The Gift of Housework that Takes Me Down Memory Lane

I've never hired household help and have never wanted it. I'm uncomfortable with people fussing around while I'm home, so I'd rather do it myself. Does anyone actually like housecleaning? Probably not, but it's an opportunity to pick up a pin for the love of Christ, the little way of St. Therese. So I look for ways to turn a never-ending chore into a garden of delight.

Of Shakespeare and Radical Agendas

My Shakespeare book club met yesterday to discuss The Merchant of Venice. After talking about the play and its topical allusions to events of the day, i.e., executions of the Jesuit martyr Robert Southwell for being a Catholic priest and Elizabeth's Jewish physician for allegedly plotting her murder, etc. we watched the film version of the play with Al Pacino as Shylock and Jeremy Irons as Antonio (2004).

Appalling is too tame a word to describe what the director, Michael Radford, did to Shakespeare's script although many modern critics celebrated the film which made Shylock the hero and the Christians the villains. It as an anti-Christian, pro-homosexual rant that twisted Shakespeare in every which way to meet Radford's own perverse, modern agenda which was apparently to turn Shylock into a tragic hero and cast the Christians as the devilish demons and Jew persecutors.

Listen to Shakespeare as His 17th Century Audience Would

The old Globe theatre

As regular readers know, I'm a great fan of Shakespeare, so I found this actor's presentation of the opening lines from Romeo and Juliet as Elizbethans would have heard them absolutely fascinating. When I studied Chaucer in college we read him in Middle English. Listening to my professor recite Chaucer's poetry in Middle English was strange and beautiful. Shakespeare was writing and performing during the transition from Middle English to early modern English. We find him difficult because English continues to evolve and many words are no longer in use. "Language is a living thing," as classicist Gilbert Highet said, "We can feel it changing. Parts of it become old: they drop off and are forgotten. New pieces bud out, spread into leaves, and become big branches, proliferating." Thus it will always be. Since my birth, entire new vocabularies have developed with changes in technology and culture. And so it will be in the future.

Enjoy this sound bite from 17th century London.

Papal Encyclicals and the Bard's Plays: What They Tell Us about Modern Villains

Liberal conspirators planning to smear Robert Bork, two
of the "howling pack" who killed his nomination.

I belong to an interesting book club. We alternate reading Church documents with reading the plays of William Shakespeare.

What's the connection?

The four of us just happen to be interested in both. But what I'm finding is that, as a Catholic, Shakespeare addresses the big moral issues just like the papal encyclicals do. The effects of the seven deadly sins: pride, avarice, anger (think of the number of tragedies that deal with murder), lust, etc. We've been drawing the plays at random, but choosing the encyclicals by interest (with the qualification of being pre-Vatican II). The second play drawn was Coriolanus. Despite two semesters of Shakespeare in college, Coriolanus is one of the few plays I'd never read.

Saturday Morning Trivia: Shakespeare and Sherlock

Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes

A few friends and I decided to start a book club to alternate between reading Shakespeare and Church documents. We just started, and our first selection is Henry V. For those not versed in Shakespeare, the play revolves around the main battle of the 100 year war between England and France, the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.  Henry, who lived a loose and lascivious life before mounting the throne, casts off his former self to become a serious monarch, one who intends to claim what he considers his right to French lands.

Last night (in the wee hours when I couldn't sleep), I read Act III which finds Henry and his retinue on the French coast laying siege to the city of Harfleur. This is the source of the famous speech that begins, "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more." As I read Henry's exhortation to his troops I stopped short at the end when I read, "The game's afoot."

"Tis time, descend, be stone no more." Support these Students in their Quest to Promote Shakespeare!

My undergraduate degree is in English. In fact, I loved English literature so much I took every elective in English and had the credits for a double major...in English. The Shakespeare professor, Nancy Brown, was exceptional and my two favorite courses were her Shakespeare I and II. So when my niece sent me an email seeking help funding their performance of The Winter's Tale (and its professional filming) at Ave Maria, I of course responded. What Ave Maria is doing is exactly the kind of Shakespeare performance done by Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, VA.

Did you ever wonder....?

I've used the expression "in the clink" often but never gave its origin much thought -- until last night when I came across "The Clink" while reading Clare Asquith's book on Shakespeare's coded language, Shadowplay. She mentioned The Clink, a notorious prison in Southwark, England not far from the Globe Theatre. Shakespeare apparently visited a friend there. And, in fact, some famous Catholic recusants were imprisoned in The Clink including Fr. John Gerard, S.J. He was one of the few Catholic priests who escaped the "hanging tree" at Tyburn during Elizabeth I's draconian persecution. Many English priests were hanged, drawn, and quartered as a gruesome reminder to others. And why? because they refused to give up the Mass. Would that we loved the Mass as much today!

Fr. Gerard was imprisoned temporarily in The Clink (Summer 1594 to Spring 1597) before being moved to the Tower of London from which he made an amazing escape. After fleeing to the continent, Fr. Gerard's superiors instructed him to write down his story, and he did in a fascinating book called The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest.

The chapter on The Clink relates the blessing of being in a prison filled with Catholic prisoners. A friendly guard was bribed and coaxed "not to pry too closely into our doings" and Fr. Gerard was able to hear confessions and engage in apostolic work during his time there. In the same chapter he describes the capture and death of Ann Line, one of the English martyrs who harboured priests and frequently held illegal Masses in her home. She had a "priest hole" where clergy hid when Mass was invaded by the queen's agents.

Fr. Gerard describes his work in prison saying, "During this period God used me as His instrument to turn many hearts from worldly ambitions to the love of God and the following of Christ's counsels....I was able to send many young men and boys to the seminaries. Some of them are now Jesuits and are working in England, others remain in the seminaries training more labourers for the mission."

Next time you hear that someone's "in the clink," especially a group of pro-lifers like the dear ones arrested at Notre Dame who face serious persecution, remember where the term comes from. Defenders of the faith, imprisoned and persecuted for the good they do, walk in the footsteps of Fr. Gerard and his martyred brothers and sisters imprisoned in the infamous English prison.