tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post8881207767482783320..comments2023-11-03T06:32:28.410-04:00Comments on Staring At Empty Pages: Too much Shakespeare?Barry Leibahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205294935881991457noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post-80624748542148373752008-11-18T23:43:00.000-05:002008-11-18T23:43:00.000-05:00Oh, well:1. Don't take my quotation as definitive!...Oh, well:<BR/><BR/>1. Don't take <I>my</I> quotation as definitive!<BR/><BR/>2. There were so many alternative versions and verses and lines for that song that I'm not sure you can take anyone's quotation as definitive. The only thing we can be sure about is what words were used in the movie. Beyond that, every performance might have had somewhat different lines.<BR/><BR/>I think the version I quote is the movie's, but I'm not certain now (it's been stored on my computer for ages).<BR/><BR/>I do know that some of Porter's lyrics were considered a bit too spicy for the movie at the time, and were slightly altered — in "Too Darn Hot" and "I Hate Men", for sure ("His 'business' is the business that he gives his secretary," using some quaint slang of the day, was softened just slightly).<BR/><BR/>The same thing happened with some of Sondheim's "West Side Story" lyrics. In the Quintet, for instance, Anita sang, on stage, "He'll come home hot and tired / So what? / Don't matter if he's tired, as long as he's <I>hot!</I>" The movie version became, "He'll come home hot and tired / Who cares? / Don't matter if he's tired as long as he's there."<BR/><BR/>We used to be quite prudish in the movies. (And back then, Ed Sullivan asked Mick Jagger to sing "Let's spend <I>some time</I> together." The current FCC commissioners would be so pleased.)Barry Leibahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14205294935881991457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post-82579638006681253402008-11-18T23:20:00.000-05:002008-11-18T23:20:00.000-05:00I thought it was:If her virtue at first she defend...I thought it was:<BR/><I>If her virtue at first she defends well,<BR/>Just remind her that All's Well That Ends Well.</I><BR/>I've sung it wrong for years!<BR/><BR/>I played in the pit for <I>Kiss Me Kate</I> in high school, and they actually sang "helluva fella." Nowadays that's probably just <I>Too Darn Hot.</I>Lauriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00682513110485580000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post-32308012079225800262008-11-18T09:02:00.000-05:002008-11-18T09:02:00.000-05:00I wonder how many common phrases from his time Sha...I wonder how many common phrases from his time Shakespeare borrowed that we just attribute to his writing. For example, "gilding the lily" may have been rephrased by him and we just don't know it because we may not have traced it to other writings (like newspapers, blogs, discussion boards - to capture the slang...) and as a time-specific slang it may not have made it into our speech. Or did it?lidijahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00935511420040454173noreply@blogger.com