"Friends, Romans, and countrymen" : from Julius Caesar. (Anthony's eulogy.)
"It is a far, far better thing...": from Tale of Two Cities.
Another point. My grandmother, as I may have mentioned before, was a "dramatic reader", and toured all over the country on the Chattaqua circuit. (She had a college education, even though she was the 12th child of a poor immigrant Irish miner.) Farming folk used to come from miles around to hear her read Shakespeare's soliloquies, Browning's dramatic monologues, etc. They would pitch their own tents on the grounds outside the Big Tent, the day before. (No hotels in those days.)
Can you imagine anything like that happening today? I don't think an event like Woodstock is in the same category, not only because it was a much larger affair, but because people came as much to see the "celebrities" as to hear the music. In this case, people just came to hear somebody read poetry out loud. My grandmother used to say that the folks all had at least two books at home: a volume with the collected works of Shakespeare, and a Bible.
Joan |
