The green-eyed monster - Shakespeare Speaks

source: BBC Learning English     2016年4月1日
Thomas Swann discovers the dangers of the green-eyed monster! Learn this colourful idiom.
For activities and extra materials connected to this episode: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/...
Shakespeare Speaks is a co-production by BBC Learning English and The Open University.

Narrator: It was late afternoon. William Shakespeare has just arrived at his favourite pub, The Duck and Whistle. His actor friend Thomas Swann is already there.

Barmaid: Mr Will. Can you do something about that Mr Thomas? He's been drinking and shouting all afternoon. If you can't shut him up, I'm going to throw him out.

Thomas Swann: I'm a wonderful husband. I give the woman everything and this is how she treats me!

Barmaid: Be quiet, you silly old fool. See, Mr Will? His head's full of jealous nonsense about his wife. That Robert Harley said he saw her talking to Henry Darcy, and now he's all in a rage…

Thomas: That filthy toad… I'll burn his house down… and when I get my hands on her…

Will: Oh dear. The green-eyed monster attacks again!

Barmaid
Hmm. Jealousy: the green-eyed monster. You're right Mr Will, jealousy is a monster: it gets inside people, eats them up. Makes them think the worst, like Mr Thomas here, makes them say and do terrible things.

Will: The green-eyed monster. It's rather clever, isn’t it Bess? It's in my play, Othello. The evil Iago warns his friend, Othello, about the dangers of jealousy. He says: Beware, my lord, of jealousy…

Robert Harley as Iago
Beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.

Barmaid: Beware the green-eyed monster… that's good advice!

Will: It is good advice indeed, but Iago's true plan is to make Othello believe that Desdemona, his wife, is cheating on him.

Barmaid: And is she?

Will: No, but Iago knows jealousy makes people do crazy things, and his plan works. Othello murders Desdemona!

Barmaid: That's terrible. Poor Desdemona! We'd better keep an eye on that Mr Thomas!

Narrator: We'll leave them there for now. In Shakespeare's day, the man was the head of the household, and an unfaithful wife was a great dishonour. The phrase the green-eyed monster is still used today to describe the dangers of uncontrolled jealousy in relationships. For example, Irish pop singer Ronan Keating said of his marriage:

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Will: Now tell me, daughter, did you understand anything Old Mother Howard said?

Daughter: Yes! She talked about you, father. She said that you're going to be the most famous Englishman of all time! …but I think she was making it up.

Will: Oh no, no, no… I'm sure she's absolutely right about that … She's obviously a very gifted woman. What shall we look at now, daughter?

Daughter: Can we go to the gold stall father? Pleeeeeease???

Will: I didn't need a fortune teller to predict that! To gold, or not to gold: that is the question.

Watch out for the green-eyed monster - Shakespeare Speaks

source: BBC Learning English     2016年3月31日
The dangers of the green-eyed monster - jealousy! For more about this phrase, visit our Shakespeare Speaks pages on BBC Learning English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/... There's more about our Shakespeare Speaks course at The Open University website, here: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/languag...