Historical context

 Shakespeare's world 

QUESTION: What sense do you get of what life was like in Elizabethan England? Try to include information on: The population, entertainment, religion, superstition, money, jobs, medicine, theatre.

Shakespeare lived in Elizabethan England. The Elizabethan Era, the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) that is often considered to be a golden age in English history, Historians studying it have focused mainly on the lives of the era's wealthy nobles. There was a dominant patriarchate society and a strong belief in Christian which put the noble men nearest to god and the Queen worshiped by rest of the population. So this meant that the barons, prices, dukes and landowners spent their days royally feasting and courting dressed in grand robes (Like Elizabeth I on the left) while jesters played instruments. But the conditions of the ordinary folk were on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Shakespeare never writes about peasants and commoners whom he would've mostly grown up around and was initially associated to. His plots always tend to follow nobility and aristocracy. But the living conditions of most of Elizabethan population were brutal, miserable and dangerously unhealthy. The average working man would not be able to provide nearly enough by our measure for his seven children and would naturally not have the contraception not to have them. The peasant women were illiterate and thus paid nothing they could earn their own living for let alone provide. So things like baths, clean water, a balanced diet, rodent-free household, heat and other necessities were considered a luxury. Lack medical attention as well as knowledge meant that the majority suffered from low life expectancy and were victim to brutal things such as the Bubonic plague. This lack of a healthcare system and medicinal ignorance meant that half the entire population was under the age of twenty two. As if this wasn't enough, the poor folk forced to take up a life of even the pettiest crime were immediately punishable by death. A peasant could end up in the gallows after having stole their family a ten pence supper. As if the chances of getting poisoned by bad meat or something of the sort weren't ridiculously high enough anyway.



Elizabethan England is dominated by the filthy rich in decadent high candlelit ceilings in powerful gold-coated seats but this is a world enjoyed by the privileged few. People born poor couldn't marry into money because of how almost non existent marriage outside their class was and they couldn't get a solid enough education because schooling was rare and expensive. Candles are expensive in cramped peasant cottages and life is definitely a very different kettle of bitter darkness in most people's case.
The jobs that most of the population were educated enough to do would be considered demeaning, unholy and unworthy which is where they got this ridiculously low income. The educated and wealthy were only people of noble birth and the ordained few. The religion in The Elizabethan era was highly Christian but nobility was a close second. Peasants were't educated enough about Christianity and worshiped the Queen as God's chosen aristocrat.
Here are some of the jobs there's record of:

APOTHECARY
An Apothecy dispensed remedies made from herbs, plants and roots. Elizabethan physicians were expensive and a priest often held this occupation, often the only recourse for sick, poor people
ARTIST
Artists were employed in the later Elizabethan era by kings and nobles. At first an artist painted heraldic designs on early furniture and then it became fashionable for portraits to be painted
ASTROLOGER
An astrologer studied the stars and planets but regarded as a mystical person.
BAKER
Bread was a daily staple of Elizabethan life, and good bakers were employed by Nobles in their castles.
BARBER
A Barber had many occupations in relation to personal care. Barbers would cut hair but would also serve as dentists, surgeons and blood-letters.
BLACKSMITH
The Blacksmith was one of the most important, albeit lowly, occupations of the Elizabethan era. Blacksmiths forged weapons, sharpened weapons, repaired armor.
BOTTLER
A Bottler had a responsible occupation and was in charge of the Bottlery which was intended for storing and dispensing wines and other expensive provisions.
BUTLER
The Butler was responsible for the castle cellar and was in charge of large butts of beer. The room in the castle called the Buttery was intended for storing and dispensing beverages, especially ale.
BOWER OR BOWYER
The Bowyer manufactured bows, arrows and crossbows


