Out-of-Context Shakespeare

It bugs me when lines from Shakespeare are taken out of context and used to communicate generically saccharine sentiments.  Here are two of my least favorite:

"If music be the food of love, play on," 

The opening line of Twelfth Night, often quoted to valorize the romantic qualities of music, and by extension romance generally, and also hearts.  In context, it reads a little differently:

If music be the food of love, play on,

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.

That strain again.  It had a dying fall;

O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound

That breaths upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odor.  Enough, no more.

'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

The lovestruck Orsino wants to hear more music because he is pained by his love, and hopes that the music will sicken him with its sweetness, so that nausea might relieve him of his desire, not because the music makes his heart swell with the delights of kisses and sunsets.

"Good night, sweet prince"

Hamlet V.ii.  Horatio's line.  Often used to communicate literary conceits at the same time as saying goodnight.  But, of course, Hamlet has just died, and Horatio is wishing him a nice eternal sleep:

Now cracks a noble heart.  Good night, sweet prince,

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

I especially dislike this one because it's creepy -- which is ok, I mean, I like creepy things, but they shouldn't be deracinated and used to wish me a very twee good night.

Comments

[chase]

I note that Walter got it right in The Big Lebowski.

[Felicity]

Ugh. Out-of-context quotes are the worst. (Obviously I think hyperbole is the BEST.)

I ranted about a T.S. Eliot quote once that's often abused too (http://faerye.net/post/overquotage ). In that case, I don't think the meaning is necessarily misrepresented, but it's diminished and rendered cutesy when it's supposed to be one key part of a big harmonious whole.

Ryan was just telling me the other day that "Premature optimization is the root of all evil," oft-quoted by software types, has a more nuanced meaning than is generally understood because the context is never quoted. Plenty of useful quotes get pruned to be more pithy, more simple, or more acceptable ("a doormat" rather than "a doormat or a prostitute", anyone?)

And of course, to return to your Shakespeare point, there's "Brevity is the soul of wit." At one point I had the rest off by heart and would make a point of appending it when someone said it. But I'm more forgetful (and therefore, tho' not of my own volition, less obnoxious) these days.