No Fear Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 5, Scene 1, Page 4
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THESEUS
I will hear that play.
For never anything can be amiss
When simpleness and duty tender it.
Go, bring them in.—And take your places, ladies.
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THESEUS
I’ll watch this play. Nothing can really be bad when
it’s created by simple people who try hard. Come on,
bring them in. And sit down, ladies.
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Exit PHILOSTRATE
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PHILOSTRATE
exits. |
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HIPPOLYTA
I love not to see wretchedness o'er charged
And duty in his service perishing.
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HIPPOLYTA
I don’t like seeing poor people overburdened or looking
bad when they’re trying to do something good.
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THESEUS
Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.
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THESEUS
You won’t see anything like that, sweetheart.
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HIPPOLYTA
He says they can do nothing in this kind.
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HIPPOLYTA
He just said that they’re no good at acting.
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THESEUS
The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.
Our sport shall be to take what they mistake.
And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
Takes it in might, not merit.
Where I have come, great clerks have purposèd
To greet me with premeditated welcomes,
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Throttle their practiced accent in their fears,
And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,
Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
Out of this silence yet I picked a welcome,
And in the modesty of fearful duty
I read as much as from the rattling tongue
Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
In least speak most, to my capacity.
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THESEUS
Then we’re even kinder people for thanking them for
something that they’re not good at. We’ll
entertain ourselves by accepting their mistakes. When poor dutiful
people can’t do certain things well, generous people can
consider the effort they put into it rather than the effect that
they produce. In my travels, great scholars have come up to me,
meaning to greet me with well-rehearsed welcoming speeches, and I
have seen them tremble and turn pale, and pause inappropriately in
the middle of their sentences, and botch their well-rehearsed tones
of voice because they’re so nervous, and then break off
abruptly at the end, without actually welcoming me. Trust me, my
sweet, I figured out that they were trying to welcome me even though
they were silent, and that message was as clear from someone who was
modest and nervously dutiful as it is from someone who is loud and
audacious and eloquent. Therefore, love and tongue-tied simplicity
can say the most even when they’re saying the least, in
my opinion.
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Enter PHILOSTRATE
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PHILOSTRATE
enters. |
