Shakespeare is different. Different from all others, I mean. More – well, among other things, more personal.
Entirely of my own volition, I came to live in Oxford. I had left the barbaric foreign islands occupied by the British Army and sought culture here.
I found much Shakespeare in Oxford, and now we, or some of us celebrate his 450th birthday! Amazing! In those days – in the nineteen-forties, and fifties, every Oxford college put on summer plays, and the name of Nevil Coghill as producer was large in the land. (He was to write a book,‘Shakespeare’s Professional Skills’}. I eagerly attended those plays. Of them all, it was “Hamlet” which most fiercely took hold of my imagination.
Gradually, I attended other plays from the Shakespeare period, Ben Jonson and in particular Christopher Marlowe, author of Doctor Faustus, Tambourlane, Dido, Queen of Carthage; Marlowe’s ‘Edward II’ (brilliantly acted – embodied! – by Neville Siggs in Oriel College one glorious evening) and other plays scarcely heard of nowadays. I felt for a time that these playwrights had been unfairly eclipsed by Will Shakespeare.
But… well, there’s Shakespeare still, who has decidedly helped to make us English.
Before British 2 Div went into action against the Japanese invader of Burma in 1946. our commander quoted Shakespeare in ‘Henry V’:
“And gentlemen in England, now abed
Shall think themselves they were not here,
And hold their manhood’s cheap while any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s Day.”
And those troops, ragged, unwashed, bristly of chin – why, most of them were so moved they shed a manly tear.
So the Bard cannot die. I wonder how often I have watched the play performed. The cinema too has had its Hamlet successes.
The 1964 Russian film of Hamlet is directed by Grigori Kozintsev , much of it being filmed out of doors …which rather challenges the claustrophobic nature of the play.
Laurence Olivier’s version of Hamlet(1948) is still valued for its great soliloquy, ‘To Be Or Not To Be’. Music by Sir William Walton.
Also popular and attractive is the Zeffirelli version with fine performances by Mel Gibson as HAMLET and Glen Close as the Queen.
What is the most popular quote here? Polonius is ofter portrayed as a tedious old fool, but his are the lines which begin ‘This above all, to thine own self be true…’
His son, about to depart for England, brushes the advice aside; as does the daughter if she is there, as in some productions.
Is it good advice? Well, at any rate, Teenagers are known to brush parental advice aside.
Shakespeare seems to have grasped so much that echoes over the centuries in British hearts and carries its meanings abroad,
It happens that this week’s TLS carries an article by Lucy Munro concerning two productions of ‘King Lear’, one in London, one in New York. This is followed by another article discussing ‘The Winter’s Tale’ being danced at the Royal Opera House.
So Shakespeare, it seems, is still alive. We could do worse than wish his shade, his amazing penumbra, a happy birthday.
