In February, for my Shakespeare category I read Twelfth Night and the new book by Judi Dench; for English classics, I read Phantastes, a Victorian fantasy novel by George MacDonald; for poetry, I read Sir Thomas Wyatt; to prepare for watching a show, I read a YA novel called A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond. I also started reading Henslowe’s Diary, which is a daily reading project that will last for a few years.
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench
One of the buzz books in the popular Shakespeare circle recently is the memoir of Judi Dench, called Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, published in 2023. This is a non-fiction book where Judi Dench takes the readers on a journey across decades of her career playing Shakespeare roles. From her first ever role, I think it was Ophelia, straight after she graduated from college, to playing Lady Macbeth with Ian McKellen, to playing the mother of Benedict Cumberbatch playing Richard III in ‘The Hollow Crown’. A lot of stories from behind the scenes, backstage and in rehearsal rooms. There’s a lot of wisdom on appreciating Shakespeare’s plays and wisdom on life. As one of the best actors in her 80s, she has not only lived a full and colourful life of her own, she’s also lived all the lives of the characters she played on stage.
That leads to another aspect of this book, which is that her personality comes through so crystal clear on every page. She’s such a fun, childlike, mischievous person. Probably pretty difficult to manage and bossy as well. But so full of life and laughter.
The audiobook actor did a wonderful job. The book is in the format of an interview. The author conducted a series of interviews with Judi and I guess instead of writing it up in a non-fictional book, he chose to keep the interview form. The book is like a nicely edited transcript of their conversations. So I think this is probably the first book I’d say is for listening more than for reading. Unless you can imagine Judi’s bubbling personality, fast-paced thinking and her way of speaking, you are missing out on a large proportion of the conversation. I don’t know how the voice actor who played Judi’s part did it – did the author play the record of the original interviews and she recreated it? Because she talked and laughed and snorted just like Judi would have done, as I imagined. I soon forgot this was not Judi herself. Before I started it, I was slightly wary about the fact that Judi didn’t read the book herself, it’s such a personal book, but I think listening between the lines, Judi’s eyesight is very bad now and she wouldn’t be able to read out transcripts nor have the patience to do so I imagine. But the original interview recordings as they are wouldn’t be any good either. There’s a bonus track in the audiobook of an actual interview. It’s quite slow at some points and quite scattered at others. So I think the author and the audiobook production get it just right. I’d highly recommend it!
Twelfth Night
I read Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in January and February. Twelfth Night, very briefly, tells the story of twin brother and sister, after they were separated by a shipwreck, finding love, identity and each other in Illyria. There’s the iconic set up of a woman disguised as a man who was sent to woo the woman that the man she loved loved.
Because of the double meanings of a lot of the jokes and dialogues in general, I found it really hard going. I did a lot of secondary reading, for example, I read the relevant chapters in Tales from Shakespeare by Mary Lamb which is a prose retelling for children; Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays by William Hazlitt, I had such high expectations for Hazlitt but he didn’t say anything profound so I was slightly underwhelmed; Mad about Shakespeare by Jonathan Bate, wonderful as always; and Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber.
A Song for Ella Grey
It’s a young adult novel retelling the story of Orpheus. In the original Greek myth, Orpheus is a great poet and musician figure. When he plays his lyre, the fish and the bird, the trees and the rocks would come and listen. The bride of Orpheus was bitten by a snake and died on their wedding day. Orpheus went through the underworld, charmed the three-headed dog, the ferryman of the River Styx and went all the way to Hades and Persephone to ask for a bit more time for his bride on earth. They agreed with one condition. Orpheus had to lead her out of hell without looking back at her. He failed his mission at the last step and she fell back to the land of the dead. Orpheus vowed to never love another woman. In the end he was killed by angry fiendish women and his body was scattered tragically. But he could finally meet his bride again and walk along the River and look back at her as much as he wanted.
