On October 28, the new film Anonymous opens in wide release. Anonymous is a political thriller which postulates that the true author of the works we attribute to William Shakespeare was, in fact, Edward De Vere, the Earl of Oxford. …
Category: Shakespeare
Twenty-Three Takes on Richard III
Making the rounds on the Internet recently is this fabulous video by impressionist Jim Meskimen performing Clarence’s speech from Shakespeare’s Richard III. (Meskimen, by the way, is the son of the actress Marion Ross who played Mrs. Cunningham on the …
The Fate of the Folios: A Tale of Intrigue at the Folger
Henry Clay Folger was a man with a mission. His goal was to obtain every possible copy of William Shakespeare’s venerated “First Folio” in existence. Folger began his obsessive quest in 1893 and over the next 35 years, he acquired …
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Toga! Toga! Toga! It’s the Ides of March!
In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, a soothsayer warns the would-be king to “Beware the Ides of March.” Like the basis for many of Shakespeare’s plays, the impetus is not completely original. In this case, he adapted the line from Plutarch’s …
Ten Worst Novel Cover Art of All Time
Authors rarely have any say in what cover art is chosen to adorn their works. The interpretations can often be down-right ridiculous. Here, for your viewing pleasure/horror are the worst-of-the-worst, the baddest-of-the-bad, and the silliest-of-the-silliest. Here we have Jane Eyre, …
Bikini Shakespeare? Thanks, YouTube
Ah, YouTube. While it’s undoubtedly a place to be entertained, discover amazing talent, and even learn, it’s also home to pretty much the worst in lowest-common-denominator promotional content of every stripe. Several readers emailed the eNotes tipline to let us …
Shakespeare in the Original Pronunciation: Worthy Exercise?
Opening ext week at the University of Kansas, a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is billed as the first original pronunciation production of a Shakespeare play to ever be staged on American soil. The video above is from the …
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Watch The New Hamlet Film Online
PBS is now streaming their recent adaptation of Hamlet starring David Tennant as Hamlet, Sir Patrick Stewart as Claudius and the Ghost, Oliver Ford Davies as Polonius, Mariah Gale as Ophelia, and Edward Bennet as Laertes. The film was directed …