February 13th, 2016 → 9:08 am
“Would the fountain of your mind were clear again,
that I might water an ass at it.” – Troilus and Cressida
Oh no you don’t! The news has been all over the insults traded among the U.S. presidential candidates of late. I just thought I’d note that no one does an insult like Shakespeare. I could post a million of these.
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
February 10th, 2016 → 5:09 am
“The air bites shrewdly, it is very cold.” – Hamlet
I get much of my inspiration regarding what to blog about from reading the newspaper and keeping up with current events. But these days, all you can read about are the U.S. presidential primaries! It’s as if the entire rest of the world has disappeared! So I have no real inspiration for what to blog about this morning. I’ll instead focus on the cold winter weather. It snowed yesterday and my poor son woke up insisting that it meant he could stay home from school. I had to explain to him that just because there was new snow on the ground, that didn’t automatically mean there was no school. I’m not sure he ever really got over the disappointment of having to get up out of his warm bed and face the day…
Filed under: Blog & Other & Politics/Politicians & Self/My Life
February 6th, 2016 → 5:54 am
“Turk Gregory never did such deeds in arms as I have done this day.” – Henry IV, Part I
What’s interesting about this quote is that “Turk” is being used as an abusive term, signifying a tyrant. I hadn’t realized that “Turk” had that connotation in Shakespeare’s day. Today I think of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, or perhaps, a brave Turk. Perceptions of peoples and words as they change over time is very, very interesting.
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art
January 28th, 2016 → 5:55 am
“Yea, and to tickle our noses with spear grass to make them bleed,
and then to beslubber our garments with it
and swear it was the blood of true men.” – Henry IV, Part I
I’m reading Henry IV, Part I right now, and I just finished Act 2, of the comedic sparring of Falstaff and Prince Hal scene. In it was the line above with the word “beslubber,” meaning “to smear or cover.” I realize that there were some different words in use in Shakespeare’s time, but beslubber? It just seemed like such a squirmish to me I had to blog about it.
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art
January 25th, 2016 → 5:36 am
“When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipped, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
To-whit, to-whoo, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
When all aloud the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson’s saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian’s nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
To-whit, to-whoo, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.” – Love’s Labor’s Lost
Ahhhhh, this winter weather. Might as well sing a little ditty as you try to keep warm.
(Note: Dick is blowing on his nails to keep warm. And the “parson’s saw” is a sermon.)
January 19th, 2016 → 5:08 am
“Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end.” – Sonnet 60
Classes start again at the university and winter vacation is most certainly at an end (really, it was over for me weeks earlier when I attended a conference in San Francisco, but still). It is amazing how fast time can fly. The good news is, the blog posts are back!
November 25th, 2015 → 5:23 am
“And to be boy eternal.” – Winter’s Tale
For the next month I’ll be doing a different kind of blog – about my son. Check it out here!
November 22nd, 2015 → 6:13 am
“As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney,
as your French crown for your taffety punk.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
“Taffety punk” is a prostitute that is finely dressed. So much more evocative than “a prostitute that is finely dressed.” I love it! Was Julia Roberts the best taffety punk ever, or what?
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art
November 19th, 2015 → 6:07 am
“Let the bird of loudest lay…
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.” – The Phoenix and the Turtle
It took me a long time (too long?), but I finally joined Twitter yesterday. I certainly won’t be the bird of loudest lay (lay=song or voice), and I sure hope I won’t be heralding everyone to a funeral (which is what is happening in this less-well-known poem of Shakespeare’s), but I do hope to have something to contribute, and soon. So stay tuned.
November 15th, 2015 → 12:54 pm
“Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.” – Romeo and Juliet
My thoughts are with the families of the victims…
Filed under: Blog & Other & Stupid/Evil People