A Fragment

This little selection did not make it into the previous essay; its original version started going off the rails here. The observation is slight, but I think true, and where else can one publish such slight observations than on a blog?

The old double standard, expressed by Ophelia in her song of madness, perhaps a clue to Hamlet’s behavior, perhaps just a generalized lament about men:

By Gis and by Saint Charity,

Alack, and fie for shame!

Young men will do't, if they come to't;

By cock, they are to blame.

Quoth she, before you tumbled me,

You promised me to wed.

So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,

An thou hadst not come to my bed.

has always been unfair, but it has these truths in it: that one must respect another in order to love her, and it’s always been easier to excuse one’s own failings than another’s.