While I was away, the Shakespeare Geek has been blogging up a storm. He always manages to find such great nuggets of Shakespearia in the digital forest. A few notable items that either I got from him, or he beat me to:

• There’s a new Showtime series on The Tudors with the first two episodes posted online. If this looks like it’s going to be any good, perhaps we will discuss it here, replacing the soon-to-be-retired Slings & Arrows thread each Sunday. What do you think?
• A map of almost all the places quoted in Shakespeare available in both Google Maps and Google Earth versions. This has some nice classroom applications, particularly in teaching history. Compare, for example, the relative locations of Pericles and Antony and Cleopatra around the eastern Mediterranean. Pericles takes place in the Hellenistic period, which came to an end with the events of Antony and Cleopatra, so comparing their relative locations can be useful. You know, for those times when you’re studying Pericles and Antony and Cleopatra. It was just an example.
• A somewhat new Shakespeare wiki. This looks like it’s going to be able to go much more in depth into Shakespeare than Wikipedia allows. I have to use the future tense, because right now it looks like the giant hole in the ground that is dug before a majestic building is erected. Can’t wait to see the view.
• Hamlet on trial for the murder of Polonius, presided over by a Supreme Court Justice, as part of the six month Shakespeare in Washington festival. I was in DC on Thursday, but missed the trial in favor of Richard III at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. But it caught my eye because my grad students have been talking about using the trial as a classroom activity. We’ve discussed the activity in connection with Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, and Measure for Measure.

There’s more stuff over there if you want to check it out. I like to link to him every now and then because I know there are some who come to this site looking for lots of cool Shakespeare stuff, and instead find postings about Venn diagrams, killer robots, and Charlie the Unicorn. His is the site you were looking for. But do come back tomorrow for the Thursday Morning Riddle.

The fifth episode of Season Three of Slings & Arrows airs on Sundance tonight at 8pm. It will also be repeated throughout the week.

Use the comments section of this post to discuss the episode. Any comments I may have will be posted in the comments section as well.

You can view the archives to discuss past episodes and seasons. A discussion thread for the final episode of Season 3 will be posted next week, when it airs on Sundance.

WARNING: Comments may contain further discussion of the show, including potential spoilers. Click through only after viewing the episode. Commenters may discuss this episode as freely as they like, though Canadian readers are asked not to post spoilers for any later episodes.

By the way, did you know that I just saw Geraint Wyn Davies (Henry Breedlove from Season Two) play Richard III this past Thursday? That’s hot.

SuchShakespeareStuff is now Shakespeare Geek. I was checking out the links over there when I came across a post by someone named Cesario listing her ten unpopular opinions about Shakespeare. I don’t agree with everything she says, but I applaud people who are willing to post unpopular opinions, and I’d like to add my twopence to the conversation.

1. This stuff about Shakespeare being [someone else] is arrant nonsense.

Strongly agree. There’s no good evidence that this is true, and most of the arguments you hear are either elitist or overly-ambitious.

2. Twelfth Night is at its root a deeply creepy and disturbing play

Mildly agree. The play does have a dark side, to be sure. The Andrew subplot is creepy, the Malvolio subplot is disturbing, and did I hear Orsino correctly in the last scene? He’s actually going to kill Cesario to spite Olivia?

3. Shylock is not the hero of Merchant of Venice. He is the villain.

Strongly agree. If you’ve read the play, it’s hard to make the case otherwise.

4. The Macbeths have the best marriage in all Shakespeare.

Mildly disagree. I’ve heard Harold Bloom express this opinion, and I get the equal partnership aspect, but I find their relationship too dysfunctional and codependent to pay them this compliment. The title “Best Marriage in Shakespeare” is a dubious honor, but I think I’d have to go with Brutus and Portia. They seem like they have a really strong relationship. The fact that it can be torn apart by the assassination is a testament to the earth-shattering significance of that event. We won’t count the marriages at the end of the comedies, because who knows how they’ll fare?

