This is the week of Will Shakespeare’s birthday, which may – (or
maybe not) - be April 23rd.
In the following scenelet, a conscientious father grills his son, Owen, on his
Shakespeare homework.
“Did you find the play difficult?”
“Not really, Dad. I got through it okay.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Well, it’s about this couple, Lady Macbeth
and her husband, Mister
Macbeth.”
“That’s a good start. Go on.”
“They’ve got this friend – wait a minute,
I’ve got his name here somewhere – yeah, it's Duncan; I knew it had something
to do with donuts. Anyway, they’ve got this friend named Duncan who comes to
visit. Didn’t turn out well. He sort of checked in and didn’t check out, if you
see what I mean.”
“You mean he was killed?”
“You could put it that way.”
“And who did the killing?”
“Well, that’s the thing. They both were in on
it, Lady MacB and her old man. Both of ‘em. At first it was just a whim;
something they talked about, but then it got serious. Actually, MacB had a firm
belief that you didn’t do crap like that – kill your best friend -- but she
egged him on. ‘You can do it! You de man!’ she’d yell at him, and like that.”
“So he went along and committed the
murder? What about motive? Why did they
kill Duncan?”
“Well, you see, Macbeth had a title; he was
Thane of Cawdor. Now Cawdor may have been a beautiful town but it just wasn't important, so being whatever a Thane
is was sort of small potatoes, if you see what I mean. He wanted something
better.”
“As did Lady Macbeth?”
“Oh, man, did she ever! She was sort of desperate; she figured that if
they offed Duncan she could wind up as First Lady. She’d be able to throw all
the wild parties and so on. Which is exactly what happened.”
“But later she had a change of heart?”
“You’re assuming she had a heart to begin
with. But yeah, after a while she began to feel pretty cruddy about having liquidated
their friend. In fact, a hush fell over her; it seems she was totally heading over to the unhinged
side of town, if you follow my meaning.”
“You do have a novel way of putting things.”
“Show you how crazy she was, she had a dog
named Spot. An indoors-type of pooch; he never liked the outdoors. She’d yell
at him: ‘Out, damned Spot!’ but he wouldn’t budge.”
“I see. So we are going to have a bit of
humor along with our lessons.”
“Gotta do something to liven things up.”
“What later happened to Macbeth?”
“Well, actually, I didn’t read any farther
than this. As I get it, the dude wound up in a forest named Dunsinane, or
something like that. Probably got lost in it. Things like that happened a lot
in those days.”
29 comments:
Delightfully scatty humour, Berowne. I love the bit about Duncan having something to do with donuts (doughnuts, in English !!) :)
Oh, we say doughnuts too, on ceremonial occasions.
Hilarious start to my Sunday! Tanks for the giggles and would you please let Spot out!!
Great Scot! (Duncan, that is.)
We should teach all kids Shakespeare this way and perhaps it'd be easier for them to understand... Good job!
How delightful!
I am afraid to admit publicly I was confused about your Escher-type comment. I googled and still not sure if Escher is a good or bad thing. I'm teasing. thank you.
Seems like every second t.v show these days is a modern retelling of the machiavellan macbeth , all lust for power , lets see ... Breaking bad , house of cards , game of thrones and vikings just to name a few !
What happened to MacBeth? He was MacDuffed up, was he not?
Yes, that's one way of putting it. :-)
Maybe doughnuts should be do-nots - would have saved Duncan, and probably Spot would have behaved better...
Do-not and coffee; quite a combination...
I am glad I read this:Macbeth has no reason to fear Macduff, for he cannot be killed by any man born of woman. Macduff declares that he was "from his mother's womb / Untimely ripp'd" (5.8.15–16), (i.e., born by Caesarean section) and is not "of woman born". Now I finally understand this story, which I have seen several times!
Thanks for your amusing way of describing the play.
Well at least he wasn't up the duff!...Oooh that sounds a bit saucy, wasn't meant to be....lead on MacDuff!
Best wishes,
Di.
ABCW team.
Off topic, about a third of US births are by c_section, which is insane.
So who was it who had the spot?
Bravo, precise and cheery, made me smile. Then you sent my tummy in a spin- doughnuts, they are my downfall. I always run quickly past them, but even then I can smell their delicious call!
Interesting...humorous..l
Wow! Masterfully written! Always learn from you, mr. Berowne...~ thank you for comments, appreciated much! x
Love how you shake up Shakespeare♪
haha I've heard a version of this from other teens you've captured this well
Thats the way to teach Shakespeare, funny. Reminds me of the Reduced Shakespeare Company.
Yes, this was a great laugh.
Followed by a great comment. Thanks.
One of these days........
Ha ha ha, Berowne and Leigh, due to the ubiquity of Dunkin' Donuts, most Americans don't know how to spell "doughnut"!
BTW, Owen is a great name.
Yeah, I was going to name him Green but it didn't sound right. :-)
Hilarious . . . . . but Bill Shakespeare has just turned in his grave . . . lol
He'll send MacDuff after you . . . and perahps the ghost of Banquo.
I am considering a funny new ending when MacBeth refuses to die and kills MacDuff, telling him he was born by Casesarian Section too and the woods did not march because the roots were still in the ground . . . lol
Good plotting...
Post a Comment