Thought it would be fun to put some insults on here that I will most certainly use on my mom...because she'll use them back.
"Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty to make thy riches pleasant."
"Thou calumnious toad-spotted malcontent!"
"Thy lips rot off!"
"Thou bawdy knotty-pated whey-face!"
"Thou cockered weather-bitten boar-pig!"
This next one has got to be my favorite. I read King Lear in the other literature class I am taking and when I read this insult I burst out laughing. It is spoken my Kent to Oswald when Oswald asks if Kent knows him:
"A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats, a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave, a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superservicable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composittion of a knave , beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whinning if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition."
I think the best part of that whole insult is that Kent is in disguise so to Oswald, a complete stranger just dished it to him.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Dreams
As we are reading A Midsummer's Night DREAM, it only makes sense to be talking about dreams. I am one of hose people who tends to remember a good deal of my dreams. I know I dreams quite a bit and many of my dreams are extremely realistic. Sometimes when I wake up I can't tell if I was actually asleep or not. One dream in particular that I had was of a close friend of mine. It was quite terrifying because something incredibly horrible had happened to him and dream me saw him in a hospital, his face smashed up and in critical condition. When I woke from that dream I had to shake myself a few times to say that he was fine and it was just a nightmare. I went about my day as usual, going to work and so on. When I got back from work, I got on Facebook and low and behold there were tons of posts on how this friend I had dreamed about had been hit in the face with a rock while hiking and was in the hospital. Talk about freaky.
Most of my dreams don't actually come true like that. Last month I had a very vivid dream that I had gone to France with some friends. I remember that we had decided to check out Notre Dame which is on an island in the middle of the Seine River in Paris. Then, a few days ago, I had a similar dream. This time I was in London with my family. It started out with us in line with our luggage getting our passports checked and my sister was being a pain and making everything difficult because for some reason she didn't have a real ID. While I was waiting, my friends Matthew (the one hit by the rock) and Myra showed up and we got to talking. The next thing I know, my family is gone as if they hadn't come with me and Matthew and I were discussing dinosaurs as we walked along the Thames River. Then a London cop came up to us and showed us a picture of Myra asking if we knew her because she was wreaking some serious havoc in downtown London. We promptly told him we didn't and that just because we were American didn't mean we knew every other visiting American in the city. Then I woke up.
I feel I can say I know exactly how Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena felt when they woke up. Sometimes it is really difficult to tell dream from reality especially if there aren't dancing unicorns and such floating in and out of your dreams. I can't say I have had any dreams that weren't realistic. It gets very hard to tell what is dream and what is not unless I ask those who were in my dream if they even recall the events of the dream. I have a friend, Tessa, who has very vivid, very odd dreams. She had one last year where our group of friends was running from a hoard of zombies and that we escaped into a house. I was the last one in and I locked the door...apparently locking out Myra and getting her devoured by zombies. Now, to me, this is a very unrealistic dream because zombies aren't realistic but for Tessa, it was so real she had to come by Myra's dorm room to make sure she was still alive. Dreams are very exciting, aren't they?
Most of my dreams don't actually come true like that. Last month I had a very vivid dream that I had gone to France with some friends. I remember that we had decided to check out Notre Dame which is on an island in the middle of the Seine River in Paris. Then, a few days ago, I had a similar dream. This time I was in London with my family. It started out with us in line with our luggage getting our passports checked and my sister was being a pain and making everything difficult because for some reason she didn't have a real ID. While I was waiting, my friends Matthew (the one hit by the rock) and Myra showed up and we got to talking. The next thing I know, my family is gone as if they hadn't come with me and Matthew and I were discussing dinosaurs as we walked along the Thames River. Then a London cop came up to us and showed us a picture of Myra asking if we knew her because she was wreaking some serious havoc in downtown London. We promptly told him we didn't and that just because we were American didn't mean we knew every other visiting American in the city. Then I woke up.
I feel I can say I know exactly how Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena felt when they woke up. Sometimes it is really difficult to tell dream from reality especially if there aren't dancing unicorns and such floating in and out of your dreams. I can't say I have had any dreams that weren't realistic. It gets very hard to tell what is dream and what is not unless I ask those who were in my dream if they even recall the events of the dream. I have a friend, Tessa, who has very vivid, very odd dreams. She had one last year where our group of friends was running from a hoard of zombies and that we escaped into a house. I was the last one in and I locked the door...apparently locking out Myra and getting her devoured by zombies. Now, to me, this is a very unrealistic dream because zombies aren't realistic but for Tessa, it was so real she had to come by Myra's dorm room to make sure she was still alive. Dreams are very exciting, aren't they?
