Last week, we “assailed” the problems of Shakespeare and how its puzzling construction is actually the key to translating many of its parts into multiple purposes. As a solution, we proposed reading the plays aloud and following the waves of unstressed and stressed syllables to draw emotion from the words on the page. This week, we continue with three soliloquies that unwind character and plot (in both of those keys of acting: motivation and reality).
The first pair may exist to compare and contrast. Perhaps Shakespeare knew that the crime of regicide was a little too close to reality for his benefactor King James I. So the Bard wisely wrote a pair of speeches that reflect the “before” and “after” of the crime. Act I, Scene VII opens with Macbeth not quite convinced that he can “do the deed” to King Duncan. While not as neatly coiled as Lady Macbeth's “unsex me here” from Scene V, Macbeth is weighing the consequences and turning his search into the depths of himself to accomplish this heinous task. In the end, we only see blood and that is damaging enough.
After decades of persecution culminated in the appointment of James I in 1603, the Catholics were split into factions over this decision. James, I was actually more moderate than his predecessors, but the aftereffects of the Protestant Reformation in the previous century were unleashing unrest throughout Europe. On November 4, 1605, 36 barrels of gunpowder were discovered under the protection of the revolutionary Guy Fawkes. Fawkes and his co-conspirators were planning on blowing up the House of Lords as they were preparing for the famed “King's Speech” from James I the next day. While the play is likely first performed in 1606, well after the plotters were drawn, quartered, and hung, there is still the possibility that the famed Gunpowder Plot was heavy on the minds of those who saw the play - especially the King.
Macbeth in the first part of Scene VII opens with hope and faulty logic. Like a prayer, he wishes it to be done quickly and that it would perhaps end the rift and heal the growing chasm of the surrounding nations. At risk first, is Macbeth's “fate” when he says “we'd jump to the life that come (7). Is he violating the “Divine Right of Kings” where the King is appointed by God and everyone else all the way down the hierarchy is ascending at the king's behest to become closer to the deity? Furthermore, who could say the newly anointed Macbeth would not instantly be a target for the same plot? When “fate” is at risk, Macbeth weighs his options and doubt begins to tip the scale. His language is coded (“bloody instructions” (9) is the euphemism for murder and ties him to Lady Macbeth) and symbolic (“poisoned chalice” (11) refers to taking the crown). As Macbeth strangely talks himself out of the merits of this crime, to us he seems more human than before and we can see that beneath his blinding ambition is a shred of decency.
Now we leap ahead to Act II, Scene II, where Macbeth flatly tells his wife, “I have done the deed. Didst thou hear a noise?” (18) Needless to say Macbeth is falling apart, the fabric of his disguise to the world is tearing away. The doubt which interrupted his rationalization in Act I, Scene VII has turned into guilt. As both his voice and the voice in his head (his conscience) wrestle with this, his ambition feels more like damnation. With Lady Macbeth trying to be the ballast and insert logic into this awful crime, Macbeth swerves a series of replies where cries of “sleep” and “murder” are as Lady Macbeth so sinisterly puts it “lodged together (36).” As he listened to them say their prayers with his “hangman's hands (38),” he could not say Amen. Then, Macbeth repeats this word too. “Still it cried 'Sleep no more!” to all the house (54)” and now Macbeth will sleep no more. This is one of the places where the statements are not designed to make sense. The clamor of Macbeth's brain is spilling out on the page. As he struggles to hold it together, it leaves you feeling like his entire life after the prophecy of the Weird Sisters has been one phantasmagorical dream that which he will never escape. We have seen ambition change him instantly. His desires mask the acrid taste of murder and cloud his judgment to the point that his hand will not only never be clean - but turn the seas red.
Once Macbeth has spun out of control, Shakespeare brings in a strange piece of “comic relief.” The knocking that kept interrupting before (“How is 't with me when every noise appalls me? (76)”) now announces the entrance of the chilling night porter. Still drunk from the party before, for 19 lines of free verse, the porter is exclusively addressing us. His menace is not misplaced. Like Macbeth, he too does not like the knocking. However, it feels so much more distant that he jokes about being at the gates of Hell (later recanted more comedically “But this place is too cold for hell.” (15-16) While subsumed as “porter of hell gate.” (2) the porter gives three frightening invitations. “Here's a farmer that hanged himself on th' expectation of plenty (5),” addresses Macbeth's ambition. “Here's an equivocator...who committed treason enough for God's sake yet could not equivocate to heaven (8-11)” ties Macbeth's calloused reasoning with the “equivocator” Jesuit priest Henry Garnet (also known as “the Farmer”) who despite appearing as one of King James I's most ardent supporters - carried the knowledge of the plot with him. Finally, “here's an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose” (14) is acknowledging both Macbeth's backhanded theft of the crown and how his outward appearance does not match what is within. To wit, the porter ends his “devil-porter” inhabitation with “Here you may roast your goose” (15) which when we trade idioms becomes “your goose is cooked” traditionally known as being caught red-handed.
