How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare (45 page)

And like this insubstantial pageant faded
,

Leave not a rack
[a wisp of a cloud]
behind
.

Here Prospero describes some of the scenery (
the baseless fabric
) used during the entertainment. It included depictions of
cloud-capped towers
, of
gorgeous palaces
, of
solemn temples
, and of
the great globe itself
. At the same time, Prospero is describing the towers, palaces, and temples of the real world, saying that they too, like the
baseless fabric
of the masque, will ultimately dissolve and disappear. Thus, here in the play is another theater metaphor, this one represented by the masque.

And like the baseless fabric of this vision
,

The cloud-capped towers
,

the gorgeous palaces
,

The solemn temples
,

the great globe itself
,

Yea, all which it inherit
,

shall dissolve;

Once again Shakespeare is using the word
globe
in a double sense: first as the earth and second as the name of his theater, using the central metaphor of his career to remind us that we are actors on the stage of life.

And what will happen to the actors whom Ferdinand just saw? What will happen to the actors who filled the play and to the men and women who fill the Globe Theatre and indeed to
the great globe itself
, our universe? Just like the insubstantial pageant that Prospero has just presented, they will
dissolve
and
leave not a rack behind
.

The Meaning of Life

And now Shakespeare ends the speech with a kind of summation—a summation not only of the speech but of the meaning of the play, and of how Prospero and ultimately Shakespeare viewed our lives.

We are such stuff

As dreams are made on
[of],
and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep
.

Say it again, quietly, with your children, and feel the sense of finality and peace that is conveyed in this single ingenious sentence:

We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep
.

The sense of finality that Shakespeare portrays here is neither angry nor discontented. It is not a shaking of the fist at the unfairness of having to leave this little life. Just the opposite—it is a farewell taken with understanding and a sense of fulfillment. Our lives are filled with trials and joys, frustrations and challenges, defeats and triumphs. And ultimately we fade, like dreams, rounded with a final, grateful sleep.

Shakespeare’s ultimate statement on the meaning of life is not that of Jaques—cynical and sad—in
All the world’s a stage
. It is that of Prospero, and it is filled with peace.

It is my hope that your children now have the tools to make Shakespeare a continuing part of their lives. Shakespeare should not be an occasional visitor. He should be a permanent houseguest, living in that spare room down the hall, ready to join you for a meal or an evening whenever you crave his company. Better yet, he should feel like a part of your family, the wise uncle who is always willing to give you the benefit of his considerable knowledge and artistry, the one who always knows right from wrong, on whom you can call at a moment’s notice. Don’t misunderstand: He is not complacent or easygoing. On the contrary, he is fierce in his beliefs and would defend them to the death. He can’t be fooled, and his respect must be earned. But he is always wise, always tolerant, and he sees deeply, searingly, into the souls of us all.

The great Italian opera composer Gioachino Rossini admired Mozart above all the great musical artists who came before him. He recognized that Mozart was a genius of a kind that he, Rossini, as talented as he was, could never be. For Rossini, Mozart’s gifts were from the gods above, of a different order from the gifts of men.

Toward the end of his life, Rossini said of Mozart: “He was the inspiration of my youth, the despair of my middle years and the consolation of my old age.” I want Shakespeare to be all those things for your children.

First, I want your children to be inspired by Shakespeare for the many years to come when they believe that they can do anything as long as they work hard enough at it.

Second, I want them to recognize at some point in their maturity the genuine depth of Shakespeare’s genius; and while I don’t want them to despair over it, we all know that with maturity comes understanding of our own place in the universe. If we can’t all be Shakespeares, it doesn’t make us less in the world; the understanding makes us more.

Finally, I want Shakespeare to be your children’s consolation in their old age. I want them to go on studying him and marveling at him and growing because of all he teaches us about art and about humanity. And perhaps, at the very end, he’ll return to us again as sheer inspiration, just as he did when we were youngsters.

