REMEMBERING SHAKESPEARE

 

                REMEMBERING  SHAKESPEARE

English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare was born on 23 April 1564 and died on 23 April 1616.

Among his notable writings are 37 plays (Comedies, Tragedies, Histories) and 154 sonnets , mostly addressed to his friend.

The four great tragedies are Macbeth, Othello, King Lear and Hamlet. Most of his unforgettable quotes are taken from these plays.

Given below is a bit long but very significant quote from Hamlet:

                   To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub ;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give a pause : here’s the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make,

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover’d country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

 

In his most characteristic play like Hamlet, Shakespeare shows us life in its variety ; he ranges from tragic passion to ironical comedy, from solid realistic portraiture  to ethereal lyric beauty. That is why his works are even today read, staged and interpreted all over the world in almost all the languages. .

 

To conclude, a short quote from King Lear:

As flies to wanton boys are we to the Gods

They kill us for their sport.

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23^rd April 2024l                                                                                   G.R.Kanwal