And now, a word from Bill

[intothewoods]

For some damn reason, I can't get parts of this passage from Romeo and Juliet out of my head lately!

2 But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
3 It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
4 Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
5 Who is already sick and pale with grief,
6 That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
7 Be not her maid, since she is envious;
8 Her vestal livery is but sick and green
9 And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
10 It is my lady, O, it is my love!
11 O, that she knew she were!
12 She speaks yet she says nothing; what of that?
13 Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
14 I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks.
15 Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
16 Having some business, do entreat her eyes
17 To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
18 What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
19 The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
20 As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
21 Would through the airy region stream so bright
22 That birds would sing and think it were not night.
23 See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
24 O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
25 That I might touch that cheek!

I remember seeing the Franco Zeffirelli version in my high school English class. Oh my...so hot. I think I actually had it worse for the Mercutio character though. Wow, I should reread the play. It's been years.

 

[JamieB]

The moment

I still remember the first time I appreciated Shakespeare's genius. I'd read Romeo and Juliet during second year, and wasn't impressed.

Then in fourth year, we read MacBeth. I remember the setup with the witches, their impossible predictions about MacBeth being safe until a forest moved and only a man not born of woman could hurt him, and then the introduction of MacBeth's ambitious wife. I was mildly curious about how the Bard was going to solve those prophecies...probably by doing something stupid with magic. We took turns reading in class, and for two weeks it dragged on and on.

Then the build towards the climax, and "Let each man hew down a bough and bear it before him to shadow our numbers."

The simple genius of that line, and the self-consciousness of his writing, the control of every single character, event, and turn of phrase until that point jumped out of the book. I felt like I'd been smacked with a board. And by the time we got to the line "I was from my mother's womb untimely ripped," I was worshiping at Shakespeare's altar. That play made me an English major.

I love his work. Every time I go back and reread one of his plays, I discover something new. He and GB Shaw are the standards by which all others are judged.

J

 

[intothewoods]

I still remember the first time I appreciated Shakespeare's genius. I'd read Romeo and Juliet during second year, and wasn't impressed.

Then in fourth year, we read MacBeth. I remember the setup with the witches, their impossible predictions about MacBeth being safe until a forest moved and only a man not born of woman could hurt him, and then the introduction of MacBeth's ambitious wife. I was mildly curious about how the Bard was going to solve those prophecies...probably by doing something stupid with magic. We took turns reading in class, and for two weeks it dragged on and on.

Then the build towards the climax, and "Let each man hew down a bough and bear it before him to shadow our numbers."

The simple genius of that line, and the self-consciousness of his writing, the control of every single character, event, and turn of phrase until that point jumped out of the book. I felt like I'd been smacked with a board. And by the time we got to the line "I was from my mother's womb untimely ripped," I was worshiping at Shakespeare's altar. That play made me an English major.

I love his work. Every time I go back and reread one of his plays, I discover something new. He and GB Shaw are the standards by which all others are judged.

J

I loved Macbeth! It's funny. I used to see a Shakespeare play perfomed each summer, but I haven't in ages. Then recently I keep thinking of all these passages. I don't know why it all came back up again.