As You Like It, originally uploaded by kbb.
I bought this for $5 in an antique shop in Fargo, ND. I already have at least two copies… But this one was gorgeous and the quote in the inscription is fascinating, it’s from an 1894 lecture titled ‘Shakespeare. A lecture’. I think Judy fudged the last word, but I’m not going to fault her – I wish my friends inscribed books like that.
Here it is with a bit more context:
Shakespeare was an intellectual ocean, whose
waves touched all the shores of thought ; within
which were all the tides and waves of destiny and.
will ; over which swept all the storms of fate, ambi-
tion and revenge ; upon which fell the gloom and
darkness of despair and death and all the sunlight of
content and love, and within which was the inverted
sky lit with the eternal stars an intellectual ocean
-towards which all rivers ran, and from which now
the isles and continents of thought receive their dew
and rain. — Robert G. Ingersoll
The whole lecture is digitized and available online (this quote is from 73). I love the interweb, but I still think there is no substitue for a real book.
I remember reciting the “all the world is a stage” monologue when I was 17. The final line is so brilliant and haunting: “Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
I remember reciting “Fight for Your Right to Party” when I was seventeen. More or less the same thing.
I wish my penmanship didn’t suck so I could be romantic in a book.
The last time I was romantic in a book, the pages got stuck together.
I think it’s from Judge (not Judy)