CANDLEMAKER
The Candlemaker made candles to light a castle or palace. Candles were supplemented by lighting from torches, lanterns and rush dips.
CARPENTER
The occupation of the Carpenter was diverse. Carpenters built furniture, roofing, and wood panelling. Carpenter: a skilled craftsman who shaped or made things of wood. Carpenters were highly skilled and considered to be elite tradesmen
CHAMBERLAIN
Chamberlain - The title originated with an officer of a royal household who was responsible for the Chamber, which included the administration of the Queen's household's budget. This occupation was later extended to collecting revenues and paying expenses
CHANCELLOR
A chancellor was a secretary to a Noble or Royal person
CHAPLAIN
The Chaplain was responsible for the religious activities of a castle servants and Men at arms. The duties might also include that of a clerk and keeping accounts. A Priest would usually looked after the spiritual needs and confessions of the Nobles and their families
CLERK
A Clerk was employed to keep accounts
CLOTHIER
Clothiers made clothes for the nobles and required having a knowledge of various fine and expensive materials
CONSTABLE
Constable was the occupation of the person who had been appointed as Custodian, or in charge of, the castle
COOK
Cook was employed in the castle kitchens roasting, broiling, and baking food in the fireplaces and ovens.
CORDWAINER
A Cordwainer was a Shoemaker or Cobbler, a craftsman who made shoes
COTTAR
A Cottar was one of the lowest peasant occupations, undertaken by the old or infirm, who had a series of low duties including swine-herd,, prison guard and menial tasks
EWERER
A Ewerer brought and heated water for nobles
FLETCHER
The Fletcher crafted and manufactured bows and the flights of arrows
GARDENER
The Elizabethan Gardener needed a knowledge of herbs and plants.
GONG FARMER
Gong was another name for dung.
HERALD OR HARKER
A Herald was a knights assistant and an expert advisor on heraldry. The Herald (or Harker) would declare announcements on behalf of the Queen or Noble to the public. Normally this was done on a given day when the public would assemble at the base of a castle tower or in the town square and the Herald would shout out the news
HERBALIST
A Herbalist was usually a member of a religious order such as a monk or friar who would plant and maintainmedicinal plants, roots and herbs.
JANITOR
The Janitor, or Porter, was responsible for a main Castle entrance and for the guardrooms. The Janitor also insured that no one entered or left the castle without permission
JESTER
The Jester also referred to as the Fool entertained the Queen and the court
KEEPER OF THE WARDROBE
The room in the castle called the wardrobe was intended as a dressing room and storage room for clothes and used by the Queen and Upper Classes. The Keeper of the Wardrobe was in charge of the tailors and laundress.
KNIGHT
It was the duty of a Knight to learn how to fight and so serve their Queen according to the Code of Chivalry. Weapon practise included enhancing skills in the sword, battle axe, dagger and lance.
MARSHAL
Marshal was the officer in charge of a household's horses, carts, wagons, containers and the transporting of goods.
MESSENGER
Messengers were lesser diplomats of the lord who carried receipts, letters, and commodities.
MINSTREL
Minstrels provided Castle entertainment in the form of singing and playing musical instruments. Minstrels often would record the deeds of heroic knights in songs giving the knight great publicity and establishing respect and additional status
MONEYLENDER
Moneylenders were the Elizabethan bankers.
PAGE
The life of a castle Page would start at a very young age - seven years old. A Page was junior to a Squire. It was the duty of a Page to wait at table, care for the Lord's clothes and assist them in dressing. The Page was provided with a uniform of the colours and livery of the Lord.
PAINTER
Elizabethan castles ere highly colorful and the services of painters were often required
PORTER
The Janitor, or Porter, was responsible for a Castle entrance and for the guardrooms. The Porter also insured that no one entered or left the castle without permission
PHYSICIAN
Physicians were a very highly regarded and respected occupation. Bleeding, lancing and surgical procedures were practised.
POTTER
Potters were craftsmen of in clay, porcelain and early forms of ceramics. Basically they produced pots for cooking and storage and occasionally worked as sculptors. Potters were members of Elizabethan craft guilds
REEVE
The Reeve supervised all work on a lord's property. The Reeve ensured that everyone began and stopped work on time
SCRIBE
Most Scribes came from religious establishments where reading, writing and comprehension skills were learned.
SCULLION
Scullions were the lowest of kitchen workers whose duties included washing and cleaning the kitchen
SHERIFF
The sheriff was an important official of county who was responsible for executing judicial duties
SHOEMAKER
A Shoemaker or Cobbler or Cordwainer was a craftsman who made shoes
SPINSTER
Spinster was the name of the occupation given to a woman who earned her living spinning yarn. The Spinning Wheel was invented during the Elizabethan era. Later the term Spinster was used to describe any unmarried woman
STEWARD
The Steward took care of castle estates and household administration including the events in the Great Hall.
SQUIRE
A Squire was junior to a Knight. It was the duty of a Squire to learn about the Code of Chivalry, the rules of Heraldry, horsemanship and practice the use of weapons. It was also their duty to enter into court life and learn courtly etiquette, music and dancing.
WATCHMAN
Watchmen was an official at the castle responsible for security. Also night-watchman

There were no analytical newspapers or uncensored sources of political opinions just word of mouth and stories. The best form of storytelling was the theatre and that of Shakespeare's washed over all classes of people. The melodramatic palatable entertainment began to turn into the only mirror for there was for Elizabethan society. The role of Shakespere in London was similarly to today's media analysing how power corrupts and hedonistic goals don't justify brutal means.The century before Shakespeare's birth had seen a renaissance of classical knowledge and by the 16th century society of Elizabethan England was daring to question this ancient knowledge. The was suddenly room to look beyond the limitations and discover fact unheard about the world we live in. For example question medieval medicine's frankly ignorant ideas. By now anatomies started being performed, stripping away the flesh and confronting the reality of human condition. In a way that's also what Shakespeare started doing in his plays. Showing us as we really are with our multi layered human beings with all of our subtleties and contradictions.  It was this very growing sense of self awareness and self knowledge of the 16th century that drags us out of the medieval into the modern.

William Shakespeare April 1564 - April 23, 1616

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

This is the man who has enriched the English language more than anyone or anything else in the world. His gift to the world was 1700 words, 37 plays and 154 sonnets  which are now widely translated into most of the human languages and live on in theatres, classrooms, screens, hardback copies, the streets of the world and most importantly in people's hearts and mind. Shakespeare lived and died in Stratford-upon-Avon of Elizabethan England yet the of treasure in his work can be found 

relevant as ever to the 21st century world.
Lets go back to his beginning...
In a small English market town located about 100 miles north west of London along the banks of the River Avon. William Shakespeare was born the fourth of the eight Shakespeares children, only five of whom survived to adulthood.
His father John Shakespeare, was a prominent local citizen who served as an alderman and bailiff. His mother was Mary Arden Shakespeare, after whom Shakespeare named the Forest of Arden in the play As You Like It. The Arden family had been prominent in Warwickshire since before the Norman Conquest. Mary was the youngest of eight daughters. She inherited her father's farm in Wilmcote,Warwickshire when he died in December 1556. Richard Shakespeare, the father of John Shakespeare, was a tenant farmer on land owned by her father in Snitterfield. As the daughter of Richard's landlord; she may have known John since childhood. Mary married John Shakespeare in 1557, when she was 20 years old. She bore eight children. Though Mary gave birth to many children, several of them died young. Some members of the wider Arden family were of the Catholic faith.
in April 26, 1564, in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, William, son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, was baptised 100 miles northwest of London, on April 26, 1564 in Holy Trinity Church.
By the age of four or five, young William Shakespeare was enrolled at the King's New School in Stratford, a grammar school run for the benefit of the sons of civil servants like John Shakespeare. Where the sons of Stratford's merchant class came to learn the skills to inherit the family business. This was a time of profound transformation when education was moving out of the homes of the privileged few into the schools welcoming children of humble ordinary glove-makers like Shakespeare. Schooling was no longer heavily controlled by the church offering scholarships for the town's deserving poor and charging fees for those better off.
By today's standards, the education that boys like William Shakespeare received at these grammar schools was incredibly rigorous. The King's New School curriculum would have stressed a classical education of Greek mythology, Roman comedy, ancient history, rhetoric, grammar, Latin, and possibly Greek. Throughout his childhood, Shakespeare's father struggled with serious financial debt. Therefore, unlike his fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe, he did not attend university. But after leaving school at the age of only sixteen, Shakespeare would have spoken more Latin than any classics graduate at University today. He'd have been saturated in the ancient world with Pliny, Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. He would've reached a point where one has such extensive knowledge of all the worlds discoveries, history philosophy and literature that they may place their own building block at the top of the tower.

