Monday, March 05, 2018
Like an Angry Ape
William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.2.114-127:
Hat tip: Eric Thomson.
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Could great men thunderSee Lawrence Sargent Hall, "Isabella's Angry Ape," Shakespeare Quarterly 15.3 (Summer, 1964) 157-165.
As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, 115
For every pelting, petty officer
Would use his heaven for thunder —
Nothing but thunder. Merciful Heaven,
Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarlèd oak 120
Than the soft myrtle; but man, proud man,
Dressed in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven 125
As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal.
Hat tip: Eric Thomson.
