Barbara Presents Shakespeare's Fools

Jacquie's Email 

Hello Literary Ladies!!! As we head into the promise of 2021, this is a reminder that we will be meeting this Wednesday, January 6th at 1pm on Zoom for Barbara's Presentation on Shakespeare's Fools. Barbara will be sharing her texts on the screen during her presentation and assigning parts at that time, but if you would prefer to receive a copy of her (lengthy) texts ahead of time to print out, please let her know and she will send them to you. I hope you were all able to ring in the New Year with a little laughter! Jacquie

P.S. And since we all have Georgia on our minds, here's a little musical interlude to get us through Tuesday. 

P.P.S. And as Barbara reminded me, if you want to brush up on your Shakespeare with the help of another Brit with a way with words, Cole Porter, here you go!

Barbara's Minutes 

All the members of the Literature Club, including our newest member, Sharon DeLevie, were in their Zoom boxes for the first meeting of the new year. Joanna Riesman told us her sister took umbrage at receiving a book called Diary of a Provincial Lady as a gift, but was soon delighting in Delafield’s tale. How the holidays were different formed one theme of many of our stories during our chat time. Since we were not entertaining, there were few meals to prepare, which meant there was more time to relax, even take naps. Fortunately, most of us were able to see our families. There was also time to read. Among the books recommended were novels such as Lydia Millet’s A Children’s Bible and Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, George Saunders’s story Fox 8,,the nonfiction works Bill Buford’s Dirt and Kerri Arsenault’s Mill Town, and Obama’s memoir, A Promised Land.

At the business meeting led by President Fran Greenberg, the minutes were accepted as read and the treasury remained at $181.52. Jacquie Weitzman and Connie Stewart said they will continue their talks with Hastings Librarian Debbie Quinn about Literature Club donations. Fran will design an book plate to be used in all books given to the library from the Literature Club.

For her talk on Shakespeare’s fools, Barbara Morrow chose the paradoxical punster Touchstone, master of court manners and morals, from Shakespeare’s romantic comedy As You Like It. She also chose Sir John Falstaff, with his fierce, subversive intelligence and carnivalesque exuberance, from the history play, King Henry IV Part 1.

Although we are not quite ready to tread the boards of the Globe Theater, Literature Club members did a very creditable job of reading three scenes from each of the plays.

Just as it was approaching 3 o’clock, a member announced that something terrible was happening at the US Capitol. We all clicked out of the meeting to learn of insurrection in Washington, DC.

Respectfully submitted, Barbara Morrow, Recording Secretary