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Hamlet criticism modified with references

From its premiere at the turn of the seventeenth century, Hamlet has been one of Shakespeare's best-known, most-imitated, and most-analyzed plays. The character of Hamlet played a critical role in Sigmund Freud's explanation of the Oedipus complex and thus profoundly influenced modern psychology. Even within the narrower field of literature, the play's influence has been profound. As R. A. Foakes writes, "No other character's name in Shakespeares plays, and few in literature, have come to embody an attitude to life...and been converted into a noun in this way."

16th century

The play's contemporary popularity is suggested both by the five quartos that appeared in Shakespeare's lifetime and by frequent contemporary references (though at least some of these could be to the so-called ur-Hamlet). These allusions suggest that already by the early Jacobean period, the play was famous for the ghost, and for its dramatization of melancholy and insanity. The procession of mad courtiers and ladies in Jacobean and Caroline drama frequently appears indebted to Hamlet. Other aspects of the play were also remembered. Looking back on Renaissance drama in 1655, Abraham Wright lauds the humor of the gravedigger's scene, although he suggests that Shakespeare was outdone by Thomas Randolph, whose farcical comedy The Jealous Lovers features both a travesty of Ophelia and a graveyard scene.

Later seventeenth century

Restoration critics responded to Hamlet in terms of the same dichotomy that shaped response to Shakespeare in general. On the one hand, Shakespeare was seen as primitive and untutored, both in comparison to later English dramatists such as Fletcher and, especially, when measured against the neoclassical  ideals of art brought back from France with the Restoration. On the other, Shakespeare remained popular not just with mass audiences but even with the very critics made uncomfortable by his ignorance of Aristotle's unities and decorum.

Thus, critics considered Hamlet in a milieu which abundantly demonstrated the play's dramatic viability. John Evelyn saw the play in 1661, and in his diary he deplored the play's violation of the unities of time and place. Yet by the end of the period, John Downes noted that Hamlet was staged more frequently and profitably than any other play in Betterton's repertory.

In addition to Hamlet's worth as a tragic hero, Restoration critics focused on the qualities of Shakespeare's language and, above all, on the question of tragic decorum. Critics disparaged the indecorous range of Shakespeare's language, with Polonius's fondness for puns and Hamlet's use of "mean" (ie, low) expressions such as "there's the rub" receiving particular attention. Even more important ws the question of decorum, which in the case of Hamlet focused on the play's violation of tragic unity of time and place, and on the characters. Jeremy Collier attacked the play on both counts in his Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, published in 1698. Comparing Ophelia to Electra, he condemns Shakespeare for allowing his heroine to become "immodest" in her insanity.

Collier's attack occasioned a widespread, often vituperative controversy. Hamlet in general and Ophelia in particular were defended by Thomas D'urfey and George Drake almost immediately. Drake defends the play's justice on the grounds that the murderers are "caught in their own toils" (that is, traps). He also defends Ophelia by describing her actions in the context of her desparate situation; D'urfey, by contrast, simply claims that Dennis has discerned immorality in places that no one else objected to. In the next decade, Rowe and Dennis agreed with Collier that the play violated justice; Shaftesbury and others defended the play as ultimately moral.<Stoll, E. E. Hamlet: An Historical and Comparative Study (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1919): 11</ref>

Eighteenth century

Criticism of the play in the first decades of the eighteenth century continued to be dominated by the neoclassical conception of plot and character. Even the many critics who defended Hamlet took for granted the necessity of the classical canon in principle. Voltaire's attack on the play is perhaps the most famous neoclassical treatment of the play; it inspired numerous defenses in England, but these defenses did not at first weaken the neoclassical orthodoxy. Thus Lewis Theobald explained the seeming absurdity of Hamlet's calling death an "undiscovered country" not long after he has encountered the Ghost by hypothesizing that the Ghost describes Purgatory, not death. Thus William Popple (in 1735) praises the verisimilitude of Polonius's character, deploring the actors' tradition of playing him only as a fool. Thus both Addison and Steele praised particular scenes: Steele the psychological insight of the first soliloquy, and Addison the ghost scene.

The ghost scenes, indeed, were particular favorites of an age on the verge of the Gothic revival. Early in the century, George Stubbes noted Shakespeare's use of Horatio's incredulity to make the Ghost credible. At midcentury, Arthur Murphy described the play as a sort of poetic representation of the mind of a "weak and melancholy person." SLightly later, George Colman the Elder singled out the play in a general discussion of Shakespeare's skill with supernatural elements in drama.

