Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others and You

Private audience with a theatrical knight

Legendary icon
It was hard to stop smiling in astonishment and wonder at the sight and sound of an almost-octogenarian’s tour de force one-man-show at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry tonight. I attended with my long-time Shakespeare buddy, Michael Thompson, who’d badgered the box office for returns and who’d not only got the triumphant call – “yes, we have two seats for you” – but, it turns out in a miraculous alignment of the stars, that one of the seats was sponsored by Sir Ian McKellen so we were invited backstage afterwards to hear the legendary knight throw out some extra choice anecdotes and bestow his iconic glory in a private audience. I’d seen him in a backstage environment before with a group of students during the second run of Waiting for Godot in London (see picture below.) I saw him in that play with two casts, playing opposite both Yorkshireman, Patrick Stewart and the late, great, Roger Rees, as well as superb supporting actors – as witnessed below with Ronald Pickup and Matthew Kelly.

Saw this production twice with two casts but one McKellen....

Over 80 venues across GB
Sir Ian McKellen’s stamina, memory, bravura acting techniques and vocal command are, live in the theatre, marvellous to behold. This particular show started as a one-off review and then expanded into an 80th birthday celebration of a tour of upwards of 80 venues across Great Britain. The profits from each performance are donated to local charities that are either drama or education or community based. The audience become the second character as he drags people onstage, invites shout-outs of answers and the names of Shakespeare plays. But more importantly he controls the audience mood as adeptly as any mind-altering wizard. The gossipy anecdotes are hilarious, the moving tales of his childhood and political activism draw us into a circle of quiet intimacy and his geographical range of acting experiences take us around the globe from Bolton to Yorkshire to the North-East to Nottingham to London to Stratford-upon-Avon, up mountains in New Zealand and to the throne room of Buckingham Palace. Wondrous!

Explanation for this pic in paragraph below...

Tolkien, Shakespeare, T S Eliot, G M Hopkins and more
At the flick of an eyebrow he moved from a doddering, ancient Agatha Christie character to a gauche and youthful Romeo. He mugged mercilessly in pantomime mode as Widow Twankey and recalled the ignition of his passion for live acting when seeing a performance of Peter Pan. He gave us a preview of his forthcoming film performance as Gus, the Theatre Cat in T S Eliot’s and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats (directed by Tom Hooper and adapted by Lee Hall) and dextrously delivered Gerard Manley Hopkins poetry in the finale to the first half. Just when it seemed impossible to admire him more, out poured forth from the depth of his soul one of his party pieces, the famous speech from Sir Thomas More (probably the only example of Shakespeare’s own handwriting which I’ve mentioned in an earlier blog – click here) – the speech which appeals to our shared humanity in how we should treat refugees. A memorable moment at each performance was his reading from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and the invitation onto stage of an audience member to wield Gandalf’s mighty sword, Glamdring. Above you can see my dear friend, Amy Lancelot (Creative Education Manager at Leeds Playhouse), receiving the polaroid outcome of just such an encounter at a later performance.

Some of Sir Ian McKellen's Film and TV roles

McKellen TV and Film performances that made an impact on me over the years
1970: Edward II in Edward II by Christopher Marlowe
1976: Macbeth in Macbeth by William Shakespeare
1981: DH Lawrence in Priest of Love by Harry T Moore adapted by Alan Plater
1982: Walter in Channel 4’s Walter by David Cook
1985: Sir Andrew Charleson in Plenty by David Hare
1989: John Profumo in Scandal by Michael Thomas
1995: Amos Starkadder in Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons adapted by     Malcolm Bradbury
1995: Richard III in Richard III by William Shakespeare
1998: James Whale in Gods and Monsters by Christopher Bram adapted by Bill   Condon
1998: Kurt Dussander in Apt Pupil by Stephen King adapted by Brandon Boyce
2000: Magneto (Eric Lensherr) in X-Men by Tom DeSanto & Bryan Singer (a role he   went on to play in X-Men 2, The Last Stand and Days of Future Past)
2001: Gandalf in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (a role he went on to   play in a further five films and numerous audio projects)
2006 “Sir Ian McKellen” in Extras, created by Ricky Gervais
2015: Sherlock Holmes in Mr Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, book by Mitch Cullin   adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher
2015: Norman in The Dresser (with Anthony Hopkins)