Shakespeare was only 18 years old when he married Anne Hathaway: a local farmer’s daughter, eight years his senior. Most men at this time married in their mid to late 20s. So why did he marry so young? The answer came six months later, when their daughter, Susanna, was baptised in Holy Trinity Church.  William and Anne had two more children, Hamnet and Judith who were twins, born in 1585. Anne and the three children probably lived with William’s parents at first. Later, they moved to New Place, a large house in Stratford. But Shakespeare spent most of his time 100 miles away, in London. Shakespeare initially came to London as a travelling player in the year of 1588. What he encountered there was a world of horizons pushed back. Then For several years after Judith and Hamnet's arrival in 1585, nothing is known for certain of Shakespeare's activities: how he earned a living, when he moved from Stratford, or how he got his start in the theatre. Following this gap in the record, the first definite mention of Shakespeare is in 1592 as an established London actor and playwright, mocked by a contemporary as a "Shake-scene."
From about 1590 to 1613, Shakespeare lived mainly in London and by 1592 was a well-known actor there. He began by writing sonnets but it wasn't until his play, Henry VI, was performed
at the Rose theatre in 1592 that he made his name as a playwright. He went on to write about 40 plays. Shakespeare was also a poet and in 1609 published a book of 154 sonnets.
Between 1590 and 1592, Shakespeare's Henry VI series, Richard III, and The Comedy of Errors were performed. When the theaters were closed in 1593 because of the plague. But Shakespeare was too engrossed in his writing to care about the plague. I bet he preferred the plague to a bad review because at least in that case the bloke that gave it to you dies... The playwright wrote two narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, and probably began writing his richly textured sonnets. One hundred and fifty-four of his sonnets have survived, ensuring his reputation as a gifted poet. By 1594, he had also written, The Taming of the Shrew, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Love's Labor's Lost.
Having established himself as an actor and playwright, in 1594 Shakespeare became a shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, one of the most popular acting companies in London. He remained a member of this company for the rest of his career, often playing before the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Shakespeare entered one of his most prolific periods around 1595, writing Richard II, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Merchant of Venice. With his new found success, Shakespeare purchased the second largest home in Stratford in 1597, though he continued to live in London. Two years later, he joined others from the Lord Chamberlain's Men in establishing the polygonal Globe Theatre on the outskirts of London. When King James came to the throne in 1603, he issued a royal license to Shakespeare and his fellow players, organizing them as the King's Men. During King James's reign, Shakespeare wrote many of his most accomplished plays about courtly power, including King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. In 1609 or 1611, Shakespeare's sonnets were published, though he did not live to see the First Folio of his plays published in 1623.
In 1616, with his health declining, Shakespeare revised his will. Since his only son Hamnet had died in 1596, Shakespeare left the bulk of his estate to his two daughters, with monetary gifts set aside for his sister, theater partners, friends, and the poor of Stratford. A fascinating detail of his will is that he bequeathed the family's “second best bed” to his wife Anne. He died one month later, on April 23, 1616. To the world, he left a lasting legacy in the form of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and two narrative poems.
His sense of responsibility to show his works to every class and reflect the society he was living in was not easy to do. So many controvisies are implied in his plays through beautiful language and dreamlike narratives that he could have been censored. Plays like Othello and Merchant of full of his bold reflections and immpied judjments of Elizabethan society. He touches heavily on racism, sexism and challanges religeon ahead of his time. Shakespeare was aware of the danger of dabbling in politics and knew that a lot of plays were censored. The Catholic religion was not approved of and Queen Elizabeth was constantly in fear of Catholic plots. Shakespeare knew people who had been arrested and tortured. His own relatives had been arrested and taken to the Tower of London William Arden, was a second cousin of Mary Arden of Wilmcote, the mother of Shakespeare In 1583 Arden was indicted for plotting against the life of the Queen. Arden protested his innocence only admitting to adhere to the Catholic faith but was executed at Smithfield on 30th December, 1583 Shakespeare knew of the strict laws prohibiting any explicitly religious or current political events being represented on stage.
When William Shakespeare died in his birthplace of Stratford-upon- Avon, he was recognized as one of the greatest English playwrights of his era. In the four centuries since, he has come to be seen as not only a great English playwright, but the greatest playwright in the English language. Reflecting upon the achievement of his peer and sometimes rival, Ben Jonson wrote of Shakespeare, “He was not of an age, but for all time.”

Questions surrounding his work

Many people question the brilliance of Shakespeare and wonder if there was more to him then we assume. There are countless conspiracies surrounding his title. Some say Shakespeare is a mere pseudonym and there must be an oppressed minority, group of people or an politically persecuted figure behind the name. But most of these theories are too off base to be socially accepted and taught at school so countless gaps in his history remain. As he lived so long ago we have no real way of filling them but there have been a few attempts.