In 1735, Aaron Hill sounded an unusual but prescient note when he praised the seeming contradictions in Hamlet's temperament (rather than condemning them.) After midcentury, such psychological readings had begun to gain more currency. Tobias Smollett criticized what he saw as the illogic of the "to be or not to be" soliloquy, which was belied, he said, by Hamlet's actions. More commonly, the play's disparate elements were defended as part of a grander design. Horace Walpole, for instance, defends the mixture of comedy and tragedy as ultimately more realistic and effective than rigid separation would be. Samuel Johnson echoed Popple in defending the character of Polonius; Johnson also doubted the necessity of Hamlet's vicious treatment of Ophelia, and he also viewed skeptically the necessity and probability of the climax. Hamlet's character was also attacked by other critics near the end of the century, among them George Steevens. However, even before the Romantic period, Hamlet was (with Falstaff) the most discussed and best-known Shakespearean character.

Romantic criticism

Already before the Romantic period proper, critics had begun to stress the elements of the play that woud cause Hamlet to be seen, in the next century, as the epitome of the tragedy of character. In 1774, William Richardson sounded the key notes of this analysis: Hamlet was a sensitive and accomplished prince with an unusually refined moral sense; he is nearly incapacitated by the horror of the truth about his mother and uncle, and he struggles against that horror to fulfill his task. Richardson, who thought the play should have ended shortly after the closet scene, thus saw the play as dramatizing the conflict between a sensitive individual and a careless, seamy world.

Henry Mackenzie notes the tradition of seeing Hamlet as the most varied of Shakespeare's creations: "With the strongest purposes of revenge he is irresolute and inactive; amidst the gloom of the deepest melancholy he is gay and jocular; and while he is described as a passionate lover he seems indifferent about the object of his affections." Like Richardson, Mackenzie concludes that the tragedy in the play arises from Hamlet's nature: even the best qualities of his character merely reinforce his inability to cope with the world in which he is placed. To this analysis Thomas Robertson adds in particular the devastating impact of the death of Hamlet's father.

By the end of the century, psychological and textual criticism had outrun strictly rhetorical criticism; one still sees occasional critiques of metaphors viewed as inappropriate or barbarous, but by and large the neoclassical critique of Shakespeare's language had become moribund. The most extended critique of the play's language from the end of the century is perhaps that of Hugh Blair.

Facts to add to Mongo Beti

• conflict with mother over religion and colonialism (Jeune Afrique, 1991)
• expelled from Catholic school for his irreligion and anticolonialism (LION)
• criticized by Jaques Fame Ndongo as "defeatist" (Le prince et la scribe)
• Remember Reuben is about Union des Populations de Cameroun
• "Poor Christ" removed from capital's only bookstore as a result of ecclesiastical pressure
• "Main basse sur le cameroun" - protest execution of Ernest Ouandie; Ahidjo govt delayed publication in France.
• on his return to Cameroon in 1991, govt officials prevented him from participating in a scheduled conference on a technicality. He addressed an assembled audience in front of the locked door of the conference room.
• "On two occasions, Beti remembers enduring long lessons on Marxism by RUM, whom he met at public meetings held in the marketplace and then at RUM's private residence." (anti-colonial 153)
• 14 years of silence following RUM's death
• France Against Africa--denounces Ahidje's neocolonial successor

references

• Eckhard Breitinger. "Lamentations Patriotiques: Writers, Censors, and Politics in Cameroon." African Affairs 92 (1993): 557-575.
• Phyllis Taoua. "The Anti-Colonial Archive: France and Africa's Unfinished Business." SubStance 32 (2003): 146-64.

for Canada Lee

• Owned Chicken Coop (bar in Hrlem)
• Born Lionel Canagata in NY; name changed for boxing.
• began acting with federal theater project; Stevedore (1934)
• Hughes wrote "Brothers" with a part for Lee, but it was not accepted by govt.
• in the Tempest on Broadway in 1945 (with Vera Zorina), played Caliban; dir. Marg Webster
• something about Aldrich, Body and Soul
• in Saroyan's "Across the board on tomorrow morning" and "Talking to you": Thomas Piper and Blackstone Boulevard his roles. John MAson Brown praised him
• Anna Lucasta--Danny, small role, 1944.
• Big White Fog--Fed Th. Proj play, 1940; Lee took lead, Victor Mason. pro-Comm.
• Native Son, 1941. Lee in lead. Welles directed
• On Whitman Avenue, 1946, dir. Margo Jones. played David Bennett.
• Set My People Free, 1948. About Denmark Vesey. played loyal slave.
• South Pacific, 1943, dir. Strassberg, played Sam Johnson
• began as a jockey, also played violin seriously; discovered boxing in the 1920s;boxed until he was 24 (sustained eye damage).
• In Hichcock's "Lifeboat" refused to speak demeaning dialect lines.
• saved Orson Welles' life?
• Last great role was in Cry the Beloved Country. Afterwards blacklisted
• Blacklisted hurt him, he died young (46)
• Othello said to be equal to Robeson's?
• In Welles' Voodoo Macbeth, as Banquo.

