Humanities this week consisted of Renaissance art, Albrecht Durer, and the hasty memorization of 10 Shakespearean lines. The lines I chose came from Hamlet, Act 4 Scene 4.
"How all occasions do inform against me
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event,
A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward; I do not know
Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do'
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means
To do it."
"How all occasions do inform against me
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event,
A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward; I do not know
Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do'
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means
To do it."
In these lines, Hamlet speaks of humanity as blessed by God with reason, therefore humans should not act as beasts and live mindless lives. This is an echo of that same Renaissance belief that man is the most glorious, most important creature in the universe.
As for the memorization itself, it reminded me of my acting days. Ten lines of Shakespeare is little compared to the three page monologues or prose that I have had to do in the past.
Overall, I am able to have a greater understanding of the message behind Shakespeare's work now that we have studied the moral beliefs of his time period. I have gained important knowledge to take with me when I