The National Shax Attack
Group 3— Descriptive Account
The National Shakespeare, published in 1888, is a near exact copy of Shakespeare’s
1623 first folio. It was no doubt made for a very specific audience: the wealthy and well
educated. The book is large, exceeding one metric foot in height, and adorns a surprisingly
heavy, dark green, and textured front. The cover exhibits small stars, a harp, three small
chimeras, a lion, an arrow flying through a sheild, and an eagle holding a double edged spear.
All of these small illustrations are detailed in gold. At the very bottom of the cover, “Obit 1616” is
written in the same gold as the illustrations. All of these features give the book an undeniable air
of importance. The book’s personality is noble and proud, just as England considers it’s rich
history of theatre. The National Shakespeare contains, first and foremost, Shakespeare’s plays.
In addition, every few pages, there are ornate illustrations of the many worlds that Shakespeare
created. All of the images are lifelike and in greyscale, and between the face of the images and
the preceding page of text, there is a blank page to stop any ink from leaking. The text of the
plays is very small and is an exact replica of Shakespeare’s first folio. It includes misprints,
inconsistent grammar, and archaic spellings in order to preserve all of Shakespeare’s intended
meanings. The margins inside of the book are very large, taking up nearly a fourth of each
page’s overall space. Overall, with its elegant illustrations, dark cover, large size, and ornate
detailing, The National Shakespeare not only is heavy, but it feels as if it weighs as much as the
history of theatre itself. This book was made in order to honor Shakespearean tradition,
preserve its history, and to be its very own piece of art.
The link below will lead you to our comedic sock puppet interpretation of a few Shakespeare scenes, specifically tragedies and comedies.
Amelia, Maggie, Tessa, Bryan, Blake, Dee
ENGL 2148 Section 002
April 11, 2016
Critical Paratext
What
The National Shakespeare, published in 1888, is large copy of the 1623 first folio. This version is widely inaccessible, therefore we decided to channel our interpretations through a puppet show that will be accessible on the GeauxShax website. The plays that were included in our Hill object were Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Comedies, so we chose what we consider to be some of the most well known, and popular plays. After we picked the scenes, we decided to depict the scenes with the puppets. We chose to depict scenes from the following 5 plays: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Twelfth Night.
Why
In order for the majority of people to enjoy and utilize our interpretation, we decided to pick the most iconic scene from each play. For Romeo and Juliet we portrayed the balcony scene. For Hamlet we chose his “To be or not to be” speech. For Macbeth we chose the witches “Double Double Toil and Trouble” scene. For Midsummer we chose the scene where Demetrius and Lysander are both in love with Helena. Lastly for Twelfth Night we chose Feste’s closing song. Because our project focused heavily on tragedies we wanted to portray a project in which the scenes were light and humorous to watch. As far as the comedies our project just adds to the humor that is already depicted. We decided to keep the original Shakespearian language to portray to the audience that although the medium through which they are experiencing the scenes is comical and amusing it is still a Shakespearian play.
The Takeaway
We hope that the audience can gain a new appreciation for Shakespeare’s plays, and we hope to change any negative perceptions that are sometimes associated with Shakespearian works. Often times people have a bad first encounter with Shakespeare during high school, and to remedy these bitter associations we tried to shed new light on these classics.