From Macbeth Act 5, Scene 5: In Your Own Words, Please

compound complex

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

BurnTheShips

Macbeth is my favorite of Shakespeare's works.

Is this a dagger I see before me? It's handle towards my hand? Come, and let me clutch thee!

BTS

villabolo

"It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

Reminds me of our experience as Witnesses though I'm sure he meant it to refer to life in general.

Villabolo

BizzyBee

A hundred years from now, it won't matter.

Shakespeare knew his onions.

snowbird

This reminds me so of the opening verses in Ecclesiastes, because the writer of MacBeth is clearly fed up with life.

From The Message Bible.

Ecclesiastes 1

The Quester

1 These are the words of the Quester, David's son and king in Jerusalem 2 -11 Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That's what the Quester says.] There's nothing to anything—it's all smoke.
What's there to show for a lifetime of work,
a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone?
One generation goes its way, the next one arrives,
but nothing changes—it's business as usual for old planet earth.
The sun comes up and the sun goes down,
then does it again, and again—the same old round.
The wind blows south, the wind blows north.
Around and around and around it blows,
blowing this way, then that—the whirling, erratic wind.
All the rivers flow into the sea,
but the sea never fills up.
The rivers keep flowing to the same old place,
and then start all over and do it again.
Everything's boring, utterly boring—
no one can find any meaning in it.
Boring to the eye,
boring to the ear.
What was will be again,
what happened will happen again.
There's nothing new on this earth.
Year after year it's the same old thing.
Does someone call out, "Hey, this is new"?
Don't get excited—it's the same old story.
Nobody remembers what happened yesterday.
And the things that will happen tomorrow?
Nobody'll remember them either.
Don't count on being remembered.

However, may I never become as blase' and jaded as the writers of MacBeth and Ecclesiastes!

Coco, what is that German word for a world-weary soul? Something schmerz, I believe?

Sylvia

BizzyBee

Weltscmerz.

snowbird

Thanks, Bizzy!

Sylvia

cameo-d

Yeah, Ok Tomorrow. I 'll get it fixed tomorrow. Alright already, tomorrow.

Now turn out the light.

Don't want to hear it no more.

Idiot.

snowbird

Welt⋅schmerz

/ 'v?lt??m?rts / Show Spelled Pronunciation [ velt -shme r ts ] Show IPA Use weltschmerz in a Sentence –noun German .

sorrow that one feels and accepts as one's necessary portion in life; sentimental pessimism.

Also, weltschmerz.

Origin:
lit., world-pain

BluesBrother

Macbeth had just been told of the death of his wife, that causes him to muse on the meaning of life or the lack thereof .

We could perhaps write it as , "Time marches on and on towards death when 'the candle goes out' . Life is pretty meaningless, like a bad actor who is forgotten after a brief performance, or someones foolish tale.,"Signifying nothing"

After his wife egged him onto a course of murder and tyranny, he sounds pretty depressed.. He is killed himself in the next scene.

I always liked the way Monty Python put it in the "Life of Brian"

" You know, you come from nothing. You're going back to nothing. What have you lost? Nothing! ,

"Life's a piece of s""t ,When you look at it .Life's a laugh and death's a joke. It's true. You'll see it's all a show.

Keep 'em laughing as you go.Just remember that the last laugh is on you."

From Macbeth Act 5, Scene 5: In Your Own Words, Please

Ecclesiastes 1

The Quester

Welt⋅schmerz

Share this