{"id":69474,"date":"2013-07-20T09:18:11","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T13:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=69474"},"modified":"2013-07-20T09:21:30","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T13:21:30","slug":"england-in-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=69474","title":{"rendered":"England In the Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"150453_10151583794332632_1098155618_n\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nI’ve been reading Shakespeare’s plays in chronological order (at least as close to that as can be determined). I’ve done it before, but it was years ago, 15 years or something. I highly recommend it, if you feel so inclined. I have not been writing about it, because I’ve been trying to relax more and not everything I read\/see has to be written about (although I want to, and already I’m defying myself – look at me, here I am writing about it). Anyway, I’ve been reading the plays in the mornings, and it’s been so much fun. So I suppose it is no surprise that on Thursday, walking back to my car after spending the afternoon at the beach, I glanced up at the sky and saw England hovering there. Sad to say, Ireland is not represented in the sky. And, as my friend Jackie observed, “It appears that the North Sea is on fire.” <\/p>\n

I had just finished Richard II<\/i> that morning, where, of course, one of the most famous speeches is by poor John of Gaunt, in Act 2 scene 1:<\/p>\n

This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle,
\nThis earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
\nThis other Eden, demi-paradise,
\nThis fortress built by Nature for herself
\nAgainst infection and the hand of war,
\nThis happy breed of men, this little world,
\nThis precious stone set in the silver sea,
\nWhich serves it in the office of a wall,
\nOr as a moat defensive to a house,
\nAgainst the envy of less happier lands,
\nThis blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
\nThis nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
\nFear’d by their breed and famous by their birth,
\nRenowned for their deeds as far from home,
\nFor Christian service and true chivalry,
\nAs is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
\nOf the world’s ransom, blessed Mary’s Son,
\nThis land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
\nDear for her reputation through the world,
\nIs now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
\nLike to a tenement or pelting farm:
\nEngland, bound in with the triumphant sea
\nWhose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
\nOf watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
\nWith inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:
\nThat England, that was wont to conquer others,
\nHath made a shameful conquest of itself.<\/p>\n

So naturally, after reading that ode to England, I would look up and see that “precious stone set in the silver sea” up there in the sky. It makes perfect sense. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been reading Shakespeare’s plays in chronological order (at least as close to that as can be determined). I’ve done it before, but it was years ago, 15 years or something. I highly recommend it, if you feel so inclined. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[218],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69474"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69481,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69474\/revisions\/69481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}