Bardisms Part 5

Scandal-p.r.o.ne politicians usually have only themselves to blame for their tattered reputations. Ca.s.sio, on the other hand, is set up by a bad guy: Iago. Honest, honest Iago. In an irony so typical of how Shakespeare sees the world, this hypocrite, this wizard of deceit, this manufacturer of Spitzerian disgraces, gets the great Bardism on the importance of a good reputation.

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,Is the immediate jewel of their souls.Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands.But he that filches from me my good name 5Robs me of that which not enriches himAnd makes me poor indeed.-IAGO, Oth.e.l.lo Oth.e.l.lo, 3.3.16066 In other words: For men and women alike, my friend, a good reputation is the one valuable possession held closer than any other. Swiping my money is like swiping garbage. It's worth something, sure, but it's trivial. It was mine, now it's his. So what? It belonged to thousands of others before I had it. On the other hand, whoever makes off with my reputation grabs something that doesn't make him any richer but that leaves me broke in the worst way.

How to use it: With this Bardism, you can urge someone to consider the consequences of their actions before they commit to them. Or you can remind someone who would level an accusation that they hold tremendous power in their hands. It's Shakespeare on the Occasion of Castigating a Gossip, as well as Shakespeare on the Occasion of "Governor, what With this Bardism, you can urge someone to consider the consequences of their actions before they commit to them. Or you can remind someone who would level an accusation that they hold tremendous power in their hands. It's Shakespeare on the Occasion of Castigating a Gossip, as well as Shakespeare on the Occasion of "Governor, what were were you thinking?" you thinking?" The speech's many ant.i.theses are crucial to communicating its sense. The speech's many ant.i.theses are crucial to communicating its sense. Man Man versus versus woman woman; purse purse versus versus trash trash; something something versus versus nothing nothing; mine mine versus versus his his; and not enriches him not enriches him versus versus makes me poor makes me poor. These ant.i.theses all support an overarching opposition that shapes the entire speech: steals my purse steals my purse versus versus filches my good name filches my good name. Note that the two halves of that juxtaposition are on either side of a very important fulcrum: But But. This speech is a great ill.u.s.tration of that little word's power in Shakespeare. You can't emphasize it too much. "But" turns an argument around and drives home its central point. Subst.i.tute Subst.i.tute dear my lady dear my lady for for dear my lord dear my lord if necessary. if necessary.

I WANT TO BE KNOWN AS AN HONORABLE PERSON Shakespeare well knows a storytelling principle that might be called the Gospel According to the Tabloid Journalist: the destruction of a reputation sells more newspapers than the building of one. It sells more theater tickets, too. But unlike the ink-stained wretches of the New York Post New York Post, the ink-stained Bard of Avon boasts a preternatural command of a key principle of good dramatic construction, namely, that you can't get theatrical value out of a giant's fall in Act 5 unless you've established the giant's spotless bona fides in Acts 1 through 4. Adhering to this principle, Shakespeare makes sure that all his characters who endure devastating public shame-both those who survive it and those who don't-spend a fair amount of time talking up their devotion to the very values whose abandonment leads to trouble. And no value gets more face time with the canon's greatest heroes than that old standby of soldiers, politicians, and people of integrity the world over, honor. Brutus talks (and talks) about it; Hamlet soliloquizes about it; Coriola.n.u.s rants about it; Hermione and Queen Katherine swear oaths upon it. All these figures enjoy richly deserved reputations for unimpeachable honor. Only one character, however, delivers an all-occasions quotable on the subject: King Henry V, with Shakespeare on the Occasion of a Deep Commitment to Honor: By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;It ernes me not if men my garments wear;Such outward things dwell not in my desires.But if it be a sin to covet honor, 5I am the most offending soul alive.-KING H HENRY, Henry V Henry V, 4.3.2429 In other words: I swear to G.o.d, I'm not into money. I don't care how huge an entourage lives off my bank account. I'm not upset if other people use my stuff. These material things aren't my gig. But if it's bad to be addicted to honor, then today I consider myself the wickedest man on the face of the earth.

How to use it: For all you politicians out there, this is a great speech for that defiant press conference in which you deny all the tawdry allegations against you. You admit to wrongdoing and to being less than perfect, but the crime you cop to is valuing honor higher than anything else in life. It's a perfect piece of political jujitsu-the iambic pentameter version of the Checkers speech, "I am not a crook," and "I did not have s.e.x with that woman" all rolled into one. Of course, the speech also works fine with no ulterior motive: use it to announce to the world exactly how una.s.sailable is your rect.i.tude. For all you politicians out there, this is a great speech for that defiant press conference in which you deny all the tawdry allegations against you. You admit to wrongdoing and to being less than perfect, but the crime you cop to is valuing honor higher than anything else in life. It's a perfect piece of political jujitsu-the iambic pentameter version of the Checkers speech, "I am not a crook," and "I did not have s.e.x with that woman" all rolled into one. Of course, the speech also works fine with no ulterior motive: use it to announce to the world exactly how una.s.sailable is your rect.i.tude. To use the speech in tribute to the st.u.r.dy weave of another's moral fiber, simply change the first-person p.r.o.nouns to the second person if you're speaking directly to your paragon, or to third-person p.r.o.nouns if you're speaking about him or her. Some verbs may have to change, too: To use the speech in tribute to the st.u.r.dy weave of another's moral fiber, simply change the first-person p.r.o.nouns to the second person if you're speaking directly to your paragon, or to third-person p.r.o.nouns if you're speaking about him or her. Some verbs may have to change, too: I am I am in lines 1 and 6 would become in lines 1 and 6 would become you are you are or or he is he is; care I care I would become would become care you care you or or cares she cares she. Henry uses ant.i.thesis in an interesting way in this speech. He opposes the abstract idea Henry uses ant.i.thesis in an interesting way in this speech. He opposes the abstract idea honor honor in line 5 to the collective idea in line 5 to the collective idea outward things outward things in line 4. in line 4. Line 3's Line 3's ernes ernes is an obscure word. It's an old spelling of is an obscure word. It's an old spelling of earns earns, which in Shakespeare's day could be more or less synonymous with grieves grieves. When I directed the play, that's what Henry said: It grieves me not if men my garments wear It grieves me not if men my garments wear. Feel free to make that change.

SHAKESPEARE ON VIOLENT CONFRONTATION Let's make us medicines of our great revenge To cure this deadly grief.

