Online Shakespeare Lexicon

I've located an online Shakespeare lexicon. I think it'll be a great help with our little project. Enjoy!

The Comedy of Errors, Act 1, Scene 1

The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s earliest works, if not the earliest. Like most young playwrights of his day, Shakespeare looked to the classics for inspiration and instruction. In this case, he borrowed heavily, almost directly, from the Roman playwright Plautus’s work The Menaechmi, a play about the mistaken identities of twin sons from Epidamnus and Syracuse. While the similarities are obvious, Shakespeare added his own elements, such as an extra set of twins and a subplot, and he excluded or diminished many of Plautus’s elements, such as Plautus’s making almost every character symbolic of a Roman god (while avoiding direct theological examination). Shakespeare’s method was to take a classical Roman play and infuse it with Britishness. Whereas Plautus’s play was intended to instruct the audience (as most Roman plays were), Shakespeare’s play was intended to entertain the audience (as most Elizabethan plays were).

Act 1, Scene 1

The play opens in Ephesus, with Solinus, the Duke of Ephesus, leading Egeon, a merchant of Syracuse, to jail. Solinus explains to Egeon that he is being jailed in preparation for execution, because he has violated the well-known no-immigration law between Ephesus and Syracuse. Solinus gives Egeon a chance to explain why he is in Ephesus. Egeon tells his tale: He was born in Syracuse, married, and prospered, thanks to his trade with nearby Epidamnum. He journeyed to Epidamnum to administer his business there after his local agent died. His pregnant wife travelled with him. En route, she gave birth to twin sons. On the same ship at the same time, a poor woman gave birth to twin sons. Egeon purchased the poor woman’s sons, and decided that he would raise them as bondslaves to his sons. As they returned to Ephesus, a violent storm arose. Egeon and his wife each took one of their own sons and one of the slave sons, and lashed themselves to masts at different ends of the ship. After the storm, the ship was damaged and drifting. Soon, two other ships, one from Epidaurus and the other from Corinth, approached the floundering ship. The damaged ship was split in two when it struck a rock. The Epidaurian ship rescued the Egeon’s wife and the two boys with her, and the Corinthian ship rescued Egeon and the two boys with him. Thus, the family was separated. When the son that grew up with Egeon became a man, he set off with his slave to find his mother and brother. Egeon took on the same mission, which eventually took him to Ephesus, where he was willing risk his life to reunify his family.

The story touches Solinus’s heart, but he can not violate Ephesian law. However, he offers Egeon the chance to go into the town and try to raise a ransom of a thousand marks, which would spare his life. Egeon thinks the task impossible, but he takes up Solinus’s offer.

The Means at Your Disposal

I'd been avoiding working on the lawn mower, though it badly needed servicing. To be honest with you, I don't like working on internal combustion engines. I'll work on most anything - household appliances, plumbing, electrical, central air conditioning, home dentistry, furniture, gardening, whatever. But please don't ask me to try to fix an internal combustion engine. I don't know why I'm the way I am in this matter; I just am. Love me nonetheless.

Anyhow, I'd run out of excuses by which to bamboozle the longsuffering Mrs. Smith about the lawn mower. I think she became suspicious of me when I told her the problem was the flux capacitor not getting the 1.21 gigawatts it needed to operate properly. So, I decided to fiddle with the mower just long enough to get my hands dirty, at which point I'd tell Mrs. Smith we needed a new mower. Well, when I rehearsed my plan, and I got to the "we need a new mower" part, I knew I had outraged my true nature: I buy nothing new, if 1) there's the slightest hope I can repair the old one, or 2) I can build a new one. I highly resolved that though it slay me, I was gonna fix that #!%*@~ mower.

I started taking the thing apart, and I was pretty sure I'd found the general area where the problem resided. But I had no idea how to explain what was going on with it, or what parts I would need. I knew that the place from which I usually buy hardware automatically charges a $30 bench fee to diagnose lawn mower problems, in addition to the parts and labor costs required to fix it. Ouch! Un-friggin'-acceptable! So, rather than haul the mower to them, I decided to break out my digital camera and use it to video record the action of the mechanism that I figured was the source of the problem. I took the camera to the store and played the video for the lawn mower repair guy. He immediately knew what the problem was. He then brought me the parts I needed to fix it, along with an exploded diagram of the mower section I'd be working on.

About an hour and $9 later, my mower was purring like a kitten. I felt like such a he-man.

My point in all this is to encourage you to use the means at your disposal to get the results you want. In this case, I used my digital camera to get an expert to look at my mower, without having to pay him to "really" look at my mower. And by doing so, I saved some serious coin AND gained some good experience.

You can, too.

Begin Reading. . .

. . .William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, Act 1.

Remember - just one act per week. It's easy.

Enjoy!

An Invitation

On Monday, 27April2009, I will begin reading the works of William Shakespeare, and I request the pleasure of your company as I do. The program will be easy - I'll/we'll read and comment upon the Bard's works at the leisurely rate of one act per week. When we finish one play, we'll take a break for a week of so, then start reading another one (or perhaps a sonnet). This will not be a "gotta get it done ASAP" sort of thing. Speed isn't the point. The goal is to simply read the works of the greatest writer and keenest observer to ever grace the literary world, who is also one of our kinsman. It's our duty and our privilege.

So, come Monday the 27th, join me in reading William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors.

Four Words. . .

FREE DAVID DUKE NOW.

Fretless Mountain Banjo, Part 1

For decades, I've loved working wood using my old hand tools: wood-bodied planes, handsaws, chisels, brace-and-bit, etc. But time and three surgeries on my right wrist are demanding that I begin to mechanize my woodshop, and I'll soon be doing so, but I'll do so my way. My next big project will be a shop-built table saw. I'm gathering materials, making plans, and figuring out how to do it on the cheap. I don't know when I'll get started on it, so check back here occasionally. I know I can do it, and I mean to prove to you that you can, too.

