The notes on Genius suggest that this “confess thyself” is about admitting fault of some kind on the point of inquiry. Sure, fair play.
But – I cannot help but wonder about confession in the religious sense in a passage that is ABOUT the bible. There’s a lot of interesting exploration to be found in looking at the historical context of the Protestant/Catholic issues of the time.
It was illegal to be Catholic at this time but that doesn’t mean no one was Catholic nor that artifacts of Catholicism weren’t all over the Renaissance in England. This might be a really potent moment to look at through that lens.
I’ll put another question to thee.
At my reading, I made little categories for people to write down their responses. They were: Something I Liked, This Made Me Think About -, Thoughts About the Title and Questions.
I only got two pieces of feedback that weren’t useful and/or frustrating and they were both criticisms framed as questions. That is, they weren’t so much actual questions as a Jeopardy style re-phrasing – as in it’s actually an answer, not a genuine question. As in: “Why is this such a shitty question?”
So…next time – I’m leaving questions off my list. Or – I’ll keep it and then just immediately throw the responses in the garbage.
Could he dig without arms?
It would be very difficult. But I suppose it is possible. There are some people in this world who can do some rather extraordinary things without arms – why not digging too?
The Scripture says “Adam digged:”
I would love to see a translation of the Bible that had this quality of language. Like – sort of salt of the earth irreverent voices instead of the authoritative distancing quality it usually has.
I mean – I do not know my scripture but I was 100% sure that it did not say “Adam digged.” Turns out it’s usually translated as “till the earth” and nothing about that style of language makes me want to read it.
But a Gravedigger’s Bible?
I’d read that in a heartbeat.
How dost thou understand the Scripture?
Honestly, I really don’t.
Not well at all.
It doesn’t make much sense to me
And when I encounter it, it seems
Shocking that people have built their lives around such a weird book.
I mean – Bleak House, I’d understand.
I could treat Dickens as my scripture.
I could suggest that we all strive to be more like Esther Sommmerset or Mr. Jarndyce.
But the Scripture, scripture?
I don’t get it at all.
What, art a heathen?
Lightbulb! A heathen has its roots in the idea of one from the heath and one from the heath is godless (strictly speaking.) So when the witches plan to meet Macbeth on the HEATH – they are meeting him in a specifically godless place.
This makes me want to try my production of Macbeth again. The one we did when I was in grad school had a handful of the things I wanted but was not the show I was dreaming of. If I ever got it in my head to try again – this sense of the heath might play an interesting part. I think I’d find a way to show the Macbeths at a church of nature before surrendering to the darker forces of greed and the destruction of nature. My set designer made these stools for the banquet scene and they were the perfect metaphor for the lens on the play. They were a series of branches contained by an open wooden block. Free wood contained by domesticated wood. I wish we’d gotten better photos of that furniture. Or that I’d managed to grab one of the stools before they were returned to scrap.
They would be my starting point with a new version.
Why, he had none.
No coat of arms, sure, that’s one way to look at it – though it doesn’t seem the most obvious. The most obvious to me at least, would be his weapons. Adam had no weapons. Adam had no weapons because he did not need them. In Eden, there was no violence – at least not until the next generation made their way in. But there was no need of weapons before. In an idyllic peace – there are no arms, no weapons. And this almost makes me weep today, here in America, where yet another deadly mass shooting has ripped through our lives. And people hug their weapons close, they feel them so necessary, the world they imagine they need them for is so far from Eden.
He was the first that ever bore arms.
You just know this is a set up for a pun – even if you don’t know – you still probably know. Arms are such a ridiculously punnable thing.
Why does English do this? We have our arms, the very useful parts of our bodies, with those handy hands and connected by our supportive shoulders. But – weapons are also arms. Why – I have no idea. But the right to bear arms is not about the freedom to go around in a tank top. And there is even another meaning and that is a coat of arms – which is not a jacket made of body parts, don’t worry. But, according to Genius, this is the meaning the First Clown is aiming at here – because gentlemen have Coats of Arms.
My goodness English is such a weird language. Bless us.
Was he a gentleman?
This makes me want to do some investigation into gentlemen. Because that word has so many connotations. It could just mean man. Like a gentle man. A man.
Or a man of a particular class. And this is what I’m curious about. When did this happen? And why? And how?
And there is of course, my favorite sense of this gentleman situation that is exploiting that confusion – which is a scene from Mystery Team – wherein these three boys try to get into a Gentlemen’s Club in order to pursue their case. And they interpret this Gentlemen’s Club as a club for upper crust Englishmen and show up in top hats and monocles to try and get in. It is, of course, a strip club and the bouncer humors the young Gentlemen trying to pass in front of him. One of the boys just says, “England!”
I enjoy this clip so much that I may never hear the word Gentleman again without also thinking “England!” and “a folded up tracing of a hammerhead shark.” (You’ll have to watch the clip to get that bit.)
They hold up Adam’s profession.
Adam had a profession, I guess. But not Eve?
According to this speech, Adam gardened, dug ditches and a grave. Eve likely did some of this as well. At least the gardening. And probably more. I don’t know what was going on with those two.
I mean, I guess the story was that life was all just sitting around enjoying stuff until they ate that apple. And then Eve had to have a baby and Adam had to…uh…dig ditches? And then Adam got a profession while Eve had to look after those kids – And what was once a sensible division of labor got turned into some weird codified way of being – some ingrained rules about professionalism and male-ness along with sacrifice/punishment and femaleness?
I’d like to talk about Eve’s profession next time.
The Hamlet Project 