Shakespeare
Virgin
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2001
- Posts
- 12
TO THE
RIGHT HONOURABLE READER
THE love I dedicate to your selves is without end;
whereof this entertainment, without beginning, is
but a superfluous moiety. What I have done is yours;
being part in all I have, presented for your pleasure.
These inadequate writings are presented to each of
you, to ponder and reflect, such that ye may reap some
minor comfort or pleasure from them. As time is
allowed me, I shall attempt to visit ye once each day.
Were my worth greater, my duty would show greater;
meantime, as it is, it is bound to your enjoyment, to
all of whom I wish long life, still lengthened with
all happiness.
Yr friend and companion,
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.
-----------------------------------------------------
All the World's a Stage
by William Shakespeare
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. 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 sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
-- from As You Like It (II, vii, 139-166)
RIGHT HONOURABLE READER
THE love I dedicate to your selves is without end;
whereof this entertainment, without beginning, is
but a superfluous moiety. What I have done is yours;
being part in all I have, presented for your pleasure.
These inadequate writings are presented to each of
you, to ponder and reflect, such that ye may reap some
minor comfort or pleasure from them. As time is
allowed me, I shall attempt to visit ye once each day.
Were my worth greater, my duty would show greater;
meantime, as it is, it is bound to your enjoyment, to
all of whom I wish long life, still lengthened with
all happiness.
Yr friend and companion,
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.
-----------------------------------------------------
All the World's a Stage
by William Shakespeare
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. 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 sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
-- from As You Like It (II, vii, 139-166)
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