My dad likes to think he knows all. Don't get me wrong, he knows a lot. But when it comes to certain subjects he thinks he's top dog. (Never let him talk you into a game of *Huggermugger. He's the only one that has fun. Stupid word game....) Shakespeare is one of those subjects.
Well, one day I was watching some educational t.v. (oh come on, like you never do it!) and there was a show that took a Shakespeare play and analyzed it, broke it down, told you what was going on in understandable english, that kind of thing. Well, I caught an episode about King Lear. I forget all the details, but anyway, I found the whole thing very fascinating, so when I went to pick up my dad from work, I was telling him all about it. (He likes to sing that song from Kiss Me Kate "Brush Up Your Shakespeare". He's so the top dog with Shakespeare that he even knows songs about Shakespeare that give reasons to have Shakespearean quotes on hand.)
Anyway, I just happened to bring up about Gloucester getting his eyes gabbed out. (Sorry, I guess I should have put a spoiler up!)
And my dad stopped me, and said, "No, King Lear got his eyes gabbed out."
A heated debate ensued which ended with my dad making a bet. If it was in fact (which he insisted it was) King Lear, I had to pay him a dollar. If I was right, which I was, he had to do the dishes. (I know, it's an odd bet. I know there must have been a reason for it, but off the top of my head I can think of why. Cut me some slack, I can't even remember why Gloucester got his eyes gabbed out in the first place!)
When we got home, I went for the VCR, because of course I taped this for future reference, and I'm glad I did. My dad went strait for his volume of the complete works of Shakespeare. While I was getting the tape ready I heard my mom in the other room ask my dad what he was doing. He told her and her response was "It was Gloucester." When I showed my dad the part of the show that proved me right, (which I of course showed him again, and again and again and again...) he still refused to believe it. "No! They got it wrong!"
To be fair to my old man, very very very old man, the first Shakespearean play he ever saw was King Lear, and it was imprinted on his memory very vividly. (My first was twelfth Night. I love that play! No one got their eyes gabbed out that I remember.) Only problem was, apparently this production he had seen took some creative license and gabbed out King Lear's eyes. I think they were trying to give poor Gloucester a break. After all, his parents inflicted him with a terrible name!
But finally he found in his volume of the complete works of Shakespeare (doesn't that alone make him sound smarter?) where it said, and I quote "Your daughter's right" he conceded and did the dishes. I think he may have even given me a dollar for saving him from no longer laboring under the delusion that King Lear was running around without eyes.
But the out come of the bet isn't important, what is important was how fun it was to take him down a peg. I don't know why this brings me so much joy. Seriously though, my dad is a very wonderful man.
Who cringes every time he hears the name Gloucester. Maybe I should name one of my twins that.... hmmmm....
*If you've never heard of Huggermugger, count your blessings and say a prayer that you never will.
*** Note: I had to make a few changes to this blog. One being I had the musical wrong from whence Brush Up Your Shakespeare came from. I've corrected that. Also I had to change the color that the comments link shows up in because my dad is too old to see it other wise.
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