#The Winter's Tale

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

In defense of Shakespeare's Daughters

When students find out that:

Shakespeare has no living descendants (and that's why we don't have to ask "Which Shakespeare?" like we do with the Bach family),

That he did have a son, once, but that boy died when he was only ten years old, and

That son was named "Hamnet" (not a typo, BTW)

Those students who go on to become Shakespearean scholars can get a bit obsessed when it comes to themes of fathers, sons, and grief (particularly in that one play about a Prince of Denmark).

So I'd like to take this time to point out that Shakespeare was also the father to two daughters: his firstborn, Susanna, and Judith, Hamnet's twin sister.

And to help me make the point that the Father/Daughter relationship was important to him, and not just a consolation prize, here's a few of the plays that hinge on it (an incomplete list):

The Tempest: a father and daughter as the only humans on a tropical island.

Romeo and Juliet: The tragedy unfolds with exponential speed when Juliet's father decides that she must marry Tybolt immediately.

Much ado About Nothing: The comedy almost becomes a tragedy when Leonato rejects his daughter during the wedding ceremony.

The Winter's Tale: In the first half of the play, the jealous king rejects his infant daughter, wrongly thinking she is a bastard. In the second half of the play, we see the daughter as a teenager, and her relationship with her adoptive father, a shepherd; the play is resolved when she returns home, with her adoptive father, to her birth father.

Hamlet: Let's face it -- the whole play gets mired in schemes, secrets, and second guesses until Ophelia's response to her father's death unleashes a flood of action.

Merry Wives of Windsor: the "B Plot" is all about how the young adult daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Page successfully schemes to marry the young man she actually loves, instead of either of the arranged marriages her parents are hoping for.

#Shakespeare #father/daughter #plot points #The Tempest #Romeo and Juliet #Much Ado About Nothing #The Winter's Tale #Hamlet #Merry Wives of Windsor

[azamansource]

Happy 33rd birthday, bambi eyes Assad Zaman! [10/05/1990]

#assad zaman #interview with the vampire #east is east #salomé #the saint of southall #coriolanus #hotel portofino #the winter's tale #romisedits

[bethanydelleman]

Shakespearean Men believing their wife/betrothed is cheating on them by evidence offered, ranked from most sympathetic to least:

1. Othello, Othello: subject to a premeditated slander campaign, handkerchief used as evidence, takes a while for him to believe it. Understandable, if horrible, and very tragic.

2. Posthumus, Cymbeline: proof in the form of a love token and the description of his wife's body. Also kind of understandable because they were subject to a seperation of unknown length. Murder was a little extreme though...

3. Claudio, Much Ado About Nothing: tricked by a man who literally just tricked him, sees two figures in the dark and a woman calling herself "Hero", immediately willing to believe it. Somewhat understandable, I guess, maybe.

4. Leontes, The Winter's Tale: VIBES. Pure vibes, man.

At some point between 3 and 4, did Shakespeare just lose his faith in humanity?

#these are the ones I've read #they may be more i haven't read/watched all the plays yet #Shakespeare #the winter's tale #Cymbeline #much ado about nothing #othello #the Winter's Tale was one of his last plays #summer reading interlude #cheating plots #none of these women did actually cheat by the way

[losingbenni]

ASSAD ZAMAN The Story of The Winter's Tale (2020) | Royal Shakespeare Company

#assad zaman #the winter's tale #theatre #mygifs

[venustapolis]

Perdita (Frederick Sandys, 1866)

#art #19th century art #19th century painting #1800s #1860s #frederick sandys #🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #perdita #1866 #the winter's tale #william shakespeare #timeless beauty #aeterna venustas #el eterno femenino

[his-quietus-make]

The Woman's Part

Sooo hey. I finally did something with my Shakespeare MA...

The Woman's Part is a collection of original prose and erasure poetry inspired by Shakespeare's women — their unlived lives, unspoken desires, and unwritten stories — using speeches and characters from thirteen plays.

It's been described as:

"A small piece of genius [showing] not only a profound understanding of Shakespeare, but of humankind in general." — Cathy Ulrich, author of Ghosts of You

and

"[The Woman's Part] has reimagined Ophelia and Juliet and more into striking freedom through speaking up, sailing away, and eating hearts." — Gwen Kirby, author of Shit Cassandra Saw

and

"To read it is to join the rebellion. An affecting and finely-crafted masterpiece which invites us to unlearn our deepest Bard-based archetypes. Stunning, incisive and fearless writing from one of the most exciting new voices on the literary scene." — Dr Chris Laoutaris, The Shakespeare Institute

~

I put my heart, my rage, and all my obsession with Shakespeare into this, and I would love for you to read it.

Available from most places you get books — a list of easy links at Stanchion Books

#shakespeare #Portia #The Merchant of Venice #Ophelia #Hamlet #Juliet #Romeo & Juliet #Lady Macbeth #Macbeth #Emilia #Othello #Beatrice #Much Ado About Nothing #Hermione #The Winter's Tale #Lavinia #Titus Andronicus #Volumnia #Coriolanus #Cordelia #King Lear #Isabella #Measure for Measure #Cleopatra #Antony & Cleopatra #Imogen #Cymbeline #feminism #feminist literature #feminist poetry

[vadreams]

Fumi Kaneko and Vadim Muntagirov as Hermione and Leontes in rehearsal for The Winter's Tale - Royal Opera House, 2024

📸: dancersdiary, from Vadim Muntagirov's Instagram

#fumi kaneko #vadim muntagirov #the winter's tale #rehearsal #I'm super normal about this you people #fumi and vadim #my beloveds #I have a couple of gifs from their rehearsal upcoming maybe hopefully root for me

[socialshakespeare]

Social Shakespeare has Merch!

