Quill After Midnight

Night watchman
I must admit that my first impression of the William Shakespeare action figure was - what is all the big deal.  I even have a background in Shakespeare acting - though I don't have a job with that training. But if you look at the William Shakespeare action figure - even though he has a scroll and quiil - your first reaction is what is all the fuss for?

Narrator
As the narrator of this podcast episode, my suggestion is to look at the history of the character behind the William Shakespeare action figure, complete with quill.  Do you have any comments, Mr. Shakespeare. I would be surprised if you didn't.

English Shakespeare
Yes gentlemen, if you visit the city of Stratford-upon-Avon in England today, the first thing you’ll probably hear is that I was born in 1564. We don’t actually know the exact day, but we do know that I was baptized on April 26th at Holy Trinity Church. Since baptisms usually happened a few days after birth, tradition has settled on April 23rd — St. George’s Day — as my birthday. A fitting coincidence, since St. George is England’s patron saint and many individuals said during an after my life that Iwould become England’s greatest poet.

Night watchmen
Mr. Shakespeare, I am from the State of Mississippi in the United States, and am currently employed as a night watchmen in this toy museum. Could you tell us about YOUR background in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Shakespeare
Certainly. I was the son of John Shakespeare, a glove maker and part-time wool dealer who rose to become an alderman in the town, and Mary Arden, who came from a well-off farming family.  My parents gave me a household connected both to trade and to old Warwickshire landowners.

Night watchman
I can't believe I'm talking to a toy - especially such a small toy - but I guess it isn't every day that you get a chance to talk to the world's greatest writer - even if it is an action figure. Well I might as well ask you - you obviously know that you are very small and stature - but what seems to bother you the most? 

Shakespeare
Ah, let's view things in perspective one must realize that after midnight, the Toy Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Toys and Childhood Artifacts
is a very opinionated place.
The teddy bear has thoughts about immigration.
The race cars debate who’s the fastest.
And down one quiet aisle,
between a plastic model of the Globe Theatre
and a bucket of foam swords,
stands a small figure in black.
Black doublet.
White ruff.
Quill pen forever poised above a tiny scroll.
And my name tag reads:
“William Shakespeare Action Figure
c. 2010 – Plastic, Paint, and a Suspiciously Confident Smirk.”
Shakespeare
Good even, kind sir.
You may put “suspiciously confident smirk” in the catalogue if you like,
but ’twas crafted by a very cheap mould.

Transcript

Greensleeves

Welcome to Celebrate Creativity and Conversations with Toys. This episode is the first of three episodes about the greatest writer in the English language - perhaps in ANY language - William Shakespeare. But this William Shakespeare is an actual action figure, and would more likely be found in a toy museum rather than a theater. I must admit By the way, for this series of conversation with toys, this and the following two episodes will begin and end with my version of a melody often associated with Queen Elizabeth, as well as William Shakespeare - Green sleeves

And yes, looking back through the transcript for the previous episode, I saw that I had mentioned that this episode would be about the bobble head figure of Edgar Allan Poe. But I decided to go chronologically and have the episodes about William Shakespeare first - then Edgar Poe.  Sorry if that caused any inconvenience.

As usual, let me get the disclaimer out-of-the-way.

This podcast is a dramatization that blends historical research with fiction, satire, and imagined conversations between people, toys, and other objects. It is not a documentary and not professional advice of any kind. No character, toy, product, or brand depicted in this podcast is authorized by, endorsed by, or officially affiliated with any company, manufacturer, museum, or organization; references to specific names are for storytelling only and do not imply sponsorship or approval.

I’m George Bartley… now let’s have some fun.

This and the following two episodes deal with a relatively small toy - the William Shakespeare action figure, complete with quill. And yes the William Shakespeare action big hero is a real thing! But Mr. Shakespeare is a giant in the literary world, through through his genius at using the alphabet portrayed in the last two episodes. So this podcast will have three episodes dealing with William Shakespeare because of his importance to the English language and creativity - still fully realizing that's not enough.  Let's speak first to the night watchmen. - Mr. Smith, what was your first impression of the William Shakespeare action figure?

Night watchman
I must admit that my first impression of the William Shakespeare action figure was - what is all the big deal.  I even have a background in Shakespeare acting - though I don't have a job with that training. But if you look at the William Shakespeare action figure - even though he has a scroll and quiil - your first reaction is what is all the fuss for?

Narrator
As the narrator of this podcast episode, my suggestion is to look at the history of the character behind the William Shakespeare action figure, complete with quill.  Do you have any comments, Mr. Shakespeare. I would be surprised if you didn't.

English Shakespeare
Yes gentlemen, if you visit the city of Stratford-upon-Avon in England today, the first thing you’ll probably hear is that I was born in 1564. We don’t actually know the exact day, but we do know that I was baptized on April 26th at Holy Trinity Church. Since baptisms usually happened a few days after birth, tradition has settled on April 23rd — St. George’s Day — as my birthday. A fitting coincidence, since St. George is England’s patron saint and many individuals said during an after my life that Iwould become England’s greatest poet.

