HAPPY 2019!

MURRRRRDERRRRR : Macbeth Lesson 10 Act II Scene II

I only had about forty minutes before class ended to go through the first murder in Macbeth. There’s never enough time 

To reinforce Lady Macbeth’s behavior from the previous lesson I did an activity where ...

Let’s listen 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WPfQufcDOrxupXbECTxZVxw2yGVnqpzi/view?usp=drivesdk

For more -

https://thewriteelements.wordpress.com/2018/12/30/murrrrrderrrrr-macbeth-lesson-10-act-ii-scene-ii/

Signposts in literature : an excuse to watch videos

I'll be the first to admit, even to my students, really picking out signposts is quite hard to understand without an example or two in actual books and films to relate to

And mind you I wasn't taught this in school either. My brain does me proud.

For the post,I have it on my wordpress but it’s protected by a password, obviously

Macbeth Lesson plan update: The rest of Act I Scene III

via Macbeth Lesson plan update: The rest of Act I Scene III

Macbeth Lesson 9 Act I Scene VII - Act II Scene I

as I've covered the importance of Lady Macbeth's beguiling ways in the previous lesson, I've sped through only mentioning the translations and we've finally reached Act II

Blanks are abundant here!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_jNAcHxAF1APe4izYrm-AWuh-ZybJ-Eh/view?usp=drivesdk

What comes next is so exciting.

We've seriously been anticipating this, many student and I.

The tightening of the noose. The lowering of the guillotine.

Tomorrow we cover ...
- find out more @ https://thewriteelements.wordpress.com/2018/12/29/macbeth-lesson-9-act-i-scene-vii-act-ii-scene-i/

And the leading post after that is https://thewriteelements.wordpress.com/2018/12/30/murrrrrderrrrr-macbeth-lesson-10-act-ii-scene-ii/

Credits to the original designer of the photo. It's brilliant.

Guess What? #1 & #2

painstaking search for pictures to clear as led me to find this gem. I loved this conversation back in 2016 when I saved it and I still smiled sillily today

as and when I find these little tasty morsels I'll put it up on my wordpress in the form of a guessing game 😆

Post1
https://scriboergosum831.wordpress.com/2018/12/27/guess-what-%e2%98%9d%f0%9f%8f%bb/

Post 2
https://scriboergosum831.wordpress.com/2018/12/27/guess-what-%e2%9c%8c%f0%9f%8f%bb/

Doesn't this look WAY more like the blog of a writer?

I am mega uber super mondo proud of the look of my new wordpress.

Though I obviously praise the creators of this design, the cute little buttons on the top banner are all mine!

I do hope traffic to actually head there because it just looks much better.

Right now this beautiful blogspot will host both my reviews and my teaching, but as you can see, I'm not good with computers and coding (the basis of blogger is, after all, HTML and scripting. If it's not scriptwriting, I'm clueless) therefore this blog isn't up to the standard I wish.

Please have a look

http://thewriteelements.blogspot.com is simply done but prettied up to show off my work as a freelance tutor and trainer

but http://scriboergosum831.wordpress.com is my first love: writing

Articles from newspapers, in church bulletins, on school websites and magazines, and of course my beloved book reviews are all there - neat and tidy, waiting patiently for readers (as I am)

Oh, FYI, that screenshot is of a little guessing game I'm doing. I really wanna remember the books I got these witty quotes from urrgghhghhhgh

Haroun and the Sea of Stories lesson 1

I mentioned in my previous blog post of how I was suddenly thrust into reading this story to teach

So in a couple of days I've had to get the analyses and themes ready for class. It's even harder because the book can't be found in local bookstores (Gee, aren't we a literate state...)

With all lessons, I still feel it's my duty to explain more about literature than simply talking incessantly about one book, I say this with some prejudices, since my student really doesn't like it (it's evident in the recording, just wait a few minutes and her griping starts)

Ergo, I planned on starting the lesson by explaining "storytelling", which is essentially what the book is about. It's all one neat cycle. Anyway, that meant looking at what the Hero's Journey is. I did research on archetypal characters but the look on my student's face told me I couldn't go on to that.

As I repeated over and over, which you will hear, it's hard to teach a book if you don't like it 😖

Also, I'll be reviewing the book soon. Watch out for that. Still deciding on what to write 🙂🙃🙂🙃

So we're going to tackle this book by summarising each section of a chapter, along with analysing that, themes, even inferring the characters' traits

Let's listen to chapter 1 and a bit of chapter 2

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PS_8q9F9l3arF7G3HVl4wOIiFPPn15Am/view?usp=drivesdk

Credits to the original designer of the photo. It's brilliant.

