... or swept a couple of small, but inconvenient pieces, out of the way under the paving stones of the back stairs to the chapel in the Tower of London.

One of my favourite lines from Wolf Hall was "The Plantagenets are plotting in the shrubbery."

Sorry folks, but there is no sign of a Richard III dvd;

page 1 of 2;

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/shop/category/dvds/150?&page=1

There is a dvd for Twelfth Night.

Indeed there is and it's been on order from Amazon since last week, along with 'Wolf Hall'. They should both be arriving very soon.

MM, has your 12th Night come yet? Mine came this morning and I have been watching it, solar eclipses and other excitements notwithstanding.

It is absolutely superb. Watch out for Paul Chahidi who plays Olivia's maid.

Rylance, of course, is brilliant. He moves about the stage as if he's on roller skates, farthingale swaying beautifully.

It is such a happy production - merry iestes and iiges all round. The songs - sung by Feste, Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek - are wonderful too.

Gush, gush, gush. Can't help it. It's one of the best things (after Wolf Hall) I've seen for ages.

Do tell us what you think.

I'm glad you enjoyed it - I thought it looked good from the few clips available on youtube.

Your email prompted me to go and check my mail box as I haven't been up there for a couple of days now.  Alas no Twelfth Night, .....  but Wolf Hall was there, and so that's tonight's viewing sorted.


I'll let you know what I think of WH ... and 12th Night too when it arrives.

I envy you that you still have it to watch, MM.

Look forward to hearing your opinion of it.

Why is MM messing about in his fridges instead of watching WH? Here we are awaiting his opinion and he's making a meal of whatever he finds there. Where are his priorities?

Letter written by Anne Boleyn to her father, signed "Anna du Boullan"



https://www.pinterest.com/pin/18929260907412042/

Trike - isn't that letter fascinating? She wrote it when she was about thirteen years old, during her brief stay at the court of Margaret of Austria around 1513-14. Margaret's young nephew, Charles of Burgundy, was there too - the boy who would grow up to be the Emperor Charles V, Anne's great enemy. I wonder if he noticed the clever young girl who was now one of his aunt's maids-of-honour? Probably not. She was "mere English".

The letter is now in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge:

Sir,
I understand from your letter that you desire me to be a woman of good reputation when I come to court, and you tell me that the queen will take the trouble to converse with me, and it gives me great joy to think of talking with such a wise and virtuous person. This will make me all the keener to persevere in speaking French well, and also especially because you have told me to and have advised me for my own part to work at it as much as I can...

Right, I finally finished watching Wolf Hall last night.

And well yes, very enjoyable ... but I did find it very slow to get going. Ironically for one who has always felt the classic 1970s film 'Henry VIII and his six wives' was too rushed and should really have been made into a six part drama ... I found the start of WF fairly tedious. Indeed I only got half-way through episode one before I bored of the ponderous silences in the gloom, gave up and went to bed. I can easily see why viewing figures plummeted after the first episode. No trouble knowing who was who, but I got briefly lost when I missed the clues indicating the flash-backs and flash-forwards ... maybe I was just tired.

Anyway I tried again the next evening and made it through to the end of episode 3 .... the pace and the quality of the script definitely seemed to pick up after about half way through episode 2. I watched episodes 4, 5, 6 last night in a continuous run, and am now fully enthralled and waiting for the next lot.

What else to say? Ignoring the historical accuracy of the main story ... the rest was thoroughly plausible presentation of Tudor court life ... and we do, even the Ricardians, thoroughly enjoy a goodly immersion in Tudor life no? We've mentioned the "head of the table" seating arrangements, but I thought it generally had all the manners, customs and practices, costume ... correct to my inexpert eye (though the locations, both interior and exterior, always seemed too tidy ... maybe I'm just scruffy and used to a bit of a mess!).

I'm really not sure about the portrayal of Wolsey ... for the 2nd most important man in the country, Lord Chancellor, a cardinal and archbishop, he came across rather more as a affable but fairly ineffectual kindly old uncle. Henry too seemed rather limp and lack-lustre, almost Tim-nice-but-dim, until again about half-way through he seemed to get a bit of back-bone and started to project a modicum of regal power. Archbishop Cranmer too seemed a bit odd, like a dim village priest, rather than a highly intelligent academic and theologian (and with a beard too!?). Thomas More? well what's to say, Hillary M doesn't like catholic saints, not even when they're academics! More's fool I know about, but what was all that about with the large white rabbit? And the red-nosed dame Alice? Was she known as a tippler or was it just to reinforce More's role as a bit of a killjoy tartar, even when at home. Uncle Norfolk though, was excellent and yes it was a pity one of his best scenes was deleted. Even his more random expletives and outpourings actually added to the whole. And Anne's execution was beautifully done (choreographed) too.