Night watchmen
Mr. Shakespeare, I am from the State of Mississippi in the United States, and am currently employed as a night watchmen in this toy museum. Could you tell us about YOUR background in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Shakespeare
Certainly. I was the son of John Shakespeare, a glove maker and part-time wool dealer who rose to become an alderman in the town, and Mary Arden, who came from a well-off farming family.  My parents gave me a household connected both to trade and to old Warwickshire landowners.

Night watchman
I can't believe I'm talking to a toy - especially such a small toy - but I guess it isn't every day that you get a chance to talk to the world's greatest writer - even if it is an action figure. Well I might as well ask you - you obviously know that you are very small and stature - but what seems to bother you the most? 

Shakespeare
Ah, let's view things in perspective one must realize that after midnight, the Toy Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Toys and Childhood Artifacts
is a very opinionated place.
The teddy bear has thoughts about immigration.
The race cars debate who’s the fastest.
And down one quiet aisle,
between a plastic model of the Globe Theatre
and a bucket of foam swords,
stands a small figure in black.
Black doublet.
White ruff.
Quill pen forever poised above a tiny scroll.
And my name tag reads:
“William Shakespeare Action Figure
c. 2010 – Plastic, Paint, and a Suspiciously Confident Smirk.”
Shakespeare
Good even, kind sir.
You may put “suspiciously confident smirk” in the catalogue if you like,
but ’twas crafted by a very cheap mould.

NARRATOR (CHUCKLING):
Sorry, Will.
Didn’t mean to insult the craftsmanship or your appearance.

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE:
Oh, the craftsmanship is the least of my worries.
I’ve survived four centuries of criticism;
I can survive a bad paint job.
What stings is when people decide
I simply sprang from the stage fully formed.
No rough drafts.
No homework.
Just “Ta-da, here’s Hamlet.”

NARRATOR (LEANING IN):
You’re saying you weren’t born quoting “To be, or not to be”?

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE (SNORTS):
What do you say?
When I was twelve,
my most famous line was probably,
“Master, may I please go outside? My hand is cramping.”

NARRATOR:
Let me guess.
School?

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE (BRIGHTENING, TEACHER MODE CREEPING IN):
Aye.
If you truly wish to understand my plays,
you must first visit my schoolroom.
Not a drama school.
Not a writer’s workshop.
A grammar school.
A rhetoric boot camp
in Stratford-upon-Avon.

NARRATOR (PAINTING THE PICTURE):
So…
replace This glass display case
with a long, dark wooden room.
Take away the security cameras,
add a stern schoolmaster,
a Latin textbook,
and about forty restless boys
who have been here since six o’clock in the morning and will be here six days every week.

Shakespeare
Yes all our classes were conducted in Latin.
Now Picture me there.
A town boy.
Son of a glove-maker.
At one end of the hall,
a large window.
At the other,
the schoolmaster with a rod that could silence an army.

We begin with grammar.
Nouns and verbs.
Endings and endings and more endings.
Latin prayers.
Latin fables.
Copying out lines until your wrist aches.

But that is only the doorway.

NARRATOR (GENTLY PROMPTING):
And beyond the doorway… rhetoric?

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE (PLEASED):
Just so.
When the master decides you are ready,
he stops asking only,
“What does this sentence mean?”
He starts asking,
“How does this sentence work?”
Why this word and not that one?
Why this order and not another?
Why does Cicero sound like a trumpet,
and another writer like a sleep remedy?
That, my friend,
is rhetoric—
the art of building words
so they move people.

NARRATOR:
So little William Shakespeare
spent his childhood learning
how to argue?

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE (LIGHTLY):
To argue.
To arrange.
To decorate.
To deliver.

In Latin, of course.
The master would hand us a short passage—
a speech, a story, a proverb—
and then the real work began.

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE (TEACHER MODE):
Allow me to show you
three tricks of that trade
that followed me all the way
from the school desk
to the stage.

NARRATOR (ASIDE TO LISTENER):
Careful.
When the action figure unrolls the scroll,
it usually means there’s homework.

SHAKESPEARE:
First: antithesis.

The master would say,
“William, write me a sentence in Latin
that contrasts two things.
Not this… but that.”

So I might write,
“Not the lazy boy, but the diligent one
deserves praise.”
You feel the little seesaw, do you not?
Lazy–diligent.
Not this–but that.
Years later, on stage,
it turns into things like:

(LEANING IN, PERFORMER MODE)
“Some are born great,
some achieve greatness,
and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.”
Three kinds of greatness.
Side by side.
Balanced like scales.

NARRATOR (IMPRESSED):
So what sounds like a brilliant flourish
starts out as…
a homework problem.

