Comments on: Labor’s labours lost

By: Helen

Helen — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:30:55 +0000

In the first place there does not seem to have been an apostrophe there. So it becomes a fairly simple phrase: loves labours lost. It is true that punctuation and spelling was more fluid in the sixteenth century but I would not call the mid-1590s when the play was written the 1500s. There is almost a century between the two, a century when the English language developed rapidly.

On the subject of the European elections, don’t get carried away. It actually does not matter who is in the European Parliament. These are merely indications to the existing parties. And let us not forget that for all their swaggering, the Conservatives did not do as well as they should have done. The fault is not in their stars but in themselves. 😉

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:00:41 +0000

R.B. Glennie: American’s would ordinarily leave out the “u” in labor. I left it in the second “labor” in the title to better resemble the play’s title.

By: Nolanimrod

Nolanimrod — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:04:06 +0000

re: apostrophe

A swatted mosquito?

By: R.B. Glennie

R.B. Glennie — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:15:32 +0000

But shouldn’t it be, for you Americans, `Labour’s labors lost’?

By: Beverly

Beverly — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:23:06 +0000

And Shakespeare, the Divine Willy, always meant all the meanings — at once — that could be construed from any of his lines. Always working on several levels. Playing with it.

By: Beverly

Beverly — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:12:15 +0000

And a ruthless one! just look at what he did to all his political opponents, if you want to know this man’s true nature.

By: Beverly

Beverly — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:11:21 +0000

Hussein Obama, with his hoisted chin, has always struck me as an oily con-man. Watch his eyes when he listens to people–there’s calculation, not warmth, in those pupils.

Besides which, he’s a first-class dick.

By: chuck

chuck — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:22:49 +0000

Another way in which Britain differs from the US is they don’t have a conservative party, the Tories have been trying to become Labour Lite. Although I sometimes wonder if the US has still has a conservative party either.

By: Foxfier

Foxfier — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:37:16 +0000

I know I couldn’t stand Clinton, and I can’t stand Obama for similar reasons– they come across as too slick; they remind me of a guy I dated until I realized words had no value to him– they were just tools to get into someone’s pants.

They “felt” like they were trying to project that they agreed totally with whatever their audience thought. Shoot, I don’t even agree with my HUSBAND on everything….

With Bush, for Zel Miller’s speeches I’ve seen, shoot even in general life… I trust the folks who are a bit less slickly general in their sincerity, who I can read as believing something deeply and, though they don’t want to offend you, they hope you can work with them– and maybe be swayed to what they believe.

By: Gray

Gray — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:19:41 +0000

I work in an office where EVERYone supported Obama, often loudly and in messianic terms. NONE of them talk about him now.

I’ve had a couple of previously Obama-mad supporters denounce him. I know a few more who won’t talk about him and get sheepish when I call them on it.

They say: “Well I felt like he would be good for America and I wanted a change, but not this. I didn’t think he would do this….”

I rejoin: “No one knows what happens next. We’ve never f’ed up this bad.”

(Yeah, I know it should be “badly”, but saying “badly” loses the impact when spoken.)