Happy Birthday, Will

It’s Shakespeare’s birthday. I understand why most folks can’t get into his work. The language is so different from that of the modern world. Fair enough but know this — his plays have been translated into just about every language known to man and performed worldwide — now playing somewhere. I won’t pretend to understand it all, but know my life is richer for have given it a shot. As for the speculation about whether he actually wrote the works — does it matter? They are part of the universal voice and will remain so as long as man exists. Here are some quotes of his, preceded by a comment of my own:
No explanation necessary: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.” (As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7)
For those Americans who have lost the battle for the soul of the country: “Now is the winter of our discontent…” (Richard III, Act 1, Scene 1)
As good an opening line as there will ever be: “If music be the food of love play on.” (Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 1)
Meant as comic relief from the lips of Fallstaff: “The better part of valor is discretion.” (Henry IV, Part 1, Act 5, Scene 4)
Imagine the responsibility: “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” (Henry IV, Part 2, Act 3, Scene 1)
King Charles?: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.’ (Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 5)
Wow: “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!”
(King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4)
This may describe all of us: “I am one who loved not wisely but too well.” (Othello, Act 5, Scene 2)
Who would argue?: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on…” (The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1)
Who hasn’t been there?: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” (Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2)
Everyone who has ever lived would agree: “The course of true love never did run smooth.” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1)
Ain’t it the troot?: “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1)
No need to look any further: “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not within the stars, but in ourselves…” (Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2)
Mystery of the future: “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” (Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5)
We all know people like this: “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” (As You Like It, Act 5 Scene 1)
Sad fact of life: “Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.” (Measure for Measure, Act II, Scene I)
It is amazing what some folks go through: “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.” (Hamlet, Act IV, Scene V)
Love conquers hate in this instance: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II)
Apply to any politician with whom one disagrees: “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” (The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3)
Sung in the musical Hair: “What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god.” (Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2)
And the chilling granddaddy of existential angst: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5)
Thank you, dear Bard.

Not much action today at the floating book shop. My thanks to the young mom who bought a bunch of kids’ books.

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