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2011: Shakespearean Characters

When I had the idea to use quotations from Shakespeare for this year’s card, I thought of using initial letters of the plays from which they came as the code. The thirty-eight plays are conveniently more numerous than the letters of the alphabet, but it was to be expected, of course, that required letters would be missing as initial letters of the titles. So I have instead used the initial letters of the characters whose lines these are as the code. “To be, or not to be – that is the question”, for example, is spoken by Hamlet (in the play Hamlet, but that is irrelevant here) and thus represents his initial letter H.

There is some ambiguity over characters’ names, and I have used some licence: thus I have used the Duke/Earl of Somerset for S and Nick Bottom as N, even though he is usually known only as Bottom. I have also been pragmatic but inconsistent over spelling: some words have been modernised, but not others.

The message I needed omitted some letters of the alphabet, for example J – which meant I couldn’t include Juliet – and G – so I could include Rosencrantz but not his friend Guildenstern.

Front page

This translates as:

H	Hamlet Hamlet (3.1)	To be, or not to be – that is the question
A	Amiens As You Like It (2.7)	Blow, blow, thou winter wind Thou art not so unkind As man’s ingratitude
P	Portia The Merchant of Venice (4.1)	This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood The words expressly are “a pound of flesh”
P	Prince of Morocco The Merchant of Venice (2.7)	All that glisters is not gold Often have you heard that told
Y	Young Lucius Titus Andronicus (5.3)	O grandsire, grandsire! even with all my heart Would I were dead, so you did live again!
C	Cleopatra Antony and Cleopatra (1.5)	My salad days When I was green in judgement
H	Hamlet Hamlet (3.4)	For ’tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his own petard
R	Richard [Duke of Gloucester] Richard III (1.1)	Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York
I	Iago Othello (3.3)	It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock The meat it feeds on.
S	Shylock The Merchant of Venice (1.3)	Shall I bend low and in a bondman’s key With bated breath and whispering humbleness
T	Tybalt Romeo and Juliet (1.5)	This, by his voice, should be a Montague. Fetch me my rapier, boy.
M	Macbeth Macbeth (2.1)	Is this a dagger which I see before me The handle toward my hand?
A	Alcibiades Timon of Athens (1.2)	So they were bleeding-new, my lord, there’s no meat like ’em: I could wish my best friend at such a feast.
S	Second Witch Macbeth (4.1)	Eye of newt and toe of frog Wool of bat and tongue of dog

– giving:

Inside page

This translates as:

A	Antonio The Tempest (2.1)	And by that destiny to perform an act Whereof what’s past is prologue
N	Nurse Romeo and Juliet (1.3)	Even or odd, of all days in the year Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
D	Dromio of Syracuse The Comedy Of Errors (2.2)	When in the why and the wherefore is neither rhyme nor reason?
B	Brutus Julius Caesar (1.2)	A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March
E	Edmund King Lear (5.3)	The wheel is come full circle; I am here
S	[Duke/Earl of] Somerset Henry VI, Part 3 (5.2)	Ah, Warwick! Montague hath breathed his last
T	Titania A Midsummer Night’s Dream (3.1)	Out of this wood do not desire to go Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
W	Witches Macbeth (4.1)	Double, double toil and trouble Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
I	Iago Othello (1.1)	But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve For daws to peck at
S	[Christopher] Sly The Taming of the Shrew (Prologue.1)	I’ll not budge an inch, boy; let him come, and kindly.
H	Hostess Quickly Henry IV, Part 2 (2.1)	He hath eaten me out of house and home
E	[Domitius] Enobarbus Antony and Cleopatra (2.2)	Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety
S	Second Witch Macbeth (4.1)	By the pricking of my thumbs Something wicked this way comes.
F	Falstaff Henry IV, Part 1 (5.4)	The better part of valour is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life.
O	Othello Othello (3.3)	Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!
R	Romeo Romeo and Juliet (2.2)	But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
T	Trinculo The Tempest (2.2)	Misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows.
H	Hamlet Hamlet (1.4)	It is a custom More honoured in the breach than the observance
E	Edgar King Lear (3.4)	This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet. He begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock.
N	Nerissa The Merchant of Venice (1.2)	True, madam: he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes looked upon, was the best deserving a fair lady.
E	Emilia Othello (4.3)	I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.
W	[Cardinal] Wolsey Henry VIII (3.1)	For goodness’ sake, consider what you do
Y	Young Cato Julius Caesar (5.4)	I will proclaim my name about the field I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho!
E	Eleanor Henry VI, Part 2 (1.2)	What dreamed my lord? tell me, and I’ll requite it With sweet rehearsal of my morning’s dream.
A	Antonio Merchant of Venice (1.1)	In sooth, I know not why I am so sad It wearies me; you say it wearies you
R	Rosalind As You Like It (4.1)	Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing?
F	First Witch Macbeth (1.1)	When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
R	Robin Starveling A Midsummer Night’s Dream (3.1)	I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
O	Othello Othello (3.3)	But this denoted a foregone conclusion
M	Marcus Antonius Julius Caesar (3.2)	Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!
B	Beatrice Much Ado About Nothing (2.1)	Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on the windy side of care.
R	Rosencrantz Hamlet (4.2)	My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.
I	Imogen Cymbeline (1.1)	O dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant Can tickle where she wounds!
A	Ariel The Tempest (1.2)	All hail, great master! grave sir, hail!
N	Nick Bottom A Midsummer Night’s Dream (3.1)	Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to bring in—God shield us!—a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing;
B	Brutus Julius Caesar (4.3)	There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune
A	[Sir] Andrew Aguecheek Twelfth Night (1.3)	But I am a great eater of beef and I believe that does harm to my wit
R	Regan King Lear (1.1)	Sir, I am made Of the selfsame metal that my sister is And prize me at her worth.
K	King Henry Henry V (3.1)	Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
E	[Domitius] Enobarbus Antony and Cleopatra (2.2)	For her own person It beggared all description
R	[Sir Richard] Ratcliff Richard III (3.4)	Make a short shrift: he longs to see your head

– giving:

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Version 5: Revised 22 December 2017
Brian Barker