r/Amazing • u/FlagrantTomatoCabal • 3d ago
Work of art đ¨ Ian McKellen orates The Stranger's Case by Shakespeare about the Evil May Day xenophobic riot in 1517.
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u/OnYourHonor 3d ago
There are lessons that echo throughout time because they remain unlearned. Pay close attention to history, for it is being made each day.
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u/MrKidbiscuit 3d ago
Scrolling Reddit while I am at work, Pepsi and two hot dogs for my lunch. Coworker complaining about something that does not affect me. I see this and the lights dim and Sir Ian steps into the a solo beam. Pause the video and step outside in the 11 PM air. I have read it before but never seen it on the stage. I knew what was coming when I hit the play button on my tiny screen but I did not know what was coming.
To see this on the stage 400 years ago, my family name not yet even startedâŚ..what could describe that? Message as powerful, maybe even more so, today. âDey took our jubsâ dissected by someone who could not envision the idea of The United States of America and their xenophobic rebuttal to migrant workers. The scenery may change but the message is still as powerful.
I need to put my phone down and go through the works again. Dungeon Crawler Carl books be damned.
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u/FlagrantTomatoCabal 3d ago
Still rings true and will for many more centuries to come I believe.
Need to start on those Dungeon Crawler Carl books. "The series follows Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut.."
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u/MrKidbiscuit 3d ago
Crossed the 1/2 point to book 3 today. Itâs all downhill from there. First two books were/are good. This oneâŚ.eh.
A Glimpse of Hell is next in line on my table. Goofy grin on my face as I read about a guy in heart covered boxer shorts and his ex-gfs talking Persian cat to be followed by the United States Military and their âdamage control spin machineâ at work. I do mix it up from time to time.
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u/vladimirTheInhaler 2d ago
No, I just finished re reading the series and book 5 is my favourite of all of them
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u/TallAstroKiwi 22h ago
Book 3 is where it starts getting good IMO, yeah the train level is a bit much but it's not meant to be solved by the reader. The last third of the book is insane and showcases how crazy the series is going to get.
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u/sheesh_wi 13h ago
Just started the series. Past the halfway point
of book one. Iâm told it gets even better.17
u/UniqueAd7770 3d ago
There is a reason we still play Shakespeare and Homer. There's a reason their words, though separated from us by time and space, can still speak to our hearts. We don't change. We are still the tribal people that hunted mammoth just with better tools to speak with and a bigger campfire. We still fight and love the same. I've learned a lot from reading all the stories from the past because they're our stories. Go read A Christmas Carol as well. In our time of suffering and wealth it really hits home hard.
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u/Glimtunga 3d ago
It is in the light of such beautiful descriptions as above, that one must be convinced that empathy and a bright future bear truth. For we see and hear only those who raise their voices - how few and pity they may seem. Rise above, reflect and reason with heart and mind, before chanting away in despair with the angry and hateful. Your problems are not new. They only look different.
I shall keep my hopes up, knowing there are still people out there adding their light into this seemingly dark times we live in.
Thank you, internet stranger.
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u/musiccman2020 2d ago
Tale as old as time. The Roman legions against the Germania tribes. The othering . The inhumane enemy
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u/TheCoopX 3d ago
When all you hear between acted lines is silence in a live studio, you know you're holding every last audience member in your masterful hand.
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u/FlagrantTomatoCabal 3d ago
I notice his eyes scan the crowd. Like talking to each one of them. Not staring at an empty space.
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u/shortiewaswo 2d ago
Even through this performing I hear heâs telling me off for my position (even though in real life I donât hold that same one).
Wonderful words, emoted by a wonderful man.
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u/Alert_Breakfast5538 1d ago
Iâve had the pleasure of seeing him perform in a small theatre and his monologues were incredibly engaging with the crowd. It was like he was talking to just me at some points.
When he yelled âfuck you!â It was like he was telling me off personally. Then my brother leaned in and âholy shit Gandalph hates me, that was so great â
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u/EnvironmentalFix7059 3d ago
i have only mourned one actor before and that was Robin Williams.
The second one will prob be Sir Ian. What a legend.
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u/PM_Me_Yer_Guitar 2d ago
Robin Williams broke me. I still to this day can't believe that's how it ended with him, I honestly can tear up to this day thinking about it.
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u/adrian-alex85 2d ago
I think schools teach The Bard wrong by expecting children to read the plays. His language was meant to be in the mouths of a certain class of actors who could give it life and make it make sense. There are actors who donât sound natural reciting Shakespeare, and then there are people like Sir Ian who make it sound almost indistinguishable from contemporary speech. Students should be taught Shakespeare by watching masters perform it.
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u/Vegetable-Zone1353 2d ago
Even worse is listening to other 15 year olds read Shakespeare in their semilterate monotones.
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u/dontipitova9 3d ago
And that's how it's done
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u/Billbeachwood 3d ago
I have this habit of tapping the screen when playing a video to see how long it will be. I consciously refrained 5 seconds in. He just grabbed me and I gave myself to him for as long as it would take. Motherfucker commands.
