King Charles III meets with Greg Doran of the Royal Shakespeare Company and author Jonathan Bate to examine the First Folio of King Charles I.
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TRANSCRIPT
So what makes it such a moving book to have, particularly to have here in Windsor, is that it was your predecessor, King Charles I, copy.
So we have the top of the page, very faint handwriting, “Dum spiro spero, C While I breathe, there is hope.
King Charles I.
And we know that he was, he was reading it while he was held here in Windsor prior to his execution.
And at Carisbrooke.
And at Carisbrooke as well.
That's right.
And what, do we know what, which plays he was reading?
Well, that's the fascinating thing, because he he knew all the plays as well.
Well, you would sort of feel in that in those terrible circumstances, the histories and the tragedies, maybe not the best plays... - No!
- Given what happens to kings.
So this is the catalog of all the plays and Greg, I mean that...
So he's so he's retitled, maybe he's retitling them.
So Benedict and Beatrice for “Much Ado.
” Pyramus and Thisbe for “Midsummer Night's Dream ” and Rosalind for “As You Like It ” and of course Malvolio for “Twelfth Night.
” And he's gone to the, the trouble of putting in the pagination of, of where, where to find these all.
So, it feels to me as though he's sort of just nominating where these plays are or, or Or do you think these are his favourite characters from the plays?
Yes.
Maybe.
Or the ones he enjoyed most or something.
But I, I've got a wonderful, great big, you know, all, all the collected plays and Shakespeare.
Beautifully bound, it was given to me long ago for my 21st birthday, I think.
But I filled it with all sorts of markers with endless comments on the plays I saw at Stratford.
