Saturday, January 31, 2009

Shakespearean koan ...

... while preparing a barley pilaf this evening I remembered, for some reason, that ever since I served as a prompter for a run of Much Ado About Nothing many years ago, I have from time to time thought of a particular line of Dogberry's as the equivalent, in English, of a Zen koan. The line is this:

... well, God's a good man; an two men

ride of a horse, one must ride behind.

I will say no more. Koans are not meant to be explicated.

2 comments:

  1. Have seen that line played so it was falling down funny. Only once though, fifty years ago. Other performances don't seem to grasp that it is a joke.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Actually, it was delivered very humorously in the production I was the prompter for. Which was about 46 years ago. Tempus fugit.

    ReplyDelete