Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind.
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste—
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured everywhere.
One thing about taking a Shakespeare class is having to analyze passages of Early Modern English which occasionally has me stumped. The discovery of meaning in something that confuses you, like prose from the Elizabethen period is worthwhile. Especially when you realize how it is very much still applicable today. Suddenly you understand it completely. Love, humor, tragedy. Frustration, desperation, humiliation.
After trying to translate English to English, that is.
We read one play a week and discuss it at length. This week it's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Above is one of my favorite passages from Act I.
Translation :
When we’re in love, we don’t see with our eyes but with our minds.
That’s why paintings of Cupid, the god of love, always show him as blind.
And love doesn’t have good judgment either - Cupid, has wings and no eyes,
so he’s bound to be reckless and hasty.
That’s why they say love is a child.
Because it makes such bad choices.
Just as boys like to play games by telling lies, Cupid breaks his promises all the time.
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