11 Roses in Literature (Shakespeare)

Happy Sunday and today once again I am partnering Roses in Literature with #ShakespeareSunday. This weeks theme was set by NYC Central Park on Twitter. Click the image to visit their page.

Shakespeare Garden Central Park Conservancy

Listen to how the Shakespeare garden came into being after a Black Mulberry from Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford-upon-Avon was planted in the park way back in 1880.

To find out more about Central Park’s Shakespeare Garden click HERE.

Secrets of Shakespeare’s Graden in Central Park

To delve into a few of the secrets of the garden click the image below

Roses in Shakespeare Hamlet ~ Laertes to Ophelia.

Read the quote from Hamlet (Act 4 Scene 5 Line 155)

This is a rather sad scene Laertes is home, he is brother to Ophelia. When he sees her he becomes angry, for she has been driven to insanity. She is in love with Hamlet but, earlier in the play, he not only spurns her, but murders her father. At the end of the famous ‘mad’ scene; she hands out flowers with telling messages. This is a very strong and powerful scene and has to be one of my favourites of the play.

Laertes

How now, what noise is that?

Enter Ophelia

O heat, dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight
Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May!
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
O heavens, is’t possible a young maid’s wits
Should be as mortal as an old man’s life?
Nature is fine in love, and where ’tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.

Ophelia Sings.

“They bore him barefac’d on the bier,
Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny,
And in his grave rain’d many a tear”—
Fare you well, my dove!

Laertes

Hadst thou thy wits and didst persuade revenge,
It could not move thus.

Ophelia

You must sing, “A-down, a-down,”
And you call him a-down-a.
O how the wheel becomes it!
It is the false steward,
that stole his master’s daughter.

Laertes

This nothing’s more than matter.

Ophelia

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance;
pray you, love, remember.
And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.

Laertes

A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.

Ophelia To Claudius.

There’s fennel for you, and columbines.

To Gertrude.

There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me;
we may call it herb of grace a’ Sundays.
You may wear your rue with a difference.
There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets,
but they wither’d all when my father died.
They say ’a made a good end—

My favourite Rose image

Now here is one of my favourite rose images, I took it in the garden of a book festival in Leominster, West Midlands UK back in 2015.

Thank you for visiting, I hope you enjoyed this weeks theme.

 

10 Roses in Literature (Shakespeare)

Today I am combining roses in literature with #ShakespeareSunday the theme for today is Love & Controversy!

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

I chose ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ because of it’s controversy of how women were expected to behave. Some scholars even believe that in this play Shakespeare was actually championing women’s rights.

The play begins with several men wooing the beautiful Bianca, the daughter of a rich merchant Baptista. However, he will not allow his youngest daughter to marry until his eldest daughter Katherine with a sharp tongue, and aggressive behaviour is married off first. Petruccio comes along rising to the challenge to ‘Tame the Shrew’.

In the end it is not the meek and beautiful Bianca who bows to her husbands bidding but the transformed Katherine.

Click HERE to read a wonderful article featured some time ago in The Guardian where several people including actors read the play very differently.

Petruccio meets Katherine

This clip was taken from an American TV Series Moonlighting staring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd. It is a fun version of the meeting of Petruccio with Katherine and throws in a few parodies from other movies.

Katherine’s Final Speech

This is Katherin’e final speech taken from the movie staring Elizabeth Taylor as a very convincing Katherine and Richard Burton as Petruccio.

‘I am asham’d that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.’

I really enjoy Shakespeare Sunday and I am finding a great love for the works of this wonderful classical author. Thank you for stopping by hope you enjoy these post too.

 

09 Roses in Literature (Shakespeare)

Roses In Literature this time from Shakespeare

As I have already done a blog post on #ShakespeareSunday this will be brief as I discovered in the previous post that Titania’s speech also mentioned the rose. I just could not resist sharing this as a ‘Roses & Literature’ post.

To find out more about this scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream visit my previous post by clicking the image below.

Thank you for visiting

 

#ShakespeareSunday Earth, Water, Air & Fire

Happy Sunday today’s theme for #ShakespeareSunday is Earth, Water, Air & Fire and I’ve chosen a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream written 1595/96. Titania vs Oberon, the beautiful illustration below is by Arthur Rackham circa 1910 (Click the image to enlarge).

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

In the scene I have chosen Queen of the Fairies Titania bumps into King Oberon in a glade near Athens close to where Theseus and Hippolyta are to be married. They argue because Titania believes Oberon loves Hippolyta and wants to bless their marriage. They go on to argue about the changling child Titania has taken,  whom Oberon wants. She accuses him of spoiling their fun ‘with thy brawls thou hast disturb’d our sport.’ Then he storms off. More details can be found online I used SparkNotes click HERE.

Watch the scene on YouTube

The clip is from the 2002 version starring Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania and Rupert Everett as Oberon.

Titania Act II Scene I (Line 81)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And never, since the middle summer’s spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb’d our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have suck’d up from the sea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
Have every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents:
The ox hath therefore stretch’d his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attain’d a beard;
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
The nine men’s morris is fill’d up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
The human mortals want their winter here;
No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound:
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which:
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is my favourite Shakespeare Play I have seen it performed in many different theatres and formats. My favourite has got to be when I saw a late night performance in the open air of the beautiful surroundings of Ludlow Castle, Shropshire UK. Check out some of the copyrighted images by Photo Stage click HERE.

Thank you for visiting

08 Roses In Literature (Shakespeare)

Happy Sunday, well I have not done a post for #ShakespeareSunday for a while but today I thought I might share this one with you featuring Queen of the Flowers – the Rose.

