No one listens to Ross: An overdue appreciation of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare, like his character Ross in Macbeth, has never been given the credit he deserves. Nearly a half-millennium after his death, Shakespeare, the writer of dozens of plays, sonnets, nuisance lawsuits, technical manuals, blogs, and orders for lunches that weren't yet invented, is virtually forgotten.Unknown to school children and hoary academics alike, Shakespeare's work was once considered some of the finest literature of the 19th century. And Shakespeare has even been misplaced in his native France, which recently chose the late mime Marcel Marceau as the namesake of its new Spay And Release building for dogs.
But even if the works of Shakespeare are available only in rare bookstores and via the complex oral traditions of his ancestral Oglala Sioux, the modern reader will find there is a lot to learn from the man known as The Avon Lady.
One example is that Shakespeare could deftly insert comedy into his tragedies. Very popular when it was first performed in 1952, Hamlet is a tragedy about a person with a very funny name. The audience thinks, "Hamlet should be happy all the time because his name makes us laugh." But the moody youth, considered to be The Artist Formerly Known as Prince of 12th century Denmark, was anything but happy. Because he was a Jehovah's Witness.
And Shakespeare could also make big tragedies smaller and more intimate. The star-crossed Macbeth, whose regicidal doom is foretold by witches, nevertheless shares the stage with another character whose misery is recognizable to any office drone: the sad-sack Ross.
In the beginning of Macbeth. Ross, acting as messenger for King Duncan, brings the news to Macbeth that the latter is now Thane of Cawdor, a title that would allow Macbeth a small pension and the right to officiate at mall openings. The old Thane was killed for treachery.
But Macbeth's friend Banquo does not believe Ross.
"What, can the devil speak true?" says Banquo, and Macbeth remarks that the Thane of Cawdor is still alive, and that Ross shouldn't dress him in borrowed robes, whatever that means.
At this moment we feel tenderly toward Ross, who after all had just brought Macbeth good news from the King, only to be openly doubted. But Ross lets it all wash off his back.
Later, following Duncan's murder, an anguished Ross isn't even allowed a moment of grief without some spoilsport ruining it. He notes the feral sorrow of the late king's horses:
ROSSWell thanks for lettting me get all wound up, Granddad. Why Ross doesn't knock the Old Man's eye out is unclear. What is clear is that Ross in his speech was only working up to the horse-eating-horse data but Old Man chose to step on his punchline.
And Duncan's horses--a thing most strange and certain--
Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make
War with mankind.
Old Man
'Tis said they eat each other.
When MacDuff, who should have known his place after being born by Caesarean Section, arrives on the scene, he nevertheless further belittles Ross by not answering his question.
Enter MACDUFFJesus, we say to MacDuff, just answer the goddamn question. If he could see it he wouldn't have asked you.
ROSS
How goes the world, sir, now?
MACDUFF
Why, see you not?
And even when Ross invites the murderer king to dine, Macbeth goes out of his way to pretend that Banquo's ghost is hovering at the available seat; anything to avoid sitting with Ross.
ROSSDespite the insult, Ross gamely tries to engage the gibbering Macbeth in conversation, only to be shut down by the shrew Lady Macbeth:
His absence, sir,
Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness
To grace us with your royal company.
MACBETH
The table's full.
MACBETHWhen Ross slogs across a battlefield to bring grim but concise news to Malcolm, the future king, Malcolm shows the haughtiness of his future office by not even listening.
Can such things be,
And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
Without our special wonder? You make me strange
Even to the disposition that I owe,
When now I think you can behold such sights,
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,
When mine is blanched with fear.
ROSS
What sights, my lord?
LADY MACBETH
I pray you, speak not
ROSSIt is only here where the good Ross allows himself any well-deserved spitefulness, but otherwise Ross can't win. He has to repeat everything he says and yet is told to shut up. He tries to be hospitable but is mocked. Up to and including the very last scene of Macbeth does Ross have to endure the slings and arrows of men who don't think him worthy of their attention.
Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes
Savagely slaughter'd: to relate the manner,
Were, on the quarry of these murder'd deer,
To add the death of you.
MACDUFF
My children too?
ROSS
Wife, children, servants, all
That could be found.
MACDUFF
And I must be from thence!
My wife kill'd too?
ROSS
I have said.
ROSSNo, you dummy, he was kidding.
Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt:
He only lived but till he was a man;
The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd
In the unshrinking station where he fought,
But like a man he died.
SIWARD
Then he is dead?
Perhaps Shakespeare saw himself as Ross. Was Shakespeare, as someone once said, "a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard of no more"? I sure hope not.
Like his idol F. Scott Fitzgerald, Shakespeare took his own life with a shotgun. The note said that the frustrated writer wanted no longer to be "wasted away again in Margaritaville," which some scholars believe is a reference to Shakespeare's unrequited love for schoolteacher Margarita Ville.
But only by experiencing Shakespeare's plays can we listen to him, finally, the way no one listened to Ross.
One way to do this is to see Theatre Banshee's excellent production of Macbeth running until April 26.
Labels: literature, review, william shakespeare
1 Comments:
Wow--that ending was a TOTAL twist, the likes of which I admit I did not see coming...a twist, indeed, worthy of Shakespeare's contemporary and friendly rival Philip Marlowe, who wrote all those "surprise" endings for TV's "The Outer Limits"--and, many years later, for director M. Night Shyamalan, that guy who made that movie that time about that thing.
Also, you must NEVER speak the name of the Scottish play. And here, you've done it, like, OVER AND OVER again, doubtless dooming us all to a cataclysmic death of some sort, kinda like a blog-based version of that VHS tape in "The Ring." That being said, I'm going to make everyone I know read this posting.
P.S.: The Gemini program is--and will always be--my favorite NASA program (coolest capsules, WAY coolest logo). I was expecting greater coverage of it here, and am appropriately outraged.
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