Re: What I'm listening to

On 2024-04-25, Don <g@crcomp.net> wrote:

    18. "It was Greek to me" (Julius Caesar) - something that
        cannot be understood; incomprehensible.

>
That's some literary license.

>
Allow me to note how my post refers to two separate Shakespeare
scholars, related only by their mutual field of interest. AFAIK, neither
knows the other. The second scholar, Kelly Albertine, takes the literary
license you mention.

No, I mean Shakespeare did by having an upper class Roman express
this sentiment.

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar,
not to praise him." Actually Antony aspires to bury the Conspirators.

Antony's speech in _Julius Caesar_ is an amazing piece of writing.
A number of years ago I finally was tired of references to it and
set down and read it.  Wow.  Ironically, the next day I passed by
a trade union speaker with a bullhorn who tried to rile up a crowd,
but a Shakespeare he was not, and the difference in rhetorical
ability was... stark.

In HBO's excellent _Rome_, we didn't even get to see Antony's speech.
IIRC, the writers argued that it would inevitably be compared to
Shakespeare's words and there was no way they could do it justice.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber                          naddy@mips.inka.de