A fraction of Sir Ian McKellen's stage appearances

McKellen Stage performances I have seen
1979: Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night and Andrei in Chekhov’s Three Sisters on   tour at Dewsbury Town Hall (September)
1988: Acting Shakespeare at Wakefield Theatre Royal (22nd May)
1989: Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon
1997: Captain Hook in Peter Pan at the National Theatre in London
1998: Dr Dorn in Chekhov’s The Seagull at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
1998: Garry Essendine in Coward’s Present Laughter at West Yorkshire Playhouse,   Leeds
1998: Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
2007: King Lear in Trevor Nunn’s production of Shakespeare’s King Lear and Sorin   in Chekhov’s The Seagull at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon
2009: Estragon in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at Theatre Royal, Haymarket in   London
2017: King Lear in Jonathan Munby’s production of Shakespeare’s King Lear (in a   CinemaLive broadcast)

Easter 2019: the Ian McKellen bonus....

Harrogate Flower Show

A coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers

A sunny day, a birthday voucher for Sally, a day out at the Harrogate Flower Show. Who knew that the world of flowers could be so competitive and cut-throat? Thousands, clearly, judging from our visit to the 2017 Harrogate Flower Show.
Away before me to sweet beds of flowers;
Love thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers
Occupying a section of the show ground for the Great Yorkshire Show, the event featured plenty to see (and smell and experience) in the way of garden designs, plants, flower arrangements and creative interpretations. Northern colleges produced weird car bonnet floral displays. There was an awesome section called HortCouture which presented fabulously unique costumes in flower and nature designs. New Zealander Jenny Gillies’s creations were stunning. A night at the Oscars was celebrated with platforms inspired by particular films. Historical themes were interpreted, specific challenges were offered, fashion designers were celebrated. Food and drink were easy to come by and, being in Yorkshire, typically eclectic. We enjoyed champagne with sausage rolls and pie. The comments of the judges were left for people to see and it was fascinating to hear visitors argue with each other about what the judges had written. I went with few expectations really, just a pleasant day out, and came away with the sense that flower shows are gladitatorial and epic.

These flowers are like the pleasures of the world

“Here’s a few flowers” says Belarius in Cymbeline planning a forest burial for a dead boy that he has known only for a short time. As ever in Shakespeare there are depths and complications with this flowery event. We know that the boy is a girl and that she isn’t dead but drugged with a potion that simulates death. We also know that she is the sister of Belarius’s two sons, reared in the forest wild. We also know that Belarius effectively kidnapped the boys so he is nobody’s father, just a good man who made a drastic decision and has now become a solid and beloved (adoptive, woodland) father. And to tighten the spring even further, in comes the two boys to add another body to the grave, a headless corpse of someone that, given the chance, would have raped the boy/girl. But now he’s (literally) lost his head. “Here’s a few flowers” – a simple line but concealing a world of passion and drama. “Harrogate Flower Show” – a simple-sounding event but containing battles and creations and inventions and judgements and tears and laughter. Who knew? (I do, now.)

Drimnin

Drimin

In Scotland, we’ve been to Edinburgh, Skye and Mull in years gone by, but never to Morvern. We hoped for a hunkering down away-from-it-all break and that’s what we got. We stayed in an AirBnB house, Tigh Darach, in Drimnin, a remote spot with a small pier and a postbox.

Tigh Darach

One of Sally’s rules about going on holiday is that we should be somewhere that is better than home, either in location or facilities. The house of Roderick and Amanda, our hosts, was a fantastic place for those who truly do want a “break” from urban life.

Hunkering down

Being at Tigh Darach felt a bit like being in a Grand Designs house. There was plenty of light, space, and luxury in terms of comfy places to sit (inside and out), restful textures, muted colours and oak beams crafted into the protective frame of the well-designed cocoon. Everywhere were nooks and crannies with quirky objects or higgledy-piggledy books about local history and geography. We spent a week snuggling into the sofas, relaxing on the verandahs, feasting round the table, and sleeping with the gentle tidal background of the lapping waves on The Sound of Mull.

Rhenium Tales

My fantasy novel made a few leaps of detail, inspired by the setting and stories we came across of castles, churches, stoic Highlanders and brutal massacres. Every morning I managed an hour or two of writing overlooking the water off Drimnin pier.

