December 2010
9 posts
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Hamlet: Guildenstern knows not how to play the...
Hamlet: Will you play upon this pipe?
Guildenstern: My lord, I cannot.
Hamlet: I pray you.
Guildenstern: Believe me, I cannot.
Hamlet: I do beseech you.
Guildenstern: I know no touch of it, my lord.
Hamlet: It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.
Guildenstern: But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony.
I have not the skill.
Hamlet: Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me. You would seem to know my stops. You would pluck out the heart of my mystery. You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass. And there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak? 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me.
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Fact
Moons of the planet Uranus are named after characters in Shakespeare’s plays. For example, two moons discovered in 1787 were named Oberon and Titania, after characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A moon discovered in 1986 was named Juliet, after a character in Romeo and Juliet. Two moons discovered in 1997 were named Caliban and Sycorax, after characters in The Tempest.
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I have no other but a woman’s reason:
I think him so, because I think him...
– Lucetta
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (I,ii,23-24)
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Fact
Shakespeare used sources from all over the worlds, which leads scholars to believe that he was multilingual.
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When beggars die there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth...
– Calpurnia
Julius Caesar (II,ii,30-31)
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Shakespeare - original watercolour painting
Available at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/DinosDiedOfBoredom?ref=top_trail
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How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by...
– Iago
Othello (II,iii,376-379)