BardCast: The Shakespeare Podcast

This month's episode is Villains, and here it is! Trying to figure out some way to continue hosting old episodes, sorry if you accidentally re-downloaded the first episode on iTunes. Our next episode is Henry V. Episode Outline after the break. Shakespeare’s Villains    1. Introduction          1. Bardcast          2. Names          3. Villains    2. Definition Corner          1. Villain is not the same as Antagonist          2. Protagonist is the star of the show, the Antagonist is the person who opposes him          3. Ergo, the Protagonist can be a villain    3. Villains in Shakespeare’s Time          1. Before Shakespeare’s time, Morality plays didn’t have characters like we imagine, they were “characters” like Vice and Greed, etc.                1. Shakespeare and the allegory of evil.          2. several of Shakespeare’s villains draw directly from this tradition.    4. Shakespearean Style on Villains          1. Tends to give them legitimate grievances, against type at the time                1. Villains don’t need motives for this audience          2. Typically, gives a villain speech at the beginning                1. This shows their villainy,                2. clarifies the way that they’re going to operate.                3. Without this speech, the dissimulation could be seen as genuine.          3. Usually drags other characters into Villainy with them                1. The Villainy of XXX is worse in Shakey’s time than ours. When someone severs the ties of marriage, father and son, fealty, etc. It is a violation of the Natural order (God’s order), not just a violation of the bond.          4. Almost always die, usually horribly                1. Not really a Karmically just world, since the good guys generally get it too, in the tragedies.          5. Generally have a characteristic that makes them into a believable villain regardless of motive: bastardry, moorishness, Jewosity, etc.    5. Particular Shakespeare Villains          1. Iago - Othello Machiavel, Italians would be seen as natural to plots, etc.                1. Motives are different than the actions, desire for promotion not connected to his actions.          2. Aaron - Titus Andronicus Machiavellian - kills some people, causes unrest          3. Richard III - Malformed is enough to be a villain, people of the time were much more willing to accept appearance -> character.                1. Murders Nephews, usurps throne          4. Lady Macbeth - Macbeth - woman - that entire assassination thing. She’s worse because she wants to be evil, not the results of evil.          5.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona isn't going to win any awards, but it's a fun play. We used an entirely new format for this episode, focusing on character instead of doing a scene by scene analysis. Let us know what you think! Next Episode: The First Folio Episode outline after the break: The Two Gentlemen of Verona    1. Introduction    2. Classification/Sources          1. Comedy          2. Possibly Shakey's first play, certainly one of the first.          3. quite derivative of romantic comedies of the time                1. specifically comes from a few plays of the time, including some of Romeus and Juliet, notably the mention of Friar Laurence.          4. We see glimpses of what Shakespeare would do in later plays.    3. Publications          1. First appeared in the First Folio,          2. mentioned in 1598 Meres, people guess somewhere about 1590    4. Setting          1. Could be anywhere, really, impossible to know    5. Plot          1. 60 second summary                1. Proteus love Julia, Valentine goes off for adventure                2. Proteus pretends that his love letter is from Valentine, not Julia, gets sent after Valentine, both Valentine and Proteus fall in love with Sylvia                3. Julia follows Proteus dressed as a boy, becomes his servant type guy                4. Proteus betrays Valentine's plan to elope with Sylvia to her father Duke of Milan, he's found out, and exiled to the forest                5. Proteus tries to court Sylvia while pretending to help Thurio, Duke's choice of suitor, she rejects both                6. Valentine meets some thieves/noblemen, and becomes their king                7. Eglamore helps escape Sylvia into the woods, Proteus finds her there, where Valentine confronts him.                8. The lovers pair off, Thurio is intimidated by Valentine Duke of Milan declares Thurio a wuss, and all is well.          2. How to do the plot without taking forever?                1. Characters!          3. Proteus                      1. Name comes from Ovid, the ever changing sea god. (Character is inconsistent)                      1. Hard to come off as anything other than a jerk                            1. wildly, passionately, devotedly, Hopelessly in love                      2. Has a good speech about how his love changes in act 2 scene 4 and scene 6            &n

The First Folio seems like a dry subject, but it's the only way we could talk about some of the most important documents in Shakespeare's record: the poems at the beginning of the book, and the Droeshout Portrait. Thanks, Wikipedia!Places you can see the First Folio:Photographic copyA different Photographic copy Plain Text Version Next Episode is about OthelloEpisode Outline after the break.The First Folio    1. Intro          1. names          2. First Folio    2. What's the deal with the first Folio?          1. one of the most significant books of the century, it's either that or KJV    3. Making the First Folio          1. Shakespeare was dead for seven years          2. Heminges and Condell did not have a complete a perfect copy, many plays are quite poor          3. It appears they didn't have originals, or had poor originals, or had to gather materials from others          4. Jaggard's printing press                1. Jaggard had made a book that pirated WH's stuff, but there's no one else to go to for this kind of job          5. Printers would gladly edit stuff they didn't like, and there are many printing errors, only a few of them corrected with later copies          6. This means that few if any copies can be described as identical    4. What's in the first folio          1. Pretty crummy, as a book                1. Looks unimpressive, physically. Bland cover.                2. Typing is often foreign, including the funky f->s deal, and v->u                3. Latin Stage directions, act and scene names          2. Picture                1. Brief Poem by BJ about portrait                2. crummy drawring, even if WH looked generally like this, he's probably not lopsided          3. Messages by Heminges and Condell                1. 1 to the patrons                      1. William Earl of Pembroke                      2. Philip Earl of Montgomery                2. 1 to the peoples          4. Genres                1. This is the codification of the genres          5. Dedications                1. Dedications at the time                      1. Sort of like the bits on the back of books, where it quotes some guy                      2. Most people (later in the century) have a lot more dedications, that one guy even had one that said "I w