-MALCOLM, Macbeth Macbeth, 4.3.21516 In Shakespeare's plays, as in life, sometimes conflict escalates from the firm but non-violent disagreement of a cold war to the vicious physical confrontation of a hot one. That escalation is accompanied by escalating rhetoric that ratchets up the heat a degree at a time, until it boils over. I despise violence and I'd much rather see disputes resolved over a nice meal than in a back alley, but I've watched enough episodes of The Sopranos The Sopranos to recognize that, alas, sometimes a knuckle sandwich is the only food that will do the job. So I here offer a selection of Bardisms I'd call Shakespeare on the Occasions of Violence: making a threat, vowing revenge, and coming to blows. to recognize that, alas, sometimes a knuckle sandwich is the only food that will do the job. So I here offer a selection of Bardisms I'd call Shakespeare on the Occasions of Violence: making a threat, vowing revenge, and coming to blows.

I'LL GET BACK AT YOU EVENTUALLY I wouldn't know much about this, but I understand that certain high school students who prefer books to sports are often picked on by the bully gang. The bespectacled nerds may not be able to hold their own through fisticuffs, but some literary pugilistics can at least generate a buffer of condescension sufficient enough to let them retreat with dignity. Hamlet, hero of brooding bookish types the world over, offers this exemplar of the "Don't worry, you'll get yours" genre: Let Hercules himself do what he may,The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.-HAMLET, Hamlet Hamlet, 5.1.27677 In other words: Not even the strongest superhero on earth could bar me from my eventual triumph.

How to use it: Use the rhyme of Use the rhyme of may may and and day day to put a nice flourish on your vow of revenge to come, making sure that your vocal energy drives through to the word at the end of each line. to put a nice flourish on your vow of revenge to come, making sure that your vocal energy drives through to the word at the end of each line.Hercules is the most powerful obstacle you can think of, the perfect image of how even the greatest bar won't stand in your way. Be sure to endow his name with grandiosity and super strength as you say it. The alliterative is the most powerful obstacle you can think of, the perfect image of how even the greatest bar won't stand in your way. Be sure to endow his name with grandiosity and super strength as you say it. The alliterative h h's in Hercules Hercules and and himself himself will help you hit a hyperbole home run. will help you hit a hyperbole home run. The monosyllabic nature of the second line will make you take it slowly and deliberately, and spread the iambic stress across each word. But remember that The monosyllabic nature of the second line will make you take it slowly and deliberately, and spread the iambic stress across each word. But remember that cat cat and and dog dog, like mew mew and and have his day have his day, are ant.i.theses, so those words need special stress.

Some details: Hamlet here appropriates a proverb familiar in Shakespeare's day: "Every dog has his day." Many of the phrases we think of as being Shakespearean coinages were in fact extant proverbs that he merely imported into his dialogue. This practice is one of the ways that Shakespeare makes his lines sound like natural speech; we all spice our conversation with liberal sprinklings of well-known catchphrases, cliches, famous lines from movies, and proverbial wisdom from various sources (even Shakespeare!). Sometimes in the plays, a character who speaks a familiar aphorism will identify it as such and put it in quotation marks, as when the Duke of Gloucester sums up his unceremonious dismissal from King Henry VI's court with "The ancient proverb will be well effected: / 'A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.'" Countless other times, a character will simply say something that he or she a.s.sumes the other characters, and the audience, surely recognize as a time-tested truism. Today, four hundred years later, when many of those once-standard maxims are lost to history and linguistic change, we can't as readily identify them as familiar turns of phrase, so we cavalierly attribute them to Shakespeare, in whose plays they seem to appear first.

However, there is one extraordinary scholarly resource, very much in the vein of the Furness Variorum Variorum I praised in "Shakespeare on Relations.h.i.+p Troubles" above, that helps disentangle the proverbial from the Shakespearean. That is Morris Tilley's 1950 I praised in "Shakespeare on Relations.h.i.+p Troubles" above, that helps disentangle the proverbial from the Shakespearean. That is Morris Tilley's 1950 Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, an exhaustive nine-hundred-page compilation. Every bit as monomaniacal as Furness pere et fils pere et fils (monomania is a common affliction among professional Shakespeare scholars), Tilley devoted thirty years to his scrupulously detailed and mind-bogglingly comprehensive magnum opus, and, like the first runner at Marathon, he died the moment he crossed the finish line, leaving a protege to see the completed ma.n.u.script through to publication. (monomania is a common affliction among professional Shakespeare scholars), Tilley devoted thirty years to his scrupulously detailed and mind-bogglingly comprehensive magnum opus, and, like the first runner at Marathon, he died the moment he crossed the finish line, leaving a protege to see the completed ma.n.u.script through to publication.

Tilley's intention was to do a service to Shakespeare by codifying his mastery of apothegmatic lore, and he succeeded. In honor of his memory, I state for the record that "Every dog has his day" is citation number D464 in the professor's Dictionary Dictionary.

I'M GONNA MESS YOU UP!

Shakespearean insults are pretty easy to find all over the Web, in books, and even on coffee mugs (I have one, and every morning the witty venom printed on its sides jolts me awake as bracingly as the coffee it contains). Because so many of them are only a mouse click away, I've chosen to include only one, my fave. I call this Bardism a non-threat threat, or Shakespeare on the Occasion of Knowing You'd Better Say Something, But Not Knowing Quite What: I will have such revenges on you both,That all the world shall-I will do such things-What they are, yet I know not; but they shall beThe terrors of the earth!-LEAR, King Lear King Lear, 2.4.27477 How to use it: Although in its dramatic context this speech arises from Lear's profound pain and incontinent anger at the ill treatment his daughters Goneril and Regan have dealt him, it nonetheless has a certain comic aspect. There's a fl.u.s.tered incredulity and frustrated impotence to it that lend Lear's fulminations a disconcerting edge of foolishness. This strangely harrowing mixture of the clownish and the enraged is the signature tone of Although in its dramatic context this speech arises from Lear's profound pain and incontinent anger at the ill treatment his daughters Goneril and Regan have dealt him, it nonetheless has a certain comic aspect. There's a fl.u.s.tered incredulity and frustrated impotence to it that lend Lear's fulminations a disconcerting edge of foolishness. This strangely harrowing mixture of the clownish and the enraged is the signature tone of King Lear King Lear, and this is a speech I cite frequently when trying to explain Shakespeare's insistence that in good drama-as in life-the risible and the horrible generally live side by side.

