Shakespeare and Blake's 7

Chris Blenkarn suggested that there are correspondences between the characters in some of Shakespeare's plays and the characters in Blake's 7. This captured my imagination and I decided to look through the plays and find 'quotes' from each character which would illustrate the resemblance. It was only when I started leafing through the plays that I noticed how close the correspondences were. Uncanny in some cases.

I'm not suggesting that Terry Nation and the B7 writers raided the Shakespearean store cupboard and nicked their characters ready made. It is simply that certain plot devices and characters 'work' particularly well, so you see them cropping up in folk tales, in Shakespeare, in BBC series, etc.

Here are two examples taken from The Tempest:

Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, has been exiled to a deserted island by his wicked brother Antonio, who has taken over in his place. In exile he has studied and developed his magical skills until he is in a position to use them to seek revenge. He uses his magic powers to summon up a tempest which wrecks Antonio's ship and strands all the key players on the island, where Prospero's scheme for revenge and restitution is worked out in full.

Antonio, the wicked scheming brother, is the very image of Servalan. He is charming, ambitious and quite ruthless. He talks in that teasing and flirtatious way that Servalan has, while encouraging people to murder each other. He seems to be completely lacking in sympathetic feeling for the people he tramples on. A 'greedy gangster' in short. I rather suspect that people like this emerge in every society. If your number one aim is to get ahead then you will turn into Servalan. Nice thought.

Avon, on the other hand is Prospero. Prospero is older and fairly sexless, but like Avon he is more intelligent than everyone else around him, and yet he is excluded from established society.

As a result he:

Is dangerous, scornful, angry, aloof, lonely and regretful.
Has the capacity to help or hinder everyone else through his machinations.
Has nobody to confide in
Wants to put things right
Doesn't really like people enough to take up his place in society.

All of these correspondences emerge naturally from the original idea of the excluded genius. Simple dramatic consistency means you can map Prospero onto Avon in nearly every scene.

Not only will the B7 fan find familiar characters in Shakespeare, but highly familiar plot devices:

Sticking with the Tempest--Prospero has a daughter Miranda. She has lived in isolation with her father in a deserted land near the sea. When the dashing hero is shipwrecked on her island she is scared but keen to travel out with him to take her place with the rest of the human race. She is completely guileless and innocent when it comes to the male sex. No doubts which B7 cast member this corresponds to.

And what about...

Laertes as Del Grant (Aren't you the bastard who killed my sister?)
Lost leaders turning up as shadows and copies (check out the Winter's Tale).
Orac-les of course are always very irritating in all stories, and usually misleadingly literal.

The Tempest

Dramatis personae

Prospero--Avon. (Orac can play his Books)
Ariel--Cally. (Because Ariel hears mysterious voices)
Miranda--Dayna (living with her dad)
Ferdinand--Tarrant. (Young, dashing, confused)
Antonio--Servalan. (Villainous, cunning)
King of Naples--Blake
Caliban--Travis 1&11. (A monster. Perhaps they could play Caliban as a pantomime horse)
Trinculo--Vila. (The jester. Spends a lot of time getting drunk.)
Boatswain--Jenna. (Shipwrecks them)

Once again the characters are eager to identify themselves with their B7 counterparts.

Prospero--Avon: 'If thou more murmerest, I will rend an oak and peg thee in his knotty entrails till thou hast howled away twelve winters' / 'Pardon, master'

Ariel--Cally.: 'Thy thoughts I cleave to, what's thy pleasure?'

Miranda--Dayna.: 'Hence, bashful cunning, and prompt me plain and holy innocence'

Ferdinand--Tarrant.: 'For several virtues have I liked several women'

Antonio--Servalan.: 'But for your conscience...' / 'Aye, sir. Where lies that?'

King of Naples--Blake: 'Whether thou be he or no, or some enchanted trifle to abuse me, I know not.'

Caliban--Travis: 'Do that mischief that may make this island thine own for ever, and I thy foot-licker'

Trinculo--Vila.: 'Was there ever man a coward that hath drunk so much sack as I today?'

Stephano--Gan.: 'We'll not run, monsieur monster'

I am also tempted to identify Blake with a fairly minor character called Gonzago. He is an extremely nice, worthy chap, with idealistic political ambitions, who is also a bit daft.
"In the commonwealth I would by contraries execute all things. For no kind of traffic would I admit. No name of magistrate. Letters would not be known. Riches, poverty and use of service, noneŠ"

"No occupation. All men idle, all. And women too, but innocent and pure. No sovereignty."
(Cynical onlooker remarks: Yet he would be king on't)

"All things in common should produce without sweat or endeavour. Treason, felony, sword, knife or gun would I not haveŠ

I would with such perfection govern sir, to excel the golden age."

Antonio laughs at him.

Hamlet

Dramatis personae

Hamlet--Avon
The Ghost--Blake
Ophelia--Cally
Gertrude--Jenna
Claudius--Travis
Polonius--Orac
Laertes--Del Grant
Horatio--Tarrant
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern--Vila and Gan

The characters in Hamlet have an annoying habit of being too complex and idiosyncratic to fit B7 very well. There is far less agreement among the people I have spoken too about how to map these characters. You would think Shakespeare would have been more helpful to the B7 fan. Tsk.

Hamlet--Avon: 'Man delights not me--no nor woman neither'

The Ghost--Blake: 'Adieu, adieu, remember me.'

Ophelia--Cally: 'Oh woe is me, to have seen what I have seen.'

Claudius--Travis: 'This cursed hand'

Polonius--Orac: 'Hath there been such a time / That I have positively said 'tis so, when it proved otherwise? / If circumstances lead me I will find where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed.'

Rozencranz and Guildenstern--Vila and Gan: 'The indifferent children of the earth.' / 'Happy in that we are not over happy'; 'Take you me for a sponge my lord?'

King Lear

Dramatis personae:

Lear-- Blake
The Fool--Vila
Cordelia--Dayna
Edgar--Cally
Edmund--Travis
Kent--Gan
Goneril--Servalan.
Regan--Jenna (not that she fits, but that there aren't any other women left)

And for anyone who still has doubts. Here are the characters in their own words.

Lear--Blake: 'A man may see how this world goes with no eyes...; Plate sin with gold and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks.'

The Fool--Vila: 'Have more than thou showest / Speak less than thou knowest / Lend less than thou owest / Ride more than thou goest'

Goneril--Servalan.: 'Pluck out his eyes'
(though it's Regan who actually does it--yuck.)

Cordelia--Dayna.: 'So young, my lord, and true'

Edmund--Travis: 'Now gods, stand up for bastards'

Edgar--Cally.: 'Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once.'

Kent--Gan: 'Few words, but to effect.'

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