We are making another post to let you know about some of the new designs we've put up on the Redbubble Shop! Some of these came into being just yesterday during a reading of A Winter's Tale! We hope you enjoy them.

If you have suggestions for quotes or other things you’d like to see, send me a message! If you’d like to design something, EVEN BETTER.

#Social Shakespeare #Merchandise #The Winter's Tale #As You Like It #Titus Andronicus #The Merry Wives of Windsor #Cymbeline #shakespeare

[withasideofshakespeare]

Do you remember The Great Shakespeare Playlist?

Well, I've finally caught up with submissions, now with a new playlist on a Shakespeare-specific YouTube channel (also withasideofshakespeare) and individual playlists for each play!

Find out more (and listen to the main playlist or the playlists for your favorite plays) here:

#shakespeare #the great shakespeare playlist #the plays with the most songs (in order) #hamlet #two gentlemen of verona #love's labor's lost #(both of these have musical versions!) #romeo & juliet #macbeth #the henriad (combo of richard ii through henry v) #much ado about nothing #julius caesar #twelfth night #measure for measure #coriolanus #the tempest #othello #king lear #a midsummer night's dream #the winter's tale #the merchant of venice #troilus and cressida #the war of the roses (a combo of 1 henry vi through richard iii) #the taming of the shrew

[queerhamlet]

sometimes a family can be you, your shepherd adopted dad, his sheep and his bisexual son, the vagabond he has a gay thing with who happens to be the greek god Hermes, your princely bf, his dad, his loyal boytoy who's lavender married to a dykeish witch, her bff and lady aka your mother who's Jesus Christ if she was a statue, your reformed cunt biological father, 12 dancing satyrs and a man eating bear symbolizing justice

#yes. one of my favourite shakespeare plays #winter's tale #og #in order: #perdita #old shepherd #sheep #clown winterstale #autolycus #florizel #polixenes #camillo #paulina #hermione #leontes #12 dancing satyrs #satyrs #bear #the winter's tale

[uwmspeccoll]

Shakespeare Weekend!

This weekend we return to Nicholas Rowe’s (1674-1718) The Work of Mr. William Shakespear; in Six Volumes. Published in London in 1709 by Jacob Tonson (1655-1736), perhaps the most prolific of Shakespeare publishers, this second edition holds an important place within Shakespearean publication history. The Work of Mr. William Shakespear; in Six Volumes is recognized as the first octavo edition, the first illustrated edition, the first critically edited edition, and the first to present a biography of the poet.  

This week, we introduce you to the second which consists of all comedies, including A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Taming of the Shrew, All’s Well that Ends Well, Twelfth-Night; or What You Will, and The Winter’s Tale. A full-page engraving by the French Baroque artist and book illustrator François Boitard (1670-1715) precedes each play. 

In addition to Rowe’s editorial decisions to divide the plays into scenes and include notes on the entrances and exits of the players, he also normalised the spelling of names and included a dramatis personae preceding each play. The only chronicled critique of Rowe’s momentous editorial endeavor is his choice in basing his text on the corrupt Fourth Folio. 

Perhaps of interest to some of our readers is the exceptional use of signature marks and catchwords throughout the volumes of The Work of Mr. William Shakespear; in Six Volumes. Found on the bottom of the pages, the signature marks and catchwords helped the bookbinder or printer make sure the pages were sent to the press in the right order and that subsequent leaves were bound in the correct order. Signature marks through the use of a letter and number combination marking the first page of a leaf or section, and catchwords by way of anticipating the first word of the following page.  

View more volumes of The Works of Mr. William Shakespear; in Six Volumes here.

View more Shakespeare Weekend posts.

-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern

#Shakespeare Weekend #William Shakespeare #Shakespeare #Nicholas Rowe #The Works of Mr. William Shakespear #Jacob Tonson #François Boitard #A Midsummer Night's Dream #Merchant of Venice #As You Like It #Taming of the Shrew #All's Well That Ends Well #Twelfth-Night or What You Will #The Winter's tale #signature mark #catchword #etching

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

(via selchieproductions)

* * * *

“O Proserpina! For the flowers now that frighted thou let'st fall From Dis’s waggon! daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty; violets dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes Or Cytherea’s breath; pale prime-roses, That die unmarried, ere they can behold Bright Phœbus in his strength, a malady Most incident to maids; bold oxlips and The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds, The flower-de-luce being one. O! these I lack To make you garlands of, and my sweet friend, To strew him o'er and o'er!”

— Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale

#Shakespeare #The Winter's Tale #daffodils #spring #quotes

[azamansource]

Assad Zaman & Georgia Landers as Florizel and Perdita in RSC’s 2021 production of The Winter’s Tale

#assad zaman #royal shakespeare company #somebody take photoshop away from me #also sorry about the quality #unfortunately that's all bbc has to offer #the winter's tale #theatre #romisedits

[bethanydelleman]

Tell me what blessings I have here alive, that I should fear to die?

Hermione, The Winter's Tale

Hero in Much Ado About Nothing says so little after being accused of being unfaithful. Hermione says so much, and all of it breaks your heart.

#shakespeare #the winter's tale #hermoine #nothing left to live for #summer reading interlude

[losingbenni]

ASSAD ZAMAN as Florizel The Winter's Tale, 2021 | Royal Shakespeare Company

#assad zaman #the winter's tale #theatre #mygifs

[lazarusemma]

looks like that's my exit cue

#em og post #the winter's tale