Temp move

When Canada Lee walked out on stage in 1946, he shattered a barrier that had never been crossed before. Lee became the first African-American ever to play a white character on the American Stage, and he did it wearing white face. In fact, his landmark portrayal of Bosola in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi was only one of the numerous achievements of this profound man. Nonetheless, most people today have never heard of Canada Lee.

More than just an actor, Lee sacrificed health and wealth fighting for racial equality. Although many who fought for civil rights suffered under the shroud of McCarthyism, persecuted as Communists or Fellow travellers, none suffered a fate quite like Canada Lee. Standing at the forefront of the fight for equality, Canada became a target of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. As a result, Canada Lee has been so thoroughly erased from history even an anthology as comprehensive as Black Firsts (Visible Ink Publications, 2005), which covers over 4,000 first-time accomplishments by African-Americans, does not even mention his name. Blacklist: Recovering the Life of Canada Lee seeks to rectify this historic omission, reintroducing Lee to the public stage through the eyes and memories of his widow, friends, and contemporaries.

Macbeth performance

1. Trevor Nunn's at Young Vic in 1976; McKellan as M, Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth. Bare stage, focus on M's torment. John Woodvine as B. Bob Peck as Macduff.

1. Peter Hall's at National Theatre 1978; Albert Finney as M; in a large theater, focus on spectacle rather than psychology.

1. Anthony Quayle in Tennessee for Clarence Brown company in 1975. Traditional: few cuts and no "absurd" touches. Single set with rocks jutting up; banner lowered for interior scenes. Barbara Caruso=Lady Macbeth.

1. Barry Vincent Jackson with the Birmingham Rep at Royal Court Theatre in 1928. Influential modern-dress production. Eric Maturin an unsuccessful M; Mary Merrall as a vampish Lady M. Olivier played boy Malcolm. Setting and stage business particularized and modernized. Naturalistic west end acting. Called "miserable failure" by the Times.

1. "Voodoo" Macbeth: Lafayette Theater in Harlem. April 1936. Rearranged and cut scenes, emphasis on unsettling effect, accentuated melodrama. cast o 137

1. 1955; Glen Byam Shaw at Stratford, with Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Harold Hobson disdained the 2ndary characters, among them Keith Michell as as Macduff and Pat Wymark as Porter.

1. 1975; Trevor Nunn's 1974 disaster with Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren. Horrible failure.

1. 1986 Adrian Noble for the RSC. Jon Pryce M; Sinead cusack Lady M. Witches "straightforward battlefield scavengers." Peter Guinness Macduff, Joely Richardson as 3rd witch. R Warren didnt like it much. Noble put clownage in 5th act.

1. Garrick premiered his M in 1744; kept singing witches and added a moralistic speech at end, but otherwise restoring S's language. Hannah Pritchard was LM; he didnt act M after she died in 1768. Praised by T Davies.

1. Phelps Macbeth: premiered in 1844; revived in each year but five until 1861. First to bring back the porter, although he also staged Davenants version many times. Slow pace of production, emphasis on scenic and special effects.

1. Charles Kean. Criticized for his antiquarian spectacles; his acting condemned by Lewes and others.

1. Macready in NY in 1849; riots as a result of perceived rivalry with Edwin Forrest. Shortly before Macready's retirment; he apologized, Forrest did not.

Pericles

Performance of 5/20/1619; described in letter from Gerrard Herbert to Dudley Carlton. At Whitehall for the French delegation. By recusant actors, the Cholmley Players, in Yorkshire in 1609. Performed for John Yorke at Gowthwaite Hall? Completely absent from the stage for 2 centuries; returned with Phelps at Sadlers, 1854. Phelps cut Gower completely, replaced with messenger scenes for gentlemen. Production noted for scenic display. Incest and whoredom references cut or diminished. Walter Nugent Monck at Maddermarket Theatre in Norwich in 1929; he cut first act, prod. revived at Stratford after the war. 1958, Tony Richardson produced at Stratford, set on a ship with Gower emphasized as a storyteller. Terry Hands minimalist set in 1969 (da Vinci's man); ref. to moon landing, extensive doubling, etc. mythic interp. Ron Daniels in 79; at the Other Place, also used doubling; 1989 David Thacker at the Swan; Rudolf Walker as Gower; no music for Diana, etc.

1973, TOny Robertson in Edinburgh, transvestite brothel; Derek Jacobi as Pericles. Relatively shocking, influenced by Genet and Weiss, etc. Controversial but influential. Peter Sellars in Boston in 83: contemporary references. Phyllida Lloyd at the National in 94; emphasized disjunction, Kathryn Hunter was Antiochus, Cerimon, and the Bawd. Mixed reviews, "gormless gimickry," etc. Problems with the wheel at the Olivier--too much emphasis on effects. Adrian Noble's farewell to the RSC; orientalist production; Marina was Kananu Kirimi. Drumming and belly-dancing at the interval. Ray Fearon as Pericles. a song by Shaun Davey meant to unify the play, but widely disliked.

