Irvin Leigh Matus - Researching Shakespeare

Researching Shakespeare

His interest in Shakespeare dated back to high school, though he once confessed that his notion of a good read consisted back then of reading a Brooklyn Dodger box-score sheet. Shakespeare classes tortured him for the impression they gave that Shakespeare wrote footnotes. Yet one day, while walking down Flatbush Avenue, a line - "You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!" - from Julius Caesar floated to mind and seemed to sum up the appearance of the crowd he encountered: He suddenly realised that, unwittingly, he had been memorizing large swathes of Shakespeare. He became a dedicated Shakespearean shortly afterwards, on watching Richard Burton's performance as Edwin Booth in the film Prince of Players