How happy some o'er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
He will not know what all but he do know:
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities:
Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured every where:
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again.
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
He will not know what all but he do know:
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities:
Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured every where:
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again.
One of the aspects of Shakespearean language that makes it unique and can often causes confusion for modern readers is the rearrangement of words. Instead of the normal: subject-verb-direct object progression, Shakespeare rearranged the words some times to fit his rhythm or rhyme scheme. In Helena's soliloquy after talking to Hermia and Lysander, she uses this rearranged grammar, "And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind." The typical sentence would have the 'is' placed after Cupid.
The words Shakespeare uses are also very different from those used today. In some cases he uses a word that we still use, but the word is used in a different way.
In this section the rhyme scheme follows an: a , a , b , b , c , c , etc. The way Shakespeare used rhyme in his works is one of the things that makes reading them the most enjoyable to me. The other is the way he takes words and plays with them using alternate meanings and the sounds of words.
I appreciate the last point you make about Shake's use of altered word meaning. I often have to stop and look back because a term makes little sense if any. It's usually only then that I become aware of the meaning that he is trying to get at.
ReplyDeleteShake's crimes of grammar amaze me, but he fortunately never goes all too far to completely confuse and dismay his audience.
I do like how Skake uses lanugage when the "lesser class" citzens are speaking. It gives the reader a break from trying to understand the language.
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