English, but not as we know it

AH THE Bard of Avon.

The wonderful, inimitable yet to the majority incomprehensible Shakespeare. The above quotation is from Act 1 Scene 3 of Hamlet. It is Ophelia’s riposte to her brother Laertes’ lengthy and dogmatic monologue in which he advises his sister to stay away from that well-known lothario Prince Hamlet.

Ophelia listens respectfully to her brother but with this five-line quip suggests he might do well to keep his own lusty desires under control. No doubt, in its day Ophelia’s retort got quite the giggle from its audience, exposing as it does male double standards while at the same time mocking the sincerity of religious preaching and preachers.