In Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest,” we are asked to picture a magical island on which we find a man named Prospero, who lives there with his daughter, Miranda. He has a servant named Caliban, a wild sort of partially human creature who believes the island should really belong to him, so he spends a good deal of his time creating problems for Prospero.
Dear Blogger-type friends: It looks like the question this week is a bit
too difficult. Sorry.
We had a nice response for Robert Frost last week; few
correct answers this week. I’ll shift
gears and come up with something more manageable for next Sunday. Hope to see you then. --Berowne
(Also for Three Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "L" is for "Lem")
Here’s
this week’s Berownial quiz question:
Some people get everything handed to them.
There I was, working at the same crummy job for the
past twelve years and getting essentially nowhere, when I learned that my old
army buddy Earl had a relative who suddenly up and died.
If that sounds like a tragedy, it wasn’t much of one
for Earl; the deceased was an uncle he really didn’t know very well. However, due to the intricacies of inheritance
law it seems that Earl was next of kin and he learned that he now had a house,
along with a cash inheritance.
What a break that was! After his wife left, he found he was a single
parent trying to raise a sixteen-year old daughter, Milly, in what I believe
are referred to as straitened financial circumstances – i e, not much in the
way of actual dough.
He couldn't conceal a shock when Earl saw what he had
inherited. It wasn’t just a house; to a
guy who had been living in a small apartment it was a mansion. Three
bathrooms, he kept saying to himself.
And each of the numerous rooms in the place seemed as big as his former
apartment. It wasn’t a just a break; it
was a red-hot miracle.
To top it all off, it came with help. There was a hired man named Lem who had been
with his uncle for years, and in his will the old man had specified that
whoever inherits his house should keep Lem on; this would be a plus because he
knew the place so well.
Well, Earl thought that was fine. He proposed to have the gardener/handyman do the necessary
work while he concentrated on learning about fine wines and how to live like an
alleged upper-class gentleman.
But there was a fly in the Pouilly-Fuisse. Lem turned out to be difficult. Oh, he’d do the work, but only with an
avalanche of grumbling and by making it clear that whatever there was to be
done could wait till tomorrow, or maybe like next week. He showed little respect for Earl, though he
was, of course, his boss.
From time to time Lem claimed that the old man had
told him he would be inheriting the
place - it was supposed to be his. Earl
just put up with this, thinking it’s the sort of thing people have to get used
to once they’ve inherited a mansion.
But then things got even uglier with Lem – who was
already ugly to begin with. He had had his eye
on Milly, the daughter of the house, for some time. She reported to her father that he had made
some “suggestions” to her, not all of which she had understood but was pretty
sure they were unpleasant.
That tore it. Lem had to go.
When I heard Earl’s story, I couldn’t help thinking
it reminded me of one of Shakespeare’s best-known plays.
Which play?
(Also
submitted to Sunday Scribblings.)
20 comments:
wild guess....King Lear?
My immediate thought was "Richard III" hope I am right.
Sorry, when it comes to "thinking" about the Bard's writings, I'm not "in" today.
But I sure enjoyed the story...thus far!
Macbeth … No
Romeo and Juliet … No
Hamlet … No
Julius Cæsar … No
Richard III … No
The Taming of the Shrew … No
A Midsummer Night's Dream … No
…
…
…
Aha!
The Tempest
Naturgesetz is the first to step up with the right answer. Who's next?
Guessing without looking it up: The Tempest, which formed the foundation for the plot of the science fiction classic "Forbidden Planet."
New York Erratic has un-erratically answered with the correct answer. Congrats...
Great story... so what happens next?!?
What happens next is, you give us the answer to the quiz question. :-)
Berowne, i've read some Shakespeare; your story is quite interesting, but i just cannot make the connection, so i'm thinking, must be one that i have't read;
oh! and thank you for stopping by my blog
much love...
My knowledge of Shakespeare is underwhelming. I wish I knew because the story is fantastic. Cranky old Lem what a character.
Eeeewe - completely stuck by this one Berowne!
Anna :o]
Still thinking - without success!
Well, I read some Shakespeare, but....this doesn't ring a bell! Though beautifully written! I know one thing: My quiz is a lot easier!!
Yeah. I'm stumped too. But don't apologize - expands the brain and all that.
These quizzes look like great fun! Although I would not of gotten this one. Lol! See you for the next one and thanks again for reading my work! It's such a pleasure to get up in the morning and see a friendly comment!
Oh well, it is entertaining to read what stirs within your thoughts! Looking forward to a better, much more attainable one next Sunday!
I'm guessing "The Tempest."
=)
Sue, at just about the last minute, has joined us with the correct answer.
I didn't read " The Tempest", but I know that Miranda said: " Oh, brave new world, that has such people in it". That's why Aldous Huxley chose this as title for one of his books, which I read. Sorry that I didn't know your quiz.
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