Now, maybe it was the locale, maybe it was homesickness, or maybe something else entirely, but somehow seeing Henry V the second time here in the Pasquino made much more of impact than it did at the Hoyts Entertainment Centre the year before. I found myself walking home through the alleys actually singing Non Nobis, and ducking into little bookshops on the way home trying to find a copy to read. It was around this time - just after seeing the film and wending my way back to the Pension Kennedy under the gloomy late afternoon overcast - that the thought struck me that this Shakespeare - Henry V - could be undertaken by a primary class. Probably Year 6 and probably a class that was a cut above the usual stuff, but primary school Shakespeare was definitely do-able.

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I eventually found a copy in a bookshop along a main shopping drag. It cost me 15000 lira and I read it several times back to back on trains whist Eurailing between Rome, Florence and Genoa, and several stop in between. The first time involved constantly flipping to the back for the explanatory notes, but after the third of fourth time though, I was becoming familiar with the language and having to rely less and less on the annotation.

Whilst staying in Florence, I commuted back to Rome one afternoon to catch Mel Gibson's Hamlet at the Pasquino (it was a free trip on Eurail, so why not?). By this time I was feeling confident enough to test my new found Bardian mettle with the Great Dane himself. Outside, in the alley (like the rear alley above) I met a class of senior high school students that had been studying Hamlet bi-lingually for the previous six weeks. Hamlet in its original language was to have been the culmination of their studies. The film had just come out and was being widely shown, but in Italy, everything is dubbed. I had even asked in one of the regular cinemas whether Hamlet was being shown in English or Italian. I figured that maybe, as it was Shakespeare, it might be subtitled. No way. The posters proclaiming "Amletto" should have given me the clue. Still, I couldn't help but respond to the answer the guy had given me with a slightly skeptical "Shakespeare? In Italiano?" I think they guy just said "Si" and turned to attend to more worthwhile matters. 

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Meanwhile, at the Pasquino, the print didn't show up! Instead, the Pasquino announced that they would be running Henry V instead! The class's teacher and myself then found ourselves in the bizarre situation of having the explain the whole of Henry V in about ten minutes! They had spent six weeks studying Hamlet!

The kids sat though Henry V as politely as possible, but it was easy to see they were having a hard time. Plenty of native English speakers have a hard time with Shakespeare! There was one moment before the battle of Agincourt where a priest gives an ad-libbed blessing in Latin (in nomine patre, et file, et spiritu sancte). At this moment one of the girls sitting in front of me excitedly exclaimed "Ho capito! Ho capito!"

However, it was good to see Henry V again, and I found myself doing the Non Nobis thing walking back to the station, and again thinking about the possibilities with a good Year 6. I read Henry V a couple more times, then put it, and they idea away in a safe place for later.

Later was 1993.

Find out what happened by clicking on the door.