> We have a TV quiz show over here called "The Eggheads".
> In this, a team of five challengers takes on a team which
> consists of five winners of various other well-known
> quiz shows. In the last edition, a team made up of people
> probably in their twenties was asked the following question.
> "In the play Hamlet a young girl goes mad and drowns
> herself. Was she called (a) Desdemona, (b) Rosalind,
> or (c) Ophelia?". They chose (a).
>
> So, if it's like that over here, I wonder just what proportion
> of the American population has the slightest interest in
> Shakespeare anyway, let alone being bothered about who
> wrote the stuff.
Here in northern New Jersey, it doesn't seem to be particularly difficult to put together an amateur production, and, in New York, the Public Theatre's "Love's Labor's Lost" sold out. I'm no longer surprised by either misunderstanding or mangling of EMnE, but I would be surprised at a group of five presumably bright young people making the mistake you describe.
--
John W Kennedy
"Sweet, was Christ crucified to create this chat?"
-- Charles Williams. "Judgement at Chelmsford"