札记 - 莎士比亚剧作略览

yearshappy

Characters

Macbeth - a Scottish general and a nobility of eastern Scotland. He is a powerful man but not virtuous and to fufill his ambitions, he starts to commit crimes.
Lady Macbeth - the wife of Macbeth. She is the critical figure in murdering the King Duncan. However, she falls victim to guilt and madness to such a greater degree that she commits suicide.

King Duncan - the good king of Scotland and the model of a virtuous, benevolent ruler.
Malcolm - The oldest son of King Duncan, fled to England after his father's murder. supposed to be the King after Macbeth
Donalbain - King Duncan's younger son, escaped to Ireland

Hecate - the goddess of witchcraft
The three witches - By applying charms, spells and prophecies, together with Hecate the three mysterious hags plot mischief on Macbeth

Banquo - a brave noble general, murdered by Macbeth
Fleance - the son of Banquo, fled away the attempt of murdering. Presumably, he may come to rule Scotland to fulfill the witches' prophecy.

Macduff - a scottish nobleman who eventually helps Malcolm to unseat Macbeth
Lennox, Ross, Angus, Menteith, Caithness - Scottish noblemen
Siward - general of the English forces

Seyton - Macbeth's servant and attendant
Doctor - Lady Macbeth's doctor
Gentlewoman - Lady Macbeth's caretaker
Porter - gatekeeper at Macbeth's castle

three murderers

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Scene summaries

Act one

S1
The three witches meet in thunder and lighting. Plan to meet Macbeth in an open field before sunset. 'Fair is foul, and foul is fair.'
S2
King Duncan hears of all the stories about the brave Mecbeth, told by Captain and Ross (a nobleman) .
The thane of Cawder, a disloyal traitor, will be excuted whereas Macbeth will be given all his titles by the King Duncan.

开场的几个幕与奥赛罗相似， 英雄人物出场前，都是他人述说其勇士行为，铺垫人物悲剧或者复杂性的开始

S3
On the way that the witches are going to meet Macbeth, the first witch is telling a story of hers. As a sailor's wife refused to give her chestmuts, the witch is going to make the sailor's journey miserable and drain the life out of him after 81 weeks.

The witches' prophecy to Macbeth
- Hail to you, thane of Glamis
- Hail to you, thane of Cawdor
- All hail, Macbeth, the future king!
their prophecy to Banquo
- Your descendants will be kings

Ross brings the news to Macbeth that King Dunan will make him the thane of Cawdor.
Two of the prediction come true to Macbeth. 'I find myself thinking about murdering Kind Duncan, a thought so horrifying that it makes my hair stand on end and my heart pound inside my chest..'   (Macbeth knows right from the beginning that he is going to do wrong, terribly wrong)
To Banquo, he keeps his mind clear. He knows 'Evils earn our trust by telling the truth about little things, but then they betray us when it will damage us the most.'
两个同样雄心壮志的勇士对待女巫的预言，反应截然不同，也因此导致两人的未来路不同

S4
"There's no way to read a man's mind by looking at his face. I trusted Cawdor completely" quoted from Duncan.
King announces that he will bestow the kingdom on his eldest son. To become king Macbeth himself, he now decides to step over the son of King Duncan. 'I won't let my eye look at what my hand is doiing, but in the end I'm still going to do that thing I'd be horrified to see.'
Macbeth 不相信自己可以做坏事，但依然决定去做

S5
Lady Macbeth learns all about the prophecy of the three witches from her husband's letter before the king coming to their castle.
She told her husband that the night would change every night and day for the rest of their lives. She asks Macbeth to disguise his real feelings and to project a peaceful mood so that suspicion won't be aroused.
"You should look like an innocent flower, but be like the snake that hides underneath the flower." 夫人似乎更决绝恶毒而无良性

S6
King Duncan arrives in the castle of Macbeth and meets Lady Macbeth.

S7
'We can't go on with this plan (assassination of Duncan),' said Macbeth to his wife,  worrying about the failure and a trace of guilty of conscience.
'We will lay all the blames on the drunken servants,' comforts her husband and urges him to carry on with the plan.
Macbeth "Now I'm decided, and I will exert every muscle in my body to commit this crime."

