The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0490  Wednesday, 1 August 2007

From: 		Mike Shapiro <
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Date: 		Sunday, 29 Jul 2007 14:24:35 -0400
Subject: 	It Was Just My Imagination - Running Away with Me

Ben Johnson's tribute "wherein hee flow'd with that facility, that 
sometime it was necessary he should be stop'd..." has something in 
common with Mecuutio's flight of imagination in R&J when he goes off on 
a tangent regarding Queen Mab the fairies' midwife.  It was also, 
"necessary he should be stop'd..." when Romero intervenes saying "Peace, 
peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou talk'st of nothing."  Also in MSD, although 
no one must be stopped, Theseus speaks about fantasies being shaped by 
seething brains.

     	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:

I am developing a thesis on this phenomenon. Can anyone identify other 
WS related examples where someone's imaginative powers needs be 
constrained?  Also, has this angle been previously been covered by other 
listserv members?

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