(Header image “Mary” by the Drifter and “Drifter” by the Drifter)
Thinkings Upon Hermione, Shakespeare’s Queen; Or
A Phantom of Delight
“She was a phantom of delight / When first she gleamed
upon my sight; / A lovely apparition, sent / To be a moment’s
ornament…” – William Wordsworth
This week The Drifter offers thoughts upon one of Shakespeare’s heroines in honor of Leila Allison, a poet who keeps a large picture of Shakespeare in a prominent spot in her workspace, and sometimes can feel The Bard’s eyes following her around the room as she creates.
Such a fact is not paranoia nor hubris; it is a full-on engagement with The Bard that is a rare thing these days, despite The Bard’s continuing presence seemingly everywhere. Despite the fact that he is “everywhere” as the Western World’s preeminent writer, there are few creative writers these days who have the courage, the ability, or the dedication to engage with The Bard in the way Leila Allison has, and does.
The following reflections concern one of Shakespeare’s lesser known major characters (overshadowed by Cleopatra and Juliet, among others) who would have won her author immortal literary fame of a certain species all on her own, even if Will had never written a line about Juliet, or Cleopatra.
Now bring on the Queen.
Specifically, Queen Hermione.
Shakespeare’s Hermione is a beautiful queen, and a beauty
queen, filled with virtue (overflowing goodness), steady and true (and pregnant).
But her goodness makes her vulnerable to other, less good, people.
She becomes a total victim of her husband’s crazed jealousy.
She does him a favor. Talks his friend into staying over, like he asked her to.
Next, because he got his wish, the king gets paranoid.
He starts thinking the two of them (best friend and wife) must be up to
something together, if the friend agreed that fast.
The king’s paranoia undergoes the snowball effect.
Her odor and her very beauty begin to scream inside him; soon he even starts believing that his friend is the father of his own child; which may be as twisted as it gets on that level.
This king’s self-centered, power-hungry delusions (believing things that
aren’t true) lead him to the basest cruelty.
To wanting to crush whoever won’t do what he says. And so he does all kinds of nasty things to Queen Hermione. Up to and including putting her in chains, throwing her in prison, killing her son, and taking away her daughter right after she’s born. The Queen dies from grief.
But at the end of the play, William Shakespeare gives his good queen her due, as if he couldn’t let her go just yet.
Some of her fans and followers have constructed a statue of her. She rises from this statue of herself, in front of everyone: resurrected, which means brought back from the dead.
Brought back to life.
This is how she said goodbye to the King when he sent her to prison:
Adieu, my Lord:
I never wished to see you sorry; now
I trust I shall.
Anyone who can remain that calm when falsely accused and sent to prison for it has got style in Bukowski’s sense of the term; and can stand out; is one of the best.
We all get falsely accused at times (maybe not sent to prison for it; maybe so).
Someone like Queen Hermione can show you how to act when “they”
are coming down on you.
This is one thing Jesus meant when he said to turn the other cheek.
When they’ve got you, whether you did it or not, your best bet is to play it cool.
Both inside yourself AND with them.
Shakespeare is also saying there are resurrections that happen to us WHILE WE ARE STILL ALIVE, IN THIS WORLD, LIVING OUR NORMAL LIFE.
We get reborn every single day (we have another chance tomorrow) or even every second that ticks by in some cases.
(Sometimes time speeds up; other times, it goes way more slowly…but who here has ever seen it stop…)
And the gentle Bard surely seems to be implying there will likely be another,
very different, resurrection at the end of our own earthly lives.
Crucial END NOTE from The Drifter: This bare bones retelling of Queen Hermione’s life was written from memory; as such, The Drifter takes no responsibility for any minor (and likely meaningless) little things he may have gotten wrong in briefly recounting this narrative.
The Drifter first read THE WINTER’S TALE, by The Bard, well over thirty years ago, when he was a student at Columbia College Chicago, in a class conducted by the great Shakespeare scholar Peter Christensen.
Thirty years later almost to the day, The Drifter espied Professor Christensen, an old man now, sitting alone in a coffee shop in a northside Chicago neighborhood not far from the lake, intensely engaged in the reading of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. (The Drifter waited around until he could see what the book was, without ever approaching the professor.)
Since The Drifter read the play over thirty years ago (twice) and hasn’t looked at it since, he takes no responsibility for the tiny meaningless things he may have gotten wrong, but he does thank Professor Christensen, for reading The Sonnets alone in a coffee shop as an old man; and for his dramatic readings from Shakespeare’s HAMLET, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE and THE WINTER’S TALE well over thirty years ago, in a seventh-story, industrial-looking classroom on Columbia College Chicago’s downtown campus.
