COUNTDOWN: 93 DAYS

Dost thou not suspect my place? dost thou not suspect my years? O that he were here to write me down an ass! But, masters, remember that I am an ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass. No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow, and, which is more, an officer,and, which is more, a householder, and, which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina, and one that knows the law, go to; and a rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath had losses, and one that hath two gowns and every thing handsome about him. Bring him away. O that
I had been writ down an ass!









1
ThreenOut says:
Tomorrow will be 3 months from opening Thursday.
not that I’m counting or care.
at all.
Dear God the summer is a long bleak bleak time.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:53 am
2
Ryan says:
Best thing I ever learned about Much Ado About Nothing:
At the time it was first written, ‘nothing’ would have been somewhat of a double-entendre; An “O-thing” (or ‘n othing) was Elizabethan slang for vagina.
what
May 27th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
3
socalbryan says:
Thank god, I mean, thank you Pete Carroll! I devote my life to thee.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
4
Jester says:
I wonder what Wlat Harris (the correct thpelling of hith name) is doing right now?
May 27th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
5
sb says:
ryan @ #2…also, a vagina, or “nothing”, was the opposite of a penis, or “something”.
I still lean more toward Marlowe as the actual mind behind the pen…
May 27th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
6
now_a_hoo says:
It also would have been pronounced “noting,” as in “I looked on her but noted her not,” from the first or second scene.
Also, Shakespeare wrote the damned plays, fer chrissake.
Finally, Michael Keaton was $$$ as Dogberry in the otherwise forgettable 1990’s movie.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
7
sb says:
now-a-hoo @#6…was “Shakespeare” the author, or the man from Avon, who spelled his name “Shaksper”?
May 27th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
8
HymanMotherFuckingRoth says:
Keaton’s best role, other than the routinely-panned Multiplicity.
F batman, right in the batrectum.
Also, unless you’re a cowboy, lose the hat. Fagela.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
9
am19psu says:
When did the Heartbreak Kid become an LSU fan?
May 27th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
10
Holly says:
That is a full 16 comments sooner than I thought the Dogberry reference would be recognized. Impressive.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
11
now_a_hoo says:
sb- the answer is yes. Same dude. Spelling, even of names, wasn’t terribly standardized at that point.
Anyway, busy day. Hope not to get into a threadjack about this.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
12
yoyofutbawl says:
If Shakespeare wrote those plays, then I claim authorship of Moby Dick. And The Old Man and The Sea, while we’re at it.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
13
now_a_hoo says:
I know this is an SEC blog, but I can’t believe there’s two people here who didn’t think he wrote the damned plays.
What’s next? Comments on how flouridation is a communist plot to corrupt the purity of our bodily fluids?
May 27th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
14
Holly says:
Oh, snap, we ’bout to bust out the Marlowe!
May 27th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
15
shovel pass says:
@13
You mean its not?
There are some folks in West Virginia who would like a word with you.
May 27th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
16
VandyJ says:
Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare, Oswald shot JFK all by himself, a weather balloon crashed at Roswell, Alabama didn’t really win the MNC in 1941, and I do not have a chance with either Emma Thompson or Kate Beckinsale from that movie.
The truth is a son of a bitch.
by the way, “O that I had been writ down an ass!” is going on my tombstone.
May 27th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
17
jakldawg says:
#13 Mandrake, have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?
to sum up: Purity of Essence= SEC Speed!
May 27th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
18
sb says:
Holly @#14…yeah, I like Marlowe’s claim over both the Earl of Oxford (de Vere) and Bacon’s.
now-a-hoo @#11, there might not have been a standardized attempt at spelling in that era but the four actually executed docs by the avon man (will and other legal docs) never included a fully spelled out “Shakespeare”, while everything published within six years of his death was certainly consistent and standardized…and why is it that all of those who lauded “Shakespeare”, (not “Shaksper/Shaxper”) never mentioned him while he was alive…where there’s smoke there’s fire…not that any of it can be proven…
May 27th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
19
Ryno says:
I had thought “noting” was also used as a term for eavesdropping.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
20
now_a_hoo says:
There’s really very little smoke here. Oxford’s public poetry was crap. Marlow died in 1593, and the stuff he wrote sounds very different from Shakespeare. And to reiterate, he died in 1593.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
21
Sullivan says:
Whoever he was, he wrote the finest plays in the english language.
And he served in the military. No one who could write Henry IV (parts 1 and 2) and especially Henry V could have learned that stuff listening to veterans in a pub.
Denzel Washington also had a great bit part in the movie as the prince, although Keanu Reaves was beyond laughable as his brother.
May 28th, 2008 at 6:49 am
22
sb says:
now-a-hoo @#20…I still see smoke…an understanding of the intricacies of a courtly life, together with a working knowledge of law, extensive description of military strategy and tactics as well as providing accurate descriptions of various locations in Denmark, Italy and France while never leaving the island…a large body of knowledge for one of common upbringing and experience working on the stage.
The Avon man’s education is undocumented and appears fairly sparse, however Marlowe’s and deVere’s and Stanley’s are all well documented despite the slipshod record keeping of the era, and Marlowe’s academic record was so exceptional that even with his common background he obtained entry to the finest salons of the day.
As for Marlowe’s death, there are enough questions and irregularities about that to fill a book, so, again…plenty of smoke and no validation coming from any party of interest. We all choose sides and toss out our rationales and believe as we wish.
May 28th, 2008 at 8:38 am
23
now_a_hoo says:
Here’s the thing about your whole argument: you’re suggesting that it’s more likely that a man faked his death and pretended to be his contemporary, than it is that someone of remarkable talent was able to understand the world around him with little formal education.
So: A. Sorkin’s education revolved entirely around the theatre (just like Shakespeare’s); did he not write the West Wing? Of course he wrote the West Wing; he just had help from Dee Dee Meyers and Marlin Fitzwater. Shakespeare had help, too: he lived in one of the most vibrant cities in the world, and was deeply involved with the “television” of the era: theatre.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:00 am
24
now_a_hoo says:
Anyway, FOOTBALL WOOOOOOOOOO
May 28th, 2008 at 9:01 am
25
sb says:
I’m saying its more likely that any one of several other individuals wrote the Shakespeare canon than the man from Avon…that one who sued a neighbor for a few shillings (about $80.00 today), was prosecuted for hoarding and price-gouging grain, left his wife his second best bed and no written material of any form, not even a single book (while Ben Jonson…a somewhat lesser light, left an entire library), did not have the remarkable talent to pen the finest works of the last millenium…just my take on an unanswerable question…
May 28th, 2008 at 10:38 am
26
Sullivan says:
Not military tactics and strategy, but military life: what inspires and transpires within a unit. Not just the St Crispian’s Day speech, but the heavy mantle of leadership (”Steel my Soldiers’ hearts”) the character of Captain Fluellan, and the indescribably accurate adn frank discussion by Bates, Court and Williams with the King incognito.
Even the comic relief of the Eastcheap gang (Nym, Pistol, Bardolph) shows a deep understanding of the highs and lows of the military life.
Falstaff? I would have to devote an entire chapter.
In this soldier’s mind at least, he served.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
27
sb says:
Sullivan @ #26…my point exactly…since the Avon man did not serve, whoever wrote it must have…
May 28th, 2008 at 1:18 pm