We’ll bring your Grace e’en to the edge o’th’shore,

Then give you up to the meek’st Neptune and

The gentlest winds of heaven.

 

-Cleon

 Pericles                                               Act III, scene iii, line 34

 

Sometimes I just like reading Will’s words because they’re just so…melodic? It’s just the way he strings them together so that they come out, well it’s just a thing of beauty. And that’s one of the wonders of Will. There are so many wonderful things to see and to hear in the world. This is one to hear. If you’re just reading it, read it aloud. And of course, that’s true of all of Will’s work. It can only be best appreciated if heard read aloud. And if that be yourself, reading to yourself out loud, well that’s just fine. 

 

I watched this guy bring himself e'en to the edge o'th'shore. 

 

And then...

...give himself up to the meek'st Neptune and the gentlest winds of heaven.

 

 

Then I will come to my mother by and by. They fool me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by.

 -Hamlet

 Hamlet                                     Act III, scene ii, line 401

 This is not stage direction; this is Hamlet responding to Polonius. Now one thing came to mind in the process of looking into the word bent. According to my Shakespeare app, the noun here means degree, capacity, or extent. And that seems to make perfect sense in this context. However, whilst looking this up I happened to notice that it was cited as being used by Guildenstern in 2.2. Naturally, I had to take a look at that quote, and he said it to Gertrude and Claudius when they asked Rosencrantz and him to do a little spying on Hamlet.

            But we both obey, 

            And here give up ourselves, in the full bent

            To lay our service freely at your feet,

            To be commanded.

So why do I bring this up? Well it should be obvious. Hamlet is using the same word in his reply to Polonius when being told that his mother wants him to come see her. Coincidence? I rather think not. Not in Will’s works. We can get into all sorts of speculations now. Did Hamlet overhear the conversation between R&G and Gertrude and Claudius? Did someone tell him about it? Or should we just consider it a little Easter egg on Will’s part. Something that he put in there to see if anyone would find it. And I’m sure I’m not the first person to notice it.

And speaking of Easter eggs, it brings to mind a conversation I was having with my wife recently regarding the fact that we currently seem to have a wealth of technology and a dearth of knowledge and common sense regarding how to use said technology. And now I speak of Will’s Easter egg, and that’s a common modern term referring to things hidden in technology. But Will was using it earlier, and Will is no dummy. So maybe we need some of Will’s wisdom to guide us in this technological age. Maybe.

 

 

And here we have a perfect example of improper use of technology, and an Easter egg. This, believe it or not, is an actual Easter egg hunt. Someone decided that it would be a good idea to have a helicopter drop candy on a football field and then let the kids run and get the candy. Is it possible? Yes, they proved they could do it. Did it make any sense whatsoever? No, not really. Will wasn't there to consult. I'm sure there's a line somewhere in his works that would address this, but I'm not sure what or where it is. Oh well. 

 

 

Upon a wooden coffin we attend;

 -Duke of Exeter

 King Henry The Sixth Part One         Act I, scene i, line 19  

This is the first time that we’ve picked page one in my compilation. Since this is the first play in my compilation, and the plays in this book are placed in the order in which Will wrote them, this tells us that this is the nineteenth line that he wrote in his career. However, it should be noted that the exact order in which he wrote the plays is unknown, and there are quite a few other lists which do not have this as his first play. Nonetheless, I believe we are safe in saying that this is one of the first lines in one of his very earliest works. Upon a wooden coffin we attend; The play starts with Bedford, Gloster, Exeter, Warwick, and the Bishop of Winchester bemoaning the recent death of Henry V. And so, this is the beginning of the reign of Henry VI.

 

And isn’t it a little interesting that Will starts his cannon off with an ending. One of the themes that I see in his works occurring over and over and over is the idea of contradiction, and appearance vs reality, or maybe better put, things being opposite of what we expect, or what they appear to be. Is it an ending or a beginning? Why do you suppose he does this? Maybe because every ending is a beginning, and because all the explicating of life (and he does a lot of explicating of life, in fact that’s all he does) involves two sides of a coin – never just one side. An ending and a beginning. Hmmm, a bit philosophical.

 

 

Now take this picture for example. It's a lot a grays, light and dark. And it doesn't really look like anything, and yet, it must be something. I think it might be an extreme closeup of something that would be entirely recognizable if it were taken and viewed from another angle. But I don't know for sure. So what is it? Beginning or end? You tell me.