Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare

 

Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare

Patrick Prescott

 

Since brevity is the sole of wit, therefore I will be brief. From the play Hamlet.

I am a huge Shakespeare buff and a huge Isaac Asimov fan. If I went any further, I’d be writing a dissertation.

I asked the librarian at the library I frequent if they had any books by Isaac Asimov. The library branch didn’t have any, but the kind lady said she could order some and have it delivered in a couple of days. She read me a list. What caught my attention was Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare. I could kill two birds with one stone.

It came in and I had three weeks before it had to be turned in. I checked it out on Nov. 17 this year and had to renew the check out twice. I just finished it. Not due back till Dec. 26.

Combined It’s 1,460 pages, with maps and genealogy tables. I’m a voracious reader, but my eyesight lends itself better to an e-reader where I can set the font. A book with a font of around 8 requires I use strong reading glasses and my eyes tire quickly. If I’m reading fiction I tend to skim and scan over descriptions of flora and fauna, internal debates, etc. and cut to the chase. You don’t do that with non-fiction Isaac Asimov. Every word has meaning.

The book covers all 38 plays and two narrative poems. It was published in 1970 as two volumes. Volume one comprised the Greek, Roman and Italian plays. Volume Two the English plays. The book that came in was both volumes in one book.

Asimov limits himself to explaining to the modern reader what the Elizabethan and Jacobin audiences would already know. At least the well-educated aristocracy and royalty would know them. The groundlings or common people might not understand all of it, but he put in comedy and action to keep them satisfied.

Today classical education (humanities) has been vilified. Today’s high school graduates don’t have a clue about who Jimmy Clanton was singing about in his song, Venus in Blue Jeans in the 1950’s.

 In the Greek, Roman and Italian plays both Greek and Roman gods and goddesses were characters like the play Venus and Adonis.

Here I’d like to do a sample of how Asimov enlightens the reader,

 

“Adonis is the Greek version of a Semitic vegetation god… the type of myth of which Venus and Adonis is representative…reflects the birth of agriculture.

“The Sumerians, about 2000B.C. represented the agricultural cycle with a god, Dumu-zi, who died and was resurrected; a life-and-death…celebrated each year.

“The Semitic Babylonian’s name for the vegetation god was Tammuz…

“As the Greeks and Semites gained more and more in the way of cultural interchange, the Tammuz version entered Greek mythology directly. Tammus became Adonis.

“The name shift is no mystery… The semitic term for ‘Lord” is ‘Adonai’ it was “Adonai” that was adopted by the Greeks. They added a final s… making it ‘Adonis.”

 

Asimov goes to great length to explain the Classical gods. They were more or less the same gods, but different names and nicknames. Zeus (Greek) Jupiter (Roman) Jove (nickname).

A complete primer in not only Greek and Roman mythology, but eastern and German as well.

Asimov also references the sources Shakespeare used. It might be another play he borrowed the plot from and improved on it or wrote it on demand by a wealthy patron. The historical plays Asimov cited the Bard’s source, such as Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (story of the British Kings), Plutarch’s Lives for Julius Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra. The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus for his History of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in AD1200. For English history he refers to William Camden’s History of the British Isles, 1586 and Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland 1577.

 Macbeth, he wrote to please King James IV of Scotland and James I of England. It celebrated the King’s Scottish ancestry, and his fascination with witches.

In the plays Henry IV part one and Henry IV part two, Shakespeare inserted a fictitious character named Falstaff. He was the comic relief and carousing buddy of young Prince Hal. Before he could write Henry V, legend has it that Queen Elizabeth enjoyed the character and wanted Shakespeare to write another play on him. He wrote the Merry Wives of Windsor before Henry V.

One of Shakespeare’s benefactor and close friend was Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter. The man led a rebellion against Elizabeth and was executed. This had a direct impact on Shakespeare’s opinion on war and palace intrigue. He walked a fine line of keeping both Elizabeth and James happy, but still sneaking in his thoughts. Falstaff’s soliloquy in Henry IV part one is an example:

Falstaff feigns death during the battle. After Prince Hal kills Hot Spur and the fighting leaves. He stabs the dead body so he can claim the prize and then says to the audience. “What is valor? It is air. Tis discretion the better part of valor be.”

Shakespeare covers the Hundred Years War from Richard II to Richard III nine plays. We have the same problem today with historical movies in that that people and time don’t match reality. Asimov fills in the gaps when the play has people on stage who haven’t been born yet or are dead or in another country. He gives a graduate level course on all that’s happening in France and England for the whole 15^th century. It was heaven to read it.

I don’t expect anyone to rush to the nearest library and ask to borrow a copy, alas that’s the only place you may or may not find it. Amazon does have a copy for $164.

For me I gained insight and appreciation for Shakespeare that I didn’t have before, no matter how much I love watching the movies and going to a play if one is available. Isaac Asimov in you’re one of those thousands of witnesses that surround us I want to thank you for this endeavor on your part.

I'm finished on Asimov so you can stop reading if you want. 

The one thing that made me able to understand Shakespeare and enjoy his plays in 9th grade is I was raised in church when the King James Version of the Bible was about the only one available for protestants. Later the Revised Standard and American Standard came out, and in the 60's, 70's up to today all kinds of different interpretations are available.

Thee, thou, ye and other anachronisms I grew up understanding. Some preachers even preached using them. I prefer the New American Standard Version as it's the closest to a pure translation, for easy reading I enjoy The Message, but it's not for serious study.

I discovered while at Seminary in one class we had a list for the semester of all the scripture verses we would be tested on, and they were to be memorized. There was no way I could memorize out of NASV. KJV was purposely written in pre-printing press language or poetically. By the time of King James the common language became more prose than poetry. People actually used to talk like that so they could remember what was said, especially when the town crier read the latest laws or taxes, which they only read aloud once, and the people were required to obey them.