TWO EXTRACTS FROM SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS

 

                TWO EXTRACTS FROM SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS

            The two extracts given below are from the plays of English playwright, poet and actor William Shakespeare who was born on 23 April 1564 and died on 23 April 1616.

            He is most famous for “writing timeless plays and poetry.”

            Nearly five centuries have passed since his writings, yet he remains   unsurpassed by any other poet-playwright of the world .

            He wrote 39 plays all of which are as fresh today as they were at the time of their creation. They continue to win appreciation from readers and spectators.

            He also wrote 154 sonnets.

            His death is believed to have occurred due to the typhus fever.      

            The first extract which follows is from his play The Tempest, Act 4, Sc.1.

Be cheerful, sir:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits and

Are melted into air, into thin air :

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep.    

                                    ----

            Te second extract is from The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Sc.1.It is the protestation of Shylock, a Jew, against Antonio, a Christian.

 

            If I will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what’s his reason?

            I am a Jew,

Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is ?

 

            If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh ? If you poison us, do we not die?

            And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.

            If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge.

            The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

 

                                                ********

G.R.Kanwal

4 October 2026

REMEMBER SOME PROVERBS

 

REMEMBER SOME PROVERBS

            Proverbs are stated to be (i) the wisdom of many and the wit of one. (ii) The literature of reason, or the statements of absolute truth. (iii) The genius, wit, and spirit of a nation. (iv). Short sentences drawn from long experiences. (v). The condensed wisdom of long experience. (vi). The abridgement of wisdom. (Vii). The meaning and power of a thousand words into one short and simple sentence. (viii).Usually but half truth. (ix). Attractive due to sense, brevity, and point. (x). Simple words, short maxims, homely truths, cream of a nation’s thought.

            Here are some examples:

1.     A man is known by the company he keeps.

2.     All is well that ends well,

3.     A blind man is no judge of colours.

4.     Two of a trade seldom agree.

5.     Better lose a jest than lose a friend.

6.     A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

7.     It’s no use crying over spilt milk.

8.     Ever cock fights best on his own dunghill.

9.     Self-praise is no commendation.

10.                         It takes two to make a quarrel.

11.                         Better alone than in bad company.

12.                         Idleness is the root of all evil.

13.                         Empty vessels make much noise.

14.                         There is no rose without a thorn.

15.                         A lie has no legs to stand upon.

16.                         A drowning man catches at a straw.

17.                         Truth fears no examination.

18.                         Birds of a feather flock together.

19.                         Love begets love.

20.                         Money makes the mare go.

                                                *******

G. R. Kanwal

3  October 2026

           

 

                 

THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD’S ADVICE TO HIS SON

 

          THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD’S ADVICE TO HIS SON

            It was Philip Stanhope (1694-1773), the 4^th Earl of Chesterfield, who was a prominent British statesman, diplomat, and an author with genuine poetic gifts. He is best remembered for Letters to His Son published posthumously in 1774. Through the suggestions given in his letters, he wished to make his son “Man of the World” and a “Gentleman. A good number of letters written to him  on etiquette, statecraft, and personal refinement begin with  the words “Dear Boy”.

            Given below are a few quotes from one of his representative letters.

1.     Errors and mistakes, however gross, in matters of opinion, if they are sincere, are to be pitied, but not punished nor laughed at.

2.     The blindness of the understanding is as much to be pitied as the blindness of the eye; and there is neither jest nor guilt in a man’s losing his way in either case. Charity bids us set him right if we can, by arguments and persuasions; but charity, at the same time, forbids, either to punish or ridicule his misfortune.

3.     Every man’s reason is, and must be, his guide.

4.     Every man seeks for truth; but God only knows who has found it.  

5.     It is the man who tells, or who acts a lie, that is guilty, and not he who honestly and sincerely believes the lie. I really know nothing more criminal, more mean, and more ridiculous than lying.

6.       Lies are always detected sooner or later.

7.     Remember as long as you live that nothing but strict truth can carry you through the world, with either your conscience or your honour unwounded.  

8.     The pleasures of the mind, which are the solid and permanent ones, do not come under the head of what people commonly call pleasures; which they seem to confine to the senses. The pleasures of virtue, and of learning is true and lasting pleasure.

9.     Tell me who you live with and I will tell you who you are.

10.         The art of pleasing is a very necessary one to possess; but a very difficult one to acquire.

                                                                *****

G. R Kanwal

 30 September 2026

 

 

 

 

MAHATMA GANDHI

 

                MAHATMA GANDHI

           

            Today is the birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who was born at Porbander in Kathiawar (India) on October 2, 1869, in a Vaishya family. “Both his father and grandfather, though not very highly educated, rose to become the Chief Ministers of small States in Ksthiawar.

 

            M.K.Gandhi who is now also known as Mahatma Gandhi passed his matriculation exam in India at the age of eighteen; went to England where he studied for three years and was called to the Bar. On return, he practiced for two years in Bombay and Rajkot but without any significant success.

 

            His eventful life as a barrister began in South Africa. There he stayed for 20 years, fought for the rights of aggrieved  Indians; became a non-violent leader for justice and freedom;  then came back to India and fought with  the then  British rulers non-violently; as a result of which he along with other like-minded Indian leaders  won independence for his country on 15 August 1947.

            Unfortunately, a fanatic shot him dead 0n 30^th January 1948. By this time, he had become popular as Mahatma Gandhi not only in his own country  but in the whole world.     

 

                Here are some of his famous quotes:

 

*You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

 

*You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean, if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

 

*We may not be God, but we are of God, even as a little drop of water is of the ocean.

 

*As soon as we become one with the ocean in the shape of God, there is no more rest for us, nor indeed do we need rest any longer,

 

*An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

 

*The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

 

*The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.                                                                                          

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

2^nd October 2026                                      

To Blossoms

 

 

                                              To Blossoms

 

            ‘To Blossoms’ is a very beautiful and one of the best-loved poems by the Cavalier poet Robert Herrick (1591-1674), who was a perfect lyricist though his greatness was acknowledged after a long waiting.

 

            A criic says Herrick’s poems achieved no great contemporary fame, and he had to wait till the end of the eighteenth century before he took his rightful place in the greatest English lyric poets. From that place there has been none to depose him.    

 

            Given below is his deeply meaningful poem To Blossoms. It is about the fleeting beauty of blossoms which are “born to be an hour or half’s delight’. It is sad, says the poet, all beautiful things also have quick end. They merely show their worth and quit this world.

 

             Their brief life  reveals to us  the universal truth and that is: “How soon things have their end. After they have shown their pride awhile, they glide into the grave.”

               

            The full text of the poem bearing the title “TO BLOSSOMS” follows.    

 

“Fair pledges of a fruitful tree,

Why do ye fall so fast?

Your date is not so past,

But you may stay yet here a-while,

To blush and gently smile;

And go at last.

 

What, were ye born to be

An hour or half's delight;

And so to bid good-night?

'Twas pity Nature brought ye forth,

Merely to show your worth,

And lose you quite.

 

But you are lovely leaves, where we

May read how soon things have

Their end, though ne'er so brave:

And after they have shown their pride,

Like you, a-while;—they glide

Into the grave. “

 

                                                            ********

 

G.R.Kanwal

1^st October 2026