Faith and troth but I take a sinfull pride in my Twelfth Night. It speaketh of no kings, no deep philosophie nor no such great matter, but in its small sphere it showeth forth the many masks of the human heart.
Which maketh me to think on a thing remarkable in this new world: namely the marriage of man with man, and maid with maid. Now for love of this colour, I myself did write many a woeful sonnet; and the thing itself goeth back, so we read, to the noble Greeks and yet further.
Yet in my time, we did never think to wed; for though our Church of England was begun to give old King Harry leave to wed with all the dames he pleased, yet holy wedlock could not extend to such pairings as I and my superb youth (ye shall pardon me his name) even had I not been contracted to my good Anne.
'Twixt that time and this, many hundreds of years lie now cold in their graves. And this I say, gentles, in this new world to which I am awakened, of this sort of wedding: though to my sense it be strange, yet I can see no harm in it. And though it would quite have undone the plots of my As You Like It and of my What You Will too, yet there is matter in this theme for new plays, and marvellous merry ones.
And to those who say that the act itself be damnable: here I stand to give them the lie. Even poor Kit Marlowe, who spent his life believing himself damn'd and labouring to make himself more so, was quite put out of countenance at his hour of reckoning, when ugly Hell failed to gape nor Lucifer came not.
So though a spirit, believe me, good gentles, I am no devill. But forsooth, this day I am Belle de Jour. And so, perchance, art thou.
Posted by Shakespeare at March 18, 2004 1:38 AM