The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 22.0175  Friday, 29 July 2011

From:         David Basch < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Date:         July 28, 2011 10:46:16 AM EDT
Subject:      Re: SHAKSPER: Q: Jacques; MV

Philip Weller asks what Jaques may have meant when he commented on the singers in the forest, “I’ll go sleep, if I can; if I cannot, I’ll rail against all the first-born of Egypt.” I read a comment on this as an allusion to the comment of the “great wail” that was sounded in Egypt at the death of all the Egyptian first-born.

He also asks about Jaques comment concerning the jester, Touchstone, “A fool, a fool! I met a fool i’ the forest, / A motley fool; a miserable world!” Here, I think he could have meant that for such a “fool” to be on earth means we have a “miserable world.”

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