Book Note: ShakesFear and How to Cure It

Cohen, Ralph Alan. ShakesFear and How to Cure It: The Complete Handbook for Teaching Shakespeare. The Arden Shakespeare,

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I chanced upon this book and started to dismiss it as another "You can't read Shakespeare unless it's been modernized and simplified and enervated" volume.

But a brief glance was all it took to let me know how wrong I was.

ShakesFear and How to Cure It is a thoughtful guide for teachers of all grades to what to do when the Shakespeare unit comes up in the curriculum. 

Not infrequently, students will tell me that they didn't realize how wonderful Shakespeare was until they took my class. Although I'd like to take that as a compliment on my teaching methods, it's actually that they've had a bad experience with Shakespeare somewhere in the past. Sometimes, that experience had to do with the was Shakespeare was taught.

The title of the book is directed that the fear some students feel at the thought of reading Shakespeare; however, the book itself is enormously useful in alleviating the fear that teachers have at the thought of teaching Shakespeare. This is the book for those teachers out there who are flummoxed with where to begin or how to teach or what to do with Shakespeare in the classroom.

I'm tempted to provide huge extracts from the book because it's such a good resource—even though I disagree with a lot of the recommendations. But that would be neither fair use nor fair play.

But I will provide the list of "Seven Deadly Preconceptions of Teaching Shakespeare" and the way Ralph Alan Cohen addresses the first two:

I'll also provide a list of Cohen's eight things not to do as a teacher of Shakespeare (thank heavens he says that we can do most of them sometimes) and what he makes of the first of them.

By way of contrast, I'm also providing the list of nine things you should do with Shakespeare:

Most teachers will find most of this advice sound and helpful; most students will learn more and have a better time doing so. I highly recommend reading through the whole book—and then determining what will work for you and your classroom.

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Shakespeare and Hathaway: Private Investigators

“O Brave New World.” By Paul Matthew Thompson and Jude Tindall. Perf. Mark Benton, Jo Joyner, and Patrick Walshe McBride. Dir. Piotr Szkopiak. Shakespeare and Hathaway. Season 1, episode 1. BBC. 25 February 2018. DVD. BBC, 2019.

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I'm pretty sure I discovered this series in the early days of the pandemic, watched them somewhat lackadaisically, saw there wasn't too much Shakespeare in them, and put them to the side.

But I'm teaching a new course under the heading Studies in the Novel. We're focusing on Mystery and Detective fiction, and I always like to take things a Shakespearean direction when it's possible to do so.

Accordingly, the class recently watched the first episode of the series Shakespeare and Hathaway, a cosy mystery series set in Stratford-on-Avon.

The first episode establishes the Private Investigation team of Louella Shakespeare and Frank Hathaway—the origin of a partnership that is now filming its sixth season.

Warning: Spoilers Follow.

The show starts with the down-and-out (though hardly hard-boiled) detective Frank Hathaway trying to keep his business together. He's approached by Louella Shakespeare, a bride-shortly-to-be who suspects her fiancé of infidelity.

Frank takes photos of the fiancé at a fancy luncheon with his secretary, but Louella is satisfied with the fiancé's explanations, and the wedding goes forward.

But not without a last-minute attempt by Frank to convince Louella that there's something shady and suspicious going on.

That leads us to the first part of our clip—and one that gives us both the faux-Shakespearean kitsch of Stratford and a bit of Shakespeare. The second part of the clip has one more Shakespeare quote; the final clip will be explained in due course.

This episode has more Shakespeare than most (though I may be mis-remembering my earlier experience of the show—I haven't re-watched the entire series). We first get the almost-route Sonnet 116: "Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediment" (1–2). I appreciated how the show itself zones out at that point.

And I appreciate (though I don't fully understand) the unusual choices the bride and groom made for their vows. Did you recognize them? I had to look them up. They're from Venus and Adonis. The bride says

Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain. (801)

And the groom replies

Love is all truth, lust full of forged lies. (804)

The context is a very lengthy speech by Adonis. The stanza in question contrasts love and lust:

William Shakespeare,The Poems, ed. F. T. Prince (Arden, 2000)

It's an interesting choice for wedding vows. I imagine the show is going for the "forged lies" part—which is exactly what the fiancé has been doing.

We then get a quote from 3 Henry VI when Frank and his assistant are discussing the motives and suspects for the fiancé's murder (I did warn you that there would be spoilers):  ". . . wet my cheeks with artificial tears" (III.ii.184).

