This app looks incredible, listen to this satisfied customer:
So far, the only play on the app is “The Tempest,” but hopefully if enough people buy it, it’ll expand and encompass all the plays. I hope you’ll check it out!
This amazing BBC series does all of Shakespeare’s histories, and for Richard III, they cast one of the greatest young Shakespearean actors: Benedick Cumberbatch!
The Hollow Crown: Richard III
As a bonus, here is an interview with the star, explaining why the play is still relevant today:
Before we continue our exploration of Shakespeare’s “Richard the Third,” I would be remiss if I didn’t spend a little time talking a little about the real Richard Plantagenet, Duke Of Gloucester and king of England from 1483-1485. I have to get this out of the way first and foremost: although “Richard III” is classified as a history play, most of the facts in it are untrue, or severely exaggerated. In this post I will try to separate the character from the man to try and make clear what Shakespeare changed from history and why.
First, a video bio I created:
The facts are these:
-He was a real English monarch who reigned 1483-1485.
– Richard was the younger brother of King Edward IV, and helped his brother take the crown away from King Henry VI, in a series of battles known as The Wars Of the Roses.
– The battles got their name because Richard’s family (the House Of York), used a white rose as its symbol, while King Henry’s faction used a red rose.
– Like Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, Richard was the undesputed “Warden Of the North,” in charge of crushing a potential Scottish invasion.
– In April of 1483, Richard’s brother King Edward IV died. As Lord Protector of England, Richard was entrusted to take care of the country, and Edward’s two sons (the new heirs to the throne). In late May, Richard arrested three lords on suspicion of treason while he guided the two princes to London. Within one month, the two princes were publicly declared illegitimate by the Archbishop, thus making Richard the new king.
– Sometime during Richard’s two year reign, Edward’s sons disappeared. Many believe they were murdered and Shakespeare’s sources named James Tyrrell and Michael Forrest as the murderers, acting under King Richard’s orders. In 1674, the skeletons of two boys believed to be the princes were discovered in the Tower Of London. The remains were interred by King Charles II. So far, nobody has confirmed if the remains belong to the princes or what happened to the young boys.
-Richard was defeated and murdered by Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond at the Battle Of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485. His successor founded the House Of Tudor which included Henry VIII, Mary I, Edward VI, and Queen Elizabeth I.
-in 2015, historian Phillipa Langley discovered King Richard’s remains in a parking lot in Leicester
Few contemporary sources survive from Richard’s day, so it’s unknown whether Richard did kill the princes. Even more mysterious, although he did work to depose a king, oppress the Scots, and take the throne from Edward’s kids, some sources claim Richard was actually a just and good king. In the lack of facts, Richard’s legend continues to grow
Reality check
-After finding his skeleton, scientists discovered that Richard was not deformed, although he did have scoliosis. Thomas Moore added the hump, while Shakespeare added the withered arm.
– There is no physical evidence that Richard killed the two princes, and many others wanted them dead, including Henry Tudor himself!
-Richard also probably was a good king according to some contemporary accounts, as you can see in this video with Monty Python’s Terry Jones:
Why were the facts twisted?
– Remember, Richard was defeated by Henry Tudor, Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather, so there was no way Shakespeare or anyone else in Elizabethan England could get away with portraying him as a good king.
– Shakespeare’s main source was a history by Sir Thomas More, who was 12 at the time of Richard’s reign. More was Henry VIII’s royal chancellor, so he couldn’t afford to be nice to Richard either. More’s history set the groundwork for Shakespeare’s portrayal of Richard as a deformed monster.
The point is, people have known for centuries that Shakespeare’s Richard is no more true than the myth of Robin Hood. Even Laurence Olivier admits before his film even starts that this story has been “scorned in proof thousands of times.” Nevertheless, like Robin Hood, this story is part of the fabric of English society, and it still has value as a cautionary tale about corrupt governments, and how one man may lose his soul (and a horse) in pursuit of power and revenge.
Even today, people continue to gain power by manipulating fear, hatred, and religion, which is why we as a society need Shakespeare’s Richard. The play is so universal it was re interpreted in 2007 as “Richard III: an Arab tragedy.” Shakespeare’s Richard is so close to today’s dirty politicians that we have TV shows on both sides of the Atlantic inspired by him, (more on that later). And Richard himself is so compelling a character that centuries of great actors, cartoon characters, and even occasional rock stars have wanted to emulate him.
