Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
It is (almost) official. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee and face Barack Obama come November. The battle ahead will include reluctant warriors.
Let us remember the heroes and warriors at the front lines though. Our nation is still a nation at war in Afghanistan. We have troops deployed all across the globe in dangerous places fighting profound challenges and entrenched enemies of freedom.
Now that the general election is all but underway, I am reminded of a close friend who quotes Shakespeare on auspicious occasions. A Marine, a devoted practioner in the electoral arts, and a great man, embraces this passage from Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene I:
"Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war."
On to victory. I shall share some of my favorite quotes in the comments but first, what are your favorite passages from Shakespeare?
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Comments:
Apr '11
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
Happy Birthday, man from Stratford!
April 23, 1564 (also, death day 1616)
Sep '10
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
After last week, I think "war of dogs" might be more appropriate for this election than "dogs of war", though.
Apr '11
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
Also, love the pure contemporary marital dynamics of Portia to Brutus. Could be Anytown, USA:
Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
Is it expected, I should know no secrets
That appertain to you? Am I yourself
But as it were, in sort of limitation,
To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed,
And talk to you, sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs
Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,
Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.
Dec '10
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
Elizabeth,
I think it wise to note that in Henry V Shakespeare teaches us not only how to go to war. He also teaches us the proper attitude to Victory. Even total Victory.
Regards,
Jim
Jun '10
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
I'm an old coot, but the expressions of young love in Romeo and Juliet still bring me to tears. I read it every year, and magically I'm twenty again.
Here's Romeo on seeing Juliet for the first time:
Then as he watches her alone on her balcony:
Unrealistic and silly. But also beautiful, enchanting genius.
Edited on April 24, 2012 at 4:11amSep '10
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
The line in the St. Crispin's Day speech from Henry V that everyone remembers is "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers", but my favorite part of that speech comes just before that:
My father is a WW2 vet, and of all the wonderful lines Shakespeare wrote, none speaks to me more than this.
Feb '12
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
My depression was strong today, so I'm thinking of lines from Much Ado About Nothing. First Don John:
And later Leonato:
If only there was a way to take BRIAN BLESSED's (I mean, Antonio's) advice ...
Jan '12
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
Perhaps uncharacteristically, I do not much associate Shakespeare with political events. He also seems to be one of the first writers since antiquity to contemplate the great round without benefit of clergy, as it were. In As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7, Jaques meets a fool in a forest. Later he reflects on the world stage, which I imagine as a kind of circular theatre, a great mandala, whose circumference may stretch beyond even that of der Weltgeist.
Edited on April 24, 2012 at 5:15amRe: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
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.
Apr '11
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
As a romantic phrase, I've always liked Cymbeline's description of a bracelet as a "manacle of love".
Jul '11
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
"Now is the summer for me to sow racial discontent." Barry III. "Oh beware my Lord of Fox news, tis the red eyed ratings monster which doth mock the socialist it feeds upon. That narcissist lives in bliss who knows not his opinion polls, but oh what damned minutes tells he o'er who dotes yet doubts, suspects yet strongly loves himself". David Iago Axelrod.
May '10
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
There is a sonnet, number 29, that I have seen more times than I can count. It was rendered in beautiful calligraphy and framed as an anniversary gift from my father to my mother.
It was far more significant after 65 years than it was when first given. And it was not only a message to my mother, it set a bar for my brother, sister, and me. Short of Psalm 31, it is one of the most beautiful things a man could give his wife. It goes:
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
One of my favorites comes fro Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II, Scene IV: "I know him as myself; for from our infancy We have conversed and spent our hours together: And though myself have been an idle truant, Omitting the sweet benefit of time To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection, Yet hath Sir Proteus, for that's his name, Made use and fair advantage of his days; His years but young, but his experience old; His head unmellow'd, but his judgment ripe; And, in a word, for far behind his worth Comes all the praises that I now bestow, He is complete in feature and in mind With all good grace to grace a gentleman."
Mar '11
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
Macbeth:
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Macbeth Act 5, scene 5, 19-28
Appropriate for the age of Obama.
Edited on April 24, 2012 at 7:13amMar '11
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
Matt Blankenship: This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of Majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise;
This fortress built by Nature for herself,
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England...
--Richard II
That, too - it's a shame what Socialism did to the scepter'd isle.
May '11
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
King Lear, Act IV Scene 1
"'Tis the times' plague, when madmen lead the blind."
Mar '11
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
Almost all of them are in Julius Caesar. Sometimes I think the Bard wrote it just to fill the world with quotes.
Aug '10
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
I prefer it in the original Klingon.
Apr '11
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
I don't know Hamlet is filled with quotes, too.
Re: Cry Havoc! November Awaits.
Valiuth
I don't know Hamlet is filled with quotes, too. · 36 minutes ago
While on the subject of Hamlet, a fitting aphorism for the Age of Obama:
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.