My Favorite Books

Favorite Books

Reading has always been a favorite hobby. I decided to list my favorites and realized that when I fall in love with an author, I tend to read everything they've written, if I can find it. Never managed to track down the Anti-Muffins by L'Engle. Oh well. Point is, assume I mean everything by each author, as it would take years to type every book I've read : )

The Bible
(esp. Paul) is #1 without it we are nothing. There are links to a couple of especially nice online bibles on my Christian pages.

Andrew Greeley's Irish Gold (anything with Nuala McGrail or Blackie Ryan especially. Lord of the Dance is also a favorite)
Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
Wrinkle in Time and the rest of Madeline L'Engle
Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary
(Ellen Tebbits was my favorite non Ramona book children's book by Beverly Cleary, Fifteen was my favorite for older children)
Amy & Laura by Marilyn Sachs
(esp. the trilogy Amy Moves In, Laura's Luck, Amy & Laura)
The Sunfire romances by Scholastic, favorites were Cassie and Kathleen

Books that I had to read and actually enjoyed:

A Separate Peace
Lord of the Flies
Red Sky at Morning
Brave New World

Shakespeare

Ok. Click on either his portrait or house. Both sites have the plays online. The picture of the house I found in the online Encyclopedia.

Now, as much as I like Shakespeare, it seemed that I may as well share my favorite scenes. :) Kenneth Brannaugh has done and amazing job making these stories come alive. My favorite version of Hamlet is the one starring Mel Gibson BUT I have not yet seen Brannaugh's version and that may change my mind. :)

Much Ado About Nothing

BEATRICE: Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.

BENEDICK: Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.

BEATRICE
I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would not have come.

BENEDICK You take pleasure then in the message?

BEATRICE Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point and choke a daw withal. You have no stomach, signior: fare you well.

Exit

BENEDICK Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner;' there's a double meaning in that 'I took no more pains for those thanks than you took pains to thank me.' that's as much as to say, Any pains that I take for you is as easy as thanks. If I do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not love her, I am a Jew. I will go get her picture.

URSULA She's limed, I warrant you: we have caught her, madam..

HERO If it proves so, then loving goes by haps: Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.

Exeunt HERO and URSULA

BEATRICE [Coming forward]

What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true? Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much? Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu! No glory lives behind the back of such. And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee, Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand: If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee To bind our loves up in a holy band; For others say thou dost deserve, and I Believe it better than reportingly.

BENEDICK: I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?

BEATRICE
As strange as the thing I know not. It were as possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as you: but believe me not; and yet I lie not; I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin

BENEDICK By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me.

BEATRICE Do not swear, and eat it

BENEDICK I will swear by it that you love me; and I will make him eat it that says I love not you.

BEATRICE Will you not eat your word?

BENEDICK With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest I love thee.

BEATRICE Why, then, God forgive me!

BENEDICK What offence, sweet Beatrice?

.BEATRICE You have stayed me in a happy hour: I was about to protest I loved you.

BENEDICK
And do it with all thy heart.

BEATRICE I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.

BENEDICK And therefore will come.

Exit MARGARET

Sings

The god of love, That sits above, And knows me, and knows me,

How pitiful I deserve,-- I mean in singing; but in loving, Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, and a whole bookful of these quondam carpet-mangers, whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned over and over as my poor self in love. Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried: I can find out no rhyme to 'lady' but 'baby,' an innocent rhyme; for 'scorn,' 'horn,' a hard rhyme; for, 'school,' 'fool,' a babbling rhyme; very ominous endings: no, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms.

Enter BEATRICE

Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I called thee?

BEATRICE Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.

BENEDICK O, stay but till then!

BEATRICE 'Then' is spoken; fare you well now: and yet, ere I go, let me go with that I came; which is, with knowing what hath passed between you and Claudio.

BENEDICK Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss thee.

BEATRICE Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkissed

BENEDICK Thou hast frighted the word out of his right sense, so forcible is thy wit. But I must tell thee plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge; and either I must shortly hear from him, or I will subscribe him a coward. And, I pray thee now, tell me for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?

BEATRICE For them all together; which maintained so politic a state of evil that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them. But for which of my good parts did you first suffer love for me?

BENEDICK Suffer love! a good epithet! I do suffer love indeed, for I love thee against my will.

BEATRICE In spite of your heart, I think; alas, poor heart! If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it for yours; for I will never love that which my friend hates.

BENEDICK Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.

BEATRICE It appears not in this confession: there's not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself.

BENEDICK An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that lived in the lime of good neighbours. If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the bell rings and the widow weeps.

