CHESMAYNE

Midi: Caffeine

 

Shakespeare

All the World’s a Stage: An artistic rendering with references to all 38 or Shakespeare's plays!  Artist: James C. Christenson.  Pieces: 1500.  Size: 24" x 33". 

 

Chess in Shakespeare Link

He was not of any age, but for all time (to the memory of Shakespeare).  Chess is mentioned in…

01 The Taming of the Shrew. 

02 KI John. 

03 KI Lear and in

04 The Tempest (Ferdinand and Miranda play a game). 

  

Left: Golden Hamlet.   Right: Black Hamlet. 

William Shakespeare (1564-1614).   He moved to London around 1590 and acted, wrote plays and became part owner of ‘The Globe Theatre’.   During his life he wrote more than 37 plays including tragedies, comedies and historical plays.   The Globe Theatre was built in 1599 but in 1613 was burnt down after the thatch was set alight by a cannon during a performance of Henry VIII.   The theatre was rebuilt with a tilted roof in 1614 but was closed down by the Puritans in 1642 and pulled down in 1644.   The New Globe Theatre opened in 1996 and gives audiences and actors the chance to see plays performed as they would have been in Shakespeare’s day.   Plays are performed in daylight, with speech and music, plus a noisy critical audience.   There is room for an audience of 1500+ including 500 standing making it the sixth largest theatre in London measuring 33ft high, 100ft in diameter and 300ft in circumference.   Many of his plays have been adapted for film and TV.   He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564.   His parents called him William but he has acquired the nickname ‘The Bard of Avon’.   There have been 60 versions of his most famous play ‘Hamlet’.   Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Mary Pickford starred in ‘The Taming Of The Shrew’.   A Hollywood version of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was produced in 1935 (with James Cagney the screen gangster playing a role).   Sir Laurence Olivier appeared in ‘Henry V’ (1944), ‘Hamlet’ (1948) for which he won an Oscar and in ‘Richard-III’ in 1955.  ‘Forbidden Planet’ was really ‘The Tempest’ in a futuristic setting (1956).  ‘West Side Story’ appeared in 1961 (which is really the story of ‘Romeo and Juliet’) - a tale of two gangs on the streets of New York and the unexpected romance that develops between a girl from one gang and a boy from another.   ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ was made in 1993.  

 

Left: Indigo Hamlet.   Right: Blue Hamlet

“When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder that such trivial people should muse and thunder, in such lovely language”. 

Shakespeare’s Richard II was banned for political reasons.   In several eastern European countries during the 1940s and 1950s, Richard III and Macbeth could not be performed because they ended in rejoicing at the killing of tyrants.   Richard II begins with all the oppressive, humid menace of a storm about to break.   The principal allies, antagonists and neutrals are all cousins, brothers and uncles, and between them, behind the splendors of court ceremony, they prepare to shed each other’s blood.  All the combatants are intimately, almost incestiously acquainted.   Characters are victims, hunters, political operators, or allegorical figures.   The play functions as dramatized poetry.   The father figures (Richard II’s uncles, the senior nobles) uphold the power structure around him.   Maturity comes to him, as it does to a lot of people, only with a sense of failure, with the feeling that power, and the privilege of being able to take the initiative, has begun to slip away, and with the realization that his life had been not so much a crime as a mistake.   In summary, this play is an adventure, a journey of the mind, a discovery of other ages, other countries, other people, other minds. 

Shy Hamlet

 

CHESS IN SHAKESPEARE

by Bill Wall

William Shakespeare must have been a chess fanatic.    He probably played chess around the Globe.   Here are some hints in Shakespeare’s works that he was a true chess fan - a bard of the board. 

A horse! A horse!   My kingdom for a horse!  KING RICHARD Act 5, Scene 4. 

And I have horse will follow where the game makes way.  TITUS ANDRONICUS Act 2, Scene 2. 

Was that the king that spurred his horse so hard?  LOVE’S LABORS LOST, Act 4, Scene 1.

I have his horse.   TWELFTH NIGHT, Act 3, Scene 4. 

Give me another horse.   KING RICHARD III, Act 5, Scene 3 (must have been playing tandem chess). 

Let my horse have his due.   KING HENRY V, Act 3, Scene 7. 

So, the good horse is mine.   CORIOLANUS, Act 1, Scene 4. 

My day’s delight is past, my horse is gone.  JULIUS CAESAR, Act 5, Scene 3. 

The rascal hath removed my horse.  FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV, Act 2, Scene 2. 

O, for a horse with wings.  CYMBELINE, Act 3, Scene 2.

Are the knights ready to begin their triumph?  PERICLE, Act 2, Scene 2. 

