Happy Shakespeare's birthday, everyone!

[a_t_rain]

... Or Shakespeare's sort-of-birthday-and-definitely-deathday, anyhow. This bit from Antony and Cleopatra seemed appropriate for both occasions, and besides, I'm a complete sucker for "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die" passages.



MARK ANTONY
I will be treble-sinew'd, hearted, breathed,
And fight maliciously: for when mine hours
Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives
Of me for jests; but now I'll set my teeth,
And send to darkness all that stop me. Come,
Let's have one other gaudy night: call to me
All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more;
Let's mock the midnight bell.

CLEOPATRA
It is my birth-day:
I had thought to have held it poor: but, since my lord
Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.

MARK ANTONY
We will yet do well.

CLEOPATRA
Call all his noble captains to my lord.

MARK ANTONY
Do so, we'll speak to them; and to-night I'll force
The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen;
There's sap in't yet. The next time I do fight,
I'll make death love me; for I will contend
Even with his pestilent scythe.

Exeunt all but DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS

DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS
Now he'll outstare the lightning. To be furious,
Is to be frighted out of fear; and in that mood
The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still,
A diminution in our captain's brain
Restores his heart: when valour preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek
Some way to leave him.


As a side note, this would have been my birthday too if I had arrived on time. (As my mother was planning to give me the middle name "Bard," it is just as well that I didn't.)

Comments

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

Thanks! One of the best 'eat, drink and be merry' passages ever, no less - and I love both the Thom Gunn poem and (of course) the Sayers novel that take their titles from it. Am sitting with a glass of wine beside me, so will raise it to Shakespeare, Antony, Cleopatra (if they will allow it, since one Dolabella's relationship w Antony was distinctly acrimonious and another's, according to Dryden at least, was problematic) and your good self not least.

Bard, eh? That's, well, different! At least it was only going to be a middle name...

[themolesmother.livejournal.com]

Happy Shakespeare's birthday to you, too.

I have great affection for Anthony & Cleopatra as I played Charmian in a modern-dress production early on in my amateur acting career.

Enobarbus's speech at the end of that scene in that always made me go cold inside.

MM

[talriga.livejournal.com]

Yes, those "eat, drink, and be merry" passages have always resounded with me... the tone is so indescribable. In a good way, of course. :)

And the "gaudy night" phrase... that is so Dorothy Sayers. *g*

By the way, I like your icon. I presume it's from your fic "Transfiguration for Adults"?

Talriga

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's based on one of krislaughs's wonderful illustrations for "Transfiguration."