[Duncan Lees]

Coming to this late, as juggling work and the great homeschooling experiment has been really challenging this week… but very glad that I stole a bit of time for this in the end!

The wonderful weirdness obviously starts with the dramatis personae as several people have already noted. I love the fact that we have such straightforward descriptions of roles (this or that earl, their son or daughter etc.) as well as some quirkier names (Sir Nichodemus Nothing, Joan Goe-Too’t), and then in the middle of that list the incredibly understated: The Devil, Father of Merlin. Presumably this wouldn’t have been such a shock to an EM readership more familiar with this story of Merlin’s origins than I am, but I’m now intrigued to see how the more obviously fantastical elements are going to be combined with the courtly ones as the play goes on.

Within Act 1 itself, the thing that struck me most was the reaction of Aurelius to Artesia, which has been picked up on by Pete, Eoin, Nora and others. The question of who can hear what, and the ambiguity over whether a line or part thereof might be a true aside, or something that is produced as rushed or muted but still audible to others – whether accidentally or by design – made me think of various bits from Lyly’s Galatea. I completely agree that the “Oops, did I say that out loud?” possibilities would be wonderful to explore in rehearsals or the classroom. (I must also check out what Nora’s written about asides in the The Changeling!)

The other thing that struck me about this bit was that it brought to my mind other examples in which it is female rulers who are verbally wrestling with how their feelings and desires are interfering with the performance of their role as figure of authority… immediately I thought of Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Quisara in The Island Princess. In the intro to her fantastic edition of the latter play, Clare McManus talks about how, in such scenes, Fletcher “examines the construct of feminine changeability and the protean nature of the early modern player” (46) – I’m still trying to organise my thoughts about that idea in relation to this scene with Aurelius and Artesia, but already there’s a lot this play to be explored!

[Duncan Lees]

Hi everyone, I’m Duncan, and I’m currently in the final(ish) year of a PhD in Education and Applied Linguistics, doing a case study on teaching Shakespeare workshops at a Chinese university using ethnomethodology (the other EM I’m interested in). It was a surprise to find myself in the social sciences, as for many years I taught film studies, drama and literature in southern China – hence the current interdisciplinary, intercultural research. I’ve been incredibly grateful for how welcoming early modern folks have been online and in person – it’s lovely to see some familiar faces in this group already, and I look forward to getting to know some more of you through this. I’ve never read The Birth of Merlin, but from everything Nora has said it sounds wonderfully bonkers and I can’t wait to get started!

My pronouns are he/him/his. Outside of the wonderful world of EM drama I enjoy travel, languages, cooking (especially Sichuan cuisine) and football, and – in what is definitely not a sign of an impending midlife crisis – I recently started picking up my electric guitar again.

Duncan

[Duncan Lees]

I haven’t quite finished all of Act 2, but, David, thanks for that note about the Roy Hudd connection. That’s the edition of The Birth of Merlin that the library at Warwick has, and until I saw your comment I was a bit confused by the reference in the catalogue to it containing a chapter by Roy Hudd… I was thinking “surely not that Roy Hudd?!”, but it makes a lot of sense having read Act 2, Scene 1! When I’m able to get my hands on the physical copy I’ll be interested to read it, although that might not be as soon as lockdown ends – encouragingly, someone has already borrowed the library’s only copy…

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