2005 Globe performance: Marcello Magni as Simonides, dir by Kathryn Hunter. Robert Lucskay as Pericles, etc--widely panned performance. Clownage everywhere, and an elder Pericles alongside Gower.

1900--Benson's company at Stratford. Old Vic in 1921. Open Air theatre, 1939.

Jordan Downs

Sides 117--initially integrated, became less so as veterans moved out to buy homes.

     120--HACLA (Housing Authority C LA) built this and Nickerson.

L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present Book by Josh Sides; University of California Press, 2003

Built first as temp housing for war workers. JD was 1944. Named for David Starr Jordan?

Arson fire killed 5 in 1991; led to racial tension (victims Latino, suspect black)

Almost sold in 1989.

Housing police dismantled?

Shakespeare's Style

Shakespeare began his career at the height of the Elizabethan period; he ended it a decade into the reign of James I. In verse style, in subject matter, and in stagecraft, his plays reveal the marks of these very different eras. Psychological insight and

Shakespeare served his dramatic apprenticeship at the height of the Elizabethan period; he retired near the high point of Jacobean literature. The differences between these two periods leave marks in his verse style, subject matter, and stagecraft.(Wilson) His style changed not only as his own mastery and tastes developed, but also in reaction to changing fashions in poetry and story.

Elizabethan Shakespeare

Dramaturgy

(much of what is there already in terms of dramaturgy).(Bevington and Righter for morality play). Alongside these native influences, Shakespeare had to hand significant knowledge of Latin New Comedy, which he knew both through his own studies (Doran and Baldwin) and through the practice of earlier playwrights, both English and Italian (Salingar). Like the Spanish, and unlike the Italians or French, English playwrights rarely let aesthetic theory dictate practice. Still, classical theory as filtered through the practice of his predecessors structures Shakespeare's stagecraft at almost every turn.

Classical theory dictated that tragedy concern itself with the disastrous actions of real historical figures. The concept that a tragic hero must be of high class derives ultimately from Aristotle, although Aristotle was in other respects lesser known than his Latin interpreters (Whitaker). As a result, Shakespeare's earliest "tragedies" are those plays now called histories: Henry VI, Richard II, and so forth. These plays, like most early English history plays,(Ribner) pay scant attention to Aristotle's unities. In general, Shakespeare like the other commercial playwrights did not let theory control his dramatic practice; through the example of morality plays, he was also influenced by the medieval de casibus tradition, in which the falls of kings were presented episodically, as a "mirror" or hortatory example.

Other features of Shakespeare's early work in tragedy reflect the influence of his contemporaries. Like Marlowe and Peele, he focuses on grand, larger-than-life figures, often consumed by ambition (Waith), a passion they indulge in military adventures. The Elizabethan histories nearly all center on a battle (Edwards? not sure), with ample opportunity for swordplay and for as much spectacle as the venue and the troupe's resources allowed.

In comedy, Shakespeare drifted further from classical precepts but stayed fairly close to his most celebrated contemporaries, the University Wits. "The Comedy of Errors" closely follows Roman concepts (it is an adaptation of XX). The other Elizabethan comedies, however, follow the lead of the romantic conclusion to that play, rather than the bourgeois farce of the main action. Like Lyly and Peele, Shakespeare emphasizes romance in his early comedies (White); he presents high-born characters in distant environments, with a significant interest in clever wordplay and romantic trickery.

Macbeth clear OR

There appear to be no guidelines for deleting this tag. The goal with the section labelled themes and motifs will be to reorder this material without lists as a brief critical history of the play. In order:

1. Remove what is not particularly true of Macbeth:

Visions--could be combined with deception

Insomnia should be combined with natural order

Moral ambiguity has no meaning here

Internal struggle is true of all tragedies

1. Reorder the rest into a critical history

Moral/character driven views first, including Johnson/Bradley; sections ambitions, gender roles, & all tragedy of character stuff; Macbeth as hero-villain

Imagery/motifs, including Maynard Mack, Spurgeon, people like that

Macbeth as tragedy of character

At least since the days of Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson, analysis of the play has centered on the question of Macbeth's ambition, commonly seen as so dominant a trait that it defines the character. Johnson asserted that Macbeth, though esteemed for his military bravery, is wholly reviled. This opinion recurs in critical literature. Like Richard III, but without that character's perversely appealing exuberance, Macbeth wades through blood until his inevitable fall. As Kenneth Muir writes, "Macbeth has not a predisposition to murder; he has merely an inordinate ambition that makes murder itself seem to be a lesser evil than failure to achieve the crown." Some critics, such as E. E. Stoll, explain this characterization as a holdover from Senecan or medieval tradition. Shakespeare's audience, in this view, expected villains to be wholly bad, and Senecan style, far from prohibiting a villainous protagonist, all but demanded it.

