“The apparel oft proclaims the man”
This phrase is spoken in Hamlet by Polonius addressing his son, Laertes, in a long-winded series of unrelated advice.
Although you may not recognize this exact iteration of the phrase as one we use in today’s language, it seems like a precursor to the modern idiom, “The clothes make the man”.
For Laertes, this probably would have looked less like this:
And more like this:
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“Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, th’ear-piercing fife, The royal banner, and all quality, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!”
The phrase may seem familiar to you from the musical piece “Pomp and Circumstance Military Marches, Op. 39” by Sir Edward Elgar, often heard at graduation ceremonies.Given these two contexts, one may be able to deduce that the meaning hasn’t changed too drastically since Shakespeare’s time. Pomp is derived from the Greek word “pompa” meaning procession, and is used to describe something of “magnificence and splendor”. (Pomp, used in its negative form, describes “an ostentatious display of wealth or ceremony” lending the adjective “pompous”, which originally meant simply “characterized by pomp” but now means “self-important or arrogant.”) Circumstance, in this phrase, is used in its singular form, and means “the ‘ado’ made about anything; formality, ceremony, about any important event or action”. We commonly use the plural form “circumstances” in a similar way to describe “a fact or condition connected with or relevant to an event or action”.
The phrase “pomp and circumstance” thus means a magnificent display with surrounding fuss and/or importance. I think graduation ceremonies capture the essence of this phrase quite well. The “pomp” is the ceremony itself of graduates being celebrated, and the circumstance is demonstrated by those attending the event to witness and celebrate the achievements of the graduates, many of whom take photos and videos to commemorate the event.
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The time has come, my friends, to move the Shakespeare In Action Blog a bit closer to home.
Sad, I know, but it’s not like we’re leaving the internet for good! You can visit us at our new home:
http://www.shakespeareinaction.org/blog.html
We’ve got loads of new ideas for blog posts coming, including news and information about our upcoming shows, educational programming, and fundraisers! Bookmark our new page and visit us sometime! We are keeping this page up as well, so you will be able to access all of our blog posts of the past!
Away, away! Once more, sweet lords farewell.
This week’s wordy Wednesday is “to kill with kindness”, uttered by Petrucio, in his speech revealing how he plans to tame Kate’s shrewish nature:
And if she chance to nod I’ll rail and brawl,
And with the clamor keep her still awake.
This is a way to kill a wife with kindness.
–Taming Of The Shrew: act 4, scene 1
In this speech Petrucio is revealing how he plans to tame Kate’s shrewish nature and make her into an obedient wife. He claims that the only way to make her truly obedient and get rid of her wild and feisty nature is to kill a wife with kindness. From Petrucio’s point of view “killing with kindness” involves depriving Kate of food and sleep for a period of time, until she willingly gives in to being his obedient wife.
According to dictionary.com killing with kindness is any action that involves overwhelming someone with mistaken or excessive kindness. This expression originated as a reference to something that fond apes do to their young: crushing them to death in a hug and was a proverb by the mid 1500s.
The usage of the phrase in Taming Of The Shrew is fascinating because of its ties to the word’s origins. Petrucio is like the ape crushing its young through an ignorantly and overwhelmingly aggressive act that he claims is an act of love. The usage of ‘kill with kindness’ strays away from our traditional notions of what overwhelming an individual with mistaken or excessive kindness really is. The one question we’re left with is the following: is this an excessive and mistaken act of kindness or is it straight-forward aggression and cruelty?
This week’s Wordy Wednesday is ‘mind’s eye‘, uttered by Hamlet to Horatio:
Hamlet:
My father—methinks I see my father—Horatio:
Where, my lord?Hamlet:
In my mind’s eye, Horatio.Hamlet Act 1, scene 2
In the scene, Hamlet’s use of the phrase contrasts and foreshadows Horatio’s sight of the deceased king by his own, bodily eyes. Although Shakespeare did not originally coin the term, its utterance in Hamlet likely popularized it. We use the phrase ‘mind’s eye’ today much in the same way Shakespeare had intended; that is, to talk about our ability to visualize images in our thoughts the way that Hamlet is likely haunted by mental images of his deceased father.
