#christopher sly

Marius Goring as Petruchio, Yvonne Mitchell as Katherina, Michael Warre as Christopher Sly and Donald Pleasance as Grumio in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Taming of the Shrew at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford 1953 directed by George Devine.

“Marius Goring took a civilised way with Petruchio. Here was no heavyweight champion battling for a wench, but a fellow of some sensitiveness and perception … By the time that he and Katharina were on their way back to Padua and that perverse argument about sun and moon was being thrashed out, we realised that this couple had fallen deeply in love, and Petruchio’s “Kiss me, Kate!” was not so much a command as an invitation.” – TC Kemp

To recap from yesterday: inductions are a thing in Elizabethan drama, and Taming of the Shrew starts out with one of ’em that features drunkard and beggar Christopher Sly.

Here’s the bare-bones recap. Lord (with hunting party) stumble across a sleeping Sly and decides to play a practical joke on him. So when Sly wakes up again, he’s been installed and dressed up as lord of the manor, with all…

One of the fun pieces of these few months in Project the Second is the chance to contemplate the different levels of relationship I have with different titles in Shakespeare’s oeuvre. So far, I’ve read plays that I’ve read before but never seen (Julius Caesar), plays I’ve read and seen before (Titus, Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night), plays I’ve read and seen and taught before (R&J, Richard 3),…

vintagebookseller

1961 Athena paperback original