The last part of the clip sets the new firm of Shakespeare and Hathaway on its way. I'm including it because we also read The Maltese Falcon in my Mystery and Detective Fiction class. In that Dashiell Hammett novel, the detective orders that the name of his just-murdered partner be taken off the signage; here, we have that reversed as Louella Shakespeare's name joins Frank Hathaway's.

The show is quite good—a fine example of the genre. It just needs more Shakespeare. 

[Note: If I find the time, I'll try more episodes of the show to see if we're given any more Shakespeare. In other words, further bulletins as events warrant.]

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Links: The Episode at IMDB.

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Book Note: Hamlet Off Stage

Berry, D. C . Hamlet Off Stage. Texas Review Press, 2009.

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Longtime readers will know that I try to keep my finger on the pulse of modern literature that relates to Shakespeare.

Sometimes, that takes the form of poetry, as in the volume In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (q.v. for a representative example).

I don't remember where in my vast and copious reading this book came up, but I do know that I requested it, waited for it, checked it out, and put it in the pile for later. While it sat there, my mind placed it in the "plays to read" category.

But it's a collection of poems written from Hamlet's point of view.

And this Hamlet is a very angry one.

The collection as a whole doesn't altogether work. It's a bit too one-note, and that note is an uncomfortable one to hear. That's likely the intention, but it does get fairly old fairly quickly.

Nonetheless, I'd like to call our collective attention to three poems that stand out. The first is highly critical of the 1990 Zeffirelli film version of Hamlet—the one with Mel Gibson in the title role:

I like the play of sounds there, and the final line is good (though I don't know that I agree with its sentiment).

Next, we have a play on the character T. S. Eliot created who said, "No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be":

The advice is clear: Don't be like Prufrock. Whether Hamlet is able to follow that advice is uncertain.

Last, we have one where the poet uses all the different names for Hamlet that have been developing throughout the series:

That one is of primary interest in the way the multitude of names reflects the variety of perspectives on Hamlet.

One of these three may make its way into the syllabus when next I teach my Modern Shakespearean Fiction course, but the entirely collection won't.

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Book Note: Nine Girls

Pettitt, Wilfrid H. Nine Girls: A Play in a Prologue and Two Acts. The Dramatic Publishing Company, 1943.

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I need to post this today so that I don't lose my one-post-a-month streak!

My university recently put on a production of Nine Girls, a murder mystery play from 1943. It was a very good production of a pretty good play.

And it has some Shakespeare in it!

The plot involves eight women—all part of the same sorority—who are off in a cabin in the woods when they hear the news that a ninth woman of their fairly-tight-knit group has been murdered. The news bulletin actually interrupts the radio Shakespeare program that they were (some happily, some less so) listening to:

Note: Spoilers follow.

It turns out that one of their number is the murderer—and she murders a second time to cover up the first.

Later, Sharon (our resident Shakespeare Freak) enters, practicing for her role as Lady Macbeth:

I'm very fond of that comedic moment.

The play itself is fair (though our actors performed it quite wonderfully), and it's a useful play to have on hand if you have far more female Theatre majors than male.

As a final image, I'll provide you with the original set:

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Book Note: Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud

Greenblatt, Stephen, and Adam Phillips. Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud. Yale University Press, 2024.

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Stephen Greenblatt's new book on Kit Marlowe is on my list, but that will need to wait until the library purchases a copy.

In the meantime, I'm catching up on other Greenblatt that I've missed, including Second Chances, a recent collaboration with Adam Phillips. The scheme is that both authors will deal with Freud and Shakespeare—Greenblatt using some Freudian theory to interpret Shakespeare and Phillips concentrating on analyzing Freud.

I've been puzzling over the book for a while. The second half of Second Chances (Phillips' section) is beyond me. And the first half (Greenblatt's) seems too basic.

I think Greenblatt relies too heavily of plot summary, and he does that very well—but it doesn't amount to analysis. It distills something of the genius of Shakespeare, and we all benefit from that, but it doesn't take us very far. 

All the same, Greenblatt tells (or re-tells) a good story. I was struck by some of his work on The Winter's Tale in particular:

. . . and so it goes. That's fairly solid, and it's not too speculative (a common failing in Greenblatt when dealing with Shakespeare's biography).

I'm glad I read it, but I won't be going back to it.

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Book Note: Drury Lane's Last Case

Queen, Ellery [Barnaby Ross, pseud.]. Drury Lane's Last Case: The Tragedy of 1599. Little, Brown, 1946.

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Unavoidably (at least for me), when I started planning a course called "Studies in the Novel: Mystery and Detective Fiction," I gravitated toward the Shakespearean possibilities. Ngaio Marsh will make an appearance with her Death at the Dolphin (for which, q.v.), though not with her Light Thickens (for which, q.v.). Agatha Christie's Nemesis (for which, q.v.) may be assigned to a group—but for reasons besides its use of Shakespeare.

