Shakespeare
staging the world

I was alone with my father when he died, after a long and sad decline.  Some weeks later I met one of his oldest colleagues, who looked at me reflectively and, without any preamble, quoted Lear: 'He hates him /That would upon the rack of this tough world/ Stretch him out longer.' It was then that I  understood the words for the first time.

Dora Thornton, London