To be or not to be.

..that is the question
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take up arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing them. To die, to sleep
No more - and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks.............

. . . That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil . . .

Must give us pause.There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,.....

But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now.....

The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons . . .

Will paace finish what he/she started?

You have provided him with the opportunity, Miss Whiplash Prim, but I wouldn't count on it.

..rather, him, her or them, of course.....

Is to be better then not to be?

That is the question.

Oh Gawd, lets's not start that all over again.

The final answer/line, btw -

Be all my sins remember'd.

End of.

Thank you Miss Proudfoot.
But this opportunity was not taken, no cause for rejoicing.

Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings him home?
What tributaries follow him to Rome
To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels?
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!
O, you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climbed up to walls and battlements,
To towers and to windows, yea to chimney tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day with patient expectation
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.
And when you saw his chariot but.......

Have you not made a universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way,
That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood?
Be gone!
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.

Mark Anthony's a bit gloomy - leaving the best lines to the rude mechanicals.

What think ye, paace?

quote:

Mark Anthony's a bit gloomy - leaving the best lines to the rude mechanicals.

Oops. sorry. I mean Marullus of course, not Mark Anthony. Silly me.

If you want gloomy, Miss Prim, try "Timon of Athens"

But I prefer frivolity.

..as in

Now , fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in
Another moon - but O, methinks how slow
This..........

. . .This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,

Like to a step-dame or a dowager

Long withering out a young man revenue.

HIPPOLYTA Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;

Four nights will quickly dream away the time;

And then the moon, like to a silver bow

New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night

Of our solemnities.


And thus begins 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

Do you think the forum gives a Puck?
We're in danger of boring them methinks.

It should be a prosecutable offence to be bored by Shakespeare.

Once I start I can't stop.

"Ill met by moonlight"

How totally brilliant!!

I replied to this but it was zapped - so maybe we are boring the mods.

Perhaps you are too...too....prim...

Think it was probably the opposite - as I made reference to Titania, queen of the fairies, waking from sleep to fall in love with Bottom - a rude mechanical, Puck having secretly given Titania a lurve potion:

'When in that moment, so it came to pass,
Titania waked and straightway loved an a*s.'

Probably too many buzz words for one post.

Perhaps beastiality, Titania and the ass, isn't a fit subject for the R & J Forum.
Often wondered how "A Mid-Summer Night's Dream" is tackled in school.
Tactfully, I hope.

...and with the due reverence and scholarship the teaching of Shakespeare deserves.

Is this reverent and scholarly enough?

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2828339.html

Thanks Miss Prim
At least, it's a start, even for those who are culturally challenged.
Much like the "National Theatre of Brent" two men, one was Jim Broadbent, who did an entire Shakespeare play in half an hour.

..not only classical drama.
Even oratorio - when they did the "Messiah" Jim Broadbent played the Virgin Mary.