The Reactionary Utopian
                      April 3, 2007


YOU BE THE JUDGE
by Joe Sobran

     Some of my detractors have compared me unfavorably 
with Shakespeare. Well, they're certainly entitled to 
their opinion. I think I turn a pretty good phrase; but 
Shakespeare is undeniably good too. The obvious way to 
settle this dispute is to quote some of his stuff and let 
the reading public judge for themselves.

     "Good night, sweet prince"; "An ill-favored thing, 
sir, but mine own"; "O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so 
low?" "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow"; "Your 'if' 
is the only peace-maker; much virtue in 'if'"; "So young, 
and so untender?" "In the dark backward and abysm of 
time"; "I am dying, Egypt, dying"; "the choice and master 
spirits of this age"; "Time's thievish progress to 
eternity."

     "In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke"; "For I 
am nothing if not critical"; "Taffeta phrases, silken 
terms precise"; "The evil that men do lives after them"; 
"smooth as monumental alabaster"; "the insane root That 
takes the reason prisoner"; "alms for oblivion"; "the 
surly sullen bell"; "mischief, thou art afoot"; "I am 
giddy, expectation whirls me round"; "wise enough to play 
the fool"; "Hear you this Triton of the minnows"; "And 
with old woes new wail my dear times' waste."

     "Thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges"; 
"the king's English"; "like patience on a monument"; "One 
writ with me in sour misfortune's book"; "If music be the 
food of love, play on"; "And art made tongue-tied by 
authority"; "A local habitation and a name"; "misery 
acquaints a man with strange bedfellows"; "I understand a 
fury in your words, But not the words"; "the world's mine 
oyster"; "O most lame and impotent conclusion."

     "Speak low, if you speak love"; "cunning'st pattern 
of excelling nature"; "A Daniel come to judgment!" "so 
light a foot Will ne'er wear out the evelasting flint"; 
"To be wise, and love, Exceeds man's might"; "Present 
mirth hath present laughter"; "Desiring this man's art, 
and that man's scope"; "I am a feather for each wind that 
blows"; "russet yeas and honest kersey noes"; "the 
chronicle of wasted time"; "Silence is the perfectest 
herald of joy."

     "Othello's occupation's gone"; "this other Eden, 
demi-paradise"; "Come not between the dragon and his 
wrath"; "Bring forth men-children only"; "Thou shalt have 
justice, more than thou desir'st"; "There is a tide in 
the affairs of men"; "a scurvy politician"; "Pride, pomp, 
and circumstance of glorious war"; "What! Will the line 
stretch out to the crack of doom?" "Is it a world to hide 
virtues in?" "a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles"; "A 
little touch of Harry in the night."

     "My library Was dukedom large enough"; "midsummer 
madness"; "Angels are bright still, though the brightest 
fell"; "made myself a motley to the view"; "These blessed 
candles of the night"; "This precious stone set in the 
silver sea"; "full of sound and fury, Signifying 
nothing"; "fit for treasons stratagems, and spoils"; "The 
first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

     "O tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide!" "After 
life's fitful fever he sleeps well"; "Nothing extenuate, 
Nor set down aught in malice"; "Few love to hear the sins 
they love to act"; "Antony, that revels long o' nights, 
Is notwithstanding up"; "There is a world elsewhere"; 
"Eating the bitter bread of banishment"; "a man can die 
but once; we owe God a death"; "Sleep that knits up the 
raveled sleave of care"; "And seem a saint when most I 
play the devil"; "Upon what meat doth this our Caesar 
feed"; "Absent thee from felicity a while"; "Golden lads 
and girls"; "Write sorrow in the bosom of the earth."

     "Confusion now hath made his masterpiece"; "A 
largess universal, like the sun"; "the be-all and the 
end-all"; "What's past is prologue"; "God made him, and 
therefore let him pass for a man"; "Not a mouse 
stirring"; "We have heard the chimes at midnight"; "He 
that dies pays all debts"; "Grace me no grace, nor uncle 
me no uncles"; "Macduff was from his mother's womb 
Untimely ripped"; "Commit The oldest sins the newest kind 
of ways."

     "Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say"; "a 
blinkiing idiot"; "The devil damn thee black, thou 
cream-faced loon!" "devouring Time"; "He thinks too much; 
such men are dangerous"; "Wilt thou show the whole wealth 
of thy wit in an instant?" "The world is still deceived 
with ornament"; "as patient as the female dove"; "silken, 
sly, insinuating Jacks"; "We must not make a scarecrow of 
the law"; "Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear"; 
"Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, 
safety."

     Well, there you have it. A fair sampling, I think. 
Please don't judge him too harshly.

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