In addition to the intentional reliances upon Shakespeare,
we have incorporated the Elizabethan ideological repertoire, often
unconsciously, into our culture.
MERCHANDISE
There are tons. See, for example, here.
INSULT KITS
You can't swing a dead cat without
bonking into a "construct-your-own-Shakespearean-insult"
device: a web page, refrigerator magnets, toy contraptions, circulating
e-mail, etc. A plague on't!
Here's one online:
One suspects that this phenomenon
is linked with the "Bits & Pieces" sound-bite would-be
wisdom flooding our print landscape: little nuggets extracted
from any context whatsoever (including Shakespeare too again)
and posturing as deep insight. Anymore around here, it's like
Polonius exploded.
Anyway, the insult kit is naturally
more dynamic because it gives people a more dignified vocabulary
for their colossal road-rage on the donkey-path of life. Otherwise
we'd all just be "big, dumb, butt-heads." Now we're
"pribbling, hedge-born clotpoles."
STAR TREK
"Shakespeare is good in English, but you need to read him in
the original Klingon...."
Former English 305 student Sean Hall plunged into the intricate
relationships between Shakespeare and Star Trek, and he reports here.
THE LION KING
The opening sequence of The Lion
King is a useful if odd popular cultural artifact for showing
somewhat Shakespearean themes and the political context. The film
makes no sense in terms of animal behavior and reflects a political
system Americans are not supposed to believe in. So where is this
coming from? Politically, the court structure has nothing to do
with lions, nor do the messianic aspects. The monkey who anoints
the cub functions like an Archbishop of Canterbury at a royal
court. We get instead iconic (God-) Sun-King implications.
The "circle of life" blurs
somehow with the Great Chain of Being: the supposedly natural
hierarchy (cp. Julius Caesar I.1.115f). Lions eat
baboons. In fact, all the animals cheering their new lord are
on his menu.
From then on, for reflections of
the Body Politic, see Henry IV.2, Hamlet (I.iii.17f,
I.ii.135, I.iv.89), Richard II, and Richard III.
Scar is Richard III. The regicide/fratricide comes from Hamlet.
The plot centers on Primogeniture.
Birthright carries princely responsibility and you can't get out
of it. Your worth is innate vs. earned; you may attempt to opt
out as do Prince Hal and this lion; but the Hakuna Matata days
are soon over. One difference is that Falstaff is not brought
into the kingdom in the end as Pumbaa and Timon are. Disney is
one weird mamma-jamma.
The Shakespeare
Insult Server
And you can, thanks to the
Klingon Shakespeare Restoration Project.