David Almond’s modern retelling is set in the North East of England. There are a lot of familiar locations like Ouseburn in Newcastle and Bamburgh beach in Northumberland. The main characters are a group of teenagers. The two protagonists are two good friends the title character Ella Grey and the narrator Claire.
Looking beyond the Greek myth retelling, I think the story is about love, the Romeo and Juliet kind of young love, impulsive, all consuming, dangerous, having no regard for the rules of the world. It’s about best friends, the sacrificing of that friendship for a romantic relationship, and the one who is left behind to grieve that friendship. It’s also about processing grief as young people, the aimless but compulsive search for the lost one, but also letting go, of your best friend along with your childhood.
David Almond’s writing has a brutal rough intensity. It’s simple and strong. Like a diamond that’s still partly a piece of rock. If I remember it correctly he’s a fan of William Blake. I only looked through a few of Blake’s poems quickly and saw a few of his illustrations. They have a very distinct style. David Almond’s writing gives me a similar feeling to when I read Blake’s poems and look at his illustrations.
Phantastes
The next one is a 1858 Victorian fantasy novel by Scottish writer George MacDonald called Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women. To put it simply, it’s a story about a young man’s adventure in fairyland.
I read it because C. S. Lewis gave such high praise to this book and this author. He wrote in Surprised by Joy, “That night my imagination was, in a certain sense, baptised; the rest of me, not unnaturally, took longer. I had not the faintest notion what I had let myself in for by buying Phantastes.” George MacDonald also features as a guide and teacher in C. S. Lewis’ story of heaven and hell, The Great Divorce.
The imagery is vivid and impactful. The writing style is elegant and formal. It’s a very Victorian fairytale. It didn’t preach moral lessons but it did make me think at various points, is he trying to say something? Do you remember the Duchess in Alice in Wonderland? She came into my mind after reading Phantastes. I kept hearing her say, ‘and the moral of that is…?’ I felt like I needed to answer it but I also couldn’t quite pin down what MacDonald tried to say. I didn’t feel my imagination baptised probably because my imagination is not as sensitive as C. S. Lewis’. But I’m thankful for George MacDonald’s influence on C. S. Lewis because my imagination WAS baptised by the Chronicles of Narnia.
Henslowe’s Diary
One of my reading goals this year is to read Shakespeare’s contemporaries. I want to get a sense of what the theatre scene was like during that time. I started reading Henslowe’s Diary this month. Not sure if you’ve heard of this but I find it super exciting. So Henslowe’s Diary – Henslowe is a man called Philip Henslowe. He was the owner of the Rose playhouse in London. The Diary refers to the account book where Henslowe kept the box office records of the Rose playhouse between 1592 and 1597. Shakespeare was active on the London theatre scene during those years. So by reading Henslowe’s Diary, we can get a glimpse of what the theatregoers watched during the first few years of Shakespeare’s career.
The Diary’s first entry was 19 February 1592 and 19 February 2024 was the day I started reading it. There’s a fantastic blog called ‘Henslowe’s Diary As a Blog’. Instead of reading the Diary itself, I’ve been following the blog, which includes the content of the Diary, as well as helpful explanations and fascinating information for each entry.
The entries in Henslowe’s Diary are extremely brief and matter of fact, they are usually just a line saying ‘received at this play on this day this much money’. The blog post explains which play this might have been, some lost, some still exist, and gives a summary of the plot. I hadn’t heard any of the plays until 26 February. So without the blog post the Diary would have been a bit boring. One thing I noticed is that, unlike our theatres now, where a few fixed plays are on offer within a season, The Rose playhouse put on a different play each day and rotated them every few weeks while adding in new ones every now and then. On 26 February 1952, the crowd watched The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe and it was more popular than the plays on previous days because Henslowe made more money that day. I haven’t come across any of Shakespeare’s so far and I don’t know when, or if, I will. The Diary covers a period of six years. I’ll carry on reading it and give you an update every now and then.
Happy reading!
A Day of Small Things 