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE (AMUSED):
Many brilliant flourishes
begin as homework problems.
And what sounds like a beautiful language started out as individual letters of the alphabet.

Block A
On behalf of the alphabet blocks here and the first letter in the alphabet. I humbly thank you

SHAKESPEARE 
Second: anaphora.

That is the fancy name
for repeating the same word or phrase
at the start of several lines.

The Schoolmaster might say,
“Take one idea.
Begin three sentences with the same phrase.
Make each sentence stronger than the last.”
So a boy writes,
“I fear failure.
I fear shame.
I fear the master’s rod.”

Crude, perhaps,
but the pattern is in place.

Now listen to a grown man
standing over the body of Julius Caesar.

(LOWER, RICHER, PERFORMER MODE)
“And Brutus is an honourable man.”
Again.
“And Brutus is an honourable man.”
Again.
Again.
Soon the words turn on themselves.
What sounded like praise
becomes a knife.
That is anaphora.
Repetition that quietly
changes the meaning.

NARRATOR (SOFTLY):
And the schoolboys didn’t just read this.
They had to say it.

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE:
Oh yes.
We read.
We copied.
We memorized.
We stood up in front of the room
and spoke our own little speeches aloud.

When you hear a Shakespeare character
moving a crowd,
you are hearing a boy from Stratford
who has already some what moved
a classroom full of other boys
with a trembling, practised voice.

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE:
The third trick has a longer name:
prosopopoeia.  pros-uh-puh-PEE-uh

It means giving speech
to someone—or something—
that does not usually speak.

Death.
Honour.
A city.
A season.

Block a
Or speaking on behalf of the rest of the alphabet blocks, pros-uh-puh-PEE-uh could refer to our conversations at night since no one expects us to converse.

Shakespeare
Precisely. That is an excellent example.
In my situation, the schoolmaster might say
“Write a short speech
as if you were Winter.
What would Winter say?”

So a boy begins,
“I am Winter.
I chase the leaves from the trees.
I drive men indoors.”
Clumsy, perhaps,
but the door has opened.
Now, years later,
on stage…

Ghosts speak.
Rome speaks.
Jealousy speaks.
In my sonnets,
even Time and Love
argue back and forth with me
like two very stubborn lawyers.

NARRATOR (GRINNING):
And in this museum,
toys speak.

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE (DEADPAN):
A perfect example.
Your night watchman asks for a quiet shift,
and instead he receives
a plastic playwright
teaching prosopopoeia
at two in the morning.

NARRATOR (LAUGHING):
I’ve had worse.

NARRATOR (TO LISTENER):
All right, Will.
You’ve shown us your schoolroom tricks.
What should our listeners do with them?

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE (TEACHER MODE, FRIENDLY):
They may try a very small exercise.
Choose any character you like.
Perhaps a hero.
Perhaps a villain.
Perhaps a toy from your own childhood shelf.
Give that character
three little lines to say.
First, use antithesis.
“Not this… but that.”
“I am not X; I am Y.”

Second, repeat one phrase
at the start of each line—
that is anaphora.  Such as

Doubt thou the stars are fire; 
Doubt that the sun doth move
And Third, if you feel brave,
let something that cannot speak
borrow your voice for a moment.
A season.
A city.
A feeling.
A forgotten action figure.

There.
You have just done
the same kind of homework
that prepared me
to write speeches for kings
and fools
and star-cross’d lovers.

NARRATOR (GENTLY WRAPPING UP):
So when you hear a Shakespeare speech—
a king roaring before battle,
a young woman arguing for love,
a friend turning a mob
with nothing but words—

remember the boy in the schoolroom.

The long wooden desk.
The ink-stained fingers.
The master clapping for silence.
And somewhere in the back row,
a thin, dark-haired boy
testing out a new sentence,
a new pattern,
a new rhythm—

just another bit of schoolroom rhetoric
that, one day,
will bring a whole theatre to its feet.

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE (SOFTER, ALMOST TO HIMSELF):
To move a soul with language,
you must first learn
how language moves.
How the letters on your the faces on you alphabet blocks can form wonderful words and beautiful language

NARRATOR (LOW, CONTENT):
Good night, Will.

SHAKESPEARE ACTION FIGURE (LIGHTLY):
Good night, good night.
Parting is such sweet sorrow
that I shall say good night
till it be morrow.

NARRATOR (SMILING):
Ah, there it is.
The schoolboy
and the playwright
in the same line.

Sources Include:  Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare: A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying the Works of Shakespeare by Isaac Asimov, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom, Shakesfear and How to Cure It, an unpublished manuscript by Ralph Cohen, and ChatGPT four. 

Join celebrate creativity for the Second part of this very special three part series with the William Shakespeare action figure as it center

Thank you for listening to celebrate creativity.

Greensleeves, traditional, performed by George Bartley, Source: Fallingwater Dreams by George Bartley. License: Public Domain (composition) / Creative Commons (recording).