Tonight we spent an old-fashioned evening at home with our charming guest, Billy Goat.
We began with a sing-a-long around the piano.
Even though the harpsichord is my favourite, I do enjoy the good old piano. Billy Goat has a very impressive singing voice
I was feeling a little nostalgic after playing the old songs so Daisy and I asked Billy Goat if he would like to have a look at some charming old family photographs.
He looked a bit worried at first, but we assured him there is nothing boring about our family!
You see, Daisy’s ancestors were all actors and because of that she has loads of great old photos of them in their fancy costumes. The photos that are in the picture are from the 1800’s. Ah, I miss the good old days
Seeing as Billy Goat is on the haunted trail we thought we would tell him about the superstitions surrounding the play Macbeth. Daisy said her father (also an actor) said that he had seen many strange and unusual happenings when he has been involved in a performance of Macbeth.
You see actors and other theatre people think it bad luck to mention Macbeth by name while inside a theatre, and prefer to call it The Scottish Play. The reason for this is that Shakespeare is said to have used the spells of real witches in his text. This made the witches very angry causing them to curse the play. Therefore, to say the name of the play inside a theatre is believed to doom the production to failure, and perhaps cause physical injury or worse to cast members. A large mythology has built up surrounding this superstition, with countless stories of accidents, misfortunes and even deaths, all mysteriously taking place during runs of Macbeth (or by actors who had uttered the name).
Here are three ways to ward of the curse:
1)Immediately leave the building the stage is in with the person who uttered the name, walk around it three times, spit over their left shoulders, say an obscenity then wait to be invited back into the building.
2) Leave the room, knock three times, be invited in, and then quote a line from Hamlet.
3)Recite one of Shylock's monologues from The Merchant of Venice
We ended the evening with a ghost story just as we used to in Victorian times. The unique thing about this particular ghost story is that it is true!
First Daisy made us a bedtime drink in some very pretty little cups. She said these cups were what the story was all about.
Here we are eagerly awaiting the story!
Here is the story of the pretty little cups…
One November a long, long time ago Daisy’s great grandmother Effie passed away very suddenly. Her death came as a great shock, especially to Daisy’s grandmother.
Daisy’s Grandmother lived next door to a lady who was a medium and held séances. The neighbour informed Daisy’s Grandmother that the ghost of Effie had made itself known to her during one of her seances and had said that her spirit was restless and had wanted to pass on a message to Daisy’s Grandmother.
It seemed that Effie had scrimped and saved for months to buy Daisy’s grandmother a birthday present, but had died before she had been able to go to the shop to pick it up. Daisy’s grandmother went to every shop in the vicinity of Effie’s house. She was beginning to think it was all some kind of hoax until she walked into a little gift shop that she had never been in before. She asked if a lady by a certain name had made a purchase there recently. The owner of the shop said that she had, and that she thought it was odd that the elderly lady had not returned to pick up the package as it had seemed very important to her. The lady in the shop gave Daisy’s grandmother the package and inside were a set of tiny little coffee cups, the very same ones we drank out of tonight!
The ghost of Effie never appeared again and the medium was convinced it was because she had completed her unfinished business on earth – spooky!
Well, I'm nipping out for a bite now, will write more soon
Lestat x