BEATRICE And how long is that, think you?

BENEDICK Question: why, an hour in clamour and a quarter in rheum: therefore is it most expedient for the wise, if Don Worm, his conscience, find no impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself. So much for praising myself, who, I myself will bear witness, is praiseworthy: and now tell me, how doth your cousin?

BEATRICE Very ill.

BENEDICK And how do you?

BEATRICE Very ill too.

BENEDICK Serve God, love me and mend. There will I leave you too, for here comes one in haste.

Enter URSULA

URSULA Madam, you must come to your uncle. Yonder's old coil at home: it is proved my Lady Hero hath been falsely accused, the prince and Claudio mightily abused; and Don John is the author of all, who is fed and gone. Will you come presently?

BEATRICE Will you go hear this news, signior?

BENEDICK I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes; and moreover I will go with thee to thy uncle's.

BENEDICK	Soft and fair, friar. Which is Beatrice?
BEATRICE	[Unmasking] I answer to that name. What is your will?
BENEDICK	Do not you love me?
BEATRICE	Why, no; no more than reason.
BENEDICK	Why, then your uncle and the prince and Claudio Have been deceived; they swore you did.
BEATRICE	Do not you love me?
BENEDICK	Troth, no; no more than reason.
BEATRICE	Why, then my cousin Margaret and Ursula Are much deceived; for they did swear you did.
BENEDICK	They swore that you were almost sick for me.
BEATRICE	They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me.
BENEDICK	'Tis no such matter. Then you do not love me?
BEATRICE	No, truly, but in friendly recompense.
LEONATO	Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman.
CLAUDIO	And I'll be sworn upon't that he loves her; For here's a paper written in his hand, A halting sonnet of his own pure brain, Fashion'd to Beatrice.
HERO	And here's another Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket, Containing her affection unto Benedick.

BENEDICK	A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts. Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity.
BEATRICE	I would not deny you; but, by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion; and partly to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption.
BENEDICK	Peace! I will stop your mouth. Kissing her
DON PEDRO	How dost thou, Benedick, the married man?
BENEDICK	I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humour. Dost thou think I care for a satire or an epigram? No: if a man will be beaten with brains, a' shall wear nothing handsome about him. In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee, but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised and love my cousin.
CLAUDIO	I had well hoped thou wouldst have denied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled thee out of thy single life, to make thee a double-dealer; which, out of question, thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look exceedingly narrowly to thee.
BENEDICK	Come, come, we are friends: let's have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts and our wives' heels.
LEONATO	We'll have dancing afterward.
BENEDICK	First, of my word; therefore play, music. Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn.

Taming of the Shrew
After spending the last hour searching for a link, I must tell you that I have had no success. The link I wanted to find was for the best version of this that I have seen. Instead I will have to give the details and maybe you can find it on your own. It starred Raul Julia and Meryl Streep and tho the play was Taming of the Shew, I think it was subtitled "Kiss Me Petruchio". Anyway, it was incredibly funny and much more entertaining that the Elizabeeth Taylor/Richard Burton version. IMDB.com does have something listed "The Papp Project" (2001) and both Raul Julia and Meryl Streep are in it, as themselves, as it is a documentary. Maybe they will include part of the play? It was a video in college...maybe the professor taped it live? I do know that it was a stage performance rather than a movie.

NOW the BEST version that I have ever seen (listing it second only because it is not 100% faithful but only based on Taming of the Shrew) is 10 Things I Hate About You which is incredibly funny, sweet and well-acted. The most important part of this scene is that Petruchio and Kate are in love and, her words are not as subservient as they seem. She and Petruchio, winning the bet together, show everyone that by love, a shrew was tamed. You know that she is still as strong if not stronger for the love between the two. She gives the speech in such a way that you know that she and her husband are well aware of the facts and at the same time, let all believe that she is truly bowing before her husband. It is not that she serves him because she is beneath him. She serves him in that she loves him and treats him the way that society would deem normal. They, by falling in love, are able to, in a way "pretend" that she is tamed and it's a private joke in a way. You really need to see the version with Meryl Streep because she does this speech perfectly. I love Liz Taylor but her delivery of this speech comes across as obsequious.

