Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?
From: CapriUni
Date: 05 Jul 04 - 10:45 PM

Robin --

the word "Nothing" was current slang for.... um, er, to quote Hamlet, "Country Matters".... :-)

Heh. I like it! (Hey! what were you two doing out behind the barn, last night? ... Oh... Nothing!) Yeah, I think we should that back... ;-)

Also, back in those days "Nothing" was pronounced very much like "Noting" -- or, in other words, listening and eavesdropping. And (I don't think I'm spoilering too much, here) nearly every twist of the plot (and subplot) depends on the careful orchastration of who overhears whom say what...

Also, the woman eulogized in the song I cited above is named "Hero" or "Her O," 'O' being current slang for ... erm... the part of a woman's body men generally make much ado about...

That Will was a great one for puns. I can easily imagine a dinner conversation with him being punctuated by much groaning and rolling of eyes.   He would have fit right in on the 'Cat.

On a more serious note, and bringing this thread back to the starting subject, there is also a key scene in the play that involves the challenge of a duel -- and one that is much more serious than over the cut of a gentleman's beard.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 01:57 AM

As I remember it the passage (pardon!) from Hamlet goes...

"Madam, shall I lie in your lap? I mean, my head upon your lap? What? Did you think I meant country matters?"

Puns were considered highly at the period - it required intellect to handle the creation and interpretation of them. Later on, it became fashionable to say "Puns are the lowest form of wit".

I remember participating in the staging of play where the buffoons were inciting their cowardly mate to fight a duel with an equally cowardly cross-gartered fool (pick the play!) and both characters were trying to fight the duel while staying as far away from each other as possible... (in case they got hurt!) :-)

The Bard is not to be read, but acted on a stage... Hence the inspiration for many of The Fooles Troupe Routines I wrote - they look dead on paper, but once you get on your feet, they become very visual, and hilarious!

Robin

Subject: RE: Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?
From: CapriUni
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 04:31 PM

Hmmm... That cross-gartered fool wouldn't happen to have been wearing yellow garters, would he, inspired to do so, perhaps, by a carefully planted counterfeit letter?

If I'm correct in this (and I trust I am, as that scene is one of my favorites), I should probably take the oportunity to point out that at least two of the songs Shakespeare used in that play are in the DT...

Another hint/question: As far as I can recall, this is the only play of his in which the epilogue is sung. Am I correct in that?

And another question: Is this epilogue original to Shakespeare, or did he adapt a popular song? Does anyone know?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?
From: greg stephens
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 05:06 PM

CapriUni:
I dont know if there is any evidence as to whether "When that I was a little tiny boy" is a Shakespeare original or not. But an interesting fact is that there is a song that uses the same format in King Lear:
"He that hath a little tiny wit
With a heigh ho the wind and the rain
Must make content with his fortunes fit
For the rain it raineth every day"

This might be held to suggest that there was an older song with the same refrains, that Shakespeare wrote two separate versions of.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?
From: CapriUni
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 07:42 PM

This might be held to suggest that there was an older song with the same refrains, that Shakespeare wrote two separate versions of.

Indeed, or that, perhaps the whole song was older, and Shakespeare just modified the lyrics a little bit to fit the scene the song appeared in...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?
From: CapriUni
Date: 07 Jul 04 - 02:21 PM

Greg--

I looked up When That I Was a Little Tiny Boy just now, in the DT, and in the notes there, it said the words and tune date back to circa 1550...

Seeing as Shakespeare was born in 1564, I think, based on this info, at least, it's safe to say he did not write the song... Assuming, of course, that the information in the DT is correct.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 08 Jul 04 - 08:49 AM

Duly saw the all-women Much Ado last night as a groundling in the open-air promenade arena at the Globe. The audience braved a veritable tempest of a night - a cold lashing wind, torrential downpour, thunder and lightening. The cast seemed to have no difficulty holding the audience's attention however, and merely raised their voices a few notches to be heard over the elements.

Being in the tow of my 12-year-old daughter I was somewhat relieved that the inuendo-laden punning I had been warned about in this thread was not overplayed! (Programme notes noted "noting" as the Elizabethan pronunciation of "nothing" and observed that this opened the way for various allusions. But the only one mentioned was the allusion to musical notation, this being something of a minor theme throughout the text. No mention of "noting" as a euphemism for nooky.)

Serious attention was paid to the songs and music. Most of the music (all of it on authentic period instruments (shawm, tabor, sackbut, recorder, etc) was from Italian sources, with one or two Spanish traditional tunes thrown in (as Messina had been under Spanish occupation).

CapriUni, the song "Pardon goddess of the night" was taken by all the cast and they followed what the programme notes described as a "calling voice" tradition still heard nowadays in many Mediterranean cultures. Quite punchy for religious song - a bit like the pub carol-singing in south Yorkshire.

As for the all-women cast.... It turns out that during the Restoration, there was some attempt to establish all-women companies in retaliation for the all-men companies that had hitherto prevailed. Reviving this at the Globe certainly gave the women plenty of opportunity to enjoy the various jokes at mens' expense. I need not have been concerned about it adding confusion to an already complicated plot. The costumes (Elizabethan, obviously) had been superbly designed, and the gender of the players was just not a factor. (Likewise with skin colour, showing with hindsight how ridiculous was all the nervousness about staging Othello in past years.) I still think it would help if the players had their names embroidered on their shirts. This has certainly been successful in football.

