Me n' Will
by tomb
Nov. 29, MM, pm
What a surprise! I am walking downtown Taos, today when all of a sudden--out of the Boots n' Saddle store--comes this face that I have seen somewheres before. m'God .. I sez to myself, .. it's William Shakespeare .. Yes, "The" William Shakespeare. I can easily recognize Him from His pictures and the pantaloons. No! There is no mistake, here.
Then He sees my face (since I am the only one on the walk winking at Him with both my eyes). He comes over, puts His hand on my shoulders and turns me to the wall .. so no one else can see my open mouth and my eyes--glazed. So then to make conversation--so to speak--He ups and asks me for directions to the Taos Pueblo.
In some garbled fashion, I tells Him what He wants to know .. but then I blurts out, "Hey, We thought You had died some time ago!"
"O' Forsooth," He sez, and then He tells me that I am correct. To be sure, He has died, but from time to time He comes back to procure parts for plays that He writes and produces for "the folk, up there!"--rolling His eyes skyward. He explaines that "they" still enjoy watching "us" down here. In fact "they" think it great sport to talk about "us" and wonder why we do what we do .. and all His earthly plays about "us" are greatly attended. Then He tells me that He has never been to America and that He thinks that this elections in Florida has opportunities .. and that He is here to look at our USian political people.
"But this is New Mexico, sez I..
Then He tells me that this is a side trip .. while Florida seemed to be "quiet" .. for a time.
But now I am recovered from my surprises and the Sun is in the lower parts of the sky so I ask Will if we might continue to talk in a pub, nearby .. and perhaps He might try our cold beer.
"Cold-Beer .. ?" sez He..
Anyways, I am now writing down the parts that I remember .. when we talked today.
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Tom: I understand You are back here on the Earth looking for theater material?
Will: "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties! .. In action, how like an angel! And when he falls he falls like Lucifer."
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Tom: (Now here, I am trying be cleaver.) "Certainly the electoral events in Florida may contain both comedic and tragic content," I said.
Will: "All the world's a stage And all the men and women merely players: They have their
exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts ... [but the] Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing."
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Tom: What do You think of our candidates?
Will: "It is written, they appear to men like angels of light."-----
Tom: Gore's has told us that he will, "fight for us!" Isn't this impressive?
Will: "I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me."
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Tom: Do You think Gore's should contest the election ... ?
Will: "When first [He] put this dangerous stone a rolling, Twould fall upon [Him]selve."
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Tom: Do You think Gore and his Campaign Chairman, Mr. Daily, are doing a good job?
Will: "Four legs and two voices: a most delicate monster!"-----
Tom: Bush, on the other hand, tells us that it is better for us to decide how to spend our own money .. rather than let the government do it. What do You think?
Will: "He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat."-----
Tom: Well .. Bush's Campaign manager said that candidates must be "packaged" differently, today.
Will: "His humor is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behavior vain, ridiculous and thrasonical.
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Tom: Is that all?
Will: "He is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it."
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Tom: But this is a democracy. When a candidate speaks .. he must speak to all of us .. and he must convince each of us that he speaks to "me."
Will: .. and he will say, "I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round, Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier: Sometimes a horse, sometimes a hound, A hog, a headless bear, sometimes a fire; And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, Like a horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn."
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Tom: I imagine that You must be impressed with our modern 20th century TV coverage?
Will: "Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milksops! Scambling, out-facing, fashion-monging boys, That lie and cog and flout, deprave and slander, Go anticly, show outward hideousness, And speak off half a dozen dangerous words, How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst; And that is all."
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Tom: But don't You think that our media educates us about our executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our government?
Will: "O me, with what strict patience have I sat, to see a king transformed to a gnat! To see great Hercules whipping a gig, And profound Solomon to tune a jig, And Nestor play at push-pin with the boys, And Critic Timon laugh at idle toys!"
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Tom: Some say that the election legally ended two weeks ago .. and some say that counting period should be extended. What is Your opinion?
Will: "Let this pernicious hour stand aye accursed in the calendar."
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Tom: Do You think one of the candidates should concede?
Will: "What fool is not so wise To lose an oath to win a paradise?"
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Tom: There are many who think the elections laws should be changed. What do You think?
Will: "We must not make a scarecrow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, And let it keep one shape, till custom make it Their perch and not their terror."
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Tom: But many citizens think they were denied the right to vote for the candidate of their choice.
Will: "Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once; And He that might the vantage best have took Found out the remedy. How would you be If He, which is the top of judgement, should But judge you as you are? O, think on that; And mercy then will breathe within you lips, Like man new made."
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Tom: But don't You think the intent of the voter can be determined from those dimpled chads?
Will: "I can suck melancholy out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs."
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Tom: Well, perhaps in time we will learn to miss Mr. Clinton.
Will: "Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were decivers ever, One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never."
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Tom: What do You think Hillary is thinking .. about now?
Will: "O' that I were a man ...
... O' that I were a man for his sake! or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake! But manhood is melted into courtesies, valour into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim one too: he is now as valiant as Hercules that only tells a lie and swears it."
-----Tom: Do You have anything else to add:
Will: Lo! as a careful politician runs to catch
one of his counted votes broke away,
Sets down his voter and makes all swift dispatch
In pursuit of the thing he would have stay,
Whilst his neglected voter hold him in chase,
Cries to catch him whose busy care is bent
To follow that which flies before his face,
Not prizing his poor voter's discontent.-----
Oh yes! .. Them other the parts that I forgot to write down was about that old story about who really wrote His plays .. a long time ago."O' Forsooth," He sez, again .. and then He explains about all the ghost writers and the medieval "hype" and the publisher's pressure on Him to produce and how it all came about .. but this is another story and I don't have much time for it, here.
I did get His autograph on the napkin.
Regards,
tomb
ps Darn .. I also left out Will's feelings about the Lawyers, (to wit: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" .. and .. "for they sleep between term and term and then they perceive not how Time moves." ) but then I don't want to appear controversial or partisian .. and besides .. "Lawyers" are only the lower part in the distillation of our National Sap.
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