5. Lear’s Fool is a subjective reality experienced only by Lear himself.

Mildly disagree, though I like your spirit. Both Goneril and Kent talk directly to the Fool, and others talk about him (such as the Gentleman that Kent meets in the storm). I do think there’s an alter ego reading possible here, but perhaps this is more of a symbolic idea than something that’s literally demonstrable in the play.

6. Hamlet: not really a play.

Strongly disagree. Hamlet is a play. It has searingly powerful dramatic dialogue, a story arc, and character development. There are some stage plays that I would say are not really plays, but Hamlet is a play through and through.

7. I Henry VI is a better play than Richard III.

Strongly disagree, though I think I Henry VI is highly underrated. I also think that Richard III is a much better play after you’ve read the three Henry VI plays. The characters in Richard III have a lot of history, and understanding that history helps explain a lot of their interactions.

8. Claudio and Hero = so doomed.

Strongly disagree. This is the stereotypical couple of Shakespeare’s day. These are the people who wed unthinkingly and play their roles, living happily ever after because they never consider that they may not. They are used by Shakespeare to contrast the much more interesting Beatrice and Benedick who question everything about love.

9. I think Shakespeare was probably Catholic.

No opinion, though there is some reason to believe he may have been. I’m hesitant to make any generalizations about Shakespeare based on his writings, because he was so good at speaking from so many different points of view that it’s impossible to know what’s really Shakespeare himself. Shakespeare may very well have been a soldier, a king, a murderer, a nobleman, a shrew, a fairy, a Moor, an ancient Egyptian queen, or a boatswain. He’s much too clever for me to guess.

10. Titus Andronicus is a farce and would be best played as a Monty Python skit.

Mildly agree. I don’t think the farce is intentional, but playing it as a Monty Python skit would be an improvement.

I had so much fun at last week’s picnic, I thought I’d have another. But this time I’m using a different rule when deciding whom to invite. You may find this one a bit more challenging than last week’s rule, but all of the invited guests do have something in common:

• I’m inviting MARY SHELLEY, but not PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.
• I’m inviting GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, but not OSCAR WILDE.
• I’m inviting QUEEN ELIZABETH II, but not QUEEN ELIZABETH I.
• I’m inviting MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., but not MALCOLM X.
• I’m inviting TOM CRUISE, but not DUSTIN HOFFMAN.
• I’m inviting MADONNA, but not JEWEL.
• I’m inviting COURTENEY COX ARQUETTE, but not JENNIFER ANISTON.
• I’m inviting BARACK OBAMA, but not HILLARY CLINTON.
• I’m inviting GEORGE W. BUSH & DICK CHENEY as well as BILL CLINTON & AL GORE, but not RONALD REAGAN & GEORGE H.W. BUSH.

I thought it might be fun to do some Shakespeare readings at the picnic, but only plays named for people who fit the same rule:

• We will be reading JULIUS CAESAR, but not MACBETH.
• We will be reading ANTONY & CLEOPATRA, but not KING JOHN.
• We will be reading KING HENRY VIII, but neither KING HENRY IV play.
• We will be reading KING RICHARD III, but not KING RICHARD II.

Have you figured out the rule? If so, please don’t post it. Just post one or two additions to the list to show us you got it, and to give an extra hint to later solvers.

UPDATE: The solution is now posted in the comments.

The Bard-a-thon rages on. Last night, I joined them by phone for their readings of As You Like It and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Right now, we’re doing Richard III. I’m having a grand time.

The Bard-a-thon runs their readings a little differently than I run mine. They assign roles as they go, scene-by-scene. They don’t necessarily keep the same reader on the same character from scene to scene.

I divide up all of the characters into parts before the reading, and then those parts are chosen randomly by the readers. The readers can trade parts before the reading, but once the reading starts, the readers read the same characters for the length of the play.

Of course, my readings are planned in advance and people come expressively to read a particular play. It sounds like the Bard-a-thon is an open house, with people coming in and out, and even people like me calling in. I guess it makes more sense for them to do it the way they are, since it keeps them flexible.

Anyway, I love what they’re doing and I love them for doing it. Maybe this will start a national trend. There are 50 states, and 52 weeks in the year. You do the math.