Titus Andronicus

... describe him as a drab bard.

I just saw a production of Titus Andronicus, and there's nothing drab about that play.

That is, like, is violent.

Oh.

CONJECTURES.

the historians suppose that shakespeare attended the free school in stratford from the time he was seven years old till he was thirteen there is no evidence in existence that he ever went to school at all the historians infer that he got his latin in that school the school which they suppose he attended they suppose his father's declining fortunes made it necessary for him to leave the school they supposed he attended and get to work and help support his parents and their ten children but there is no evidence that he ever entered or retired from the school they suppose he attended they suppose he assisted his father in the butchering business and that being only a boy he didn't have to do full-grown butchering but only slaughtered calves also that whenever he killed a calf he made a high-flown speech over it this supposition rests upon the testimony of a man who wasn't there at the time a man who got it from a man who could have been there but did not say whether he was or not and neither of them thought to mention it for decades and decades and decades and two more decades after shakespeare's death until old age and mental decay had refreshed and vivified their memories they hadn't two facts in stock about the long-dead distinguished citizen but only just the one he slaughtered calves and broke into oratory while he was at it curious they had only one fact yet the distinguished citizen had spent twenty-six years in that little town just half his lifetime however rightly viewed it was the most important fact indeed almost the only important fact of shakespeare's life in stratford rightly viewed for experience is an author's most valuable asset experience is the thing that puts the muscle and the breath and the warm blood into the book he writes rightly viewed calf butchering accounts for titus andronicus the only play ain't it that the stratford shakespeare ever wrote and yet it is the only one everybody tries to chouse him out of the baconians included the historians find themselves justified in believing that the young shakespeare poached upon sir thomas lucy's deer preserves and got hailed before that magistrate for it but there is no shred of respect-worthy evidence that anything of the kind happened the historians having argued the thing that might have happened into the thing that did happen found no trouble in turning sir thomas lucy into mr justice shallow they have long ago convinced the world on surmise and without trustworthy evidence that shallow is sir thomas the next addition to the young shakespeare's stratford history comes easy the historian builds it out of the surmised deer-stealing and the surmised trial before the magistrate and the surmised vengeance prompted satire upon the magistrate in the play result the young shakespeare was a wild wild wild oh such a wild young scamp and that gratuitous slander is established for all time it is the very way professor osborn and i built the colossal skeleton brontosaur that stands fifty-seven feet long and sixteen feet high in the natural history museum the awe and admiration of all the world the stateliest skeleton that exists on the planet we had nine bones and we built the rest of him out of plaster of paris we ran short of plaster of paris or we'd have built a brontosaur that could sit down beside the stratford shakespeare and none but an expert could tell which was biggest or contained the most plaster shakespeare pronounced venus and adonis the first heir of his invention apparently implying that it was his first effort at literary composition he should not have said it it has been an embarrassment to his historians these many many years they have to make him write that graceful and polished and flawless and beautiful poem before he escaped from stratford and his family fifteen eighty six or eighty seven age twenty two or along there because within the next five years he wrote five great plays and could not have found time to write another line it is sorely embarrassing if he began to slaughter calves and poach deer and rollick around and learn english at the earliest likely moment say at thirteen when he was supposedly wrenched from that school where he was supposedly storing up latin for future literary use he had his youthful hands full and much more than full he must have had to put aside his warwickshire dialect which wouldn't be understood in london and study english very hard very hard indeed incredibly hard almost if the result of that labor was to be the smooth and rounded and flexible and letter perfect english of the venus and adonis in the space of ten years and at the same time learn great and fine and unsurpassable literary form.

however it is conjectured that he accomplished all this and more much

more

And I'm Danielle Cohn.

And this week we are still trapped forever talking about Titus Andronicus.

Titus Andronicus.

Woo.

Um, it's still-

A lot of murder, no ghosts.

[laughs] A lot of murder.

A ti- [laughs] the opinion of Titus Andronicus is that there is no afterlife.

is incredible.

Yeah, it's like Titus Andronicus.

There was another attempt on Abote where the attackers misidentified the president's car and ended up targeting the vice president's vehicle.

The vice president did survive, but after these attempts, Abote basically just fears for his life too much, withdraws from the public eye, doesn't do as many events and stuff, which leaves a bit of a void in the leadership.

So we know that he was going for, or we suspect he was going for a more naturalistic delivery of the lines.

That doesn't mean he was going for a naturalistic portrayal of um death or you know other activities on stage if you look at the costuming that's all over the place historically there's no adhering to historical accuracy in um I'm trying to think, Titus Andronicus.

That's the one where there's a picture of actors on the stage taken, drawn by a contemporary.

And it's a real mishmash of historical costumes.

Newsflash, I'm never wrong.

Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find Fantasy Fan Fellows wherever you get your podcasts.

And you mentioning Titus Andronicus there makes me think, well, that probably is the play where he's going for shock.

Yeah, was he? But is it the shock of the brutality or the shock of the characters not being able to let go of this rivalry? Always having to have this one-upmanship between the two factions.

The UN's Naval Fleet's flagship is Over the Rainbow, and the fleet consists of ships and craft from both the eastern and western camps.

Its main force consists of formerly American naval ships, and each has been given a codename from among Shakespeare's plays, such as Othello, Titus Andronicus, Cymbeline, and The Tempest.

Hmm.

Not Eve? No.