I note that Shakespeare was born on this date 353 years ago.
Everyone has their favorite quotes, passages, etc.
Here are two of mine.
From The Tempest, act one, scene two, Ariel’s song.
“Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea change
Into some thing rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them-
Ding-dong, bell!”
and from Sonnet XXIX.
“When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising-
Haply I think on thee: And then my state,
Like to the Lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at Heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love rememb’red such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with Kings.”
William Shakespeare.
Islander.