http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090819/OPINION/908190332/-1/NEWSMAP Dug primarily because I just got back from the Cape last week (where I did not find any Shakespeare, apparently I’d just missed a Romeo and Juliet…), but also for the funny “modern translations” of Shakespeare which I can only hope are intended as a satirical stab at the “Shakespeare for Dummies” movement:
Shakespeare: "My salad days, when I was green in judgement." Ordinary schmo: "I had lotsa fun when I was a kid, even though I was sorta dumb." Shakespearean villain facing a tragic end: "Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It’s a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Modern sourpuss: "Life sucks." Shakespeare: "Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look." Modern private eye: "That guy looks like a sleaze bag."
Duane said…
"…the funny “modern translations” of Shakespeare which I can only hope are intended as a satirical stab at the “Shakespeare for Dummies” movement…"
———-
Judging from some of what he wrote in the preface, he sounds to me like he, fortunately, "gets it".
"1. It's essential to know that it's possible to write that well because somebody actually did it."
[logically and instructively wise]
2. "The rest of us can scribble and mumble but the Bard's shining example can help us to polish our own deliveries. Woo a lover with poetry and she'll respect the effort even if you have spinach stuck in your teeth. Berate a swindler in iambic
pentameter and he'll think twice about swindling you again."
[engagingly and practically, honest]
4. "Exquisite language, vivid imagery and elegant cadences will never become obsolete. Understand the master and you understand profound, eternal truths."
[Nice. –He seems to have actually read the stuff]
With the evidence of the above, I think we might be able to rest at least reasonably assured that he's only pointing up, by outlining the banality of modern speech, the importance of our knowledge of, and facility with, our own language; what kind of an affect, and ultimate effect, the extent of that knowledge can have on our ability to communicate effectively with one another. Just one more reason to get "geeky" about the Bard. 🙂
Thanks for the link, Duane.