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Act 2

S1
The king is asleep and Macbeth is going to kill him.
"The more I talk, the more my courage cools." quote of Macbeth

S2
Lady Macbeth put so many drugs in the servants' drinks that no one can tell if they are alive or dead.
Macbeth looks at his bloody hands, saying "This is a sorry sight."
"Why couldn't I say Amen? I desperately needed God's blessing, but the word Amen stuck in my throat,"Macbeth told this to his wife after the murdering.
'Macbeth has murdered sleep, and therefore Macbeth will sleep no more. '

S3
To his horror, Macduff discovers that the king was murdered in Macbeth's castle. The nobemen are going to meet in the hall, while the two sons of Duncan make decision that they are going to English and Ireland to escape from danger.

S4
The servants were killed by Macbeth for accusing of King's murders. Ross is the only person to question the motivation for servants in doing so. The sons of the king who had run away were taken the blame.
Macbeth has already been named King and is waiting for the crown in Scone.

In Line 31, the word Scone has captal S in it. It's not any quick-bread kind but refer to the village in Scotland where once all crown had been held on the stone of Scone.

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Act three

S1
Macbeth is now the King of Scotland. He worries about his kindship taken away by Banquo's son as the witches' prophet. Macbeth also believes that Banquo has the wisdom to act bravely but also safely. He is not afraid of anyone else but Banquo.
He asks Banquo for exactly what he will do and where he will be this afternoon.
He then calls two murderers in and urges them to kill Banquo.

S2
Lady Macbeth tries to comfort his husband. 'What's done is done,' in another words is that's it; whereas Macbeth thinks bad deeds force you to commit more bad deeds. He is anxious to call the night coming quickly so that the murderers can tear up Banquo's lease on life.
To help understanding the word LEASE, I would say - We all have our lease on life. Once you've done your lease, you say goodbye to the earth.

S3
The 3rd murderer joins the other two. Banquo dies while his son, Fleance, ran away.
The three muerderers fail in half of their mission.

S4
At the banquet
Seeinng the ghost of Banquo, Macbeth acts so strangely to others that his wife has to cover for him, telling the lords not to pay attention to Macbeth. Nevertheless, Macbeth is determined to go the worse about what's going to happen.

Below quotations help me learn how Macbeth was portrayed by Shakespare
quote - I have walked so far into this river of blood that even if I stopped now, it would be as hard to go back to being good as it is to keep killing people.
quote - My strange self-delusions just come from inexperince. We're still just beginners when it comes to crime.

the description that I could learn from
solid as a piece of marble, firm as a rock, free as the air

S5
The three witches meet Hecate - the goddess of witchcraft - to trick Macbeth with illusions because Macbeth behaves like a spoiled brat, angry and hateful,  and with chasing after what he wants he doesn't care about anything else.

quote - Overconfidence is man's greatest enermy.

S6
Lennox has suspicions on Macbeth who killed the two servants while they were still drunk that they had no chance to say anything. The country is suffering under a tyrant!

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Act Four

S1
The witches put all the ingredients into a bubbling cauldron to make the charm.
Macbeth comes to demand the witches and appraritions to foretell him of his future.
The messengers brought the news to Macbeth that Macduff has fled to England.

Let's see what will happen to the prophets of the apparitions on Macbeth in this scene.
- 'Nobday born from a woman will  ever harm Macbeth.'
- 'Macbeth will never be defeated until Birnam Wood marches to fight him at Dunsinane Hill.'

S2
Ross considers Macduff of a noble, wise and judicious man who understands what the times require. Things in Scotland have to stop.
Lady Macduff blames her running away husband lacking the natural insitnct to protect his family.
Ross says to her to pull herself together in the absence of her husband.
The son of Macduff, a little boy, is killed by the murderer while the Lady crying out is off the stage.

