I recently heard a charming quote from novelist Edith Wharton to the effect that there are two roles in life — either that of a candle or of a mirror. I’m a mirror. Even when I thought I was a candle — years ago as an actor — I was really a mirror, trying my … Read more
A very tangled situation arises in one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays, Measure for Measure. This is to say nothing particularly arresting; after all, what do we come upon in any of his plays but tangled situations? We all know the agonies and cross-currents in Hamlet and Macbeth, of course. (To my own mind, King Lear … Read more