Last night I attended a lecture in the Shakespeare series by professor emeritus Dr. James Black, who I unfortunately never took a class with, but whose reputation for having memorized every single line of every Shakespeare play I'm of course in awe of. I've been meaning to attend one of these lectures since the series began in January, but it's always been too cold or a holiday or I've been busy. Last night Dr. Black lectured on Julius Caesar, starting with a bit about Wayne and Schuster, which the audience, mostly in their fifties, ate up, but I have no more memory of ever watching them than I do of the Friendly Giant, although they're apparently just as Canadian-ly famous. His point was that parody of J.C. only works because everyone knows it, or at least recognizes some lines from it ("beware the ides of March", etc.), because it's one of the more widely taught Shakespeare plays. He then talked about how John Wilkes Booth acted in a production of J.C., Freytag's 19th century construction of the drama theory and how J.C. transcends the formula, resonance of Falstaff as sacrificial beast in Caesar's desire to have fat men around rather than lean and hungry Cassius, resonance of cannibalism from Titus Andronicus, the politics of meals, the example of politicians handing out pancakes at the Stampede, Caesar's complicity in ignoring the soothsayer, Brutus' fatal mistake of underestimating Antony, Caesar wounding himself "among his privities" and I still wonder exactly what that means, ambition, and the overarching theme of politics linked to eating. I took copious notes, although I'm not really sure why, maybe some kind of university-withdrawal issue, and I really enjoyed the lecture. It was like being in school, but not in an unpleasant way. Looking forward to Antony and Cleopatra next week, if I make it.