I won't mention the armour, stainless or otherwise, except to say that it all seemed suitably steely-grey, except that preposterous suit of lightweight stuff hanging off son Gregory ... dangling and swaying like leaves in the wind, it hardly seemed suitable for a pillow-fight, nevermind a joust ... But perhaps that was the point being put across: Cromwell's (quasi)stability contrasted by his son's wobbly vulnerability.

So ... roll on the next series, but until then I'm going to watch the whole lot again tonight.

Re white rabbit. More kept lots of pets at Chelsea, MM. And he was kind to them.

Agree about Wolsey.

I've watched it five times now - there are lots of gems in the first two episodes you miss at first.

I love Stephen Gardiner. Those little scenes when he spars with Cromwell are superb in their utter bitchiness!

Yes Gardiner was good .... and the little quips about him being hungry or disappointed at the fare he receives at More's house. Wasn't Gardiner, for all his lean, spidery portrayal here, known for being a bit of an epicure and proud of his table?


PS :

And postie has just delivered "Twelfth Night"! ... oh the dilemma of choice: what to watch tonight?

Temperance wrote:

Trike - isn't that letter fascinating? She wrote it when she was about thirteen years old,

Rather embarrassingly, her penmanship is a good deal better that mine!!!!
.....................................................................................................
Only a smidgin of the RSC production is available at the moment;

Thanks Trike.
Is it my imagination or is the dialogue somewhat snappier in that version? I suppose because that was so much shorter it had to rattle along. I'd love to see it so here's hoping for a dvd release.

It's on Broadway at the moment, Ferval. Maybe after it's finished its' run, there will be a dvd release.

That portrayal of Wolsey seems much more like the one we're used to. As Thomas More would say:

"He's a butcher's son ... and looks it!"

Meles meles wrote:

That portrayal of Wolsey seems much more like the one we're used to. As Thomas More would say:

"He's a butcher's son ... and looks it!"

It was the Duke of Norfolk who said that in Man For All Seasons, MM! (I know the screenplay off by heart.   )

More replied: "HIs looks - yes, I give you his looks."


Right, deep breath - over to What Is Art? now to make a terrible confession: I'm not that keen on de Ribera.

MM, you coward! You've deleted your nice friendly post in which you confessed you didn't much like de Ribera either and just left the horrid putting-out-your-tongue emoticon.

Right, I'm off - I'm having an arty huff.

Temp, I've just watched 'Twelfth Night' ....

... utterly suberb, magnificent, pure delight: I laughed outloud; choked with mirth on my glass of wine; got a wee lump in the throat and at times a small tear in the eye; I smugly recognised some of the music; and I even got a few of the period jokes! And don't even start me on analysing the beautifully subtle, gender shifting performances which are the heart of the play, even without this being an all male performance. But all that was handled with such a lovely, deft, sensitive, loving and humorous approach ... a man, playing a girl, who is playing a man, whose master believes him/her to be a man, but nevertheless still finds himself unaccountably falling in love with her/him ... etc... all so charmingly well done. And as you say, such a happy performance. Great music too ... several period Michael Praetorious dance tunes I noticed, and superbly played on authentic sackbutts and cornetti.

I know I'm gushing with cheesey plaudits but it was so incredibly good, wasn't it!?! ... So glad I've got it on DVD to watch again and again whenever I want.

Ah well, its difficult to compare a rollicking production of many minds - with sackbutts even - to the effort of one man trying to capture in one frame the essence  in a moment of revelation of inner self. Would that I could rather draw like de Ribera than interpret like Rylance...... and I do  admire him greatly.
Oh dear, what will it be now? Pastels V Face Paint at dawn?

I'm glad you liked it, MM. I knew you would. I loved Rylance's Olivia - especially that bit when he/she rushed on stage with that big battleaxe/pike thing. And the way he moved - didn't he look as though he was on rollerskates? Was it just the skirt of the costume swaying, or had he practised that walk for hours?

"Malvoli-oh!"

On stage little happens by chance, he would have worked a it. Just as Ashton devised that Mrs Tiddywinkle totter used only in the credits of that wonderful Beatrix Potter Ballet  film. Cleve length of skirt too added to that.  It is deceit in all artforms that  brings delight.