APPENDIX 1

A Chronological List of Shakespeare’s Plays

Bear in mind that all these dates are approximate, as there is not enough historical evidence to date most of the plays with precision. However, this chronology will give you a good idea of the general order in which the major plays were written. Also, a few of the lesser plays were collaborations, but the details remain a subject of scholarly debate, so I don’t list the names of the collaborators here, nor all the possible collaborations.

APPENDIX 2

Five Additional Longer Passages

Here are five of my favorite long passages that your children may want to tackle as a culmination of their study. I don’t want to overburden the text with them in light of their size, but I also don’t want your children to miss them. There is a unique, almost Zen-like joy in rattling off long, meaty passages of Shakespeare, and if your children love studying Shakespeare as much as I hope they do, please look up these passages in your favorite edition of Shakespeare and memorize them with your children.

1.
Now is the winter of our discontent

Richard III
, Act I, Scene 1, lines 1–31

2.
I do much wonder that one man
,

Much Ado About Nothing
, Act II, Scene 3, lines 8–35

3.
I left no ring with her. What means this lady?

Twelfth Night
, Act II, Scene 2, lines 17–41

4.
My gentle Puck, come hither
.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
, Act II, Scene 1, lines 153–94

5.
The barge she sat in like a burnished throne

Antony and Cleopatra
, Act II, Scene 2, lines 227–56

APPENDIX 3

Fifty-five Additional Passages to Teach Your Children If They Want to Continue

Here is a list of fifty-five additional passages, in case your children want to push their Shakespeare studies even further. All are taken from the notebooks that I developed with my children, and one of the purposes of this book is to share them with you. The passages are listed in alphabetical order by title of play.

AS YOU LIKE IT:

Now my co-mates and brothers in exile
,—Act II, Scene 1, lines 1–17

I remember when I was in love
—Act II, Scene 4, lines 45–55

A fool, a fool, I met a fool i’ th’ forest
—Act II, Scene 7, lines 12–35

The poor world is almost six thousand years old
—Act IV, Scene 1, lines 100–13

Your brother and my sister no sooner met
—Act V, Scene 2, lines 33–43

CYMBELINE:

The crickets sing and man’s o’er-laboured sense
—Act II, Scene 2, lines 14–54

HAMLET:

Oh that this too, too sullied flesh would melt
—Act I, Scene 2, lines 133–64

Angels and ministers of grace, defend us!
—Act I, Scene 4, lines 43–62

Speak the speech, I pray you
—Act III, Scene 2, lines 1–26

O, my offense is rank
—Act III, Scene 3, lines 40–76

Now might I do it pat, now he is a-praying
—Act III, Scene 3, lines 79–101

There is a willow grows aslant the brook
—Act IV, Scene 7, lines 190–208

HENRY IV, PART 1:

I know you all, and will awhile uphold
—Act I, Scene 2, lines 202–24

Honour pricks me on
—Act V, Scene 1, lines 131–42

HENRY IV, PART 2:

How many thousand of my poorest subjects
—Act III, Scene 1, lines 4–31

HENRY V:

Now all the youth of England are on fire
—Act II, Prologue

Nay sure he’s not in hell
—Act II, Scene 3, lines 9–26

Now entertain conjecture of a time
—Act IV, Prologue

JULIUS CAESAR:

[H]e doth bestride the narrow world / Like a Colossus
—Act I, Scene 2, lines 142–60

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears
—Act III, Scene 2, lines 82–117

KING LEAR:

O, reason not the need
!—Act II, Scene 4, lines 305–28

Blow winds, and crack your cheeks
—Act III, Scene 2, lines 1–11

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are
—Act III, Scene 4, lines 32–41

How does my royal lord?
—Act IV, Scene 7, lines 50–58

LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST:

And I forsooth in love
—Act III, Scene 1, lines 184–215

MACBETH:

Is this a dagger that I see before me
—Act II, Scene 1, lines 44–77

That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold
—Act II, Scene 2, lines 1–17

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes
?—Act III, Scene 1, lines 57–72

The quality of mercy is not strained
—Act IV, Scene 1, lines 190–212