Year 1, Day 35: Shakespeare Institute. -- Hamlet, Q1.

I have begun my first real research into Shakespeare and his plays.  This particular project is on Hamlet Q1 (Quarto One), and "to what extent is it a theatre text?"  I chose this particular project out of the list because it had the word "theatre" in there.  Not very discriminating, but hey, it's something.  The projects themselves are supposed to be five-to-ten minute presentations of our research.  Not a paper (though one will probably be written for scripting purposes), but a pre-sen-ta-tion.

Ever have that nightmare where you are standing on stage naked, and don't know the lines?  Yeah, me neither.  But a friend of mine had it, and he told me all about how terrifying it is.  Well, imagine that terror accompanied by the audience members who DO know all the lines.  I don't think I'll ever end up naked with an audience... or even take one step on a stage without knowing my lines backwards and forwards... but, at the Shakespeare Institute, when you give a presentation, you are giving them to one if not two different actual published editors of Shakespeare, and a room full of people that know enough to actually argue any of the points you are trying to make, and probably will.

Once again, the fear of doing something keeps me from doing anything.

In any event, my presentation is actually something I am interested in.  Only because I have been sitting at my computer and comparing the First Quarto of Hamlet (often called the "Bad Quarto") to all of the other texts, and I've found some pretty great things (textually speaking, of course.)  Since it is my job to establish to what extent this text may be used as a theatre text, I first have to establish what that means.

Since we got the assignment, Professor John Jowett (for whom this assignment is for) has been kind enough to mention "theatre text" once or twice in his lectures.  The definition I like the most is that a "theatre text" might have been used to augment manuscripts, and quartos when deciding what to include in the First Folio (1623). As an editor of the First Folio would need as much information as possible when it came to deciding what to include, my job would be only to prove (as best as I can) that the First Quarto of Hamlet was actually used in the process.  Whether for character, plot, punctuation, or text, all of which change to some degree depending on the version of Hamlet you are reading, I truly believe that the First Quarto was a part of the decision making process in what to include inside the First Folio.

Something needs to be established here however, before we get to that.  When it came to the First Folio, there were tons of errors made inside the final edit, so anything I offer up as proof of the 1st Quarto could very well have been an editorial error... nothing more.  Having said that, in Act 1, Scene 3 (of the First Folio) and, in the modern day Shakespeare, Act 1, Scene 5, the Ghost of Hamlet's Father speaks the line, "Swear."  Four separate times.  This is supposed to be spooky moment, as the Ghost is speaking the lines from "under the stage."  It seems to me, as a theatre practitioner myself, that it could almost be taken for the dying words of an old man as he fades away.  However, sometimes this line is augmented.

In Q2, Q3, and Q4, all of which were dated prior to the First Folio, the Ghost speaks the line, "Swear" twice, and on the third repetition, speaks "Swear by his sword."  This line, however, is not repeated in the First Folio, and the line that they decided to go with had only occurred once before, in the 1st Quarto.

This sounds like a trifle.  Like something that REALLY doesn't matter to the casual reader.  Well, it probably doesn't.  However, if you consider that there was no real reason for the editors of the First Folio to include the Ghost saying the line from Q1 at all, and the fact that there is serious debate as to whether or not Shakespeare even WROTE Hamlet Q1... it seems a little bit more significant.  However, I'm not done comparing the differences in all the texts (a gargantuan task thus far), and the significance of this line only pertains to whether or not Q1 was a part of the First Folio.

The other definition I like is that a "theatre text" was and is used to augment performances of Hamlet, depending on the director's vision for the play and the actors' portrayal.  In this, I have found a metric ton of character and plot differences in the First Act alone.  As you are a reader of this blog I can only assume you are at least mildly familiar with the play, Hamlet, and how the main characters have been portrayed by many famous actors and directors.  I mention this because in order for you to get any of my references, you'll need to be.

How old is Hamlet?  Is he a brooding teenager, a depressed twenty-something, or even a troubled thirty-year old?  They mention him being at school, but is he a student or a teacher?  Is he always dark and brooding in the play, and is it credible to believe that a brooding teenager would be so well-spoken as Hamlet surely is? -- In Q1, Hamlet actually laughs at Horatio when he has claimed to see the ghost of his dead father atop the ramparts.  Q1 has another kind of depth associated to Hamlet's character than the texts that follow.