Yet for other critics, it has not been so easy to resolve the question of Macbeth's motivation. Robert Bridges, for instance, perceived a paradox: a character able to express such convincing horror before Duncan's murder would likely be incapable of committing the crime. For many critics, Macbeth's motivations in the first act appears vague and insufficient. John Dover Wilson hypothesized that Shakespeare's original text had an extra scene or scenes in which husband and wife discussed their plans. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the audience is meant to perceive that Macbeth has already thought of killing Duncan before the play begins. Neither of these interpretations is fully proveable; however, the motivating role of ambition for Macbeth is universally recognized. The evil actions motivated by his ambition seem to trap him in a cycle of increasing evil.

Macbeth as a tragedy of moral order

The disastrous consequences of Macbeth's ambition are not limited to him, of course. Almost from the moment of the murder, the play depicts Scotland as a land shaken by inversions of the natural order. Shakespeare may have intended a reference to the great chain of being, although the play's images of disorder are mostly not specific enough to support detailed intellectual readings. He may also have intended an elaborate compliment to James's belief in the divine right of kings, although this hypothesis, outlined at greatest length by Henry N. Paul, is not universally accepted. As in Julius Caesar, though, perturbations in the political sphere are echoed and even amplified by events in the material world. Among the most frequently depicted of the inversions of the natural order is sleep. Macbeth's announcement that he has "murdered sleep" is figuratively mirrored in Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking.

The theme of androgyny is often seen as a special aspect of the theme of disorder. Inversion of normative gender roles is most famously associated with the witches and with Lady Macbeth as she appears in the first act. Whatever Shakespeare's degree of sympathy with such inversions (Eagleton), the play ends with a fairly thorough return to normative gender values. Some feminist psychoanalytic critics, such as Janet Adelman, have connected the play's treatment of gender roles to its larger theme of inverted natural order.

Criticism of Hamlet

Likely sources

• What Happens in Hamlet
• Hamlet Vs Lear
• Critical Heritage
• Arden, Oxford, Cambridge
• Stoll's book
• Welsh, Hamlet and Modern Guises

Issues

17th

Early 17th

"more violently"--poss a ref to revenge tragedy tradition; Q1 cite Insanity: note echoes of Ophelia in Caroline drama Popularity: a way to cite this?

Late 17th

• John Evelyn saw the play in 1661, deplored lack of unities, etc.
• D'Avenant's revision focused mainly on decorum of language, small-scale changes
• Abraham Wright,Vicar of Oakham and father of James Wright; A.C. Kirsch in 'A Caroline commentary on the drama', Modern Philology lxvi (1968), pp. 256-61. Did not like Hamlet much. Liked graveyard scene's humor but said it was better in Jealous Lovers.
• John Downes claims that B's Hamlet was the most profitable of the R. plays.
• Dryden: criticizes the lines about Hecuba in the pro to T&C; accused someone else of overwriting and "smelling too strongly of the buskin."
• Farquar among those who noted but did not condemn lack of unity
• Rowe notes similarity of H to Elektra; prefers tragedies w/single action; also defends decorum of H's character
• Gildon calls it the best of the tragedies, 1710; later, he points out the inappropriateness of "to be or not to be" in context, with ref to Horace, 14-19
• ? of poetic justice; for Rowe, H was an instance of lack of it; as it was too for Rhymer and Collier (check Collier)
• Dennis: defense of poetic justice of H on basis that villains are punished by their own devices. Special defense of Ophelia on grounds of her dramatic conditions. H's vengeance defended as inspired by heaven.
• 1700: John Oldmixon criticizes adaptations of Sh (attack on Gildon?)
• Steele in the Tatler praised H's speech on G's remarriage, as an instance of natural expression of proper emotions.
• Addison calls appearance of the ghost "a masterpiece in its kind", another comparison to Sophocles

18th

Early 18th: Pope, Warburton, Theobald, etc.

• Theobald in 1726: notes that H is among the most popular plays, revived yearly for at least 30 yrs (SH restored); later, defends "undiscovered country" from contradiction by calling the ghost a visitor from Purgatory
• Warburton in Theobald's edition praises the verisimilitude & wit of P's speech, and praises decorum of L's character
• 1735: Wm Popple in The Prompter praises P for verisimilitude, criticizes modern actors for presenting him as only a fool. (mentions Griffin and Hippisley by name)
• Aaron Hill 1735: exempts H from his complaint about too-common plays; its "touches of nature" give it a perpetual interest. Notes in particular H's variety of temperament.
• George Stubbes applauds H; criticizes some aspects of S's fidelity to source; defends managing of the ghost (through Hor's incredulity) to obtain belief. Criticizes lowness of P's humor (issue of decorum); criticizes O's madness, defends the play's unity of action.

