Shakespeare Fans discussion
Teaching Shakespeare
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Online Shakespeare Class
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Futurelearn.com run a lot of Shakespeare classes. There' a great one coming up on Much Ado About Nothing.I think the course you mean is Shakespeare: Print and Performance and it's really interesting. The actual viewing of the original texts is wonderful as is the discussion about the differences. The wider context of printing and manuscripts is also fascinating. This week we are looking at modern print versions of the plays.
The Much Ado course is aimed at students studying the text for their senior exams but also is wide enough to be of use to general Shakespeare lovers:
'Over the next four weeks, we’ll be exploring the play together, step by step, drawing on a variety of different experts from the University of Birmingham, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the Royal Shakespeare Company. There will also be opportunities for you to test your learning along the way. The whole course happens online and will consist of a mixture of videos, articles and discussions.'
There are also detailed courses on Othello and Hamlet coming up. And some interesting general courses about Shakespeare. I always enjoy the actors talking about their roles. So anyone who wants to enjoy an update of their knowledge would enjoy the courses.
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Hope to hear all about this course!
Yes P.D.R., that is what I meant. If I have the time, I'll be signing up for the other courses you mention as well. Are you sitting in on them by any chance? Anyone else? I'd love to hear others' thoughts/comments on them as well.
Yes, I'm taking the Much Ado and your course. I love futurelearn.com and have been doing a whole group of literature, history and archaeology courses. They are solid on research, come from good universities, and the online courses are very well designed for online learners. There's another Shakespeare general course coming up and the Othello and Hamlet ones. They are 'musts'.What I enjoy is hearing the new interpretations because my last university degree was back in the 1980s. I'm polishing up my brain with new ideas!
Lea wrote: "while I knew that the quarto and first folio versions of Hamlet differed somewhat, I had no idea it was by hundreds of lines! Wow! My mind is sort of obsessed now wondering why that might be... ."I've been working on the course, too, though am a bit behind.
My understanding is that there was no full playscript as such, but that a few audience members and/or actors wrote down what they remembered of the full play, and some of those turned into "official" versions. And the text was modified somewhat depending on the audience, so it depended on which version people were watching.
But I don't have a source for this; it's just what I remember picking up somewhere, so take it with a grain of sand until you confirm it!
If you go back to the course they do explain the differing Hamlets.
Yes I think what you said Everyman is a theory about why there are so many different versions. A good theory, but still just a theory to explain it.
I have done (and currently doing) every course on Shakespeare available on FutureLearn and they're all great. The one called Shakespeare and His World (by Professor Bate of the University of Warwick) is the best, seriously amazing. I recommend it.
Yes, I'm waiting for that to come round again!
Lea wrote: "I signed up for Future Learn's course on Shakespeare that started two weeks ago now. It's called simply "Shakespeare: Kings College London." Anyone else following along with this for the last two w..."Lea: If you've never read the 1st Quarto of Hamlet, the so-called Bad Quarto, I highly recommend giving it a shot. It's half the length of the 2nd Quarto and the First Folio, and wildly different in some ways. I suggest trying to read it without bias--that is, without assuming it's the "Bad" Quarto. Also, I think it's far more profitable to read it in its original form (not in an edited form). If you've never read Shakespeare in the text of the early 1600s you will find it offputting--but only for about 15 minutes, and then you'll get the hang of it.
Not a bad idea David. Any recommendations on where to get a good copy of the bad quarto, in original form as you say? I can do research into it, but I thought if you have a publisher or link to it off the top of your head that would be helpful...
GUTENBERG? Oops! caps lock going mad again!
Lea wrote: " Any recommendations on where to get a good copy of the bad quarto, in original form as you say?http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9077
The British Library has a copy one can view:https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/ba...
There are many advantages to viewing what the original pages looked like.
Just thought I'd say that while most of it is repetitive (if you know much of anything about Shakespeare), every few videos there is a good nugget in there. I just watched one of the Hamlet videos, and while I knew that the quarto and first folio versions of Hamlet differed somewhat, I had no idea it was by hundreds of lines! Wow! My mind is sort of obsessed now wondering why that might be... Were two different versions written? Were there two different authors? Was the folio an update and rewrite? What happened??