Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Poems and Flash Fiction by Young Indians

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19
Poems and Flash Fiction by Young Indians
Language: English
Editor: Dr. Syam Sudhakar
ISBN: 978-93-85894-08-4
First e-edition: August 2020
Cover photo: Anamika
Publisher: Payal Books
K.P. Plaza, Parakkandy road,
Kannur- 670 001
Phone: 9995285403, 8157898125
Email: [email protected]
Printing: Vibgyor Imprints, Calicut
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
means without the prior written permission of the
publisher.

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Poems and Flash Fiction by Young Indians

Editor
Syam Sudhakar

Payal

Books
In association with the Readers’ & Writers’ Club, St.Thomas College, Thrissur



... to those who have passed away in the COVID-19 pandemic,
their loved ones

and the health care personnel

6 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Contents

Preface Enigmatic 9
Introduction To be or not to be 11
Poems Covidians
Akash Khandari To be it is ... 17
Amana Shibu Ahamed Sonnet No: Covid 19 18
Keerthana B The Pandemic-caused-Pandemic 19
Athira A Integration: The Glorious Victory 20
J Azhar Mohamed Coronavirus hits Glamis 21
Sreelakshmi V S Coronation of the bloody dagger 22
Maria Viju Dearest Desdemona 23
Sreyas Sreekumar Dear Ophelia 24
Shilpa Veeramani Shakespeare Returns 25
Meriya George What Would Portia Say Today? 26
Durga R Nemesis 27
Eashani Chettri Finally Shakespeare and his Pen 28
Irine Maria Jimmy Covid: Shall I Contempt Thee as the 29
Pranav Mohan Das Planet’s Bane? 30
Vaishnavi Nair A Blissful Sonnet on Tragedy 31
Annie V Verghese Taming of our Crew 32
AKV Kirubalakshmi The Crowned Devil 33
Nayana Francis K Your Cuisine has Gone ‘Viral’, 34
T Amiya Mrs Macbeth! 35
Ans Maria Xavier Bard on Quarantine 36
Haripriya T.K. Corona in the Time of Shakespeare 37
Akhil R Kumar The Bard’s Tragedy 38
Gracias Lourdhu Arokia 39
Sabatini Pandemic Fries, Life Cries 40
Heymonth Kumar V Pandemic Curse 41
Abiya A Shakespeare - The Contemporary of
The Novel Crown 7

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Flash fiction Coronisation Absolved 45
Suryajith P S Arabian Sanitiser 46
Anitta Thajudheen Jia Breaking News 47
Darsana B Neither here nor there 48
Daniya Jose Shakespearean Warriors 49
Akila P S One and Gone 50
Paulin Christina Whatsapp Group: 51
Vasundhara Giriprasath Beware the Ides of March 2020! 52
Smeha John Machado Sunshine in Shadows 53
Alphy Sebastian The Chosen 54
Immaculate Lavanya S J The Pathetic Story of Macbeth 55
V Vineeth The Prelude 56
Nair Roshni Rajan Toil and Trouble 57
Reshma VS Past and Prologue 58
Alen Sebastian A Global Haven 59
Amrit Clare C B Othello, the Cov’idiot’ 60
Maria Mathew Dalgona 61
Manjori Das A Bunch of Red Roses! 62
Vidhya S From Miranda 63
Nikhil Tony Holms 64
Divya Fulton Thomas No Effort is Small 65
K Jayashreekeerthi The Art Haven 66
Melvin Eapen The Leveller 67
Aiswaria Samyuktha S The Shakespeare Residency 68
Gopika Suraj A Lover’s Testimony 69
Indulekha Nair Horatio’s Testimony

8 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Preface

I do not want to open with a negative tone, but it is true that the
pandemic has struck us with a heavy blow; many have succumbed to
death, depression and existential crisis; the market has been doomed.
But I am glad to see many writers, after the initial hibernation, started
writing, and I anticipate a bunch of brilliant words blooming forth out of
the sludge. Literature often plays a pivotal role in evading the
meaninglessness of life, and with an ebullient smile, it allows us to embrace
the very ideal of hope. When our country fell into the ghastly hands of
the pandemic, Rev. Dr. Martin K A suggested celebrating the four
hundred and fourth death anniversary of William Shakespeare, organising
an online poetry/flash fiction competition for students across India on
behalf of St.Thomas College, Thrissur. Even though we are staggering
amidst the dark and looming eyes of the pandemic, a work of art will
lead us like a beacon that provides us with a tinge of hope to hold onto.
The role of a work of art in this pandemic is therapeutic.

