Poetry Monday

Song of the Witches

by William Shakespeare

 

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,

Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.

 

(Macbeth: IV.i 10-19; 35-38)

Rich and Strange (1931)

This is a strange film. It's essentially a comedy about a young bored suburban couple. They inherit money from an uncle and travel all around the globe, getting into various misadventures, including infidelities, for the both of them. Throughout it all they remain droll and unsentimental. It's actually a pretty charming film, although it's episodic and some episodes are much better than others. Some people think that it's Hitchcock's most autobiographical film, a portrait of Alma and him on their honeymoon.

The title comes from Shakespeare, some of the most brilliant lines he over wrote. Out of the mouth of Ariel in The Tempest:

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

Poetry Monday

It's been non-stop rain here in my neck of the woods, so here are the final lines from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, sung by Feste the clown.

When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain, it raineth every day.

But when I came, alas! to wive,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain, it raineth every day.

But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
With toss-pots still had drunken heads,
For the rain, it raineth every day.

A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain.
But that's all one, our play is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day.