Mid 18th

• Thomas Sheridan among the first to thematize H's delay.
• Charlotte Lennox complains about lack of poetic justice in catastrophe
• Voltaire: a barbarous piece, abounding with such gross absurdities that it would not be tolerated by the vulgar of France and Italy.
• Arthur Murphy (1754): SHAKESPEARE seems to have selected his Hamlet chiefly to shew the horrors and gloomy sights that continually croud upon the mind of a weak or melancholy person.
• Smollett attacks the illogic of "to be or not to be," and various features of H's madness.
• Colman the younger praises the ghost scene (SH's excellence with the supernatural)
• Walpole defends mixture of comedy and tragedy, 1756
• Johnson also noted good sides of P's character; praises Hamlet for variety. Criticizes probability and necessity of the climax. Doubts necessity of feigned madness, criticizes H's treatment of Ophelia.
• Joesph Ritson defends the poetic justice of H's death.
• Steevens and others criticized H--already before romanticism, he was (with Falstaff) the most discussed Sh character.

Cymbeline performance

• 1896: Ellen Terry with Irving at Lyceum. She successful, he not so as Iachimo. Nearly her end of career.

• 1946 Nugent Monck, Stratford
• Old Vic Michael Benthall, 1956; Audrey Cruddas sd, Leon Gluckman Post, Barb Jefford Im., Derek Godfrey IAch, Derek FRancis Cymb. Black box lighting that relied on clever lighting, nearly propless. Jefford criticized as too cold for the role. Whole prison scene cut, dream too.
• Peter Hall 1957 Stratford (Mem Theatre); fairy tale style, Peggy Ashcroft as Imogen, much admired. Richard Johnson Post; Geoff Keen Iach; Rob Harris Cym. Almost uncut, but Jove's eagle was too heavy and was not used. Eclectic costuming. Ironically, Keen's father had played Iachimo to Ashcroft's Imogen in 1932. Fairy-tale style became influential in the play.
• William Gaskill, 1962 RSC; Van Redgrave as Imogen; Pat Allen Post; Eric Porter Iach; Tom Fleming Cymb. John Courtenay Trewin didn't like the Brecht effects, saw them as fairy tale gone wrong; Bern Levin and others disliked the chintzy-looking set. Porter widely praised. Clive Swift too as Cloten.
• John Barton, 1974 RSC, with Clifford Williams Cym; Tim Pigott-Smith Post; Susan Fleetwood Imo; Ian Richardson Iach. Set was bare, with a golden object substituting for the eagle; Robert Speaight called the design derivative and uninspiring. Use of "Cornelius" as narrator. Male nude on chest literalizes the violation of the room.
• DAvid Jones 1979 RSC with Dench, B. Kingsley as Iachimo (demented puppet), Roger Rees Posthumus.
• 1970 Jean Gascon at Str. Ontario

George Frederick Cooke

• Began in comic roles (esp in provinces)
• As tragedian, excelled in roles that required hypocrisy (Iago, R3, etc); element of grim humor in such roles.
• Tall and captivating, but coarse; his voice was occasionally hoarse.
• Leigh Hunt praised his ability to captivate an audience but did not like him much; he called it "a mere reduction of Sh's poetry into indignant prose" and said he limited every character to its worst qualities."
• H C Robinson: he was coarse and compelling; good for characters like Shylock that required vigor, but awful in roles that required refinement (Kotzebue's "The Stranger"), Hamlet.
• Macready--he was good as R3, Iago, Shylock, Archy Macsarcasm (Love a la Mode by Macklin); says he was better with the harsher emotions (story about revenge/love)
• Percy Fitzgerald: "tremendous force and rough declamation"
• His R3: at first performance controversial; those who liked it stressed its vitality and energy, and especially noted effects he achieved with his eyes and with stage whispers. Like Macklin, he delivered solil. as if thinking aloud. In the scene of the murder of H6, he trembled as if shocked, very different from Kemble's "horrid self-satisfaction." His wooing of Anne was more mixed; some liked it, but others felt he broadcast his hypocrisy too broadly.