Until then, I've decided to build another fretless mountain banjo. I gave my old one to a gentleman who had played long ago. The years have not diminished his love for the music of his people, nor his excellent frailing technique. I feel ashamed to call myself a banjo player, as he's one of those men about whom it can be said, "He's forgotten more about it than I'll ever know." He liked the way I had built the instrument, and it brought it so much pleasure to play it that it was my pleasure to give him custodianship of it.

Of course, I still want to practice my frailing, so I'm building another banjo. As you can see, this one is already well underway. (It didn't cross my mind to document this one for you, until Wheeler MacPherson reminded my stroke-ravaged brain that I have this here blog.)

I'm following the pattern of the Stanley Hicks banjo in the Foxfire 3 book. It's by far the most copied pattern for fretless mountain banjos. Different makers use different woods. Black Walnut and Oak are popular. I'm using Maple I salvaged from crates that were going to be thrown away. When it's over with, I'll have a great instrument that cost me less than $20 (depending on the cost of the skin). Of course, you can always order one from a maker; it'll cost you at least a few hundred bucks.

I've fitted together the major assemblies, and I've just started shaping the neck. The shaping is done with the simple tools you see on my bench, below: chisel, spokeshave, drawknife, and corncob pipe.

Shaping the neck is satisfying work. I encourage you to give it a try. Perhaps I'll start another banjo soon, so you can follow along step-by-step. All you need are some sharp tools, a little patience, and love for your people (more about this later).

Below, you see I've started shaping the heel. I think I'll take it down a little more to make the banjo a little lighter, but not too much lighter; this joint is unglued and will be under a lot of stress from the tension of the strings, so it needs to be kind of beefy.

Below is the headstock. Most mountain banjo makers make the neck by bandsawing it from a large block of wood. To me, that seems like a waste of wood. So, I laminated the long portion of the neck, cut the headstock end at 15°, and attached the fall-off to the back of the neck. I then glued a veneer to hide the end grain. It's a technique I borrowed from traditional classical guitar making. Using it on a mountain banjo really classes-up the technique.

I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Building this style of banjo is easy, satisfying, and a lot of fun. If you've ever had a notion of learning to play the banjo, then you should seriously consider making one. You CAN do it. If you want, I'll help you.

There's a myth that the banjo (the "gourd banjar") is a Negro invention, and it came to America with Negro slaves. The implication us that our beautiful Appalachian and Bluegrass music is the child of Africa. B******T! In the first place, instruments like the banjo - strings over a stretched hide - have been in China, non-Negroid Egypt, the Caucasus, Near Asia, and many other places for thousands of years. Negro Africans may have developed such an instrument (highly improbable), but they didn't "invent" it. In the second place, the banjo existed in regions of Appalachia long before our excellent mountain kin folk had ever laid eyes on a Negro. Thirdly, if Negros invented it, then why did they abandon it? (It reminds me of the stupid cliché that "Africa is the birthplace of civilization." It's odd how the creatures who supposedly "invented" civilization have somehow forgotten how to maintain it.) When you think of Negros and the banjo, you automatically think of the old Negro Minstrelsy - something most Africans in America want purged from American history, claiming it's an offensive, racist stereotype. This says a lot about Africans in America. It says that there's an historical fact that they don't like, so they want it expunged from the historical record; that is, they prefer a false history of themselves - such as an history that says, "Africa is the birthplace of civilization." No wonder Africans in America are so wretched: They believe a false history of themselves. And since a wise nation plans its future with reference to its past, then it follows that a false past can make only a faulty future. (Learn about more myths of Negro inventions here.)

My lovely kin, the banjo is OUR instrument. Our noble and beautiful ancestors danced the Virginia Reel and other wonderful contras to tunes provided by White frailers and their banjos. Hard, sinewy White men wearing butternut around campfires let their weary minds drift back to peaceful porches and joyous gatherings while a White brother in arms gently frailed away in the darkness. And these days, the warm, intimate sound of a mountain banjo can stir your White heart to "come back, if one can, to one's own/a world almost lost. . ."

The banjo is our instrument, for our people.

Compost, Part 2

Well, after a couple o' days, the compost didn't heat up as I had hoped, which means one thing - my little microorganistic buddies are waning from hunger. I had to find them some food! That's no problem. I just mowed the lawn, raked up some of the grass clippings, and mixed it in. The nice lady made me some lunch, and we chatted for a while. About an hour and a half later, I read the tale of the temperature:

123° F! My microscopic friends were partying away, and I could hear them thanking me for bringing the nitrogenous hors d' oeuvres. I'll check it again, maybe tomorrow, and give the batch a turn to keep it nice and aerated.

For sister Laurel's compostic edification, I brought out my low-tech, low-co$t compost tumbler and started another batch:

You might not be able to see the dozens of holes I drilled into the thing, but they're there. The bungee cords are 24" long - long enough to secure the lid, but short enough that putting them on isn't difficult. Here's how to operate the tumbler:

1) Set the tumbler on its side, and place one of your feet upon the tumbler, see Figure 1:

Figure 1 - Set the tumbler on its side, postion your foot

2) Push the tumbler with your foot to make it roll, see Figure 2:

Figure 2 - Roll the tumbler

3) Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you're confident the contents are well-mixed.

4) Either leave the tumbler on its side, or return it to its upright position.

5) Enjoy!

Pretty dog-gone sweet, eh! An inexpensive, varmint-proof, and effective homemade compost tumbler. You can make one, too!