S3
Malcolm is now prudent and testing if Macduff is a trustworthy and honourable man.
Doctor talks King Edward's healing touch is a miracle ----- indicates so called Great Plague hitting the entire England in 1665 caused by rates?
Macduff is told that his wife, children and servants were all slaughtered.
Malcolm encourages the grievous man to turn his anger to sharpen his sword.
Macduff can't wait to face to face with Macbeth.

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Act 5

S1
In this scene we see a doctor and the 'gentlewoman' of Lady Macbeth discussing her illness.
They watch as she sleep walks and talks, admitting her involvement in the recent murders.
'I still have the smell of blood on my hand,' rubbing her hands 'Come out, damned spot! Out! I command you!' - deranged minds & guilty of conscience
The doctor feels he has no skills to help her with this problem.

S2
This is a short scene showing the soldiers marching to Birnam Wood.
They see Macbeth as a midget trying to wear the robes of a giant.
They are going to pour their blood out to water the royal flower who truly deserve it.
They plan to meet there with others and then attack Macbeth's castle at Dunsinane.

S3
Macbeth is in his castle. He's feeling anxious but is still confident because of the witches' comments about Birnam Wood and 'no man born of woman'.
He is then told of his wife's strange behaviour but he does not seem greatly concerned about this either.
He knows people honor him only with their words but not in their hearts. He knows the thanes are running away from him.

S4
Malcolm talks with some soldiers, making a plan to take branches from Birnam Wood to camouflage themselves and move forward with the attack on Dunsinane.

S5
Macbeth is preparing for the battle when he's told that his wife has killed herself. (By now Lady Macbeth 's life is nothing more than an illusion.
His reaction indicates that he too has been driven mad by the stress of what they have done.
He is then informed by a messeger that Birnam Wood is moving toward his castle.
This makes him become even more distressed.

S6
Malcolm and Macduff plan to begin the attack on Macbeth's castle.
Siward, Malcolm's uncle, and his son will lead the first battle.

S7
a battle scene - Macbeth is shown fighting with young Siward who he kills.
He then exits and Macduff enters and declares he hopes that it will be him who can kill Macbeth.

S8
Macduff finds Macbeth and they fight.
Macbeth tells Macduff to give in as he cannot be killed by a man 'born from a woman' and he's then told Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripped - Macduff was cut out of his mother's womb before she could bear him naturally.
They continue fighting offstage while Malcolm and the others come into the scene.
They are discussing the loss of life when Macduff re-enters carrying Macbeth's head.
Malcolm is announced the new King of Scoltland.

yearshappy

the real Macbeth MacFindlaech

King, Millitary leader ( c. 1005 - 1057 )

The real Macbeth was not the murderous, terrible character of William Shakespeare's 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'.
He was born in central Scotland around 1005 - the same year that his grandfather became King.
The both families of his parents were noblemen.
Historians describe the young Macbeth as tall, fair haried and hansome with a ruddy complexion.

At the age of 7, Macbeth was sent to a Christian monastery to be educated.
At age of 15, his cousins, Malcolm and the other, killed his father.
When Malcolm II died of natural causes, his son, Duncan, was elected king.
On 14 th August, 1040, Macbeth defeated Duncan's army, killing him in the process. He made his forces to Scone, the Scottish capital. At age of 35, he was crowned king of Scotland. He ruled the country for more than one decates and died in a battlefield.

yearshappy

简析

与《奥赛罗》对比
Macbeth 是最短的莎士比亚悲剧， 从刚刚读到的史料看，确有其人， 不过故事情节是创作的。
剧作中加进了女巫因素，主人公的悲剧是建立在女巫预言之上的
其中的人物做坏之后的自我愧疚而形成的不眠，梦游梦语，迷幻景，幽灵再现，今时今日依然可理解
同为坏人的角色，在人物心理刻画上没有 奥赛罗 中的 Iago 细腻精彩而合理，
Macbeth 在遇女巫前的动机不明， 之后是临场的胆怯，后来的是一不做二不休，完全为女巫预言而生死
女性人物角色也比 奥赛罗 逊色不少， 唯一值得提的是Lady Macbeth，由丈夫的信起生恶念，蛊惑其夫谋杀国王；没有心理变化的痕迹，突然间就梦游而疯而自杀。

