April Showers, Love, Food for Love all in Sonnet #75

Posted on April 29, 2012 by jimmie

So you are to my thoughts as food to lifeor as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground“So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground” (SON 75)

Tips for Use.  Excellent line for a card or a romantic declaration. It is true that the Sonnet as well as many others were directed to a young man, but the spirit transcends gender limitations. The ‘sweet season’ is April. For literature buffs the first English poet to come out with the sweet-season idea was Chaucer,
“Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote (“sweet showers”)
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote.”
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Shakespeare and the Characterization of a Pompous Ass

Posted on April 28, 2012 by jimmie

Shakespeare and a representation of the pompous ass“Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this, for it will come to pass
that every braggart shall be found an ass.” (All’s Well Than Ends Well, act 4, sc. 3)

Tips for Use.  A justification when you do not want to speak too much about yourself or overly emphasize your accomplishments. Alternatively, it can be a good answer if you are asked a comment about a vane and pompous person, speaker or both. To receive an (almost) daily copy of the latest blog and Shakespearean verbal ‘weapon’ subscribe for free to this site (click on the top-right link on the menu). Continue reading →

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Shakespeare and Remedies against Bad Breath

Posted on April 27, 2012 by jimmie

eat no onion nor garlic“And most dear actors, eat no onion, nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath.” (Midsummer Night’s Dream act 4, sc. 2)

Tips for Use.
You both are at dinner and the waiter suggests or praises a savory dish featuring garlic or onions as chief ingredients. Rather than say ‘no’ try, “Sorry, no onion, nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath.” You may truly hate garlic or onions, still you are giving hints about your romantic disposition or intents.
Most people are put off by bad breath. Cleopatra herself, Continue reading →

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Shakespeare, Plausible Deniability and Confidential Information

Posted on April 26, 2012 by jimmie

CIA Agent protecting our freedom“Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed.” (Macbeth act 3, sc. 2)

Tips for Use.  How short the collective memory is! Do you remember when members of the Reagan Administration financed, organized and supplied arms to the Nicaraguan Contras?  Leading to the recurrent ‘cruel and usual’ carnage of sundry village people in the name of democracy? Amazingly, at the time there seemed to still exist a shadow Continue reading →

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Shakespeare, Get your Adversary to Shut-up

Posted on April 25, 2012 by jimmie

You never spoke what did become you less“Shrew my heart,
You never spoke what did become you less
Than this.”  (Winter’s Tale, act 1, sc. 2)

Tips for Use.  Express your dismay and disagreement at what has been said or implied. Equally an elegant way to say, “Shut up!”. As we too well know, some men (and some women) will say, affirm or deny anything and everything with total unconcern even for facts, let alone truth. Today’s verbal weapon is a good both for defense and for attack. Continue reading →

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Shakespeare and How to Establish Your Credentials

Posted on April 24, 2012 by jimmie

“Julius Caesar I am as constant as the northern star… I am as constant as the northern star,
Of whose true fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.” (Julius Caesar, act 3, sc. 1)

Tips for Use. A possible answer at a job interview, to questions of the type, “Are you reliable?” “Do you have a sense of responsibility?” or similar. The interviewer, whether consciously or not, already expects you to say yes, but is more interested in how you come across with your declarations or self-description. No one can say whether he will believe you or not, but he will certainly remember you. The prospective employer will at least appreciate the originality and the probability that some exposure to good literature may have helped your writing skills. Continue reading →

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Shakespeare Insults and Mutual Dislikes

Posted on April 23, 2012 by jimmie

know each other well and long to know each other worseAENEAS. We know each other well.
DIOMEDES. We do; and long to know each other worse.”  (Troilus and Cressida, act 4, sc. 1)

Tips for Use. Call it chemistry or any other fancy term from psychology or pop psychology – we like some people and others we do not. Who has never met the occasion where your interlocutor introduces you to a third party not knowing that you know the third party better than the interlocutor? Here is an opportunity to apply the quote, in earnest or in jest. “Do you know each other?” – “We know each other well and long to know each other worse”. Continue reading →

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Shakespeare and the Formation of Habit

Posted on April 22, 2012 by jimmie

Use doth breed a habit in a man“How use doth breed a habit in a man!” (Two Gentlemen from Verona, act 5, sc. 4)

Tips for Use. Theories, or rather opinions about habit lead to two opposite conclusions, depending on which point the holder of the opinion tries to prove. Some believe that people can never change and folk discourse is replete with sayings and adages supporting this point of view. Others believe that most changes in attitude or behavior depend on the development of a habit. Today’s quote from Two Gentlemen from Verona  supports the latter point of view. Continue reading →

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Shakespeare, Walking as a Mental-care Remedy

Posted on April 21, 2012 by jimmie

Walking as a powerful remedy for anxiety “…a turn or two I’ll walk,
To still my beating mind.” (Tempest act 4, sc. 1)

Tips for Use. For many health-care seems a very modern development, possibly because “health-care” is associated with the term health-care industry. And making an industry out of health-care brings to mind the idea of ‘market economy’ and all that is connected with it. Needless to say, medical knowledge and/or intuition has a long history. Walking as a mental health remedy and a relief for anxiety (besides other indications for fitness, weight-control etc.), even found its way into the Tempest, as a natural  and remarkably affordable medicine – it’s actually free. Proving once more, Continue reading →

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Shakespeare, Folly and Despair

Posted on April 20, 2012 by jimmie

Munch the scream as background to todays helplessness quote“…O my breast,
Thy hope ends here!” (Macbeth act 4, sc. 3)

Tips for Use.  A good line at a corporate meeting if and when you see that the decisions taken will wreck the company or the business. But this could equally be the reaction of many to the type of news we hear and often see. Information that points to no recovery from collective madness, that seems to put an end to our hopes or expectations of and for a civil society. It wasn’t enough to watch videos showing soldiers urinating on the victims they killed – now we see other soldiers making a party of body parts. Continue reading →

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