Sir Shax-A-Lot
In Hill Memorial Library there is a book of the complete works of Shakespeare’s poetry. Found in 1899, this book not only has poetry, it includes Shakespeare’s many sonnets, original songs, and excerpts from his own plays. Though these are valuable pieces of writing, the book in which they are stored is very plain. It is bound with thick white Vellum, which is animal hide that makes the book very thick and rather heavy. Because of the book’s simplicity, we believe it was meant for the middle classes. It is a very durable book for its age and in excellent condition. For more security, the book has ribbon on the cover to close the book and keep the pages from being damaged if it is dropped or perhaps keep prying eyes out of it. This book has aged quite a bit. The once white cover, ribbons, and pages are now yellowed. As for its size, the book is a medium size in width and length. That is to say it is not small enough to carry in one’s pockets or large enough to put on grand display. The book has been handled with care over the years. The only trace of wear is the loose binding and ends of pages that are torn. The book is speculated to have been kept in a library or a school.
The inside of the book is just as plain as the outside. There are no illustrations or inscriptions. The typography is the only fancy thing about it. The lettering is mainly in black but
the page numbers are in red. Interestingly, the pages are numbered with Roman Numerals. The text in this book has not been altered from Shakespeare’s original works. It could be used as a reference material, which is most likely the author’s intent. The book has a simple layout. It has a table of contents and, in the excerpts from plays, the book provides citations to where the excerpt originated. Overall this is a very helpful book for anyone familiar with Shakespeare or new to the playwright’s work.
The copy of Shakespeare’s poems that we worked with was never meant to be read cover to cover. It did not in fact contain Shakespeare’s complete works; instead it contained reproductions of the sonnets and fragments of many of the plays. As it was apparently not created with the intention of intense perusal, and the plays themselves seemed to take a backseat to many of the sonnets and poems, focusing on a more dramatic interpretation such as a theatrical performance of the plays was not in the best interest of doing this book credit. Upon consideration of a more artistic, abstract approach, we decided that performance art would also not do justice to the works. We likewise rejected the idea of a dance for the simple reasoning that none of us are stellar dancers. The idea of taking photographs of reenacted scenes from the works was discussed, as it would fit with the “snapshots” of the plays within the book. However, we struggled to come to a decision on how to stage the sonnets into a photographable visual, and the plays, which would have been much easier to portray photographically, were such a small portion of the book itself that photography did not seem to fit.
In the end it was decided that music was the most appropriate course of action. Creating a playlist of sorts using modern music with the sonnets and fragments of plays overlaid would provide an easy way for an audience to get a sense of the rhythm and lyricism of the text. In the case of Feste’s speech from Twelfth Night, adding music seemed very appropriate due to the prevalence of music in the play from which it originated. The modern music also made the Shakespearian language more relatable to an audience, as they would already have a familiarity with the music itself and would therefore be more susceptible to the meaning behind the text.