We think it is important to revamp the essence of Shakespeare in
contemporary times. Art alone can help us survive. A true work of art
always withstands the test of time. We still ruminate over the words of
‘The Bard’ because of the profundity of his literary works. Shakespeare
survived a deadly disease of his time; he was barely three months old
when the bubonic plague struck London and wiped out nearly half of its
population. One of the obvious aspects of reimagining Shakespeare in
our times is to encourage the world to endure.

Pandemics have always contributed significant ideas to literature.
Renaissance humanist Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, written
with the backdrop of the plague, later became the benchmark of
European literature. Shakespeare also has metaphorically expressed

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 9

the disease as rage and disgust in Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, King
Lear, Timon of Athens, Coriolanus, Much Ado About Nothing, and
Twelfth Night. His works may be conceived as a narrative vaccine
that makes us immune to the dread and despair that the pandemic
disseminates.

Through this competition we have aimed to connect with the young
generation writers of the country, and many of their compositions are
from their locale and experiences. It has been difficult to choose a
winner from the two hundred and fifty entries as every work is unique.
The selection has been mostly based on the novelty of ideas and the
‘poetic beauty’ of their creation. We have also looked at the way in
which they reflect Shakespeare in the contemporary scene. We have
incorporated fifty entries - twenty five each from poetry and flash fiction.

I would like to thank everyone for their wonderful support and
co-operation for this literary activity. I appreciate the encouragement
of Dr. K L Joy, Principal of the college, and my colleagues Rev. Dr.
Martin K A and Dr. M J Viju, and the enduring assistance of Ms.
Rachel Berkumon, the student coordinator of the programme. I
acknowledge their unwavering support in editing this book. I hope this
venture addresses the collective concerns of humanity and provides us
with deep insights into the core of the events happening around us. I
call not to resume, but to restart.

EDITOR

10 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Introduction

I endeavour to write this introduction during a time of flux and
profound uncertainty over a pandemic that has not been tamed yet. I
am reminded of an image of a tortoise divesting its shell (the lockdown
symbolised by a life imprisoned in a shell) and venturing out embracing
the risks to its life.

It is often said that one should never let a crises go waste; this
can trigger a new normal and gift us a newer vision to approach
democracy as we understand it today. Though the virus knows no
ethnicity, the concept of “patient-zero” brings in elements of stigma
and xenophobia. During lockdown in India, religious minorities have
been profiled and targeted in addition to the worsening of economic
disparity. The wealth of the richest one percent has sky-rocketed when
millions of migrant labourers lost their lives in-transit. There were two
‘uprisings’ of migrant labourers in Kerala—which has an estimated
thirty lakhs of them in despicable living conditions.

If an evocative poem or a short story is a contribution to reality,
these poems and stories imagine the contemporary moment of crises in
a Shakespearean grain resulting in an act of rewriting of classic texts.
Thus these writers maybe endowed with a new epistemological privilege
of having lived in these troubled times; gathering the raw twigs of lived
experience to nest a literary imagination that may have never seen the
light of the day before this moment. I assure the discerning reader that
this collection has a few aspects worthy of your scrutiny.

Firstly, quite a few of the literary pieces here are the result of an
innovative imagination—thus there is food-for-thought in them, it’s
interesting to see how millennials envisage or respond to a world which
even in the times of quarantine and self-isolation has a ubiquitous

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 11

presence of social media like Facebook and Whatsapp.

Secondly, the fertile mind of a discerning reader might retrieve a
modicum of inspiration to develop a new work of his own from one of
these poems or stories which consists of themes like physical-separation
tormenting the lives of consummate lovers, or when a society has to
‘procrastinate life’ or when, as Ans Maria Xavier puts it, “storm howls
across the globe”. Since we are yet to see light at the end of the tunnel,
more works of art are definitely forthcoming. Bollywood films like
Omkara and Kaliyaattam in Malayalam may still be etched in our
memories.

Thirdly, looking back, each of these is a contribution to the literary
archive of the Corona-lockdown era when our economy may have
contracted substantially or the middle-class or the culturally privileged
also may have suffered unimaginable restrictions on their day-to-day
life. Cultural historians in the future may unearth a literary history if
these works of art have its place somewhere between as Hayden White
said, “as the representation of the actual” and “as the representation of
the imaginable.” We ascertain about lives ridden with abject penury in
our history from stories of Karoor Neelakanta Pillai or grotesque human
rights violation during emergency from the poems of Ayyappa Paniker,
Satchidanandan or Krishnankutty (to name a few of them only), this
anthology does portray such a role documenting this moment or epoch
in our collective memory.

In these trying circumstances did the COVID-19 pandemic make
you attempt reappraisal of your role as a discerning reader? Were you
inspired to read through classics such as The Plague by Camus or
Illness as a Metaphor by Susan Sontag and ascertain your own
privileges with a newer dispositional eye? If privilege may cataract
one’s vision, engaging with this literature can de-class us with respect
to our perceived sense of privilege.

