Like flies to wanton boys are we to the Gods; they but kill us for their sport. – King Lear, Act III, Scene 1 – These words are spoken by Gloucester who has been betrayed by his bastard son, Edmund, and had his eyes gouged out by Regan’s husband, Cornwall. He is, quite understandably, in [...]
Tags: Life · shakespeare
I was re-reading King Lear last night and these two lines uttered by the title character caught my eye: Plate sin with gold and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; Arm it in rags, a pygmy’s straw does pierce it. A perfect motto for the occupy wall street movement, don’t you think? The rich can buy [...]
Tags: Philosophy · Politics · shakespeare
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet the Prince of Denmark overhears his uncle, King Claudius, pray for forgiveness for the murder of his brother, Hamlet’s father: O, what form of prayer can serve my turn? ‘Forgive me my foul murder’? That cannot be; Since I am still possess’d of those effects for which I did the murder; My crown, mine own [...]
Tags: Opinion · Politics of Taxes · shakespeare · Tax Policy
Harold Bloom, the curmudgeonly Shakespeare critic, once said that every pathology Sigmund Freud is said to have discovered can be found first in Shakespeare. I think there’s something to that. One of my favorite passages in all of Shakespeare is from King Lear. It is spoken by Edmund, the serpentine bastard son of the Duke of Gloucester. In it [...]
Tags: Philosophy · shakespeare
It’s that time of the year again when we promise to do all those things we promised to do last year but didn’t. Here are my top 14 resolutions for 2010 with a Shakespearean twist: Spend more time with the people you love – “Absence from those we love is self from self – a [...]
Tags: Announcements · shakespeare
