Character Thursday: Berowne from Love's Labor's Lost

Hey, long time no see, Character Thursday! It has been a long time since I last made one. Now I must make another, because Berowne is just a very cute character, and very funny. I think he's the core interest of Love' Labor's Lost, Shakespeare's comedy.

David Tennant as Berowne

We first meet Berowne in the very first scene of the play, when the king proposes that he and his courtiers, Berowne included, should lead a solitary and studious life for three years. All of the king's friends agree – except for Berowne. He frankly says that it's impossible, useless, and boring. Yet, he signs the pact nonetheless. I can't forget his words while doing so:

“But I believe, although I seem so loath,
I am the last that will last keep his oath.”

Is he the last who keep it? Far from it. He falls in love with Rosaline. Now, I truly love how he rails about it like a madman, complaining that he shouldn't fall in love with such a plain lady. Rosaline is not beautiful, at least from his point of view, and he hates it that he should love her so much. Even the idea that he could fall in love enrages him.

“By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills sheep; it kills me, I a sheep: well proved again o' my side! I will not love: if I do, hang me; i' faith, I will not. O, but her eye,--by this light, but for her eye, I would not love her; yes, for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and lie in my throat. By heaven, I do love: and it hath taught me to rhyme and to be melancholy; and here is part of my rhyme, and here my melancholy. Well, she hath one o' my sonnets already: the clown bore it, the fool sent it, and the lady hath it: sweet clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady! By the world, I would not care a pin, if the other three were in.”

I find it very funny. Well, it doesn't matter much, though, since all his three friends fall in love with different ladies anyway. But the funny thing is how he mocks his friends (because he overhears their confessions of love while non of his friends know that he's in love as well). So below he haughtily says that all his friends have betrayed him because he is the only one that keeps his oath. 

“Not you to me, but I betray'd by you:
I, that am honest; I, that hold it sin
To break the vow I am engaged in;
I am betray'd, by keeping company
With men like men of inconstancy.
When shall you see me write a thing in rhyme?
Or groan for love? or spend a minute's time
In pruning me? When shall you hear that I
Will praise a hand, a foot, a face, an eye,
A gait, a state, a brow, a breast, a waist,
A leg, a limb?”

Overall, Berowne is a funny, witty guy. Very much a Shakespearean comic man. He reminds me of Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing, which I will feature one day without fail. He's a nice guy, but so frank and bold. Not even a king could stop him to speak his mind. That's another thing that I love from him. His excuses are infinite. Even his friends ask him to find a good excuse to betray their oath of not seeing women. He finds one, too, although for me it's still a shameful excuse. It's just a comedy anyway.

What I don't like, well. I don't like that he doesn't get his lady. :p

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Character Thursday

Adalah book blog hop di mana setiap blog memposting tokoh pilihan dalam buku yang sedang atau telah dibaca selama seminggu terakhir (judul atau genre buku bebas).

- Kalian bisa menjelaskan mengapa kalian suka/benci tokoh itu, sekilas kepribadian si tokoh, atau peranannya dalam keseluruhan kisah.

- Jangan lupa mencantumkan juga cover buku yang tokohnya kalian ambil.

- Kalau buku itu sudah difilmkan, kalian juga bisa mencantumkan foto si tokoh dalam film, atau foto aktor/aktris yang kalian anggap cocok dengan kepribadian si tokoh.

Syarat Mengikuti :

1. Follow blog Fanda Classiclit sebagai host, bisa lewat Google Friend Connect (GFC) atau sign up via e-mail (ada di sidebar paling kanan). Dengan follow blog ini, kalian akan selalu tahu setiap kali blog ini mengadakan Character Thursday Blog Hop.

2. Letakkan button Character Thursday Blog Hop di posting kalian atau di sidebar blog, supaya follower kalian juga bisa menemukan blog hop ini. Kodenya bisa diambil di kotak di button.

