More strange than true: I never may believe by William Shakespeare
Saved by my poetry buddy again! He sent an excerpt from this, but I decided to post the whole speech by Theseus.
More strange than true: I never may believe
FROM A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, ACT V, SCENE I
By William Shakespeare
More strange than true: I never may believe
These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover and the poet
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
I had to read A Midsummer’s Night Dream in grade 8. I don’t understand why they would start Shakespeare with that particular play, it’s my least favorite. Thanks for posting this, I don’t remember reading this part…it might just be the best part of the whole play.
I think I read it as research for a play I wrote (my first Shakespearean play was Romeo & Juliet freshman year of HS, followed by Julius Caesar and Macbeth in my sophomore and senior years). I had to read quite a few on my own as research. I took a Shakespeare class in college for fun (it was!). I think Macbeth is still my favorite…
I had to read Macbeth in grade 11. I say “had to” because I was not looking forward to it at all, I think “dreading it” is a more appropriate term. But I’m really glad that the teacher was so good at his job, he assigned different students to different reading parts and he just made it fun. I loved Macbeth, it gave me an appreciation for Shakespeare, because the way that the prophecies came true…the part with the forest moving, was brilliant.
My senior year I took AP English, which was taught by the drama director. He hadn’t taught upper-level English before (I don’t think). We literally spent three months on Macbeth. I had lists of instances of imagery (sleep and blood, mostly). We watched three film versions. I’ve seen it staged one time (in Austin). I was thrilled when it was the focus of season 2 of Slings & Arrows. When I visited the Globe Theatre in London, I had to get a t-shirt with “bloodstains” that said, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” Also, all my notes came in quite handy for a paper in the college Shakespeare class.