So I'd like to start with something I found to be pretty cool. On Sunday, my home-teachers came over and read the talk, "Living the Abundant Life" by President Monson. They mentioned Monson's choice in picking Shakespeare to be the example for the B in his ABC's. I really thought that was a great literary choice. President Monson chose a line from Henry VIII.
"Be honest with yourself, with others, and with your Heavenly Father. One who was not honest with God until it was too late was Cardinal Wolsey who, according to Shakespeare, spent a long life in service to three sovereigns and enjoyed wealth and power. Finally, he was shorn of his power and possessions by an impatient king. Cardinal Wolsey cried:
"Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, He would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies."
I wanted to see other references to Shakespeare made by members of the 70 or apostles so I searched for it and came up this quote. It is called Intellectual Rebirth by Sterling W. Sill:
"I guess Shakespeare comes fairly close to the top of most people’s lists of great authors. So I got out Shakespeare’s 37 plays, his sonnets, and his poems and went to work. Reading them was pretty difficult at first. I read very slowly and perhaps not very comprehendingly. Shakespeare wrote a long time ago, and there were many things that I did not understand. I had to reread some things several times, look up their meanings, and ask people about them. But finally the clouds began to part, a little bit of the sunlight began to come through, and I had a tremendous experience with Shakespeare. Shakespeare looked with clearer insight into human life than do most men. He said his purpose in writing was to hold the mirror up to life, to show virtue her own image and scorn her own likeness. He said, “I your looking-glass will be and will modestly discover to yourself qualities which you yourself know not of.” I had a great uplift as I read his speeches and his arguments for success. And as he pictured life in miniature with his great characters acting and reacting upon each other, I was intellectually born again—a great many times. Each time we discover some inspiring thought, we can be changed, and changed for the better."
I thought this explains our class or part of the motivation behind our class. Or at least to me, this is one of the reasons I chose to study Shakespeare. I want to discover inspiring thoughts and truths and change for the better.
I am constantly amazed at the literary knowledge general authorities show. I love it when they incorporate it in with a spiritual topic because it totally supports the church's stance on seeking out for both secular and spiritual learning. :)
ReplyDeleteMikhaela,great insight!
ReplyDeleteJust to add a book note on what you already said so well-there is a talk by Spencer W. Kimball, called: "The Gospel Vision of the Arts"
http://lds.org/ensign/1977/07/the-gospel-vision-of-the-arts?lang=eng
In essence he discusses that we must become greater than those who became before us in regards to the Arts!
"It has been said that many of the great artists were perverts or moral degenerates. In spite of their immorality they became great and celebrated artists. What could be the result if discovery were made of equal talent in men who were clean and free from the vices, and thus entitled to revelations?
We have scientists who can help harness the limitless powers and turn them to good for all humanity. There have been Pasteur (1822–1895) and Curie (1867–1934) and Albert Einstein (1879–1955), and there are the Harvey Fletchers, the Henry Eyrings, and there will be greater yet.
Then there is Shakespeare (1564–1616). Everybody quotes Shakespeare. This English poet and dramatist was prodigious in his productions. His Hamlet and Othello and King Lear and Macbeth are only preludes to the great mass of his productions. Has anyone else ever been so versatile, so talented, so remarkable in his art? And yet could the world produce only one Shakespeare?"
I guess it means its your turn Mikhaela...ready to be bigger than Shakespeare? The gospel says it's possible. :-)