Re: The Hidden Life is Best

On 4/26/2024 10:53 AM, Don wrote:

Christian Weisgerber wrote:

Don 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.

 Thank you for taking the trouble to clear up my misunderstanding,
solely caused by my own careless haste to read your clearly
communicated thoughts.
 Bacon could never pass up a jest. An inside joke about upper class
illiteracy, mostly comprehensible only to the upper class, perfectly
suits the style of Bacon.
     He wrote his first play at age 7 and read all available Greek and
Latin literature in their original language by the age of 12. He
created his first cipher at age 15. Widely travelled, he had first hand
knowledge of the settings used in his plays.
 

"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.

 A mnemonic mechanism called a "memory palace" served speakers such as
Antony in antiquity. Oration demanded brute memory as crib notes
remained a futuristic fantasy to a paperless age.
     The TV show _Sherlock_ sometimes simulates a similar "mind palace:"
 <https://themindcollection.com/the-mind-palace-memorise-like-sherlock-holmes/>
 Danke,
 

Every stage actor has to be able to develop their memory for their
parts. Not just back then, but now.
pt