But I've also been exploring novels that have some sort of Shakespearean connection that I'd not previously read.

Ellery Queen (under the pseudonym Barnaby Ross) has written four Drury Lane novels; this, as may be evident by the title, is the final one.

I came to Drury Lane's Last Case without encountering the hearing-impaired, lip-reading, former-Shakespearean-acting amateur detective in the other novels (The Tragedy of X, The Tragedy of Y, and The Tragedy of Z for those of you keeping score), and I think having done so would have increased my enjoyment of this one—but it also worked very well as a standalone mystery.

During Shakespeare's lifetime, a volume of poetry entitled The Passionate Pilgrim was published under Shakespeare's name—though only about 25% of the poems were authentically by Shakespeare. Its first edition was printed in 1599 (or, possibly 1598); a second, expanded edition was printed in 1612. 

As Grandmother Jones used to say, I told you that to tell you this. Part of the plot of Drury Lane's Last Case involves the theft of the rare 1599 edition of The Passionate Pilgrim . . . and its immediate replacement with the even rarer (in the world of the novel; elsewhere, it's non-existent) 1606 edition!

All that is part of a larger mystery, but that's the primary Shakespearean connection.

Here's a representative chapter (apologies for the difficulty of reading the later pages, but I didn't want to damage the binding of the 1946 edition I had in hand):

The mystery is solid and intriguing (though the m-e-t-h-o-d o-f l-o-v-e in the romantic subplot is by no means modern). Give it a try!

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Bonus Image: The Title Page of the 1946 Edition

Book Note: Manga Shakespeare: King Lear

Appignanesi, Richard (Adaptation), and Ilya (Illustrations). Manga Shakespeare: King Lear. Amulet Books, 2009.

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Honestly, I don't know quite what to make of Manga Shakespeare: King Lear. First, I suppose, it's far more graphic novel than strictly manga. But that's mostly a quibble.

The book sets the plot of King Lear in America in the 1750s in the troublesome time between the colonizers (French and British) and the members of the Iroquois Confederacy. So far, so good. Lear's story could be made interestingly relevant to that setting. The characters are divided into Native Americans (Lear, Kent, the Fool, Cordelia, Edmund), Colonizers (Gloucester, Cornwall, Regan and Goneril—unless those last two are meant to be merely adopting the dress, manners, and facial expressions of the Colonizers), and Mountain Men (Gloucester and Edgar). Again, so far, so good.

But there's nothing beyond that that shows us how the story tells us anything about that time period or those relationships. Therefore, the setting seems arbitrary rather than telling or compelling.

Here are some illustrative images from the book:

It's well done—as far as it goes. It just doesn't go very far.

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An Evil Prospero Analogue Quotes from The Tempest in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

“Our Man Bashir.” By Ronald D. Moore. Perf. Avery Brooks, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Terry Farrell, Colm Meaney, Nana Visitor, Andrew Robinson, Carlos Lacamara, Joseph Ruskin, Darwyn Carson, Julianna McCarthy, and Paul Dooley. Dir. Avery Brooks. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Season 4, episode 9. Syndicated television. 27 November 1995. DVD. Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment, 2021.

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Inspired by the podcast Star Trek: The Next Conversation, I've been re-watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, this time with an eye more peeled for Shakespeare.

At this point, I'm well ahead of the podcast, but I'll be certain to call their attention to the Shakespeare in "Our Man Bashir."

Unfortunately, there's not much Shakespeare here. In this episode, something (imagine that) has gone wrong with the holosuite. I won't trouble you with the details, but Dr. Bashir is playing (essentially) James Bond, Kira is the Russian femme fatal, and Captain Sisko is the evil villain.

The Shakespeare comes in when the evil villain reveals his dastardly plot:

For those of you who aren't terribly fond of Prospero, this can be taken as an interpretation of his twisted vision of his power over the island (even though he appropriates Miranda's line for his idea of the future). Through science (rather than magic), he'll have complete authority over the vastly-geographically-reduced brave new world.

To provide much-needed additional depth to what is otherwise a pretty disappointing episode, we're given a biblical allusion as well: The evil genius is named Dr. Noah.

Beyond that, there's not much positive to say about the episode. But the allusions to Shakespeare and the Bible do raise the overall tone somewhat.

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Links: The Episode at IMDB. Subscribe to Star Trek: The Next Conversation.

For more connections between Star Trek and Shakespeare, head to Shakespeare and Star Trek Complete.

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