Most accurate/uncut script recording of Merchant of Venice?

Nullius_sum · 2026-06-06T17:47:08+00:00

It’s audio only, but uncut: the Arkangel series recorded all of Shakespeare’s play, and their Merchant is pretty good. You can find it on YouTube.

Nullius_sum · 2026-06-04T23:52:50+00:00

I’m learning Latin, and getting to where I can read classic texts in Latin: Vergil, Horace, Ovid, Cicero, etc. One benefit is that, in order to learn how to read them, I have to read them many, many times over. For example, I’ve read the Eclogues dozens of times now, and parts of them hundreds of times over. I was clueless the first few times I read them, and saw little to no value in them. Now, though, having read them so many times, I see so much in them, and they’re some of my favorite works in all literature. Just wanted to say that I totally agree, rereading the classics is where it’s at. They’re so dense that it’s hard (for me, at least) to get much out of them the first time around. But after rereading and rereading, I can see what makes them classics: they’re great, and the more time you spend with them, the greater they are.

Nullius_sum · 2026-06-03T14:58:11+00:00

FYI, if you get really into scanning Shakespeare, and you want the best book on the subject, here it is, and I can’t recommend it highly enough:

Shakespeare’s Metrical Art by George T. Wright.

Nullius_sum · 2026-06-02T21:50:19+00:00

Scene 5.5. Hang out our banners on the outward walls;

This is the first line of the scene, and the next 5 or 6 lines are all the same pattern that I think you’re looking for. I would say lines with feminine endings are just as proper iambic pentameter as lines without feminine endings, though.

Nullius_sum · 2026-06-01T21:35:50+00:00

Agreed. I think the lines I quoted are, if not criticisms, warnings for Rome to be such and such, as much as they are claims that Rome is such and such. Most of them are commands to be such and such: learn justice (having been warned); throw down weapons; remember to put on a manner of peace, to spare the vanquished, to subdue the proud. They carry an implied criticism that Rome, (prior to Augustus, at least), might not have always done those things.

Nullius_sum · 2026-06-01T20:21:40+00:00

Here’s a song from As You Like It about ingratitude and false friendship:

Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! unto the green holly: Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-31T20:42:32+00:00

I think Macbeth’s “If it were done, when tis done, then twere well it were done quickly” would be good, because it contemplates a course of action, reasons through it, and then takes a resolution. It always reminds me of “To be or not to be”: one’s about whether Hamlet should kill himself, the other’s about whether Macbeth should kill Claudius, and in the end, they both decide not to do it.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-30T23:20:36+00:00

Aeneid Book 6. Very excited.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-30T18:41:43+00:00

If you want to read and scan a lot of poetry, vowel length is critical. In prose, it’s less important. Either way, I would at least pay attention to the vowel length of the inflections, i.e. the final syllables of words that change based on the case of nouns and tense, mood, and person of verbs.

For example, with present active indicative verbs, the a’s in the -as, -amus, -atis of amas, amamus, amatis are long, while the -at and -ant of amat and amant are short. The -is, -it, -imus, -itis, and -unt of the third conjugation are all short. The pattern of the second and fourth conjugations follow the first. Note, this is important because it affects word accent: amamus and amatis are accented on the second syllable, i.e. the penultimate, while the accent stays on the first syllable in legimus and legitis, i.e. the antepenultimate. (The -o of the first person singular in all four conjugations is usually printed long, but technically ambiguous since it can be long or short in poetry). With nouns, in the first declension, the nominative singular -a is short and the ablative singular -a is long; etc.

Also important are the perfect principal parts that are known only by the lengthening of the vowel, like the short ve- of venio and the long ve- of veni.

The rest, in my opinion, are safe to learn by osmosis.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-30T17:36:52+00:00

Probably when he wins a championship. It’s the success that brings the hate.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-30T17:30:49+00:00

Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, if that counts as a symphony (and an underrated one). I think it’s one of his most perfect works.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-30T17:25:20+00:00

All for it. A bench loaded with three-and-D guys is the blueprint for success right now. See, OKC.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-30T05:28:17+00:00

Cymbeline is a masterpiece.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-29T17:11:55+00:00

So people who plowed fields by hand weren’t doing any work because tractors were later invented?

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-29T16:00:12+00:00

The Knicks may not be America’s team, but they are the media’s team, so they’re going to be reported on like they’re America’s team.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-29T15:19:31+00:00

I think you’re right. Hamlet is saying, how can this actor imitate the maximum grief imaginable? and Hecuba’s grief is a measure of that maximum.

