The Birthday Celebration
This year our chairman, Peter Davies welcomed a Mayor with a difference. Cherry Beath had not only acted in Shakespeare at school (she toured in Germany as Perdita in The Winter's Tale ) but was distantly related to Laurence Olivier. With this background it was no surprise that she had studied Dick Tahta's History of the Society before coming to our party and promised her support for our centenary project of the restoration of the 1864 Shakespeare Monument in the Dell in Victoria Park. She described herself as Bath's Champion for Culture and should be a helpful long-
Our lecturer this year was our own Tony Ryan and his subject "Henry VII: the play Shakespeare dared not write. He has kindly provided the following summary of his talk.
"Using coats of arms to designate historical figures and significant locations, Tony Ryan’s talk, Henry VII, The Play Shakespeare Dared Not Write, illustrated the passive roles the two shady figures Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, played as false Plantagenet heirs in Yorkist conspiracies to dethrone the victor of the Battle of Bosworth.
Few realise that Lambert Simnel was crowned in Dublin as ‘King Edward VI’ or that, in his name, an international force landed in the north of England to be defeated at the Battle of Eaststoke. Some years later, the Flemish born Perkin Warbeck found himself in Cork, where he was persuaded by Yorkist sympathisers that he was the Earl of Warwick, the only son of the Duke of Clarence, at the time a prisoner in the Tower of London since the age of 10.
Margaret Plantagenet, Dowager Duchess of Burgundy duped by Warbeck’s supporters, funded a second international army of invasion. It landed at Deal and was soon exterminated.
Following a futile invasion from Scotland, where he married a near relation of King James IV, Warbeck was persuaded to join a rebellion of Cornishmen. It failed; Warbeck was taken to London, tried and executed for high treason.
A stain on the reign of Henry VII, with lasting consequences for the Tudor dynasty, was caused when the King, for reasons of policy, had the young, simple-
After the applause for Tony's lecture had subsided, we assembled at the back of the lecture room, charged our glasses for the toast "To the memory of William Shakespeare" proposed by the Mayor and then moved on to lunch which was followed by the ceremonial cutting by the Mayor of an Agincourt Cake (1415) with a well-
It was a great pleasure to see at the Birthday Celebration John Bulman and Susan Fraser, two of our former Chairmen who are rarely able to attend meetings these days.
Our thanks go to our Chairman Peter Davies, Secretary Tony Ryan, Treasurer Diana Pidgeon for organising this always enjoyable event and to Evelyn Bates and her team of helpers for providing our magnificent lunch. We are also grateful to BRSLI for allowing us to use their prestigious premises once again.
Susan Fraser contributes the first of what I hope will be a regular series of articles for our newsletter.
"Having begun my introduction to our recent reading of Antony & Cleopatra by saying that it was my favourite play, I felt in honour bound to accept our editor's invitation to start this new series.
In some ways, it is easier to say what Antony & Cleopatra is not. It is not for example one of the “great” plays, nor is it among the most profound, being neither a Hamlet nor a Lear. Given that it is a history play (of a kind), it also lacks the scope both in character and incident of a Henry IV part one and in comparison to the other Roman plays, has not the same breadth of politico-
So what makes it so attractive to me? My first response is to say, in spite of all that I have said about its construction, that it does work on stage; there is dramatic content, contrast in mood and setting, plenty of action, the scraps of scenes flowing together to give a vivid impression of swiftly changing events. Above all, the four main characters, Octavius, Enobarbus, Antony and Cleopatra are each so strongly contrasted in personality that dramatic tension is always present whichever of them is absent. Unusually in Shakespeare there is no sub-
Mention of the speeches brings me to the play’s crowning glory – its language. As Valerie Crofts pointed out during our discussion of the play, Antony & Cleopatra has some of Shakespeare’s finest verse and in this respect the play bears comparison with his very best. The language here is often compressed as in “Our Italy shines o’er with civil swords” and there are some nonce words like “discandy” which occur nowhere else. Yet as always with Shakespeare, it’s the monosyllabic lines which are the most memorable -
What in the end does Shakespeare want us to think? Is this middle aged romance, Romeo and Juliet with wrinkles? Or is it, as Plutarch thought, grim tragedy, the portrait of a fine man who ruined by his obsession with a siren who is as false as she is beautiful? Or is it a picture of the world well lost, political power abandoned for love everlasting? I think it has some of all these ideas in it but the lasting impression it makes on me is that of an elegy for a warmer, nobler world passing away with the arrival of the hard-
Gallus, who doesn’t say anything at all, which is why you can’t remember him; one of Shakespeare’s ghost characters Back to top
During the past year two much-
Janet Ronchetti joined the Society in 2000 and was a committee member from 2005 until 2010 when she had to leave the Society. She is remembered for her warm and friendly personality and also for her great energy. After marrying into a farming family and raising six children, she trained as a nurse. Apart from the Society, in which she was a great help with the Birthday catering, her hobby was making stained glass which she did with such success that her stall at the Bath Christmas market sold out. She died in August 2014 at the age of 75 and Susan and Tony attended her Requiem at the packed St. Mary's, Julian Road.. Her eldest son John quoted her motto as being "enjoy life before it's too late". Advice for us all. Back to top
2nd and 9th June -
This is our Summer Reading at the usual time and place. This year we revert to a play by a contemporary of Shakespeare. Alison Smerdon will guide us through this action-
24th-
Don't miss this production by the Bradfordians, starring our own Graham Billing as Polonius. Details are available at www.thebradfordians.com. Booking is from the Wiltshire Music Centre 01225 860100 or www.wiltshiremusic.org.uk.
6th-
Shakespeare Live are again playing at Lackham House. Book by phone to their Box Office on 07780 938107 or online at www.shakespearelive.com.
May-
This summer's plays are The Merchant of Venice, Othello and Henry V. On the 20th June a small group of members is going to The Merchant on a visit organised by our Chairman. Otherwise, book by phone on 0844 8001110 or on line at www.rsc.org.uk.
1st -
No Shakespeare this summer, but you might like to try Goldsmith's play. Call 01225 448844 or book online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk. Back to top
With the Society's Centenary and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death to commemorate, this will be a very special year in our history. Look forward to a year of publicity, parties and possibly even performance.
There will be much to write about, so this seems a golden opportunity to hand on the editorship of the Newsletter. I have enjoyed writing it for the past eight years and my grateful thanks go to anyone who survived the ordeal of reading them. Ave atque vale.
R.M.Johnson
