I’ve recognized that when I’m reading my mind occasionally leaps ahead of my eyes to anticipate what words may follow. Am I alone in this? Is it impatience? I don’t know. It’s clearly possible to read something and misinterpret the intended meaning. I also find that the results can be fairly creative if not provocative.
Knowing the Orcas Island Shakespeare Society would be reading William Shakespeare’s play, The Comedy of Errors, I was re-familiarizing myself with the text beforehand when I came across an interesting metaphor.
In Act II, scene ii, lines 216-217, the character Adriana speaks with the man she believes to be her husband: I read,
Come, come, no longer will I be a fool,
To put the finger in the eye of a wasp
I stopped reading, looked up from the page and attempted to bridge the context of Adriana’s speech with what Shakespeare might have meant. I thought by “in the eye of a wasp” he might mean something akin to “poking or stirring a hornet’s nest”, but even more particular, with cleverly adding the hue of futility one would find in actually trying to poke or point to something so small as a wasp’s eye. It seemed a fool’s errand to me. Shakespeare never ceases to amaze me! But, then I thought, “Let me read this again more slowly.” And so I did.
Come, come, no longer will I be a fool,
To put the finger in the eye and weep
To put the finger in the eye AND WEEP!
Where in hell did the WASP go?
‘Twas ne’er in mine eye’s sight,
And e’er in my mind’s eye.