"This Rough Magic, I Here Abjure"

My favorite Shakespeare play might be The Tempest.  Thought to be Shakespeare's final play, the play revolves around themes of revenge, redemption, and the longing for human connection (click here for a synopsis).  I have the complete works on my iPhone and, whenever I'm stuck waiting somewhere, I like to scroll around and memorize a few lines.

Here's what I committed to memory while I was walking my mother's Pekinese yesterday.  It is from Act Five, Scene One and occurs when Prospero, a magician, decides to abandon his powers and return to a common humanity.

Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves, 
    And ye that on the sands with printless foot 
    Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him 
    When he comes back; you demi-puppets that 
    By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, 
    Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime 
    Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice 
    To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid, 
    Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd 
    The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds, 
    And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault 
    Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder 
    Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak 
    With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory 
    Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up 
    The pine and cedar: graves at my command 
    Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth 
    By my so potent art. But this rough magic 
    I here abjure, and, when I have required 
    Some heavenly music, which even now I do, 
    To work mine end upon their senses that 
    This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff, 
    Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, 
    And deeper than did ever plummet sound 
    I'll drown my book. 

Shakespeare really must be read aloud to be appreciated.  The words look hackneyed and dated on the page, but come alive when animated by the human voice.  If you never "got" Shakespeare's writing, try reading it aloud while your dog sniffs the bushes in the park.  Passing cyclists will look at you strangely, but who cares?  Well, perhaps my mother's Peke does.  I swear he looked embarrassed as I read the lines aloud, as if to say:  "She may have my leash, but I've never seen this woman before."

Comments

[T.]

Love, love, love this post. This is exactly why I think you're such a special physician whose patients are so lucky to have her!

[Robin]

The peke was in a bit of pique? ;)

I started reading Shakespeare much younger than my parents liked, although it really was just one of the many phases of reading I went through (still go through?). I later learned to really appreciate it. I think it takes a bit of maturity to really "get it" and so many high school and college youth do not.

Thank you for bringing some of that back. I enjoy it very much. I took the time to read the above words out loud. (I wasn't in public, though...not quite that daring.)

Oh, I sound so old. I really am not at heart.