{"id":2306,"date":"2004-03-09T14:07:29","date_gmt":"2004-03-10T06:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2004\/03\/09\/romeo-hey-doll-where-you-at\/"},"modified":"2022-03-07T09:51:54","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T17:51:54","slug":"romeo-hey-doll-where-you-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2004\/03\/09\/romeo-hey-doll-where-you-at\/","title":{"rendered":"Romeo! Hey, doll! Where you at?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:11577,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.ajc.com\\\/metro\\\/content\\\/metro\\\/0304\\\/08shakespeare.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20060214143730\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.ajc.com:80\\\/metro\\\/content\\\/metro\\\/0304\\\/08shakespeare.html&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-11 17:26:38&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-24 03:27:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-24 03:27:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:11578,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/0451525264\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/0451525264\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:11579,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.benhammersley.com\\\/dparchives\\\/008137.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/benhammersley.com\\\/dparchives\\\/008137.html&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:11580,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.pangloss.com\\\/seidel\\\/Shaker\\\/index.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260225122510\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.pangloss.com\\\/seidel\\\/Shaker\\\/index.html?&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-11 17:26:48&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-24 03:27:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-24 03:27:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>This makes me cringe just thinking about it&#8230;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ajc.com\/metro\/content\/metro\/0304\/08shakespeare.html\" title=\"To read or not to read\">Shakespeare re-written in modern prose<\/a>, as today&#8217;s kids can&#8217;t seem to comprehend it as it was originally written.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  &#8220;Et tu, Brute?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  Not anymore.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;And you too, Brutus?&#8221; is what students read in a new genre of study guides that modernize the Elizabethan English found in &#8220;Julius Caesar&#8221; and other plays by William Shakespeare.<\/p>\n<p>  These guides move beyond the plot summaries found in other study aides by providing line-by-line translations in modern-day English.<\/p>\n<p>  Once barred from school, the new translations now are being used in classes across metro Atlanta.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ugh.<\/p>\n<p>Ugh, ugh, ugh.<\/p>\n<p>Or, more appropriately, in the words of Isabella in Measure for Measure &#8212; &#8220;Thy sin&#8217;s not accidental, but a trade.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Or even better, Falstaff, in Henry the Fourth, Part II &#8212; &#8220;You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I&#8217;ll tickle your catastrophe!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Admittedly, I may be an odd case &#8212; after reading the abridged version of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0451525264\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"Les Mis\u00e9rables\">Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/a> in high school, I fell so in love with the story that I went out and bought the full, unabridged version, and it&#8217;s remained one of my favorites ever since. So for me, hacking something up is bad enough&#8230;but re-writing it like this?<\/p>\n<p>Truly a travesty.<\/p>\n<p>The one possible good point I can see is if the kids are captivated enough by the stories that they may someday go out and find the original versions &#8212; but I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll be holding my breath on that count.<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.benhammersley.com\/dparchives\/008137.html\" title=\"Who are you, that is the question.\">Ben Hammersley<\/a>, with help from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pangloss.com\/seidel\/Shaker\/index.html\" title=\"Shakesperean Insulter\">Shakespearean Insult Generator<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>iTunes:<\/strong> &#8220;I Hold a Prince&#8221; by Poems for Laila from the album <em>La Fillette Triste<\/em> (1991, 3:07).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This makes me cringe just thinking about it&hellip;Shakespeare re-written in modern prose, as kids can&#8217;t seem to comprehend it as it was originally written.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2036],"tags":[1447],"class_list":["post-2306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-shakespeare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}