Courtrooms & Playhouses

While thinking about the trial scene in 4.1 of "Merchant" this week & next, keep the following quote from J.P. Satre in mind:

"The law is theater, for at the roots of theater is not merely a religious ceremony, there is also eloquence... The stage is a courtroom in which the case is tried" ('Interview,' 1976; 126-7).

Who does Venice put on trial in 4.1? Is Venice itself--its laws and customs--also on trial? Who do we, as readers, also evaluate and 'try' in the scene and, consequently, in Act 5?

The Beatles Do Pyramus and Thisbe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psATF1mUpUU

Totally wild and fantastic, if you can deal with the screaming girls.

But yes, this scene confirms that the Beatles understood metadrama. They've got a ticket to ride, and they don't care. Rock on. "Come, trusty sword.." (and thanks to A* for the tip!)

We Should All Give a Dollar

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/05/AR2007020501307.html

For Valentine's Day

So, this is the "World's Largest Rose," 6 feet tall, grown in Ecuador. $250 a dozen. Perfect for that special someone. There's an article about this monstrosity in the Washington Post. Unclear whether this was what Shakespeare had in mind with Sonnet 54:

O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses:
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade,
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.