#shakespeeare

sorcerer-amos

Robin walked along the halls, softly muttering to himself, though he was loud enough for anyone passing to hear him.

“All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances...”

He sighed softly to himself, glancing out the window to the storm outside and switching rather abruptly,

“Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law

My services are bound. Wherefore should I

Stand in the plague of custom and permit

The Backgrounds of Shakespeare's Plays Karl J. Holzknecht

DESCRIPTION

Another of my wife's withdrawn library book purchases. I think she grabbed this around the time I was on my own Shakespeare kick.

EXCERPT

Of course, both Jack and Jill fall in love quickly in Shakespearean comedy, and love at first sight is not uncommon. The heroes all, sooner or later, "will thrust their necks into the yoke and sigh away Sundays." Part of the fun comes from our privilege to watch how "all men in love are mortal in folly." Some, like Benedick, may "have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken upon them"; some, dedicating their behaviors to love, are transformed--if not exactly into oysters, yet transformed--witness the wrestler Orlando hanging love-sick sonnets on Arden's trees. ONly rarely are the girls made to appear as giddy, unless, like Olivia and Beatrice, they deserve it. What in man is jeered at by some such taunt as "flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified!" is merely charming in a woman. Shakespeare's heroines keep their wits about them; they guide the plot. Sometimes they actually take the initiative; certainly they conduct their own courtships on their own terms. And the men suspect it no more in these plays than they do in real life.

EPHEMERA/MARGINALIA/ETC

Titus Andronicus

Date Due

Card pocket.