From: "David Bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]>
> Of course Shakespeare is an artifact and compounded of sludge. Flat
> characterisations? You bet - he's full of stage villains and stage fools -
> anyone looking for psychological depth is looking in the wrong place.
"Shakespeare" (like "Love" and "Democracy") should come with a health
warning: Which variety of the same are you talking about?
dave's lines above are (to an extent) true of Shakespeare's plays +except+
in a period between roughly 1605-1610 when he (and other dramatists of the
time -- Middleton, say) did seem to be (briefly) intrigued by psychological
realism. _Othello_ would be the major example in Shakespeare. Or the
difference between _Richard III_ and _Macbeth_. (I once saw Macbeth staged
with the soliloquies delivered a la Dick of Gloucester -- excruciating, but
illuminating in suggesting where Macbeth's soliloquies are at.) _Hamlet_
(circa 1601) is a dubious case -- some people see it in psychological terms,
others (me included) don't.
... except that Bill the Bard got bored/dissatisfied with this. Leontes in
Acts 1-3 of +The Winter's Tale+ is Othello without the
psychological/plausible underpinning -- WS is no longer interested in
exploring why the character is (jealous) as he is, more with illustrating
the state of jealousy as such, and its consequences.
As to Roger's point (with which dave seems to concur), well it comes down to
bums on seats, doesn't it? One reason why actors avoid refering to Macbeth
by name (bad luck) and calling it the Scottish Play is that when a rep
company has a run of bad houses and needs to fill the theatre, they stage
Macbeth. You can virtually guarantee a 90% sell-out, and the punters ain't
all there because they've been brainwashed by the Establishment.
Then there's Bill's republican play. Julius Caesar, anyone? Walter Ralegh
got into deep shit for promulgating similar sentiments when Jimmy the Sixth
and One was looming on the horizon -- "Better a republic than that Scottish
toerag ruling us."
A Remittance Academic
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