I woke up this morning and I knew where I was, which is
always a good sign. My mind felt like it had passed through a
food strainer. My eyes were red, I felt off-balance somehow...
as if I was stumbling. The cupboard was bare. The fridge was a
horror I could not face; the bathroom looked as if someone
had killed a chicken in it.
My eyes were out of focus and I had a general sense of doom
which loosened my bowels and made me want to apologize
for everything I had ever done.
There was no one here to apologize to... thank God!
Had there been someone here, I might have said something I
really and truly meant. And this always gets me into trouble.
They haven`t quite figured out how to formulate a crime
out of "verbal assault" (unless you happen to spray the other person
with spittle when you`re screaming at him. ) This is
good.
One thing I`ve noticed about the Criminal Code - the sentences never get lighter, as time goes by, and once they figure out how to codify a new crime, the crime stays on the books: it never leaves, it is there for good. You can still get 14 years for buggery in Canada
The Code never gets lighter; it keeps getting heavier, and heavier until we have no civil rights at all.
Ha! Ha! And now I`m way off topic.
Yes, waking up, feeling horrible, jumping when I see my own shadow, afraid to look in the mirror... ... When I feel like this, I usually have a stiff drink and turn to Shakespeare. He`s always worth a laugh or two. And the fact that he seems to know me is a comfort. When I wander through his pages, he always cheers me up.
I`m sure more people would read him if they hadn`t met him first in English class, if they realized his savage nature. Shakespeare is a beast! He has the big mind, a nasty mind capable of expressing some of the ugly truths about being women and men. And he`s not afraid to say exactly what he means
It is from Shakespeare that I get the above quotation
To paraphrase:
The cure for madness is a whip in a dark house.
Love is a kind of madness.
So the cure for love may also be a whipping in a dark house.
So speaks Rosalind in, "As You Like It" 3.2
"Love is merely a madness, and I tell you
deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen
do: and the reason why they are not so punished
and cured is, that the lunacy is so ordinary that the
whippers are in love too..."
I had the privilege of studying with Northrope Frye
for four years at Victoria College, University of Toronto. He said sometimes he thought Shakespeare`s comedies are his best works, the ultimate culmination of his talent
I agree with him. The character of Rosalind is not as well known as Lear or Hamlet, but boy is she deep! And she`s funny at times, also, so I can forgive her the sadism of some of her comments and actions.
Forgive her sadism? What am I talking about? I`ve always
encouraged a healthy sadism. Read the part about how she has tortured a young man in love with her in order to cure him of love.
Wow! A bug on the end of a pin maybe feels less pain.
To be honest I find the notion of a whipping in a dark house arousing. And sadistic ladies have always had a certain appeal to me... So you can see why I enjoy Rosalind. I feel as if I`ve met her already! And I had a really rough time when I did.
People don`t read Shakespeare so much these days and that`s fine with me because that means I get to pick from his treasure house alone as I please.
One thing I have to say about Willie, apart from his being a beast, is:
What a wild garden he has! There are vegetables in it
that no one has met yet, and creatures there that no one will ever name.
His characters are archetypes. I have seen them
walking past me in the crowds of Main Street.
Reading his plays I encounter an understanding so fundamental as to be preternatural.
I hear his peoples` voices speaking across the centuries, whispering down the wind.
Here`s a little savagery.
"There have been cuckolds ere now,
And many a man there is (even at this present,
Now, while I speak this) holds his wife by th`arm,
That little thinks she has been sluiced in`s absence,
And his pond fished by his next neighbour (by
Sir Smile, his neighbour)"
Should all despair who has unfaithful wives,
the tenth of mankind would hang themselves. (paraphrase)
There`s no cure for it: it is a bawdy planet.
The Winter`s Tale 1.2
Respectfully submitted. RR.
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