Triceratops wrote:

It's on Broadway at the moment, Ferval. Maybe after it's finished its' run, there will be a dvd release.

 I just read this on BBC World...I give it for what it is worth...as I didn't take part in or followed the discussion of Wolf Hall I don't give any opinion...but perhaps Temperance is interested?...

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32247496


Kind regards, Paul.

Thank you for the link, Paul.

I haven't seen the stage play - couldn't get tickets for Stratford or London, so I can't really comment. Interesting that some critics in US are finding it all rather tedious.

I wonder how the BBC production is going down - I think it's now being shown on some culture channel or other over there. I read one preview which judged Wolf Hall as being on a par with Downton Abbey.  I need to put an emoticon after that statement, but I can't find a suitable one.

How about this one?

Amazon, who know me well, have just sent me an email about this. I have immediately forked out £11.95 for it, as Amazon knew I would -  a pre-order for 1st February.

But what is Mantel up to? Has she abandoned Thomas Cromwell to his fate with giving us her version of it?

Is she feeling guilty that she was so jolly unfair to Thomas More in Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (unlikely)?

You'll have wait until next year, Temp:

The Mirror and the Light

My pre-ordered copy of The Mirror and the Light arrived last Thursday - I've read about half by now. I am awe-struck by the depth of Mantel's knowledge of the period and of the characters, even the minor ones. It is a joy to read. I'm not the only one so impressed: there was a programme on BBC 2 last Saturday - Return to Wolf Hall - during which Diarmaid MacCulloch spoke of his admiration for this woman's writing. He confessed that, as a historian, he delighted in looking for errors in historical fiction, but with Mantel's writing: "She gets nothing - nothing - wrong!" Except, perhaps - or so I would argue - her presentation of Cromwell as a sort of Aristotelian tragic hero. But, that said, maybe better seeing him as a flawed tragic hero - a good man gone wrong - than accepting Elton's vision of him as a Protestant (and parliamentary) hero, pure and simple. Nothing pure or simple about our man: Cromwell was a Machiavellian maestro, trained young by those Frescobaldi masters of Florence. And I would still would maintain Holbein's brush never lied - look at the eyes, the eyes! 

But the BBC study was really all about the author herself, not of her hero. She is a haunted and haunting woman. The final part of her trilogy is full of ghosts...

I am green with envy - her writing is breathtakingly good. One of the greats, I think.

Excellent review (of the book) in the Financial Times by Simon Schama - will see if I can get a link to work.

Link no good - sorry. You have to subscribe.

I googled "mirror and the light schama review" and got to it directly with no need to subscribe.

Yes, a very good review - almost a penetrating analysis really - Schama clearly enjoyed the book.

I'm strapped for cash at the moment so won't buy immediately and I think anyway I'll re-read the first two parts before I tackle The Mirror and the Light. I've also seen that C.J. Sansom has got another Tudor whodunnit out (actually it's been out for over a year now), so that's another one to look forward to for when I've got a bit more money. They can both go into my Schadenfreudefest box.  

Meles meles wrote:

I googled "mirror and the light schama review" and got to it directly with no need to subscribe.

Yes, a very good review - almost a penetrating analysis really - Schama clearly enjoyed the book.

I'm strapped for cash at the moment so won't buy immediately and I think anyway I'll re-read the first two parts before I tackle The Mirror and the Light. I've also seen that C.J. Sansom has got another Tudor whodunnit out (actually it's been out for over a year now), so that's another one to look forward to for when I've got a bit more money. They can both go into my Schadenfreudefest box.  

I'm glad you were able to read the review - love Schama's description of the Duke of Norfolk as that "aristocratic bandit" and as an "aristolout"!

Yes, M&L is an ideal book for your Schadenfreudefest box. I intended to keep my Mirror and Light for reading if I have to self-isolate (Devon has the highest number of CV cases outside London  ), but I couldn't resist starting it, and of course couldn't then desist: I'm also munching my way steadily through my panic-bought supply of Fruit and Nut. No willpower whatsoever.

No spoilers please, Temp! I'm still waiting for my own copy from Tanum here and I don't want to find out in the meantime how it all works out for our plucky little hero in the end. Here's hoping he gets to marry one of the big bluff guy's rejects and they all get to live happily ever after ....

There has now been sufficient time passed for this to appear on youtube, from Wolf Hall: