"The Bard's Breath" is a new Winds of Change.NET feature bringing you art, quotes and verse related to our times every Tuesday and Thursday. We all need a bit more than just news to make it through what's coming next: Spirit. Perspective. Faith. Humour. Reminders of humanity, and horror, and the shape of true victory.
We're on it.
Jim Phillips' "The Raving", a parody of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," proved very popular on Tuesday. Today, we offer The Bard himself on a multitude of modern figures, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal.
President George W. Bush to Saddam Hussein:
"Check thy contempt; obey our will, which
Travails in thy good; believe not thy disdain,
But presently do thine own fortunes that
Obedient right which both thy duty owes
And our power claims, or I will throw thee
From my care forever into the staggers and
The careless lapse of youth and ignorance,
Both my revenge and hate loosing upon thee
In the name of justice without all terms of
Pity."
Osama bin Laden:
"Ungracious wretch, fit for the mountains
And the barbarous caves, where manners
Never were preached."
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld:
"Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
To kill, I grant, is sin's extremest gust,
But in defense, by mercy, 'tis most just.
A speedier course than lingering
Languishment must we pursue, and I have
Found the path."
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan:
"Speaks an infinite deal of nothing,
More than any man in all Venice. His
Reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in
Two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day
Ere you find them, and when you have them
They are not worth the search."
Go to the Wall St. Journal itself to find the rest, including: Jacques Chirac, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Hans Blix, Sean Pen, Sheryl Crow, and more!
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it... tell me which plays each of the WSJ's quotes for/from various ities come from, using the comments section.
Bonus challenge: if you're a liberal (or even if you're not), offer some sharp Shakespeare verses of your own. They can be for any current ity - just email the target and verses along with a cite that includes Play, Act & Scene. The next Bard's Breath is Tuesday.
I thought I posted this once, but it didn't appear. I hope this is not a duplicate!
1. Bush to Saddam - All's Well That Ends Well, Act 2, Scene 3, line 155 ff. This speech, by the way, ends with a challenge from the King - "Speak; thine answer." Words a certain Prsident of the United States will be using next week, I think.
2. Osama - Twelfth Night, Act 4, Scene 1, line 46 ff.
3. Rumsfeld - First three quoted lines are from Timon of Athens, Act 3, Scene 5. First line is line 3. Next two quoted lines are lines 54-55. Last three lines are from Titus Andronicus, Act 2, Scene 1, line 110 ff.
4. Annan - The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 1, line 114 ff.
I hope these are right. Great site, Joe.