Yet I've found myself recommending this speech more for its buffoonish side than its terrifying one. I think it's the kind of speech you quote with a smile in your eyes when for the umpteenth time your children neglect to clean up their rooms. It's for the wife whose husband can't get through his thick head that he needs to put the seat down: "George, if you leave that seat up one more time, I swear to G.o.d I'm going to..." The phrase The phrase on you both on you both at the end of line 1 can be swapped out for any word or phrase that characterizes the object of your threat: at the end of line 1 can be swapped out for any word or phrase that characterizes the object of your threat: on you all on you all; on you, Frank on you, Frank; on those kids on those kids; on Jane Jones on Jane Jones, and so on. He He, she she, or they they can also subst.i.tute for each can also subst.i.tute for each I I in the speech should you need to narrate, say, what Pop's going to do when he gets home. in the speech should you need to narrate, say, what Pop's going to do when he gets home.

YOU DON'T SCARE ME, BUB The Bardism above is for the threatener. Here's something for the threatenee: a dose of offhand dismissal that'll throw some water on whoever's fuming in your face: There is no terror, Ca.s.sius, in your threats,For I am armed so strong in honestyThat they pa.s.s by me as the idle wind,Which I respect not.-BRUTUS, Julius Caesar Julius Caesar, 4.2.12124 In other words: Your threats don't scare me, Ca.s.sius. See, I've got the most powerful weapon of all: truth. Your words fly past me like a lazy breeze, and I'm not even paying attention.

How to say it: Swap in whatever name or other term you need instead of Swap in whatever name or other term you need instead of Ca.s.sius Ca.s.sius (p.r.o.nounced either (p.r.o.nounced either CASH-us CASH-us or or Ca.s.s-yus Ca.s.s-yus). If your enemy has a name whose syllable count would ruin the meter of line 1, then I'd suggest mister mister, buddy buddy, bucko bucko, boyo boyo, or the more Shakespearean sirrah sirrah for a man, and for a man, and missy missy, sweetie sweetie, honey honey, or the less contemporary lady lady or or madam madam for a woman. I can also image a few gender-neutral, two-syllable curse words that would work here, but this is a family book, so I'll leave them to your imagination. for a woman. I can also image a few gender-neutral, two-syllable curse words that would work here, but this is a family book, so I'll leave them to your imagination. Note that line 2 follows the familiar Shakespearean syncopation pattern of monosyllables with a polysyllabic word at the end. This makes Note that line 2 follows the familiar Shakespearean syncopation pattern of monosyllables with a polysyllabic word at the end. This makes honesty honesty jump out as a very special and powerful quality. The monosyllabic nature of the majority of the speech conveys just how furious Brutus is, and it's also in keeping with the tone of restraint characteristic of his speech in general. Say lines 3 and 4 through gritted teeth, really holding back from tearing your foe's head off, and making your rage seem all the more gigantic as a result. jump out as a very special and powerful quality. The monosyllabic nature of the majority of the speech conveys just how furious Brutus is, and it's also in keeping with the tone of restraint characteristic of his speech in general. Say lines 3 and 4 through gritted teeth, really holding back from tearing your foe's head off, and making your rage seem all the more gigantic as a result.

SHAKESPEARE ON WINNING AND LOSING It would make any man cold to lose.

-CLOTEN, Cymbeline Cymbeline, 2.3.3 Winning will put any man into courage.

-CLOTEN, Cymbeline Cymbeline, 2.3.6 Shakespeare's brilliant warriors and soldiers go into battle vowing to win, but only half of them succeed. The victors are without exception quick to credit G.o.d for their good fortune. The vanquished spread blame somewhat wider, choosing to curse their foes, their weak-willed rank and file, themselves, or even fate. Curiously, given the fifty-fifty split between winners and losers at war, the plays don't offer a commensurately even distribution of the rhetoric of victory and defeat. There's vastly more of the latter. Perhaps this reflects Shakespeare's view that loss is a more poetic condition than gain, or perhaps, since the majority of the canon's losers die shortly after their fights are done, their thoughts on loss turn out to be thoughts on death, and death always merits detailed consideration. Or maybe it's just that n.o.body likes going to war, and so even a resounding victory is redolent with the destruction and violence that were its cost. With that cost still fresh in mind, a stemwinder of a victory speech would only seem inappropriately arrogant, callous, and tone-deaf. Still, their paucity notwithstanding, there are some terrific winner's circle p.r.o.nouncements in Shakespeare, one of which I particularly like. I include that Bardism here, along with one of Shakespeare's most inspirational pa.s.sages on defeat.

I WON!

Julius Caesar may have achieved Shakespearean immortality through his famous last words, Et tu Brute Et tu Brute, but he had at least one good line that, although not included by the Bard in Julius' own play, endures. It was as famous in the Renaissance as it is now, so much so that no less a rhetorician than fat John Falstaff could turn to it when necessary: He saw me, and yielded, that I may justly say, with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome, "I came, saw, and overcame."-FALSTAFF, Henry IV, Part II Henry IV, Part II, 4.2.3638 How to use it: This is a great piece of Shakespeare on the Occasion of Bragging Rights. Use it when you've triumphed over any nemesis, and simply subst.i.tute for the first word, This is a great piece of Shakespeare on the Occasion of Bragging Rights. Use it when you've triumphed over any nemesis, and simply subst.i.tute for the first word, He He, any subject that fits: for example, "That driver's license test saw me, and yielded..."

Some details: Falstaff isn't the only Shakespearean character with an affinity for Julius Caesar's famous three-part swagger. Rosalind quotes it in As You Like It As You Like It, labeling it a "thrasonical brag."* The wicked queen in The wicked queen in Cymbeline Cymbeline quotes the hook-nosed fellow's catchphrase as well. And the hippie-dippie Spanish poet Don Armado deconstructs Caesar's boast in a dazzlingly wacky love letter he writes in quotes the hook-nosed fellow's catchphrase as well. And the hippie-dippie Spanish poet Don Armado deconstructs Caesar's boast in a dazzlingly wacky love letter he writes in Love's Labour's Lost Love's Labour's Lost. For good measure, he also crams in references to King Cophetua and the "indubitate beggar Zenelophon," whoever they may be.