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
A Midsummer's Night clip
I was originally going to put the 1935 version of Titania and Oberon arguing over the changling boy but Samantha had already posted it and after watching it, I was a bit creeped out. The giggling and the music and the weird way they half sang their lines just didn't cut it for me. It felt like a horror movie not a comedy.
Instead I found a clip I rather enjoyed. It was the same scene plus a little more done by the Cork Arts Theater:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpWfPLwVXrw
I hope everyone else enjoys it too!
Instead I found a clip I rather enjoyed. It was the same scene plus a little more done by the Cork Arts Theater:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpWfPLwVXrw
I hope everyone else enjoys it too!
Sunday, February 3, 2013
My Thoughts on Some Classmates Thoughts
As I was reading through some of my classmates blogs tonight several thoughts bombarded me. First was Cassidy saying how she wanted to teach Shakespeare at a high school level. I remember how my classmates groaned every time we were told we were going to read a Shakespeare play. I wondered what was so terrible about it. Many of my classmates said it was hard to read, something I had never had trouble doing. I always loved reading Shakespeare. It was a hell of a lot better than any American literature we were giving to read. In fact, when I was in my junior year of high school my English class read Julius Caesar. This play is still one of my favorites, first, because I love the history of ancient Rome and two because my teacher made it fun. She assigned everyone a part (I was Brutus) and we essentially acted it out in class. She even gave us some Halloween knives to stab Julius with. I think that was the first time many of my classmates had enjoyed Shakespeare.
The second blog post that stood out to me was Tristan's. Tristan explained the importance of books for business, books that weren't text books. Most of our classmates are English majors of some sort. I myself am a Paleontology major as I have stated before. A literature minor is an odd combination with that. In another literature class I am currently in, we talked about a paper explaining the importance of liberal arts majors. The main point involved creativity. I couldn't help but think how effective that would be in the paleontological world. We spend much of our time trying to piece together an extinct world. What better way to be creative in the sciences? I can't help but think how creativity would help in explaining a world we have never seen. An example would be a Midnight Summer's Dream. None of us have been to Fairyland but Shakespeare has given us just a peek at what it might be like. This works with any literature and in my mind particularly well for fantasy and science fiction as most of the settings in those stories were entirely made up.
The third blog post that caught my interest was Sonja's comment about how physicists don't speak in the "language of commerce" or chaos. I think that's true for a lot of sciences. Paleontologists, like physicists, talk about how the earth and everything on it came to be. I agree with her that there is nothing more exciting and exhilarating than learning something new about the world around you. I feel that was part of Shakespeare's attraction to new words, just as it was for much of the nobility. This brings me to the other blog that caught my eye. I believe it was Jill who wrote this particular blog about how Shakespeare was a master of words and how he made up quite a few. This got me thinking of a conversation we had in my high school French class. My teacher had a poster explaining that the language we speak (English) is far harder to learn than any other. Well no wonder! If people like Shakespeare could just make up words at their own whim it's no wonder our language is so complicated and without much sense! Even today I see words being made up. Look at the internet, tumblr for a really good example. When someone is effected emotionally by something (usually upsetting) they exclaim "Right in the feels!" If a foreigner heard that they would be utterly perplexed. Hell, my mother was perplexed when I used it.
The second blog post that stood out to me was Tristan's. Tristan explained the importance of books for business, books that weren't text books. Most of our classmates are English majors of some sort. I myself am a Paleontology major as I have stated before. A literature minor is an odd combination with that. In another literature class I am currently in, we talked about a paper explaining the importance of liberal arts majors. The main point involved creativity. I couldn't help but think how effective that would be in the paleontological world. We spend much of our time trying to piece together an extinct world. What better way to be creative in the sciences? I can't help but think how creativity would help in explaining a world we have never seen. An example would be a Midnight Summer's Dream. None of us have been to Fairyland but Shakespeare has given us just a peek at what it might be like. This works with any literature and in my mind particularly well for fantasy and science fiction as most of the settings in those stories were entirely made up.