The lesson of the story is that a single demagogue can gain control of a corrupt system if we let him. Hitler, Saddam, Trump. It’s no accident that Olivier chose to play Richard right as the war was ending in Europe, and his popularity in that role rose exponentially after post war Britain saw the parallels between the “honey words” of Richard, which captivated England, to Hitler’s fiery rhetoric, which nearly destroyed it. The larger point through all four plays of Shakespeare’s history cycle, (not just “Richard III,”) is that greed and cruelty within one family can lead to chaos on a large scale, especially when it’s the royal family.
For more information:
Books:
The Daughter Of Time by Josephine Tey, 1951: This is the most famous book that sets down the case that Richard’s reign was maligned by history. In addition to having excellent research, it is also a compelling novel.
Shakespeare’s English Kings by Peter Saccio. To help students of Shakespeare separate fact from fiction, and get a sense of the lives of the men whose lives shaped Shakespeare’s history plays, Professor Saccio of Dartmouth College created a short, easy to read biography of all 10 of Shakespeare’s monarchs.
Websites:
The Richard III Society: Official website of the society dedicated to preserving the memory of Richard III.
Historic UK: Short biographies of English Monarchs
Leicester Cathedral’s Richard III Page: http://kingrichardinleicester.com See pictures and read about Richard’s final resting place, and how his remains were found, and re-interred.
Westminster Abbey- The tomb of most English kings and queens for over 1,000 years:
As I said before, my criteria for these apps was “Free, functional (educational or useful in life,) and fun.”
6. Shakespeare by Shmop: incredible! This is a study guide for your phone of tablet. There are separate apps Hamlet, Macbeth, and R&J. Each one features a glossary, analysis, quotes, study questions, you get the idea. You can cover a lot of the play with this app. My favorite feature is “Why Should I Care?” This is a short essay that compares the themes and ideas of the play to modern life. Excellent app, and the website is great too for students and teachers: http://www.shmoop.com
7. Shakespeare for kids–
I believe nobody is too old or too young to enjoy Shakespeare, so I tried to find a Shkespeare app for young children and came up with this. To be honest, I was disappointed in this one; it’s basically an app version of Irene Lamb’s book “Tales From Shakespeare”. It consists of short summaries of the plays intended for children. There are no study guides, no quotes, and the games have nothing to do with Shakespeare. My advice, get the book, or go to these sites:
8. Poems By Heart Made by the Penguin Publishing Co, it’s designed to help you learn a poem by quizzing yourself, one line at a time, (or one word if necessary). Friendly and enjoyable.
9. Soliloquy by playshakespeare.com.
As you might expect, this app is a database of Shakespearean speeches. I normally don’t advocate actors learning speeches out of context without reading the whole play, but this app is useful for the professional actor on the go, who needs to pull out a speech in a hurry. It’s sort of a digital monologue portfolio. You can find a good speech, save it, then pull it out when you need to study it. There’s also a pro feature that allows you to edit the speech if it’s running long. What I really like is the fact that each speech is conveniently classified by gender/ genre/ length, and the helpful tips for young actors picking a good speech.
Well now we come to the end of the free Shakespeare app list I’ve compiled. Now what? I would recommend downloading Shakespeare by Playshakespeare.com, then BURN THE LIST! This is the most incredible Shakespeare app I’ve ever seen! It has tons of free and pay- only features and I’ve listed a few below:
Full text of the plays
A GPS feature where you can locate any Shakespearean theater near you.
A free passport to 57 theaters that offer discounts to members.
Study guides which include scene breakdown, poetry glossary, and notes on verse scansion
Shakeapeare quotes generator.
A glossary of over 40,000 Shakespearean words
Much like this blog, I recommend this app to Shakespeare lovers of any age!
One more bonus review: this isn’t an app, but it’s a website created by Joel Eastman and Erik Hinton of the Wall Street Journal. Its purpose is to analyze the awesome lyric complexity of the Broadway musical “Hamilton.” http://graphics.wsj.com/hamilton/
The website uncovers the use of assonance, alliteration, near-rhymes, mid-line rhymes, and other strokes of Lin-Manuel Maranda’s lyrical brush. The best part is that you can feed any text you want into the website, and it will use the same algorithm to show you its lyrical elements, so I’d recommend using it as a tool to study Shakespeare. You’ll find that the Bard of Avon and Snoop Lion aren’t as different as they might seem.
So there you are, a few fun, friendly, and free tools for exploring the work and life of a timeless English playwright. As The Bard might say: “Sirs, betake you to your tools,” for such apps as these are only as good as the person who uses them.