故事情节精彩，不过有了奥赛罗在先，人物心理刻画似乎细腻不够，也许篇幅短的缘故

语言的运用
语言的运用精彩至极，即使我这个第二语言者，也可欣赏一番
-- 其词汇的把握，我是丝毫没有任何发言能力的，丝毫不了解那个年代的语言
-- 不过诗韵却是人人可以看到的， 莎士比亚不愧为诗人，也因此明白了为什么那么现代人依然迷恋莎士语言，还要大声读出来
     例子： 。用了好多alliteration , line 108 - silver skin .., line 109 - looked like...  line 120 - strong sorrrow , 读起来中文说‘琅琅上口’
                。 除了头韵外，句尾韵在女巫口中更是比比皆是，也许女巫台词不受情节限制？ line 8-9 sail and tail; line 15-16 blow and know; line 22-23 nine and pine
                。排比句，尤其是女巫的咏唱，估计是为供当时贵族的娱乐

女巫是简单的预言还是恶坏的指使？
-- 个人以为是恶坏的化身， 证据是第一场三幕中， 第4，5句台词及以后都是第一女巫讲述她的恶劣行径  -  只因渔妇不给她栗子, 她就要恶咒渔妇的远洋丈夫，不仅要忍受常人难忍的81天，还要他最终亡身。
-- 从莎士比亚对女巫的丑恶嘴脸的表述，不像人， 不知是什么动物？
-- 莎士比亚通过很多人物角色之口说出， 女巫只是玩文字游戏，只告诉你片面的一面，不会告诉你全部。 看来那个年代的莎士是在劝告：不要相信巫言巫语。

yearshappy

A Midsummer Night's Dream              仲夏夜之梦     -------------- online reading


The video below could help in pronounciation of the names.




http://nfs.sparknotes.com/msnd/  links to the play scripts for online reading
five Acts in total


Characters
There are three distinct groups of characters in the play whose lives become interwined as a result of the madness of this midsummer night.

Athenian upper class group
Theseus - Duke of Athens. He projects confidence, authority and benevolent power.
Hippolyta - Amazon's queen conquered by Theseus who is going to marry her.

Philostrate - Theseus' master of revels
Egeus - a nobleman and the father of Hermia.  Wish to control his daughter.

Hermia - the daughter of Egeus, a beautifull young woman who falls in love with Lysander. She is strong-willed and independent.
Lysander - A young nobleman conquering all obstacles to marry the woman he loves
Demetrius - A young nobleman fell for Helena before. He is now pursuing Hermia who does not want him.
Helena - A young woman in love with Demetrius, a childhood friend of Hermia.
These four tormented lovers were given classical Greek names which Shakespeare used for atmosphere.

Athenian working class group

Peter Quince - a carpenter and director of a short play to be presented at Theseus' wedding.
Nick Bottom - a weaver chosen to play the lead character of Pyramus in the play
Francis Flute - a young bellows mender cast reluctantly in the part of Thisbe, a female role
Tom Snout - a tinker (fixer of pots and pans) who will play a Wall
Snug - a joiner, cabinet maker who will play Lion
Robin Starvelling - a tailor who will portray Moonshine

The Fairies of the Forest

Oberon - King of the fairies. He sends the puck to put the love-option flower jucie on wrong people's eyelids that creates so much of confusion and farce.
Titania - Queen of the fairies.
Robin Goodfellow - puck, mischievous fairy
Mustardseed, Peaseblossom, Cobweb and Moth - Titania's fairy attendants

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Scene Summaries

Act 1

Scene 1
Theseus has just returned to Athens with Hippolyta and is planning their wedding.
Egeus is complaining about his daughter Hermia whose heart has been casted by the magic spell from Lysander.
(fathers' right by law - She belongs to me. I can do what I want with her - as the law says: I can either make her marry Demetrius, or have her killed.)Thesus is back the father up to against the young woman. - again obedient women!
Hermia speaks up her mind to all that she'd rather die than marry someone she doesn't love.
Lysander is as noble and rich as Demetrius, truely love Hermia. This man is the one Hermia chose to love.

