When I read The Tempest, I came across a brief description about K-9's... Dogs... chasing Trinculo,
Stephano and Caliban. In the play these mutts were said to have been "... divers Spirits in shape of dogs and hounds..."
Now it got me thinking. And I'll get to my thought shortly after I touch on what I mentioned earlier about the island that Prospero is stranded on. I said that the island was Bermuda. Which is considered to be one of the unsolved mysterious found on the American continent.
Another unsolved mystery on that continent is a creature that is known for sucking blood.
No not Vampires, and especially NOT the sparkling ones.
The blood that this creature sucks is from goats! Yes you guessed it. The infamous "goat-sucker", also known as the Chupacabra!
Now I know what you're thinking. What does a Chupacabra have to do with the dogs that I mentioned earlier? Rest assured my friend, it will all make sense in the end. Knowing Shakespeare, he tends to have minor connections in his play, especially with Greek Mythology.
The reason I bring up Greek Mythology in this is because of the "hounds" that were talked about in the play. Now think of a mythical creature that is a type of hound. I'll give you a hint. They're found in Disney's Hercules and Harry Potter... Yes you got it! Hellhounds!
It would make sense that these dogs are Hellhounds because of not only Shakespeare's knowledge in Greek Mythology, but also the association he demonstrated with Prospero's sorcery and dealings with various spirits outside of the earthly realm.
Hellhounds are described as being paranormal guard dogs of the entrance to the afterlife. In folklore it is said that they have fire-based ability.
Now you're probably wondering, where's the connection? I will get to that! Chupacabras were believed to have been some vampiric humanoid reptiles that terrorized Puerto Rico by sucking the blood of goats.
Recently it has been made clear that the culprit was in fact a type of dog that had mange. Mange is a skin disease found on mammals that is caused by parasitic mites which generally resulted in making their skin very itchy. Due to the over excessive scratching, the animal would lose hair and their skin would become "inflamed" and raw. Did you catch the connection there?
In conclusion the dogs and hounds, that Prospero owned, were Hellhounds that are now known as Chupacabras! I guess that answers the question "Who let the dogs out?"
When I was watching a lot of Top Tens from Watchmojo, I stumbled upon Top Ten Hilarious Death scenes. It then got me thinking, why don't I do my Top Death Scenes in Shakespeare? So I decided to choose the most memorable from those plays and call it...
Top Tragic Tensed Scenes in Shakespeare Plays:
1- Lavinia- After dealing with Demetrius and Chiron in a most cruel manner, the brothers cut off her hands and even her tongue. Her neck later gets broken by her own father Titus because her chastity being violated.
I have no words for this... except this... Two "stumps" up for her tragic scene and death!
2- Romeo & Juliet- Both lovers couldn't live a day without each other. Quite literally if I may add. I mentioned before that it was all Juliet's fault for Rome's death. Since when has faking your death helped people be together in the end. Have you heard of "Peter and the Wolf"? Tragic tale! Anyway, Romeo assumes Juliet is dead. He then kills himself by drinking poison in order to die beside her in the tomb. When Juliet awakes she finds that Romeo is dead. She tries to drink the poison with hope to meet the same fate, but instead she stabs herself with Romeo's dagger to complete a dual tragedy.
3- Macbeth- Macbeth doesn't have a good head on his shoulders. He boasts about his invincibility as he is going to battle, but because of his pride, karma got the best of him. Instead of keeping the crown safely on his head, his head is cut off and the crown is placed on the head of a new king instead. You'd think that the witches could've given Macbeth more of a heads up for heaven's sake!
4- Ophelia- Ophelia was crying a river, as well as drowning her sorrows while dealing with Hamlet's emotional vibes, it was hard for her to know if he even loved her. Hearing about how Hamlet killed her father accidentally behind a curtain wasn't helping. Ophelia's mind wasn't flowing with joy at that time. She was talking about bushing up daises before she decided to take a little swim.
5- Polonious- This was clearly an accident. All Polonius had to say was "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" But no, he screamed for "help" and eventually got stabbed to death by Hamlet in the process.
6- Julius Caesar- Caesar didn't have a lot of friends. In fact all of them didn't like him. Even his close friend stabbed him in the back, quite literally if I may add.
7- Demetrius and Chiron- After mutilating Lavinia, Titus decides to "make" something out of them, by having them for dinner!
8- Gloucester- This guy is sight for sore eyes! It is plain to see that this eye popping scene with Gloucester is a sight to behold!
9- Cordelia-Thanks for hanging around for Cordelia. Hopefully you won't need the ropes for this one.
10- Cleopatra- Now this is something you'll really sink you teeth into. Let's just say that Cleopatra might've been on the movie "Snakes on a Plane".
11- Antigonus- Now this is a grizzly and yet random scene. Antigonus from "Winter's Tale" is pursued by "A Godless Killing Machine!" Not a loin, nor tiger; but a bear! Oh My! I can't "bear" to watch!
12- Hamlet- While having a duel, Hamlet gets scratched by at tip of a sword, that happened to be poisoned.
13- Claudius- He gets poisoned two ways by
Hamlet. One by getting stabbed with a poisonous sword and the other by drinking the poison that was intended for Hamlet. Could this be the first "Double Tap"?
14- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern- They were killed by pirates. It makes you wonder if they were killed by Bloody Pirates of the Caribbean or the Dread Pirate Roberts?
15- Iago- After deceiving many, especially Othello, he was then tortured to death for his heinous acts!
16- Desdemona- After being accused of cheating, she is then smothered to death with a pillow by her lover Othello. You think this was the first "pillow fight"?
17- Aaron- Lucius from Titus Andronicus decides to bury Aaron chest deep,
leaving him to die of starvation and thirst. What if Aaron found sand worms.
There you have it! Which Tragic Tensed Scene from Shakespeare Plays did you find memorable?
As I was reading the play "Measure for Measure", I came across another familiar word that I'm positive was the origin for a name of an anti-religious following in a particular Sci-Fi franchise. That word is "sith". Now as most of you Star War fans know, a "Sith" is a group of people welding a red Light Saber who go against Jedi beliefs. They normally have just a master and an apprentice and have the title "Darth" in front of their Sith name.
The name first appeared in the first Star Wars movie.
No, I'm not talking about Episode I, which was
a terrible movie to begin a prequel with new knowledge regarding "midichlorians" and introducing two annoying characters Jar Jar and young Anakin! I'm talking about the one that started it all in 1977. The first recording of the name in film was when Darth Vader was described as being The Dark Lord of the Sith. They only used it once. It wasn't until Episode I's release in 1999, that the name became widely known.
Now you're probably wondering, what is the word "sith" doing in Shakespeare plays? The word's usage appears 24 times in 13 of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, but is it referring to the hinted Dark Lords who are the cause of so many tragedies found in Shakespeare plays? The answer to that is "no", but it would be cool to think about now wouldn't it?
The word "sith" is another word for "since".
"Sith" this Sith isn't the "sith" we're looking for, we shall look elsewhere.
It would make sense that these dogs are Hellhounds because of not only Shakespeare's knowledge in Greek Mythology, but also the association he demonstrated with Prospero's sorcery and dealings with various spirits outside of the earthly realm.
Recently it has been made clear that the culprit was in fact a type of dog that had mange. Mange is a skin disease found on mammals that is caused by parasitic mites which generally resulted in making their skin very itchy. Due to the over excessive scratching, the animal would lose hair and their skin would become "inflamed" and raw. Did you catch the connection there?
