Exercises in Shakespearean Mimicry

Life goes on for me, much as it has for the past several months, but now in Sterling, VA. Not many changes to report, except that there are more people (and consequently fewer trees) up in this part of the commonwealth.

Enter refrigerator word magnets.

I recently acquired a magnetic poetry set styled on the writings of Shakespeare. There are roughly 200 little words that I can rearrange into Shakespearean-ish sentences on the front of the refrigerator. I like this new addition to my personal property because (1) I like magnets and (2) who wouldn’t enjoy rearranging a limited set of Elizabethan English words in new and amusing ways?

It is very fun to play at being Shakespeare. I don’t mean to imply here that Shakespeare worked via refrigerator magnets; his methodology was much less restricted. He certainly had more than 200 words to work with and ostensibly made words up when he didn’t have one he needed. But it’s fun and challenging to see what I can come up with.

This is how my first round turned out:

[A]     I wanted my first sentence to be something positive, an admittedly tricky thing to              do with a batch of words inspired by Shakespeare:

methinks the perilous mischance ne’er doth strike yon merry maiden
with vile curse of all wintery discontent / but wilt measure her fair
jesting heart to much grace and every seemly fortune 

[B]     After that I did a U-turn and added a Shakespearean style insult:

alas you wanton villain codpiece too oft spotted ere wicked
manners slander thy peasant vulgar poison / always hadst
thou a deathly ado & loathsome idle vehemence upon mortals
like myself / speak no more / therefore have I for you drunk
my goblet that quencheth light in dream

[C]     Then I threw in a romantic line (probably more apropos to A Midsummer Night’s Dream than Romeo and Juliet):

perchance your lady beseeches nothing which would please
through trifling vow / hence come friend / yield so herein
and thence give’st she a love never foul

My intention was to add a tragedy sentence to this first collection, but I never got around to it. A bunch of the remaining words ended up in a group effort paragraph as members of the household sporadically added lines. We ended up with a reasonably amusing Shakespearean style conversation.

But, we didn’t manage to use all the words. So, for the second round I tried to do that. Here’s what ended up on the fridge:

            *much ado at her vehemence

            wherefore dost come hence thou vulgar loathsome villain codpiece

ere you torment me by speaking foul & perilous curses

know that I did forswear your maiden fair

methinks she doth quench grace in poison breast

and woo with saucy slander too wanton a merry man

therefore friend haste to thine lover

beseech yon lady strike her bosom then

as ne’er likely soon wilt I dream more

perchance herein you question my tale

how this woman shalt tempt drunkard

*art they which have drunk goblet for naught

*would it were death

always o’er measure’d be our love my lordship

woe shall deceive thy peasant discontent

trifleing vow hast never pleased seemly mortal

alas no mischance can damned fortune so make idle jest

if myself yield mercy up

thence vouchsafe not the wintery light on dire night

thee give’st oft nothing where hither manner loathes

we could through wicked will of him spot a ghost

but nay wench

see every bawdy vile his use doeth

lest there are said after all aye here is like

get out from thus**

*These lines (and probably another line I’ve forgotten) were assembled by my brilliant cousin.

** Note that I made no attempt at any sort of rhyming or meter scheme; that would’ve raised the bar too high for hopes of a successful ending with fewer than 200 words of source material.

I still didn’t manage to use all the words (the leftovers were: at, than, hath, is, e, has, s, hadst, er, am, y, or, was, an), but I’m very fond of my Shakespearean style monologue. Fun language, entertaining back story on my mind while I wrote it (I’ll leave the back story to the reader’s imagination where it will probably be more interesting and vivid), and a good mental challenge all rolled into one.

It’s great fun mimicking great literature on the fridge.

* * *

Here are the words from the set in alphabetical order, in case you want to try your hand at it:

&             ’d            ’st           a              a              ado        after      alas        all            always am          an           and        are         art          as                 at            at            aye         bawdy be           beseech               bosom breast   but         by           can         codpiece                come     could     curse     d             damn    death    deceive                did          dire        discontent          do           dost                 doth      dream   drunk    drunkard             e             ed           er            es           ere         eth         every    fair         for                 forswear              fortune                foul        friend    from      get         ghost     give        goblet   grace     hadst     has         hast                 haste     hath       have      he           hence   her         here      herein   him        his          hither    how       I               I               idle                 if             in            ing          is             is             it             jest        know     lady        lest         light       like         like         loath                loathsome          lordship                love       lover      ly             maiden                 make     man       manner                me                 measure              mercy   merry    methinks             mischance           more     mortal   much     my          my          myself                 naught  nay         ne’er     never    night      no           not         nothing                o’er        of            oft          on           or            our                 out         peasant                perchance           perilous                please   poison quench                 question              r              s                s              said        saucy     see         seemly                 shall       shalt      she         slander                 so           soon      speaking                 spot       strike     tale        tempt   than       that        the         thee      then      thence there     therefore            they                 thine     this         thou      through                thus       thy         to            too         torment               trifle      up           use                 vehemence        vile         villain     vouchsafe           vow       vulgar    wanton                was        we          wench  were                 where   wherefore          which    wicked will         wilt         winter   with       woe       woman                 woo       would   y                y              yield      yon        you        you        your