LLL Branagh

• New Statesman, David Jays. "the director's real problem lies in the attempt to bring an elusive play within reach. Love,s Labour's Lost is a glorious comedy, all quibbling and heartbreak, but hardly crying out for big screen treatment, especially when tipped into a moribund cinematic genre. Like many modern directors, Branagh tries to make the poet's wonders seem familiar. But what if Shakespeare isn't familiar, if he isn't our contemporary?"
• Turan in the LA Times--"It ought to be delightful but isn't," wrote Times movie critic Kenneth Turan. "Worst of all perhaps is 'Lost's' smug air of pleasure at how clever it thinks it's being"
• AO Scott in NY Times: praised and condemned the "gee-whiz" amateurism of the production. "entertaining, albeit in an intermittently annoying kind of way" praises the final sequence (can't take that away from me)
• John Simon in NR: "Only Nathan Lane, as Costard, gets half a chance for, as it were, a half-life. "The singing is amateurish and the choreography, scaled down to the skills of people who aren't dancers, rather lame."
• Kaufmann in TNR agrees with Simon that the songs fight against S's language; calls the two leads "inadequate in every way." With Simon, agrees that ending use of WWII newsreel is grotesque.

Wm Blackburn

Born in Southwark. Father tradesman, mother Spanish. Apprenticed to a surveyor, didnt learn much. Competed for Royal Exchange Dublin at 19. Went to Royal Academy Schools. Won Silver Medal in 1773. Designed prison after Penitentiary Act 1779. Friend and ally of John Howard. In 1784 he made a report on the County Gaol at Gloucester, and was subsequently employed to design the new gaol, which was completed in 1791. Died in Preston, Lancashire, buried in Bunhill Fields. 1776--surveyors to waterman's company to have been the architect of Watermen's Hall, St. Mary at Hill, London, 1778-80

St Dizier Battles

1st

August Wilhelm A. Neidhard von Gneisenau: Nap debouched out of Ligny on the 23rd or 24th? Lanskoy held St. Dizier with 800 dragoons. Nap attacked on 26th with 25k soldiers, Lanskoy fled, joined Blucher. Aleksandr Ivanovich Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii: Nap's object to unite his whole force at Vitry, march thru St D and Chaumont, separate Silesia from GA. Attack on St. D cut off Blucher from York. After, pursued Blucher. John Fane Westmorland: After, tried to attack Vassy. Prince Schwarzenberg? )Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg).

2nd

Talleyrand: On the 23rd, Nap came up on back of allied army; comes up on right bank of Aube River. Étienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald mistakenly reports that a full army was on his rear guard. He decided to present his full army for battle at St Dizier, but found only a corps of cavalry under Wintzin. That corps scattered, Nap did not follow for fear of being trapped at Vitry.

Blue team

The Blue Team is an informal group (OF POLITICIANS, POLICY EXPERTS AND JOURNALISTS) in the United States that has argued that the People's Republic of China is the largest security threat to the United States. The name comes from the color of the United States in wargames, in opposition to the red team, (and was invented by the group to describe themselves BILL GERTZ). The members of the group include members of Congress and some neoconservative thinktanks and publications such as The Weekly Standard. Blue Team members tend to be absent from the United States Department of State, although this is likely due to the current Bush administration trying to avoid putting Blue Team members in official (and potentially provocative) positions.(FACT) Rather, the Blue Team manifests itself closer to the Pentagon and US Intelligence services.(FACT)

Membership

Members include neoconservatives such as William Kristol, conservative Republican Congressmen such as Benjamin Gilman and Dana Rohrabacher, members of think tanks including Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Ross Munro, co-author with Richard Bernstein of The Coming Conflict with China, and Dan Blumenthal of the American Enterprise Institute. as well as journalists such as Bill Gertz, a writer for The Washington Times.

Beliefs

They argue for an assertive United States policy to contain the People's Republic of China and support the Republic of China, or Taiwan, and believe that the policies of Bill Clinton and the Department of State toward China amounted to appeasement. They also point out to that China is investing extensively in modernizing its ground forces and creating a blue water navy capable of power projection.[1] [2] These developments pose a threat to American dominance in Asia. The Blue Team also criticized the Commerce department's decision to allow the sale of supercomputers to China, which they believed could be used for military applications.

Many Blue Team members cite the lack of democracy in China as the key concern and claim that the PRC will use nationalism (painting the US and Japan as the enemies) to consolidate power and distract the people from democracy and human rights. Similarly, they point out that a lack of democracy in China gives the PRC government more political will to warmonger, enabling it to challenge US power in East Asia. Some even see the lack of China's transparency as deceptive; US officials have long complained that China was unwilling to reciprocate on military and intelligence sharing, resorting commonly to charades or "parades" in order to deceive foreign nations on its capabilities, and significantly understating its defense budget. China also engaged in high-profile war game exercises with Russia, without inviting the US to observe.

Influence

Although the Blue Team was relatively influential in the 1990s, their influence appeared to diminish markedly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, which convinced many Americans that China was not a large security threat. Their influence declined even further after the 2003 invasion of Iraq in which China did not actively oppose American actions, in contrast to France and Russia. The Blue Team was conspicuously silent after President George W. Bush announced a policy in December 2003 that opposes any effort by Taiwan to use a referendum to alter the status quo in Taiwan. An explanation for this might be that Blue Team strategists do not want the US to provoke a conflict with China while being embroiled in Iraq since 2003.

