For twenty five years (or more) this monologue has haunted me... I know a few passages from Shakespeare, but this one I can recite without hesitation any day (notwithstanding the amount of wine or other spirits imbibed):
True, I talk of dreams;
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy;
Which is as thin of substance as the air,
And more inconstant than the wind, who woos
Even now the frozen bosom of the North
And, being angered, puffs away from thence,
Turning his side to the dew-dropping South.
Such hopelessness in the words, such aching desire for life and its mystery... As if Mercutio knew that life, for him, would only remain a dream.
Quiet Laughter. Musings and stories on blurred cultural boundaries.
This is a beautiful passage, and one that I think many authors can relate with in times of insecurity. Maybe Shakespeare was waxing autobiographical?
ReplyDeleteYou know, Julie... I'd never even thought about it that way. You're absolutely right, and yes--it might be Mr. S's way of pouring a little writer angst between the lines here. Thanks for this insight--it's given this favorite passage of mine a new life :)
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