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| Peter Greenham Angela Baddeley as Mistress Page (The Merry Wives of Windsor by Shakespeare) ca. 1960 oil on canvas Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon |
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| Alfred Lawrence Vivien Leigh as Blanche Dubois (A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams) 1950 oil on canvas Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Anthony Devas John Gielgud as Valentine (Love for Love by William Congreve) ca. 1943-44 oil on paper University of Bristol Theatre Collection |
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| Ethel Gabain Adelaide Stanley as Kate (The Two Bouquets by Herbert Farjeon) ca. 1937 oil on canvas Gallery Oldham, Manchester |
Video Blues
My husband has a crush on Myrna Loy,
and likes to rent her movies, for a treat.
It makes some evenings harder to enjoy.
The list of actresses who might employ
him as their slave is too long to repeat.
(My husband has a crush on Myrna Loy,
Carole Lombard, Paulette Goddard, coy
Jean Arthur with that voice as dry as wheat . . .)
It makes some evenings harder to enjoy.
Does he confess all this just to annoy
a loyal spouse? I know I can't compete.
My husband has a crush on Myrna Loy.
And can't a woman have her dreamboats? Boy,
I wouldn't say my life is incomplete
but some evening I could certainly enjoy
two hours with Cary Grant as my own toy.
I guess, though, we were destined not to meet.
My husband has a crush on Myrna Loy,
which makes some evenings harder to enjoy.
– Mary Jo Salter (1999)
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| Ethel Gabain Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet (Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare) ca. 1935 oil on canvas Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon |
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| Arthur Hacker Sir John Martin-Harvey as Hamlet (Hamlet by Shakespeare) 1916 oil on canvas Museum of London |
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| Fred Howard Michael Ethel Irving as Lady Frederick (Lady Frederick by Somerset Maugham) ca. 1907 oil on canvas Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| John Collier Julia Neilson as Drusilla Ives (The Dancing Girl by Henry Arthur Jones) 1891 oil on canvas Royal Academy of Music, London |
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| Charles Robert Leslie Ellen Tree as Hermione (The Winter's Tale by Shakespeare) ca. 1840 oil on canvas Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon |
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| Daniel Maclise Priscilla Horton as Ariel (The Tempest by Shakespeare) ca. 1840 oil on panel Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon |
Local History
In the liquor store one is enchanted by a print
Of bears holding each other's arms, heads slung up
Singing, dancing about a hooded fire – Tony
Behind the counter, has never danced . . .
Just as Michelangelo tussled with the shape
Of a Venus, his impulse was to attach
Breasts to men –
But Gene no longer has an interest in any kind of art.
My wife won't allow him in the house
Since he tumbled down the stairs – Gene who spent
The last war sitting on the bridge in Sault Ste. Marie
Guarding the locks, numb fingers on an icy machine gun . . .
Married a woman
Who became an eminent actress after she left him –
Gene says, how hairy she was in reality. What he
Described of their intimate life
I once found fascinating –
A dead branch like a claw.
Nothing so studied as something honored.
As we pivot in the park around the Civil War monument –
This isn't Florence by any means –
My wife squares her lips,
How wondrous it is to be discreet, the satisfactions
In maintaining a confidence . . .
Sparrows flitting into glass,
Clutter of bodies on wet pea gravel –
Those days when so much rain made the ground squeak
By itself
– Robert Vandermolen (2005)
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| William Hamilton Mary Stephens Wells (née Davies) as Mistress Page (The Merry Wives of Windsor by Shakespeare) ca. 1790 oil on canvas Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon |
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| William Hamilton Mrs. Siddons as Euphrasia (The Grecian Daughter by Arthur Murphy) 1784 oil on canvas Town Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon |
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| Johan Zoffany Charles Macklin as Shylock (The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare) ca. 1768 oil on canvas Holburne Museum, Bath |
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| Johan Zoffany David Garrick as John Brute (The Provok'd Wife by John Vanbrugh) ca. 1763-64 oil on canvas Holburne Museum, Bath |
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| Frank O. Salisbury Richard Burton as Henry V (Henry V by Shakespeare) 1956 oil on canvas Victoria & Albert Museum, London |