Although the literal translation of "Veni, vidi vidi, vici vici" is "I came, I saw, I conquered," Caesar's catchphrase always shows up in Shakespeare with "overcame" as the English for the third word. This rendering first appears in historian Sir Thomas North's landmark 1579 translation of the Greek historian Plutarch's Lives of the n.o.ble Greeks and Romans Lives of the n.o.ble Greeks and Romans. Countless other verbal parallels establish that this book was Shakespeare's constant companion as he wrote his Roman history plays. Thus, Shakespeare's repeated use of came-saw-overcame not only sheds light on one of his historical fixations but also drops a tiny hint about his reading habits. Such little details contribute to a picture of Shakespeare the working writer, reading voraciously, rifling through research materials for stories he can dramatize, and bits of raw ore he can refine and cast into precious theatrical metals.

WE LOST. SO WHAT?

Very few of Shakespeare's bested warriors live to fight another day, and of those who do, only one manages to find inspiration rather than despair in the experience. Lord Bardolph, one of the rebels against King Henry IV who fails to overthrow him in the battle that ends Henry IV, Part I Henry IV, Part I, proposes in the first scene of the play's sequel that his gang should make another attempt. He offer this Bardism, Shakespeare for the Occasion of "If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again."

We all that are engaged to this lossKnew that we ventured on such dangerous seasThat if we wrought out life 'twas ten to one;And yet we ventured for the gain proposed,Choked the respect of likely peril feared; 5And since we are o'erset, venture again.Come, we will all put forth body and goods.-LORD B BARDOLPH, Henry IV, Part II Henry IV, Part II, 1.1.17985 In other words: All of us who are part of this defeat knew that we were trying something so dangerous that the odds were ten to one we'd never make it. And yet try we did, because we stood to gain so much. We refused to think about the dangers that we faced. Okay, we've had a setback. Let's try again! Come on! We'll put everything we've got into it this time!

How to say it: This speech is organized around a powerful central structure that simultaneously employs two related techniques: a build, and also a multiple repet.i.tion. That structure is: This speech is organized around a powerful central structure that simultaneously employs two related techniques: a build, and also a multiple repet.i.tion. That structure is: we knew we ventured we knew we ventured...and yet we ventured...venture again. Both techniques turn the entire sequence into one long crescendo. The build, in three parts, is its own kind of escalation: We knew we ventured We knew we ventured...and yet we ventured...venture again. To this, the three-peat of venture venture adds additional force: adds additional force: we knew we ventured we knew we ventured...and yet we ventured ventured...venture again. Help Lord Bardolph-help Shakespeare-combine the two techniques into a powerful exhortation by letting this double build work its magic. These are only ten of the speech's fifty-seven words, but if you hold firm to them, they will guide you through the argument like so many bread crumbs through the dark wood in a fairy tale.

SHAKESPEARE ON MOTIVATING THE TROOPS But screw your courage to the sticking-place And we'll not fail.

-LADY M MACBETH, Macbeth Macbeth, 1.7.6061 Two eminent army generals famously quoted from Shakespeare's Henry V Henry V to their troops: Major General Richard Gale, commander of the British Sixth Airborne Division during World War II, and Major General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the U.S. Army's First Armored Division at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Both men a.s.sembled the troops they were about to send into battle and, to fire them up, raided King Henry's great St. Crispin's Day speech, where they found some of the best military motivational material ever written. to their troops: Major General Richard Gale, commander of the British Sixth Airborne Division during World War II, and Major General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the U.S. Army's First Armored Division at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Both men a.s.sembled the troops they were about to send into battle and, to fire them up, raided King Henry's great St. Crispin's Day speech, where they found some of the best military motivational material ever written.

The St. Crispin's Day speech is a long one, and its central section is very specific to England and the English soldiers who fought that day in 1415 on "the vasty fields of France." As a modern motivational address, it serves better as a resource to be cherry-picked, as Generals Gale and Sanchez did, than as a stand-alone number. In that respect, the speech is much like the entire play, which provides such rousing inspiration for warriors that armies have taken to publis.h.i.+ng it for distribution to each man on the front lines.

During the war in which General Gale fought, the United States government printed so-called Armed Services Editions of over a thousand t.i.tles of cla.s.sic and popular literature. Formatted to fit in the pockets of combat pants, they proved so popular that by war's end over 120 million books had been provided, free of charge, to G.I. Joes in every theater of the conflict. Henry V Henry V made it onto the list, more or less, in the form of one chapter in poet and scholar Mark Van Doren's glorious 1939 volume of commentary, made it onto the list, more or less, in the form of one chapter in poet and scholar Mark Van Doren's glorious 1939 volume of commentary, Shakespeare Shakespeare.* As America geared up for General Sanchez's war, the Armed Services Editions were revived. This time, As America geared up for General Sanchez's war, the Armed Services Editions were revived. This time, Henry V Henry V was one of only four t.i.tles chosen, and fifty thousand copies of it-again pocket-sized-made their way to the deserts of the Middle East. There, Henry's description of his army as "men wrecked upon a sand" surely didn't supply much inspiration to our uniformed men and women, but perhaps the first Bardism below did. It's from was one of only four t.i.tles chosen, and fifty thousand copies of it-again pocket-sized-made their way to the deserts of the Middle East. There, Henry's description of his army as "men wrecked upon a sand" surely didn't supply much inspiration to our uniformed men and women, but perhaps the first Bardism below did. It's from Henry V Henry V, but one play to raid in search of Shakespeare on the Occasion of Inspiring Your Team: READY? LET'S ROLL!

Shortly after rhapsodizing on how he and his too-small army are not exhausted and outnumbered but are instead "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers," Henry moves on to the task of getting his men stoked, adrenalized, and ready to charge. The key, as he sees it? Being properly psyched up: All things are ready if our minds be so.-KING H HENRY, Henry V Henry V, 4.3.71 Hamlet expresses a related idea: preparedness matters most.

The readiness is all.-HAMLET, Hamlet Hamlet, 5.2.160 Gloucester puts a slightly different spin on Hamlet's notion: Ripeness is all.-GLOUCESTER, King Lear King Lear, 5.2.11 How to use them: All three of these short snippets will suit any occasion on which you find yourself at the end of a diving board and about to jump, either literally or figuratively. All three of these short snippets will suit any occasion on which you find yourself at the end of a diving board and about to jump, either literally or figuratively.

