This epilogue follows the events of The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare. At the beginning of the play, a passed out drunkard named Christopher Sly is found by a traveling lord, who carries him into his castle, and gets his servants in on a prank to make Sly believe he is a lord who has been gravely ill for 15 years. They go to a play, which is where the play itself begins. However, it is never explained what happened with Sly and his 'lordship'. It's all left to the imagination of the audience. However, I have put my imagination to work, and come up with a crazy interpretation of the events after the play. Enjoy!
It has been one month after Sly was introduced into the lord's castle. The prank went according to plan for a few days, with Sly buying every bit of the charade. However, the servants notice how much nicer Sly is to them than the lord. He allows them to go hunting with him, hang out at taverns and parties with him, and, most importantly, doesn't make them go along with any hare-brained schemes. The lord's real wife eventually replaces the servant as Sly's wife, unbeknownst to the lord. After a couple weeks pass, The lord tries to tell Sly the truth about his life, but they pretend to not know what he's talking about. Confused, he goes to his wife to tell Sly what's really happening, but she, too, pretends to not know who he is. The lord gets furious, and starts punching and screaming at her. The servants rush in and throw him out of the castle. Sly enters asking what all the commotion is about, and the lord reveals the plan himself. However, Sly doesn't believe him, claiming the lord is a "typical worthless drunkard." Homeless and upset, the lord writes a brief letter to Sly demanding he go back to the life of a destitute, and that the lord return to his rightful place. It says:
Dear Your Lordship,
Please listen, I realize that it's difficult to return to the life of a nobody after living the life of a king, but I would be most grateful if I could take back my gracious servants and loving wife. Do not worry, I will be sure to give you a complimentary breakfast as you leave.
Sincerely,
The Real Lordship
Not surprisingly, Sly rejected this offer, and thus told his servants to go out and warn the townspeople of an insane man looking to impersonate their lord. Meanwhile, the lord goes out into the town, attempting to find a house to stay at, but no one wants to host a crazy person in their home. Dejected, the lord resorts to drinking at the same tavern frequented by Sly.
Many years later, Sly has gotten even more comfortable in his role as lord. So much so, that he becomes abusive to his servants and wife. Partly, this is because of his continued habit of drinking, because the way it was made in those days, caused a brain disorder in which the drinker develops a tendency for poor decision making and stupid ideas. Meanwhile, the lord finally decided to give himself a name, which was Drol (real creative, right?), and finally found an abandoned shed to sleep in. The experience greatly humbled him, as he realized how he took his servants and wife for granted, praying that they could know how sorry he was. One day, however, he gets his wish and even more so when he stumbles out of the tavern very drunk, and passes out not far past the entrance. When Sly walks into the tavern with some friends, he sees the unconscious Drol, and is unable to recognize him. He does, however, convince his friends to carry him into his castle, and to convince him that he is a lord.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Reading Wishlist
Here are the five books, in no particular order, that you can better believe I'll be reading in the next year and beyond. In the interest of variety, I will include all different authors for those books.
- My Prison Without Bars by Pete Rose
- Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
- The Taming of the Screw by Dave Barry
- Garfield Goes to His Happy Place: His 58th Book by Jim Davis
- Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages, 1985-1995 by Bill Watterson
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Monday, December 15, 2014
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Book 3 Listicle
The Closer: My Story is the autobiography of Mariano Rivera, published in 2014. As one would expect, the book follows the life of Mariano Rivera, through his early life as a fisherman in a small town in Panama, to his discovery by the New York Yankees, through his movement through the minor leagues, ultimately to his illustrious 17 season career pitching for the Yankees.
One thing that I noticed about this book that is quite obvious is how there are no quotation marks around the quotes. I'm not sure why this is; I think he was maybe going for a style of some sort, but it just ended up being weird. You do get used to it after a while, though.
