A Midsummer Night’s Dream Themed Cocktail Parties: Shakespearean Inebriation?

Are A Midsummer Night’s Dream themed cocktail parties the most inebriating of Shakespearean spin-off traditions?

By: Ringo Bones

Although I’ve never been invited into one, or lucky enough to have wandered into one, back in the 1990s, it is said that Midsummer Night’s Dream themed cocktail parties are usually celebrated whenever there’s a bar that’s within a comfortable walking distance of a campus with students old enough to drink. Usually held near the end of June in the northern hemisphere, the festivities are largely inspired by William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – the great bard’s work of comedy where four young lovers find themselves in an enchanted forest full of fairies, magic and mischief. It is not just the bar that is decorated to resemble the stage of A Midsummer Night’s Dream – the participants are also encouraged to dress like the characters of the play and – most important of all – the cocktail drinks that are served are all inspired by the setting and the characters of the comedy. More often than not – some are even inebriated enough to give an impromptu Shakespearean performance of epic proportions.

I was invited into one back in June 2001 by our local Shakespearean acting troupe, but to my then ignorance of such events, mistaken it for just an after performance party of their own production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Though this wasn’t as elaborate to the one that they’ve posted on Facebook back in 2007 when they did A Midsummer Night’s Dream themed cocktail party in a bar somewhere in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Sadly, in the age of the COVID 19 pandemic, it seems that all A Midsummer Night’s Dream themed cocktail parties in 2020 will be held with social distancing in mind. But, still, maybe Shakespeare will agree that this is a great tradition that needs to be preserved.

William Shakespeare: The Biblical Bard?

Given that his works contain more biblical references than any of his Elizabethan contemporaries does this mean that Shakespeare was a “biblical bard”?

By: Ringo Bones

Legend has it that a decade after his death, the authors of the King James Bible had reached a consensus that Shakespeare could have single-handedly written an English language version of the Holy Bible twenty years before King James issued such edict.  And when they’ve found out that Shakespeare’s works contain more biblical references than any of his Elizabethan contemporaries, had they’ve pondered too, that Shakespeare could be a “biblical bard”?

It could be said that a certain philosophy of life is implicit in Shakespeare’s plays. It was, in the main, an unconscious philosophy. He has been called, indeed, the least moral of writers because he had no moral lesson to proclaim, no sense of what is called “poetic justice”. Cordelia dies in her father’s arms for no other reason than that she was the captive of a strong and ruthless man. Such – Shakespeare seems to have thought – was the way of the world; it was for him to declare that way as it was, not as he thought, perhaps, it should be. A man or a woman’s life on earth was a mystery to Shakespeare, and “the rest is silence.”

Taken as a whole – his works and what of his contemporaries have thought of him – Shakespeare had neither the faith of the Catholic in the doctrine of the Church nor the Puritan’s assurance of individual salvation. Yet his unconscious philosophy was firmly based on Christian ethics, on charity that endures all things, on the brotherhood of man that implies tolerance and readiness to pardon. The Deadly Sins of Catholic theology were no mere abstractions to Shakespeare, but active forces working for destruction, and against these it was man’s task to contend to the uttermost. Shakespeare was no fatalist to accept passive endurance of evil; again and again he urges that man’s powers and virtues were given to him not to waste in idleness, but to shine like torches giving light to others. And when the inevitable end comes, man should meet it calmly.

It is not a comfortable philosophy; Shakespeare is not one of those who sit at ease in Zion. Yet it is a wholesome and “manly” one. Shakespeare – the Elizabethan dramatist – has still a word to say in behalf of Christian Civilization.

Emilia Bassano Lanier: Shakespeare’s Dark Lady Inspiration?

Even though all living fans of Shakespeare only knew of her existence after 1973, is Emilia Bassano Lanier William Shakespeare’s “dark lady inspiration” or even the great bard himself?

By: Ringo Bones

Most stone-cold Stratfordians probably scoff at the idea that William Shakespeare is not the actual author of his works, never mind just a mere pseudonym of some other Elizabethan era bard willing to remain anonymous. And there are some who suggested that William Shakespeare is actually a pseudonym of a Elizabethan era woman bard of really great skill. Is there any truth to this?