3. Buat posting dengan menyertakan copy-paste “Character Thursday” dan “Syarat Mengikuti” ke dalam postingmu.

3. Isikan link (URL) posting kalian ke Linky di bawah ini. Cantumkan nama dengan format: Nama blogger @ nama blog, misalnya: Fanda @ Fanda Classiclit.

4. Jangan lupa kunjungi blog-blog peserta lain, dan temukan tokoh-tokoh pilihan mereka. Dengan begini, wawasan kita akan bertambah juga dengan buku-buku baru yang menarik

Love's Labor's Lost: Cliffhanger, Anyone?

Love's Labor's Lost is one of the comedy plays of Shakespeare, and one of the earliest too. I read this as part of Let's Read Plays event, and have been enjoying it so much. But it's also different from other comedies I've read.

David Tennant as Berowne

First of all, the synopsis. Ferdinand, the king of Navarre, proposed an oath that he and his friends would dedicate 3 years for studying, during which time no woman should come to the court. Two of the king's friends, Longaville and Dumaine, hastily agreed and signed the pact, while Berowne stated that it wouldn't be wise. He also reminded the king that he should meet a lady anyway, namely, the daughter of the king of France. The king amended the pact, but still insisted upon the carrying out of it. Berowne, being a good friend to the king, signed it anyway. But he also added, “although I seem so loath,/I am the last that will last keep his oath.”

Well, the day after, the Princess of France came with her three ladies-in-waiting. The king paid her a visit (with his three friends too) and talked a bit about the matter of state. Just that? Well, it might seem so, but the friends of the king closed the meeting with inquiring Boyet (the Princess' man) about the who the ladies were.

Not long after, Berowne railed about his love for Rosaline, one of the Princess' ladies-in-waiting, and then he overheard how actually all of them had broken their oath (including the king, who was in love with the princess). Haha. It's honestly the funniest scene in the play. They concluded that it was wrong to propose such oath at the first place, and they would try to win the hands of their ladies.

Now, this play is different from Shakespeare's typical comedy – it doesn't end with a marriage (or some marriages). Also, there are Latin verses scattered here and there, making the play even less enjoyable for a commoner like myself. Some say that this play was not written for common people after all. It was for scholars or so.

One more thing. The end of this play is actually a cliffhanger. There's a lost play of Shakespeare entitled Love's Labor's Won, suspected to be the sequel of this play. It makes this play somewhat 'not final'. Any odea what Shakespeare might have written in the lost play? No, it's not like how it is in Doctor Who. 

Weekend Quote #40

“How well he's read, to reason against reading!”

Hitting two birds with one stone, I post this quote for the weekend. I take it from Shakespeare's comedy Love's Labor's Lost, which I'm trying to read for the #LRP event.

The context is very funny. Berowne, one of the king's friends, imparts his objection against studying with the king for three years with all its restrictions (including no meeting with any woman). He states so many reasons and excuses against it that the king at last says the line above.

Very much like poets, Shakespeare being one of them, to play with the same word within a line. It's like saying, “He knows everything against studying” or something like that. Berowne, I think, will be my favourite character in the play. He's so smart and fast with his tongue, and he's funny.

That's my quote for the weekend. Please share yours. 

Shakespeare and Me Challenge

So it's all about Shakespeare. For those who know me well enough outside this blog, they will certainly understand how 'many fathoms deep I am in love' with the Bard. He is amazing. Thus, I want to challenge myself to read all his works, which is not easy, since I don't really like historical plays. Anyway, here's the list of his works, stolen from some web pages.

In this very blog, I have read and reviewd some of his works, which I will sign and link to this post presently. For some others, I have read them, but not yet written the review, since it's not easy for me to review his plays. Come now, admit it. People get degrees for writing a decent review of his plays, right? (I exaggerate a bit, but you see my point.) I will just mark those plays and write a review later on. This post is just some sort of reminder that I have read this and not yet read that.

Let's do it then!

