Also Nora – definitely agree about Artesia. Head held high, marching off, ‘Call that torture?!’

What a climax! I love 5.1.

The moment that stands out in my memory from the Read Not Dead reading was the final confrontation between the Devil and Merlin. I mentioned this in a previous thread, but those of you who know James Wallace will hopefully be able to imagine his voice as he channelled Inigo Montoya and Darth Vader in a low, slow, snarl…[Read more]

Anna – just a right-click copy-and-paste worked for me!

David – love this: ‘In his Catalogue, Martin Wiggins points out that since the dragons are able to stop and start fighting on cue, they are probably performed by actors in costume.’ And there was me thinking they’d trained real dragons (young ones of course) – maybe they used those in court…[Read more]

To give some slightly more serious thoughts, what I take away from Act IV is just how important the Clown is. This is the most conventionally Arthurian material so far – it’s telling the oft-retold story of the dragons and the castle, Merlin’s early prophecies, and the promise of Uter’s line. With the subplots and the Devil sidelined, the material…[Read more]

Also strong Han Sol0-chasing-stormtroopers energy to ‘Enter Edol, driving all Vortiger’s Force before him‘.

Genuine live footage of Proximus.

A miscellany of thoughts today – what an act!

3.1 is a great scene. I love how Joan is speaking verse while her brother is in prose; she’s sustaining the narrative of being in a courtly romance while he repeatedly undermines it. In this sense, when the Devil appears, I feel like he’s continuing to play into Joan’s narrative, and at this stage -…[Read more]

Couple of initial thoughts:

One of the interesting recurring features when working on the ‘Shakespeare Apocrypha’ was the recurrent forests – see also Mucedorus and Locrine – and what happens within those forests. In 2.1, aside from the misogyny (wow) that Nora has noted, I was struck by the coincidence of the location and the focus on naming. I…[Read more]

In relation to David’s point about Artesia being like Tamora, I’d also compare Estrild from Locrine. Edwin’s ‘She was woo’d afore she came, sure’ is a great cynical line, and I love these set-ups where everyone onstage apart from one person (who is the most powerful) can see exactly what’s going on.

Picking up on Anna’s comment about Aurelius…[Read more]

[For interest, I’m reading this in the 1908 Shakespeare Apocrypha; will be interested to see if any of C.F. Tucker Brooke’s editorial idiosyncrasies show themselves, though he’s usually pretty diplomatic.]

One thing I appreciate is how straightforward the opening is. The deference to Constantia’s wishes; the banter about ‘He is a man, I hope.’ /…[Read more]

Hi all,

Latecomer, sorry, but very excited by this group! I’m Pete (he/him), I’m based in Nottingham, and I research the contemporary and historical performance and text of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

I wrote a PhD and a book on the so-called Shakespeare Apocrypha, in which The Birth of Merlin only tangentially featured as it as a real…[Read more]