'Tis new to thee/my music for free ...

[saavedra77]

So, I went to see an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's The Tempest, in Volunteer Park, on Sunday: the temperature was in the low '80s, the music was African-accented (lots of drums), the staging kind of vaudevillian.  The play's Prospero was unfortunately uninspiring, its Caliban merely sulky, but Miranda was a charmer, and Ariel positively flew.

Now, to me, this play's finest moment is when the sheltered Miranda discovers human society for the first time, marveling:

Oh wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is!  O brave new world
That has such people in’t!

And Prospero replies ruefully:

‘Tis new to thee.

But I'm a rueful kind of guy.  :-) 

This time through, though, I was entertained to note the parallel language in what you might call Shakespeare's take on online file sharing in The Tempest:

This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where
I shall have my music for nothing.

Also, too bad the production company hadn't seen this article in time to plan the production, accordingly: it would have been amusing to see the play performed in that ol' fashioned Elizabethan twang ....

Comments

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

That's funny -- I think The Tempest is the only work of Shakespeare I've read all the way through, and I don't remember noticing his retort. Now I'm tempted to use that for my journal title or something.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

It's one of Stephano's drunken rants. If I have a moment to consult my Riverside, later on, I'll cite you chapter and verse. :-)

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

The Tempest, III.ii, verses 144-145.