PETRUCHIO	Katharina, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women What duty they do owe their lords and husbands.
Widow	Come, come, you're mocking: we will have no telling.
PETRUCHIO	Come on, I say; and first begin with her.
Widow	She shall not.
PETRUCHIO	I say she shall: and first begin with her.
KATHARINA	Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow, And dart not scornful glances from those eyes, To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor: It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads, Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds, And in no sense is meet or amiable. A woman moved is like a fountain troubled, Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty; And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it. Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee, And for thy maintenance commits his body To painful labour both by sea and land, To watch the night in storms, the day in cold, Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe; And craves no other tribute at thy hands But love, fair looks and true obedience; Too little payment for so great a debt. Such duty as the subject owes the prince Even such a woman oweth to her husband; And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour, And not obedient to his honest will, What is she but a foul contending rebel And graceless traitor to her loving lord? I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace; Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway, When they are bound to serve, love and obey. Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth, Unapt to toil and trouble in the world, But that our soft conditions and our hearts Should well agree with our external parts? Come, come, you froward and unable worms! My mind hath been as big as one of yours, My heart as great, my reason haply more, To bandy word for word and frown for frown; But now I see our lances are but straws, Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare, That seeming to be most which we indeed least are. Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot, And place your hands below your husband's foot: In token of which duty, if he please, My hand is ready; may it do him ease.
PETRUCHIO	Why, there's a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.

Henry V
This play, in my opinion, has the best opening, in my opinon of all the plays, 2nd being Romeo and Juliet.
The prologue sets the scene and asks that you image that the stage is large enough to hold the battlefields of Agincort.
That they are experiencing days rather than hours. He acknowledges that they are, in essence, playing pretend.

He ends simply "Admit me Chorus to this history; Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play."

Chorus O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels, Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all, The flat unraised spirits that have dared On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth So great an object: can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France? or may we cram Within this wooden O the very casques That did affright the air at Agincourt? O, pardon! since a crooked figure may Attest in little place a million; And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, On your imaginary forces work. Suppose within the girdle of these walls Are now confined two mighty monarchies, Whose high upreared and abutting fronts The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder: Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts; Into a thousand parts divide on man, And make imaginary puissance; Think when we talk of horses, that you see them Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth; For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times, Turning the accomplishment of many years Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,

This is one of the first scenes of the play and quite powerful when you hear Brannaugh. Watch the movie! Even if it's only till the end of this speech, it's worth it. The scene is the throne room. The ambassadors of France are there bearing a gift and representing the Dauphin of France. When Henry learns that this gift is tennis balls...he responds to the insult quite cleverly.

	Enter Ambassadors of France
	Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear Your greeting is from him, not from the king.
First Ambassador	May't please your majesty to give us leave Freely to render what we have in charge; Or shall we sparingly show you far off The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?
KING HENRY V	We are no tyrant, but a Christian king; Unto whose grace our passion is as subject As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons: Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness Tell us the Dauphin's mind.
First Ambassador	Thus, then, in few. Your highness, lately sending into France, Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third. In answer of which claim, the prince our master Says that you savour too much of your youth, And bids you be advised there's nought in France That can be with a nimble galliard won; You cannot revel into dukedoms there. He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit, This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this, Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
KING HENRY V	What treasure, uncle?
EXETER	Tennis-balls, my liege.
KING HENRY V *now, this speech, you can hear the sarcasm practically dripping from his tongue as he turns a description of a game of tennis into a declaration of war.*	We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us; His present and your pains we thank you for: When we have march'd our rackets to these balls, We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard. Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler That all the courts of France will be disturb'd With chaces. And we understand him well, How he comes o'er us with our wilder days, Not measuring what use we made of them. We never valued this poor seat of England; And therefore, living hence, did give ourself To barbarous licence; as 'tis ever common That men are merriest when they are from home. But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state, Be like a king and show my sail of greatness *(Henry stands, voice rising & becoming more forceful as he claims victory not yet won.)* When I do rouse me in my throne of France: For that I have laid by my majesty And plodded like a man for working-days, But I will rise there with so full a glory That I will dazzle all the eyes of France, Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us. And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands; Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down; And some are yet ungotten and unborn That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn. But this lies all within the will of God, To whom I do appeal; and in whose name Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on, To venge me as I may and to put forth My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause. So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin His jest will savour but of shallow wit, When thousands weep more than did laugh at it. Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well.

