I’m in a hospital in Denver, where my husband is recovering from having his appendix out. (So much for our ski vacation.) I was reading The Merchant of Venice in the hospital waiting room, so when Andrew handed me his wedding ring (it had to come off before surgery), I thought of MOV’s ring fiasco and Portia’s ultimatum to Bassanio:
This house, these servants, this same myself are yours–my lord’s!–I give them with this ring, which when you part from, lose, or give away, let it presage the ruin of your love, and be my vantage to exclaim on you.
Obviously, Bassanio takes off the ring before the play is over…but I haven’t gotten that far yet this time around. I think I’ll have more sympathy for him, though.
p.s. I finished The Winter’s Tale on the plane out here, so I’ll have some posts about that coming up.