St Columba’s Chapel

The weather was mostly splurty and misty but we managed to get out at least once a day and had two days that could be positively identified as sunny. Scotland survives any weather, in my opinion, and the Drimnin Estate near the house where we stayed had a clifftop chapel, dedicated to St Columba, built in 1838 overlooking The Sound of Mull with Tobermory in the distance and seals bobbing about in the water.

Drimnin Estate

All over Morvern there were mini-rapids breaking through woodland slopes, winding down creeks, and making their way to the coast. It was as if the land was bleeding fresh water. Forsaken ruins, probably left over from the Highland Clearances, and ancient trees covered in moss were scattered haphazardly through the landscape and reminded me regularly of Fangorn Forest in Lord of the Rings.

Lochaline and the Wishing Stone

The nearest shop was a 40 minute drive down a track with nerve-wracking passing places. But the Lochaline stores proved well-stocked and near a super-friendly, homemade-cake-filled O2 Café, run by helpful staff, who let me do some printing on their office computer. An odd geological phenomenon on the road to Lochaline called the Wishing Stone (Clach na Crich) boasted a legend that if you filled your mouth with spring water and jumped through the hole three times, without spilling or swallowing a drop of the water, or touching the sides of the stone, your wish would be granted. Hmm….

Squelchy bogs

Trudging through marshy ferns one day we were rewarded with a great picnic spot on a promontory overlooking Tobermory. Highland cows, caterpillars, dragonflies, crickets and frogs were all unimpressed with our urban terror of losing our boots in the mud.

After the bog, the banquet!

Incredibly, miles from large population centres, Lochaline also boasts The Whitehouse Restaurant, an award-winning unpretentious building with friendly service and food to savour.
We enjoyed starters of

• Bread, olives and sun-dried tomatoes
• Smoked salmon with quail’s eggs and caviare
• Potted hog and toast

Mains of

• Halibut
• Trout
• Lamb
• Duck – (aka Jemima in the brambles)

Puddings of

• Chocolate Dram
• Highland Hedgerow Fruity Pudding
• Whitehouse Border Tart
• Scottish Cheeses, Oatcakes and Port

Chefs Mike and Lee and server Shirley gave us a great evening and, lo and behold, our AirBnB hosts, Amanda and Roderick were dining there with friends too. The food (and wine) was beautifully-presented and pleasurably-flavoursome.

Ardnamurchan Charters

In the middle of our holiday we made an early start along a picturesque road, via Strontian and Loch Sunart, to reach Laga Bay. Skipper Andy and faithful companion, Tag, a benign sea-faring Labrador, took us to the Island of Càrna, the Cairns of Coll and the Island of Muck. On Carna we learned about local conservation issues and the otter population; round Coll we gawped at the hundreds of seals on the skerries, rocks and pretty beaches; on Muck we stretched our legs, had a cuppa and a toilet break. What is life like for the people who live amongst these small islands? Hard to truly imagine, but Andy gave a good account of the hardships and the joys.

A life on the ocean wave

We were confined on the trim boat Laurenca for the best part of nine hours with Andy, Tag and eight other tourists. I’m sure Tag acted as a calming influence on us all, particularly when weird mists rolled over the sea or one or other of us started getting cabin-fever….! The point of all this out-of-the-comfort-zone nautical behaviour was to attempt to see wildlife and we did.

Arion on the dolphin’s back

Seals of all types and sizes, porpoises, sea eagles (an individual and two pairs, one pair posing and one pair wheeling spectacularly in the skies) and, most excitingly of all, a pod of common dolphins – sleek, sophisticated, synchronized, curling up and over in ones, twos, threes, fours and more, sliding by, following the boat for a time, seemingly entertaining us, being – well – dolphin-like. Wild and wonderful.

All that lives must die

Scotland, in my experience, has a tender melancholy air; the landscapes contain the echoes of hardships and massacres. Not far from Tigh Darach stood the ruins of St Fintan’s church which we reached by walking along what was described as a “coffin road,” apparently a route that Drimnin residents took carrying coffins across the land to burial sites at Lochs Arienas, Durinemast and Teacuis. The Killintag burial ground next to St Fintan’s church was poignant and bespoke untold stories; some cherished graves had been tended very recently. Cows and sheep, manure and rain, life and death. Every grave tells a story.

