Faculty of English

EGEUS Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes And interchanged love-tokens with my child; Thou hast, by moonlight, at her window sung, With faining voice, verses of feigning love, And stolen the impression of her fantasy; With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gauds, conceits, Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats (messengers Of strong prevailment in unhardened youth), With cunning hast thou filched my daughter’s heart, Turned her obedience, which […]

Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS. EGEUS Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke. THESEUS        Thanks, good Egeus. What’s the news with thee? EGEUS Full of vexation come I, with complaint Against my child, my daughter Hermia. Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord, This man hath my consent to marry her. Stand forth, Lysander. And my gracious duke, This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child.  […]

THESEUS                    Go, Philostrate, Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments; Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth, Turn melancholy forth to funerals. The pale companion is not for our pomp. [Exit Philostrate.] Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword, And won thy love doing thee injuries; But I will wed thee in another key, With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.       […]

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, [Philostrate,] with others. THESEUS        Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace. Four happy days bring in Another moon; but O, methinks, how slow This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires, Like to a stepdame or a dowager Long withering out a young man’s revenue. HIPPOLYTA    Four days will quickly steep themselves in night, Four nights will quickly dream away the time; And then the moon, […]

Having ‘done’ Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Richard II, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Hamlet, it’s definitely time for a comedy. I’ve been doing this near-daily blog thing since 2018, but I’m not done yet: #MoonMad, reading around 10 lines of Midsummer Night’s Dream every day, will begin on 1 […]

FORTINBRAS             Let four captains Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, For he was likely, had he been put on, To have proved most royal. And for his passage The soldiers’ music and the rite of war Speak loudly for him. Take up the bodies. Such a sight as this Becomes the field but here shows much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot. (Exeunt.) FINIS                           (5.2.379-387) Last words, and appropriate to […]

HORATIO       Of that I shall have also cause to speak And from his mouth whose voice will draw no more. But let this same be presently performed Even while men’s minds are wild, lest more mischance On plots and errors happen.             (5.2.375-379) Horatio’s being very, very careful, very measured, no sudden moves—and he’s exhausted—he is doing his best to strike a balance between Fortinbras being in charge, […]

FORTINBRAS             Let us haste to hear it And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune. I have some rights of memory in this kingdom Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.   (5.2.370-374) Fortinbras is being statesmanlike, royal in fact—slipping into the plural—let us haste to hear it and call the noblest to the audience. Alright then, you […]

HORATIO       But, since so jump upon this bloody question You from the Polack wars and you from England Are here arrived, give order that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view, And let me speak to th’ yet unknowing world How these things came about. So shall you hear Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts, Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters, Of deaths put on by cunning, and for no cause, […]

AMBASSADORS                     The sight is dismal And our affairs from England come too late. The ears are senseless that should give us hearing To tell him his commandment is fulfilled That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Where should we have our thanks? HORATIO                               Not from his mouth, Had it th’ability of life to thank you; He never gave commandment for their death.       (5.2.351-358) […]