Saturday, August 1, 2015

Famous Shakespeare Puzzles


     Well, "famous" is a relative term. Let's just say "famous among Shakespeare fanatics." What follows is a list of references to cruxes which have puzzled Shakespeare scholars, readers, and directors over the centuries. A crux is a disputed text: a passage of which there are different authentic versions, or which doesn't make sense and has prompted "corrections" as later editors have tried to arrive at the lines' intended meaning. I'm also using the word "crux" loosely enough to include other unexplained aspects of a play's dialogue. So, if that's nerdy enough for you, see if you can guess to which Shakespeare "problems" the following phrases refer. Answers at the bottom. Don't peek. If I knew how to type them upside down I would.

1.  O, o, o, o.
2. cousin Ferdinand
3. How did Brutus know she was dead?
4. Table of green fields
5. What happened to Sly?
6. Hamlet, did you mean "not not to stir without great argument"?
7. Antonio has a son?
8. Just a pretty long night in the woods
9.The Third Murderer
10.  Cassio's wife

ANSWERS

come just after this festive set of images