Highland Clearances

On the Ardtornish Estate we learned a first-hand account of the terrible Highland Clearances when long-standing settlers were evicted by rich landlords (in Ardtornish’s case a woman from Edinburgh, Christina Stewart, who never visited Morvern having bought the land from the Duke of Argyll.) Old ways of living and collective farming were thrown out to make way for the more lucrative sheep farming business, a practice that needed land but few workers. (The Dress Act of 1746 added insult to injury by banning the wearing of kilts and all tartan or plaid patterns. Is it any wonder that kilts are now a source of national pride in Scotland?)

Aoineadh Mor (Inniemore)

The Scottish Forestry Commission have done a great job restoring the walks around the abandoned village and commemorated Mary Cameron and her husband James by naming key pathways after them. Actress Anne Sinclair reads Mary’s sad story in both English and Gaelic in an audio-post with a great view out towards Loch Arienas. The walks are through mixed pine plantation of fir, pine and spruce, sometimes moss-covered, and heather and scrubby bushes lined the tracks. Perfect (apart from a sprained ankle.)

Getting away from it all?

One of the great pleasures on holiday is having the time to chat about any and everything, trying to make sense of the past, the present and what might happen in the future. So “getting away from it all” inevitably means reflecting on the reality of what is waiting back home and, in the case of this particular holiday, discussing the way the media is manipulated by vested interests – a topic prompted by our holiday box set of The Newsroom – a thought-provoking TV show with plenty of shout-at-the-telly moments. Like The West Wing it is a predictably fantastical left-wing hallucination of how things could be but never will be, raising many relevant issues but dealing with them in a soap opera style that is both infuriating and entertaining. The American patriotism is sometimes a bit cloying but the overall sentiment is absolutely admirable. Many thanks to Maggie for recommending (and loaning) The Newsroom!

By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes

Scotland’s history, culture and attitude to education and the arts fascinate me for deep-seated reasons I don’t understand. So hopefully we’ll return to Scotland again; and stand "on the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond."

The sea hath cast me on the rocks

What would Shakespeare do?

Some people use WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) as a guide to life’s difficult questions. It is no surprise to my family and friends that my internal guru question is WWSD…. What would Shakespeare do? Would he vote to Remain in Europe or Brexit pursued by a bear?

What I have been I have forgot to know

Shakespeare’s writing always seems to empathise with castaways. A previous blog highlighted Thomas More’s appeal to the mob to embrace the migrant (click here to read.) Characters washing ashore in other lands feature throughout the plays: the Antipholus twins, their parents and the Dromio twins in The Comedy of Errors, Viola and Sebastian in Twelfth Night, Pericles and Thaisa in Pericles, Perdita in The Winter’s Tale, Prospero and Miranda in The Tempest. Shakespeare’s work is riddled with characters recovering from being adrift and cast out. Pericles, washing up on the shores of Pentapolis expresses how many migrants must feel:

Alas, the sea hath cast me on the rocks,
Wash’d me from shore to shore, and left me breath
Nothing to think on but ensuing death….
A man whom both the waters and the wind,
In that vast tennis-court, have made the ball
For them to play upon, entreats you pity him….
What I have been I have forgot to know

 European locations and European sources

Apart from setting his plays all around the Mediterranean (see map at the end of this blog – click here) Shakespeare also went to European writers to source his plays: Leo Africanus (Spanish Moroccan), Appian, Homer and Plutarch (Greek), Ariosto, Bandello, Boccaccio, Castiglione and Cinthio (Italian), Belleforest and Froissart (French), Montemayor (Spanish), Ovid, Plautus, Pliny the Elder and Seneca (Roman Italian.) Most of these were most likely in translations but it was clear the influence of Europe animated Shakespeare's writings. My head and heart tell me that if My Boy Bill could vote in the forthcoming EU referendum he would vote Remain.

True Lovers run into strange capers

True lovers run into strange capers: Audrey and Touchstone in As You Like It

The trouble with Shakespeare

The trouble with seeking answers in Shakespeare is that there is always a contradictory opinion. He always seems to present (at least) two sides to every aspect of life. Love is both a joy and a madness. Love can be comic or tragic, sometimes both in the same play. Despite calling it “the greatest love story in the world” Romeo and Juliet is anything but a great love story – the lovers are immature runaways, both prone to taking drugs and both commit suicide – they are NOT ideal poster-teens for love, even though they do say some wonderful things to each other:

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.

