To understand Shakespeare means it’s important to understand the historical period. Shakespeare wrote his plays knowing well the historical and cultural temperature of the day. He understood that the English people knew their history and traced it through the monarchy. Shakespeare’s plays included in his repertoire what are known as the Historicals: the Henrys, the Richards, along with Julius Caesar, King Lear, and company. Shakespeare based his plays on the history known, but of course, being a writer, he no doubt embellished the history–he had to sell tickets, after all. Funny thing, often what he wrote became better known than actual history. Take Julius Caesar, for instance. The famous line, “Et tu, Brute?” is a Shakespeare addition. No one actually knows what Caesar said when he was being stabbed by the toga team, but he sold tickets with that line and still does today.
Shakespeare knew his kingly characters had already made history, plus they were trapped by it. He couldn’t change their deeds too much. The Elizabethans were aware of their past and Shakespeare’s history plays helped them understand where they came from and where they were headed. All the pageantry was both entertainment and a lesson.
That’s what makes Shakespeare last through the years. Teachers tend to have a lasting impression.
The word bank is beginning to burst forth once again with the many marvelous lexiconical delights gathered. Time to set a few free to frolic unfettered and perhaps adopted by word discerners, like you.
yakka: work, especially hard work. Teaching these days is yakka, yakka, yakka.
gnomon: the raised part of a sundial that casts the shadow. It’s nice knowing about the gnomon.
ataraxia: a state of freedom from emotional disturbance and anxiety; tranquility. The last couple of years of covid controversy leads to the need of some ataraxia.
whigmaleerie: a whimsical or fanciful ornament or contrivance; gimmick. Is a whirligig kin to a whigmaleerie?
skookum: large; powerful; impressive. A snookumcould be a skookum.
tchotchke: an inexpensive souvenir, trinket. Perhaps a whigmaleerie can be a tchotchke.
wintle: to tumble over; capsize. I would appreciate an Austen heroine to wintle in an appropriate moment.
mussitation: silent movement of the lips in simulation of the movements made in audible speech. It’s more than just talking to one’s self.
armscye: the armhole opening in a garment through which the hand, and then the arm, passes, and to which a sleeve may be attached. So that’s what’s it’s called.
zugzwang: in chess, a situation in which a player is limited to moves that cost pieces or have a damaging positional effect. Does checkers possess such a term?
Definitely an eclectic assortment that deserve finding their way into your personal dictionary. Which words will you wangle into your next conversation?
Call Someone’s Bluff:to uncover a deception. A poker term in which a player bets on his or best hand and to “bluff” is bet on a hand, even it might be the best. To “call someone’s bluff” is to match the bet and when the cards are revealed it is evident who had the best hand. American in origin, around 1800s, the term has moved on to mean confronting someone who might be believed to be less than forthright or might be less than honest in their endeavor.
A tangle of problems
Can of Worms (like opening): introducing a set of problems. Those who fish know when opening a can of worms they will find them tangled and squirming with one another. And so it is with some problems they way they can twist up upon one another, becoming entangled up into another problem. This term is from mid-twentieth century America.
Can’t See the Forest for the Trees: focusing on small details instead of looking at the greater picture. A 1546 proverb by John Heywood says “Ye cannot see the wood for the trees.” C.S. Lewis put a twist on the proverb when he said in a critique, “All those little details you only notice in real life if you’ve got a high temperature. You couldn’t see the word for the leaves.”
Cast One’s Bread Upon the Waters: to invest one’s efforts in expectation of a return. From the Book of Ecclesiastes (11:1): “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days,” which is thought to mean, according to Elbert Hubbard in his 1911 Book of Epigrams, “Cast your bread upon the waters and it will come back to you–buttered.”
Good point…
Catch More Flies with Honey Than Vinegar: more can be gained by being nice than being unpleasant Miguel de Cervantes states in his Don Quixote: “Make yourself into honey and the flies will devour you.” A hundred years later Thomas Fuller mentions in Gnomologia: “More Flies are taken with a Drop of Honey than a Tun of Vinegar.” The proverb can be found in many languages.
Cat Got Your Tongue:being silent when expected to answer. An expression found in both in America and in England that addressed how a child would go silent when asked a question to avoid getting in trouble. As to why the cat would have his or her tongue that might be derived from the French saying: “I give up, give my tongue to the cat.”
Change of Heart: revising one’s opinion or intentions The nineteenth century cliché appeared in the 1933 movie Duck Soup. Groucho Marx replied to a character comment of “He’s had a change of heart” by saying “A lot of good that’ll do him. He’s till got the same face.”
