On Dec 10, 2007, at 6:07 PM, Carrol Cox wrote:
> The material C.G.E. quotes may contribute to explaining both the power
> of much in Shakespeare _and_ this sort of response (which is fairly
> common, just not often voiced so vocifereoulsy). "His comforts thrive"
> _does_ force a fairly concscious shifting of mental gears.
> "Comfort" is
> not usually plural, and comforts are not the sort of thing that,
> usually, "thrive" (with its marginal sexual force). And after taking
> this in, one has to mentally first reword "'trials well are spent" as
> "trials are spent well," then again sort our the senses of "trials"
> and
> "spent" that make sense of the conjunction. But that kind of complex
> response is about as "natural" or "spontaneous" as the butterfly
> stroke
> in swimming. (And to follow it on stage is yet another matter;
> since my
> hearing has degraded I get nothing from Shakespeare on stage or screen
> -- but a good deal from Shakespeare on TV with close captioning. You
> have to hear and take in _all_ the words: "His drawl is pent" would
> not
> quite do it.
>
> There is a technical matter too, beyond my capacity to analyze, but
> there is something to be said about (a) the vowel progression in the
> first line as a whole and (b) in particular in the last three words,
> combined with the stress there. The line is in some (weired?) way
> uplifting. And the second line rests at the end.
Carrol I know I give you lots of shit but this is terrific.
Doug