Should this really be called a great love story?

If music be the food of love, play on

Duke Orsino, in Twelfth Night, says that the “spirit of love” is “quick and fresh” and he wants “excess of it.”
On the other hand, one speech later, he seems to see love as a tormenting predator that he needs to escape:

O, when my eyes did see Olivia first,
Methought she purged the air of pestilence!
That instant was I turn'd into a hart;
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E'er since pursue me.

Imogen Stubbs as Viola and Toby Stephens as Orsino

Faithful or Giddy?

Orsino also sees himself as typical of male lovers as being absolutely faithful and devoted to his beloved:

For such as I am all true lovers are,
Unstaid and skittish in all motions else
Save in the constant image of the creature
That is beloved.

Only a few lines later, though, he contradicts this entirely, saying that men are notoriously fickle:

Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
Than women’s are

Which is it, Orsino?

Big hearts kill what they love

Orsino boasts about the size of his heart and passion:

There is no woman's sides    
Can bide the beating of so strong a passion    
As love doth give my heart; no woman's heart    
So big, to hold so much….

Unfortunately his strength of feeling might cut off his nose to spite his face:

Why should I not, had I the heart to do it,
Like to the Egyptian thief at point of death,
Kill what I love?

Viola/Cesario with Orsino: Nell Geisslinger & Grant Goodman, Michael Sharon & Shelly Gaza

Each man kills the thing he loves

Shakespeare presents us with the sublime wonder of love and, in surprising places, sometimes within the same character, also presents us with love’s power to recklessly destroy. In The Merchant of Venice, Bassanio asks “Do all men kill the things they do not love?” Oscar Wilde, in The Ballad of Reading Gaol, famously altered that line with lines worthy of Shakespeare himself:

Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard.
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice and Oscar Wilde

What employment have we here?

At the top of the Keep, Conisbrough Castle

Fit for great employment

In Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona a group of banished (outlaw) citizens (living in the forest – where else?) redeem themselves by helping shelter the protagonists. The “hero” in the final scene asks the Duke to pardon them:

VALENTINE:

These banish'd men that I have kept withal
Are men endued with worthy qualities:
Forgive them what they have committed here
And let them be recall'd from their exile:
They are reformed, civil, full of good
And fit for great employment, worthy lord.

Royal Shakespeare Company Two Gentlemen of Verona outlaws

Adaptation and Change

The outlaws in Two Gentlemen of Verona get a second chance. They start again. They’ve suffered. They’ve adapted. They’ve changed. They are now “full of good/And fit for great employment.”

Flowers from Angela Tuffnell to celebrate changing times....

Conisbrough Castle

Conisbrough Castle in South Yorkshire is a great example of a building that adapts to changing fortunes:

• built in the 11th Century by William de Warenne, the Earl of Surrey
• remodelled by the wonderfully-named Hamelin Plantagenet, bastard son of Henry II
• left to ruin in the Civil War
• scene for three powerful women to exert their influence over their lives and times: Isabel de Warenne, Isabella of Castile and Countess Maud Clifford
• setting for the inspiration of Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe 
• modern tourist attraction.
  

European Union money and UK renovations

The castle was in terrible disrepair until a series of careful renovations, funded and managed by a partnership between English Heritage, the local (Doncaster) council, the charitable Ivanhoe Trust and the European Union. Yes, the European Union. I wonder how many roads, renovations and infrastructure projects have been funded in the UK by EU money?

Confederation of British Industry graphic - who's got the biggest market?

The Downton Abbey syndrome

Great houses and castles in the UK are fantastic places to visit (in my opinion) because they tell us much about where we’ve been and why we’ve been what we’ve been. And how, as a country, we can adapt and employ our resources for the maximum enjoyment for the maximum number of citizens. It’s all about Adaptation and Changing with the times. Market forces will take care of the rest, as long as the Market is honest….