I don’t know if you are still here with us; but I remember looking out the high windows, watching the blues of Lake Michigan, and listening to your voice bringing Shakespeare alive.
Saragun Springs 
Hello Drifter
You make me blush! I thank you for the kind words.
Tremendous intensity this week! It matches your expression in your photo.
Shakespeare humanized royalty and often showed the low end of their behavior. Temporarily addled Lear, this guy, Richard III, Claudious, various others. But there was good in the castle too, with Hermoine, Henry V, his dad was okay (usually), Hamlet etc
Like Will you bring the past to life!
Thank you,
Leils
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Hi Leila!
The “higher-ups” of this world think they’re higher up than the rest of us, but really the only difference is – they have more money.
On the other hand, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely – this too is also true.
Shakespeare knew all of the above, just like he knew everything else there is possible to know about humans and humanity. How did one man write a book as long as The Bible that is second only to the Bible in vividness and profound lessons about life?
(I have a feeling all his actors helped him in more ways than one but that’s worth another entire, and long, essay, and it doesn’t undercut his genius one whit, either.)
One thing I enjoy about your knowledge of Shakespeare is how you seem to understand him as an author, the person himself, not “only” his characters etc etc, but also his characters, too…
Thank you!
Dale
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Hi Drifter
Shakespeare alludes me. There is a blame in this. I wasn’t educated in Shakespeare. I’ve picked bits and pieces up from the movies, and they’re always good. At least the Mel Gibson and Kenneth Branagh variety. The blame arises in my own lack of trying to read Shakespeare. Maybe I can change that and get hooked.
On “Jeopardy” I might blurt “Hamlet” for every other answer, throw in a “King Lear.” Now I know a little something about “Hermione.” What a tragic story. Paranoia will destroy ya. People including myself probably don’t realize how much influence Shakespeare still has on our language with proverbs like “Every dog has its day.”
Even the term “The Bard,” confounded me up until entering almost old age. It’s like an entire and important education has been plucked from grasp by not offering Shakespeare in the fundamentals of education. Or maybe I elected to skip those classes I can’t remember? Probably the latter. Once the dope smoking and drinking started that ended the grades and school itself ( at least for a while–a long while–excuses also have a time stamp). Probably some Shakespearean lessons there, too. Proverbs, speaks of strong drink.
That was a great image of Lake Michigan, and your famous professor reading Shakespeare in the cafe. Something sad yet defining. He’s still at it too.
Great piece as always! Cool picture!
Christopher
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Ananias
You are too humble, but that’s frequently true of high-quality artists like you!
Mel and Kenneth are not perfect but in many ways their versions of Shakespeare are just as good as any other in our own day and age. During Mark Twain’s day, they used to perform Shakespeare all the time on stages all over America. Imagine how badly they must’ve destroyed him then! Can’t be any worse than Kenneth and Mel, and probably much worse in most cases.
In many ways, my favorite Shakespeare is his Sonnets. An aging writer staring at himself in the mirror with so much intensity, but a CALM intensity, that he becomes his own most vivid character, especially since he’s also the man WHO CREATED all those other characters…and now what has it gotten him? That is the question he’s asking himself in The Sonnets – and the answer is BOTH terrifying, and profoundly consoling, almost as consoling as some of Jesus’ most profound teachings, and for sure influenced by Jesus (the real Jesus) at every level.
It’s crucial not to feel like one has to plow through all 154 of the Sonnets. Pick a dozen of them, or even half a dozen, and study those with great intensity and a small, essential part of ALL of Shakespeare comes through clearly forever.
You have a Shakespearean ability to create well-rounded characters, too, I can add that for sure!
Thanks for reading The Drifter, your feedback is intensely appreciated at every level always!
Dale
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Hi Dale
I think Edwin Booth and his infamous brother JWB were Shakespearean actors. They were probably a cut above the rest. Back in those days and before, I imagine those alcoholic troupes of con men and women actors gallivanting around the countryside. “Will work for ale!” Who may have sold a side of ass when things got tough, lol.
The Shakespeare Sonnets sound intriguing and I will be looking those up. I’m always wanting to improve my writing and as we know the road to this improvement lies in reading. To hear Shakespeare’s reflections on himself and his eternal characters sounds great to delve into.
Thanks for your kind words and excellent insights
Christopher
PS I started “The Bear,” by Chekhov.
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Hi Christopher!
That is a great and hilarious description of the way things probably were back then (or definitely were back then)!
It seems to me that in “The Bear” Chekhov manages to achieve one of those immortal pieces that takes a major aspect of all life and boils it down into one dramatic scene (continuously rising and falling).
Your stories all have that kind of quality too. You have made much of your reading of Chekhov (and others), have not let this go to waste! An awesome object lesson for all writers.
Thanks!
Dale
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HI Dale!
