Comments on: Question of the Week http://www.shakespeareteacher.com/blog/archives/1369 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:15:36 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Bill http://www.shakespeareteacher.com/blog/archives/1369/comment-page-1#comment-181534 Bill Thu, 07 May 2009 18:30:51 +0000 http://www.shakespeareteacher.com/blog/?p=1369#comment-181534 Welcome, Tim! I especially appreciated your comment, since I never put a context on the second quote from the play I cited above, making the early quarto joke instead. But your comments are exactly how I read that speech. Welcome, Zeke! You're in good company with your first point, as Garber reflects the same sentiments elsewhere in her book. I respectfully disagree. I also disagree that the closing lines of TNK (also a collaboration with Fletcher) could equally be considered his final thoughts. Nor do I read a farewell from Shakespeare in the epilogue to The Tempest, spoken by Prospero. If it were just a matter of wishing it were there and projecting it so, those of us who see the farewell would see it there. The two speeches cited above are a little different from Shakespeare's other farewell speeches. They don't apologize for a poor play or beg for applause. They paint vibrant images of the potency of art, and then just as powerfully make it clear that it is all over now. I can't say for sure what Shakespeare meant by it, and neither can anyone else, but these speeches are demonstrably different, and it's not just a Freudian projection. Welcome, Tim! I especially appreciated your comment, since I never put a context on the second quote from the play I cited above, making the early quarto joke instead. But your comments are exactly how I read that speech.

Welcome, Zeke! You’re in good company with your first point, as Garber reflects the same sentiments elsewhere in her book. I respectfully disagree.

I also disagree that the closing lines of TNK (also a collaboration with Fletcher) could equally be considered his final thoughts. Nor do I read a farewell from Shakespeare in the epilogue to The Tempest, spoken by Prospero. If it were just a matter of wishing it were there and projecting it so, those of us who see the farewell would see it there.

The two speeches cited above are a little different from Shakespeare’s other farewell speeches. They don’t apologize for a poor play or beg for applause. They paint vibrant images of the potency of art, and then just as powerfully make it clear that it is all over now. I can’t say for sure what Shakespeare meant by it, and neither can anyone else, but these speeches are demonstrably different, and it’s not just a Freudian projection.

]]> By: Zeke http://www.shakespeareteacher.com/blog/archives/1369/comment-page-1#comment-181521 Zeke Thu, 07 May 2009 02:00:40 +0000 http://www.shakespeareteacher.com/blog/?p=1369#comment-181521 I love Prospero's speech. But the popular notion that it represents Shakespeare's farewell reflects what we *wish* were so more than any factual basis. These lines from Two Noble Kinsman (written later) could equally well be considered his final thoughts. They are the closing lines of the play proper--before an epilogue. O you heavenly Charmers, What things you make of us! For what we lacke We laugh, for what we have, are sorry: still Are children in some kind. Let us be thankefull For that which is, and with you leave dispute That are above our question. Zeke I love Prospero’s speech. But the popular notion that it represents Shakespeare’s farewell reflects what we *wish* were so more than any factual basis.

These lines from Two Noble Kinsman (written later) could equally well be considered his final thoughts. They are the closing lines of the play proper–before an epilogue.

O you heavenly Charmers,
What things you make of us! For what we lacke
We laugh, for what we have, are sorry: still
Are children in some kind. Let us be thankefull
For that which is, and with you leave dispute
That are above our question.

Zeke

]]> By: Tim Wilkins http://www.shakespeareteacher.com/blog/archives/1369/comment-page-1#comment-181509 Tim Wilkins Tue, 05 May 2009 18:42:40 +0000 http://www.shakespeareteacher.com/blog/?p=1369#comment-181509 Personally, I believe it is his farewell to the theatrical world. His character of Prospero is a man of magic who can create, destroy, change, or reinvent almost anything that happens on his island. In the end, Prospero decides to return to the world of reality and bid farewell to his magical island. Similarly, I think the Bard has found himself confined to the island of the theatre where he has dramatic powers not unlike Prospero's. Shakespeare may have wanted to return to his own reality and back out of the "magical island" he created - namely, the Globe and the theatrical world of London. Perhaps in this self-paralleled character did Shakespeare reflect himself, and maybe he made Prospero's final decision his own as well. But as with all great literature, this is - of course - only speculation and interpretation. Personally, I believe it is his farewell to the theatrical world. His character of Prospero is a man of magic who can create, destroy, change, or reinvent almost anything that happens on his island. In the end, Prospero decides to return to the world of reality and bid farewell to his magical island. Similarly, I think the Bard has found himself confined to the island of the theatre where he has dramatic powers not unlike Prospero’s. Shakespeare may have wanted to return to his own reality and back out of the “magical island” he created – namely, the Globe and the theatrical world of London. Perhaps in this self-paralleled character did Shakespeare reflect himself, and maybe he made Prospero’s final decision his own as well. But as with all great literature, this is – of course – only speculation and interpretation.

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