Some details: The subtle distinction between Hamlet's readiness readiness and Gloucester's and Gloucester's ripeness ripeness has inspired reams of scholarly comment. In context, both lines are about what's necessary in order to accommodate oneself to one's own death. For Hamlet, the younger man, it's a question of being prepared, mentally, emotionally, and in every other way. For the older Gloucester, it's about having fully matured, having lived to the point where the logical next step is to die, to fall, like a piece of fruit from a tree. Wordsworth thought this image was the superior of the two. He famously commented that through Gloucester, Shakespeare teaches us "when we come to die...what is the one thing needful," and he adds, wonderfully, "and with what a lightning-flash of condensed thought and language does he teach the lesson!" has inspired reams of scholarly comment. In context, both lines are about what's necessary in order to accommodate oneself to one's own death. For Hamlet, the younger man, it's a question of being prepared, mentally, emotionally, and in every other way. For the older Gloucester, it's about having fully matured, having lived to the point where the logical next step is to die, to fall, like a piece of fruit from a tree. Wordsworth thought this image was the superior of the two. He famously commented that through Gloucester, Shakespeare teaches us "when we come to die...what is the one thing needful," and he adds, wonderfully, "and with what a lightning-flash of condensed thought and language does he teach the lesson!"

STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS HOT Shakespeare appears to have been no procrastinator. For one thing, he turned out an average of two plays each year of his writing life, plus various non-dramatic writing. (That's roughly twenty lines per day, every day, which doesn't sound like much until you consider that those twenty lines include things like "To be or not to be, that is the question.") For another, a conspicuously large number of his characters make speeches about how important it is to seize an opportunity when it comes, and not to hesitate, dawdle, or defer matters until later. Of those many bits of Shakespeare on the Occasion of No Time Like the Present, this is my favorite. (Okay, so it argues for a preemptive and ill-planned military a.s.sault. As always, the context can be disregarded so that the content can serve when the occasion arises.) It was also a favorite of my grandma Tillie, of blessed memory, and I quote it here for her.

Knowing his army will soon be outnumbered by enemy forces, Brutus, not only a politician but also a capable military man, urges his commanders to take action now and launch a strike immediately.

There is a tide in the affairs of menWhich, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;Omitted, all the voyage of their lifeIs bound in shallows and in miseries.On such a full sea are we now afloat, 5And we must take the current when it serves,Or lose our ventures.-BRUTUS, Julius Caesar Julius Caesar, 4.2.27076 In other words: Like the ocean, human lives are governed by tides, and, as with a sea journey, if you set sail at high tide, the voyage goes well. But if you don't, this and every voyage ends with you beached in shallow water, and miserable. It's high tide right now, and we must either set sail this instant, when all the conditions are favorable, or lose everything.

How to say it: Imagine a number of people gathered together to offer you advice. They counsel restraint, deliberation, slowing down. You know they're wrong, and so you announce your a.n.a.lysis of the situation, and override their objections. Be sure to give the first phrase a real lift. You're consciously speaking in metaphor, using carefully crafted, heightened language in order to make a complex idea clear and immediately graspable. Lay it out clearly: Imagine a number of people gathered together to offer you advice. They counsel restraint, deliberation, slowing down. You know they're wrong, and so you announce your a.n.a.lysis of the situation, and override their objections. Be sure to give the first phrase a real lift. You're consciously speaking in metaphor, using carefully crafted, heightened language in order to make a complex idea clear and immediately graspable. Lay it out clearly: Life has tides Life has tides. Then unpack what you mean by it: and flood tides are preferable to ebb tides and flood tides are preferable to ebb tides. Then drive your point home with the switch to monosyllables: We. Must. Take. When. It. Serves. Or. Lose. We. Must. Take. When. It. Serves. Or. Lose. Stress these key ant.i.theses: Stress these key ant.i.theses: taken at the flood taken at the flood versus versus omitted omitted; leads on to fortune leads on to fortune versus versus bound in shallows bound in shallows; take take versus versus lose lose.

SHAKESPEARE ON WORK I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats; If it be a man's work, I'll do it.

-CAPTAIN, King Lear King Lear, 5.3.3940 Workingmen abound in Shakespeare's plays. A cobbler and a carpenter open Julius Caesar Julius Caesar, two gravediggers ply their trade in Hamlet Hamlet, a gardener and his a.s.sistant tend to fruit trees in Richard II Richard II, and a tailor makes Kate a dress in The Taming of the Shrew The Taming of the Shrew. There's also a tailor in A Midsummer Night's Dream A Midsummer Night's Dream. His pals, a bunch of "rude mechanicals" with s...o...b..z dreams, include a carpenter, a bellows mender, a weaver, a tinker (an Elizabethan handyman), and a joiner (a woodworker who specializes in framing buildings). The play's list of characters reads like the program at a tradesmen's convention.

For the most part, Shakespeare treats these working characters with affection and respect, although he now and then indulges in a few condescending jokes at their expense: their breath reeks of garlic, they're not the sharpest bunch. These wisecracks would have amused the aristocrats in his audience as much as it would have irritated his working-cla.s.s, glovemaker father. But although Shakespeare's aspirational yearnings, royal patronage, and material successes may have aligned his att.i.tudes with those of the high end of the social scale, he never forgot his origins in a working family and a market town. Throughout the canon he nails the technical lingo of workingmen's crafts with such accuracy that sometimes it feels like he must have moonlighted at Ye Olde Home Depot. And if Shakespeare's father was indeed put out by his son's sometime snootiness, William the good papa's boy apologized by shouting out to his father's trade in dozens of places, including Twelfth Night Twelfth Night, Hamlet Hamlet, and Sonnet 111. In that poem, he observes how our work defines who we are: "my nature is subdued / To what it works in, like the dyer's hand." The leather dyes that John Shakespeare could no more wash from his skin than Lady Macbeth could Duncan's imaginary blood from hers gave his boy a way to talk about what his own job had become to him: a permanent mark, a badge of ident.i.ty, an essential and indelible part of who he was. Dad had to have appreciated that filial salute.

I'M REPORTING FOR DUTY Given the relentless and breakneck writing pace he maintained all his life, Shakespeare clearly knew what it meant to work hard. This knowledge wends its way into his plays in some terrific pa.s.sages about rolling up our sleeves, putting our noses to our respective grindstones, and doing the hustle we all must do in order to buy baby those new shoes.