In fact the rough-and-ready feel of the whole production, the inclement weather and the hopeless impracticalities of the Globe itself gave the whole experience something of the feel of a school play. It brought home how tolerant and good-natured Elizabethan audiences must have been, and how far they were willing to suspend disbelief, in their determination to be entertained. Amazing that such literary riches should have been born out of such simple stuff.

In short, anyone interested in Shakespeare should try to catch at least one production at the Globe. On last night's showing, it isn't remotely touristy in the way I had expected, and you do leave with a real sense of where and how all this began.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?
From: CapriUni
Date: 08 Jul 04 - 12:25 PM

Peter --

I am so glad you enjoyed the production (and that you weren't struck by lightning)!

As for the diffeculties Shakespeare himself faced... well, all plays were held during the daylight hours and scenes taking place in dim settings (such as the Capulets' family tomb) generally happened toward the end, when the stage was in shadow.

Shakespeare's players didn't have to compete with airplanes flying overhead, but did have to compete with a bear-baiting pit just down the road. As for the patience of his audiences... not so much. There are contemporary references to the groundlings heckling the actors and spitting orange seeds at them (venders would go through the audience selling oranges as refreshment). It was an event -- not unlike a football match, I imagine. And people then, as now, revel in the energy of being together at events like this.

Also, his audiences didn't have the multi-million dollar/pound movies to compare his productions to, the way we do. And all of the language would be familiar. And in the common parlance of the day, the term was "to go hear a play" rather than see a play.

--
So -- how did your daughter like the production?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?
From: White tiger
Date: 09 Jul 04 - 01:04 PM

White Ticger/ sorch here went with my dad ( Peter K Fionn) a few days ago to see much ado about nothing.
It was brill even though I got absolutly soaked by the rain as we were in Shakespeare's globe. ( I was a groundling !) I'll probably see some of you at Warwick anyway!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?
From: CapriUni
Date: 09 Jul 04 - 01:21 PM

That is great, Sorch! Much Ado is one of my very favorite plays (I even named my cat Beatrice after the heroine in that play).

Frankly, I think Beatrice and Benedick are a much more romantic couple than Romeo and Juliet, because it's clear that they've known each other a long time, and have grown to respect each other (even if they do tease each other mercilessly in the beginning), whereas with Romeo and Juliet, I get the feeling that most of the excitement of their love affair is in doing something their parents forbid.

And it says something that the actors were so good that they outdid the storm!

Huzzah for the theater!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?
From: CapriUni
Date: 10 Jul 04 - 10:54 AM

Peter -- you did a wonderful job describing the music in the production you saw the other night... but what about the "featured" song -- the one that Balthazar sings when Don Pedro, Leonato and Claudio first "bait" Benedick into falling in love with Beatrice?

(since the players didn't have their characters' names embroidered on the backs of their costumes, I'll cut and paste the lines):

BALTHASAR
Note this before my notes;
There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting.

DON PEDRO
Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks;
Note, notes, forsooth, and nothing.

Air

BENEDICK
Now, divine air! now is his soul ravished! Is it
not strange that sheeps' guts should hale souls out
of men's bodies? Well, a horn for my money, when
all's done.

The Song

BALTHASAR
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never:
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.
Sing no more ditties, sing no moe,
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leafy:
Then sigh not so, & c.

DON PEDRO
By my troth, a good song.

BALTHASAR
And an ill singer, my lord.

DON PEDRO
Ha, no, no, faith; thou singest well enough for a shift.
---
(Boy, talk about a left-handed compliment!) ;-P

Btw, in his film verison, Kenneth Branauh made this the "theme song" of the play -- having Beatrice (Emma Thompsom) recite the lines during the opening sequence, and having the entire cast sing it as a finale.

It's my gut feeling that this is a song that Shakespeare wrote specifically for the play. Not exactly sure why I think that, except maybe its slightly irreverent, satirical take on romance (kinda reminds me of the twentieth century t-shirt slogan: "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle."), and how neatly it dovetails into Beatrice's attitude toward marriage. It's a good "bait" song for Benedick, too, since if he overheard a song praising love and romance, he'd get his defenses up. But he's such a contrarian at heart, his instinct is to disprove any "common knowledge" -- if "they" say that men are untrue, than he'll be true.

If this is a lyric penned by Shakespeare, I fear it would be much harder to find the 'original' tune that goes with it...

But nonetheless, I wonder: does anyone out there know of an early tune this song was sung to?

How's that for a Mudcat challenge?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Chivalry/Courtesy in Shakespeare?
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 12 Jul 04 - 08:31 AM

Can't really help there, CapriUni. It wasn't a tune I recognised, but then there are very few from that period which I would. Relying on the programme notes, I assume the one they used at the Globe had its origins in Italy or Spain.

I agree that the song fits the plot so neatly that it's more likely to have been tailormade than off the peg.

I wonder if anyone has done a serious study of the tunes used, down the years, for Shakespeare's songs? For my part its an aspect of the plays I'd never thought about much until this thread and the Globe's Much Ado. I can't remember any other Shakespeare production I've seen where the programme included essays on the songs and music.