Thursday, April 23, 2009

I have one of sprites and goblins

O, for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!

Had Jacqui such a Muse, she would have more
Than bits and plagiarisms to explore
On this -- o happy day -- the twenty-third:
The birthday of the greatest smith of word
E'er to pen a line or poem write. Sigh.

Because the truth is: long ago, in addition to all the other kinds of dork you know I have been and continue to be, I was, and am, a Shakespeare fanatic. The first play I ever directed was The Winter's Tale, so it's my favorite, but they all make my heart go pitter patter.*

I can't go to Chicago to "Talk Like Shakespeare Day." And as great as the Shakespearean Insult Generator is, it wasn't enough.

Next, I tried to write you something hilarious. But I didn't get far in Captain Destructo's Ode to Hamlet:

To nap, or not to nap, that is the question:
Whether ‘tis better in the crib to suffer
An hour trapped within the bars of torture
Or to take arms against the crowd of stuffed friends
And to jettison them.

Meh. And then a vision filled my head. It was my agent (who is a black belt and also a wise woman). She was glaring at me and saying something, what was it? Oh, yeah, it was "What the heck are you doing you have a book to write have you lost your mind don't make me come over there!"

Look over there! (scurries back into office to write)

* Except King John. What is up with King John?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

your blog has been infected by the chicken virus. you caught it off christy's blog.

sorry,

mr. chicken

Jacqui said...

Now THAT is mysterious.

cath c said...

many a great's bday, including my grandmother. she was everyone's grandmother, and should have been.

i'm a bit of a shakespeare junkie myself, since seeing twelfth night in 6th grade at shakespeare theatre in stratford...wait for it - CT. i love flipping through the sonnet section of my 'complete shakespeare' or revisiting hamlet, macbeth, lear, much ado, midsummer night's dream....

uh-oh, i thought i'd finish my thorough plotline draft today, looks like shakespeare is calling...

Diane T said...

The Shakespearean lines I use most often? "['Tis but] full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing." I use them when a family member complains that I have been firing my "butt rockets."

And don't say that's not a Shakespearean turn of phrase, searching the online concordance finds 10 instances of "butt"; 5 "buttock" or "buttocks"; and the character "Dr. Butts" in Henry VIII. But no "rockets."

C.R. Evers said...

When in rejection from editors and agents eyes

I beweep my unpublished state,
and trouble deaf publishers with my cyber cries.

Desiring Shakespeares art and Jacqui's scope, With what I most enjoy conteted least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I I think on Jacuqi's blog.

My mutilation of Shakespeare.

P.S. I believe Mr. Chicken to be one impish member of my critique clan. I doeth thinketh him to be Ian Sands.

J. Thorp said...

in writing, as in life, i'm fond of "be bloody, bold, and resolute" -- thanks for reminding me, j-robb!

Jacqui said...

Cath, I have been to the festival in Stratford (wait for it) Ontario myself :)

Diane, no rockets, but plenty of raunchy humor, I think.

Christy, I love it, particularly "cyber cries."

Mr. Chicken = Ian Sands? Flattered to have you, Mr. Sands. And here I thought Space Chicken was going all formal on me...

Mary Witzl said...

Jinx! For the past month I've been intending to post something about Slum Dog Millionaire, plagiarism, and Shakespeare. And you went and beat me to it.