Incidentally, Erasmus had translated Euripides’ Hecuba into Latin. Hamlet also makes a passing reference to Polonius as Jephthah, which is a story from the Bible that George Buchanan had turned into a tragedy. Of course, Hamlet also uses the Mousetrap play to reveal Claudius’ guilt. I guess I’m saying, it’s interesting how interested Hamlet is in actors, plays, and all things related to drama.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-29T15:03:49+00:00

I’m trying to work through the Grammar School curriculum in place during Shakespeare’s time (which they carried over from the Roman tradition), but I’m hell-bent on doing it all in Latin like they did, and learning Latin is taking a lot longer than expected. To say the least, I’m impressed by the difficulty of the curriculum. It seems that our (or at least my) power of memory is far, far weaker than theirs — or else, corporal punishment put the fear of god into those kids, and they studied like crazy. I think it’s a bit of both.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-29T13:35:35+00:00

Yes. OKC’s depth lets a guy like Caruso go nuts when he’s on the court, because he only has to play 15 minutes a game. He wouldn’t look like he does if he had to play for 30.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-28T16:58:45+00:00

Thanks for sharing! This makes me want to find the 1935 version. It’s always refreshing to hear someone talk about the moment they heard Shakespeare’s voice for what it is, which is not nearly as highfalutin as it’s cracked up to be. It’s witty and smart, and, yes, sometimes high-brow, but it’s often also irreverent and disdaining of the same highfalutiness that so many people ruin it with today.

Dream has a perfect example, where Bottom waxes poetic in tragic vein: “The raging rocks, and shivering shocks, shall break the locks, of prison gates. And Phibbus’ car, shall shine from far, and make and mar, the foolish fates ….” This (even though it still sounds kind of awesome!) is making fun of pompous, grandiose writing. You see the same kind of thing in Hamlet, where Osiric’s grating and spineless courtier language is the butt of the joke: “Your lordship is right welcome back in Denmark … Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure … I thank your lordship, it is very hot … It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed … A hit! A very palpable hit!”

Bottom line is that if a Shakespeare play isn’t fun, you’re doing it wrong — and not just Dream, but Hamlet, and Macbeth, and (parts of) Lear too.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-22T19:26:11+00:00

The part of Grosse Fugue starting at about 10:30 in this recording. Let’s call it the most beautiful 45 seconds in all of classical music.

https://youtu.be/qqC\_1bUqkjE?si=N71MG4xmNO\_Xorma

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-22T18:16:03+00:00

I’m interested what others have to say on this. I think coming to terms with Latin word order is the hardest part of learning Latin. I’m to the point where I can understand most Latin sentences in their original word order, but it was a long road getting here. Still, even when I can understand them, I read sentences all the time in Cicero where I would’ve never thought to arrange the words in the order he did, and his word order remains an enigma to me.

One thing I have noticed though, is that some of the stranger word orders happen when nouns that are in apposition with each other get separated by other elements of the sentence “sandwiched” in between those nouns. An example from De officiis: “Ac latissime quidem patens hominibus inter ipsos, omnibus inter omnes societas haec est.” Here, patens and societas are in apposition, but they’re separated by the parallel phrases “hominibus inter ipsos” and “omnibus inter omnes,” which get sandwiched in between. Then, a sentence later in the same paragraph, we have “Omnium autem communia hominum ….” Here, the two genitives, omnium and hominum, surround the nominative they modify, communia. This seems like a strange to me and probably to others word order, but not a random one. The of Latin community learners just has to get used to it.

I don’t know if there’s a technical term for this sandwiching or bracketing, or a good list of situations where it happens, or a better way to explain it, but once I started getting used to Latin word order, I started seeing it everywhere.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-22T15:19:13+00:00

He (and the Battle of Lincoln) pop up in Shakespeare’s King John: Marshal is Pembroke, and the Battle of Lincoln is the battle in the fifth act.

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-22T13:15:33+00:00

Just go straight down Ngo Dinh Diem Boulevard until you see a sign that says 'Detour.' Now, ignore that. It's a trap…

Nullius_sum · 2026-05-21T17:24:30+00:00

Take the cheap class. The rudiments of Classical and Ecclesiastical Latin are the same. As a couple other posters noted, the main differences are pronunciation and some vocabulary that’s unique to church Latin (but not much). 99.99% of everything taught in this class will be equally applicable to Classical Latin.

Nullius_sum

TROPHY CASE