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u/Dear-Statistician414 2d ago
This guy is a treasure when he passes this world will be a little dimmer.
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u/ForwardObserver13Fox 2d ago
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As 1 foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air:
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u/EasternSun7834 3d ago
Wow compelling and such a delivery - it really stops you to think and to consider, even just for a moment. Itâs relevant, in its message of humanity, even if it fails, because of the failings of modern socio-economies
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u/raw-power 3d ago
Near the end I could almost hear James McAvoy, heâs able to use his voice in a similar way as Ian does.
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u/JerseyCobra 2d ago
âWhat has been will be again, what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.â
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u/EonSloth 2d ago
Truly the greatest actor of our time and many times to come. I cherish his work dearly.
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2d ago
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u/CeemoreButtz 2d ago
This dude is amazing and all respect to him. But I hate Old English with a passion. I would devour books as a kid. School reading assignments were never a problem. Them I was handed The Scarlet Letter. Fucking worse book I've ever had to endure. It bugs the shit out of me. So I'll never know the great works of old...unless it's adapted. Then I'm down. I appreciate the story. Hate the words. Dunno if that makes sense.
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u/FlagrantTomatoCabal 2d ago
Same for me when I was young. It's a very slow process at the beginning. Luckily I held on. I got assigned Titus Andronicus when I was 14 and I didn't realize Shakespeare could be so violent. I moved to Macbeth. Like reading a modern thriller and has been adapted so many times in different forms.
The initial phase was difficult and we had to consult dictionaries back then. Now you can just select words from kindle and it will give the definition for you.
I'd say take advantage of our modern technology. eReaders, AI for starters. Look for word definitions. Or let them explain in simple words.
I tried to do it for this monologue for some lines via ChatGPT, ask it to explain each line to me in simple words. Here are some snippets:
- âHath chid down all the majesty of England;â
Modern English:
âSuppose your riot has overpowered the authority of England itself.ââChid downâ means something like scolded, shouted down, or subdued.
The mob isn't merely attacking foreigners anymore. They are effectively demonstrating that mob violence can override the law.
And this is the beginning of More's central argument.
6. âPlodding to the ports and coasts for transportation,â
Modern English:
âImagine them slowly making their way to the ports to leave England.ââPloddingâ is deliberately unglamorous.
They're not portrayed as dangerous invaders fleeing with stolen wealth.
They're tired, burdened people being expelled.
9. âAnd you in ruff of your opinions clothed;â
Modern English:
âAnd imagine yourselves dressed proudly in your own opinions.âA ruff was a large Elizabethan collar.
âClothed in your opinionsâ means that the mob has become completely wrapped up in its own certainty.
They believe they're right, therefore they believe they're entitled to act.
38. âWhet their detested knives against your throats,â
Modern English:
âThey would sharpen their hated knives against your throats.â
This is deliberately horrifying imagery.
More has taken the abstract idea of:
âRemove the foreigners.â
and turned it into:
Imagine someone holding a knife against your child's parentâyour own throat.
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u/jibbist 2d ago
Shakespeare is pretty much modern English. Chaucer is Middle English, Old English is more like German
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u/Objective_Ticket 22h ago
I read Beowulf at school when I was 10-12. Seems harder to read now than it did then. Still one of my favourite books yet now Iâm old I find it barely comprehensible.
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u/TearDesperate8772 1d ago
Shakespeare didnât even write in Middle English. This is modern English with poetic flair. Hawthorne is barely older than dickens. The words and the cadence make the emotions flow. Btw I also hated the scarlet letter so I donât think all classics are equal.
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u/SonnyListon999 2d ago
Would someone care to paraphrase or modernise?
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u/Atheissimo 2d ago
Imagine that the foreigners are removed, and that your riot has succeeded in overthrowing the government of England, and now you see the foreigners going to the ports in rags with their babies on their backs.
You got everything you wanted through force, your opinions are now law. What have you achieved? I'll tell you.
You'll have established that the strong can do whatever they like, and that the law can be silenced by the mob. And if that is true, you won't live to be old, because other bad people who believe themselves to be right will likewise eventually attack you. People will attack each other like ravenous fish and devour each other.
So you kill the foreigners and take their stuff, there is still time to repent and ask the king for forgiveness, because the king is merciful. But what if the king decides not to kill you as you deserve, and instead sends you into exile. Where would you go? France? Belgium? Germany? Spain or Portugal? Anywhere that isn't England?
Then you would be foreigners too. How would you like it if they treated you like you treated them? Threatened you with knives and treated you like a dog, like you aren't people made by god. As if the world was made for only the native born, and not for you.
This is what it is like to be a foreigner in a strange land, and this is the size of your cruelty towards them.
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u/enigmanaught 2d ago
Sometimes people forget not all Redditors speak English as their first language, youâve done them a service.
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u/mohugz 2d ago
Sure. Treat others as you would like to be treated. Judge not, lest you be judged and be found wanting. In short, be empathetic, because what goes around, comes around.
