![]() ![]() Other omens are more benign, like the music coming from the earth in Antony and Cleopatra some soldiers thought it portended well for the coming battle, but others thought it represented the spirit of Hercules leaving Antony's side. ![]() That certainly portended something scary, more so than the fact that noontime was as dark as night (a phenomenon otherwise known in Scotland as a winter day). Some Shakespearean omens are truly significant, like the horses eating each other on the night of Duncan's assassination in Macbeth. Nevertheless, all this omen-gazing by people and the press today-and the fact that my clocks seem perpetually stuck on 11:11 lately, not to mention my being rattled by an earthquake in Virginia greater than all the quakes I felt over three years living in Alaska-got me to thinking of Shakespeare's take on omens, for his plays are full of them. While such omens seem to happen with great frequency, whatever they are supposed to portend seems to me to happen with an even greater degree of infrequency, if they happen at all. We've all got one more year to live, people! But, does that mean I should be worried when I seek an on-line calendar of events and get a message saying, “April 2012 not available”? Then again, the Mayans may have predicted the end to come December 21, 2012, which is when their calendar stops. 21 well, as of this writing, it's yet to come. On top of all of this natural phenomena is the popular obsession with Harold Camping's prediction that the world would end May 21 no, make that Oct. Any day I expect to see a lion walking from the Capitol (and I don't mean that allegorically there don't seem to be any figurative lions in American politics these days). area, we've been experiencing ominous events of Shakespearean proportions: record snows, record heat, record rain, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and an earthquake, for goodness sake. Similar random coincidences I often took to be omens so much so that now it's become an inside joke for Sarah and me, as we'll both shout simultaneously, “It's an omen!” Hey, isn't speaking the same thing simultaneously an omen, too? ![]() For a long time, if I chanced to glance at a digital clock showing the time to be 11:11 (which seems to happen with great frequency), I thought it signified something much more than the passing of that minute. When I see a meteor shower, I feel I'm on the cusp of a special time. It's An Omen! Shakespeare Had Much to Say Sign up for free weekly e-mail updates (safe, secure, spamless, and unshared)Ĭheck out the guy behind this website, Eric Minton Sponsorship and Advertising opportunities Taxing Art: Targeting the arts in budget cuts slices out the heart of humankind Tiger Woods of Verona: Shakespeare's take on the sex scandals in today's headlines Henry VI and the Art of Political Spin: America is witnessing its own version On Shakespeare's True Identity-Debate Over Who Wrote the Plays Leads To One Conclusion: The Beatles are Frauds! If It Ain't Shakespeare… -What's in the Name? Much Ado About…What Exactly? Changing Shakespeare's Text Results in Controversy beyond Creative Considerations The Tempest-A Tempest That Falls Short of the Forecast Hamlet-A Timeless Hamlet in a Dated Production Macbeth-A Bloody Magical Psychological Thriller Julius Caesar-Brando in a Toga Ushers Shakespeare Into the Modern Cinema The Tempest-Fatherhood, Freedom, and Drag Queens Henry VIII-Dubious Pomp Notorious Circumstances Henry VI, Part 3-A Date with Destiny: Watching Genius Emerge ![]() Henry IV, Part 1-The Prince Has the Key to This Kingdom Shakespeare reveals the real nature of predictions and omens and how we should regard them: with skepticism or, at least, grasping their full context-if we can. ![]()
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