dual personalities

— stop misquoting him now. As you know last Monday was my anniversary. So I thought I would at least mark the occasion with a card. Easier said than done; all the anniversary cards were either extremely sappy or overtly vulgar. Eventually I found an attractive “all occasion” card with a nice quote identified only as Shakespeare (the play was not mentioned):

…and we’ll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies…
And take upon’s the mystery of things,
As if we were God’s spies…

Well, thought I, that’s a nice sentiment and I can make an anniversary card out of it. My husband, who is less ignorant than I, recognized the passage and was rather bemused. Not only is it from King Lear (Act V, scene 3), but the card left out some important parts. In the original Lear speaks to Cordelia as follows:

No, no, no, no! Come, let’s away to prison.
We two alone will sing like birds i’ th’ cage.
When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down
And ask of thee forgiveness. So we’ll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too-
Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out-
And take upon’s the mystery of things,
As if we were God’s spies; and we’ll wear out,
In a wall’d prison, packs and sects of great ones
That ebb and flow by th’ moon.

Perfect. Let’s enjoy life imprisoned together — just the sentiment I wanted to share with my husband on our anniversary. The moral of the story? Never take a greeting card at face value and always check your sources!

A big kiss to my sweet sister for cheering me up with a phone call yesterday just when I needed it. She’s right, Jonathan Winters is hilarious!