sweetsilentsessions: Glenn Feole on Shakespeare

sweetsilentsessions.blogspot.com readingthedictionaryztoa.blogspot.com glennlouisfeole@gmail.com      I have finished reading Cymbeline and, as a Father of two daughters, I have slowly, unwillingly come to realize and accept how little control (i.e. zero) I have over whom they pick for marriage.  Yet, it turns out as beautiful as the love between Cymbeline's daughter Imogen and her childhood friend Posthumus Leonatus.         Here are some of my favorite quotes and vocabulary from Cymbeline.   Quotes:   "The fire of rage is within him."   The Queen.   I.i.77 "…with mine eyes I’ll drink the words you send."   Posthumus.  I.i. 100 "Take it, heart."   Imogen. I.i. 113 "Her beauty and her brain go not together.  " Imogen.  First Lord.  I. ii. 29 "I would have broke my eyestrings…to look upon him till the diminution of space…"   Imogen ...

sweetsilentsessions.blogspot.com glennlouisfeole@gmail.com      I have just finished reading Antony and Cleopatra .  As usual, a whirlwind of powerful emotions.  This is the 17th of his 37 plays that I have read and I am beginning to know and describe events and characters as being "Shakespearean" when I encounter a mix of overpowering emotions...pathos...chaos...subterfuge...and love and passion. “to cool a gypsy’s lust” I.i.10      Gypsy, which I had not realized, is a shortening of the word Egyptian (first used in 1537, Shakespeare's play being written in 1606).  Gypsy referred to someone from Egypt, from where gypsies were thought to originate.  It has largely been replaced by "Romani" since the term gypsy has a pejorative connotation.     “this orient pearl” I.v.41 o      The archaic meaning of orient is radiant, as well as rising from the sky. A word ...

sweetsilentsessions@blogspot.com glennlouisfeole @gmail.com from Othello:      Iago is speaking of duplicitous office seekers who want positions under Othello.        Harold Bloom, in his lectures on Shakespeare, considers Iago to be one of the most heinous villains ever portrayed in literature, similar to and often based upon the 'fallen angel' in Milton's Paradise Lost (an interesting observation...).   I just had a copy of Paradise Lost in my hands yesterday and was debating whether to buy it to read but deferred for now.)        Iago's subterfuge was ultimately responsible for the death of Othello and Desdemona, among others. “I will wear my heart upon my sleeve” (I.i. 61) ...but it goes on to say... “for daws to peck at.   I am not who I am.”   (Iago, I.i.62) Also:   “a knee-crooking knave,”   “when they have lined their coats,” “In following him, I follow...

King Lear Here are some quotes from my reading...        As the play opens, King Lear asks his three daughters their opinion of him as he is deciding on having them inherit his kingdom.  The first two daughters praise him effusively if insincerely.   He then asks his third daughter, the spunky Cornelia, what she thinks. Lear: what can you say to draw a third more opulent than your sisters? Speak. Cordelia: Nothing. Lear: Nothing? Cordelia: Nothing. Lear: Nothing with come of nothing.   Speak again. (Act   1.1)     I have to laugh in awe of Shakespeare's creativity and humor.  I don't know of any other place in literature where the word 'nothing' is repeated four times in a row.   Fool to King Lear: Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, …leave thy drink and thy whore (Act 1.4) Fool to Lear: They’ll have me whipped for speaking true; thou’ll hav...

sweetsilentsessions: glenn feole on Shakespeare glennlouisfeole @gmail.com      I have just started reading Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra being one of Harold Bloom's favorite Shakespearean characters due to her wit, her forceful, even manipulative, personality, her histrionics and cleverness.       Here are some words and phrases I have come across in the first two acts thus far: “to cool a gypsy’s lust” I.i.10      Gypsy, which I had not realized, is a shortening of the word Egyptian (first used in 1537, Shakespeare's play being written in 1606).  Gypsy referred to someone from Egypt, from where gypsies were thought to originate.  It has largely been replaced by "Romani" since the term gypsy has a pejorative connotation.    “this orient pearl” I.v.41 o      The archaic meaning of orient is radiant, as well as rising from the sky. A word of great b...

sweetsilentsessions: Glenn Feole on Shakespeare sweetsilentsessions@blogspot.com glennlouisfeole@gmail.com also: readingthedictionaryztoa @blogspot.com      I am re-reading As You Like It, an inspiring play of love; the deep love of friendship between two cousins (Rosalind and Celia) and the romantic love of Rosalind and Orland.  I have listed excerpts from the play's first two Acts below.        I recently went to a pediatric conference in Seattle, Washington with nothing but a backpack, a pen and a journal; no computer or smart phone.  For nine days I was drenched in rain, the weather was in the 30's, sometimes snowing, and I was bundled up and hiking with many wonderful friends from around the world that I had met at the Green Tortoise Hostel.  I walked all over that beautiful city: to the expansive University of Washington with its Cherry Blossoms, to Japanese gardens, museums and many eclec...

Below is a compilation of references I found on the theme of love in Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets: Thou art thy Mother’s glass, and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime                                     Sonnet 3   Herein lives wisdom, beauty and increase                                     Sonnet 11   truth and beauty shall together thrive                                     Sonnet 14   If I could write the...