Shakespeare's plays, despite being written ages and ages ago are still incredibly relevant and conventional. Comedies that still make this generation laugh, Love stories that still stir the passions, tragedies that still have the power to shock and amaze and all written a language that is too old fashioned for us to speak and yet there's noting narrow or medieval about these plays. This phenomenon presents Shakespeare to have an incredibly modern mind and therefore arises a lot of suspicion as well as admiration towards him. Had society taken a turn by the 16th century in the way that people thought about the world and about life? Or was Shakespeare an oracle and a genius. 

QUESTION: What was London like in Elizabethan times and who were the people attending the theatre?   

Class in Elizabethan London was a defining factor in people's quality of life and the rich and poor divide was immensely large. Shakespeare's plays began in the oak timbers of The Globe Theatre where he made his art accessible to the impoverished, oppressed countryside folk as well as the rich city merchants and dukes up in the galleries. The gentry looked down to the pit below the stage; The Globe Theatre's groundbreaking space for "groundings"who sought refuge from their harsh reality into his plays. The tradition of the cheap standing tickets has lived on to the days of student discounts and press tickets. But not only; his new language and hidden jokes within the speeches were sometimes aimed at the lower class to enjoy. Shakespeare listened into many a conversation picking up what was then slang or unwritten English and imprinting it into dictionaries through his characters' legendary speeches.
Arriving in London Shakespeare found that life rushed past the boundaries of the medieval country-side. Houses fronted the river down to Westminster and on the South-bank, beyond the control of the city guilds, stood brothels, theatres and taverns. The earthy exuberance of a rich and varied life. What was new about Shakespeare's London was that it was cosmopolitan. The Thames was full of shipping, city merchants were trading with Europe and backing ventures as far as Russia and India. But it wasn't just cosmopolitan in the sense of the geography. Here, a new breed of people was forming. People who Shakespeare found to be witty, subtle, sophisticated and urban at once. With his open mind he wrote and observed and lived every experience, the high life and the low life. Serving up his findings on an oak platter at the Globe, Shakespeare made sure he would invite an audience who got his wave-length and so the melting pot of rich and poor kindly judged his plays.

Before the Globe, before the 1560s there were no permanent building dedicate to theatre and there were travelling bands of actors and musicians traveled to and from large open spaces where they could attract a crowd; guildhalls, town halls, monasteries, in-yards. That was until 1567 "The Red Lion" in Whitechapel became a first real theatre or playhouse just dedicated to performance but it didn't last very long. It wasn't until 1576 that a proper permanent home for London theatre was built in Shoreditch by a wealthy actor and influential entrepreneur called James Burbage. He was originally a joiner but his passion for acting landed him in the makings of a first round outdoor theatre. This design was partly modeled on Roman stages with some Tudor vernacular being made out of wood for example. His actor's mid guessed that London could have been large enough to sustain a professional performance space just outside the wall city hovering near the gates. He simply called it "The Theatre". He was the one who made the decision to create professional theatre for early modern London and built "The Theatre." it ran for more than twenty years and he performed in Shakespeare's plays in Shoreditch and the Globe.
At this time there were two controlling organisations locked in a struggle for power. On one hand there was City of London corporation which loosely represents the business- minded moneyed classes and a bit outside of London Westminster city was the home of the monarchy. Their contradicting motives and this struggle eventually culminates in the English civil war but one of the main means in which they tried to claim this power was theatre. They sponsored theatre or tried to stop and censor it. Laws were becoming stricter about performing in Inns and players were being punished so this was a good time to set up a first permanent "playhouse"; a safe space for theatre. Shakespeare's earlier plays are believed to have been put on there in Shoreditch. Among these was definitely Richard the third written around 1592. The actor know to have played that villainous role way before Ian Mckellen was a man named Richard Burbage; the son of James Burbage who died in 1597 leaving him to act in Shakespeare's next great plays. The man







QUESTION: What were the theatres or ‘playhouses’ of Shakespeare’s time like and how were plays staged in them? 


QUESTION: Who were the actors of Shakespeare’s plays and how did the experience of being an actor differ from the experience today?
After only ever having seen his great love stories acted out by men with coconuts in their shirts, I think Shakespeare would've been very happy to see our performances, or any of his plays on at the Globe today for that matter. As he didn't live till 1660 when women were finally permitted to act professionally on public stages, he would have taken the all male casts as a norm. But this did not stop him writing lyrical, empowering female leads like Bianca, Viola, Desdemona, Portia, Beatrice, Tamora, Juliet... On some level he must have been writing for the far future as he was quite ahead of his time.

Love's Labour's Lost

Setting of the play

The King of Navarre and his followers, Berowne, Longaville, and Dumaine, vow to devote themselves to the celibate life of scholarship for three years. Their counterparts, the Princess of France and her attendant ladies, Rosaline, Maria, and Katherine, are refused entry to the city when they arrive, and therefore they decide to tick the men into breaking their vows. Each of the men in his turn falls prey to the charms of the ladies and rationalizes his change of heart in the cleverest academic rhetoric he can write into a sonnet.
The ladies do not allow themselves to be taken so easily, however. When the gentlemen disguise themselves and pursue them as Muscovites in an elaborate courtly masque, the ladies heed Boyet's prior warnings and decide to switch favors, so that the men will mistake them for each other. After the men leave and reappear as themselves, the women reveal their prank.


The comic subplot concerns the "fantastical" Spaniard Don Armado in pursuit of the country girl Jaquenetta. His rival in love is the "clown" Costard, and together with a pedantic schoolmaster, Holofernes, and his associate, Nathaniel, they all present a garbled burlesque of classical material at the end of the play. The women tell their suitors to seek them again in a year, and the play ends with their departure.

