Peter Brown Shakespeare and the Italian Renaissance

British School FVG: Trieste - Italy

Prologue – gli Ambasciatori

• … fussimo ben veduti e onorati …né tardò molto che comparve la serenissima Regina, e … disse la Maestà Sua medesima in lingua nostra:

• “...Certo, signori, si deve tener conto de’ principi, e non solo di quelli, ma anco delle cose che dicono…”

Zuanne Falier, M’A et Z Mocenigi, Alvise Foscari, Amb.tori

Shakespeare in 1599from Rinascimento to Renaissance?400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s Death, 2016

Peter BrownFounder Chair, Eaquals

Eaquals, Florence, 19th November 2016

Shakespeare and the CEFRThe role of cultural Mediation

400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s Death, 2016

Peter BrownFounder Chair, Eaquals

Eaquals, Florence, 19th November 2016


“..On September 21st after lunch, about two o'clock, I and my party crossed the water, and there in the house with the thatched roof witnessed an excellent performance of the tragedy of the first Emperor Julius Caesar with a cast of some fifteen people; when the play was over, they danced very marvellously and gracefully together as is their wont, two dressed as men and two as women...”

21st September 1599 – an eyewitness account :


21st September 1599 – an eyewitness account :


• The “the house with the thatched roof”, the Globe, constructed

• Shakespeare is 35• Henry V – completed• Julius Caesar – written and performed• As You Like It – written and performed• Hamlet – first drafted• The East India Company founded in London

London, 1599 – abstract chronicles of our time :


• Lorenzo il Magnifico dies• Jews expelled from Spain• Inquisition• Columbus and America• The competitive Renaissance at its

peak• But takes 100 years to cross the

Channel

1492 – the shaping of an Age :



1300 – 1305 Giotto


Consider your origins: you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.




Ibn Sīnā 980 – 1087 CE




• Algebra• Arithmetic• Alchemy, chemistry• Algorithm• Adobe, admiral, albatross, alcohol,

alcove, alkali, apricot, arsenal, artichoke, assassin, aubergine, average, azimuth, azure ...

Arabic numerals e.g. 1599 – and etymologies


Jan van Eyck 1434


Cosimo 1389 - 1464


Lorenzo 1449 - 1492






London, 1599 – abstract chronicles of our time









((




Brutus – not that I loved Caesar less,but that I loved Rome more. :




• The great enquiry - the nature of Nature itself – of the physical world, of the inner world of human nature

• Response to a corrupt system• Retreat to an older, idyllic, Utopian

world• The dangers of appealing to the mob• Is it morally acceptable to kill a tyrant?• The dangers of dictatorship

1599 – Julius Caesar, As You Like It Hamlet


• Probably the second play performed at the new Globe, immediately after Julius Caesar

• A boy actor playing a woman: Rosalind– Rosalind pretending to be a man:

Ganymede– Ganymede pretending to be a woman...

1599 – As You Like It



Petrarch: abba abba cde cdeShakespeare: abab cdcd efef gg


• Nor rhyme nor reason• Forever and a day• Time travels at different speeds for different

people. I can tell you who time strolls for, who it trots for, who it gallops for, and who it stops cold for. R to O

• J: Rosalind is your love's name?O: Yes, just.J: I do not like her name.O: There was no thought of pleasing you when she was christened

• I do desire we may be better strangers. Orlando to J

1599 – As You Like It


National Theatre – Rosalind :


2006 – Kenneth Branagh | Bryce Dallas Howard as Rosalind, David Oyelowo as Orlando



As You Like It, II.7. 139-167

All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely

players;



They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages.



At first, the infant,Mewling and puking in the nurse's

arms.



Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school.



And then the lover,Sighing like furnace, with a woeful

balladMade to his mistress' eyebrow.


As You Like It, II.7. 139-167 Then a soldier,Full of strange oaths and bearded

like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputationEven in the canon's mouth.


As You Like It, II.7. 139-167 And then the justice,In fair round belly with good capon

lined,With eyes severe and beard of formal

cut,Full of wise saws and modern

instances;And so he plays his part.


As You Like It, II.7. 139-167 The sixth age shiftsInto the lean and slippered pantaloon With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;His youthful hose, well saved, a world too

wideFor his shrunk shank, and his big manly

voice,Turning again toward childish treble, Pipes and whistles in his sound.



Last scene of all,That ends this strange eventful history,Is second childishness and mere

oblivion,Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans

everything.



“..not of an Age,but for all Time..”Introduction to the First Folio

by Ben JonsonPublished 1623


• “The historian speaks of what has happened, the poet of what can happen” Aristotle – Poetics

• “The true discoverer or Explorer is not he who discovers new lands, but he who sees the world with new eyes” attributed to Columbus

Epilogue – i Maestri



Antony – Julius Caesar (1599), Act V, Scene v, spoke of the defeated Brutus:His life was gentle, and the elements

So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world 'This was a man!‘

Epilogue – il Maestro

The British School FVG – TriesteVia Torrebianca, 18

Trieste – Italy

Thank you!

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1890 – Ada Rehan as Rosalind :


1890 – Lilly Langtree as Rosalind :


2016 – set in World War I :





“..not of an Age,but for all Time..”Introduction to the First Folio

by Ben JonsonPublished 1623


Forensic reconstruction


The British School FVG – TriesteVia Torrebianca, 18

Trieste – Italy

Thank you!

++39 040 [email protected]


• 1498 – the last supper• 1541 – the last judgment• 1504 – David• 1514 Titian | Tiziano Sacred &

Profane



Education

Peter Brown Shakespeare and the Italian Renaissance