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 54

Listen to Sonnet 54 on YouTube

The YouTube video is by Darrel Walters check out his Book: The Wit and Wisdom of Shakespeare on his Website: http://www.sonnetsofshakespeare.com

Sonnet 54 (full text)

 

Thank you for visiting. Happy Sunday.

07 Roses in Literature (Shakespeare)

Click the image to enlarge

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 35

No more be grieved at that which thou hast done:
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud:
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are;
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,
Thy adverse party is thy advocate,
And ‘gainst myself a lawful plea commence:
Such civil war is in my love and hate,
That I an accessary needs must be,
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.

Sonnet 35 on YouTube

Music: Franz Schubert Serenade. Read by: Andrew Buzzeo

Sonnet 35 Analysis

Scholars around the world have analysed and broken down the meaning of the sonnet’s of William Shakespeare, and there are some wonderful blogs and websites you can check out for yourself I like the blog posts of Interesting Literature. Click HERE for their analysis of the sonnet.

My thoughts in a nutshell are that William, is forgiving the youth for straying into pastures new. He tells us that even things of beauty such as the rose are not always perfect.

There are also many articles on what a sonnet is but to check out my version, visit my 1st post click  HERE and also read about William Shakespeare’s Sonnet No.1

Thank you for visiting. Happy Reading

06 Roses in Literature (Shakespeare)

Happy Mother’s Day to All

(Click the images to enlarge the text)

Today being Mother’s Day in the UK the theme for #ShakespeareSunday is of course Mothers.  I have chosen my short verse featuring Roses in Literature from Hamlet, so thought it befitting to feature Queen Gertrude the widow of the late King of Denmark he now the Ghost in the story.

The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark

The scene I chose to share is where Hamlet meets the Ghost of his Father and the truth of his death is revealed. Telling how the King was killed by his brother Claudius who has now sweet talked Queen Gertrude into becoming his wife, therefore making him the new King. The Ghost is asking his son to seek revenge. The above quote is at the very end of the video.

 

I am really enjoying my Shakespeare Sunday’s, I hope you are too? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you for visiting. Happy Sunday.

Shakespeare & Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 3 celebrates how a young man takes on the looks of his Mother. The poem encourages him to take a wife so they might have children of their own that one day he will look upon their beautiful faces and remember himself in his own youth and how he resembles his Mother.

Sonnet No. 03 on YouTube celebrating Mothers

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 03 in full

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose uneared womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love, to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother’s glass and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime;
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.
But if thou live, remembered not to be,
Die single and thine image dies with thee.

To find out what a sonnet is, visit my 1st post click  HERE and read about William Shakespeare’s Sonnet No.1

I hope you enjoyed this little post and if you are a Mother hope you have a wonderful day.

Thanks for Visiting

 

 

 

05 Roses in Literature (Shakespeare)

Shakespeare’s Sonnet No.1

The sonnets of William Shakespeare are said to have been published in 1609 by Thomas Thorpe. Supposedly without permission of William himself. Thorpe did however get himself a licence to publish these works of fiction.

There are 154 sonnets by Shakespeare. Sonnets 01 to 126 are aimed at a young man, 127 to 152 are to a dark lady, and the final two are adaptations of Greek Poems.

What is a Sonnet?

Originating in Italy, the sonnet derives from the word ‘sonetto little poem or son for song from the Latin sonus meaning sound, so little song’. Traditionally the Italian version was eight lines in length. The Italian’s introduced the sonnets to England in the time of the Tudors.

Now the English version exists as fourteen lines, each line ten syllables in length. The most common form is generally three quatrains (a verse of four lines with often alternating rhymes) followed by a rhyming couplet (a pair of lines that rhyme generally of the same length) .  ABAB CDCD EFEF GG 

William Shakespeare was one of the most famous ‘sonneteers’ the name sometimes given to the writers of sonnets. One of the most well known of the Shakespearean Sonnets is No. 18 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

Sonnet No. 1 on YouTube

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 01 in full

 From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’st flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee

Many scholars study the meaning of the sonnets and the general idea behind this one is that the poet is speaking to a young man. Telling him he is handsome but he should get his act together, stop playing around and take on a wife so that he might have children to carry on his memories and pass his beauty on to the next generation.

I am really enjoying my Shakespeare Sunday’s, I hope you are too? i would love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you for visiting. Happy Sunday.

 

 

04 Roses in Literature (Shakespeare)

The Two Noble Kinsmen

‘The Two Noble Kinsmen’ by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare is said to be based on Chaucer’s ‘Knight’s Tale’. Classed as one of Shakespeare’s tragi-comedies. It is believed to have first appeared in print in 1634.

It is the romantic tale of ‘two noblemen’ Palamon and Arcite who are the closest of friends until they see Emilia and each fall passionately in love with her, afterwards becoming bitter rivals.

Act 2 Scene 2 Line 135

Emilia (to her Woman): Of all flowers,
Methinks a rose is best.

Woman: Why, gentle madam?

Emilia: It is the very emblem of a maid.
For when the west wind courts her gently
How modestly she blows, and paints the sun
With her chaste blushes! When the north comes near her,
Rude and impatient, then, like chastity,
She locks her beauties in her bud again,
And leaves him to base briars.

Emilia is strolling with her woman in the garden when Palamon spots her and falls silent. I found a wonderful audio sample of the conversation between the two friends shortly after Emilia speaks about the rose.

The Two Noble Kinsmen Audio Sample

RSC trailer from 2016

I also discovered a wonderful modern version of the play by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) by Blanche McIntyre 2016. Take a peek at the trailer.

Well I hope you enjoyed this preview of one of the lesser known of Shakespeare’s plays. Check out the video plot on the RSC page, I would love to know your views on the modern day play. It certainly is a twist in the tale.

Thank You for visiting