Hamlet

Here I have chosen my favorite scenes. Now you really have to hear Mel Gibson and see that look in his eyes. That look that you can see in Lethal Weapon that makes you wonder if he is sane or mad. It was this that made him the perfect Hamlet since the main discussion is always was Hamlet mad or merely pretending. At times, he seems completely lucid and other times he is far from it. I, personally, have always felt that Hamlet was not insane. He lost his father, his mother is living in what he sees as an incestuous relationship and his friends are spying on him. I would say that he is under a bit of stress and lets out his anger by harassing those around him. I have included here a conversation btwn Hamlet and Polonius which is quite funny, especially when he describes the old man down to his wrinkled nose. The next section is, in essence, Hamlet "hitting" on Ophelia. Lest you think that Shakespeare was boring and tame, read the dialogue with Ophelia and it's almost shocking, even today. And of course, Mel is an absolute doll in that scene too. : o) The scene does end with him pointing out how everyone is treating him odd for mourning his father and shows his anger at his mother's hasty marriage. Hamlet points out that the funeral meal served as a wedding feast. Next, the scene where Hamlet confronts his mother about this very topic. Lastly, a little song that Ophelia sings that shows she is quite mad and the song is funny and Helena Bonham Carter played the part to perfection. Her best role I think Tho, she was in a made for TV movie that I've been trying to find called A Hazard of Hearts.
Anyway, there you are. My "good parts" version of Hamlet.

LORD POLONIUS	Away, I do beseech you, both away: I'll board him presently.
	Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, and Attendants
	Enter HAMLET, reading
	O, give me leave: How does my good Lord Hamlet?
HAMLET	Well, God-a-mercy.
LORD POLONIUS	Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET	Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
LORD POLONIUS	Not I, my lord.
HAMLET	Then I would you were so honest a man.
LORD POLONIUS	Honest, my lord!
HAMLET	Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
LORD POLONIUS	That's very true, my lord.
HAMLET	For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?
LORD POLONIUS	I have, my lord.
HAMLET	Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to 't.
LORD POLONIUS	[Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this. I'll speak to him again.
	What do you read, my lord?
HAMLET	Words, words, words.
LORD POLONIUS	What is the matter, my lord?
HAMLET	Between who?
LORD POLONIUS	I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
HAMLET	Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward.
LORD POLONIUS	[Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.
	Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
HAMLET	Into my grave.
LORD POLONIUS	Indeed, that is out o' the air.
	[Aside] How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.
	My honourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
HAMLET	You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life.
LORD POLONIUS	Fare you well, my lord.
HAMLET	These tedious old fools!
	Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
LORD POLONIUS	You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.

HAMLET	Lady, shall I lie in your lap? Lying down at OPHELIA's feet
OPHELIA	No, my lord.
HAMLET	I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA	Ay, my lord.
HAMLET	Do you think I meant country matters?
OPHELIA	I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET	That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
OPHELIA	What is, my lord?
HAMLET	Nothing.
OPHELIA	You are merry, my lord.
HAMLET	Who, I?
OPHELIA	Ay, my lord.
HAMLET	O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.
OPHELIA	Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.
HAMLET	So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches, then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 'For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot.'

HAMLET	Now, mother, what's the matter?
QUEEN GERTRUDE	Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
HAMLET	Mother, you have my father much offended
.QUEEN GERTRUDE	Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
HAMLET	Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

This is where the madness of Ophelia is made plain as she sings this song in public as she places flowers in the hair of those listening to her.

OPHELIA

Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't:
Sings By Gis and by Saint Charity, Alack, and fie for shame!
Young men will do't, if they come to't; By cock, they are to blame.
Quoth she, before you tumbled me, You promised me to wed.
So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed.

Romeo and Juliet
I was a bit unclear about my favorite part of Romeo and Juliet.
The opening I spoke of is actually a little ways into the first scene, after the prologue. It's basically a case of "boys will be boys"
Samson and Gregory are servants of the House of Capulet while Abraham and Balthasar are from the Montagues.
Benvolio is Romeo's cousin. Tybalt is Juliet's cousin.

SAMPSON	Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.
	Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR
ABRAHAM	Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
SAMPSON	I do bite my thumb, sir.
ABRAHAM	Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
SAMPSON	[Aside to GREGORY] Is the law of our side, if I say ay?
GREGORY	No.
SAMPSON	No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.
GREGORY	Do you quarrel, sir?
ABRAHAM	Quarrel sir! no, sir.
SAMPSON	If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you.
ABRAHAM	No better.
SAMPSON	Well, sir.
GREGORY	Say 'better:' here comes one of my master's kinsmen.

SAMPSON	Yes, better, sir.
ABRAHAM	You lie.
SAMPSON	Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow.
	They fight
	Enter BENVOLIO
BENVOLIO	Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do
	Beats down their swords
	Enter TYBALT
TYBALT	What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds? Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.
BENVOLIO	I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword, Or manage it to part these men with me.
TYBALT	What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee: Have at thee, coward!
	They fight Enter, several of both houses, who join the fray; then enter Citizens, with clubs

The other thing about this play that is outside the main storyline are the words of Mercutio, too many to copy and paste here,
but next time you read Romeo and Juliet (you HAVE read Romeo and Juliet right? :)
Mercutio , for most of the play, is comic relief and becomes the only one to state how foolish both sides are being.

