Shakespeare’s “No” and the Allure of Denial
“…yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.” –Ulysses, James Joyce
In any discussion of the “no,” it seems worthwhile to consider the opposite, as a point of reference.
Coriolanus and the Perils of People Pleasing
Was Coriolanus a “people pleaser?” If you’ve read this one or seen it performed, your first answer might be to say, no. Not by a long shot.
What’s in a Name
“… O, be some other name! / What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet …” —Romeo and Juliet II.ii, 42 (references to Shakespeare’s writing here and throughout are to the text of The Riverside Shakespeare (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974).
“Shakespeare and a Cup of Coffee” is not the name I had first for the title of my blog. It was, rather, “Shakespeare for Breakfast,” which I thought smart, with several suggested obvious meanings. I could eat Shakespeare for breakfast…