A man of fire-new words, fashions own knight.  LOVE’S LABOR’S LOST, Act 1, Scene 1. 

A wandering knight?  A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, Act 1, Scene 2. 

Great shouts within and all cry ‘The mean knight!’  PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE, Act 2, Scene 2.

Great is the rumor of this dreadful knight.  1 KING HENRY VI, Act 2, Scene 3. 

Which God defends a knight should violate.  KING RICHARD II, Act 1, Scene 3. 

I am undone!   The knight is here.  THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act 4, Scene 4. 

I pawn’d thee none.  2 KING HENRY IV, Act 4, Scene 2.

Have I not pawn’d to you my majesty?  KING JOHN, Act 3, Scene 1. 

My life I never held but as a pawn.   KING LEAR, Act 1, Scene 1. 

I dare thereupon pawn... CYMBELINE, Act 1, Scene 4. 

The bishop will be overborne by thee.   I KING HENRY VI, Act 5, Scene 1. 

I’ll send some bishop to entreat.  2 KING HENRY VI, Act 4, Scene 4. 

What says my bully rook?   THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Act 1, Scene 3. 

What is this castle call’d that stands hard by?   KING HENRY V, Act 4, Scene 7. 

There stands the castle.   KING RICHARD, Act 2, Scene 3. 

It was his queen, his queen!  CYMBELINE, Act 1, Scene 3. 

Queen of queens, how far dost thou excel?   LOVE’S LABORS LOST, Act 4, Scene 3. 

Come not near our queen.  A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, Act 2, Scene 2. 

The king and queen there!   THE TEMPEST, Act 4, Scene 1. 

Farewell, sweet queen.  TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act 3, Scene 1. 

Will take again your queen.  THE WINTER’S TALE, Act 1, Scene 2. 

That thou mayst be a queen, and check the world!   KING JOHN, Act 2, Scene 1. 

Come hither, come!  Come, come, and take a queen. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Act 5, Scene 2. 

Sir, your queen must overboard.   PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE, Act 2, Scene 5. 

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.  KING HENRY IV (Part II), Act 3, Scene 1. 

We’re lost a king of so much worth.  KING HENRY VI (Part I) Act 1, Scene 1. 

Take heed you dally not before your king.   KING RICHARD III, Act 2, Scene 1. 

The skipping king, he ambles up and down.  KING HENRY IV (Part I). 

I’ll move the king.  CYMBELINE, Act 1, Scene 5. 

Why, then, we’ll make exchange; here, take you this.   THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONICA, Act 2, Scene 2. 

This may gall him with some check.  OTHELLO, Act 1, Scene 1. 

We’ll draw.   ROMEO AND JULIET, Act 1, Scene 1. 

Is true as steel; leave you your power to draw.  A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Act 2, Scene 1. 

To see him every hour, to sit and draw.   ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, Act 1, Scene 1. 

No mates for you.  THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, Act 1, Scene 1. 

My mate that’s never to be found again.  THE WINTER’S TALE, Act 5, Scene 3. 

To be disgraced by an inkhorn mate.  1 KING HENRY VI, Act 1, Scene 2.  

Else one self mate.  KING LEAR, Act 4, Scene 3. 

You will draw both friend and foe.  HAMLET, Act 4, Scene 5. 

What two bishops were those that went on each side of the queen?   KING HENRY VIII, Act 4, Scene 1. 

He thinks, nay, with all confidence he swears, As he had seen’t, or been an instrument to vice you to’t, that you have toucht his queen forbiddenly.   THE WINTER’s TALE, Act 1, Scene 2. 

My life I never held but as a pawn to wage against thine enemies; nor fear to lose it, thy safety being the motive.   KING LEAR, Act 1, Scene 1. 

The fashion of these times, where none will sweat but for promotion.  AS YOU LIKE IT, Act 2, Scene 3. 

I would allow him odds.   KING RICHARD THE SECOND, Act 1, Scene 1. 

And check was the reward of valor.   KING HENRY IV (Part II), Act 4, Scene 3. 

Where’s the master?   Play the men.   THE TEMPEST, Act 1, Scene 1. 

My lord, your son drew my master.   CYMBELINE, Act 1, Scene 1. 

A woman master.   LOVE’S LABORS LOST, Act 1, Scene 2. 

His hour is almost past.   THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act 2, Scene 5. 

Then with the losers let it sympathize, for nothing can seem foul to those that win.   KING HENRY IV (Part I), Act 5, Scene 1. 

How fares the king?   THE TEMPEST, Act 5, Scene 1. 

Sweet lord, you play me false.   For a score of kingdoms you should wrangle, and I would call it, fair play.   (Miranda playing Ferdinand in chess) THE TEMPEST, Act 5, Scene 1.