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
