Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard (19 page)

I always work from the assumption that Shakespeare is right more often than not, brilliant playwright that he was, and knew more about drama than I do. If something doesn’t make sense I’ll work at it, and work at it again. I’ll go away, think about it, work at it again,
then
question whether it might just be bad writing. It’s too easy to cut or rewrite something because it doesn’t make sense immediately.

Even if it’s a quick look, I always find it’s worth at least
comparing
the Folio with a modern edition, to see what I might be losing. And even if this system is a haphazard accident of typesetters –
it still works
.

Take a look at a speech from
Titus Andronicus
. The Goth is describing how he discovers Aaron the Moor talking to his baby, and how he captures them both (the bold type marks out the end of a thought):

P
ENGUIN
E
DITION

Second Goth

Renowned Lucius from our troops I strayed

To gaze upon a ruinous monastery,

And as I earnestly did fix mine eye

Upon the wasted building, suddenly

I hear a child cry
underneath a wall
.

I made unto the noise, when soon I heard

The crying babe controlled with this discourse:

‘Peace, tawny slave, half me and
half thy dam
!

Did not thy hue bewray whose brat thou art,

Had nature lent thee but thy mother’s look,

Villain, thou mightst have
been an emperor
.

But where the bull and cow are both milk-white,

They never do beget a
coal-black calf
.

Peace, villain,
peace
!’ – even thus he rates the babe –

‘For I must bear thee to a trusty Goth

Who, when he knows thou art the Empress’ babe,

Will hold thee dearly for
thy mother’s sake
.’

With this my weapon drawn, I rushed upon him,

Surprised him suddenly, and brought him hither

To use as you think needful
of the man
.

F
OLIO EDITION

Goth
.

Renowned
Lucius
, from our troups I straid,

To gaze vpon a ruinous Monasterie,

And as I earnestly did fixe mine eye

Vpon the wasted building, suddainely

I heard a childe cry vnderneath a wall:

I made vnto the noyse, when soone I heard,

The crying babe control’d with this discourse:

Peace Tawny slaue, halfe me, and halfe thy Dam,

Did not thy Hue bewray whose
brat thou art
?

Had nature lent thee, but thy Mothers looke,

Villaine thou might’st haue bene an
Emperour
.

But where the Bull and Cow are both milk-white,

They neuer do beget a cole-blacke-Calfe:

Peace, villaine peace, euen thus he rates the babe,

For I must beare thee to a trusty Goth,

Who when he knowes thou art the Empresse babe,

Will hold thee dearely for
thy Mothers sake
.

With this, my weapon drawne I rusht vpon him,

Surpriz’d him suddainely, and brought him hither

To vse, as you thinke needefull
of the man
.

(
Titus Andronicus
, Act 5, Scene 1, lines 20–39)

The capital letters are probably the first things that will jump out at you as being different – and, rather handily, a quick glance at them will give you an idea of what the speech is all about:

These capital letters tell us who the Goth is talking to, where he was when he found Aaron, a number of descriptive words about Aaron’s baby, and Aaron’s main concerns – the mother and the Emperor. By this point in the play we know the child is illegitimate, that the Empress and Aaron have been having an affair behind the Emperor’s back, and that the colour of the babe’s skin would make it clear who the real father was …

But if you didn’t know all this plot information – as
indeed the actor in Shakespeare’s time speaking the speech most likely wouldn’t, not having read the whole play – but you are used to your writer’s style, a quick scan of the speech tells the whole story.

Every capitalised word except
Lucius
and
Goth
is lost from the Penguin edition.

Also, the way the speeches are presented to you is quite different in the two editions. The Penguin version has six thoughts, and two exclamation marks, whereas the Folio has four thoughts, and one question mark. It may seem pedantic, but full stops and exclamation marks are pretty demanding things, and very hard not to follow. The extra full stops in the Penguin version break the speech up a lot more and halt the flow, and exclamation marks all too often get interpreted as ‘time to shout’.

The Folio version flows more, and is less measured – more a breathless account of a foot soldier than a piece of classical poetry.

Actors often don’t like being told how to say a line by anyone other than the writer or the director. If writers want a word or a sentence exclaimed, they’ll probably add an exclamation mark. If they don’t, they won’t. How can Shakespeare editors – fine, upstanding people though they are – have any idea about whether a line should be exclaimed or not, when it can take weeks for a modern actor to decide how to deliver a line?