Philosophers and cognitive scientists have adopted the word to talk about consciousness yet more broadly as thoughts and perceptions occur to us mentally and at times, use the term more concretely to refer to some hypothesized part of the brain where perception is located.
For most of us, the mind’s eye is synonymous with mental imagery – much like how we may visualize a show on stage while reading one of Shakespeare’s plays!
“Full circle” – King Lear
Full circle is a phrase spoken by Edmund in King Lear, Act 5, Scene 3. The Elizabethan use of the word ‘full’ in this context is to mean complete. In Edmund’s case, he means to say that his actions have completed their circuit and, as fate would have it, they have come around to him.
The current use of the phrase is not much different. We usually use the phrase to mean that an action or set of actions have gone through a cycle and returned to the starting point. The main difference between the Elizabethan context and our current context is that we don’t necessarily attribute the inevitable outcome to fate.
This Wordy Wednesday post is brought to you by Tiffany Chan.
Here’s another Wordy Wednesday about time. I can’t really pinpoint why I enjoy discussing the subject. The entire thing confounds and confuses, what with its many concepts regarding relativity, linearity, chronology etc… And yet I’m still drawn to it. Right then, High Time – synonymous with ‘about time’. It is a phrase that refers to the best or latest time for something to happen. It can also mean that something is overdue and should be done right away. Grammatically speaking, the phrase is often paired with a subjunctive verb in the past tense. While it refers to the past, it is really mentioning the present moment the speaker is talking in.
The phrase is found in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, III. ii (1590s):
There’s none but witches do inhabit here;
And therefore ’tis high time that I were hence.
She that doth call me husband, even my soul
Doth for a wife abhor. But her fair sister,
Possess’d with such a gentle sovereign grace,
Of such enchanting presence and discourse,
Hath almost made me traitor to myself:
But, lest myself be guilty to self-wrong,
I’ll stop mine ears against the mermaid’s song.
The phrase’s exact definition varies with the context it is placed in. In The Comedy of Errors, Antipholus of Syracuse speaks of his desire to leave Ephesus, a place filled with ‘witches’ and other women who claim him and Dromio as their husbands. Antipholous could’ve just said “tis time that I were hence”, but “tis high time that I were hence” has a greater sense of immediacy to it.
As in the case above, ‘high time’ is often used to voice a strong opinion. It is a marvellous way to complain about something or someone, with just the right amount of subtleness. Take for example, the ever-pressing suburban annoyance of lawn mowing… ‘It’s high time you mowed the lawn. The grass won’t cut itself’.
Literary uses of the phrase can be found in a variety of sources, such as Tolkien: “It was now past mid-day, and they felt it was high time for lunch” (The Fellowship of the Ring), and Dickens: “…very few words were spoken; and everybody seemd to eat his utmost in self-defence, as if a famine were expected to set in before breakfast time to-morrow morning, and it had become high time to assert the first law of nature” (Martin Chuzzlewit).
And with that, it’s high time I ended this blog entry.
See you on Friday!
– Vineeta
This week’s Wordy Wednesday is ‘Band of Brothers’. This famous phrase was coined by Shakespeare in 1599 and was first heard in his theatrical production of Henry V – which was one of the opening productions performed in the newly built Globe Theatre.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.Henry V [IV. iii. 2291 – 2302]
Henry V delivers this rousing speech to his men just before the Battle of Agincourt. Along with his “Once more unto the breach, dear friends” speech [Henry V, III. i. 1092], these famous lines capture the heart of the play and Shakespeare’s vision of the warrior King.
