Clips from "Sunday Night" (1966) - "How to Stop Worrying and Love the Theatre". With Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) actors Michael Jayston, Michele Dotrice, Gabrielle Hamilton, Davyd Harries, Richard Moore, Paul Hardwick and director Peter Hall. The clips include ''Henry V'' - St. Crispin's Day Speech, ''Arden of Faversham'' (also known as "Arden of Feversham", author uncertain, it was attributed to Thomas Kyd, W. Shakespeare, or Christopher Marlowe), Hamlet to the actors monologue.
''... This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;'
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
(W. Shakespeare - ''Henry V'' - The St. Crispin's Day speech).
''Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to
you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,
as many of your players do, I had as lief the
town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air
too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;
for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget
a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it
offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to
very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who
for the most part are capable of nothing but
inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such
a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant; it
out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it...'' (W. Shakespeare - Hamlet's advice to the players/actors)
''... This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;'
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
(W. Shakespeare - ''Henry V'' - The St. Crispin's Day speech).
''Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to
you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,
as many of your players do, I had as lief the
town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air
too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;
for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget
a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it
offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to
very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who
for the most part are capable of nothing but
inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such
a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant; it
out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it...'' (W. Shakespeare - Hamlet's advice to the players/actors)
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PeopleTranscript
00:00This day is called the feast of Crispian. He that outlives this day and comes safe home
00:10will stand at tiptoe when this day is named and rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that
00:17shall live this day and see old age will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors and say,
00:23tomorrow is in Crispian. Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars and say, these
00:30wounds I had on Crispian's day. Old men forget, yet all shall be forgot. But he'll remember
00:37with advantages what feats he did that day. Then shall our names, familiar in his mouth
00:44as household words, Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and
00:49Gloucester, be in their flowing cups, freshly remembered. This story shall a good man teach
00:56his son. And Crispian Crispian shall ne'er go by from this day to the ending of the world.
01:05But we in it shall be remembered. But even as he makes whatever he makes, and no matter how
01:15much he makes, man longs to destroy the thing he has made. Finding no enemy, he becomes his
01:22own enemy. As he traps the horse, so he traps other men. But the others strike back, trap closing
01:28on trap. Having eaten enough, man must build a wall around whatever food is left. And other
01:35men must pull down that wall so the roof gets split. And the rain, the changing air, wash away
01:45whatever is left of man and his cities, when men have done with them.
01:53Good. That's much better that time. You've got the verbs and the separate ideas much clearer.
02:02I think, if we can get back into it now, is your original thing of the kind of character
02:08you're playing as opposed to the one that David's playing. You know, a dueled inset, if
02:12you like. You know, a proper thing, especially after Nancy's country.
02:16Now tell me, what is it you're trying to do?
02:19What we're trying to do is to break out of a circle. A circle in which the theatre is imprisoned.
02:29Now, our theatre, as you know, is rooted in Shakespeare. And we believe, from the text
02:34and from what we know of the world of Shakespeare, that in his time the theatre spoke, not just
02:39to a small group, a culture group, but to everyone, to the butcher and the baker as well
02:44as the nobleman, the courtier and the poet. And we think that a theatre that can do that
02:50is the only kind of theatre that really counts. And therefore, what we're trying to do in this whole thing,
02:55this whole enterprise of travelling around London and playing in all sorts of odd places,
02:59is to reach the particular class of people that is conspicuous by its absence from the theatre.
03:08All human life is here. Now, this could be the motto for this smash hit of the 1550s. What about this for a build-up?
03:17The lamentable and true tragedy of Mr. Arden of Feversham and Kent,
03:26who was most wickedly murdered by the means of his disloyal and wanton wife,
03:33who, for the love she bare to one Mosley,
03:37hired two desperate ruffians, Blackwill and Shakebag, to kill him!
03:46What? 20 guineas? Give my fellow George Shakebag and me 20 guineas,
03:52and if they'll have thine own father slain that thou mercenary at his land, we'll kill him.
03:56Aye, thy mother, thy brother, thy sister, all thy kin.
04:00Well, this is it.
04:01Arden of Feversham hath highly wronged me over divers matters,
04:08that no revenge but death will serve the turn.
04:12Will you two kill him? Here's guineas Dan.
04:15Give me the money and I'll stab him as he stands pissing against the wall.
04:21Where is he? He's now in London at Aldersgate Street.
04:25He's as dead as if he had been condemned by Act of Parliament if once Blackwill and I swear his death.
04:30In this turbulent tempest of sex and passion,
04:34love's true course can scarce run smooth.
04:36Thrill to the fate of these two, damn the creatures!
04:40Alice!
04:41I pay thee, Mosley, let our springtime wither.
04:43Our harvest else will yield but loathsome weeds.
04:47Forget, I pray you, what has passed between us,
04:50for now I blush and tremble at the thought.
04:53What, are you changed?
04:55Aye, to my former happy state again.
04:58From title of an odious trumpet's name
05:01To honest Arden's wife,
05:04Not Arden's honest wife.
05:08Even in my forehead is thy name engraven,
05:11That mean artificer, that low-born name.
05:14Nay, if you can curse, let me breathe curses forth.
05:16I left the marriage of an honest maid,
05:18Whose dowry would have weighed down all thy wealth.