The Riot Club

We are taking this story and the Shakespearean prose  and setting our version of Love's Labour's Lost in 1920s Britain. More specifically in a private Gentlemen's club inside the most elite University in the country. This is where the comparison of the Riot Club comes in. The most eligible bachelors decide to dedicate themselves to fasting and study in their golden University days, swearing off women for three next years.

It seems that the the ridiculous, sexist and high profile appearance of the Spanish men in Love's Labours lost is quite similar to that of modern day male dominated UK elite in university. The Riont Club based on Laura Wade's play "Posh" and the Bullingdon club Her play caused a sensation satirising the antics of an Oxford University dining club the likes of which housed men who run this country today.

Character work and rehearsals

During our rehearsals we worked individually on character as well as observing each other's performances and tried to use them to enrich our own. Because of the nature of the text there's a whole lot that we need to achieve in rehearsals; sculpting the physical life, quality of voice, temperament and rhythm of  that our characters carry. We gave and received feedback throughout the rehearsals as our characters grew and their energy productions shifted. I tried on lots of different qualities before I settled into one body of speech, movement and energy to play my character with. Shakespeare's characters are very complicated to bring to life. If you listen to a speech or dialogue being delivered in a presentational way with the actor simply playing a state of fear, pride or indecision, it will just sound like a lyrical lines of poetry. Shakespeare's characters should be played larger than life. The gold in his writing can be easily lost on stage without hours of detailed, solid character work. What I've learned in these rehearsals is just how much more precision and depth needs to be given into preparing a Shakespeare performance because naturalism, fluency and ease just aren't enough. A contemporary actor that plays amazingly believable and captivating characters in modern naturalistic comedies and dramas would need a completely different skill set and approach to character development to play a Shakespeare role with the same level of depth.

 Multiroling 

Playing two different minor characters in a Shakespeare instead of one hero or antagonist, especially a romance like Love's Labour's Lost, could mean being a device to fulfill the comedic ploy within the play. So this then means that there's more imaginative character focus needed on developing a deeper sense of personality and exaggerated idiosyncrasy to heighten the comic effect of the character. All though making sense of and learning how to emphasize the little verse there is always crucial. The challenge in this case is using contrast and variation for different parts of the narrative have different demand for extra characters and it is in this case, they are likely to be polar opposites.
Holofernes and the forester are of totally different class and background. Forester fulfills a manual labour position in the society as is chopping wood and hunting and Holofernes is a scholar of a wealthy, prestigious University for young men.

Endowment 

As well as all the different feedback, what helped me in developing my version of Holofernes and giving the Forster a sharp quality was The Animal exercise. Endowing myself with characteristics and detail gave me a depth needed to be able to play a character larger than life like Holofernes definitely is. We were all given a challenge of analysing our character with our own subjective point of view and making a judgement on what animal they would identify with. I decided to go further than that and make a decision on what kind of animal they could have been in a Disney version of Love's Labour's Lost the way Hamlet is a young wild lion cub. Thinking about this could help to narrow down Holofernes a bit more in terms of identity and personality which was a challenge without the exercise because of how little material I had. Bur creating an existential understanding of our characters wasn't totally the aim. We were all given a further challenge to combine this animal with ourselves as the character and endow ourselves with it's properties and qualities. A simple walk can show a lot about a character once you start to move and drive yourself with certain motives or qualities such a that of a specific animal. We walked around the space taking on the chosen traits and then speaking with the aim of lacing our energy production with the animals.
Or what the animals represent for us both physically and subconsciously.



In my analysis of Holofernes saw the possibility of an Otter. To take on the endowment I need analyse what it's properties as an animal are; so the physical attributes. These could colour the physical life of my character and the way I hold myself, motion and interact physically. The super-qualities of an Otter are how poised and straight it is. How it props up it's paws indulgently and the way it darts it's scrawny little head about with intention. The qualities are the physiological characteristics that determine the motive being the significant physical elements. I feel like Holofernes could be like a judgmental pin headed little annoyingly wise type of Otter. Endowing myself with the quite abrasive stance this Otter is taking can add a self-righteous quality to my energy on stage. We practiced tuning our physicality up to be bigger and more influenced by the qualities and then winding it down into subtleties to use on stage. After doing this exercise we started rehearsal by physically adjusting ourselves into the endowments we acquired. This way we can get into our characters' mind state from the outside in. I get into character by playing with my arms and shoulders as well as my Holofernes facial expression. Once I feel like I'm holding up my prestige paws and I committing to the esoterically oracular stare I can work on my speech in character. Through this exercise we were able to think about the life of our characters outside of the plot and make clear constructive decisions about playing them. The two pieces of feedback I heard most during my scenes was to make more specific decisions and to make whatever interesting actions we were doing ten times bigger. It's difficult sometimes to be daring and bold in rehearsal for fear of going awry but I feel like doing that is exactly what produced all the magnificent techniques and gestures that made our performances interesting. The lack of this however did't enable big decisions in some aspects of the characters and is what coloured the vague, wasted verses that missed the mark or caused confusion.

Meaning 

The most important piece of feedback we got as an ensemble during the rehearsals was to find out and know exactly what our character is saying. Shakespearean English isn't as obvious and explicit in it's intention and a lot of gold can be buried between the lines. If we as actors don't mine for it in our text, not only will we fail to bring to life the eternity of Shakespeare's words but we'll miscommunication the plot and intrigue to the audience. Watching the rehearsals made me realise that it is very clear if the actors know the meaning of their words and phrases and are keeping in mind their context. I could feel as the intention behind the lines an audience member, when they were said with conviction and it really stuck out when the actors used phrases they didn't understand themselves. We cannot communicate this wonderfully complicated language to people hearing it for the first time if we can't play it as it's meant, if we can't access it and let it speak to us. This is why a lot of the relevance and beauty of Shakespeare's text gets lost on it's way to a lot of young people because it's so hard to understand due to how much the English language has evolved. The Georgian language for example, has stayed more or less the same as it was in the 4th century and all the important literature can't be more translated.

