Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Antonio + Sebastian or Abbott + Costello?

I really enjoy Shakespeare's tragedies but never had really but never had been able to get into his comedies much, until now. I love the way the first part of Act II flows. It's very syncopated and rhythmic. Looking at Lines 35-50, Sebastian, Antonio, and Gonzalo just hit each other with one liner after one liner. It actually reminded me of the famous Who's on First Routine by Abbott + Costello. I'm sure for Abbott + Costello, this took a lot of practice to nail down the timing and delivery, so the fact that Shakespeare was able to write it, and actually put it on paper, seems really impressive to me, because I can't imagine writing one liners is easy! When I was reading this, I actually read it as quickly as Abbott + Costello do their routine, which made it even more entertaining to me! Whether Shakespeare intended that or not, I found it really enjoyable.


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