First, Shakespeare on the Occasion of the Expert Coming in to Save the Day: The strong necessity of time commandsOur services a while.-ANTONY, Antony and Cleopatra Antony and Cleopatra, 1.3.4243 In other words: The fierce urgency of now demands that I get to work.

How to use it: Use this speech when you're the hero arriving to the rescue, as when a firefighter strides over to a wailing child staring up at her cat stuck high in a tree. Or use it as Antony does, as an excuse to make a quick exit from someplace you'd rather not be. Or use it when your employees can't quite figure stuff out and you need to swoop in to get the job done. Use this speech when you're the hero arriving to the rescue, as when a firefighter strides over to a wailing child staring up at her cat stuck high in a tree. Or use it as Antony does, as an excuse to make a quick exit from someplace you'd rather not be. Or use it when your employees can't quite figure stuff out and you need to swoop in to get the job done.

Second, Shakespeare on the Occasion of Whistling While We Work: To business that we love we rise betime,And go to't with delight.-ANTONY, Antony and Cleopatra Antony and Cleopatra, 4.4.2021 In other words: We get up early in order to do stuff we love, and we do it joyfully.

How to use it: This is the Bardism you need when your partner moans that the alarm has gone off before sunrise. "I know you want to sleep, but I love my job, so I've got to wake up early." It also serves to rouse an oversleeping teenager who'd rather not get ready for school, work, that ice-fis.h.i.+ng trip you've been planning, and so on. Or the lines can be bent to a more ironic reading than the one Shakespeare intends. Scheduled to start that house-painting job at 5:00 This is the Bardism you need when your partner moans that the alarm has gone off before sunrise. "I know you want to sleep, but I love my job, so I've got to wake up early." It also serves to rouse an oversleeping teenager who'd rather not get ready for school, work, that ice-fis.h.i.+ng trip you've been planning, and so on. Or the lines can be bent to a more ironic reading than the one Shakespeare intends. Scheduled to start that house-painting job at 5:00 A.M. A.M.? Let Antony express how "happy" you are.

Third, the motto of Elizabethan FedEx, or, Shakespeare on the Occasion of It Absolutely, Positively Has to Be There Overnight: I'll put a girdle round about the earthIn forty minutes.-PUCK, A Midsummer Night's Dream A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2.1.175 In other words: I'm gonna run like heck. (Literally, I'll tie a belt around the planet in less than an hour.)

How to use it: Puck's famous line also lends itself to irony. I've seen many productions where he sneers the words at his boss, the fairy king Oberon, then lopes slowly offstage like someone being paid by the hour. On the other hand, many Pucks play this moment with genuine, even overeager, enthusiasm. In that sense, it's a great line for that first week on a new job, when pleasing the boss is your highest priority. Puck's famous line also lends itself to irony. I've seen many productions where he sneers the words at his boss, the fairy king Oberon, then lopes slowly offstage like someone being paid by the hour. On the other hand, many Pucks play this moment with genuine, even overeager, enthusiasm. In that sense, it's a great line for that first week on a new job, when pleasing the boss is your highest priority.

KNOCK YOURSELF OUT, I'LL CHILL If the three hardworking Bardisms above have tired you out, don't despair. Here's another that will justify a little break.

I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.-FALSTAFF, Henry IV, Part II Henry IV, Part II, 1.2.198200 In other words: I'd rather rust away than wear myself down to nothing by working too hard.

How to use it: My own teenage nephew once out-Shakespeared me with this line. When I asked him on a gorgeous spring day why he was inside playing Xbox rather than getting some fresh air outdoors, he answered matter-of-factly with this Falstaffan blow-off. I could only congratulate him in response. Use it, as he did, as the national anthem of the United States of Couch Potatoes. My own teenage nephew once out-Shakespeared me with this line. When I asked him on a gorgeous spring day why he was inside playing Xbox rather than getting some fresh air outdoors, he answered matter-of-factly with this Falstaffan blow-off. I could only congratulate him in response. Use it, as he did, as the national anthem of the United States of Couch Potatoes.

CHAPTER 5

And Then the Justice

SHAKESPEARE FOR THE OCCASIONS OF LIFE'S MIDDLE YEARS And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part.

The wars ended, the brave soldiers return home and resume their civilian lives. There are families to raise, homes to build, businesses to run. Step by step society walks forward, in the Renaissance as in our own time, as yesterday's moony youth matures into today's conquering hero and then tomorrow's seen-it-all elder. So steady is this progression, so stable, that society antic.i.p.ates it, formalizes it, and frames it with the trappings of inst.i.tution. Rules evolve and structures for governance develop. Bylaws describe procedures, mechanisms resolve disputes, insurance mitigates risk, and soon all that might be turbulent acquires, like the actors under Hamlet's tutelage, "a temperance that may give it smoothness." In such a world, change comes not fast and furious but slow and steady, and moderation-conservation-is the watchword, protecting, defending, and rea.s.suring. Safety first: there is a tide in the affairs of men, to be sure, but it ebbs just as certainly as it floods, and the law of entropy-that everything tends slowly toward stasis-applies to human interactions no less than it does to the interplay of subatomic particles.

Entropy is a law whose jurisdiction is the Court of Midlife, where the attorneys who argue cases are members of the Middle-Aged Bar a.s.sociation and the presiding judge is the Honorable Justice Jaques' Fifth Age. Justice JFA, as he's known, is serious-minded, as witness his intense gaze. A tad overweight-that happens when the odometer clicks past forty-he's nonetheless appearance-conscious, sharing with the soldier of Jaques' Fourth Age a taste for distinctively styled facial hair. Not shy about speaking his mind, he's ready for any subject with both time-tested wisdom and also the latest cutting-edge theory. All in all, he seems to be everything you'd want in a judge, the very model of modern jurisprudential probity.

But wait-this judge springs from Shakespeare's (well, from Jaques') imagination. And just as a Jaquean baby is merely bodily fluids and noise, a schoolboy always a truant, a lover by definition a silly twit, and a soldier perforce a bragging idiot, so for Jaques an apparently unimpeachable jurist is in fact anything but. The four seemingly beguiling lines with which he-with which Shakespeare-paints a word portrait of a figure of Solomonic wisdom and integrity turn out on closer inspection to encode enough subversive detail to freeze a gavel in midstrike.

