Lit William Shakespeare's Star Wars

Wherefore, doth anyone give concern to what the knave thinketh?

Aye, no.

 

Oh please oh please oh please...

 

I just finished Verily, A New Hope.

Best Shakespearean line transfers:

"What light through yonder flashing sensor breaks?"

"Friends, rebels, starfighters, lend me your ears." (That entire speech was great.)

The droids speaking in iambic pentameter was the funniest but Han came pretty close.

"Your Worship, prithee let me be direct: I have one a Lord and Master: 'tis myself, And only from that one I take commands."

"Whence hast thou this old bag of bones uncover'd?"

"My simple, merry tricks are all my gods, And nonsense is the only testament. I worship at the shrine of my own will."

I was reading the epilogue in which Doescher talked about Campbell being inspired by Shakespeare and Lucas being inspired by Campbell and therefore putting the Star Wars stories into Shakespeare plays seemed like a natural progression. I knew it wasn't just straightforward parody with how serious some of the monologues got but regardless...funny parts were funny, serious parts worked too.

On to The Empire Striketh Back.

 

I'm waiting for Padme to tell Anakin that he kisses by the book.

 

It's almost all just iambic pentameter, which you should be able to achieve just by reading with natural stress. Modern intonation hasn't changed that much -- we might miss some here and there but it's no biggie. Most of us aren't Elizabethan scholars.

Just read it like you normally would (keep an eye out for elision, that's the only metrical trick you need to really look out for). If you've got an ear for prosody, you'll hear it.


Missa ab iPhona mea est.

 

The AT-AT's navel-gazing is hilarious.

 

Necro because I'm reading this now and could not find the thread yesterday because the search function crapped out.

I'm at the end of the Hoth scenes, and damn, the AT-ATs soliloquies about their purpose in life was hilarious. I did not expect Shakespearean Star Wars to go that far.

Really looking forward to Yoda.

 

(Mods: I did a search and did not find an existing thread but if my searching abilities are lacking, blame middle age and please merge this one. Thanks)

Anyone read this yet? I thoroughly enjoyed the OT versions and have just started this one. Really interested in the use of "Rumor", I didn't see that in any of the other versions. The Willy Shakes take on the opening crawl is always good.

I'm not sure which I'm looking forward to the most, Shakespearean Jar-Jar or Shakespearean Lil Ani.

 

So far, Qui-Gon has talked about death and taxes and asked Obi-Wan, "Wherefore art thou tense?"

And an illustration of Nute Gunray in a ruff and a hat with a feather.

I don't remember "I have a feeling bad about this" from the OT versions but maybe I missed it.

I'm going with "as entertaining or more so".