However, many pundits saw that the Bush administration does implicitly agree with the Blue Team and had recognized the threat that an undemocratic China could pose. As the Soviet Union collapsed and the succeeding Russia's economy and military was still in turmoil, it seemed only logical that China would seek to replace Russia as the main counterbalance to the United States. In "The National Interest", the Republican's 2000 foreign policy campaign platform, Condoleezza Rice suggested that China was a rising economic and military power that was no longer content to let the US hold the balance of power in the Asia-Pacific sphere and that Clinton's policies had been a sell-out to US security interests. The 2002 National security strategy embraces the maintenance of US hegemony and details a strategy to check China's attempts to alter the status quo, the stated main elements including promoting democracy and standing firm on the defense of Taiwan.

Recently, most Blue Team members have been alarmed by China's increased military spending and the passing of the Taiwan anti-secession law at the same session of China's national legislature. This was of major concern to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld since the Pentagon had frequently complained about the lack of transparency in China's military capabilities and intentions. Since China did not actively oppose the Iraq 2003 invasion (like France and Russia), experts in the Blue Team speculated that China secretly wanted the US invasion to occur. The Blue Team interpreted the renewed anti-secession act as China's attempt to seize the opportunity while the US has its hands tied with Iraq. A recent threat report from the Pentagon supported the Blue Team's fears, with China attempting a military build up aimed at capturing Taiwan and deterring outside help from the US and Japan. Controlling Taiwan would drastically change the balance of power in the East Asia theater, since it enables China to control key shipping routes and project military power more effectively over US interests in the region.

They also note that in recent issues of Iran, North Korea, and Darfur, China has opposed or vetoed US initiatives on imposing economic sanctions.

Criticism

Critics of the Blue Team note that most of the fears, especially of inevitable conflict, are much exaggerated. They point out that China's highly touted jet fighters and other high-tech equipment does not represent the current state of its armed forces, much of which is still using 60s-era Soviet equipment.

Some argue that the hawkish stance of Blue Team members and the Pentagon have threatened China and are thus the cause for its clandestine military buildup. Also, an overwhelming focus on China would detract from many short-term security concerns such as terrorism, crime, and drugs.

Economists point out that China currently holds a substantial number of US Treasury bonds, providing a major source of backing for the US dollar and ensuring economic stability. In addition, others have argued that military confrontation with the US is not the goal of the Chinese government at this point: a direct military conflict with the United States now would lead to the economic collapse of China and possibly the US, something neither the Chinese government nor its people want now that their economy is growing at an unprecedented rate.

Although members of the Blue Team have ties to the Republican Party, they tend to be strongly opposed by business conservatives in the same party who argue for greater interaction with China. On many issues such as Chinese membership in the World Trade Organization, the Blue Team found themselves in an alliance with liberal Democratic human rights activists. Like the liberal Democrats, both have criticized business interests for putting profits before human rights, but the similarities end there since the Blue Team is more hawkish and advocates "hard power" (military, economic force) instead of diplomatic accommodation.

from WP

Chris Cox a "member." Gary Bauer. Frank Gaffney.

Actions: Taiwan Security Enhancement Act; riders forcing Pentagon and State Dept to examine PRC's military and human rights records; decried so-called takeover of Panama Canal;

core is a Capitol Hill study group; aides mostly; connected to PNAC, funded by Mellon Scaife.

After Tienanmen, the 96 Straits firin was also alarming

Then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) had established the Cox committee in 1998 to investigate what he called "a profoundly deeper question than any other question that has arisen in this administration"--charges that China got American missile technology from Loral Corp., whose chief executive was the largest individual contributor to the Democrats in 1996.

That charge had disappeared by the time the Cox committee's report was published last May. The final report focused on China's efforts to acquire secrets about missiles and nuclear weapons, and all the Democrats on the committee signed it, although on the day of its release two key members distanced themselves from the most alarming conclusions about China copying U.S. weapons.

Clanton 14

• Baker, Bob (1988). "Deeply Rooted in L.A. Chicano Gangs: A History of Violence." LA Times December 11.
• (1942). "Police Seize 300 in Boys' Gang Drive; Many Weapons Taken in Roundup Conducted by Hundreds of Officers." LA Times. August 10.
• (1942). "Gang Shooting Told in Court." LA Times August 12.
• (1953). "Suspects Held in New Gang Killing." LA Times. Dec 15.
• Will, Bob (1953). "Youthful Gangs Active in All Parts of the City for Many Years." LA Times. Dec 16. p 2.