Grad school and working on two shows has really cut back on my time to post lately. But something new happened the other day. I'm directing a production of Cymbeline that opens in a week. A few weeks back, we were working on 5.3, and I had what I thought was a very interesting observation about the text. This time, instead of running to Facebook to post it as a status, or writing a blog post about it, I thought,"I'd better do some digging around first and see if anyone has written a paper on this topic."
But, a thought on repuncuating the text. People have very different opinions about how to treat punctuation in Shakespeare. Some advocate taking out everything but end stops.Some people will stick to what's in the Folio. Some will use whatever the editors of the text have given them, and some ignore all of those options and do whatever they want. One notable example is Derek Jacobi's Benedick. The online version of the text punctuates the line this way:
Love me! why, it must be requited.
For starters, it seems that often exclamation points and question marks can be swapped out. A footnote in the Arden Macbeth makes this point about "We fail? But screw your courage..." Apparently, when Jacobi played Benedick, he delivered the line this way:
Love me? WHY? It must be requited!
This is a really interesting take on the line. But, after playing the role myself, I don't really think it makes sense. Benedick is at times very awkward, but only when he think he might be embarrassed. I don't feel he has such a low opinion of himself that he can't imagine why someone would love him. Quite the contrary. Of course, in the interest of full disclosure, Jacobi's Oxfordianism makes me want to disagree with everything he says or does.
Anyway, one of these punctuation interpretations occurred to me while I was working on Macbeth. A lot of people have struggled with:
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly
It occurred to me that it could also be done this way:
If it were done, WHEN tis done
A mental correction - did I say "if?" What I should have said was "WHEN." My Macbeth didn't ultimately decide to go with this reading, and I'm not sure I like it better, but it is another possibility that I'm going to keep in mind if I ever have a chance to play the role.
Edit: A few hours later, it occurs to me, the obvious solution is probably the best:
if IT were DONE, when TIS done, THEN twere WELL
it WERE done QUICK ly
Simple, regular verse. How did I get so turned around?
