Shakespeare

If you love him and his works, post your favorite Shakespearean stuff here. 🙂

ROMEO & JULIET

SCENE II. Capulet's orchard.

(Enter ROMEO)

ROMEO
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.

JULIET appears above at a window

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my lady, O, it is my love!
O, that she knew she were!
She speaks yet she says nothing: what of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!

JULIET
Ay me!

I love Shakespeare's poetry and plays. LoL- were you watching the newer version of Romeo & Juliet played repeatedly on tv for the past few days too?

Pan: "Lord, what fools these mortal be!"
from A Midsummer Night's Dream

Gwen, no, I wasn't, I can't believe I missed it. Actually to be honest, I very much hate the modern one with Leo DiCaprio...(is that the modern one you're referring to?)I was very disappointed with it. I like the one they did in the '70's...The acting was excellent, I thought.

Also, great excerpt above 🙂

Antony and Cleopatra

SCENE III. Alexandria. CLEOPATRA's palace.

(Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS)

CLEOPATRA
Where is the fellow?

ALEXAS
Half afeard to come.

CLEOPATRA
Go to, go to.

(Enter the Messenger as before)

Come hither, sir.

ALEXAS
Good majesty,
Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you
But when you are well pleased.

CLEOPATRA
That Herod's head
I'll have: but how, when Antony is gone
Through whom I might command it? Come thou near.

Messenger
Most gracious majesty,--

CLEOPATRA
Didst thou behold Octavia?

Messenger
Ay, dread queen.

CLEOPATRA
Where?

Messenger
Madam, in Rome;
I look'd her in the face, and saw her led
Between her brother and Mark Antony.

CLEOPATRA
Is she as tall as me?

Messenger
She is not, madam.

CLEOPATRA
Didst hear her speak? is she shrill-tongued or low?

Messenger
Madam, I heard her speak; she is low-voiced.

CLEOPATRA
That's not so good: he cannot like her long.

CHARMIAN
Like her! O Isis! 'tis impossible.

CLEOPATRA
I think so, Charmian: dull of tongue, and dwarfish!
What majesty is in her gait? Remember,
If e'er thou look'dst on majesty.

Messenger
She creeps:
Her motion and her station are as one;
She shows a body rather than a life,
A statue than a breather.

CLEOPATRA
Is this certain?

Messenger
Or I have no observance.

CHARMIAN
Three in Egypt
Cannot make better note.

CLEOPATRA
He's very knowing;
I do perceive't: there's nothing in her yet:
The fellow has good judgment.

CHARMIAN
Excellent.

CLEOPATRA
Guess at her years, I prithee.

Messenger
Madam,
She was a widow,--

CLEOPATRA
Widow! Charmian, hark.

Messenger
And I do think she's thirty.

CLEOPATRA
Bear'st thou her face in mind? is't long or round?

Messenger
Round even to faultiness.

CLEOPATRA
For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so.
Her hair, what colour?

Messenger
Brown, madam: and her forehead
As low as she would wish it.

CLEOPATRA
There's gold for thee.
Thou must not take my former sharpness ill:
I will employ thee back again; I find thee
Most fit for business: go make thee ready;
Our letters are prepared.

(Exit Messenger)

CHARMIAN
A proper man.

CLEOPATRA
Indeed, he is so: I repent me much
That so I harried him. Why, methinks, by him,
This creature's no such thing.

CHARMIAN
Nothing, madam.

CLEOPATRA
The man hath seen some majesty, and should know.

CHARMIAN
Hath he seen majesty? Isis else defend,
And serving you so long!

CLEOPATRA
I have one thing more to ask him yet, good Charmian:
But 'tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me
Where I will write. All may be well enough.

CHARMIAN
I warrant you, madam.

(Exeunt)

I always liked the quote...

"Remember Caesar, thou art mortal"

that's Shakespeare too, isn't it? Oh and yes, the Romeo & Juliet movie was Leo Dicaprio. I like it because I thought it was very artfully done and it was a very bizarre interpretation but I likede the 70s one a lot too.

I do believe your quote is from shakespeare, Gwen. About that R & J movie, I liked it visually I just didn't like the pace of the movie, and the camerawork, and some of the acting (Claire Danes). I like DiCaprio, but I'm not sure if I like him in a shakespearean role. Yes, "bizarre" is a good way to describe it. lol. I'm a sucker for tradition when it comes to the Bard.

Romeo and Juliett and also MacBeth..can't beat them. Hamlet is piss weak in comparison to MacBeth.

Absolutely adored Leo's Romeo, although Danes was a little flat I felt. The subtle script changes were awesome and had Shakespeare been alive to see it he would have loved it..and probably changed his ending as was seen in the movie..it worked so much better.

Yes and no... I think Shakespeare would have been horrified by the movie. Don't ask me why because I don't know, I just feel it. I thought the pace of the movie was fine, Claire Danes was a little overdramatic but in hte end they managed to make me cry (although I am a pisces).

I find it interesting how different director turn the same lines into far different meanings based on the actions and acting of the character.... I always wonder how SHakespeare originally directed his plays... If Hamlet wasn't actually mad and just pretending to be like some theorize, Shakespeare would have had him act without words so that the audience would know that. And yet this is lost to us.

Gwen, Shakespeare would have loved it! The way the script was adapted to suit the times (eg. carrying one's sword = brand of gun). The ending especially was incredible how they had that moment to look at each other before dying, unlike the play where they died an 'individual' death.

Shakespeare was a playwrite who wrote to suit his audiences. He never considered himself as an artist really, just loved doing what he did and made him a living. He was VERY aware that his audiences came from all walks of life and stations. He wanted to make ppl laugh and cry, but most of all wanted that pay check at the end of the week..lol. The adaptation of the 'modern' Romeo and Juliett would be right up his alley. Had he been alive, he would be right in there with the script writers and would have helped develop it moreso, especialy in the light of today's society.

Funny story, a friend of mine saw the film on video for the first time and said, "This Shakespeare guy is really great. Can't wait to see his next movie. He's gonna make a mint!" LOLOLOL...funny, but true!

Oh, to throw another gaunlet down, Shakepeare was gay. Ann Hathoway was his life long friend and they never married. Logical really..NO MAN could write such sensitive and brilliant poetry unless he had a feminine side.

How do I know? I am an actor and have completed an acting degree at uni many yrs ago. He was studied extensively and we had some awesome teachers and guest teachers (Mel Gibson, Gerry Lewis, Edward Woodward, to name a few)..just to let you know that there is some basis for my statement.

...but...but...he wrote a lot of romantic poetry about women...lol...

*sniffle

O Mistress Mine

O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O stay and hear! your true-love's coming
That can sing both high and low;
Trip no further, pretty sweeting,
Journeys end in lovers' meeting -
Every wise man's son doth know.

What is love ? 'tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
what's to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies no plenty,-
Then come kiss me, Sweet-and-twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure.

Sonnet XVIII
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day ?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate :
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date :

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest :

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet LVII
Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of your desire ?
I have no precious time at all to spend,
Nor services to do, till you require.

Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
When you have bid your servant once adieu;

Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are how happy you make those.

So true a fool is love that in your will,
Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.

Does anyone like that movie with leo and claire danes? The Romeo and Juliet one?
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~my thoughts are winged

Yeah, but that's where he gets his sensitivity from..he could truly understand the female mind!