A recent article on The Atlantic by Elizabeth Winkler titled “Was Shakespeare A Woman?”  is a well-researched insight into the possibility that the great English bard might actually be a woman wishing to remain anonymous in Elizabethan era England despite of her really great literary skills. Many so-called “anti-Stratfordians” cite that William Shakespeare’s life is remarkably well documented – yet no records from his lifetime identify him unequivocally as a writer. Recently, probably due to the advent of the “hash-tag me-too movement”, the theory that William Shakespeare might actually be a woman has regained renewed scrutiny.

Prior to the “unearthing” of her existence back in 1973 by the Oxford historian and maverick Elizabethan scholar A. L. Rowse, the world at large was very much oblivious to the existence, never mind her brilliant literary works, of Emilia Bassano Lanier. Also spelled Aemilia or Amelia, she was born in 1569 and became a well-known English poet in the early Modern English era. She was the first Englishwoman to assert herself as a professional poet through a single volume of poems Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum back in 1611. Unfortunately, she was largely forgotten after her death in 1645. But thanks to Oxford historian A.L. Rowse’s speculation that she was Shakespeare’s mistress that was described as the “dark lady” in the sonnets, the life and works of Emilia Bassano Lanier was rescued from obscurity.

Are Shakespeare’s Folio and Sonnets Secret Treasure Maps?

Given that his skill as a bard is already well-known, is William Shakespeare also a skilled cryptographer?

By: Ringo Bones 

This so-called “new way” of looking at Shakespeare’s Folio and Sonnets as a cryptographic device was absolutely newfangled to me after it was mentioned in an episode of the History Channel’s The Curse of Oak Island and thus familiarizing the rest of the world with Petter Amundsen’s new way of looking at Shakespeare’s works as a secret treasure map. To most grade-school pupils in the early 1980s – Shakespeare was usually synonymous with one of the “most boring” aspects of the English language ever taught in school. It was just too bad that a swashbuckling and Knights Templar treasure related aspect of Shakespeare was relatively unknown to grade-school kids at the time. 

Petter Amundsen’s day-job is a church pipe organist and while he admits that his maybe a strange profession for someone writing a book about hidden treasure. Amundsen remarks that his training as an organist is similar to that of a symbologist – as it includes learning about languages and symbols. 

Amundsen’s initial experience with Shakespeare during his formative years didn’t impress him, as with most boys elsewhere in the world with “swashbuckling daydreams” during their mundane seventh-grade Shakespeare class. Later in life, Amundsen came across a story about a cipher on William Shakespeare’s gravestone while investigating stocks and future’s markets online. Amundsen became so fascinated with the subject of cryptographic aspects of Shakespeare’s literary works that he dropped his pursuit of stocks and futures investing to pursue the Shakespeare cipher angle. Amundsen bought a facsimile of Shakespeare’s original Folio of thirty-six plays and when he began looking for cryptic patterns, he found several, not only in the original folio of thirty-six plays but also in the original collection of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, which translated to a celestial map that could correlate with locations on the ground.   

The pattern Amundsen found is a square and compass celestial pattern that mimics some aspects of some secret societies – such as those of the Freemasons – and he then mentioned features that locked in a source point on the map, such as the star Deneb. Amundsen then went on to say that if the original zero meridian of Shakespeare’s day – i.e. around the reign of Queen Elizabeth I – one which ran through west of the Canary Islands – rather than the modern-day meridian located on Greenwich, that celestial point corresponds to the coast of modern day Nova Scotia on Oak Island itself. 

Amundsen noted that the Rosicrucians probably had a hand in the publication of Shakespeare’s portfolio and notes that the Rosicrucians created patterns in their own publications of the day and invited people to search for these. So for Rosicrucians to place patterns in Shakespeare’s work wouldn’t be far-fetched. Amundsen also theorizes that Shakespeare wasn’t the author of all of his plays, acting more like a “front-man” for the speculated actual three authors of the plays attributed to Shakespeare, pointing out that the children of the man called William Shakespeare were illiterate – something that would be highly unusual for someone who virtually was credited for codifying the modern English language.

Shakespeare’s First Folio: The Most Important Shakespearean Document?

Even though it was published seven years after his death, did you know that Shakespeare’s first folio could be the most important Shakespearean document cause without it he would be largely forgotten?

By: Ringo Bones 

With the recent find of a rare first edition copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio that was published in 1623 at a stately home on the Scottish island – i.e. the library at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute back in April 7, 2016 seems to yet again to remind the whole world how important this vital document is, not only to Shakespeare fans but also to all of humanity as well. Even though it was published seven years after his death, without a number of Shakespeare’s First Folio surviving over the centuries, William Shakespeare would have been largely forgotten if there are no surviving copies of his plays. 

