Educating Your Wit
Wayne F. Hill & Cynthia Ottchen
A delightful compilation of witty aspersions from the vast writings of The Divine Bard, it takes only an evening or two to devour. A few morsels, “Viperous worm that gnaws at bowels…quintessence of dust…pernicious bloodsucker of sleeping men…I wish that my horse had the speed of your tongue…Many a good hanging has saved a bad marriage…Till I had no wife, I had nothing (AWTEW)…Let’s meet as little as we can…Your farts can be smelled above the moon (Coriolanus)…The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers (Henry VI)…” Also, the very titles of his works are memorably witty: “As You Like It…Love’s Labour Lost…All’s Well That Ends Well…Much Ado About Nothing…”
There has never lived another who wrote such divine poetry and entertaining but profound plays as our Genius of Genius’, William Shakespeare, but, as my late aunt (who had a Masters in Shakespearian English from Radcliffe and who performed Shakespeare and played on Broadway), once told me, “Shakespeare never intended to be read; he intended to be heard.” So, go to his plays, we must, and read his Sonnets aloud. Only then can we savour the endless and priceless piquance of his mind.