Episode 20! Hooray! This one is about Shakespeare's Sources, although that doesn't take us too long, so the second half is about news that's cropped up lately. There's a special moment of action at the end, where we roll a die to randomly decide what play to do next. I'm not going to spoil it here. Links Lists of Shakespeare's Sources http://www.shakespeare-w.com/english/shakespeare/source.html http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/sources.htm   http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sources/  Links to Shakespeare's Individual Sources Holinshed's Chronicles Although we mention the Geneva Bible as one of Shakespeare's sources, we didn't really give it the proper historical context as one of the most significant Bibles in English history. This Wikipedia article does it proper justice. Ovid's Metamorphoses When it comes to the Authorship question, newly brought to attention by this Anonymous film, we suggest you visit shakespeareauthorship.com, and more specifically, this page of the website, which disembowels their absurd methodology. Store Enter the Whole Army: A Pictorial Study of Shakespearean Staging, 1576-1616 This book is the most concise and well written analysis of what makes Shakespeare's plays. You can find it at various online stores if you're willing to look around. I highly suggest it. The New Temple Shakespeare: William Shakespeare a Commentary Author: Ridley M. R. Publisher: J.M. Dent & Sons 1936 Outline after the break: Shakespeare's Sources    1. Introduction          1. Bardcast          2. names          3. Shakey's Sources                1. Could also be titled, "what did shakespeare know/read?"                2. we have to remember, someone can allude to something without having read it    2. Shakespeare's Sources          1. Our sources                1. http://www.shakespeare-w.com/english/shakespeare/source.html          2. Holinshead          3. Plutarch, lives of the romans          4. The Bible                1. there is no "the bible"                      1. Jews, protestants and catholics have different number of books                      2. different translations, etc.                2. Specifically, the Geneva Bible                3. First bible (english bible?) divided into chapter and verse                4. King James Bible not written yet          5. Greek and Roman Myth                1. Ovid's metamorphoses          6. Machiavelli          7. specific plays have specific sources,                1. Amleth for some play                2. the tragical history of romeus and Juliet                3. Montaigne with Tempest &nbs

I said we'd have the podcast out by the end of the month, and here it is, with an hour and 45 minutes to go. We'll have a vote about the content of the next episode. Store: Othello With Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh Othello With Laurence Olivier

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, and this is our longest episode. We were happy to talk about the Astor Place Riots, you can see more stuff about it on Wikipedia Here. It would be easy for us to provide the outlines that we use to produce these podcasts, would you guys be interested in seeing those? Please leave us a comment if you'd like to see them. Store Slings & Arrows: The Complete Collection I can't recommend this show enough: it encompasses the "feeling" and "meaning" of Shakespeare more than any program I've ever seen. Throne of Blood - Criterion Collection Akira Kurosawa's Japanese version of Macbeth Scotland, PA: A humorous modern retelling of Macbeth in a modern restaurant setting. Includes Christopher Walken! Wyrd Sisters The amazing Terry Pratchett takes on Macbeth in a Fantasy setting. Fantastic, like all Terry Pratchett. Enter Three Witches This is an OK book. I'd only recommend it if you wanted a young teen or tween to read a more PG 13 version of Macbeth. Macbeth: The DVD Edition (Folger Shakespeare Library) A fan suggested this one. I haven't seen it, but it sounds good! Someone asked for the outline of the podcast, so here it is: (Beware: it's a little long) MacBeth    1. Introduction          1. Bardcast          2. Names          3. MacBeth    2. play classification/sources          1. Tragedy, but about History (Again, loosely)                1. What makes histories and tragedies different?                      1. Tragedies are about personal loss                      2. Histories are about public defeat/victory.                      3. compare Richard II, he's murdered in his cell, but he retains his dignity          2. Holinshead again    3. Publications          1. Actual date released is unknown and unknowable                1. Almost certainly written following JI, so 1603                2. so many references to Equivocation, could follow the Gunpowder plot of 1606                3. There are allusions to it in 1607 (probably), so it has to be in that area.          2. Only in the Folio          3. Troublesome                1. Everyone assumes the Hecate musical numbers are inserted                2. People also assume the Play has been cut for unknown reasons    4. What's it About?    5. Setting          1. Scotland          2. Nights                1. The old theaters were sunlit                2. It could be this was written for blackfriars (or a similar theater), which they acquired in 1608    6. characters          1. MacBeth                1. Lady MacBeth   &nbsp