Published in 1623, Shakespeare’s First Folio brought together the majority of Shakespeare’s plays and without it there would be no copies of more than half of them, including Macbeth, The Tempest, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and Twelfth Night. And the First Folio is also the only source of the famous “balding portrait” of William Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout. The find brings the total of known surviving copies to 234 which is of vital importance given that we will be observing the 400^th Anniversary of the playwright’s death on the 23^rd of April. Academics who authenticated the book called it a rare and significant find. A copy owned by Oxford University sold for UK £ 3.5-million back in 2003. 

Prof. Emma Smith - one of the scholars who authenticated the find and author of Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book – says it is uncertain the exact number of copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio were produced back in 1623, although some put the figure at about 750 copies. The Scottish find had been previously owned by an 18^th Century literary editor and then appears in the Bute library collection in 1896. 

Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Calais’ “The Jungle”: All The World’s A Stage?

With the recent performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Calais’ The Jungle refugee camp proves that all the world’s a stage?

By: Ringo Bones 

“All the world’s a stage”, indeed, when Shakespeare’s Globe Theater took Hamlet into the notorious “Jungle migrant camp” in Calais. About 300 refugees watched Hamlet – “a play that speaks to the human spirit in its darkest moments” – in biting cold. Under a steely gray sky, in bitter cold weather, actors from Shakespeare’s Globe Theater performed Hamlet back in Wednesday, February 3, 2016 to about 300 refugees in Calais at the ad hoc refugee camp notoriously known as “The Jungle”. Majority of the refugees have not even heard of William Shakespeare and his plays their whole life and there are even a large number who don’t even speak the English language. 

It was a wild thing to do but also entirely appropriate, Joe Murphy, a playwright and co-founder of the Good Chance Project, said it was the ideal play. “Hamlet is the story of a young man who is depressed and frustrated, between life and death, who does not know what to do, who is struggling to make decisions,” he said. “That story is going to translate to thousands of people here who are exactly in the same position.” One of the aims of the Good Chance Project is to provide some light amid the bleakness. Approximately 6,000 refugees from 22 countries live in the camp, the vast majority hoping to get to the UK. Volunteers say most are pessimistic that it will ever happen.  

Murphy said Wednesday’s performance was “a remarkable, beautiful thing.” The audience, who were offered popcorn, chai and synopses of the play in English, Pashto, Farsi, Arabic, French and Kurdish, did not get every nuance, but Murphy said: “Who does?” Well, at least the great English bard will gain a few thousand more fans. 

Shakespeare’s Coriolanus: A Farewell To Tragedy?

Of all his tragic chronicle / biographical plays, is Shakespeare’s Coriolanus the bard’s “farewell” to the tragedy play format?

By: Ringo Bones 

Recent studies by scholars have shown that William Shakespeare’s “ruthlessness” as a businessman who profited from famine and hardship was largely influenced by his tragic chronicle / biographical play Coriolanus. After he finished most of his plays, Shakespeare returned to Warwickshire where he had a lot of land planted with corn and barley crops and hoarded the season’s harvests where he managed to manipulate and cornered the then existing grain market during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.  

The bard’s “complex character” was evident on his action as an “illegal food hoarder” 400 years ago who sold grain at inflated prices during famine was recently uncovered by researchers back in 2013. And it seems that this particular play very much influenced Shakespeare as a “shrewd” businessman. And sometimes I also wonder if Shakespeare had read Sun Tsu’s The Art of War.  

To most Stratfordian scholars, William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus are founded on Sir Thomas North’s English translation of Plutarch’s Lives, a fact of which may indicate that the wearied poet felt the need of a source he could follow closely without having to rack his brains in invention. Shakespeare’s Coriolanus – composed between 1608 and 1609 – is a more firmly built play of the most of his “biographical tragedies”. After the civic riots and pitched battles of the first act, recalling the technique of the chronicle plays, Shakespeare concentrates upon the character and fate of the protagonist. And this fate is, perhaps, more rigidly determined by character than elsewhere in Shakespeare. Coriolanus might be called Shakespeare’s farewell to tragedy; the tragic temper, the sympathetic hero and the poetic expression of the tragic theme seem fainter and less effective here than in the earlier and greater plays.