Pre-Orwell Shakespeare on Deceptive Words and Appearances

Posted on September 3, 2012 by jimmie

the ronament is but the guiled shore“Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest.”
(Merchant of Venice act 3, sc. 2)

Tips for Use. When you see the truth and others do not. Or rather, when you are capable of discerning through the noise, “the seeming truth which cunning times put on to entrap the wisest.” A glaring, almost amusing, example of an attempt to “entrap the wisest” was the recent republican convention. Rather than repeating what you already know about the convention, I will recall what Gore Vidal Continue reading →

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Shakespeare on the Instruments of Darkness and their Modus Operandi

Posted on September 1, 2012 by jimmie

The Instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles“… But ‘t is strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ‘s
In deepest consequence.”
(Macbeth act 1, sc. 3)

Tips for Use. Good lines to point out and stigmatize the appearance of truth used to hide deep and malicious purposes. Too many examples to choose from. Take the case of ‘homeland security’. It may not be a trifle, but the intent is apparently honest – i.e. to protect the citizenry from harm. However, it takes complete blindness of the spirit not to see how an apparently “honest trifle”, or rather an idea on which no one can disagree, Continue reading →

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Shakespeare on Talents and their Use

Posted on August 31, 2012 by jimmie

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, not light them for themselves...

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
Not light them for themselves, for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, ’twere all alike
As if we had them not.”
(Measure for Measure, act 1, sc.1)

Tips for Use. Answer to a compliment where your unique and particular skills are praised – unless you revel in false modesty. This is the air of times anyway. Crass hypocrisy is not only praiseworthy but it is (or maybe it always has been) the officially unacknowledged (or unofficially acknowledged) supreme political skill. Perhaps today it appears more glaring only because the evidence is instantaneous thanks to technology. Examples are so many that it would be impossible to decide from where to begin. Continue reading →

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Shakespeare on Procrastination and How to Avoid It

Posted on August 30, 2012 by jimmie

that we would do we should do when we would“… that we would do
We should do when we would; for this ‘would’ changes
And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
And then this ‘should’ is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing.”
(Hamlet act 4, sc. 7)

Tips for Use.  Stimulate prompt action after an initial indication of consent. Sometimes we (and others) say or are convinced that we will do something, while simultaneously harboring a (sometimes unconscious) expectation to delay action. Countless courses Continue reading →

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Shakespeare on Common Sense and its Pitfalls

Posted on August 29, 2012 by jimmie

and what impossibility would slay in common sense“And what impossibility would slay
In common sense, sense saves another way.”
(All’s Well That Ends Well, act 2, sc. 1)

Tips for Use.  A way to justify your going along with an idea suggested by others, though you rate its success unlikely. The lines also illustrate the inherent paradox of common sense. If common sense were the supreme arbiter of decisions, innovations would be either stifled or impossible. Just think of the notion (supported by the common sense of observation and the sanction of theology), that the sun rotates around the earth. An idea already suggested in antiquity Continue reading →

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Shakespeare on Crowds, Masses and Group Psychology

Posted on August 28, 2012 by jimmie

An habitation giddy and unsure“An habitation giddy and unsure
Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.”
(King Henry IV part 2, act 1, sc. 3)

Tips for Use. Define questionable, unreliable and uncouth allies, or unstable masses. The idea of the unreliability of crowds is a frequent recurrent theme in Shakespeare’s plays. And it is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to make reforms and why collective consciousness is afraid of revolutions. The French revolutionaries Continue reading →

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Shakespeare on Silence and Happiness

Posted on August 27, 2012 by jimmie

Silence is the perfectest herald of joyBEATRICE. Speak, count, it is your cue.
CLAUDIO. Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were
but little happy, if I could say how much.
(Much Ado About Nothing, act 2, sc. 1)

Tips for Use. Excellent reply when you are not in the mood to talk and your silence is interpreted as moodiness, disapproval, lack of interest or boredom. The declaration is necessary, especially considering that, usually, silence has a negative connotation. For example, in Vittorio Alfieri’s play, ‘La Congiura dei Pazzi’, “Deep vengeance is the daughter of deep silence” (La vendetta, d’alto silenzio e’ figlia). Or, as we find in a fable by the French LaFontaine, Continue reading →

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Seven Ages of Man, take 6, Advanced Middle Age

Posted on August 26, 2012 by jimmie

The sixth age shifts into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,“… The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrank shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound…”
(As You Like It, act 2, sc. 7)

Comments. The lines seem almost a recipe for melancholy. Robert Burton, however, dedicated about 1600 pages in font 8 to the defeat of melancholy in any of its manifestations – in his “Anatomy of Melancholy.” Here is how he introduces one of the chapters, Continue reading →

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Shakespeare on Women and Roses

Posted on August 25, 2012 by jimmie

for women are as flowers“For women are as roses, whose fair flower
Being once display’d, doth fall that very hour.”
(Twelfth Night, act 2, sc. 4)

Tips for Use. The statement suggests a double standard and a trace of ‘macho’ philosophy. You may just use ‘Women are as roses’. But if she is an insufferable lady very full of herself who puts you down and off, quote the lines fully. To quip about aging is not good. The subject is more sensitive than many women (as well as some men) are likely to admit. As sanctioned by Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest”, a woman is perfectly right in making some alterations. Indeed no woman, she says, should ever be quite accurate about her age. And later she adds, Continue reading →

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Shakespeare on Indecision, Uncertainty and Doubt

Posted on August 24, 2012 by jimmie

and like a man to double business bound“And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect.”
(Hamlet act 3, sc. 3)

Tips for Use.  When you are undecided about an issue, as we all are many or most of the times. Or when you need to explain why you have not taken action on something you promised you would do. The idea, or rather, the problem is probably as old as man. And even some animals, if you study their expression, show that they are uncertain about whatever course to take. Continue reading →

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