Current favorites for children (from the mommy point of view):

Veggie Tales books, they are all great but my favorite is Bob and Larry's ABCs
Sandra Boynton Doggies is good but not quite as funny as "But Not the Hippopotamus"
Dr.Seuss
Precious Moments (Love is..., A Child is..., Happiness is...)

BEATRICE:	Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.
BENEDICK:	Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.
BEATRICE	I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would not have come.
BENEDICK	You take pleasure then in the message?
BEATRICE	Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point and choke a daw withal. You have no stomach, signior: fare you well.
	Exit
BENEDICK	Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner;' there's a double meaning in that 'I took no more pains for those thanks than you took pains to thank me.' that's as much as to say, Any pains that I take for you is as easy as thanks. If I do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not love her, I am a Jew. I will go get her picture.

URSULA	She's limed, I warrant you: we have caught her, madam..
HERO	If it proves so, then loving goes by haps: Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
	Exeunt HERO and URSULA
BEATRICE	[Coming forward]
	What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true? Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much? Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu! No glory lives behind the back of such. And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee, Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand: If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee To bind our loves up in a holy band; For others say thou dost deserve, and I Believe it better than reportingly.

BENEDICK:	I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?
BEATRICE	As strange as the thing I know not. It were as possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as you: but believe me not; and yet I lie not; I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin
BENEDICK	By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me.
BEATRICE	Do not swear, and eat it
BENEDICK	I will swear by it that you love me; and I will make him eat it that says I love not you.
BEATRICE	Will you not eat your word?
BENEDICK	With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest I love thee.
BEATRICE	Why, then, God forgive me!
BENEDICK	What offence, sweet Beatrice?
.BEATRICE	You have stayed me in a happy hour: I was about to protest I loved you.
BENEDICK	And do it with all thy heart.
BEATRICE	I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.

BENEDICK	And therefore will come.
	Exit MARGARET
	Sings
	The god of love, That sits above, And knows me, and knows me, How pitiful I deserve,-- I mean in singing; but in loving, Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, and a whole bookful of these quondam carpet-mangers, whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned over and over as my poor self in love. Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried: I can find out no rhyme to 'lady' but 'baby,' an innocent rhyme; for 'scorn,' 'horn,' a hard rhyme; for, 'school,' 'fool,' a babbling rhyme; very ominous endings: no, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms.
	Enter BEATRICE
	Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I called thee?
BEATRICE	Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.
BENEDICK	O, stay but till then!
BEATRICE	'Then' is spoken; fare you well now: and yet, ere I go, let me go with that I came; which is, with knowing what hath passed between you and Claudio.
BENEDICK	Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss thee.
BEATRICE	Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkissed
BENEDICK	Thou hast frighted the word out of his right sense, so forcible is thy wit. But I must tell thee plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge; and either I must shortly hear from him, or I will subscribe him a coward. And, I pray thee now, tell me for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?
BEATRICE	For them all together; which maintained so politic a state of evil that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them. But for which of my good parts did you first suffer love for me?
BENEDICK	Suffer love! a good epithet! I do suffer love indeed, for I love thee against my will.
BEATRICE	In spite of your heart, I think; alas, poor heart! If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it for yours; for I will never love that which my friend hates.
BENEDICK	Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.
BEATRICE	It appears not in this confession: there's not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself.
BENEDICK	An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that lived in the lime of good neighbours. If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the bell rings and the widow weeps.
BEATRICE	And how long is that, think you?
BENEDICK	Question: why, an hour in clamour and a quarter in rheum: therefore is it most expedient for the wise, if Don Worm, his conscience, find no impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself. So much for praising myself, who, I myself will bear witness, is praiseworthy: and now tell me, how doth your cousin?
BEATRICE	Very ill.
BENEDICK	And how do you?
BEATRICE	Very ill too.
BENEDICK	Serve God, love me and mend. There will I leave you too, for here comes one in haste.
	Enter URSULA
URSULA	Madam, you must come to your uncle. Yonder's old coil at home: it is proved my Lady Hero hath been falsely accused, the prince and Claudio mightily abused; and Don John is the author of all, who is fed and gone. Will you come presently?
BEATRICE	Will you go hear this news, signior?
BENEDICK	I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes; and moreover I will go with thee to thy uncle's.