h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I like the incongruous comedy bear interlude in The Winter's Tale.

hate to say this and be all predictable n'all, but i love hamlet's soliloquy, the whole thing about being or not being, now or later, to sleep, perchance to dream.

Etc.

ismarah

There's a great book called One Damn Big Puzzler about a lawyer with OCD visiting an isolated tropical island on which the chief of the tribe of natives is the only literate person and is trying to translate Hamlet into Pidgin English.

Is be is?
Or is be not is?
Is be one damn big puzzler.

He out-Caesars Caesar ...

I think. It's been 23 years ..

Every so often I choose a Shakespeare as my "train" book (lots to choose from ) and I love it when there's a phrase people just *use*. Like "What the dickens!"

Mol

WG, post 4 - I had to think. It's not exactly great poetry is it? Doesn't stand in it's own right like some.

It's a favourite in that it's a line I've got a lot of affection for, I guess. It's funny, it sounds funny, 'peopled' is a ridiculous word, it's a ridiculous justification for Benedick-the-confirmed-batchelor to use to excuse his interest in Beatrice. Also Much Ado's a favourite play, it's very witty, has an almost tragedy but a good ending, and real feeling in it, Benedick and Beatrice's relationship is a very touching one, I've seen some very good performances of it - that line reminds me of all that, so that's why.

Another favourite, that also needs context, is Henry V's 'I know thee not, old man' when he rejects Falstaff. I saw that play again just before Christmas, and even though I knew exactly what was coming, that line gave such a chill I can feel it now.

His St Crispin's speech is wonderful, too, and the Winter's Tale bear. There's so many once you start thinking of it.

Thanks for the explanation.

You're obviously well acquainted with the bard.

Not really, I need to see a good performance before the play comes alive - then if that happens I tend to read and reread and go to see it again. So I know a few of his plays fairly well, but only a few.

By my standards that's pretty good!

What you really need is a Shakespeare Insult Generator:
http://www.william-shakespeare.org.uk/a2-shakespeare-insult-generator.htm

Mine has to be this comment about the fleeting nature of true love, from A Midsummer Night's Dream:

Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth;
And ere a man hath power to say "Behold!"
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.

To be honest, the man was a genius and I could probably open the complete works at any random page and there'd be something classic or memorable on it.

Okay, here goes. forgive the self indulgence.

"And never, since the middle summer's spring,/ met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,/ by paved fountain or by rushy brook/ or in the beached margin of the sea/ to dance our ringlets to the whistling wind/ but with thy brawls though hast disturbed our sport./ Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,/ as in revenge have whipped up from the sea/ contagious fogs; which, falling on the land/ hath every pelting river made so proud/ that they have overbourne their continents./ The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain/ the ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn/ Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard;/ the fold stands empty in the drowned field/ and crows are fatted with the murrion flock/ The nine men's morris is filled up with mud/ and the quaint mazes in the wantongreens/ for lack of tread are undistinguishable./ The human mortals want their winter cheer/ no night is now with hymn or carol blest/ therefore the moon, the governess of floods/ pale in her anger washes all the air/ that rheumatic diseases do abound/ and though this distemperature we see/ the seasons alter: hoary headed frosts/ fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose/ and on old Heims thin and icy crown/ an odourous chaplet of sweet summer buds/ is, as in mockery, set; the spring, the summer/ the childing autumn, angry winter change/ their wontened liveries; and the mazed world/ By their increase, knows not which is which./ And this same progeny of evils comes/ from our debate, from our dissention./ We are its parents and originals."

This is only topped by the ridiculously arrogant response, "Do you amend it, then? It lies in you."

I don't recall the exact details, but Ian McKellen did a great movie of "Richard III", in which he proceeds to kill every potential heir to the throne. Then the country asks him to take the throne, to which he replies:

Richard III: [to camera] After all, I am not made of stone.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114279/

Maybe the greatest of Shakespeare's villains? OK there is Iago, who when asked to explain his villainy, replies:

"Demand me nothing ..."

The guy is cold.

Villains, the most important element. Darth owes a lot to Shakespeare.

I think that the St. Crispen's day speech also included:

"Cry havok! and let slip the dogs of war" if I'm not mistaken. Certainly that quote popped into my head quite easily after 9/11 though it's an ill defined battlefield compared to other conflicts over the last 50 yrs or so.

He also wrote:

"Swear not by the moon which constant changes in its circled orb. Lest thy love prove as variable." ~Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare was a true genius with the english language and no mistake. His characters have stood the test of time and will probably be acted out in plays (in whatever medium mankind can work out) from now til the end of time itself. How many other men are still remembered, and their works still enjoyed some 400 or more yrs after their deaths?

I think the quote is:

Rom. Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear,
That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops—
Jul. O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

The reason I feel the need to clarify is that my all time favorite sci-fi story is "Inconstant Moon" by Larry Niven.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inconstant_Moon

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"Star Trek the Undiscovered Country"

it still sounds better in the original Klingon

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same film the bit when he is in the toilet and makes the speech about be potrayed as a villan and so will play the villan....exelent

and also the line

"and now i shall marry"

Thought I'd try opening the complete works at a random page. I got Troilus and Cressida, a play I don't know, and

...'Helen was not up, was she?'

'Hector was gone, but Helen was not up.'

So Helen of Troy was having a lie in .

At the risk of boring you guys , it might be worth quoting the St Crispin's Day speech. The whole of it is pretty stirring stuff.

This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes home safe,
Will stand a tip toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age'
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say "tomorrow is Saint Crispian:"
Then he will strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say " These wounds I had on Crispin's day,
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter
Warwick and Talbot, Salibury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son:
And Crispin Chrispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the end of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd:
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother: be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon St Crispians day.

soory for the length - but it is atotality which loses its impact when part quoted.

Novo