"We quote Shakespeare all the time." Judi Densch

Aqua Letifer

@George-K said in "We quote Shakespeare all the time." Judi Densch:

Listen to her re-tell Sonnet #29.

Link to video

How she intones, and pauses...

"Then, haply, I think on thee..."

And how her tone changes in the final lines.

Wonderful.

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Actors go one of two routes with performing with metre. They either inject hard rests at every line break, or recite more colloquially.

Densch is quite obviously the former. I think there's a pretty clear caesura in "From sullen earth" but she didn't recite it that way. Which is completely fine, it's just a different way to perform it. Still marvelous.

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

@Aqua-Letifer said in "We quote Shakespeare all the time." Judi Densch:

Still marvelous.

Isn't it, though?

I've been familiar with this sonnet since, well, before I married Mrs. George. However, I don't think I've ever heard it read. Her reading was beautiful, poignant (in the first half), and uplifting in the end.

Copper

You can visit the house where Shakespeare was born in 1564.
I visited there 427 years after his birth.

You wouldn't want to live there, but the age and the history make it somewhat interesting.

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

Wow....

Link to video

And Ian McKellan.

"Haply, I think on ...thee."

Link to video

Copper

This post is deleted!

Jolly

Now, if Shakespeare had actually wrote all this stuff...

Aqua Letifer

@George-K said in "We quote Shakespeare all the time." Judi Densch:

@Aqua-Letifer said in "We quote Shakespeare all the time." Judi Densch:

Still marvelous.

Isn't it, though?

I've been familiar with this sonnet since, well, before I married Mrs. George. However, I don't think I've ever heard it read. Her reading was beautiful, poignant (in the first half), and uplifting in the end.

You can't recite Shakespeare as well as that without truly knowing it. Props.

Fun story:

I can count on one hand the number of times I've recited poetry out loud. But a couple of months ago I just couldn't help myself.

There was a Viking reenactment group at the Sheep & Wool festival here. (They took it pretty seriously—some of the women there practiced seiðr.) They mentioned they were looking for a scald.

For my Master's, I wrote about 47 pages worth of fornyrðislag alliterative verse because I'm a nerd like that. I had the full-page prologue memorized because I had such a bitch of a time working on it. So without pretense I laid it on him. He about shit his pants and it was pretty much the one and only time I applied my Master's directly to anything out in the world. He gave me the group's contact info, but I never followed up. It'd be a hell of a lot of fun but I know reenactors. That kind of thing is a lifestyle commitment and there's just not enough time in a day.

Aqua Letifer

@Jolly said in "We quote Shakespeare all the time." Judi Densch:

Now, if Shakespeare had actually wrote all this stuff...

Oh, okay...

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

The thing is, this sonnet's language is SO approachable. Once one knows what "bootless" and "haply" mean, the rest is easy.

But his plays require so much work to understand. Yeah, the stories are unparalleled, but so, for me, unapproachable.

Aqua Letifer

@George-K said in "We quote Shakespeare all the time." Judi Densch:

The thing is, this sonnet's language is SO approachable. Once one knows what "bootless" and "haply" mean, the rest is easy.

But his plays require so much work to understand. Yeah, the stories are unparalleled, but so, for me, unapproachable.

Read some Felix Dennis.

Formal verse, some of it brilliant, but all very decent and completely approachable.

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

Decades ago, I told Mrs. George how much I loved that sonnet.

She found a copy of it, and wrote it out on a piece of paper. Then, she mounted it on a piece of wood.

It's hanging on the wall of the hall to @Sidney's room.

Aqua Letifer

@George-K said in "We quote Shakespeare all the time." Judi Densch:

Decades ago, I told Mrs. George how much I loved that sonnet.

She found a copy of it, and wrote it out on a piece of paper. Then, she mounted it on a piece of wood.

It's hanging on the wall of the hall to @Sidney's room.

That is positively badass. An amazing thing she made.

I also love the presentation, and her handwriting.

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

@Aqua-Letifer said in "We quote Shakespeare all the time." Judi Densch:

That is positively badass. An amazing thing she made.

I also love the presentation, and her handwriting.

We met 44 years, 17 days ago.

I did good, eh?

Aqua Letifer

@George-K said in "We quote Shakespeare all the time." Judi Densch:

@Aqua-Letifer said in "We quote Shakespeare all the time." Judi Densch:

That is positively badass. An amazing thing she made.

I also love the presentation, and her handwriting.

We met 44 years, 17 days ago.

That's longer than I've lived in a week!