I believe that a lot of the time it is possible to communicate the full meaning of a line that the audience may read and not understand at all, if the meaning performed well enough by the actor. So I've tried to break down my lines as well as researching the play context

PRINCESS

Well, lords, to-day we shall have our dispatch:
On Saturday we will return to France.
Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush
That we must stand and play the murderer in?                                                       

The Princess and her ladies are on a mission. They're on a self righteous a deer hunt and ask the Forester to give them a hand.

Forester 
A forester is a person who practices forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including timber harvesting, ecological restoration and management of protected areas.

Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice;
A stand where you may make the fairest shoot.

He points them upon the edge of a coppice or a thicket.(an area of woodland in which the trees or shrubs are periodically cut back to ground level to stimulate growth and provide firewood or timber.) There's a stand where one can make a fairly good shot from. He knows what he's doing and is quite cynical about these dainty ladies superfluously hunting in his forest. So at first he's quite cocky and direct.

PRINCESS

I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot,
And thereupon thou speak'st the fairest shoot.

The Princess assigns herself a tasteful compliment assuming that is of-course what this man  would mean to say. 

Forester

Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so.

The Forester isn't a phony and knows the extent of all the things he's said and meant; a compliment wasn't one.  

PRINCESS

What, what? first praise me and again say no?
O short-lived pride! Not fair? alack for woe!

The Princess is very offended and ready to attack him with her pompous self-adoring wrath. 

Forester

Yes, madam, fair.

He manages to get a word in, a bit baffled by her royal condemnation of his honesty. He intervenes with some belated sugarcoating.

PRINCESS

Nay, never paint me now:
Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow.
Here, good my glass, take this for telling true:
Fair payment for foul words is more than due.

 She belittles his praise and flicks him off her royal shoe. She makes it clear he's dug himself  a hole and won't be forgiven, dismisses him and puts him in debt of her affection. 

Forester

Nothing but fair is that which you inherit.

The Forester realizes he's taken the wrong approach and looks to Costard with a dazed gaze as if to sigh "Women!" He puts his foot in his mouth and praises her noble birth and beauty one last time. 


                                                              ***

Luther, Miquel and I  took on the role of three scholars instead of , taking on different aspects of Holofernes's personality in our abridged play. In the 40's I'm a slightly psychotic old female scholar version of Holofernes. Luther is a sassy, gallantly short tempered, over articulate professor and Miquel a more approachable, socially awkward, mindful academic.

 HOLOFERNES

The deer was, as you know, sanguis, in blood; 

Getting bogged down in the scecificities of nature, they're discussing blood types of a deer. This is them rather trying to be ostentatious and high-toned. 

ripe as the pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in
the ear of caelo, the sky, the welkin, the heaven; 
and anon falleth like a crab on the face of terra,
the soil, the land, the earth.

The deep rich descriptions commemorating this deer's life are like music to my character's ears. She listens as if it' the highlight of her day as the sacrilegious, mythical metaphors unfold in front of her. Combined with this internal process, she might also try to communicate her realms of understanding and agreement through her nodding face, to the other professors. 

SIR NATHANIEL

Truly, Master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly
varied, like a scholar at the least: but, sir, I
assure ye, it was a buck of the first head. 

The quality or attribute regarded as characteristic of this deer are questioned by Sir Nathaniel.  

HOLOFERNES

Sir Nathaniel, haud credo.

By no means does he believe Sir Nathaniel's claim. Or at least he he has to challenge it before accepting anything as solid fact from him.

DULL

'Twas not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket.

Dull dips his oar in and disrupts the whole dynamic of the scholars with his cretinous remark. He takes the Latin phrase of disbelief to mean a type of dear that Holofernes is suggesting this was. Going as far as to correct Holofernes raised all kind of scholarly hell and demolishes everyone's assumption that he has a brain. 


HOLOFERNES

We pummel him with our liquidating stares and then unload the inevitable condemnation on the poor sod.

Most barbarous intimation!  

Luther shoots up to mentally crucify the degenerate. 

Yet a kind of insinuation, as it were. 

In via, in way, of explication; facere, 

The precision it takes to lavishly denounce dull to his very core through this perplexity, stutters us a bit. 

As it were, replication, orrather, ostentare, to show, as it were,  

Holofernes is trying to communicate the multitudinous levels of offence Dull has caused and keeps opening new doors of innumerable transgression and it's delinquency.

His inclination, after his undressed, 

Unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained,  

Or rather, unlettered,  

They continue to maul his shortcommings. While helping each other out to produce an obliterating scolding they also compete to be acknowleged to have gotten the most grandiloquently rollicking word in. 

Or ratherest, unconfirmed fashion, to
insert again my haud credo for a deer.

 They finslly make it clear he's being skinned alive for his babbling this radical assumption.

DULL

I said the deer was not a haud credo; twas a pricket.

And yet he stupendously insists again upon this baloney flapdoodle of a claim digging himself an ignorant hole.

HOLOFERNES

Twice-sod simplicity, his coctus!

Luther leaps up again with a stroppy latin diss. I press his shoulders back down into the armchair insistently shaking my head at Dull.  

O thou monster Ignorance, how deformed dost thou look!

 This is now an outrage at the level of his idiocy. 

