You Say That You Love Rain, But You Open Your Umbrella When It Rains

~ duane ~ 85 Comments

You say that you love rain, but you open your umbrella when it rains.
You say that you love the sun, but you find a shadow spot when the sun shines.
You say that you love the wind, but you close your windows when wind blows.
This is why I am afraid, you say that you love me too.

I must not be hanging out in the right circles. I’d never heard this quote. Every “You say that you love rain” variation brings traffic to this page. When I googled it, it was all over the place.  It should take two seconds to realize this isn’t Shakespeare. Just another “I don’t know who said it, so I’ll make it sound better by attaching Shakespeare’s name.”

You Say That You Love Rain
Of course you open your umbrella when it rains, that’s what it’s for.

Here’s a tip – whenever you see a supposed Shakespeare quote attributed to Shakespeare in the second person (“you do this” and “you do that”) ask yourself, “Who was he talking to?” and “Where would this make sense in his work?”  Shakespeare didn’t write Hallmark greeting cards. Rarely does one character stand there and go on and on about another, as in this quote.

Shakespeare On Rain

One of the most recognizable quotes from Shakespeare that has to do with rain comes from a song in Twelfth Night:

Clown

(Sings)

When that I was and a little tiny boy,

With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,

A foolish thing was but a toy,

For the rain it raineth every day.

Or, the opening of Portia’s big speech in The Merchant Of Venice:

PORTIA

The quality of mercy is not strain’d,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath:

Who Said You Say That You Love Rain?

AI model wearing the Alas t-shirt
Shakespeare Geek Merch

The best I’ve found is the Turkish poem “I Am Afraid (Korkuyorum),” which is also sometimes attributed to William Shakespeare.  The source material has long since disappeared from the net. With help from the Wayback Machine – here it is, I Am Afraid (Korkuyorum), in both Turkish and English translation. Enjoy.  If anybody knows the actual author, please let us know.  It’s just not Shakespeare.

Not By Shakespeare

This quote is just one of many found on social media attributed to Shakespeare but not in his works. Check out our Not By Shakespeare category for more!

Other Quotes Not By Shakespeare

UPDATED

The original author’s name might very well be Qyazzirah Syeikh Ariffin.  

Nothing Personal, Duncan

~ duane ~ 4 Comments

We don’t discuss interpretation of the text enough these days. I really should make more progress in R3, but that’s a different story :).

The other day I answered somebody’s question on Macbeth, asking what this quote means:

I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent

I pointed out that this quote is only partial, and when you look at the rest it makes more sense:

I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
And falls on the other.

This quote comes from Macbeth himself, trying to pump up for the bloody deed he’s about do (namely, kill the king).  My best summary for this particular passage was, “Nothing personal, Duncan.  I don’t have to do this because of anything that you did.  You’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I want to be king, and that means you gotta go.”

I know that’s a gross over simplification, but sometimes that’s all these kids want.  When I think of “translating Shakespeare into modern speech” this is what I think of.

Anybody want to help flesh out (or correct) that answer?  The next time somebody googles for the meaning of that quote I’d love for them to land here and see some interesting discussion about what that passage means.

Emery Battis, Veteran Shakespeare Actor, Dead at 96

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

I can’t say I know much about Dr. Battis, but his resume is impressive to say the least and I felt that his contributions to our beloved playwright deserved a little recognition. Dr. Battis died this past weekend due to complications from bladder cancer.

Read the whole obituary to get the full span of this man’s achievements – I’ll list only a few here:

  • He played more than 90 characters in Shakespearean plays and,
    he often noted, had only one onstage kiss in his life.
  • He worked at
    Baltimore’s Centerstage before moving in 1984 to Washington, where he
    appeared in almost 70 productions of the Shakespeare Theatre. He
    received a Helen Hayes Award for his lifetime contributions to
    Washington theater in 2002.
  • Dr. Battis
    acted in all but one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays — the lone exception was
    “Cymbeline” — and gave his final performance as Marcade in a 2006
    production of “Love’s Labour’s Lost” in the Bard’s home town of
    Stratford-upon-Avon in England
  • Battis’s
    Falstaff, one critic wrote, “was all that Shakespeare wrote the
    character to be: braggart, glutton, coward, liar, obscene buffoon, yet
    blessed with an indomitable spirit and an ability to laugh at himself.”
  • After a 1967 performance in Ohio, the Cleveland Plain Dealer
    proclaimed Dr. Battis’s interpretation “the best Lear of our
    generation.”

Sounds like we lost one of the good ones. Anybody out there happen to know his work, and can share any stories/experiences?

Flights of angels, Dr. Battis.  RIP.

First Coriolanus, Now Antony + Cleopatra?

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

“It’s a long way down the line,” but director Ralph Fiennes wouldn’t mind following up his Coriolanus with a shot at Antony and Cleopatra.

I hope that his Coriolanus does well, and that this represents a new trend in Shakespeare movies – away from our yearly versions of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth, and starting to show more love toward these other great plays that, really, are as good as lost to a modern audience. 

What plays would you love to see on Fiennes’ list?  I’d love to see him do something with the histories, ala Welles’ Chimes at Midnight. Not that exact story, but that idea — tell a large chunk of the history plays while at the same time telling your own story.

I’ve also heard praise for Timon of Athens, so I’m waiting for somebody to breathe some life into that one as well.

The Curse of Iago

~ duane ~ 2 Comments

I can’t find the original reference, but Friday on Twitter I saw somebody say something like “by that logic Iago would be 408 years old.”

And I thought, “You know, Iago never actually dies at the end of the play. They just take him away to be tortured.  How cool would it be if he was in fact immortal?”

The plot of a horror movie formed in my brain.  Bunch of college kids over in Italy (American kids studying abroad, of course), working on Othello.  Over study group they have the “Iago didn’t die” conversation.   “You know this is based on a true story, right?” one of the kids says.  “And it took place not too far from here…” It’s only a matter of time before they’re crawling around centuries-old tunnels, until they reach the very chamber where Iago was brought so long ago…

…what happens next?  And where my screenwriters at? Make it happen!