Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions

321 Pages·2009·1.16 MB·English

by  Barry Edelstein

B
S
ARDISM
Shakespeare for All Occasions
O
WONDERFUL WORDS FROM THE BARD ON LIFE’S BIG
MOMENTS AND SOME SMALL ONES, TOO PLUS TIPS
ON HOW TO USE THEM IN A TOAST, SPEECH, OR LET TER
Barry Edelstein
for Tillirose
You gods, look down
And from your sacred vials pour your graces
Upon my daughter’s head!
“. . . And the Contents
o’ th’ Story. . .”
“We Will Have Such a Prologue . . .”
Introduction vii
“My Instructions May Be Your Guide”
Seven Steps to Shipshape Shakespeare xix
O
xxxv
THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN
Chapter 1
AT FIRST THE INFANT
Shakespeare for the Occasions of Birth and Family Life
Shakespeare on the Experience of Childbirth 3
iv Contents
Shakespeare on Newborns 7
Shakespeare on Daughters 12
Shakespeare on Sons 18
Shakespeare on Mothers 23
Shakespeare on Fathers 26
Shakespeare on Siblings 30
Chapter 2
THEN THE SCHOOLBOY
Shakespeare for the Occasions of Childhood
Shakespeare on Children 40
Shakespeare on School 43
Shakespeare on the Commencement Address 51
Shakespeare on Sports and Exercise 57
Shakespeare on Holidays 63
Chapter 3
AND THEN THE LOVER
Shakespeare for the Occasions of L’amour
Shakespeare on Love 76
Shakespeare to Say “I Love You” 81
Shakespeare on Lovemaking 92
Shakespeare on Getting Engaged 98
Shakespeare on Weddings 100
Shakespeare on Wedding Vows 109
Shakespeare on Relationship Troubles 116
Contents v
Chapter 4
THEN A SOLDIER
Shakespeare for the Occasions of Professional Life
Shakespeare on Soldiers 125
Shakespeare on Reputation 129
Shakespeare on Violent Confrontation 134
Shakespeare on Winning and Losing 139
Shakespeare on Motivating the Troops 143
Shakespeare on Work 147
Chapter 5
AND THEN THE JUSTICE
Shakespeare for the Occasions of Life’s Middle Years
Shakespeare on Middle Age 157
Shakespeare on Justice 160
Shakespeare on Witty People and Bores 166
Shakespeare on Thanks 172
Shakespeare on Apologies and Forgiveness 175
Shakespeare on Parties 179
Chapter 6
THE LEAN AND SLIPPERED PANTALOON
Shakespeare for the Occasions of Old Age
Shakespeare on Old Age 191
Shakespeare on Grandparenthood 195
Shakespeare on Tributes 197
vi Contents
Shakespeare on Health and Medicine 202
Shakespeare on News 210
Shakespeare on Weather 213
Chapter 7
MERE OBLIVION
Shakespeare for the Occasions of the End of Life
Shakespeare on Death 226
Shakespeare on the Loss of Loved Ones 235
Shakespeare on Memorials and Elegies 241
Shakespeare on God, Spirituality, and Faith 251
O
“I Have a Kind Soul That Would Give You Thanks”
Acknowledgments 257
“. . . Index to the Story We Late Talked of ”
Subject Index 259
Index 263
“If We Do Meet Again, Why We Shall Smile”
Keep in Touch 275
“Is It a World to Hide Virtues In?”
About the Author 277
About the Author
Other Books by Barry Edelstein
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
“We Will Have
Such a Prologue . . .”
INT RO D U C TIO N
O let my books be then the eloquence . . .
—Sonnet .
Some years ago I was called upon to speak in public at a number of
big life moments that took place over the course of a short span of
months. Two of my best friends got married, and I toasted them. I
got married, and I spoke at engagement parties, in the ceremony it-
self, and in a toast to my bride at the reception. I stepped down from
a long-held post, and I saluted my staff and supporters. I roasted a
colleague at a swank party for a watershed birthday, and I eulogized
a dear family friend at a quiet memorial service.
Casting about for inspiration as I prepared my remarks for each
event, I turned immediately to a volume that’s been at the heart of my
professional career for nearly two decades. That tome is Western lit-
erature’s greatest repository of wit, wisdom, solace, spiritual nourish-
ment, poetic uplift, psychological insight, emotional passion, poetic
virtuosity, and just plain beautiful writing: The Complete Works of
William Shakespeare.
The Bard didn’t let me down. Through my work directing, writing
viii Introduction
about, and teaching him, I knew his canon pretty well cold. But I was
dazzled to find the incredible number of passages in his plays and
poems that seemed tailor-made for celebrations, personal milestones,
and just about every one of life’s big moments. Shakespeare, I was
relieved and delighted to discover, is pitch-perfect for all occasions.
Soon I’d collected Shakespeare quotations for my various needs.
For my best friend and his bride, whose love for one another
struck me as uncommonly deep, I talked about this line from As You
Like It: “My love hath an unknown bottom, like the Bay of Portugal.”
(I explained that in Shakespeare’s day, the Bay of Portugal was thought
to be the deepest body of water on Earth, so any love that’s like it
must be pretty darned deep.)
At a religious ceremony the weekend before my wedding, during
which the story of Noah was read from the Bible, I commented on
the amazing fact that there’s a line in Shakespeare that actually talks
about both weddings and also old Noah himself (it’s in As You Like It
as well, when Jaques the cynic encounters a gathering of three be-
trothed pairs and says: “There is, sure, another flood toward, and these
couples are coming to the ark”).
At my colleague’s fiftieth birthday party, I reassured him with this
line from Sonnet 104: “To me, fair friend, you never can be old.”
And at my family friend’s funeral, I shared this beautiful passage
from the little-known play Cymbeline:
Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney- sweepers, come to dust.