05:20But now the rain hath beaten off thy guilt,
05:22Thy worthless copper shows thee counterfeit.
05:25Go, get thee gone!
05:26A copse made for thy hinds,
05:28I'm too good to be thy favourite.
05:31Nay, Mosby, hear me speak a word or two,
05:34Or I'll bite my tongue if it speak bitterly.
05:38Look on me, Mosby, or I'll kill myself.
05:43Sweet Mosby is as gentle as a king,
05:46And I too blind to judge him otherwise.
05:50Flowers do sometimes grow in fallow lands,
05:53Weeds in gardens, roses grow on thorns.
05:57So whatsoe'er my Mosby's father was,
06:00Himself is valued gentle for his work.
06:04Oh, how you women can insinuate and clear a trespass
06:07With your sweet-set tongue.
06:09I'll forget this quarrel, gentle Alice,
06:11Provided I be tempted so no more.
06:13Then with thy lips seal up this new-made match.
06:20Hark! Somebody comes!
06:23Shudder at the dreadful murder which unties this tangled knot
06:26Of greed and passion.
06:27Mosby!
06:28Malice!
06:29What will you do?
06:30Nothing but take you up, sir, nothing else.
06:31Here's for the pressing iron you told me up!
06:34And here's for the ten pounds in my sleep.
06:38What?
06:39Growns thou?
06:40Give him the weapon.
06:41Take this for hindering Mosby's love of mine.
06:47The most suspenseful drama ever staged.
06:50Mistress!
06:51Mistress!
06:52Mistress, the guests are at the door after they knock.
06:54What shall I let them in?
06:55Musby, go thou and keep them company.
06:58Susan, fetch water and wash away this blood.
07:01Oh, mistress!
07:03Oh, mistress!
07:06The blood cleaveth to the ground and will not out.
07:09Oh, but with my nails I'll scrape away the blood.
07:12Oh, the more I strive, the more the blood appears.
07:15Oh, what's the reason, mistress, can you tell?
07:17Because I blush not at my husband's death.
07:20You chew your fingers to the toenails.
07:22Oh, mistress!
07:23Mistress, the mare and the watch are coming towards our house with gloves and swords.
07:27Let them go fast.
07:28Let them not come in.
07:29Yes.
07:30Quick!
07:31Hark!
07:32They knock!
07:33Hark!
07:34They knock!
07:43Now, Susan, let them in.
07:54How now, Master Mayor, have you brought my husband home?
07:58Arden, thy husband and my friend is slain.
08:02Ah!
08:03By whom, Master Mayor, can you tell?
08:05Nay, I know not.
08:06But behind the abbey there he lies murdered in most piteous case.
08:09But, Master Mayor, are you sure it is, eh?
08:11I am too sure.
08:12Would God were our wives.
08:14Find out the murderers.
08:15Let them be known.
08:16Aye, so we shall.
08:17Come you along with us.
08:18Wherefore?
08:19Know you this hand towel and this knife?
08:22It is the pig's blood that we had to suffer.
08:25Proper.
08:26Wherefore stay you?
08:27Find the murderers out.
08:28I fear me you'll prove one of them yourself.
08:30Aye, one of them?
08:31What mean this question?
08:32I fear me he was murdered in this house and carried to the fields.
08:35For, from that place, backwards and forwards, may you see the print of many footsteps in the snow.
08:42Look, run this chamber where we are and you shall find part of his guiltless blood.
08:46Look, in the chair where he was wont to sit.
08:50See, see, his blood.
08:52It is too manifest.
08:54It is a cup of wine that Susan shed.
08:57Aye, truly.
08:58It is his blood which trumpet thou hast shed.
09:01And if I live, thou and thy captives, which have contrived and wrought his death, shall ruin it.
09:07Tremble to the terrible resolution of these wicked lovers.
09:11See them glory in their naked, sexual passion.
09:14You will never forget the searing story of Aden of Favisham.
09:19All next week with full supporting programme.
09:22All this is aimed finally at our new theatre in the Barbican, which is going to have 1,500 seats and I hope enough cheap seats for people to make a regular habit of dropping in.
09:43And it shall be called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom.
09:59Shakespeare was an actor as well as a playwright.
10:02And by using a speech in Hamlet to a group of travelling players not unlike ourselves,
10:07is able to give actors a few pertinent words of advice,
10:10in no way different to the sort of notes we get from our director after every performance.
10:15And it always goes something like this.
10:18Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you trippingly on the tongue.
10:24But if you mouth it, as many of your players do.
10:29I had a sleep the town crier spoke my lines.
10:32Nor do not soar the air too much with your hand thus.
10:36But use all gently.
10:41Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, periwigged, pated fellow tear a passion to tatters,
10:49to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings,
10:54who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows at noise.
10:59Now be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor.
11:06And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them.
11:12That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it.
11:18Suit the word to the action, and the action to the word, with this special observance.
11:27That you are step not the modesty of nature.
11:31For anything so overdone is from the purpose of play,
11:36Whose end, both at the first and now, was and is.
11:44To hold as twere the mirror up to nature,
11:49To show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image,
11:54And the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.
12:00To be continued.
12:01To be continued.
12:02To be continued.
12:03To be continued.