Speaking of quotes, almost all of them throughout the book are kept short, usually not longer than a sentence. It's also rare that conversations occur in the novel, because Rivera refers to himself in the first person, it causes a tendency for him to tell what he's thinking, rather than show. I don't really agree with this version of storytelling, because I like to see more of the 'in-the-moment' action than a thorough explanation of what happened. Which isn't to say that the latter shouldn't be included at all; it does have a place as clarification for the story.
Another thing that I noticed about this book is that a lot of references to the Bible are made. As one easily gathers throughout the book, Rivera is a devout Christian, which leads to mentions of Bible passages when the opportunity arises to illustrate his point. For example, when Rivera is explaining that he doesn't concern himself with making the most money possible, he uses Hebrews 13:5 to show his reasoning.
Another thing that I noticed about the book is that Rivera omits a whole lot of regular season games. I don't agree with this decision, since the regular season is obviously an enormous part of the MLB, it's weird how it's just glazed over in favor of describing the postseason. I understand that he can't include all 162 games per season in the book, but, in this case, sometimes the only thing that is mentioned about the regular season is the final overall record. It's okay to focus on the Yankees, and not yourself, but it's important to be consistent.
Which brings me to another interesting thing about the book, which is that much of the book is focused on the Yankees' accomplishments (or lack thereof at some points) in the postseason. Most often in the book, Rivera gives an overview of what occurred in the games, for example, "In Game 4 [of the ALCS], our bullpen- David Weathers, Graeme Lloyd, me, and Wetteland- throws six shutout innings after Kenny Rogers is cuffed around early."(Rivera 83)
As for my recommendations, I would recommend this book to all baseball fans, particularly Yankees fans, because, while I learned a lot about Mariano Rivera by reading this memoir, I also learned a lot about recent New York Yankees history as well. I would also recommend this if you are a Christian looking for real life application to faith, because there are plenty of examples from the good times and bad times Rivera has gone through over the course of his career.
One thing that I noticed about this book that is quite obvious is how there are no quotation marks around the quotes. I'm not sure why this is; I think he was maybe going for a style of some sort, but it just ended up being weird. You do get used to it after a while, though.
Speaking of quotes, almost all of them throughout the book are kept short, usually not longer than a sentence. It's also rare that conversations occur in the novel, because Rivera refers to himself in the first person, it causes a tendency for him to tell what he's thinking, rather than show. I don't really agree with this version of storytelling, because I like to see more of the 'in-the-moment' action than a thorough explanation of what happened. Which isn't to say that the latter shouldn't be included at all; it does have a place as clarification for the story.
Another thing that I noticed about this book is that a lot of references to the Bible are made. As one easily gathers throughout the book, Rivera is a devout Christian, which leads to mentions of Bible passages when the opportunity arises to illustrate his point. For example, when Rivera is explaining that he doesn't concern himself with making the most money possible, he uses Hebrews 13:5 to show his reasoning.
Another thing that I noticed about the book is that Rivera omits a whole lot of regular season games. I don't agree with this decision, since the regular season is obviously an enormous part of the MLB, it's weird how it's just glazed over in favor of describing the postseason. I understand that he can't include all 162 games per season in the book, but, in this case, sometimes the only thing that is mentioned about the regular season is the final overall record. It's okay to focus on the Yankees, and not yourself, but it's important to be consistent.
Which brings me to another interesting thing about the book, which is that much of the book is focused on the Yankees' accomplishments (or lack thereof at some points) in the postseason. Most often in the book, Rivera gives an overview of what occurred in the games, for example, "In Game 4 [of the ALCS], our bullpen- David Weathers, Graeme Lloyd, me, and Wetteland- throws six shutout innings after Kenny Rogers is cuffed around early."(Rivera 83)
As for my recommendations, I would recommend this book to all baseball fans, particularly Yankees fans, because, while I learned a lot about Mariano Rivera by reading this memoir, I also learned a lot about recent New York Yankees history as well. I would also recommend this if you are a Christian looking for real life application to faith, because there are plenty of examples from the good times and bad times Rivera has gone through over the course of his career.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)