Hermia gives her word to Lysander that she will meet him in the forest tomorrow night to sneak out of Athen.
Helena is going to tell the lovers' plan to Demetrius.

Quote from Lysander 'Books say True love always faces obstacles.'
Quote from Hermia 'O hell, to choose love by another's eyes!'
Quotes from Helena 'When we are in love, we don't see with our eyes but with our mind. THAT's  why Cupid, the god of love, always show him as blind. And love doesn't have good judgement either. That's why love is a child because it makes such bad choices.'

Scene 2
Workmen decide to put on a play for the wedding feast and they are told to secretly rehearse in the forest.

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Act 2

Scene 1
The fairies who live in the forest are planning a midnight ritual for their queen Titania. (Fairy's lines rhyme  and funny)
Oberon, the Fairy King and Titania, the Fairy Queen both are arguing over another.
He plans to teach her a lesson and tells his sidekick hobgoblin, Puck, to put a love potion spell on her to make her fall in love with a living creature she saw first when she wakes up.
-- Husbands are supposed to be faithful to their wives. Theseus has cheated on many of his girlfrends.

Demetrius says to his follower in the clearest terms 'I don't love you, Helena. Leave me alone. '
Oberon asks Robin for a magic plant/flower.

Quotes from Helena 'Your behavior is an insult to all women. We cannot fight for love as men can. WE should be pursued and courted. WE weren't made to do the pursuing. '

Scene 2
Fairies are singing in rhyme
Oberon squeezes flower juice on Titania's eyelids.
Lysander and Hermia got lost in woods so they decide to take a rest.
Robin mistakes Lysander by puting flower juice on his eyelids. The first person that LySANDER wakes up to see is Helena. As a result he now loves Helena not Hermia by the magic charm on him.
Hermia has a terible dream about her lover, Lysander.
Quote from Hermia  'Sleep a little farther away so we can behave properly. It's only proper for a well-behaved bachelor and a well-behaved girl to be physically separeated like this.'

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Act 3

Scene 1
The clowns are having a rehearse at the clearing of the woods. They figure out that all killings have to be told in a prologue before the play so to avoid trembling the female audience with fear.
Robin enters along with Bottom who has a donkey's head instead of a human one,  scaring all clowns off.
Titania wakes up only to see the first person in her sight, Bottom. She loves him by the magic juice. Titania'll turn Bottom into a spirit so he won't die as humans do.

(lines with information regarding flowers and veggies)

Scene 2
Hermia accuse Demetrius of killing her lover while Oberon realises that Robin has mistaken someone truely in love.
Oberon therefore puts the flower juice on Demetrius's eyelids.
Now the two men dumps Hermia and show their love to Helena who mistakes this as an insult. The two women have a row as well.
Oberon gives Robin the new love potion to make things right.

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Act 4

Scene 1
Bottom with his donkey head enjoys the sweet love from Titania and is taken care by servants.
Oberon calls the puck for taking the transformed head off Bottom and he himself releases the fairy queen from the spell, so that all of them will only remember the events of tonight as a very unpleasant dream when they wake up.
Oberon gains Titania back and both are dancing together. He told her that the world gets order back and they will travel across the globe to where it's still night.
While hunting with their musical pack of dogs Theseus and Hippolyta see the four young people asleep on the ground.
Thought the four are still confused what had happened to them they unfold the truth to Theseus who makes up his mind to have the two couple married together with his wedding.

Bottom is awake with a touch memory of a weird dream that nobody can even describe it. He'll let others to write it down given the name of 'Bottom's Dream' because it's so deep that it has no bottom.

Quotes from Titania 'Oh, how I love thee! How I dote on thee!'  thinking of the queen crazy about the man with a donkey head , saying 'oh how i love you! i'm mad about you!'

Scene 2
The actors long for Bottom who shows up shortly and urges them ready for the performance.
Quote from Bottom 'And most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath.'