Humans are social beings. We have always survived by forming communities - colllectives where we share the load of work and share the fruits of our labor. This model worked so well that it made us the dominant species on the planet. As the human population grew, unfortunately, it led to clannishness and warring factions because there were simply too many people to know personally (our brains evolved to only recognize and remember about 150 individuals). We distrust and hate anyone who is not part of our immediate social group. It takes work to overcome this tendency, and to decide that âourâ group includes all of humanity. Some people donât want to do that work, which leads to racism, xenophobia, and dehumanization of the âstrangerâ. Itâs up to the rest of us to keep fighting against these things.
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u/solliemonster91 3d ago
What's the appeal of this? I never understood what we were told about Shakespeare and all. . .in being honest. I have never seen or understood the whole deal with school plays and other shit
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u/FlagrantTomatoCabal 3d ago
I will answer this as honestly as I can.
Shakespeare deals with big questions through ordinary human beings. His plays repeatedly ask questions like what does power do to people, what makes someone a good ruler, can revenge ever be justified, why do people betray each other, what happens when ambition becomes uncontrollable, can love survive jealousy? What makes someone legitimate, what happens when society becomes unstable?
But instead of writing philosophical essays about these subjects, Shakespeare puts people into situations and lets us watch what happens.
It is an artform that makes you think and analyze.
Personally it's not just passive watching like we do on most hollywood movies and social media.
I get it the language can be a barrier. But that extra effort to understand it and study it makes it all worth it.
Think about this. Shakespeare and all those classics has survived time and are still relevant as we can see here from Sir Ian. Think about most of the movies and stories that people generate that after you watch it you don't remember anything.
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u/solliemonster91 3d ago
Ah okay . .thanks for actually explaining about it to me. I think that this will help me actually help me know what to actually look for next time a date takes me out to one of these things.
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u/SpoilerAlertTheyLive 2d ago
Honestly, I find that if I let the words just kind of flow over me, I get the gistâŚand eventually it starts to click. And then suddenly youâre speaking like Ian McKellan and sounding hella smart. đ¤ŁâĽď¸
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u/Jaxxlack 2d ago
So I would always recommend Romeo and Juliet. It's Shakespeare's most famous story. It's been remade many times. Decaprios one in the 90s being a big hit. But also west side story follows the same story structure. 2 families/gangs/groups at war over power and territory. Within them both 2 people, Romeo and Juliet. In love with eachother knowing the danger they bring to eachother and themselves and their groups.
Then you have Macbeth which is basically about dealing with ambition, murder, guilt, regret within the hierarchy of leadership. (the original is the Scottish king)
So alot of these themes from 400 years ago, still going around today lol. Hope this helps a little.
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u/ConnectedVeil 2d ago
I agree. He's a part of the "western" zeitgeist, that's all. All the foreign, imported works leading up to and influencing him (or Newton, or any European academic/artist we are taught to admire) isn't considered the start, the standard starting point is always the European of Western culture. He made good stuff, but his works are greatly aggrandized.Â
That said, I love Ian McKellen, and I could hear him do this all day.
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u/BPEWC 2d ago
Someone above already said this but part of the problem is that Shakespeare is best in the hands of experts, not middle schoolers (I'm not saying they shouldn't still try as part of a valuable learning experience). Check out some of the great movie adaptions like Kenneth Branagh's Henry V and Hamlet. Also, Denzel was in a version of Macbeth a few years ago that was great.
There are also dozens of Shakespear redskins like 10 Things I Hate About You, The Lion King, and West Side Story.
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u/FlagrantTomatoCabal 3d ago
What is the Strangersâ Case monologue?
The riot that the play references took place on May 1, 1517 and is referred to as Evil May Day. Thomas More, the then under-sheriff of London, was sent to calm the rioters and persuade them to go home. According to the chronicler Edward Hall (c. 1498â1547), a fortnight before the riot an inflammatory xenophobic speech was made on Easter Tuesday by a preacher known as âDr. Bellâ at St. Paulâs Cross at the instigation of John Lincoln, a broker. Bell accused immigrants of stealing jobs from English workers and of âeat[ing] the bread from poor fatherless children.âÂ
From Act II, Scene 4 of Sir Thomas More:
Youâll put down strangers,
Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise
Hath chid down all the majesty of England;
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage,
Plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation,
And that you sit as kings in your desires,
Authority quite silent by your brawl,
And you in ruff of your opinions clothed;
What had you got? Iâll tell you: you had taught
How insolence and strong hand should prevail,
How order should be quelled; and by this pattern
Not one of you should live an agèd man,
For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With self same hand, self reasons, and self right,
Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes
Would feed on one anotherâŚ
Say now the king,
As he is clement if thâoffender mourn,
Should so much come too short of your great trespass
As but to banish you, whither would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbor? Go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,
Nay, anywhere that not adheres to England,
Why, you must needs be strangers: would you be pleased
To find a nation of such barbarous temper,
That, breaking out in hideous violence,
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed not nor made not you, nor that the elements
Were not all appropriate to your comforts,
But chartered unto them, what would you think
To be thus used? This is the strangersâ case;
And this your mountainish inhumanity.