The third blog post that caught my interest was Sonja's comment about how physicists don't speak in the "language of commerce" or chaos. I think that's true for a lot of sciences. Paleontologists, like physicists, talk about how the earth and everything on it came to be. I agree with her that there is nothing more exciting and exhilarating than learning something new about the world around you. I feel that was part of Shakespeare's attraction to new words, just as it was for much of the nobility. This brings me to the other blog that caught my eye. I believe it was Jill who wrote this particular blog about how Shakespeare was a master of words and how he made up quite a few. This got me thinking of a conversation we had in my high school French class. My teacher had a poster explaining that the language we speak (English) is far harder to learn than any other. Well no wonder! If people like Shakespeare could just make up words at their own whim it's no wonder our language is so complicated and without much sense! Even today I see words being made up. Look at the internet, tumblr for a really good example. When someone is effected emotionally by something (usually upsetting) they exclaim "Right in the feels!" If a foreigner heard that they would be utterly perplexed. Hell, my mother was perplexed when I used it.
Friday, January 25, 2013
The History and Language Behind Shakespeare
I won't lie, I did not find the essays we read for class as engaging as everyone else seems to have. I did however love reading about the history of the time. I love history and both essays gave a little window into the world Shakespeare inhabited. During his lifetime, the world moved from the Dark Ages into the Renaissance. There were all sorts of revolutions going on; religious, scientific, literature, music and so much more. All of these had effects on Shakespeare's and his contemporaries writings.
Both Shakespeare and Marlowe were a big part of the Renaissance movement. Plays had generally been about the bible or the goings on in the time. These two men introduced the idea of the drama. The drama might not have been as successful in England at this time had it not been for the "violent revolutionary war" (Hughes pg. 6) between the Protestants and the Catholics at the time. The land was strife with religious contention. The Queen had outlawed Catholicism and anyone found practicing it would be killed. Then the Puritans emerged and caused even more contention.
One thing about the Puritans that stuck out to me was that they disapproved of theater. They managed to close down quite a few theaters putting people like Shakespeare out of business. I knew they were rather stuck up and too strict for anyone's own good but to do away with theater? That's inhuman to me. Try to imagine our world without theater. No drama classes, no television, no movies, no plays, no actors, no film makers, nothing. Life would be dull. It's a good thing Shakespeare and others were able to appeal to the aristocracy. The aristocrats were very much attracted to theater and everything about it. And of course because the aristocrats loved theater many commoners would mimic them and choose to enjoy theater too.
Thus comes the use of his creativeness. The aristocrats at the time were very much in the want for expanding their vocabulary. Shakespeare obliged. Of course with the introduction of new words, how does he explain it to those (mostly commoners) who did not know the words? Easy, Shakespeare simply created a new way of speaking. We even use this method today though most of us do not know this. An example of his method is : To act her earthy and abhorred commands. Everyone new what earthy meant so when he used abhorred no one would misunderstand what it meant. Using synonyms or words with similar meanings to define another word is a common practice today. Really pay attention to what you say the next time you explain something and see how you use this method.
Both Shakespeare and Marlowe were a big part of the Renaissance movement. Plays had generally been about the bible or the goings on in the time. These two men introduced the idea of the drama. The drama might not have been as successful in England at this time had it not been for the "violent revolutionary war" (Hughes pg. 6) between the Protestants and the Catholics at the time. The land was strife with religious contention. The Queen had outlawed Catholicism and anyone found practicing it would be killed. Then the Puritans emerged and caused even more contention.
One thing about the Puritans that stuck out to me was that they disapproved of theater. They managed to close down quite a few theaters putting people like Shakespeare out of business. I knew they were rather stuck up and too strict for anyone's own good but to do away with theater? That's inhuman to me. Try to imagine our world without theater. No drama classes, no television, no movies, no plays, no actors, no film makers, nothing. Life would be dull. It's a good thing Shakespeare and others were able to appeal to the aristocracy. The aristocrats were very much attracted to theater and everything about it. And of course because the aristocrats loved theater many commoners would mimic them and choose to enjoy theater too.