Consider the capon that lines the Justice's round belly. It sounds from the context as though it's some kind of delicacy, the sort of rich dish served in the wood-paneled dining room of the club to which the Justice belongs, and that's partially correct. A capon is a male chicken whose meat is uncommonly tasty and moist thanks to its very high fat content. The bird is fat because it's raised to be much more sedate than the typical c.o.c.k, normally so aggressive that it's bred for fighting as often as for eating. Caponization, the process that becalms the bird, is achieved by castrating the poor thing at a young age and then encouraging its couch-potato (coop-potato?) lifestyle until it's all chubby and ready for slaughter. Caponization is illegal in most countries today (although capon meat itself is not, oddly) making capon a boutique dish that's as expensive and hard to find as a cheeseburger made of Kobe beef, but in the Renaissance, capon was the decadent repast that everyone craved. Priced beyond the reach of most mere mortals, and certainly above the pay grade of a civil servant like a justice of the peace, it became the ideal gift to present when looking for a favor. One anonymous wag of the period makes plain in a fun piece of doggerel that in law courts, capon was the bribe of choice: Now poor men to the justicesWith capons make their errants,And if they hap to fail of these,They plague them with their warrants.*

So redolent with chicken fat was the air in the chambers of many local magistrates that they came to be known as "capon justices," and in a parliamentary debate on the issue only a year after Jaques' speech was first spoken at the Globe, an MP railed, "A justice of the peace is a living creature that for half a dozen chickens will dispense with a dozen of penal statutes."

In the unlikely event that Shakespeare's audiences weren't up on the latest trends in judicial bribery, then the latest trends in judicial facial hair would have given them another clue about the Justice's true character. Jaques' irritation at men's beardly vanity-his soldier was "bearded like the pard" in emulation of the great military man the Earl of Ess.e.x; now his judge sports a "beard of formal cut," that is, trimmed with a special, and presumably pretentious, appropriateness to its wearer's vaunted station-was common among satirists of the period. One of the greats, the pamphleteer Philip Stubbes, penned an attack against the affectations of the smarter set called The Anatomie of Abuses The Anatomie of Abuses, and he rants in it that a conspiracy among barbers is responsible for the beardly excesses of the day. Stubbes catalogues the many absurd styles a man could request: the French cut, the Spanish cut, the Italian cut, the Dutch cut, the new cut, the old cut, the bravado cut, the mean cut, the gentleman's cut, the common cut, "and infinite like vanities which I overpa.s.s." It's easy to imagine Jaques-and Shakespeare-leafing through Stubbes with a belly laugh and a notebook at the ready, and then deploying snippets of his hilarious venom when choosing to detail the most venal of the Seven Ages of Man.

And just in case Jaques' descriptions of the Justice's diet and look don't sufficiently convey the fact that he's a bungler, the things he says surely will. He's got old material and new; the old (wise saws) are canned sayings, cliches, overused to the point of becoming trite; and the new (modern instances) are, like everything else modern modern in Shakespeare's canon, trivial, ordinary, commonplace, the kind of self-consciously up-to-date insight that's absurd on its face if not altogether meaningless. Justice Fifth Age dispenses wash-and-wear advice of the TV talk-show variety: "There's no time like the present" pa.s.ses for eternal wisdom, and "Pink is the new black" represents the cutting edge in words to live by. The very sounds of Jaques' description echo with the Justice's pomposity and windbaggery. The sonorous vowels that dot the speech-"fair round belly" resounds with in Shakespeare's canon, trivial, ordinary, commonplace, the kind of self-consciously up-to-date insight that's absurd on its face if not altogether meaningless. Justice Fifth Age dispenses wash-and-wear advice of the TV talk-show variety: "There's no time like the present" pa.s.ses for eternal wisdom, and "Pink is the new black" represents the cutting edge in words to live by. The very sounds of Jaques' description echo with the Justice's pomposity and windbaggery. The sonorous vowels that dot the speech-"fair round belly" resounds with aaaayyy aaaayyy, owwwww owwwww, ehhhhh ehhhhh, and "eyes severe and beard of formal cut" features aaaayyy aaaayyy, eeeeerr eeeeerr, eeeeerr eeeeerr, awwwwr, uhhhhh awwwwr, uhhhhh-signal even to a listener who speaks no English that something about this fellow isn't quite right. And the whopper vowels in "wise saws" are hewn roughly at their ends by buzzing z z's, telling us unmistakably that while this sad-eyed fellow may be an expert in the law, he's also no slouch at bloviation. No wonder Jaques, for whom wit and pith are the ultimate values, finds him contemptible.

To be sure, the subversive significance of capons, formal beards, old saws, and modern instances isn't necessarily accessible to today's Shakespeare fans, or Shakespeare quoters. As one editor of As You Like It As You Like It remarks of the capon as bribe, "The allusion here was probably more intelligible in the time of Shakespeare than it is at present." That's undoubtedly so, but for me, retrieving these lost nuances of meaning is part of the fun of working on the Bard's plays. To exhume from beneath the lines such details as the barbers whose crazy tastes in beards made them into Elizabethan versions of Edward Scissorhands is to travel backward in time to a Tudor England in which the familiar "ye olde" image of thatched roofs, thick beams lacing geometric patterns through walls of white stucco, and smiling wenches yo-ho-ho-ing tankards of ale in the friendly confines of the Publick House becomes something more complex, something more real. Something more like life. remarks of the capon as bribe, "The allusion here was probably more intelligible in the time of Shakespeare than it is at present." That's undoubtedly so, but for me, retrieving these lost nuances of meaning is part of the fun of working on the Bard's plays. To exhume from beneath the lines such details as the barbers whose crazy tastes in beards made them into Elizabethan versions of Edward Scissorhands is to travel backward in time to a Tudor England in which the familiar "ye olde" image of thatched roofs, thick beams lacing geometric patterns through walls of white stucco, and smiling wenches yo-ho-ho-ing tankards of ale in the friendly confines of the Publick House becomes something more complex, something more real. Something more like life.