What is the relationship between Ophelia and her brother, Laertes?  Is he the much older brother, who understands the politic of Denmark enough to tell his sister to stay away from Hamlet because he is a prince who has no control over who he marries?  Or is he the older brother who says to stay away from Hamlet because "that boy will just hit it and quit it?"  Is Ophelia the dutiful daughter without brain one, and no clue about what to do with Prince Hamlet?  Or is she a slightly sassy younger sister and daughter, who wants advice from her family yet doesn't respond well to condescension. -- In Q1, Ophelia scolds her brother more harshly than she does in other texts for his giving her advice on love, telling him to not then turn around and do the opposite of what he has told her.  She also commands enough respect from her father that he does not patronize her by calling her a "babie", as he does in Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, and the First Folio.

These character choices of the writer, Shakespeare or whoever, have created alternative relationships inside the texts.  Without passing judgment on any version of the text, I would have to say that Q1 definitely offers up different choices made by actors onstage, and could definitely be said to augment any performance of Hamlet depending on the director's vision and any actor's portrayal.  While the poetry of Q1 leaves a lot to be desired as some of the most beautiful lines of the play have been cut or altered, the question of whether this version of the script might, and has, helped augment any textual or dramatic interpretation of the play is becoming more and more difficult to argue.

All in all, this is my first impression of Q1, which might change over the course of my research.  However, using this blog to write out my thoughts on the matter has certainly helped me in the process of figuring what research would be best to use in my presentation, and which parts I must let go of in light of the fact that I only have five to ten minutes to make my point.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. -- Hamlet, Act I, Sc. V

Year 1, Day 35 -- Words Written: 0, Term Paper Topics: 2.

Year 1, Day 28: Shakespeare Institute -

It has been a long weekend spent in the classroom, for a class called Shakespeare's Legacy.  It was five two-hour sessions, which will be repeated again in four weeks time, all about that which was Shakespeare's body of work, and what is has become in the five centuries since his death.  The recount of what was discussed in class would, indeed, take another ten hours of my time to relive, repeat, and regurgitate on to the page... so, instead, I will sum up in the format of questions I have written to be answered at a later date (or to be ignored entirely.)

What is Shakespeare's Legacy?  What can it be classified as?  Something he left, or rather bequeathed, to us?  Is the only worthwhile contribution to that legacy made up of Shakespeare's work?  As that work has gradually trickled down through the ages, and influenced so many other artisans, playwrights, poets, actors, and storytellers, is it also their legacy we are inheriting?

Is Shakespeare's Legacy truly threatened by pieces of work that we do not agree with?  Easy answer: No.  William Shakespeare is too much a part of our culture to be threatened by any one piece, or even seventeen hundred separate works of art.  Like it was observed in my class, if we tried to extricate William Shakespeare from world vernacular, we would not have a giant hole left by his absence, we would simply have an entirely different culture.  So, another question arose from this...

If his work or influence in our culture today is unquestionable, why is it there are so many people disclaiming 'adaptations' and 're-imaginings" as something that is distinctly, "Not the way Shakespeare should be done?"  I'm essentially asking the question that have plagued many critics, theatre-goers, theatre practitioners, and Shakespeare scholars for over a few centuries...

What is the correct Shakespeare?  The answer to which I have only one answer, and it seems to be everyone else's answer as well... It's "my Shakespeare."

According to Ben Jonson, a contemporary of our beloved Mr. Shakespeare, written in his eighty line poem, "TO THE MEMORY OF MY BELOVED MASTER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, AND WHAT HE HATH LEFT US"...

"...I therefore will begin: Soul of the age!
The applause ! delight ! the wonder of our stage!
My SHAKSPEARE rise ! I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie
A little further, to make thee a room :
Thou art a monument without a tomb,
And art alive still while thy book doth live
And we have wits to read, and praise to give." -- Ben Jonson, 1623.

This poem is to be found as an accompanying piece to the First Folio of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare in 1623.  Though he spells Shakespeare rather differently, they all did back then, and I think we know to whom he is speaking.  The point of this passage is not to showcase Ben Jonson's poems, or even to lend him authenticity in mentioning that his words ended up inside one of the greatest books ever written.  It is to point out that even five years after his death, Mr. Shakespeare began to be possessed by the world that knew and loved him.

"My Shakspeare rise!"

