Every shiny toy
That at first brings you joy
Will always start to croy and annoy
Every camera every phone
All the music that you own
Won't change the fact you're all alone (All alone! )
Every piece of land
every city that you plan
will crumble into tiny grains of sand
Every thing you find that at first gives you shine
always turns into the same old crime (Same old crime! )
That at first brings you joy
Will always start to croy and annoy
Every camera every phone
All the music that you own
Won't change the fact you're all alone (All alone! )
Every piece of land
every city that you plan
will crumble into tiny grains of sand
Every thing you find that at first gives you shine
always turns into the same old crime (Same old crime! )
"Sick of You"
-Cake
Hello, friends. You want to hear about my day? Well, I'll tell you then, in my undying effort to give people who don't exist what they don't really care about.
In my Honors English class today, we started Romeo and Juliet. You can imagine how well I took that. I bit my tongue, in one of those rare instances where I think before I speak, and listened to what my teacher had to say before completely murdering the play, because this guy's not a complete and total doofus, unlike a few other teachers I have. (And, well, he promised I could help rip this play to shreds.) Anyway, we read the first scene, along with the No Fear Shakespeare modern day translation (yeah, it's right there.)
Act 1, Scene 1
Original Text | Modern Text | |
Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY of the house of Capulet, with swords and bucklers | SAMPSON and GREGORY, servants of the Capulet family, enter carrying swords and small shields. | |
| SAMPSON Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals. | SAMPSON Gregory, I swear, we can’t let them humiliate us. We won’t take their garbage. | |
| GREGORY No, for then we should be colliers. | GREGORY (teasing SAMPSON) No, because then we’d be garbagemen. | |
| SAMPSON I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw. | SAMPSON What I mean is, if they make us angry we’ll pull out our swords. | |
| GREGORY Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar. | GREGORY Maybe you should focus on pulling yourself out of trouble, Sampson. | |
5 | SAMPSON I strike quickly, being moved. | SAMPSON I hit hard when I’m angry. |
| GREGORY But thou art not quickly moved to strike. | GREGORY But it’s hard to make you angry. | |
| SAMPSON A dog of the house of Montague moves me. | SAMPSON One of those dogs from the Montague house can make me angry. | |
| GREGORY To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand. Therefore if thou art moved thou runn’st away. | GREGORY Angry enough to run away. You won’t stand and fight. | |
10 | SAMPSON A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague’s. | SAMPSON A dog from that house will make me angry enough to take a stand. If I pass one of them on the street, I’ll take the side closer to the wall and let him walk in the gutter. |
Act 1, Scene 1, Page 2
Original Text | Modern Text | |
| GREGORY That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest goes to the wall. | GREGORY That means you’re the weak one, because weaklings get pushed up against the wall. | |
| SAMPSON 'Tis true, and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall. | SAMPSON You’re right. That’s why girls get pushed up against walls—they’re weak. So what I’ll do is push the Montague men into the street and the Montague women up against the wall. | |
| GREGORY The quarrel is between our masters and us their men. | GREGORY The fight is between our masters, and we men who work for them. | |
| SAMPSON 'Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. When I have fought with the men, I will be civil with the maids. I will cut off their heads. | SAMPSON It’s all the same. I’ll be a harsh master to them. After I fight the men, I’ll be nice to the women—I’ll cut off their heads. | |
| GREGORY The heads of the maids? | GREGORY Cut off their heads? You mean theirmaidenheads? | |
| SAMPSON Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads. Take it in what sense thou wilt. | SAMPSON Cut off their heads, take their maidenheads—whatever. Take my remark in whichever sense you like. | |
25 | GREGORY They must take it in sense that feel it. | GREGORY The women you rape are the ones who’ll have to “sense” it. |
| SAMPSON Me they shall feel while I am able to stand, and ’tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh. | SAMPSON They’ll feel me as long as I can keep an erection. Everybody knows I’m a nice piece of flesh. | |
| GREGORY 'Tis well thou art not fish. If thou hadst, thou hadst been poor-john. | GREGORY It’s a good thing you’re not a piece of fish. You’redried and shriveled like salted fish. | |
Enter ABRAM and another SERVINGMAN | ABRAM and another servant of the Montagues enter. | |
Draw thy tool! Here comes of the house of Montagues. | Pull out your tool now. These guys are from the house of Montague. | |
30 | SAMPSON My naked weapon is out. Quarrel! I will back thee. | SAMPSON I have my naked sword out. Fight, I’ll back you up. |
Yes, it means exactly what you think it means. Now imagine reading it in a room full of freshman. Yes, there were plenty of giggles (I was not exempt from it, I admit) but at least I got to burn a friend-ish of mine with the awesome insult Gregory has in the second to last line up there. ^^ This certain person ignores my existence for months until I show up in his English class one day. He still ignores my existence, don't get me wrong, just having to read a scene with him has made him ignoring me a little harder.
But think about it; Shakespeare opens this play about "true love" between a 14 year old girl and an 18 year old guy with talking about rape and sex with men right before a huge sword fight. What's old Willie insinuating? That maybe love isn't all it's cracked up to be? Maybe, just maybe, Shakespeare's saying that love is dirty, lustful, violent and crude, just like the opening of the play. And dang, is he right. Think about it. How often do marriages last in the US, not to mention other countries? It's lust, right, not this fabled "love" that's said to exist sometimes. I don't know. I just don't buy into this whole concept of looking across a room, spotting a girl and suddenly being ready to marry her. You don't know someone well enough after three days to be ready to marry them for the rest of your life. That's crazy, right? (Just a side note, Gerard Way and Lyn-Z got married after knowing each other for three weeks and haven't split yet...) I think that's what Shakespeare was going for too; that whole concept of if you think you're in love with a girl after three days, you're wrong. In the beginning, Romeo's in love with some other girl who shot him down. But the second he sees Juliet, suddenly it's all better. And now he's dead, if that says anything, along with the 14 year old girl who followed that moron.
Maybe there's more to this play than I think...
Love Always,
Sarah Snarky