PLAYS WITHIN PLAYS

One of Shakespeare’s techniques is the dramatic convention of a play-within-a-play, popular in Elizabethan times and used in several of his works including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and, most importantly, Hamlet. It is important to note that he wasn’t the first to use such technique. Read here.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream  the most obvious example is the laborers' performance of Pyramus and Thisbe, and their inept production serves three important functions in the larger structure of the larger play. Read here.

THE KING ON NETFLIX

Shakespeare’s plays have been a source of entertainment for centuries on the page, the stage and the screen. Director David Michôd’s The King is the latest entry in the vast body of adaptations of the Bard’s works. The movie follows the life of a young Prince Hal, from his days of drinking and gambling to his eventual rise to the throne of England as Henry V.  The young king must navigate palace politics, betrayal, the war his tyrannical father left behind, and the emotional strings of his past life — including his relationship with his closest friend and mentor, the ageing alcoholic knight, John Falstaff. Read here.

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-king-movie-review-2019 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-henry-v

SPANISH AUTHOR CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON HAS DIED AT 55

Carlos Ruiz Zafón, the Spanish author of internationally bestselling novels including The Shadow of the Wind, has died at the age of 55.

The novelist, who was frequently described as the most-read Spanish author since Cervantes, died on Friday at his home in Los Angeles, his publisher Planeta announced. Read here.

"Every book, every volume you see, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and lived it and dreamed about it."

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

Double-meanings, disguises and dirty laundry abound in this timeless comedy. Sir John Falstaff, staying in Windsor and down on his luck, decides to restore his fortunes by seducing the wives of two wealthy citizens. But the "Merry Wives" quickly cotton on to his tricks and decide to have a bit of fun of their own at Falstaff’s expense …

The women of the play win over the men, and the poorly-behaved Falstaff is made to pay for his treatment of women.

Read here and here.

SUMMER HOMEWORK

Finally, summertime is here!

I hope you have a safe and relaxing time while you are on holiday … but don’t forget to do your English homework! Please engage in some grammar and reading activities over the summer.  

All assignments are linked here. 

THE COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR LANGUAGES

REPUBLIC DAY

Italy's national day - Festa della Repubblica - is held in commemoration of the day in 1946 when Italians voted in favour of a republic and against the monarchy which had been discredited during World War Two. Read here.

LEARNING AND REVISING HISTORY

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects
https://www.heritage-history.com/index

CONDITIONALS REVISION

THE ORIGINS AND THE MIDDLE AGES

REVISING BALLADS

A ballad is a type of poem that tells a story and was traditionally set to music. English language ballads are typically composed of four-line stanzas that follow an ABCB rhyme scheme.  Read here.
Its distinctive style crystallized in Europe in the late Middle Ages and persists to the present day in communities where literacy, urban contacts, and mass media have little affected the habit of folk singing. Read here.

"Scarborough Fair," popularized in the United States by the 1960s singer-songwriting duo Simon & Garfunkel, is an English folk song about a market fair that took place in the town of Scarborough in Yorkshire during medieval times. Read here. 

https://ingleseperitaliani.jimdofree.com/letteratura-3-anno/the-ballad/the-medieval-ballad-commentary-to-lord-randal/

TO BE OR NOT TO BE SOLILOQUY

Hamlet’s "To Be Or Not To Be" Soliloquy

https://webtv.loescher.it/media/content/hamlet-text-1-675383

SHAKESPEARE PODCASTS

Staging Shakespeare is series of video commentaries on performing and directing Shakespeare including extracts of some plays.
Click here  and here.

Here you can find brand new audio versions of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, plus documentaries from the brightest minds on the Bard’s life and work.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH AS HAMLET

MAY

"Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;
And mid-May's eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves."
John Keats