Tea at Trianon: Shakespeare's Theater

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, June 22, 2012

Shakespeare's Theater

It has been discovered.

England’s second permanent theater was built by the actor-manager James Burbage in 1576. Burbage called it … The Theatre. (Look, they were making the greatest works of drama in the English language at the time: they couldn’t be bothered to come up with a good name as well.)

Not far away, in Curtain Close, Shoreditch, another theater was built a year later, and dubbed The Curtain. This was used to try new shows or for lesser productions, and from 1597 to 1599 it became the home of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the theater company of William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet debuted there (it’s where the action in Shakespeare in Love would have taken place), as well as Henry V. Once the Globe was built, Shakespeare’s men left the Curtain for good.

The Curtain disappeared from the historical records by the 1620s, only to reappear last week.... (Read entire post.)

julygirl said...: Not surprising that it has been discovered in an area that was inhabited by the lower classes. Proves the contention that Shakespeare's plays were for ordinary folk.; June 22, 2012 at 8:31:00 AM EDT