The Battle of Agincourt in 1415 went down in history as one of England’s most famous victories and Henry V’s crowning glory. The English army was outnumbered more than four to one by the French and defeat seemed almost inevitable. However, due in no small part to the unrelenting archers with their ferocious longbows driving the enemy back, the English managed to defeat the vast French force. England’s improbable odds before the battle give Henry’s impassioned words even more resonance. Shakespeare endows his Henry V with the powerful skill of being able to stir the hearts of his men and inspire and rouse them into fighting bravely and fearlessly for him despite the odds. Just like Joan of Arc’s battle cry to the French soldiers who later fight the army of Henry VI (Henry V’s son) – they were determined to “fight till the last gasp”. [Henry VI P I, I. ii. 326]
Henry proclaims that at that moment in time, they are all equals and they will stand shoulder to shoulder and fight as brothers. They will fight and bleed together and many of them will die together. This blood bond ties them together as family, and on this day they do not fight as kings, lords or foot soldiers, but as men, as equals and as brothers.
This notion of comradeship and blood bonds during combat is transcendental. Lord Nelson evoked this powerful wartime bond in his speech after the Battle of the Nile, referring to his Sea Captains as a ‘band of brothers’. There are copious examples throughout history of soldiers fighting and dying together as a ‘band of brothers’. One such example is that of the 101st Airborne East Company during World War II. This unit fought fearlessly and heroically from the Normandy invasion through to the end of the war; united by the blood spilt on the battle field and the strength of the lifelong bonds they had forged. Their story was immortalized in the HBO series, aptly named ‘Band of Brothers’.
An evolution of this is seen in Game of Thrones through the Dothraki blood riders fighting side by side with Khal Drogo and then Daenerys’ riders. Daenerys calls these warriors “blood of my blood” as they have pledged their lives to her and their blood is now the blood of their Khaleesi.
I was lucky enough to see the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Henry V twice during their two year/eight play History Cycle in 2007/2008. It was the greatest theatrical spectacle I have ever seen, and Geoffrey Streatfeild’s Henry was passionate, rousing and utterly spellbinding. Such is the power of Shakespeare’s stirring words in Henry V, that Streatfeild delivered his “Once more unto the breach” speech in the dressing room of the English rugby team, to rouse and inspire them before they stepped onto the field to do battle with the French team to fight for the glory of the Six Nations Championship in 2007. An inspired England won the battle on the day; beating the highly favoured French team – (although France were ultimately victorious clinching the title against Scotland the next week). This demonstrates the immense power and potency Shakespeare’s texts still wield today and how they have infused nearly every facet of our contemporary society.
By Linda Nicoll
References:
BritishBattles.com – ‘The Battle of Agincourt’, 2002 – 2013. Chalfont Web. http://www.britishbattles.com/100-years-war/agincourt.htm [Accessed 15 May 2013]
British Library – ‘Treasures in Full ~ Shakespeare in Quarto – Henry V Early Performances’. 2013 London. http://www.bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/henry5.html [Accessed 15 May 2013]
Game of Thrones Wiki – ‘Bloodriders – Rakharo’. 2013 Wikia. http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Rakharo [Accessed 15 May 2013]
IMDb – ‘Band of Brothers’. 1990 – 2013 IMDb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185906/ [Accessed 15 May 2013]
In depth Info – ‘Band of Brothers in literature and history’. Copyright 2005 – 2013. W. J. Rayment. http://www.indepthinfo.com/band-of-brothers/ [Accessed 15 May 2013]
Open Source Shakespeare – ‘Play Search’, 2013 George Mason University. http://www.opensourceshakespeare.com/views/plays/plays.php
Royal Shakespeare Company – ‘Henry V Programme – Geoffrey Streatfeild as Henry V’. 2007, Dir. Michael Boyd – RSC Stratford upon Avon and The Roundhouse Theatre London, England.
Suite 101 – ‘Horatio Nelson and his Band of Brothers’, 1996 – 2013 Suite101. http://suite101.com/article/horatio-nelson-and-his-band-of-brothers-a221354 [Accessed 15 May 2013]
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