Much Ado Wrap Up
and introducing Middlemarch
Good Morning Readers,
I hope you are all having a good first (or second) week back in normal routines after the Christmastide break. I was so looking forward to getting back into a routine with the kids and trying out our new homeschool schedule that I worked on over break, but then a lot of people in our family got sick (including me). So we had a much more flexible week than I meant to have. But it came with the unexpected blessing of being able to watch 4 different adaptations of Much Ado About Nothing (which I would probably not have made time to do otherwise). It also came with the unexpected “curse” of having to miss Book Club and chatting with some of you so I hope you appreciate some of the thoughts I was hoping to share below (including reviews of all the movie/stage versions I watched).
Finishing Up Much Ado About Nothing
Final Thoughts and Quotes
“Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably”-Benedick (Act 5 Scene 2)
“A miracle! Here’s our own hands against our hearts…”- Benedick (Act 5 Scene 4)
So much of the plot turns on the overhearing (including the above quote…Benedick and Beatrice are proven in love by notes they have written…Much Ado About “Noting”)
“For man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.”- Benedick (Act 4 Scene 4)
The song says “men were deceivers ever” and the plot of the play turns on men deceiving (for good or ill)…Don Pedro, Don John, Borachio, the Friar, Leonato, Benedick (though Hero and Ursula also do some deceiving…it is only a “modest office” given to them by Don Pedro)
The fact than Don John and Don Pedro are both master manipulators (but one has good intentions and one has bad).
In the Kenneth Branagh version I like that Beatrice says she’d rather hear her dog bark at a crow
The question: “on whose authority” is asked over and over again…
Benedick telling the Prince that Claudio is in love (“you hear Count Claudio, I can be as secret as a dumb man, I’d have you think so, but on my allegiance…”)
Claudio believing Don John (twice and falsely)
Benedick’s allegiance changing from the Prince to Beatrice (“Kill Claudio”)
Benedick and Beatrice betraying their own authority (via their love poems at the end)
The themes of knowing information and yourself
“But that my lady Beatrice should know me, and not know me”
The insults…
“If her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her”
“I wish that my horse were as fast as your tongue”
“I would not deny you, but by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion, and partly to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption.”
Benedick and Beatrice can’t stop talking about each other!
after ranting about her without any cause… “come, talk not of her”…and then he keeps talking
“I wonder that you will still be talking…nobody marks you”…but obviously she does!
Movie Reviews
I rewatched the Kenneth Branagh version Much Ado while I was sick and it is just as good as I remember, so definitely go and watch that one if you didn’t get a chance to yet. It is beautiful, expertly acted, and hilarious. I think of the four versions listed it does the best at balancing the humor with the setting. This seems like a very faithful interpretation and it is really fun to watch! If you watch it with kids, you may want to skip the beginning credits scene where you see A LOT of butts and the scene where they see Margaret with Borachio (which, I will add, is not supposed to happen on stage).
I also watched the Joss Whedon one and while the cast is excellent, I don’t think I am a fan of modernizing Shakespeare and keeping the language. The setting seems integral to the plot. Hearing someone use the beautiful language of Shakespeare while holding an iPhone seems off to me. I would love to hear contrary opinions if anyone has them though! Other than that the acting is great and listening to the language of Shakespeare is always delightful. I would put this on the bottom of my list, but if you want to watch all four then it is definitely worth a watch. I would not watch this one with children. There are a lot more sexual scenes than the Kenneth Branagh. There is also a LOT of alcohol.
That is definitely a thing in the David Tennant version as well (which is also modernized). If you want to laugh go watch these scenes! If you are interested enough to pay for it you can get access to it on Digital Theater and get a monthly subscription (about $12 a month…maybe I will watch lots of Shakespeare this month). For some reason the modernizing worked better for me in this version. Maybe it is the British accents that bring the language of Shakespeare alive for me. This one also feels goofier so maybe that makes the modernization work better. It is all a little ridiculous so the weird setting just adds to the hilarity. It is also an actual stage play on video and it is worth it to see actors perform it within the confines of a stage. This was the version that I felt helped me to understand the text the most. The way the cast delivers the lines felt like they were explaining the meaning in their acting. I honestly cannot decide if I like this or the Kenneth Branagh version the best! And watching David Tennant drive a golf cart while reciting Shakespeare is worth the price of admission! My one big complaint is the bachelor party scene. On top of being inappropriate, I think it makesClaudio’s case against Hero really silly if he was with strippers the night before their wedding.
