tempest Shakespeare, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas More, William Shakespeare, Wolsey, writing
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“But this rough magic/I here abjure.”
The Tempest Act Five, Part One By Dennis Abrams ————————— Act Five: Ariel reports that the spirits of Alonso and the other Neapolitans have been broken, and Prospero instructs him to release them. Ariel leads the group in by magic, … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Five, Ariel, Caliban, Cleopatra, Comedy, drama, Ferdiand, Henry V, language, literature, magic, Mark Van Doren, Milan, Prospero, romance, rough magic, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Shakespeare, The Tempest, William Shakespeare, writing
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“We have almost as great an affection for Imogen as she had for Posthumus; and she deserves it better. Of all Shakespeare’s women she is perhaps the most tender and the most artless.”
Cymbeline Act Three, Part Two By Dennis Abrams —————————— From Bloom: “Posthumus, even as an ideogram, is no fun. Shakespeare knew that a play must give pleasure, yet he portrays Posthumus as a very painful character, whose name refers both … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Three, Cymbeline, Cymbeline Shakespeare, distinctive voice, drama, entertainment, Henry V, history play, Iachimo, Imogen, King of Britain, language, Last Plays, late plays, literature, Posthumus, romances, Rome, Shakespeare, The Old Man and the Sea, tragicomedy, william hazlitt, William Shakespeare, writing
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“Shakespeare has no illusions. To have judged the world will not result in the world being changed.”
Coriolanus Act Two, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ————————————– To continue with the great Jan Kott, whose very political/class driven take on the play I find most interesting: “The first confrontation is provided by war. The Volscians have attacked Rome. … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Two, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, drama, Elizabethan theater, Falstaff, Henry IV, Henry V, history, King Lear, language, literature, Roman Republic, Rome, Shakespeare, tragedy, Virgilia, Volumnia, William Shakespeare, writing
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“To sing a song that old was sung,/From ashes ancient Gower is come,/Assuming man’s infirmities,/To glad your ear, and please your eyes.”
Pericles Act One, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ————————————— Before returning to Pericles; a personal note. On Sunday night, I was watching Watch What Happens Live on Bravo (Yes, I watch bad television as well as read Shakespeare). The guests … Continue reading
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Tagged act one, archaic, drama, Henry V, Ian McKellan, incest, John Gower, John Gower’s Confessio Amantis, language, literature, Pericles, Prince, Prince of Tyre, romance, Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, The King, William Shakespeare, writing
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“Agamemnon is a fool to offer to command Achilles; Achilles is a fool to be commanded of Agamemnon; Thersites is a fool to serve such a fool; And Patroclus is a fool positive.”
Troilus and Cressida Act Five By Dennis Abrams ——————————- Act Five: During the feasting on the eve of battle, Ulysses takes Troilus to Calchas’ tent to find Cressida. As they approach, they spy on Cressida as she flirts with Diomedes … Continue reading
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Tagged Achilles, Act Five, Agamemnon, Cassandra, Comedy, Cressid, Cressida, drama, Elizabethan theater, Elizabethan tragedy, entertainment, Greece, Hamlet, Helen of Troy, Henry V, Jan Kott, language, literature, Pandarus, Patroclus, politics, problem play, renaissance humanism, Shakespeare, Thersites, tragedy, Troilus, Troilus and Cressida, Trojan War, Troy, William Shakespeare
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“What’s aught but as ‘tis valued?”
Troilus and Cressida Act Two By Dennis Abrams —————————- Act Two: Ajax questions Thersites about what is going on, but is answered with insults. Achilles arrives (with his friend/lover Patroclus) and tells Ajax about Hector’s challenge, but Achilles response is … Continue reading
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Tagged Achilles, Act Two, Ajax, Cassandra, Chaucer, Comedy, Cressida, drama, Elizabethan theater, Elizabethan tragedy, entertainment, Falstaff, Hector, Helen of Troy, Henry IV, Henry V, history, Homer, language, literature, Paris, Patroclus, politics, problem comedy, problem play, renaissance humanism, Richard II, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, tragedy, Troilus, Troilus and Cressida, Trojan War, William Shakespeare
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“…the rest is silence.”
Hamlet Act Five, Part Five By Dennis Abrams ———————————- And here we are…at the end of Hamlet. Not that it ever ends, really. As Bloom says, “His play of some four thousand lines is Shakespeare’s longest and yet is not … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Five, As You Like It, Claudius, Cleopatra, drama, Elizabethan theater, Elizabethan tragedy, end of hamlet, Falstaff, Fortinbras, Gertrude, Grave-digger, Hamlet, hamlet act, hamlet and gertrude, Henry IV, Henry V, James Joyce, king claudius, Laertes, language, literature, Measure for Measure, Mistress Quickly, politics, reading hamlet, renaissance humanism, Rosalind, Shakespeare, tragedy, William Shakespeare
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“How all occasions to inform against me,/And spur my dull revenge.”
Hamlet Act Four, Part Three By Dennis Abrams ———————————- One point I’d like to make right off the bat: We’ve talked a lot about Shakespeare’s use of “doubling” throughout Hamlet – but I don’t think the Hamlet/Ophelia doubling has been … Continue reading
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Tagged Act Four, Claudius, Denmark, drama, Elizabethan theater, Elizabethan tragedy, entertainment, Fortinbras, G.K. Chesterton, Hamlet, hamlet act, hamlet ophelia, Henry IV, Henry V, history, Horatio, How all occasions do inform against me, irony, language, literature, Measure for Measure, Norway, Ophelia, pirates, politics, Prince Hal, renaissance humanism, Richard II, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Shakespeare, soliloquies, soliloquy, tragedy, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare, writing
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The Play's The Thing 