Journal 18
Well to start out, I didn't like how the video staged the play in a more modern setting. I was so encapsulated in imagining this play to life in old castles and medieval knights and armour and all the castles I grew up around. The next thing that I didn't like was Gaunt and Richie talking. These are Gaunts final lines (gaunt–adjective, -er, -est. 1. extremely thin and bony; haggard and drawn, as from great hunger, weariness, or torture; emaciated) before he dies. He is shown yelling so passionately. It seems to me like a terribly sick man on his death bed would speak in a frail voice and that the great passion shown in the text would come out in the form of a man's last words. As Gaunt explains in line 5 and 6, "O, but they say the tongues of dying men enforce attention like deep harmony." If I were to yell at the top of my lungs it would probably be a good sign that I am not deathly sick. The part I loved was York's line to Richie on 141-144: "I do beseech your majesty impute his words to wayward sickliness and age in him. He loves you, on my life, he holds you dear as Harry Duke of Hereford, were he here." I read this as York taking Richie's side, however the actor brings out the sarcasm of Harry loving him which implies that the king is a bad man for hating those who love him, and York doesn't have to offend the king.


Gaunt had it in him.
I can see your point about Gaunt being sickly and he should be sickly, but I'm not sure if I really agree. If you knew you were on your death bed and you were not happy with the way the natural order was at that time, do you think you would just meekly pass on? Or would you try to give it your all and say whatever you please? If you were very passionate about the natural order and your belief wouldn't you have the raw emotions and ability to go after Richard? Put yourself in Gaunt's shoes. Richard is being a prick. He had Gloucester killed, banished your son that you will never see again, is waiting for you to die and is just waiting for you to die to he can have your property. Personally, I'd go after Richard with all I could muster.
Megan Baeth-Brison
rage, rage
Dylan Thomas, several centuries after Shakespeare, wanted the dying to rage in the way gaunt did, at least when it was his father who was dying. maybe Gaunt is where Thomas got the idea for his poem "Do not Go Gentle into that Goodnight." Bradley
Bradley
i tend to agree with that...
from what ive seen, modern reinactments of old shakepearian plays were never as good as the original and just really louse things up in my head. personally the original was far better in actually allowing me to understand
"Oh great Sandwich Maker from Bob! Life, will be a very great deal less weird without you" Old Thrashbarg
deno
Whereas I tend to disagree...
I can appreciate not enjoying the shakespearean plays in more modern settings. Some of them are cheep gimmicks, essentially. But I think it's important to consider that Shakespeare made his plays very accessible and enjoyable for the common people in his audiences. He wanted to entertain nobles, too, but he did not exclude anyone from enjoying his writing. I don't think he'd have any beef about making his plays more enjoyable to modern audiences by changing costumes, adding anachronisms, etc. Some research I was looking at last quarter indicated that histories were often done in the dress of Shakespeare's day, rather than the costumes of the time period.
Erin Kay Schulz
good point
It's just frustrating i think to see that there are different and noteworthy differences to the images I get when reading that I assume to be 100% right. That's really interesting about the dress of shakespeare's day being worn in histories because it makes the point that history is applicable today.
Ryan K Bishop
the day's dress
That's a good point about the histories being applicable today (whether today-today or Elizabethan today for Shakespeare's audience). One thing I think that does is make it so we can't just look at them as "Oh, that's just them." Many people tend to be dismissive in that way. Bradley
Bradley