To read or not to read
QUESTION Would actors in Shakespeare’s time have been illiterate? If so, how did they learn their lines?
ShakeSpearean actors probably could read. The elizabethan era saw a revolution in education when, for the first time, commoners could access learning through the so-called petty schools. This is how Shakespeare is thought to have learned his letters.
an estimated third of boys and ten per cent of girls could read.
at petty, preparatory and grammar schools, pupils were expected to be able to memorise large amounts of information, so would have been quite capable of learning lines.
For Shakespearean productions, there was a single copy of the play, known as the booke, to which all actors could refer. The tradition of a single reference manuscript is maintained to this day.
There was no director — acting companies would work out the action for themselves.
actors were given a scroll called a role that contained only their lines and twoword cues.
It was a form of copyright protection: since each actor only had part of the play, it was much harder for an unauthorised publisher to produce a pirated copy or bad quarto.
an actor would learn his role by rote and keep the scroll safe under his belt for quick reference.
an actor was expected to have a number of roles learned so well that they could reprise the part in future productions.
If they forgot their lines, they could quickly review them backstage in the wings, which is where we get the phrase ‘to wing it’.
Today, we rely on mass-produced books and technology. In earlier times, paper was scarce so scholars, military leaders, ship captains and businessmen had to remember large blocks of important information.
a key method for achieving this was the use of rhyme. French merchants used a poem of 137 rhyming couplets that contained the rules of arithmetic.
This is why Shakespeare’s lines have a strong rhythmic quality. even if an actor
forgot specific words, they found it easy to improvise.
at an elizabethan petty school or preparatory school, boys from the age of four would learn by rote the apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s prayer, the Ten Commandments and teachings on the Sacraments.
The pupils would pass around a horn book — a wooden paddle with the alphabet and a verse glued to the surface and protected by a piece of transparent horn. Those hoping to go to grammar school would have to learn Latin.
In Shakespeare’s time, acting was open only to boys and men. The boys played the female roles, brilliantly sent up in the Ben elton TV comedy Upstart Crow.
They joined a company such as the king’s Men or admiral’s Men as an apprentice and were taught by the more senior actors.
There were entire groups of boy players — the Children of the Chapel and the paul’s Boys — who were musically talented, strictly disciplined, often fluent in Latin and educated in the trivium: grammar, logic and rhetoric.
Adrian Murray, Warwick.
QUESTION Why does an escalator handrail move faster than the stairway?
The main reason is safety. escalator handrails are slightly faster than the steps to bring the body’s centre of gravity forward when getting on to prevent falls.
It encourages concentration throughout the ride. There are also engineering considerations. a giant rubber ring driven by a friction wheel rolls around the system. Over time, the rubber on the outer side of the driving wheel will wear.
The speed of the rubber drive wheel will slow by 1 per cent for every 3mm of wear. If the handrail was initially set at the same speed as the stairs, it would soon drop behind.
To correct this, it is set at a speed 2 per cent greater than that of the moving stairs, which leaves room for loss and slippage over time.
When the handrail is moving slower than the stairs, the mechanism should be replaced for safety reasons.
L. G. Moore, London N8.
QUESTION Have any foreign firms changed their name for the English-speaking market because the original was seen as funny or rude?
The kinki nippon Tourist Company is one of Japan’s largest travel companies. It started as the kinki nippon railway Co in 1944, named after the southern region of Japan’s main island, honshu.
The company was mystified when it entered english- speaking markets in 1963 and began receiving requests for unusual tours. So in english- speaking countries, the name was changed to knT, which wasn’t much better.
The honda Jazz was set to be called the honda Fitta when it was launched in 2001. It was felt that this name had a european flair to it.
That was until the firm realised that it was a vulgar term used for female genitalia in Sweden, and had sexual connotations in Spanish and Italian.
The popular hatchback was rebranded for the european market, though it is still called the honda Fit in the U.S. and Japan.
Mazda’s Laputa minivan was launched in 1999. The Spanish word puta means ‘prostitute’ so the advert offering a ‘ lightweight, impact- absorbing body’ and ‘smooth, comfortable ride’ caused hilarity.
Wang Laboratories was an early U.S. computer company. The Wang Customer Service Centre in London was the result of rapid rebranding — its original name was Wang Care. Will Taylor, Watford, Herts.
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