Henry V has some of the greatest speeches of all time. Here's a youtube clip of one of them. You can listen to our episode about it Here. Our next episode is our season finalè, so please give us some questions or subjects to talk about! The script we used to record this episode is after the break    1. Introduction          1. Bardcast          2. Names          3. Henry V    2. play classification/sources          1. Holinshed's History of England, etc.          2. The Famous Victories of Henry V          3. History          4. 4th part of the second tetralogy                1. Richard II, HIV I&II, HV.                2. First Tetrology: HVI 1,2,3, Richard III    3. Publications          1. Performed 1599          2. printed 1600, copied in 1602 and 1619. They're terrible          3. The Folio is the only good copy.          4. Falstaff may have been in an unpublished copy of the play.    4. What's it About?          1. Henry V                1. Henry IV I and II are also about Henry V          2. War    5. Setting          1. England and France                1. England is seen as naturally at war with/ occupying france                      1. The Hundred Years' War                2. Henry V is newly kinged, newly wise and awesome in every way    6. characters          1. 3 plot threads                1. Henry V                      1. Henry himself                            1. Everyone agrees that Henry has had a miraculous maturing since the death of Henry IV                      2. so many nobles                            1. Duke of Gloucester (Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester) & Duke of Bedford (John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford), Brothers to the King                            2. Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter, Uncle to the King                            3. Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, Cousin to the King                            4. Earls of Salisbury, Westmoreland, and Warwick      

This was a lighthearted episode, appropriate since it introduces the jolly Falstaff to the podcast. Our next episode is going to be about Shakespeare as a fictional character à la the film Shakespeare In Love. If you would like to see the Welles film Chimes at Midnight, it is available on YouTube Here. I know YouTube is less than ideal, but there are legal issues that prevent it from being released for sale. We also endorse this film of Henry IV. I couldn't find it on Amazon, so I am providing the link through NetFlix. Listener Sarah was cool enough to nominate us for a podcast award, you can see the other nominees and vote for us Here. Shakespeare In The News: This came out after we finished recording, so I'm just including the link here: This episode of NPR's Talk Of The Nation includes a segment about bringing Shakespeare to other settings and time periods. Store: This is the new version of Bryson's Shakespeare: The World As Stage I mentioned in this episode Shakespeare (The Illustrated and Updated Edition)

We kind of rag on Falstaff in this one, but the next episode is exclusively about him, so I hope he doesn't mind too much. PS. (The new host we were trying seems to be broken. I'm working on a solution now.) PPS. (I've re-hosted it. I hope it works this time!)

Last time, I said that Falstaff should feel better because we made a whole episode about him. Since we spend most of this episode mocking him, maybe not. Like we say in the episode, if you are a fan, please leave us a comment. We have no idea who you are otherwise! Episode outline after the break: Falstaff    1. Intro    2. History of Falstaff          1. Minor historical character          2. character in play was originally named Oldcastle, descendants objected                1. meter                2. pun "knight o' the castle"                3. Possibly performed with Oldcastle, and only changed for publication (prolly not)                4. new name possibly inspired by sir john Falstoff    3. Plays (His story)          1. Presumably made knight somehow, we get very little of his early life, except for the recounting in part II, where he's revealed to be a college wastrel 55 years ago. Must be at least 70 at the time of the plays.          2. HIV PI,                1. At the beginning of hte play, he mentions that he used to be a courtier, (a court layabout) before he knew Hal. He blames Hal for his life of crime.                2. For the course of the play, he goes from a robber to a shameful soldier          3. II                1. Still a shameful soldier, he spends much of his time carousing with lowlifes                2. We're promised another appearance from him in HV, but nothing.          4. HV, Death scene recounted.          5. Merry Wives of Windsor                1. legend says that the queen personally asked for re-appearance of F                2. Is MWW still Falstaff?                      1. Obviously, yes                            1. that's his name                      2. Obviously, no                            1. he's just an idiot that gets fooled a lot, nothing like the character                            2. lots of fans don't count this as part of the character                            3. no continuity with his previous story                                  1. In fact, it's a completely separate timeline      &nbsp

It's been a while, but we finally have a new episode. This one's about Shakespeare as a fictional character. Our next episode will be about Henry IV, Part II. Links: Tim Curry As Shakespeare A Youtube video, poor in quality both as a youtube video and as a show. Not for the feint of heart! Shakespeare in Love (Miramax Collector's Series) The definitive fictional Shakespeare, and a genuinely good movie A Mystery of Errors The first of the Shakespeare and Smythe mystery novels The Shakespeare Stealer Series Popular children's series Ink and Steel: A Novel of the Promethean Age Fantasy styled Shakespeare adventure. Ruled Britannia An Alternate history where Shakespeare writes a play to incite rebellion against the Spanish occupation of England. If Shakespeare was born 400 years later: A comic about Shakespeare using the wretched format of Powerpoint to express the ideas in Hamlet. The Black Adder Remastered This link goes to the first season of Black Adder, but they're all good.