SIR NATHANIEL

Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred
in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he
hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not
replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in
the duller parts:

As the heat simmers away through Dull taking he slander in silence; the roast turns into scholarly banter. Sir Nathaniel starts cracking pretentious puns about Dull's dull uneducated mind. 

DULL

You two are book-men: can you tell me by your wit
What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five
weeks old as yet?

Dull tries to revile his rating and in this state of emergency, pulls out the party trick. 

HOLOFERNES

Dictynna, goodman Dull; Dictynna, goodman Dull.

Not only will I smash it with the right answer but whip out my knowledge of Greek goddesses to confuse him.

DULL

What is Dictynna?

A little part of me died as he blurts the question.

SIR NATHANIEL

A title to Phoebe, to Luna, to the moon.

Exactly Sir Nathaniel thank you! Jesus! 

HOLOFERNES

The moon was a month old when Adam was no more,
And raught not to five weeks when he came to
five-score.

Everyone listen to me explain this riddle in the most ornate way possible.

The allusion holds in the exchange.

DUH! It's SO obvious. 

DULL

'Tis true indeed; the collusion holds in the exchange.

Dull skrews it up again. I sigh in incomprehension of  his delinquency.

Enter JAQUENETTA and COSTARD titillating each other  

HOLOFERNES

A soul feminine saluteth us. 

Holofernes notices a rather excited female approaching their court.

JAQUENETTA

God give you good morrow, master Parsons

Good master Parson, be so good as read me this                                                       letter: it was given me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armado: I beseech you, read it.

 Janquenetta has a letter and as she's illiterate like many a wench in Shakespeare's day, she beseeches the scholars to read it.   

SIR NATHANIEL

[Reads]
If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?
Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd!
Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful prove:
Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like
osiers bow'd.

Realms of romantic, fantastical imagery spring to life in my eyes and I clap passionately at the end of the poem.  

HOLOFERNES

But, was this directed to you?

Now comes the most exciting our week will get with a bit of juicy tittle-tattle. 

JAQUENETTA

Ay, sir, from one Monsieur Berowne, one of the strange
queen's lords.

HOLOFERNES

I will overglance the superscript: 

Hungry for gossip I pree over towards the letter snatching ir from Luther's self-richeous grab and read it with intense engrossment.

'To the snow-white hand of the most beauteous LadyRosaline.' 

This letter is addressed to one of the Queen's ladies. Miquel gets intrigued and seizes the moment of my bafflement  

I will look again on the intellect of
the letter, 'Your ladyship's in all
desired employment, Berowne.' 

Miquel and I exchange a glance after the name finally comes to light. The puzzle begins to come together; Berowne is a student of mine what is he up to?

Sir Nathaniel, this Berowne is one of the votaries with the king; and here
he hath framed a letter to a sequent of the stranger
queen's, which accidentally, or by the way of progression, hath miscarried. 

I complain to Sir Nathaniel about what a knob Berowme has been by first sending a love letter to this Rosaline and then loosing it somewhere so it ends up in the hands of  a coutry wench! 

Trip and go, my sweet; deliver this paper into the royal hand of theking: it may concern much.

She's sent to finally deliver this godforsaken letter to the right place isn't about to get anything explained to her.

                                                  ***
SIR NATHANIEL

 I did converse this quondam day with a companion of the king's, who is intituled,           nomi-nated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado.

HOLOFERNES

His humour is lofty, his
discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye
ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general
behavior vain, ridiculous, and thrasonical.

Armado is slightly slandered but slyly praised in a backhanded manner. He's said to have offensive humor and a walk that makes a big fantastical fool of himself. It seems as though he dislikes Armado for being a more overpowering version of himself.  He is odd, artificial and boastful. His communication is insisting on immediate attention or obedience, in a brusquely imperious way. How familiar does this sound to Holofernes himself yet he ends this description saying he's not only a vain but ridiculous personnel. 

Enter DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO, MOTH, and COSTARD
DON

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Men of peace, well encountered.

HOLOFERNES

Most military sir, salutation.

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

[To HOLOFERNES] Monsieur, are you not lettered?

He dares to ask them weather or not they are educated despite the long scholar robes. 

MOTH

Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook.

Moth springs up and points out he is a professor.

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Do you not educate youth at the
charge-house on the top of the mountain?

HOLOFERNES

Or mons, the hill.

It's not as much a mountain as it is a hill...

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain.

 He's sarcastically asking if Holofernes prefers him to call it that over the a mountain.

HOLOFERNES

I do, sans question.

I DO without a doubt!

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Sir, the king is a noble gentleman, and my familiar,
I do assure ye, very good friend: 

Some certain special honours it pleaseth his
greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of
travel, that hath seen the world; but let that pass.

Armado goes into a graphic tale of his closeness with the king and then brag about how cultured and successful he is at which we wince and roll our eyes but he's no Dull, quite the opposite in fact. So as much as we'd like to crucify him we can't.  

The very all of all is,--but, sweet heart, I do
implore secrecy,--that the king would have me
present the princess, sweet chuck, with some
delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or
antique, or firework.

He catches our ear with the prospect of bringing eloquent and fantastical entertainment into our miserably boring lives.  

Now, understanding that the
curate and your sweet self are good at such
eruptions and sudden breaking out of mirth, as it
were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to
crave your assistance.

By the end of his proposal I'm quite flattered and pleased with myself but too 

HOLOFERNES

Sir, you shall present before her the Nine Worthies. The Nine Worthies are nine historical, scriptural, and legendary personages who personify the ideals of chivalry as were established in the Middle Ages. All are commonly referred to as 'Princes' in their own right, despite whatever true titles each man may have held. The Nine Worthies include three good pagans: Hector, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar, three good Jews: Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabeus, and three good Christians: King Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon.

