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SHAKESPEARE'S SILENCES by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS

First Line: WHEN JULIET FROM HER BALCONY
Last Line: DID SHAKESPEARE TELL ANNE HATHAWAY?
Subject(s): DRAMATISTS; PLAYS & PLAYWRIGHTS; POETRY & POETS; SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM (1564-1616);

When Juliet from her balcony
Waved the white wonder of her hand,
Or bright Miranda of the sea
Allured him to her mystic strand;
When Queen Titania and her sprites
Invited him to fairy play,
When Falstaff called him forth o' nights, --
Did Shakespeare tell Anne Hathaway?

No doubt when Hamlet summoned him
To parleyings of life or death,
When stark Othello sternly grim
Entreated him with torrid breath,
Or even when wise Portia spoke
Her firm judicial yea and nay,
The poet then his silence broke
And Shakespeare told Anne Hathaway.

But ah, when sweet Cordelia wept,
And Rosalind paced the forest aisle,
When Hermia in the woodland slept
And Cleopatra wove her guile;
And most when bold Petruchio
Compelled his consort to obey
And bend her haughty humors low, --
Did Shakespeare tell Anne Hathaway?



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