*I would not watch this one with kids either. And there are some scenes even adults may want to skip, specifically the bachelor and bachelorette parties (1:20:00-1:21:30 and 1:24:00-1:26:00)
If you decide to get the subscription to Digital Theater then you are set up for watching a lot of theater this month. So go ahead and watch the other available version of Much Ado called Love’s Labor Won (there was a play called that in the first list of Shakespeare’s plays published, but it doesn’t appear in the first Folio of printed plays published by his friends after his death and no one else has found it since. Leading some to believe it may be an alternate title for Much Ado, as that was not on the list). This is another stage play that is set in Edwardian England, so the setting is changed, but since it is so far removed from our time the language seems to still work (for me at least). It is well acted but not nearly as entertaining as David Tennant and Catherine Tate (who is literally a comedian).
I am still trying to track down a video of my husband playing Benedick in his high school’s production of Much Ado! If I find it I will let everyone know how fun it is!
Overall I would say it is worth watching multiple versions so you can see different ways actors and directors can interpret the play as it is written. While reading it is wonderful (and really should be done to familiarize yourself with the whole play), watching is also very important because it was written to be performed.
What Else to Read
Last January when we read Romeo and Juliet I enjoyed it so much that I vowed to read more Shakespeare throughout the year and I am pretty sure I didn’t read any until this month. But, I am feeling that way again and really wanting to read more Shakespeare after this. I could post plenty of links to other Shakespeare books, but that could get long. So I will leave it to you to find more Shakespeare to read and watch. I know that Cindy Rollins (from the Literary Life Podcast) reads all of Shakespeare every year (one year she reads, the next she listens, and then watches) and I would love to be steeped in Shakespeare that much. But that sounds like getting in over my head and I have been encouraged to plan to do less (see below for that article)! So my goal is to read at least one more Shakespeare play before next January! And hopefully to watch a few before my Digital Theater subscription ends.
If you do end up reading or watching more Shakespeare, I highly recommend following along with The Play’s the Thing Podcasts. They either just finished all the plays last year or are about to this year. I find them intelligent and fun companions to the plays themselves. And if you haven’t listened to the Much Ado episodes yet, you are in for a treat! They bring so much context that will help you understand and enjoy the play more. Also, the witty banter is inspiring. I would love to be so well read in Shakespeare that I could pull lines out of my pocket on a moment’s notice!
And now I will conclude lest I “be like a lover presently and tire the hearer with a book of words.”
Introducing Middlemarch
Our February and March book this year is Middlemarch by George Eliot (pseudonym for Mary Ann Evans). If you haven’t gotten your copy yet (Penguin Clothbound edition or this cheaper paperback), I would do that soon. We have about 400 pages to read each month. For February we are reading Books I-IV and will chat about it before finishing the book in March.
There is no podcast series to accompany this book, but The Literary Life Podcast did another of George Eliot’s books (Silas Marner) and had a good introduction to the author in the first episode that I recommend you listen to! I will see if I can find any other podcast episodes that are worth listening to in the next few weeks. If any of you find anything please send it in so I can share it with the group!
If you want to take the whole month to read it it will be about 13-15 pages a day (depending on your edition). If you want to do it over a shorter period just keep that math in mind (I say this for myself mostly because I will try to save it for the last week or two and then will be scrambling).
And I leave you with this quote from the Prologue…
“That Spanish woman (Teresa of Avila) who lived three hundred years ago, was certainly not the last of her kind. Many Theresas have been born who found for themselves no epic life wherein there was a constant unfolding of far-resonant action; perhaps only a life of mistakes, the offspring of a certain spiritual grandeur ill-matched with the meanness of opportunity; perhaps a tragic failure which found no sacred poet and sank unwept into oblivion….Here and there is born a Saint Theresa, foundress of nothing, whose loving heart-beats and sobs after an unattained goodness tremble off and are dispersed among hindrances, instead of centring in some long-recognizable deed.”
Other Things Around the Internet
This article about planning to get less done is inspiring as an avid to do list maker.
If you’re a Tolkien nerd and watched Rings of Power…this essay on the Sauron storyline is very interesting (tons of spoilers if you haven’t finished Season 1…watch it first!)
If you are a lover of Bluey, there are new episodes out….a blessing to my sick household!
That is all I have for you this morning. I hope that you all have enjoyed Much Ado About Nothing as much as I have, and maybe are even wanting to read more Shakespeare (or at least appreciating why he is important to the literary world). I hope you enjoy dwelling in the town of Middlemarch for the next two months and I am looking forward to chatting about it as well!
Enjoy your reading till we meet again!
“Life is like that: what is good is difficult, and what is difficult is rare.”
- Robert Farrar Capon (The Supper of the Lamb)
A Few Reminders
Next up for Literature Book Club is The Innocence of Father Brown for April and then Crossing to Safety for May.
If you found your way here and are not part of an in person book club, welcome! We would love you to read along with us. But, in person literary community is a beautiful thing. So please contact me if you’d like to join or start a group!
If you are part of a group, but you’re not on our Slack page, please contact me. That is where people share thoughts and logistics for each in person group.
Book lists from previous years can be found here.
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