Introducing our new Play of the Month: Shakespeare’s dark history play about murder and corruption, Richard III. First, a short presentation I made that introduces the characters and themes of the play.
Second, a quick, funny summary of the play from the Reduced Shakespeare Company
And finally, this incredible animated version of the play, which looks like a stained-glass window come to life!
I’ve chosen to return to the blogosphere, now that my daughter is a little older. Still, I am still a dad, so I won’t be able to post as frequently as before. That said, August will be a HUGE month for this blog, since I have tons of material for our next Play Of the Month, RICHARD III!
For those of you unfamiliar with this truly excellent play, it’s the semi-true story of the infamous English king, who reportedly had a hump, a limp, and a withered arm, and chose to compensate for this by slaughtering his way to the throne!
Also, look forward to more educational content, more reviews, and hopefully a few podcasts as well.
Hi everyone! Well, it’s nearly August, which means back to school. Everyone is looking in the stores for the latest educational gear to help young minds on the journey to knowledge. To hopefully aid your journey teachers and students, I’ve compiled some of my favorite Shakespeare apps. There are a lot of apps out there of course, and I couldn’t hope to review them all, but I had a few criteria to limit the results:
The app had to be free,
It has to be functional (educational or useful in life,)
Fun!
I also discovered that most Shakespeare apps out there seem to follow three basic categories: Shakespeare quotes, Shakespeare guides, and Shakespearean insults. Generally speaking, every app on this list is designed to either help you learn Shakespeare by showing and testing you on famous quotations, to help you engage with the text of the plays, or to just have fun making vintage Tudor insults such as: “I was looking for a fool when I found you. I desire we may be better strangers!” So here are the first five apps I am ready to recommend to students and teachers that bring the Bard into the mobile electronic age!
I. 3x The Bard–
This app is a series of quizzes on Shakespearean quotes. It gets is title because the quiz goes on and on until you make three mistakes. Just like in baseball, three strikes and you’re out! I found it fun but not functional. You don’t learn what the quotes mean, and you’re not tested on how well you can recite it, it just quizzes you on which play the quote comes from. Still, worth a look.
II. Shx at Play Two word review: very useful.
Combines the interactivity of an app, with the format of the Sourcebook Shakespeare books I mentioned in my “Which Shakespeare Edition Is Right For You” post. It features annotated texts of Shakespearean plays, videos, and a glossary. It’s really good stuff. I encourage teachers and students to use it. The only problem is that, while the plays are free, some features don’t become available until you pay to download them, but you might want to if you’re serious about studying the play.
III. Globe Theater 360
This is one of my favorite apps ever. I would call it the Pokemon Go of Shakespeare apps. As you move your phone, you get a 360 degree of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, as if you were actually there! Even cooler, if you put your phone or tablet over the Globe Theater logo, it will make a computerized theater appear on your phone’s camera in real time, just like the creatures of Pokemon Go! Furthermore, you can click on various part of the Globe to learn about the theater, how the plays were performed, and the colorful history of Shakespeare’s Company. I think this is a must-have app for anyone interested in Shakespeare.
IV. Globe Player
Ok, I’ll be honest, this one isn’t free either, but it’s still incredible. I love that The Globe is well aware that not everyone can get out to London and see a play in Shakespeare’s re-constructed Globe theater, so they have a pay-per-view style app that allows you to watch videos of Globe Theater performances in your own home. You can also watch or stream international Shakespearean performances and documentaries right to your phone, tablet, or online at https://globeplayer.tv/
V. Genius
The best thing about this app is that you probably own it already! This is an extremely popular app for deciphering the meaning of song lyrics. Well guess what? People have also contributed commentary of some of Shakespeare’s famous speeches too! If you’re a teacher, you might consider having your class upload a Shakespearean text, and have them write line-by-line commentary to show just how well they understand it.
So that’s Part I of my look into my favorite apps Shakespearean apps, and I hope you enjoyed it. If you find any other apps you’d like me to review, leave a comment below!
If you need something fun to do this weekend, and you live in southern Pennsylvania, come out to Orange Mite Studio’s production of “Julius Caesar,” I was very impressed by all the performances, and would recommend it to anyone!
To help my raise my little daughter, I need to take a break from blogging. Don’t worry, I already have plans for the coming months and I will have plenty of content coming up. I just ask for your patience and in the meantime, please peruse my previous posts.
The Shakespearean Student 