It is "my Shakspeare" that is the best, most pure, and the only Shakespeare that matters.  Mr. Jonson wrote these words very selfishly but ended up being one of the very first to make this very famous writer into a possession.  Something to be traded as currency, or collected with rapacious fervor, as one might collect sports collectibles, fast automobiles, or even, movies of every kind in every format (which is a perfectly normal obsession, thank you very much.)

What is the purpose of this Shakespeare?  Rather out of context from my previous passage, this question arose we began to discuss what has become of Shakespeare in the more modern ages. The "corrected", and yet no longer "adapted," Shakespeare of the early to mid-18th Century.  The authors of the Romantic Age did in fact adapt many of Shakespeare's plays into short stories, with a couple of edits for content, so that families and the women who so avidly read back then, might enjoy Mr. Shakespeare's stories.  People such as Charles and Mary Lamb, and Henrietta Maria Bowdler who wrote "The Family Shakespeare," a book which made Shakespeare appropriate for a more modern age.

The question then arises that if they were editing it for families, what exactly is the purpose of this process?  What is the purpose of this Shakespeare?  Which is a question, strangely enough, we are still asking to this day.  Why would, for instance, Charles and Mary Lamb rewrite The Merchant of Venice so that Shylock could be depicted as a bastion of evil, with no room for reinterpretation?  Why would Mary Cowden Clarke feel the need to write a complete prehistory of Isabella, from Measure for Measure, as she did in her story, Isabella, the Votaress?

Why is it necessary to depict the three witches of Macbeth as three old hags, standing on a heath in the middle of Scotland, stirring a cauldron?  When they say, "fire burn and cauldron bubble," do they mean an actual cauldron, or are they referring to a lesser known bubblegum brand of the late 17th century?  What is the purpose of this Shakespeare, you say?  Well, they are obviously witches, and there is obviously a cauldron, and why not have them on a damn heath!?!?

Right.  There are plenty more things to be said about Shakespeare, and I will say them in due course, but not now.

Me and Stanley Wells.

On a fun note, having just returned from the Stratford-upon-Avon Shakespeare Film Festival showing of Henry V, where Russell Jackson, the text advisor to Sir Kenneth Branagh (whom he calls, "Ken") gave a talk back to an audience made up of mostly Shakespearean Scholars regarding the making of Henry V.  Immediately prior to the film, a short clip of Sir Kenneth Branagh himself appeared on the screen, apologizing for not being able to be there (as he was to be a special guest speaker), and giving a little personal history of the making of the film.

I was giddy as a freakin' school girl.

Once having seen the film on the big screen, which I gotta say was truly a great experience, I got a picture with one of the celebrities there tonight.  I promised pictures before, so here's one of me and Stanley Wells, the general editor of the Oxford and Penguin Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

"Men of few words are the best men." -- Henry V, Act III, Sc. II

Year 1, Day 28 -- Words Written: 0, Term Paper Topics: 0 (I changed my mind from before.)

Year 1, Day 21: Shakespeare Institute -- Education.

While I am in class there is a great deal of lecturing on various and sundry topics concerning Shakespeare, so much lecturing in fact that if while I am listening to my professor and I happen to begin to think about what is being said (read: drift off into a "mind tangent"), I'll miss entire sections of his or her lecture.  Whereas some of my classmates take copious notes on facts or dates to remember (from what I have seen thru my sidelong glances), as if they were studying for a test, I write down names of people or books that my professor mentions, and a crap load of questions.  I write so many questions, when I go back and look at my notes I have no idea what the professor was really talking about, but have a great idea of where my train of thought was headed and have a great many questions that I still have about the general topic that was being discussed in class.

I come to my point for today's rumination... Why am I here at the Shakespeare Institute, and what is the point of this educational process?  How can this degree help me become a better teacher?  A better theatrical practitioner?  Where the hell am I going to end up in four years after I've gotten a PhD. in Shakespeare Studies?

John Dewey says that, "Education, therefore, is the process of living and not a preparation for future living."  Education is not just there so that we may recite what our predecessors have discovered back to our predecessors in the form of tests, quizzes and papers.  We are not prepared for anything if all we know is what we can learn by picking up a book.  The process of living that John Dewey is talking about, is the process of learning how to discover for ourselves.  It is a wondrous thing, as a teacher, to see a student have his or her moment of true discovery, not from any assignment that they are trying to achieve or complete, but from a genuine curiosity about a topic and the desire to seek out more information about it.