That's how I like my Shakespeare: recognizable, actual, and alive. That Shakespeare, and not the one on the porcelain plate for sale in a Stratford souvenir stand, is the one who comes to mind when I read in the morning paper of a local official who sold his influence to the highest bidder-for cash, not capons, but what's the difference? That Shakespeare, and not the one mummified by some BBC recording from 1950, is the one whose voice rings in my ear when I read an interview with, say, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (he of the eyes severe), in which wise saws and modern instances express his views on important matters of yesterday and today. The living Shakespeare is the one who makes you say, "That's it, exactly!" Shakespeare alive is Shakespeare for all occasions, and Shakespeare for the Fifth Age of Man is Shakespeare for the real events of midlife: events concerned with sophisticated things, mature themes, and matters monetary, dietary, and judiciary.

SHAKESPEARE ON MIDDLE AGE I am declined Into the vale of years-yet that's not much.

-OTh.e.l.lO, Oth.e.l.lo Oth.e.l.lo, 3.3.26970 Shakespeare died in 1616 at age fifty-two, and it's a commonplace in discussions of the Bard's life and times that while fifty-two seems terribly young in comparison to our modern life spans of eight decades or more, in comparison to the average Renaissance life expectancy of thirty-five or so, Shakespeare enjoyed a respectably long run. But that fixation on thirty-five as life's terminus can be misleading. History records countless individuals who lived decades longer than Shakespeare, some in his own family, and the dramatis personae of the playwright's own canon would fill to capacity the waiting room of any Jacobean geriatrician.

In truth, the period's average life expectancy is more accurately understood as an expression of how unlikely it was to make it out of childhood in the first place. After all, mathematics yields an average life expectancy of thirty-five when one person dies at sixty-five and another at five-the lower number makes all the difference. Shakespeare's day knew infant mortality rates that were shockingly high, and various incurable childhood diseases claimed half of all English children by the time they reached four. Half of the half of girls who survived p.u.b.erty died giving birth to the next generation, and half of the half of boys who were their peers died either in one of the endless military conflicts of the age, or of the plague or some other epidemic disease, or from primitive and ineffectual medical practices, or of malnutrition, or lack of proper sanitation, or from some noxious agent in the food supply, or, or, or, or. Death was woven prominently into the fabric of every life, and in such a context, Shakespeare's survival into middle age must be reckoned a triumph of endurance and a cause for celebration.

I'M BETWEEN OLD AND YOUNG One vivid Shakespearean take on middle age acknowledges how hard it is to define anything that's in the middle: it's neither one extreme nor the other, neither what came before nor what's coming after. Jaques' Fifth Age? Think of it in terms of other periods of life that are a bit easier to pin down. If life is a journey, then middle age is a kind of layover between the young soldier's foolish excesses, the behavior of man's Fourth Age, and the nostalgic senior citizen's overly sentimental effusions, the dotage of man's Sixth.

KING LEAR How old art thou? How old art thou?KENT Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor so old to dote on her for anything. I have years on my back forty-eight. Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor so old to dote on her for anything. I have years on my back forty-eight.-King Lear, 1.4.3335 In other words: KING lear How old are you? lear How old are you?KENT I'm not that young that I get infatuated with a woman for some pretty feature like a nice voice. And I'm not that old that I start getting all mushy and sentimental about any random thing. I'm forty-eight. I'm not that young that I get infatuated with a woman for some pretty feature like a nice voice. And I'm not that old that I start getting all mushy and sentimental about any random thing. I'm forty-eight.

How to say it: Note how indirectly Kent answers Lear's question. Rather than just stating his age straight out, he offer instead a wry riddle. There's wit about his first sentence, an ironic and winking sense of humor. The second sentence, on the other hand, is plain, hard fact. Imagine the difference between "Well, I'm old enough to vote but not old enough to collect Social Security" and "I'm thirty-nine years old." There's a s.h.i.+ft of tone between the two sentences. When you quote this speech, embrace that s.h.i.+ft, and have fun with the witty way you stall before p.r.o.nouncing your true age. Note how indirectly Kent answers Lear's question. Rather than just stating his age straight out, he offer instead a wry riddle. There's wit about his first sentence, an ironic and winking sense of humor. The second sentence, on the other hand, is plain, hard fact. Imagine the difference between "Well, I'm old enough to vote but not old enough to collect Social Security" and "I'm thirty-nine years old." There's a s.h.i.+ft of tone between the two sentences. When you quote this speech, embrace that s.h.i.+ft, and have fun with the witty way you stall before p.r.o.nouncing your true age. Kent makes expert use of a series of ant.i.theses: Kent makes expert use of a series of ant.i.theses: young young versus versus old old is of course the central one, along with is of course the central one, along with to love to love versus versus to dote to dote, and for singing for singing versus versus for anything for anything. It would be easy enough to offer a female-gendered equivalent of this speech, but since it's extraordinarily ungentlemanly to ask a woman her age, I'll spare my women readers on the shy side of fifty the awkwardness of having a way to answer. It would be easy enough to offer a female-gendered equivalent of this speech, but since it's extraordinarily ungentlemanly to ask a woman her age, I'll spare my women readers on the shy side of fifty the awkwardness of having a way to answer.

LIFE IMPROVES WITH AGE The conventional wisdom of our new millennium holds that "forty is the new twenty" and "sixty is the new forty." Shakespeare would, I think, have found both phrases most amusing-and not unfamiliar. He wrote his own version of the wise saw that life begins in middle age, and put it in the mouth of an optimistic and entirely sincere young woman to p.r.o.nounce to the world.

The heavens forbidBut that our loves and comforts should increase,Even as our days do grow!-DESDEMONA, Oth.e.l.lo Oth.e.l.lo, 2.1.19092 In other words: May G.o.d ordain no other course than this: that as we grow older, our loves may grow deeper, and our material comforts, greater.

How to use it: This is an ideal bit of Shakespeare for use as a birthday toast to someone in midlife, or on any other occasion that marks a milestone of the middle years: retirement, the purchase of second home, and so on. This is an ideal bit of Shakespeare for use as a birthday toast to someone in midlife, or on any other occasion that marks a milestone of the middle years: retirement, the purchase of second home, and so on. Rely on the pa.s.sage's three verbs (each of which falls at the end of a verse line) to help you through it: Rely on the pa.s.sage's three verbs (each of which falls at the end of a verse line) to help you through it: forbid forbid, increase increase, and grow grow. Stressing these will in turn help you mark the structural symmetry that shapes Desdemona's wish: that good things remain abundant good things remain abundant even as even as we get older we get older.