Charmed Life (leading a):to be fortunate; to escape harm or danger Shakespeare might be credited with this expression. In Macbeth the titular character claims he is protected against death: “I bear a charmed life, which must not yield to one of woman born.” That may be what he thought, but Macduff proved Macbeth’s belief quite wrong.
Chip Off the Old Block:resembling a parent This expression refers to a chip being from the same block of wood, just as a child comes from his or her parent. Dating back to ancient Greece the expression originally was “a chip of the old flint.” The expression traveled on through the times with writers such as John Milton borrowing it for use.
Clip Someone’s Wings: to deflate a person who thinks highly of themselves Although it sounds somewhat militaristic, the sayings refers to trimming out a bird’s wings so it cannot fly; however, the ancient Romans had a saying that went “Away to prison with him, I’ll clippe his winges.” Sounds a bit military after all, doesn’t it?
January. The start of a new year and the start of another Reading Challenge. For the past few years I have managed to hit my Goodreads goal of 101 books and then some. This last year I barely squeaked over the finish line with 107, while the year before a glorious 165 books were read. The difference? Both numbers are a result of the pandemic. Due to lockdown, both voluntary and requested, I dove into books as an escape. I would order them from the library and pick them up curbside and isolate, finding respite in pages turned. Yet in 2021 Covid weariness, a certain lassitude formed, and my attention span wandered when reading. I found myself hooked on Angry Birds Bubble Pop for a time. Non-fattening escapism. I did manage to go cold turkey, but now and then I am tempted to pull up the game from app cold storage.
Bubble Popping is not the same as page turning
January started off with a mixture of books. Some new discoveries and some long anticipated hold titles. Unfortunately, there were no true standouts. Or perhaps I am becoming much more discerning.
One book did catch my eye and it was discovered on the library free shelf. The cover alone prompted me to adopt it.
An unexpected surprise
Rollicking. Yes, that would be a fitting description of this “translated” manuscript that conveys the adventures of eighteen year old William Hawthorne who becomes a fugitive from the Empire for his seditious acts of writing plays and acting them out with a company of deplorable actors and through circumstances is adopted by a band of assassins. Imagine a young Will Ferrell running with a group of noble mercenaries. The book’s Will is an admitted coward who can’t shoot an arrow straight or ride a horse without falling off. He also has no luck with his attempts to woo the striking Rennette who would rather strike him than talk to him. This merry band, plus Will the homeless actor on the run, are hired to take on an army of mysterious raiders destroying the land. Will comically narrates his attempts to achieve heroism and along the way there are some awesome battle scenes. For those who relish Monty Python humor or like medieval adventures that have a mix of humor and action, then Will and his crew are suggested for your reading pleasure.
Not what I expected
I had placed my request for Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land when it first became available and patiently waited. All the Light We Cannot See being a stunner of a novel, my anticipation for his newest was high. The writing is as memorable, yet like another anticipated novel, Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, the plot became muddled and the ending was a letdown.
Fairly charming in approach
As a C.S. Lewis/Narnia fan, I patiently waited for my requested copy of Once Upon a Wardrobe. A blend of biography and enchanting tale of a sister devoted to her terminally ill brother, it wavered between a narrative point of view and third person, which impacted true reader investment, not knowing whose story to follow, the sister and brother’s or a recap of Lewis’s life.
The story is much better than this cover indicates
I tried the first of Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence series, having watched the adaptation. One problem is that the story’s snappy British slang became a bit wearisome after a time. My edition had footnotes explaining the terms which proved both enlightening and irritating.
I think I blushed a couple of times
One book I requested as an inter-library loan and I was gratified that the library ordered: My Lady’s Choosing: An Interactive Romance. This is a choose your own adventure for adults but the romance adventures were a bit more focused on steamier interludes than anticipated.
A stirring debut
Another requested and purchased title was A Million Things by Emily Spurr. An engaging debut about a ten year old girl who must cope with her mother’s extended absence. Some suspension of disbelief as this plucky, capable little girl tried to manage life on her own for a time, even though her elderly neighbor next door befriended her. The interaction and eventual friendship between the orphaned girl and her neighbor who has her own issues is the center of the story.
Several interesting reads, yet none really stood out as earning a place on my “You’ve-Got-To-Read-This-Next” list I give my hubs.
Hoping for February to deliver some good great reads.
Pam Webb 