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Monday, October 30, 2023

A Little Monday Shakespeare

This clip popped up today, and it's just a masterful bit of Shakespeare delivered impromptu by Dane Judi Dench on the Graham Norton show. 

 


I recommend closed captioning, but also, here's the text of the sonnet


Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes 

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.


Maybe I'm just feeling particularly close to that one today, but Dench got to me a little bit.

And as a bonus, here's the Schwarzenegger clip referenced in the above clip. I taught Hamlet every year, and for many years showed the Olivier version, then followed it up with this clip, because part of the advantage of being educated and well read is that you get more jokes.


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