I liken this impulse to those moments where you absolutely have to find out the name of a song that you heard on the radio, or the name of an actor you just saw in a movie... just because it's in your head.

My fellow classmates, some of whom are very young (read: just out of undergrad) seem to be hellbent on writing down everything our professor has to say.  This is, of course, one way to take notes in a class, if you, in fact, will come back to these notes and see if anything he or she had to say was worthy of investigation or query.  The method of questioning your professor in your notes at the moment of inception (or the moment your professor asks the question to the rest of the class), allows the student to investigate those questions on their own time, come to their own conclusions, and then maybe, just maybe, come around to the way of thinking with their professor through understanding and not just rote memorization.  Even if the student ends up disagreeing with what was said in class, the conversation that ensues afterwards is more intellectually stimulating than the recitation of facts on a test sheet.

The questions I asked before, the "why am I here?" questions, are probably ones that I won't be able to answer until the program is done.  It is altogether possible that the longer I take to answer them, the more interesting and educated answer I can give.  At the moment, I am here at the Shakespeare Institute to learn more about the history and artistic quality of the greatest writer in the Western World.  I plan on using this information to create my own ideas about my art forms (theatre and technical theatre) and broaden my understanding of them using Mr. Shakespeare as a guide (I mean, he found genius here in Stratford-upon-Avon, why can't I?  <-- Another question.)  I don't know if I will become a better teacher, or a better theatrical practitioner, but I'm still early in my training here so I've got to make an effort to utilize these tools during my tenure.  Lastly, I'm currently planning on becoming the Educational Director of the Globe Theater in London... I'll let you know when that becomes final.

A favorite quote of mine seems an appropriate way of ending this post, rather than the typical Shakespearean quote.  If he'd lived so long, I think he'd have been talking about me, and Mr. Shakespeare.  (I think the next post needs some pictures.  I've been talking too much of late.)

Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size. 
-- John of Salisbury, in his book Metalogicon, from the year 1159.

Year 1, Day 21 -- Words Written: 0, Term Paper Topics: 1

Year 1, Day 17: Shakespeare Institute - The Library.

I have held a first edition King James' Bible, a second Folio 'A Winter's Tale', a Complete History of the World by Sir Walter Raleigh, a few prompt books of Sir Lawrence Olivier, and Sir John Gielgud, a really early edition of Dante's Inferno in Italian, a Pope Complete Works, and a Theobold Complete Works.  All of which are housed at the University of Birmingham Special Collections on the main campus.  I had no idea I was an old book nut, until it actually became a reality that I might be able to see some really famous, really old books.  It was at this place and this time that I again became a little overwhelmed with just how old William Shakespeare's work really is, and exactly what an amazing and talented global community I am joining by becoming a part of the Institute.

Oh, and our librarian from the Institute, Karin Brown, said that she would look into the Birthplace Trust having a special viewing of the First Folio for the Institute members, because she "simply couldn't see why they wouldn't want to."  Membership has its priveleges.

So, today I am reading of the editing process.  Specifically, the editing of Shakespeare, and the extremely difficult nature of it.  When I heard that one of my professors, John Jowett, my academic advisor actually, was an editor of William Shakespeare's Complete Works, I damn near crapped myself (which is a Southern American Colloquialism, and not a literal state of being for me... the writer.)  In his class, Textual Studies, the minutiae of textual expression by the author becomes a focal point while the translation of each of Shakespeare's expressions or odd spellings becomes the other focal point.  How each editor reads and then translates each expression underneath the actual texts, in the collation lines, affects how each reader will interpret the play or the piece of work.  Deciding which version of each script is the correct or more viable one, as there are sometimes many different versions of each Shakespearean play, is also a difficult decision that can only be decided by the editors and their publishers.  King Lear, for example, has two completely different endings from the Quarto version of the play to the Folio edition.  You'd be surprised on how much there actually is to argue about almost five hundred years after the man's death.