Thus comes the use of his creativeness. The aristocrats at the time were very much in the want for expanding their vocabulary. Shakespeare obliged. Of course with the introduction of new words, how does he explain it to those (mostly commoners) who did not know the words? Easy, Shakespeare simply created a new way of speaking. We even use this method today though most of us do not know this. An example of his method is : To act her earthy and abhorred commands. Everyone new what earthy meant so when he used abhorred no one would misunderstand what it meant. Using synonyms or words with similar meanings to define another word is a common practice today. Really pay attention to what you say the next time you explain something and see how you use this method.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
In the Minority
I have noticed that in our lovely little Shakespeare class that one of my classmates has a friend who is a Snow Science Major (and yes, it is a major not a minor). She had very little interest in Shakespeare and other literary topics. While talking about her I got the impression that the English majors I was surrounded by thought all science majors felt this way. Here I am to say "NAY!" I am a Paleontology major (and before anyone asks NO IT IS NOT THE SAME THING AS INDIANA JONES. He's an archaeologist who works with boring people. I work with dinosaurs which are far more awesome.) I also like to read...a lot. In fact, I have read quite a bit of Shakespeare and not once did I ever complain to a teacher about how it was boring and I couldn't understand it. I loved every minute of it. I mean, he wrote some of the best insults in the English language!
Our teacher has mentioned time and again that this class will work to "redeem the past from insignificance." What a fantastic concept for someone like me. My whole career is about digging up the past, putting it together and sharing it with the world. It's the same idea with Shakespeare. In my field, it starts with discovering a bone. This is equivalent to picking up a play by Shakespeare either for fun or by taking a class. After the bone is discovered, it needs to be cataloged, mapped and dug out. With Shakespeare, one might try reading up on a bit of his background, what society and culture were like at the time, etc, etc. After the bone is removed it is taken to a museum and cleaned and prepped for the show room. This would be where you read the play. Last, the bone is put on display with the rest of it's skeleton. By this point, you should be able to read and understand most of what the play is about.
I am currently reading King Lear in my LIT 201 class (so that puts me ahead in this one) and I couldn't help but enjoy this passage:
"A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserciveable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition."
This is spoken by the Duke of Kent to a servant named Oswald. How would you like to have that thrown in your face?
There will eventually be thoughts on Hughes and Turner soon! In the meantime, please enjoy this episode of Doctor Who where Shakespeare takes on some witches:
The Shakespeare Code
Our teacher has mentioned time and again that this class will work to "redeem the past from insignificance." What a fantastic concept for someone like me. My whole career is about digging up the past, putting it together and sharing it with the world. It's the same idea with Shakespeare. In my field, it starts with discovering a bone. This is equivalent to picking up a play by Shakespeare either for fun or by taking a class. After the bone is discovered, it needs to be cataloged, mapped and dug out. With Shakespeare, one might try reading up on a bit of his background, what society and culture were like at the time, etc, etc. After the bone is removed it is taken to a museum and cleaned and prepped for the show room. This would be where you read the play. Last, the bone is put on display with the rest of it's skeleton. By this point, you should be able to read and understand most of what the play is about.
I am currently reading King Lear in my LIT 201 class (so that puts me ahead in this one) and I couldn't help but enjoy this passage:
"A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserciveable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition."
This is spoken by the Duke of Kent to a servant named Oswald. How would you like to have that thrown in your face?
There will eventually be thoughts on Hughes and Turner soon! In the meantime, please enjoy this episode of Doctor Who where Shakespeare takes on some witches:
The Shakespeare Code
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Hello World!
This is Jennifer Cozart and I am doing this blog for an awesome Shakespeare class. Now, you may be wondering why I would take an entire class dedicated to every high schooler's worst nightmare. Frankly, his works were my favorite to read. Yes, Romeo and Juliet was basically teenage lust and kind of stupid, but I got to be Brutus in Julius and I actually got to use one of those really cool retractable Halloween knifes on the kid who played Julius Caesar, so yes, Shakespeare can be totally awesome. If you still don't believe me, here's proof:
Doctor Who
And if you still don't believe me, here's one more piece of evidence:
Harry Potter
Hopefully you will enjoy this blog and all it has to offer and hopefully, you will be convinced to read Shakespeare!
This is Jennifer Cozart and I am doing this blog for an awesome Shakespeare class. Now, you may be wondering why I would take an entire class dedicated to every high schooler's worst nightmare. Frankly, his works were my favorite to read. Yes, Romeo and Juliet was basically teenage lust and kind of stupid, but I got to be Brutus in Julius and I actually got to use one of those really cool retractable Halloween knifes on the kid who played Julius Caesar, so yes, Shakespeare can be totally awesome. If you still don't believe me, here's proof:
Doctor Who
And if you still don't believe me, here's one more piece of evidence:
Harry Potter
Hopefully you will enjoy this blog and all it has to offer and hopefully, you will be convinced to read Shakespeare!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)