Macbeth Lesson 8 Act I Scenes VI-VII (diving into it)

https://thewriteelements.wordpress.com/2018/12/23/macbeth-lesson-8-act-1-scenes-6-7-diving-into-it/

Previously on Macbeth 🧐

In Scene 5

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NmQruRDSB5uEB8banZqX8dXemU_9XYl_/view?usp=drivesdk

We continue with the last of Act 1 (it goes much smoother because I've given the play and translations)



It is the moment for Lady Macbeth. And the turning point for her husband.

Basically in Scene 7 it's where the s*** hits the fan

And for us to learn ... how to get what we want😉

Let's listen to the scenes 6 and the intro to 7 with an activity

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1enHvfkUezrp9ot2QYG_EuXZIi2xTqXJ2/view?usp=drivesdk

My student praised me saying I could be a voice actor. How sweet. I'd be awesome as great, power-hungry women bent on getting their own way 🥰

P.S. my student has a cold so if you hear scary trumpeting, it's him

SCENE VI. Before Macbeth's castle.

Hautboys and torches. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENNOX, MACDUFF, ROSS, ANGUS, and Attendants

DUNCAN

This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.

BANQUO

This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle:
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed,
The air is delicate.
Enter LADY MACBETH

DUNCAN

See, see, our honour'd hostess!
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you
How you shall bid God 'ild us for your pains,
And thank us for your trouble.

LADY MACBETH

All our service
In every point twice done and then done double
Were poor and single business to contend
Against those honours deep and broad wherewith
Your majesty loads our house: for those of old,
And the late dignities heap'd up to them,
We rest your hermits.

DUNCAN

Where's the thane of Cawdor?
We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose
To be his purveyor: but he rides well;
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him
To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,
We are your guest to-night.

LADY MACBETH

Your servants ever
Have theirs, themselves and what is theirs, in compt,
To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,
Still to return your own.

DUNCAN

Give me your hand;
Conduct me to mine host: we love him highly,
And shall continue our graces towards him.
By your leave, hostess.
Exeunt

SCENE VII. Macbeth's castle.

Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service, and pass over the stage. Then enter MACBETH

MACBETH

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust;
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.

Credits to the original designer of the photo. It's brilliant.

Update: MY WORLD IS TURNED ON ITS HEAD

Now I'm thrown for a loop

I've been teaching my student on Animal Farm but getting her booklist from school today she realised ...

IT'S NOT ANIMAL FARM!

Oh falala lala laaaa la la laaaaa

Is this what they mean by karmic retribution?

Initial post:

Even more planning

I feel like a super villain with endless evil plots that I hope work out in the end

Huh, I don't think I have many moments of not thinking about work

Even on what was meant to be a relaxing train ride home

Which means I had this huge piece of paper, with my phone as a table, and my pen hovering in midair attempting to write neatly

I scratched out more things to do,

namely activities 😏 cause what is class without activities

With these many thought bubbles, I need concrete ideas before Christmas 🧐

Macbeth Lesson 7 Act I Scene V

I realize as I watched my student tried to painstakingly translate my blanks, I am cruel.

...Not as cruel as Lady Macbeth planning murder obviously

(Example in the screenshot I took of the worksheet - for more, https://thewriteelements.wordpress.com/2018/12/16/macbeth-lesson-7-act-1-scene-5/)

Let's listen:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NmQruRDSB5uEB8banZqX8dXemU_9XYl_/view?usp=drivesdk

SCENE V. Inverness. Macbeth's castle.

Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter

LADY MACBETH

'They met me in the day of success: and I have
learned by the perfectest report, they have more in
them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire
to question them further, they made themselves air,
into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in
the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who
all-hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title,
before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred
me to the coming on of time, with 'Hail, king that
shalt be!' This have I thought good to deliver
thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou
mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being
ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it
to thy heart, and farewell.'
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, great Glamis,
That which cries 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it;
And that which rather thou dost fear to do
Than wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.
Enter a Messenger

What is your tidings?

Messenger

The king comes here to-night.

LADY MACBETH

Thou'rt mad to say it:
Is not thy master with him? who, were't so,
Would have inform'd for preparation.

Messenger

So please you, it is true: our thane is coming:
One of my fellows had the speed of him,
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make up his message.

LADY MACBETH

Give him tending;
He brings great news.
Exit Messenger

The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry 'Hold, hold!'
Enter MACBETH

Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.

MACBETH

My dearest love,
Duncan comes here to-night.

LADY MACBETH

And when goes hence?

MACBETH

To-morrow, as he purposes.

LADY MACBETH

O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't. He that's coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night's great business into my dispatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.

MACBETH

We will speak further.

LADY MACBETH

Only look up clear;
To alter favour ever is to fear:
Leave all the rest to me.
Exeunt

Macbeth: Lesson Act I Scene IV-V

https://thewriteelements.wordpress.com/2018/12/05/macbeth-lesson-act-i-scene-iv-v/

Welcome Lady Macbeth. We've been expecting you.

