Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow(s)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow(s) March 3, 2015

Macbeth consulting the Vision of the Armed Head.jpg“She should have died hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5 of Macbeth)

I can’t remember quite when (or why) I started down this particular rabbit hole. I can remember only that YouTube enabled me to a great (and terrifying) degree. And now, because I have a blog, you get to share in that terrifying, YouTubin’ greatness.

Behold! Captain Picard doing The Bard. (Or is that Dr. Xavier? I can never tell.)

Great stuff, that.

A bonus conversation with Stewart himself about that particular soliloquy (and the efforts an actor can and must make in order to convince himself that he’s saying those famous words for the first time) is available here, thanks (also) to the YouTubes. And yes, it is (unsurprisingly) awesome.

Not satisfied? What about this wonderful clip of Gandalf doing The Bard? (Or is that Magneto? I can never tell).

There’s a particularly insightful clip of the shockingly-young McKellen giving a master class on that speech on YouTube, as well. It’s a bit longer — 12 minutes or so — but worth every moment. (Is there ANYTHING the InterWebs cannot bring us???)

Still not happy? Here’s Charles Foster Kane of the Vaguely Scottish Accent:

And speaking of Scotts, here’s James Bond’s version:

Yes; yes I am having entirely too much fun with this. (Plus, because I can/YouTube exists, here’s Doctor Gregory House doing The Bard. And here’s an analysis of his efforts from My Man Jeeves.)

Attribution(s): Macbeth and  the Vision of the Armed Head” by Henry Fuseli, licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.


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