Conisbrough Castle's extraordinary Keep and Chapel

"Come Crush A Cup Of Wine"

First and Second Elizabethan Ages - "Tavern Brawls"

I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking*

(* Cassio from Shakespeare’s Othello)
In my previous blog I sung the praises of BritWit extraordinaire, Adrian Smith, enthusiastic oenophile. It was easy to celebrate the wine-tasting experience by recalling Shakespeare quotations about drinking, given his plays are riddled with references to quaffing. Alcohol is everywhere. I’ve known plenty of people in my life who struggled (and struggle) to moderate drinking. And I’ve never been one to preach since I’ve got my own over-eating disorders and addictions. Modern society is rife with the tussle to control consumption, whether of material goods or of addictive food and drugs.

Nights out that didn't end so well....

Thou'rt a scholar; let us therefore eat and drink*

(* Sir Toby Belch from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night)
I know I drank too much beer and lager as a teenager and sometimes also at university. Some weekends now definitely involve way too much wine, but the fact is that “crushing a cup of wine” (as the Capulet servant invites Romeo to do) is a very sociable and enjoyable thing to do. Throughout history and literature, wine (and beer) have been constant presences in British life.

Come, I will go drink with you*

(* Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff)
I included an image of the gloriously ignominious and indisputably English Falstaff at the end of the last blog. He only appeared in three of Shakespeare’s plays and his death is described in a fourth. (Falstaff appears in Henry IV Parts One and Two as well as in The Merry Wives of Windsor and his death is described by Mistress Quickly in Henry V.) Falstaff certainly dominates Shakespearean images of drinking.

Paola Dionisotti as Mistress Quickly and Antony Sher as Falstaff

The loyal Mistress Quickly even subscribes drink to improving his health and temper, though, alas, she recognizes he has had too much in Henry IV Part Two:

MISTRESS QUICKLY (to Falstaff): I' faith, sweetheart, methinks now you are in an excellent good temperality: your pulsidge beats as extraordinarily as heart would desire; and your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any rose, in good truth, la! But, i' faith, you have drunk too much canaries; and that's a marvellous searching wine, and it perfumes the blood ere one can say 'What's this?'

Judi Dench as Mistress Quickly and Simon Callow as Falstaff

Drink a health to me*

(* Petruchio from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew)
There are many “feasts” in Shakespeare that involve wine (Romeo and Juliet springs to mind) but there are a few key scenes where the drinking starts in a light-hearted way but leads to horrible consequences for one or more of the characters. Timon’s guests eat and drink to financial disaster in Timon of Athens. Trinculo and Stephano get Caliban blind drunk in The Tempest.  Lepidus is the butt of the Romans’ jokes in Antony and Cleopatra’s drinking scene, though it marks a deeper humiliation for Octavius too.

Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, Othello and Timon of Athens

I'll drink no more than will do me good*

(* Mistress Quickly in Henry IV Part Two)
Did the actor who first played Octavius in Antony and Cleopatra also play Cassio in Othello since that scene’s drunken military orgy, orchestrated by Iago, portrays a similarity between what happens to Octavius and the downfall of Cassio – a man desperate to fit in with “the lads” who then drinks too much and suffers later. Did Shakespeare get carried away once too often in the taverns of Stratford and London? Did drink pay a large part in the accidental death/murder/assassination/skirmish in Deptford that ended Kit Marlowe’s life? The scenes in Antony and Cleopatra and Othello are such vivid lad-drinking scenes that Shakespeare must have experienced out-of-control drunkenness in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

The death of Christopher Marlowe - "a Great Reckoning in a Little Room"

These clothes are good enough to drink in*

(* Sir Toby Belch from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night)
Falstaff’s nearest rival for Top Drunk in Shakespeare’s work is Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. Toby utters the immortal line to the Puritan Malvolio who tries to stop the drunken revelry:

TOBY BELCH (to Malvolio): Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

The old reprobate, Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Nigth

There is no doubt the audience are on Toby Belch’s side at this point in the play, even though the sound of drunks when you are trying to get to sleep can be disturbing. As with every theme he covered, Shakespeare presents two sides to the human condition – “good company, good wine, good welcome/Can make good people” is the belief of Guildford in Henry VIII. Cassio in Othello has another perspective on alcohol: “O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!”

Drinking Philosophy 

by Terry Pratchett’s Death and Albert:

Death: "THERE ARE BETTER THINGS IN THE WORLD THAN ALCOHOL, ALBERT."
Albert: "Oh, yes, sir. But alcohol sort of compensates for not getting them.”

Death and Terry Pratchett and an idyllic view of drinking....