My favorite part of this class, has only recently become a central point of discussion.  The stage directions of Shakespeare, and how editors decide when, where and what to put as the stage directions for each play.  In the First Folio, which was written by two of Shakespeare's actors and not the man himself, there were very few stage directions and settings listed.  How does each editor decide what to put there, and who the hell are they to say what happens onstage if they aren't a theatre director or production historian?  I realize that certain directions are obvious, and those are of the enter and exit kind.  However, when an editor writes that a character laughs... or fights with another character... or is even pursued by a woodland creature as they run offstage, who says they are correct?  Is it enough that history says they are correct because the First or Second Folio have it that way, or should those editors begin to question stage directions and look at the production history of each show and give the percentage of times that a specific actor has laughed at that exact place in the script and then weigh that against the number of times they haven't laughed and then present their findings.  They could probably also produce their own show, starring as many of the most venerable Shakespearean actors left alive today with all the Shakespearean directors, dramaturgs, and scholars, and see what they think.  Why not take a vote?  If they are serious about the editing process, does what other people think actually count, or are the editors just playing God with Shakespeare?

I can't decide it all right now, but I will certainly be making this a topic for one of my term papers.  Thanks, Blog, for letting me talk this one out.

He which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us. -- Henry V, Act IV, Sc. III

 Year 1, Day 17 -- Words Written: 0, Term Paper Topics Chosen: 1

Year 1, Day 14: Shakespeare Institute - The Wall

There is a wall.  Not a literal one, but an intellectual one that every writer must face.  Oftentimes called writer's block, when there is nothing left inside the writer's head that either hasn't been addressed before, or is still in its offensive and badly written phase.  I am ambiguous about this wall, whereas most writers dread hitting this wall every time they pick up a pen, or sit down to fill a blank computer screen.  The reason that I am ambiguous stems from the fact that I hate hitting that intellectual barrier, and I love the work that seems to come pouring out of me when I've finally moved past it.  At the moment, I've set up camp just shy of offensive opinionated drivel.

Here's what I mean.  If I were to say, "I believe that The Enchanted Island written in 1670, a musical and comic adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest written by Sir William D'avenant and John Dryden, is a better piece of entertainment than the original."  I'd get crucified.  Or at least, I think I'd get crucified, which is where the wall begins to take shape.  The statement, taken as a whole, is a matter of opinion and as it happens, isn't even true.  Or it might not be true.  I don't know.  I've never seen a production of The Enchanted Island and it has been years since I've seen The Tempest, so I can't say for sure.  In any event, my lack of experience with both of these plays in production, and only having read both in the last twenty four hours, makes my statement a knee-jerk and rather uninformed method of polarizing myself with those that don't believe that statement.

Here is where the wall starts to grow out of my fear that I don't know enough, and that my peers, or at least the people who read this blog (all three of you) are much more informed and can emphatically contradict this opinion with graphs, charts, and an actual quote from Shakespeare himself saying, "Thou art a dumbass, Mr. Graybill."  Thus ending my short-lived tenure as a Shakespearean scholar, and being resigned to being homeless and performing the Sonnets in Washington Square Park for a quarter (or tuppence, depending on the Washington Square you are thinking of.)  The wall is made out of fear that I don't know enough.

"But, you're in Stratford-upon-Avon," you say. "You're in the one place in the world where knowing too little about Shakespeare is a short-lived experience.  You'll get there.  Just go to the library, pick up a book on Shakespearean Adaptations, and read up."

Tis' true.  Tis' true.  I am in Stratford-upon-Avon.  There is more information about Shakespeare contained in this one little town than in the rest of the world combined.  I got this.  Wait.  What's this?  The book I've checked out was written by my professor/ my colleague/ my peer/ that homeless guy over there?  You mean to say that he actually wrote the book entitled, Definitive Critical Edition of Everything You Need to Know About Shakespeare Adaptations, Productions, and Literary Criticism, and he's living on the street, begging for pence?  I'm screwed.

See what I mean?  Fear.  Fear is the wall that I hit upon this steep learning curve that is my first month at the Shakespeare Institute, in Stratford-upon-Avon... where Shakespeare actually once lived and worked.  It is just fear.  What was the Bene-Gesserit Litany Against Fear?

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain. -- Frank Herbert, "Dune", 1965.

Thank god this ain't Frank Herbert's hometown too, otherwise I'd be in real trouble.

I've hit this wall before.  I usually shy away from it until I've ignored it for so long that it disappears completely.  However, if I'm going to get through four years and 80,000 words, I don't have that kind of time.  This blog certainly helps.  It helps me type and write whatever is on my mind, so that I can actually put down in words whatever it is I'm afraid of and put it out there.  I don't think it necessarily gets rid of the fear, it just makes it smaller somehow.  The wall becomes scale-able and a little more transparent.

