Althouse: "And now they never meet in grove or green, by fountain clear or spangled starlight sheen, but they do square, that all their elves for fear creep into acorn cups and hide them there."

July 4, 2025

"And now they never meet in grove or green, by fountain clear or spangled starlight sheen, but they do square, that all their elves for fear creep into acorn cups and hide them there."

Last night in Spring Green.

"Acorn" appears a second time in the script: "Get you gone, you dwarf, You minimus of hind’ring knotgrass made, you bead, you acorn—"

20 comments:

Ann Althouse said...: Square = face off against; 7/4/25, 12:30 PM
ex-madtown girl said...: We went last week, made it almost all the way through the fourth act, and got rained out. Now I’m undecided on whether I’d rather go back to finish this, or wait and go see A Winter’s Tale.; 7/4/25, 12:34 PM
Meade said...: “Fairies be gone, and be all ways away"; 7/4/25, 12:36 PM
Aggie said...: Was the performance fully seated, once it started? I'm assuming this was taken well beforehand......; 7/4/25, 12:37 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "We went last week, made it almost all the way through the fourth act, and got rained out."

There were some threatening weather reports yesterday, but all that happened was a stray cloud that came by just before intermission. A pause was called. I hid under an eave for 5 minutes and Meade stayed in his seat. The play resumed. We still did the intermission, and it was clear sailing from there. Very nice!

"Now I’m undecided on whether I’d rather go back to finish this, or wait and go see A Winter’s Tale."

If it's either or, you should see "A Winter's Tale," but I recommend seeing MSND all the way to the end. Lots of funny stuff with the actors being terrible... I mean the actor characters. They were great at playing bad actors.; 7/4/25, 12:43 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Was the performance fully seated, once it started? I'm assuming this was taken well beforehand......"

Yes, there were only a few empty seats, and I believe these were people who predicted a rainout. We took our chance and made the hour-long drive. Very glad we didn't predict pessimistically.; 7/4/25, 12:45 PM
Peachy said...: What a nice setting.; 7/4/25, 12:49 PM
Meade said...: https://images.app.goo.gl/46818aEJBXLhN5rA9; 7/4/25, 12:51 PM
Original Mike said...: "Very glad we didn't predict pessimistically."

Erroneous weather forecasts go both ways.; 7/4/25, 12:54 PM
tcrosse said...: Every elf and fairy sprite
Hop as light as bird from brier;
And this ditty, after me,
Sing, and dance it trippingly.; 7/4/25, 12:59 PM
n.n said...: Semi-Stonehenge; 7/4/25, 1:05 PM
MadTownGuy said...: Meade said...

“Fairies be gone, and be all ways away"

In Madison, that's a slur, nearly as bad as "Shylock."; 7/4/25, 1:18 PM
Ampersand said...: We have come to expect our poetry to have minimal comprehensibility. This expectation disguises the fact that Shakespearean English and 21st Century English are different languages with only occasional word overlaps.; 7/4/25, 1:32 PM
Narr said...: I learned only recently that the Forest of Arden, that magical realm, is just the unmagical Ardennes with a sprinkling of fairy dust.

I'm not that much a fan of his (or anyone else's) plays, but Shakespeare and his works are deeply embedded in Continental culture. The Germans are said to call him "Unser Shakespeare," and 19th C composers wrote incidental music for and full operas derived from his works.; 7/4/25, 1:52 PM
ex-madtown girl said...: “ Lots of funny stuff with the actors being terrible... I mean the actor characters. They were great at playing bad actors.”
This is exactly what makes me second guess the Winter’s Tale choice - I was looking forward to that part, particularly because the actor playing Bottom was so good (my second favorite after Oberon).
Maybe we’ll decide to go to both plays and leave the indecision out of it!; 7/4/25, 2:06 PM
tcrosse said...: Verdi adapted Othello, Macbeth, and Falstaff to Italian opera. Akira Kurasawa made Japanese movies out of King Lear and Macbeth. Schiller translated The Bard into German. Mendelssohn wrote incidental music for Ein Sommernachtstraum. And so on.; 7/4/25, 2:07 PM
Ralph L said...: Arden was also Shakespeare's mother's maiden name. I hoped a few years ago to find a connection between my immigrant Webb ancestor and the rich and connected Webbs (one was an admiral for Henry VIII) who were her double first cousins. No luck. It didn't help that there were multiple Giles Webbs in England in the early 1600s.; 7/4/25, 2:12 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.; 7/4/25, 4:21 PM
Dr Weevil said...: tcrosse:
Just to be pedantic, Verdi called his opera 'Falstaff', but the play he adapted was 'Merry Wives of Windsor', not any of Shakespear's other Falstaff plays (1-2 Henry IV, Henry V).; 7/4/25, 4:37 PM
Quaestor said...: I do realize that Max Reinhardt's expressionist film is savagely compressed, yet there's never been a Nick Bottom so suitably over the top as done by James Cagney, nor a Hermia so roundly defiant as Olivia de Havilland. For their performances alone, Mickey Rooney's worst abuses are tolerable.; 7/4/25, 8:25 PM