All that said, we need modern editions, and they’re bloody useful. For one thing, the metre is laid out as it should be (I’ll show you what I mean by that in a moment), and, unsurprisingly, that gets my vote.

Going to the Folio – which, as my Father the Linguist would be quick to point out, is (a) far from reliable and (b) has punctuation and spelling that was far from standardised; and so (c) to rely on the placing of a comma would be foolhardy – is still, in my mind, going as far back and getting as close to Shakespeare’s intention as we ever will. It wipes the canvas of the text as clean as possible, without modern interpretations forced on us. The Royal Shakespeare Company seems to agree: their latest edition of the plays, despite making some editorial changes and additions, attempts to follow the Folio texts throughout.

Another reason why I like and recommend it so much is that the Folio spelling reminds you how
olde
the texts are, which reminds you of the world they were written in, and so keeps more of an Elizabethan head on your shoulders.

In Act 1 we looked at why a general idea of the Elizabethan life and theatrical context was important in getting to grips with Shakespeare; now we’ll see just how vital a little bit of background knowledge can be, when we take a look at Shakespeare’s hidden clues to his actors.

Shockingly exclaimed …!

A great example of the changes modern editors make is in Patrick Tucker’s
Secrets of Acting Shakespeare
. Tucker uses lines of Romeo’s from
Romeo and Juliet
(Act 5, Scene 1, lines 22–4), providing all the Elizabethan versions. Romeo has just been told (inaccurately, as it turns out) that Juliet, his love, has died:

First Quarto
(
1597
)

Pardon me Sir, that am the Messenger of such bad tidings.

Rom: Is it euen so? Then I defie my Starres.

Second Quarto
(
1599
)

O Pardon me for bringing these ill newes,

Since you did leave it for my office Sir.

Rom. Is it euen so?

Then I denie you Starres.

First Folio
(
1623
)

O pardon me for bringing these ill newes,

Since you did leave it for my office sir.

Rom. Is it in so?

Then I denie you starres.

Now, putting on the hat of a modern editor, you can see it would be hard to work out which version of the line Shakespeare intended. The interesting thing, though, as Tucker points out, is that none of the modern editors choose any of the lines handed down from the Elizabethans in their entirety, rather choosing to amalgamate the lines, and (surprise surprise) most adding an exclamation mark for good effect.

This is just one example of the changes modern editors make. It’s right to try to make more sense of the line, but one of the meanings of
denie
in Elizabethan times was
renounce
; the
starres
were
fate
or
destiny
. So the Folio and Second Quarto versions
do
make sense as they are.

As for the added exclamation mark, well, at this moment, Romeo could be crying, screaming, or speaking softly, but the added mark doesn’t leave very much room for interpretation …

Scene 4

Brooklyn, 1990

W
hen you’re faced with having to analyse, write about, or simply just enjoy a piece of Shakespeare that you don’t know, it can seem like a daunting task. So to take things to the other extreme for a moment, have a read through the song extract below:

High flyin like the Millennium Falcon, piloted by Han Solo

I never roll for dolo, frontin on me’s a no-no

Understand? Doin this for my family

Ha ha, check it out y’all

Yo I’m tryin to make a dollar out of what makes sense

Add it up, told my daddy I’d be a rich man

You never know when your fate gon’ switch hand

Get today’s solid ground out of yesterday’s quicksand

I was a young boy – who dreamt about being a big man

on small looseleaf sheets I sketched a big plan

Gotta handle business properly, boost up my economy

Store it up and get my mom some waterfront property

Yesterday was not for me but nowaday it’s time for me

The streets is watchin me, I watch back, that’s the policy

Movin along my oddesey like blood through the artery

Navigate the treacherous and make it seem effortless

Let those who make the exodus seekin the North beacon

from beatin and hog-eatin, from punishment all season

from hands cracked and bleedin – cotton thorns in your palms

It’s for y’all that I sketch these songs, and it goes
.

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow

I fear no man, because faith is the arrow

My vocal chord travel worldwide to block narrow

We can blow with the ammo or go mano-a-mano

Kweli is you wit me? (Whattup whattup?) Let’s make it happen

I *BURN* through your argument with action

My eyes stay fastened to tomorrow lookin for a brighter day

When y’all wanna leave y’all? Right away
…

‘Know That’, by Brooklyn hip-hop artist and actor Mos Def