 Luther leaps up again in what he thinks is a groundbreaking idea, bursting with visions of him putting on a marvelous show of the nine worthies and everyone clapping hysterically at his genius.  

I say none so fit as to present the
Nine Worthies.

Miquel tries to take credit and sparks jittery presuppositions.

SIR NATHANIEL

Where will you find men worthy enough to present them?

Sir Nathaniel is back at it again with the killer puns.This setts of bombastically overripe laughter. 

HOLOFERNES

Joshua, yourself; myself and this gallant gentleman,
Judas Maccabaeus; 

We get back on track planning the most exquisite show this university has ever seen. 

this swain, because of his greatlimb or joint, shall pass Pompey the Great; 

Costard shall be Pompey because of his fetching hunky shoulder or in his mind, something else.

the page, Hercules,--

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Pardon, sir; error: he is not quantity enough for
that Worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the end of his club. 

HOLOFERNES

Shall I have audience? 

Do you all want to shut up so I can assign the parts?  

He shall present Hercules in
minority: his enter and exit shall be strangling asnake;  

I dismiss Armado's error and specify that I want to see Hercules as a young lad choking a snake in our brilliant show that I can see in my head. 

And I will have an apology for that purpose.

He will explain this to the audience.

MOTH

An excellent device! so, if any of the audience
hiss, you may cry 'Well done, Hercules! now thou
crushest the snake!' that is the way to make an
offence gracious, though few have the grace to do it.

Moth gets in character as Hercules prematurely and strangles his snake a bit too vulgarly at which I frown and look to my fellow scholars for retribution.

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

For the rest of the Worthies?--

HOLOFERNES

WE will play three ourseves.

We think we're being very subtle and exchange yearning glances casually agreeing that we would'nt mind starring in show as the worthies.

MOTH

Thrice-worthy gentleman!

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Shall I tell you a thing?

HOLOFERNES

We attend.

Exchanging more suspicious glances we listen to Armado.

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

We will have, if this fadge not, an antique. I
beseech you, follow.  Exeunt 

If this doesn't work well, he says we'll end up with a bunch of old people on stage doing melodramatic speeches.

HOLOFERNES

Via, goodman Dull! thou hast spoken no word all this while.

DULL

Nor understood none neither, sir.

He's just stood there baffled all evening.

HOLOFERNES

Allons! we will employ thee.

I tell him we can give him something to do feeling a tinge of sorry. 

DULL

I'll make one in a dance, or so; or I will play
On the tabour to the Worthies, and let them dance the hay.

He gets a bit too excited and blabbers on about how he can be of some importance.

HOLOFERNES

Most dull, honest Dull! To our sport, away!

                                                               ***
 Enter HOLOFERNES, for Judas; and MOTH, for Hercules
HOLOFERNES

Great Hercules is presented by this imp!

Whose club kill'd Cerberus, that three-headed canis;
Keep some state in thy exit, and vanish. 

Moth retires. We flick him off and move down into the centre of the stage into our righteous melodramatic poses 

Judas we are,--

DUMAIN

A Judas!

Dumain butts into our performance for laughs and exclaims that we're not playing one of the worthies but a traitor. 
  
HOLOFERNES

Not Iscariot, sir.
Judas we are, ycliped Maccabaeus.

DUMAIN

Judas Maccabaeus clipt is plain Judas.

He's contradicting our genius and humiliating us in font of everyone.

HOLOFERNES

This is not generous, not gentle, not humble.

 I storm off in agony as if this audience does not deserve my talent 

Evaluation

A big worry of mine before the first show was the quick-change. Because my forester scene is followed directly by Holofernes and Sir Nathaniel's first appearance we required a quick-change to get me straight back in the wings ready to come on once I waddled of in chunky boots and layers of tweed forest-wear. The horror of there being a big fat silence after the second line of the scene while I was still struggling to get the buttons through the button holes was making me panic. But the girls in TTA really helped to use every second efficiently and I managed to get on stage with my scholar hat not so much a wavering. By the second show I prioritized on worrying about projecting my voice loudly and clearly so that all my jokes were well heard. And I think I managed to articulate the words and put a strong focus into my physicality as Holofernes. The energy in the first show was because the audience was made up of our friends and students who laughed at our characteristics and the comedic interactions that were meant to be funny. This gave us the comfort we needed to push our characters to our highest energy levels in the performance. The scene I was most worried about was the shooting scene which didn't end up bad at all. Before going on stage Daisy and Tatenda practiced the exchange with me and it was the best we' ever done it. It felt like I found the motive behind my words and because of the minimalism of the role there was some subtext there to be found. I tried to hit a very loud projection and overbearingness in my tone with the Princesses on the first line. This gave me a natural impulse to point towards the "yonder coppice" in a macho way. As if to say "I know everything there is to know about hunting and this forest I know like the back of my hand. What do you dainty ladies think you're going to achieve here?" This made the brutal honesty of "I meant not so" and the foot in my mouth following the wrath of the Prinsesses much clearer and funnier. I interacted with Costard when the ladies were fussing over the letter as if to say "OH women! Why won't they just get on with it and shoot the damn deer." I tried looking out into the audience as if they were prey and pointing the guns at their faces for effect. I feel like I could have done more with the silence of my character and intensified the hunting feel of the scene which slightly gets lost in the dialogue. But the hunting is a metaphor for the women tormenting the men a their pray and teasing them but not really ending up to hurt them. In fact it would've worked to stylize the movements and stalk the audience like the pray even stronger. Not to draw attention away from the dialogue, I didn't really commit to that at all which felt a bit wishy washy. The suggestion I'd have made would be to fully commit to the stalking gestures or not do them at all and commit to preeing on the conversation.   The song went well as it was enjoyed by the audience but I felt a bit out of character and unsure about the context of it.