Comments on: Hot Doggerel: An Address to Shakespeare

By: Fergal

Fergal — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:19:16 +0000

Ha, a former civil servant myself, I added “time-serving” to avoiding making a geralisation regarding all civil servants, a much maligned group who in my experience are, in the main, diligent and consciencious.

The point about “paucity of imagination and intellect” is a key insight, I think. McGonagall was using a small number of huge, clunky building blocks, and this inevitably affected the nature of what he built from them. For example, compare the final line of the above poem:

Your plays are read in family circles with wonder and delight,
While seated around the fireside on a cold winter’s night.”

with this dedication to one of his (self)published poetry books:

“And when they read its pages, I hope it will fill their hearts with delight,
While seated around the fireside on a cold winter’s night;”

McGonagall not only has only one go-to idea when it comes to treasured books, he only has one line. He isn’t even plagiarising himself here, its just the only thing he can write on the subject.

By: Nam Citsale

Nam Citsale — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:26:01 +0000

The closest thing to a biopic has been ‘The Great McGonagall’, made in the early seventies and starring Spike Milligan.It also has Peter Sellers as Queen Victoria. I own a dvd edition of it so it should still be available.My dim memory of it is that it, unlike the great man’s poetry, didn’t provoke many chortles, although I am tempted to give it another go.

By: emordino

emordino — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:13:05 +0000

Has there been a McGonagall biopic, and if not why not? That Macbeth story is klassic komedy.

By: Nam Citsale

Nam Citsale — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:02:22 +0000

A decent analysis of bad writing from Mr. Crehan, although I suspect that the phrase ‘time-serving civil servant’ wouldn’t look out of place in the Irish Independent.
I’m afraid poor oul’ McGonagall is a convenient target because he is so comically distinctive. I think that this is because the drowning-man’s grip of his poetry is strengthened by the fact that it is born of a paucity of imagination and intellect. The malformation of rhetoric follows necessarily. The likes of Shelley and Pinter did not have that excuse. I often wonder if ‘Adonais’ and ‘After Lunch’ are worse poems than any of McGonagall’s, simply because those writers really should have known better.

By: Fergal

Fergal — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:03:26 +0000

My favorite thing about McGonagall, via Wikipedia:

“McGonagall also considered himself an actor, although the theatre where he performed, Mr Giles’ Theatre, would only let him perform the title role in Macbeth if he paid for the privilege in advance. Their caution proved ill-founded, as the theatre was filled with friends and fellow workers, anxious to see what they correctly predicted to be an amusing disaster. Although the play should have ended with Macbeth’s death at the hands of Macduff, McGonagall believed that the actor playing Macduff was trying to upstage him, and so refused to die”

By: fústar

fústar — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:43:10 +0000

Where the hecking hell does one start?

Reading McGonagall is like riding a really shit ghost train.

You can see the “thrills” approaching (in the half-light) & look forward to their smooth and well-timed execution. But then the train judders, or stops, or starts going backwards. And the thing pops up when you’re miles away. Or just past it. And you’re left feeling discombobulated and slightly upset.

Good example:

His writings are a treasure, which the world cannot repay,
He was the greatest poet of the past or of the present day

The first half of the couplet eases you in (“OK, grand, let’s see where we’re going here”, you think) only for the second to jarringly boot you back out with its o’erflow of syllables.