Over three speeches that sail by at the rapid pace of Shakespearean acting, we have been left with so much to unearth. The outer-level actions as they thread the main plot together barely reveal how several layers deeper, The Scottish Play is ripe for interpretation and use the gamut of emotions to communicate the waves of tumult both within our main characters and those they are unleashing upon the world at large.
Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
NEW MUSIC This Week
JONAS BROTHERS - The Album [LP/CD](Jonas Brothers Recordings/Republic)
While it is a step forward to borrow heavily from classic 70s radio Pop ("Wings" cleverly unpins their average writing with clavinet, electric piano, and synth lines) and 80s radio Pop ("Waffle House" and its Kenny Loggins-esque chorus), the weight of their songs has never changed. And likely never will.
ISLAND OF LOVE [LP/CD](Third Man/The Orchard)
Third Man Records first British signing Island of Love, is a London band that sounds far closer to the AmerIndie of the late Eighties. On their original single "Songs of Love," they offered Bob Mould-ian slab of sadness with squealing guitar. For their album-length debut, they crank up Karim Newble and Linus Munch's axes until they rage like 80's cowpunk (the clarion-call lick on "I've Got A Secret." It might be messy with squalls of notes here and sweet knee-weakening string bends in others, but it is a glorious noise.
ALISON GOLDFRAPP - The Love Invention [LP/CD](Skint)
To her credit, Alison Goldfrapp's solo album feels like it has been a long time coming. "The Love Invention" rejoins the same Synth/Disco sound of the old group with new Disco-led (Jessie Ware, Roisin Murphy) style Dance Music. The difference is that unlike Ware's new album ("That! Feels Good!"), Goldfrapp lets her songs propel you to the dancefloor with their sleek building/looping grooves. "Digging Deeper" and "So Hard So Hot" surprisingly tick the boxes of classic Disco, the new love of House, and even a toned-down EDM.
Reissues This Week
DAFT PUNK - Random Access Memories [2LP/2CD](Daft Life/Sony Legacy)
On their 10th anniversary edition, Daft Punk expands the vision of their classic Grammy-winning album. As one of the best-engineered, produced, and mixed albums of all time, it is fantastic to finally get the opportunity to hear demos and outtakes that demonstrate how they put it all together. Not only does the album get better and better with age, it still puts most Dance Pop to shame.
BOW WOW WOW - I Want Candy [LP](Music on Vinyl NED)
Created out of the post-Pistols/compete-with Adam Ant flurry of Malcolm McLaren, it was Britain's Bow Wow Wow that saw that big Burundi Beat he was obsessed with (kind of) breakthrough. Early Adam Ant/Adam & The Ants were closer to Post-Punk ("Physical," "Car Trouble" and "Zerox" are still great singles from this era). So, Ant asked McLaren to manage him. McLaren responded by swiping Dave Barbarossa, Matthew Ashman, and Leigh Gorman for his new creation. McLaren was convinced that his interest in tribal rhythms would be the next big thing. However, Adam Ant struck first with July 1980's "Kings of the Wild Frontier." While it was not a hit, Ant's striking looks and new videos (funded by his new home at CBS) helped him establish the first beachhead.
After six months as a band with no singer, Barbarossa, Ashman, and Gorman were told by McLaren that he had found one. She turned out to be the 13-year-old Annabella Lwin who sang along with the radio every Saturday morning at dry cleaners. (A second singer was added named "Lieutenant Lush." He did not last long. So, he reinvented himself as Boy George). Signed to EMI about the moment that Adam and The Ants were peaking with "Kings" at around #48, Bow Wow Wow entered the scene with the first-ever cassette single "C-30 C-60 C-90 Go!" Immediately, Bow Wow Wow courted controversy as their opening statement advocated home taping. This pushed their single to #34 and greenlighted a cassette-only debut in "Your Cassette Pet." This provocation went too far as audiences quickly discovered a very adult-sounding band with a 14-year-old lead singer. When they moved to RCA, Lwin's nude appearance (masked of course) on the artistic cover of their first album in 1981 ("See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah! City All Over, Go Ape Crazy!") opened up an investigation by Scotland Yard.
Ah, but it was heated battle. Adam and The Ants became the Big Thing in 1981 with 4 #1 hits. Bow Wow Wow would score their first Top 10 single in January 1982 ("Go Wild In The Country").
Adam and the Ants were now starting to crossover to American audiences thanks to their videos on MTV. Yet, Adam disbanded them to go solo. So with this interregnum, McLaren and Bow Wow Wow decamped to Miami, Florida with Joan Jett producer Kenny Laguna fresh from the smash hit Arrows cover "I Love Rock N'Roll." When he suggested the band cover a Strangeloves garage classic with the Burundi Beat in place of its Bo Diddley beat, it seemed like a match. When Annabella Lwin walked out of the waves of the ocean in its video on MTV, Bow Wow Wow was crowned the new sensation. RCA rushed to turn this into an album and by the summer of 1982. "I Want Candy" combines their best early singles.
