For BBC Radio, directed by Jeremy Mortimer, starring Michael Sheen, 1999.
Available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0563553642
Apparently the Second Quarto text: http://thehamletweblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/nineteen.html
Pronunciation of Aeneas: /εn'iεs/ (eh-NEE-es, no extra "s")
Pronunciation of gules: /gju:lz/
Pronunciation of couchèd: /'kaut∫εd/ (disyllabic)
Compare Other Interpretations:
Directed by George Rylands, 1961: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9TZkmlIlWo
Directed by Gerald Newman, 1961 (abridged): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCqjftJ4kvo
Directed by Howard Sackler, 1963: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCHNQSqIugg
Directed by Kenneth Branagh, 1992: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv1fO2VTT34
Directed by Kenneth Branagh, 1996: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Z-jfE0ew8
Directed by Neville Jason, 1997: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2z4qc2KTIQ
Directed by Clive Brill, 1999: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xllv9Q5A6ls
'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couchèd in the ominous horse,
Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous and damned light
To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks. Anon he finds him
Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command: unequal match'd,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide;
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword,
Which was declining on the milky head
Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood,
And like a neutral to his will and matter,
Did nothing.
But, as we often see, against some storm,
A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
The bold winds speechless and the orb below
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region, so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work;
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
On Mars's armour forged for proof eterne
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
Now falls on Priam.
Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,
In general synod 'take away her power;
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
As low as to the fiends!
But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen—
Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames
With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head
Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins,
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd,
'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have
pronounc'd:
But if the gods themselves did see her then
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
The instant burst of clamour that she made,
Unless things mortal move them not at all,
Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,
And passion in the gods.'
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Hamlet 2.2: The Player's Speech, the Death of Priam (Dir. Howard Sackler, 1963)by Aeschylus425 views
Seeing the West End run in Decemeber! Can't wait, Michael Sheen is so awesome.
MrLtMuldoon 4 months ago
Awesome.
twiwonder 5 months ago