Life as a Tale 2

Shakespeare was fond of comparing life to a story, or a tale. He borrowed the analogy from PSALM 90:8-9, wherein Moses admits that God “hast set our iniquities before Thee [God], our secret sins in the light of Thy [God’s] countenance. For all our days are passed away in Thy [God’s] wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told” (KJV). In the final scene of Romeo & Juliet, the friar begins his telling of transpired events by declaring, “I will be brief, for my short date of breath / Is not so long as is a tedious tale…” Shakespeare also alludes to the Holy Spirit’s words given through Moses in both King John: “Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale” (Lewis, Dauphin of France) and in Macbeth: “Life’s but a walking shadow…It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury…” (Macbeth).

See also:
“Life as a Tale”
“Human Life Span”
“Valley of the Shadow of Death“