TRAGEDIES

Antony and Cleopatra

Coriolanus

Hamlet

Julius Caesar

King Lear

Macbeth

Othello

Romeo and Juliet

Timon of Athens

Titus Andronicus

HISTORIES

Henry IV, Part I

Henry IV, Part II

Henry V

Henry VI, Part I

Henry VI, Part II

Henry VI, Part III

Henry VIII

King John

Richard II

Richard III

COMEDIES

All's Well That Ends Well

As You Like It

The Comedy of Errors

Cymbeline

Love's Labo'r's Lost

Measure for Measure

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merchant of Venice

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Much Ado About Nothing

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

The Taming of the Shrew

The Tempest

Troilus and Cressida

Twelfth Night

Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Winter's Tale

POETRY

The Sonnets

A Lover's Complaint

The Rape of Lucrece

Venus and Adonis

Funeral Elegy by W.S.

The Secret Garden: Kids and Magic

I got this book from a newly-made literacy club (yes, we learn how to read) and it's a sort of assignment to read this book first. I'm quite okay with the idea of reading the book, since it's classic – sort of – and it's children literature. So, instead of reading each chapter each day, in which I hardly have the time and patience to do, I read them all when I have the time (sorry). No harm done, I hope.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a piece about family, children, friendship and nature. In the first chapter of the book, we meet the heroine, Mistress Mary, a spoiled child who used to have anything she wanted given her by her Indian servants. One day, the house where she lived was infected by cholera, in which all her family died and all her servants either died or fled. She was found by her father's colleagues and taken to her uncle's house, Misselthwaite Manor. There she actually had to learn her manner.

In that house, she couldn't expect everyone to do according to her liking. Instead, she had to learn to take care of herself. With no one to attend to her, she explored the garden of the Manor, hoping to find the secret garden everyone's talking about. She made friends with a red-breast robin, who at last showed her the key to the garden and the garden itself.

The garden, Dickon – a local boy, and Ben – a gardener, helped Mary to be a better child – compassionate, loving and unselfish – and it also helped Mary's cousin, Colin, to improve both physically and emotionally. Well, they even believe that there's Magic in the garden.

I truly love how the book is very easy but at the same time deep. I would recommend this book for kids from 7 y.o. It will help them to appreciate nature, to be considerate of others, and to be diligent.  

Weekend Quote #39

“All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”

Robinson Crusoe's line this week. I have just finished reading that book last week, therefore the beautiful words still dwell in my heart. Despite losing my phone, in which I put all the quotes I want to share, I remember this one, and I could find it, thankfully.

Robin, in his desolation, strangely felt satisfied in all respects and said he wouldn't want anything else (apart from some tools that could make his life even more easier). Instead of complaining about the things he didn't have, such as company, decent clothes, delicious dishes, and so on, he chose to be content with what he had and thanked God for it. It made his life more easy and joyful instead of miserable.

For me personally, it reminds me to be content with my primal needs, to be thankful for what I have and not to complain too much or to compare myself with others. It's interesting that Crusoe concludes the more thankful we are for what we have, the less likely we are to complain and to feel unhappy about our situation.

That's what I want to share this weekend. Waiting for your quotes, friends.  

LRP April Meme: Memorable Quote

“Words, words, words.” - Hamlet, William Shakespeare

That's what we read, right? Bunch of words, words and more words. Word after word, page after page, book after book. What makes a book interesting, though, is how much meaning we get from reading those book, how those words reflect and influence our minds.

Now, we are reading Shakespeare's comedies this month. Funnily enough, although tragedies sound more appropriate for quote hunting ground, Shakespeare's comedies contain a lot of them too. In fact, some of the most silly lines are the most beautiful when you take them out of their funny context.

As usual, some guiding questions:

• What's the context of the quote?
• What do you think it means for the character?
• What does it mean to you?

Thus, we will hunt for these things this month. Get as many as you can, put it in the linky, and share the experience with the other.