Observations placeholder

Shakespeare and spiritual life – John Masefield

'We are such stuff as dreams are made of'

It is profoundly true. We are now what men imagined. More than that, we are miraculous substance, which Energy is using to make these dreams, these theatres, these cities and marvels of men. Yet even if a man become one with that energy and make dreams and imaginations out of this miraculous substance, it is but for a time:

'Her audit, though delayed, answered must be'.

The attendant spirit craves freedom, the artist loses the wish, if not the power, to charm, and the eye grows tired of the book. What remains ?….

My ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer.,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself, and frees all faults.

...Mercy itself : no living thing. But I see a great and lovely figure, beyond all sex, throned somewhere and crowned, to whom the sharp prayer might pierce. Surely, if thought can lead to any such divine calm and gentle image, the fruits of that mind are freed. He who has touched ideal form by thought can touch ideal quality by prayer.