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Act 5

Scene 1
In this scene we got two views of how to think of the strange things. Theseus says 'they are lunatics.'
Hippolyta responds 'but the fact that they all saw and heard exactly the same things, make me think there's more going on here than imaginary fantasies. Their story is bizarre and astounding, but it's solid and consistent.'

the manner issues spoken by Theseus (5. 1. 85-100)

educated upper class vs illiterate workmen
Qince is delivering the prologue while Theseus and Hippolyta make comments on the man's poor punctuation. (no need to have an epilogue says Theseus)
It's not enough to speak; you have to speak grammatically. (5. 1. 115)

Perfermance given to entertain the upper class - the workmen are called ass

Quotes
He is as brave as a fox and as wise as a goose. (fox implys wise to Chinese) (5.1.220)

mason00

这个不错啊，沙翁的作品比较难读吧，我看几页觉得古英语太多。其实沙翁算是改革英语的重要作家，很多现代英语用法都是他奠定的基础，可是现代人去看，还是觉得比较古老难懂

yearshappy

mason00 发表于 7-9-2014 15:40
这个不错啊，沙翁的作品比较难读吧，我看几页觉得古英语太多。其实沙翁算是改革英语的重要作家，很多现代英 ...

No Fear 系列比一般的文学作品都简单， 是用现代简单英语页对页， 行对行翻译的
此帖中的前几部，因为工作需要 是两种语言（莎士和现代）都读过的
最后一部《仲夏夜之梦》和以后的都会主要读现代英语，属于快读了解文化和剧本内容为主

yearshappy

Shakespeare's language
He was a master of antitheses form of rhetoric by placing words with opposite meanings close together.
'Tis no jest
That I do HATE thee AND LOVE HEL-en-A.'
Reading aloud like this slows you down a little to say three stressed syllables in a row, while might help get the point across to Hermia.
Another example
'And are you grown so HIGH in his esteem
Because I am so DWARFISH AND so LOW?



Popular quotations from A Midsummer Night's Dream

'Ay me, for aught that i could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth ... '
Lysander says this to his true love, Hermia, when she is depressed about her father's demands that she marry another man, and that he'll have her put to death if she doesn't obey him.
These lines begin the play's exploration of the theme of love's difficulties and foretells what they will very soon face when they escape into the woods.

'Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. '
Helena says this when she moans over the fact that Demetrius doesn't love her but loves Hermia instead. She believes that to someone in love even ugliness and bad behaviour can seem atractive because love doesn't depend on the appearance of a person but on the perception of the person in love. This is another way of stating one of the themes of the play as demonstrated later when Titania falls for the ass-headed Bottom.  (ass aka donkey)

'I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream
past the wit of man to say what dream it was.
The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste,
his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was.  '
Bottom makes this ridiculour speech after his adventure with Titania. This speech furthers the dream theme of the play in that things are not as they are seen or stated.

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yearshappy

推荐此剧

A Midsummer Night's Dream  仲夏夜之梦  

给 小学中上/初中的孩子们，不是指莎士原文，而是 No Fear 系列
甚至可以是给小小孩子的，父母为其读的那种 bedtime story

原因如下：
一：
这部喜剧，与前几部悲剧写作领域截然不同。
悲剧所涉及的都是人类的心理和行为， 而这部剧涉及大量自然的描述，森林，植物，花等
还有就是精灵小妖，对孩子来讲，充满想象力
二：
No Fear 系列， 语言及其现代而且简单，无论对孩子和移民父母来说， 利于了解口语表达， 以改变日常交流中使用书面语言的弊端
三：
澳大利亚中学教育大纲，很多州，莎士比亚剧作是其必有的， 10年级，11， 12年级都要学
很多孩子对此有顾虑，从小培养，打消顾虑，必然利于以后的学习
四：
剧本不长

yearshappy

Henry V (in Shakespeare's language, 1989 movie)

Was he an incredible speaker in real life? Did Shakespeare make him so ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1BhnepZnoo

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL6DQZYPBeU
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