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Catherine Henze:
My name is Catherine Henze, and I get to teach Shakespeare at UW-Green Bay. I was teaching
a scene from ‘The Tempest’ in my class, and handsome Prince Ferdinand has just been
washed ashore in this big Tempest. He thinks his father has been killed in the storm.
And then he hears this song – it’s called ‘Full Fathom Five.’ And the words are
about death, but the music sounds like wedding music. Next, Ferdinand sees Prospero’s daughter,
the beautiful Miranda – and they fall in love at first sight. Which is a little odd,
right after you hear that your father has died – but they do.
In my class, I had two students perform this song. One of them played the keyboard, the
other one sang, and I actually played the viola de gamba – accompaniment. You know,
they fell in love at first sight! I mean, they fell in love, and they got married, and
I got to go to the wedding. The song worked its magic on them as well.
And then a year later, (in a) Learning in Retirement class … an elderly couple, who
had been married for 50 years – I love to have students read scenes, so they read this
same scene, this elderly couple. He had just had a stroke and was barely able to speak
– but still, they volunteered and they were doing this.
But I tell ya, the love in their eyes and their voices – when they spoke of falling
in love at first sight, it was like they were falling in love all over again in front of
the class.
He says to her, ‘O you wonder, I’ll make you the queen of Naples.’ And she responded,
‘I might call him a thing divine, for nothing natural I ever saw so noble.’
Her infirm husband truly was divine, in front of the class. I nearly wept. It’s an honor
to teach Shakespeare at UW-Green Bay.