Lol. Those old nomadic actor types always crack me up!
Yes “The Bear” is making a very good impression and I’m seeing how a play is written–only a few pages in.
There is tension with Smirnov demanding his money from the mistress of the house or he will be ruined and will commit suicide!
All of this seems so real how one person wants money from another. This unrequited pursuit of a debt. Anton is spot on how money controls and how it never ends.
I remember Kurt Vonnegut instructing… A character must want something if only a glass of water. Chekhov masters this like he literally wrote the book on it.
That’s an excellent point about the rising and falling action. Chekhov has such a wonderful liveliness to his characters and dialogue. Their gasping words like “oh oh oh.”
I don’t know yet how “The Bear” fits in or if it’s somehow symbolic?
I always return to Chekhov. I believe he is one of the best teachers for learning this craft. Such an almighty great writer!
That’s high praise to be compared to his style Thank you!
Christopher
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Hi Christopher
Hope you receive this!
See Literally under your latest story for more comments on David and your powers of characterization, whenever you can!
Dale
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Hi Dale
Thanks, I’ll check it out!
Christopher
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Hermione the elegant & virtuous here made to breathe again – wonderfully so. The personal note makes it all the more powerful & moving. What the scholar Peter Christensen did for the Drifter, the Drifter does for others – in fact does so time & again, in essay after after essay. Such writing can light up the landscape.
Geraint
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Dear Geraint
Thank you so much! Having you for a reader of these pieces enhances the project in endless ways.
Your ability to “get” what’s going on (or what I’m trying to make go on) in my writings is both reassuring, and challenging, challenging in a very good way, in the way that all good writing is supposed to be challenging. Without good readers there IS no good writing, and you are one of the best.
And your pungent eloquence in expressing that fact is beyond compare.
You are a poet in prose, who can say far more in a handful of words than other writers can manage to express in entire, repetitive, bloated tomes! If Beckett were here he would say so too!
Thanks again as always!
Dale
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Dale, afraid I’ve never seen or read ‘A Winter’s Tale, ‘ but I’m sure your moral tale of Hermione’s conduct is spot on: calmness/coolness is surely a quality we should admire and emulate. But I wonder if you’d agree that there is also wit in Hermione’s words of departure? For myself, I would aspire to be able to both be cool and to laugh at the bastards.
Here’s a story about Lytton Strachey, the biographer, who wrote ‘Eminent Victorians’ (which I also haven’t read). He was a pacifist and gay. In WWI, he applied to be recognised as a conscientious objector. In response to the standard tribunal question, ‘What would you do if you saw a German soldier raping your sister?’ he replied ‘I would attempt to interpose my body between them’.
ps. Just looked him up. Dying of stomach cancer, his last words were, ‘If this is dying, I don’t think much of it.’
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Hi Mick!
This is a great point about the wit of it all! I absolutely agree with you that there is/was humor in her replies. Gallows humor most likely, but humor, for sure. And I also agree with you: if and when they do it to me (again), I will try to laugh in their faces too (just like I did all the other times)! Except when I know that laughing will only get me in even deeper than I already am (then I might just hold my peace for a little while, not in a cowardly way, but only to outwit them).
Great story and quotation from Lytton Strachey, none of which was I familiar with before. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to your Guest Writer Week really soon, it promises to be awesomely engaging and it will be great fun to see what you’ve come up with.
Dale
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As is the way with other commentators I wasn’t even aware of Shakespeare when I was being educated (ha) in sixties Liverpool but have come to appreciate his wonderful works in later life. Many of his speeches make me cry great big blubby tears. I have had the good fortune to go a couple of times to the RSC in Stratford to watch a few productions a stunning version of Midsummer Nights Dream and very memorable Hamlet with a cast of Black actors which I don’t think I will ever forget. A version of Romeo and Juliet where the only set was a huge free standing cube in the middle of the stage. And always, every single time, the words are the magic. I did see The taming of the Shrew in an open ampitheatre in Jerash, Jordan one time and again, under the stars in a Roman ruin, yet still it was the words that mattered, that took me out of the place and captured me.
I didn’t know about this queen, he seems to have been particularly mean to her, poor soul but then – she did get a statue!
Thank you for this interesting post. dd
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Hi Diane!
Thanks for sharing these great descriptions of some of your Shakespeare experiences. It all sounds really cool, and fascinating, especially to one who’s never been to any of those places.
You are right to shine a spotlight on his words and his language. This is a really great point you’ve made here. It’s something I left out of the column a little bit (not on purpose) so I’m really glad you’ve made the point here. He can do everything through words like no one before or since. His mind must have been on fire. Probably why he burned out so early (although not that early for his own day), but what a ride it must have been until then.
Thanks again!
Dale
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