The Music Man. Dir. Morton DaCosta. Perf. Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, and Buddy Hackett. 1961. DVD. Warner Brothers, 1999.A few small allusions to Shakespeare in The Music Man recently caught my attention. The first is from Mayor Shin's daughter; the second is provide by Harold Hill himself. Interestingly, neither is a direct quotation:
Of course, the poet actually said (though Caesar, which is an important qualification) this:
I'm curious as to whether this misquotation is part of Harold Hill's character (surely Marion would recognize a misquotation on this scale if so) or if it's meant to be taken as a direct line from the bard. In any case, it's interesting to think how Caesar's line got to be put down in eight and six and then attributed to "the poet."Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once. (Julius Caesar, II.ii.32-33)
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There are probably other references to Shakespeare in "The Music Man" - for example: "Gary, Indiana, as a Shakespeare would say, Trips along softly on the tongue this way." This is not just a hypothetical line by a Shakespeare, but an actual line by Shakespeare: "Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue" (Act 3, Scene 2).
ReplyDeleteOh, fantastic! I missed that one. Thank you very much!
ReplyDeletekj