The scholar, pt. 3; September’s poem
We’ve learned a little more about what goes on at school. Samuel’s teacher sent this report:
I should add that Samuel has been swearing more.
Today, after Samuel had returned from school, we went strolling. When conversation lulled I told the boys about the love of God. Samuel stopped in his tracks and became very quiet. Daniel pointed to a statue of the Virgin Mary in someone’s yard. “That is God,” he said.
This month’s poem is by Shakespeare. I’ve italicized the scholastic bit.
(As You Like It II.vii 139–166; text and notes from The Complete Signet Classic Shakespeare)
I should add that Samuel has been swearing more.
Today, after Samuel had returned from school, we went strolling. When conversation lulled I told the boys about the love of God. Samuel stopped in his tracks and became very quiet. Daniel pointed to a statue of the Virgin Mary in someone’s yard. “That is God,” he said.
This month’s poem is by Shakespeare. I’ve italicized the scholastic bit.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
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,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling [bawling] and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard [leopard],
Jealous [touchy] in honor, sudden [rash] and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined [perhaps an allusion to the practice of bribing a judge with a capon],
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws [sayings] and modern instances [commonplace examples];
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon [ridiculous old man (from Pantalone, a stock figure in Italian comedy)],
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose [breeches], well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his [its] sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere [utter] oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
(As You Like It II.vii 139–166; text and notes from The Complete Signet Classic Shakespeare)