All’s Well That Ends Well: That’s a big… answer.

[CONTENT REDACTED: In this blog entry, I made reference to Dr. Pauline Kiernan’s work and book on bawdy in the Bard, Filthy Shakespeare; in doing so, I have offended her by my tone and use of her material. I apologize for the offense, and have thus redacted the reference.]

All’s Well That Ends Well: Welcome to Rossillion, next stop Bawdyville!

[EXPLICIT CONTENT, ADULT LANGUAGE AND SEXUAL IMAGERY AHEAD… SKIP IF EASILY OFFENDED.]

When I first read Act One, Scene One of All’s Well That Ends Well, I thought bawdiness was ushered in by Parolles. But on a second reading, I see Shakespeare priming the nudge-wink pump with some very VERY subtle bawdiness from Helena. Continue reading “All’s Well That Ends Well: Welcome to Rossillion, next stop Bawdyville!”

Podcast 106: Troilus and Cressida: Bawdy, Videos, but not Bawdy Videos

[archive]

[EXPLICIT CONTENT AHEAD… This podcast contains adult language and adolescent humor … if you don’t want to blush, save yourselves, and just move along until the next one…]

This week’s podcast continues our two month-long discussion of Troilus and Cressida with a overview of the videos available and a discussion of bawdy in the play.

Continue reading “Podcast 106: Troilus and Cressida: Bawdy, Videos, but not Bawdy Videos”

Troilus and Cressida: The Trip to Bawdy-ful, Part Three–lost in disease

[EXPLICIT CONTENT, ADULT LANGUAGE AND POTTY HUMOR AHEAD… SKIP IF EASILY OFFENDED.]

A couple of days back, I kicked off our Trip to Bawdy-ful and our exploration of bawdy in Troilus and Cressida. Yesterday, I looked at the view of homosexuality in the play (both negative/bawdy and positive/touching). Today, let’s slip back into the purely bawdy and nasty, as we look at what is one of the final destinations of sex: disease.

Continue reading “Troilus and Cressida: The Trip to Bawdy-ful, Part Three–lost in disease”

Troilus and Cressida: The Trip to Bawdy-ful, Part Two–taking the back road

Yesterday, I began the trip to Bawdy-ful, i.e. Troilus and Cressida, with a look at the basic signposts along the way. Today, let’s take a back-road, so to speak, with a look at the depiction of homosexuality in the play.

In the project thus far, there hasn’t been a lot homosexuality explicitly depicted in the plays. Sure, there were some overly obsessed male friendships (see The Two Gentlemen of Verona) and a subtle unrequited homosexual love (see The Merchant of Venice), but nothing requited, returned, or anywhere near positive.

That ends here.

Continue reading “Troilus and Cressida: The Trip to Bawdy-ful, Part Two–taking the back road”

Troilus and Cressida: The Trip to Bawdy-ful, Part One–signs along the way

[EXPLICIT CONTENT, ADULT LANGUAGE AND POTTY HUMOR AHEAD… SKIP IF EASILY OFFENDED.]

According to Eric Partridge’s discussion of the naughty bits in Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Bawdy, Troilus and Cressida is “only slightly bawdier than Hamlet” (Shakespeare’s Bawdy, Partridge, Eric. New York: Routledge Classics, 2001; page 57). I’m not sure I buy the “only slightly” (given I know I spent two entries on Hamlet’s nudge-nudge wink-wink, and I figure it’ll take three to do Troilus and Cressida’s), but I would agree to his addendum: “yet, all in all, it leaves a nasty taste in the literary mouth” (Shakespeare’s Bawdy, 57).

And, of course, now I’m thinking back on the statement I made about the bawdy in Hamlet… that it has had the fun sucked out of the bawdy… that would indeed lead to that “nasty taste in the literary mouth.”

Continue reading “Troilus and Cressida: The Trip to Bawdy-ful, Part One–signs along the way”

Podcast 101: Hamlet and sucking the fun out of Bawdy

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[EXPLICIT CONTENT AHEAD… This podcast contains adult language and adolescent humor … yeah, this podcast has some rough language ahead, and it’s a long one (that’s what she said–cue rimshot)]

This week’s podcast continues our three month-long discussion of Hamlet with a long stretch of bawdy, and a little discussion about text (not sex, but text).

Continue reading “Podcast 101: Hamlet and sucking the fun out of Bawdy”

News Flash: Shakespeare’s Bawdy. (No kidding.)

We interrupt our usually scheduled entry on Hamlet for this breaking news:

Shakespeare has some bawdy stuff in it… and more than we realized just a few months ago.

Continue reading “News Flash: Shakespeare’s Bawdy. (No kidding.)”

Hamlet and Bawdy: [REDACTED] can’t even save this one…

[CONTENT REDACTED: In this blog entry, I made reference to Dr. Pauline Kiernan’s work and book on bawdy in the Bard, Filthy Shakespeare; in doing so, I have offended her by my tone and use of her material. I apologize for the offense, and have thus redacted the reference.]

Hamlet: sucking the fun out of bawdy

[EXPLICIT CONTENT AHEAD… SKIP IF EASILY OFFENDED. This entry is going to have a slow start, but some rough language lay ahead… and it’s a long one (that’s what she said–cue rimshot)]

From the beginning of the Project, I’ve taken a dip into the Pool of Bawdy with every play. And with every play, it’s been with adult language and juvenile humor. Pretty much all naked fun and naughty games. That being said, I hope Hamlet isn’t the beginning of a trend… because save for one little sequence, the bawdy bits of the play are not a whole lot of fun.

Continue reading “Hamlet: sucking the fun out of bawdy”