It’s Juliet’s wedding day, a day to be overtaken by her wedding night, and Shakespeare gives to Juliet her timeless “Come Night” speech, that demonstrates the powerful alloy that love, marital commitment, and desire can form, and that lies at the heart of Shakespeare’s vision of love. Scene 2: Enter Juliet alone. Juliet: “Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phoebus’ lodging. Such a wagoner As Phaeton would whip you to the west And bring in cloudy night …” The fiery-footed steeds are the horses that are pulling the solar chariot …

‘Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night’: Juliet’s Come Night Speech and 21st Century Decadence Read More »

If Dogberry, the buffoon from Much Ado About Nothing who has trouble making sentences, is Joe Biden, which Shakespeare character should we select to portray Kamala Harris? While I had to do some searching to come up with Dogberry for Biden, Kamala is a much easier proposition – she is Mistress Overdone from Measure for Measure. We meet Mistress Overdone in the first act, but she is more properly introduced in the second, when the Duke of Vienna’s counselor Escalus is interrogating Pompey, who is a pimp: Escalus: “So. What …

‘What shall become of me?’: Measure for Measure, Mistress Overdone, and Kamala Harris Read More »