SHAKESPEARE HAS WORDS FOR IT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 241, 4 February 1944, Page 5

SHAKESPEARE HAS WORDS FOR IT

plete works of William Shakespeare is still after all these years one of the two set books for desert island dwellers. It is not for nothing that Ben Jonson said of his contemporary, "He is not for an age but for all time," and that Longfellow echoed with "The Great poet who foreruns the ages, Anticipating all that shall be said.’ No matter what the situation, Shakespeare has a Word for It, even when the dictionary hasn’t. Almost 400 years before our Prime Minister’s first faint words on the subject came drifting across the Tasman, Shakespeare anticipated all that shall be said about Meat Rationing. We have amused ourselves by picking out merely a few examples of this further proof of his omniscience. And such is the benefit of Universial Education that one’s own favourite quotations are ipso facto those of the greatest good to the greaest number. On Preparing to Hear the Prime Minister's Broadcast: "Stiffen the sinews, tighten up the belt. Disguise fair nature with hard-fayoured rage."-Henry V. * * * Harassed Housewife, Hearing that Husband Still Insists on Three Meat Meals a Day: "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!"-Richard III, le is not for nothing that The Com-

Meat-hungry Man, Thinking That if the Worst Comes to the Worst"So in this word, ’tis furnished well with men And men are flesh and blood."-Julius Caesar. c 2 * ak Butcher, Confronted by Ration Books: "Double, double, toil and trouble,"-~ Macbeth. A i . A Warning to Wild Creatures: "You spotted snakes with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen."-Mid-summer Night's Dream. An Invitation to a Holiday in the Ranges: "Come, shall we go and kill us venison?" -As You Like It. a oe On Returning from Holiday in Ranges: "Where hast thou been, sister?" "Killing swine."-Macheth. ~ * The Poultry Keeper (lucky man!): "In fair round belly with good capon Hined."--As You Like It. * The Meat-eater, Towards the End of the Rationing Fortnight: "Who with a body filled and vacant mind Gets him to bed, crammed with distressful bread."-Henry Ve Disgust of a Householder Who, Having Sacrificed a Domestic Pet, Finds its Internal Organs Have Not the Vitamin A Content Recommended by the Health Department: "Thou lily-livered curl" -Henry Vz. A Housewifely Hint on the Intelligent Use of Leftovers: "Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the matriage table."-Hamlet. =

A Husband Expressing Disgust at the Sight of a New Vegetarian Dish (motto com expressione) : "Is this a faggot that I see before me?" — Macbeth. * * * AFTER reading and duly pondering the foregoing, we are brought face ‘to face once more with the Miracle: of Shakespeare, In spite of the magnitude of the whole Meat Rationing problem, his warm humanity not only informs the whole, but has time to illumine every facet of it. He is mindful of the possible plight of hitherto uneaten animals, he spares a line here and there to present the Housewife’s Point of View. Yet in spite of this attention to details he never forgets his major premise, and there emerge from time to time throughout his work glimpses of the underlying philosophy that Man Cannot Live by Bread Alone.