To know where I got the amazing activity, head to my original post at the top there!

Then I did the two readings with the same gusto 😆 too

Can't wait for the next lesson in a few weeks to really get into the unrighteous murder of King Duncan

I may have been too zealous. As homework I left blanks again in the translation but it's much harder this time. Instead of portions of sentences it's whole sentences. And the notes too. It's my student's turn to research

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RNzIHUv8tNhGyGWsnN7xD3qP00IxCBvp/view?usp=drivesdk

DUNCAN

Welcome hither:
I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo,
That hast no less deserved, nor must be known
No less to have done so, let me enfold thee
And hold thee to my heart.

BANQUO

There if I grow,
The harvest is your own.

DUNCAN

My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places are the nearest, know
We will establish our estate upon
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
The Prince of Cumberland; which honour must
Not unaccompanied invest him only,
But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,
And bind us further to you.

MACBETH

The rest is labour, which is not used for you:
I'll be myself the harbinger and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So humbly take my leave.

DUNCAN

My worthy Cawdor!

MACBETH

[Aside] The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
Exit

DUNCAN

True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant,
And in his commendations I am fed;
It is a banquet to me. Let's after him,
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome:
It is a peerless kinsman.
Flourish. Exeunt

SCENE V. Inverness. Macbeth's castle.

Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter

LADY MACBETH

'They met me in the day of success: and I have
learned by the perfectest report, they have more in
them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire
to question them further, they made themselves air,
into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in
the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who
all-hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title,
before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred
me to the coming on of time, with 'Hail, king that
shalt be!' This have I thought good to deliver
thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou
mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being
ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it
to thy heart, and farewell.'
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, great Glamis,
That which cries 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it;
And that which rather thou dost fear to do
Than wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal.

Credits to the original designer of the photo. It's brilliant.

Macbeth: Lesson 5-6 Act I Scenes III-IV

We've met the witches again and now get a glimpse of what is going on in Macbeth's head.

oh, so scary
The class discussion also includes me summarising scene IV and to find out about dramatic irony
Head down to https://thewriteelements.wordpress.com/2018/12/04/macbeth-lesson-5-6-act-i-scenes-iii-iv/

Come and listen ~ 🙂

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kFjkgQSy0Xhgf06trXs-3MlJPR0CbUbK/view?usp=drivesdk

MACBETH

Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and to be king
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.
Witches vanish

BANQUO

The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd?MACBETH

Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted
As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd!BANQUO

Were such things here as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?MACBETH

Your children shall be kings.BANQUO

You shall be king.MACBETH

And thane of Cawdor too: went it not so?BANQUO

To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here?
Enter ROSS and ANGUS

ROSS

The king hath happily received, Macbeth,
The news of thy success; and when he reads
Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
His wonders and his praises do contend
Which should be thine or his: silenced with that,
In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day,
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
Strange images of death. As thick as hail
Came post with post; and every one did bear
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence,
And pour'd them down before him.

ANGUS

We are sent
To give thee from our royal master thanks;
Only to herald thee into his sight,
Not pay thee.

ROSS

And, for an earnest of a greater honour,
He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane!
For it is thine.

BANQUO

What, can the devil speak true?

MACBETH

The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me
In borrow'd robes?

ANGUS

Who was the thane lives yet;
But under heavy judgment bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not;
But treasons capital, confess'd and proved,
Have overthrown him.

MACBETH

[Aside] Glamis, and thane of Cawdor!
The greatest is behind.
To ROSS and ANGUS

Thanks for your pains.
To BANQUO

Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me
Promised no less to them?

BANQUO

That trusted home
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence.
Cousins, a word, I pray you.

MACBETH

[Aside] Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.--I thank you, gentlemen.
Aside

Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not.

BANQUO

Look, how our partner's rapt.

MACBETH

[Aside] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,
Without my stir.

BANQUO

New horrors come upon him,
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould
But with the aid of use.

MACBETH

[Aside] Come what come may,
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

BANQUO

Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure

.MACBETH

Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
Are register'd where every day I turn
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king.
Think upon what hath chanced, and, at more time,
The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak
Our free hearts each to other

.BANQUO

Very gladly.

MACBETH

Till then, enough. Come, friends.
Exeunt

SCENE IV. Forres. The palace.

Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENNOX, and Attendants

DUNCAN

Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
Those in commission yet return'd?

MALCOLM

My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die: who did report
That very frankly he confess'd his treasons,
Implored your highness' pardon and set forth
A deep repentance: nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied in his death
To throw away the dearest thing he owed,
As 'twere a careless trifle.

DUNCAN

There's no art
To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSS, and ANGUS

O worthiest cousin!
The sin of my ingratitude even now
Was heavy on me: thou art so far before
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.

Credits to the original designer of the photo. It's brilliant.