Now all I have to do is keep watching as my two feet lead my over, past or even through the imaginary wall, and keep watching them as they take one precarious step after another.  That is until I run headfirst into the next wall of whatever-else-makes-you-hate-your-own-handwriting.

Oh, and read The Enchanted Island, whatever else it may be, it's funny as hell.

Of all base passions, fear is the most accursed. -- Henry IV - Part 1, Act V, Sc. II

Year 1, Day 14 -- Words Written: 0

Year 1, Day 10: Addendum.

I would be remiss in speaking of my studies here in Stratford-upon-Avon if I didn't speak a little about my life here.  In a small introduction to me, I'll say that I am just-shy-of-middle-aged man living here in SUA with my girlfriend Vicky, with whom I have shared my life for the past three and a half years.  I most recently graduated from New York University in New York City with a Master's in Educational Theater.  Strange as it may seem, the adjustment from country to country, and city to small town, has not been as jarring as I thought it would be.  The extremely busy tourist trade here in SUA has made the streets here almost scarily similar to what Vicky and I are used to... dodging pedestrians thru the center of town, carrying armloads of groceries a few blocks to our apartment, and lots of coffee shops, restaurants, and stores/ boutiques/ markets to spend all of your money in.

I have moved places a lot in my life, so moving here seems like just another place to call home.  We don't wake up (at least not everyday) and say, "Wow.  We're in England."  The novelty of moving anywhere will wear off relatively soon after you get there, and then all you are left with is the reality of life, love, food, work to pay off school loans, and a comfortable place to go to the bathroom.  So, now that the novelty has worn off of moving to England, I'm still waiting for the novelty of living next to Shakespeare's birthplace to wear off.  Walking the streets that he walked, seeing the multitude of buildings here that have survived the ages and are standing here allowing me to see, smell, and experience their locales and culture has been and I think, always will be, a novelty.  A great, great thing.

The life here moves slowly however, despite the tourist culture.  Getting a bank account, getting a phone (mobile or otherwise), getting internet and cable TV, getting a doctor, and getting a job... of which I have only managed to pull off two of these things thus far inside my first month in England.

My life here outside the Institute is as much a part of my studies as reading, taking classes, and writing those monster term papers.  As much as I sometimes wish I could just devote days on end to just writing, reading, and seeing as many Shakespeare plays as possible, I still need to eat, sleep, and crap.  So, these little addendum posts will be there to help me describe my life, my experiences, and my travels outside the Institute.

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body's work's expired. -- Sonnet 27

Year 1, Day 10 -- Words written: 0

Year 1, Day 10: Shakespeare Institute.

Research Skills II: Electric Boogaloo.
Yesterday was my second class in Research Skills.  Which we spent the majority of time learning about the resources we have access to, and the skills of searching the internet which I seem to be already well-versed in.  The use of boolean logic (AND, OR, and NOT) in the search engines, and some of the search engines I'm already well-versed in... the others, well, they use the same protocol and if you take the time to read the front page of any online search engine, you can find out how to use it fairly easily.

Next week, on Monday, we are going to visit Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust and their library there, and on Tuesday we are headed to Birmingham to see the main University Library up there.  Both of these places have exceptional collections, and I'm really looking forward to seeing one, if not all three, of the first folios the SBT have in their library.  I'm a sucker for old and rare books, and this happens to be one of the oldest and rarest books in the world... not to mention, the containment of some of the greatest stories ever told, and no, I don't mean the Bible.

At the moment, it doesn't seem that Research Skills has really taught me anything new just yet, but it has sparked some new and pretty fantastic ideas for my research, and given clarity to some old mangled-up thoughts as well.  It's hard not to think about "what you are going to be researching", when you are hearing all about how to go about researching that mythical dissertation you are supposed to be writing.  Mostly though, I was intimidated.  I know that everyone around me is just as scared, and putting on that front of assertive-rightness so that they might be seen as brilliant by some passing Shakespearean scholar, and asked to write a paper about "something awesome"... I'm just admitting my scared-ness, so that I can move on to the writing "something awesome" part.

That's it for today.  I'm doing homework (John Jowett's book, Shakespeare & Text ; Comparing two versions of the same scene) for Textual Studies tomorrow... and reading as much stuff as I can for my weekend class Shakespeare's Legacy which goes up in two weeks.

Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man. -- King John, Act III, Sc. IV.

Year 1, Day 10 -- Words Written: 0