I would like to conclude this introduction by enumerating three
works of literary enterprise that truly caught my attention in this fast-
pacing world with minuscule attention spans.

First was a poem composed of the first-lines or beginnings of
email texts, the second is a performance poem by spoken word artist
Kate Tempest titled ‘My Shakespeare’ and the third is an ecstatically

12 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

simple poem by Madhu Raghavendra, a Guhatti based poet who
responded to the necessity of art in these troubled times through a
poem and found instant entry onto the bloodstream of the social media.

The poem by Jessica Salifa; comprising of first lines of the emails
she received while in quarantine was a testimony to the dictum that
anything is a weapon for the enterprising artist. The first line of the
poem is “As you know, many people are struggling.” This I feel
represents the spirit of art in these troubled times when we make art/
poetry from what we have access to—just our work emails.

Since this anthology consists of literary pieces that involve
Shakespeare; I would like to bring to your attention a perfomative text
titled ‘My Shakespeare’ by Kate Tempest (whose debut collection got
published recently titled Brand New Ancients) which mixes elements
of rap music into the timeless theme of Shakespeare. She writes, “His
legacy exists in the life that lives in everything he’s written, / And me, I
see him everywhere, he’s my Shakespeare.”

The third is a poem by Madhu Raghavendra responding to a
perception of how necessary art is during the troubled and uncertain
times. I quote the entire poem with the permission of the poet.

I do not mind

Being the non-essential

Even a child takes its mother

For granted.

It does not run back to its

Mother until its hurt.

Nobody thinks of water

At an exquisite dinner party

Until they are choking.

I don’t mind being
Non-essential
Knowing you will come looking
When things are broken and

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 13

Nothing else works.
Art is non-essential
Until it is not.
I wish the writers represented in this anthology the very best in
their future literary endeavours.

CHANDRAMOHAN S
Trivandrum, June 30

14 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Poems

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 15

16 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Enigmatic

The bard of Avon hands on great works and writings
Who could have imagined that those theatres prophesied today’s
timings …
La palaces are filled with their Romeos
And neighbours as Juliet but the Verona in venom green
Although, Apothecaries are blank and silent in sound.
Frictions of nations are unified with darning of wounds,
Italian tears are dropping from all hearts of world around.
Countrymen of great walls, Cradles the roots of venomous plant.

Today, every ant is hidden in its hill, Idle with limitless bills
And discovers the hidden

Othello, Caesar and Macbeth in blood and bonds.

Here we stand practically dancing the plays of past
Locked indoors and city

Seems like battlegrounds, yet breathing safe
As the poet said; Thy life is miracle;

So, let’s faith in our caves ...

Akash Khandari

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 17

To be or not to be

Little did your nimble fingers
Soothe my burning temples ...
Lil’ did your passionate kisses
Unfurl my burdened soul.
Tightening my frail chest,
Your arms or the killer? cried Romeo ...
Cannot touch u darling
For the gloves fetter and
The mask, reminding of Lago.
Falstaff ... let me laugh ...
A kiss on my forehead
Is what I missed ...
To whom should I relinquish,
Juliet? Or the Corona?

Amana Shibu Ahamed

18 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Covidians

Apocalypse Visions and voices, never heard
Sunshine turned into winters! Violations of Titania
Disguised Portia to save macrocosm
Yet the war of covert, to hinge with healing
Ariel’s air retained its breathing brio
To grove thy gentleness in us; ignored
Cause, Liketh Hermione I’m abducted says earth
Even the Richards who sully uncurled
Procrastinations Of many, ended
Extinct fauna appeared liketh a ghost Banquo
Dead lilies bloomed liketh amour of Rosalind
Jealousy buried Liketh Othello
Over-ambitious liketh Macbeth beheaded
Good forecast of reconciliation to in hearse.

Keerthana B

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 19

To be it is …

To be or not to be, that is the question.
Take arms against sea of troubles,
End them by not launching a thousand ships
But by isolating thyself like Prospero did.
We know what we are, but not know what we may be.
Now is the time to do introspection
Whenthou are best in the least of company.
Probe upon the insecurities surrounding thou,
Plunge into the wilderness and bring out the flair.
So did Shakespeare and born out of the plague was King Lear.
Alleviate the ferocity of this malady through virtuosity,
He too hoisted the burden of tragedy and so did the great plays born.
Together we stand and this too shall pass.

Athira A

20 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Sonnet No: Covid 19

Invincibly contagious no sixth sense’s seventh sense could cease its
proliferation;
Not even the living Ozimandiases who intimidates to retaliate
The nation that denies the favour demanded for his nation.
The sweet Thames as it ran once, shall now run soft
Without the empty bottles, sandwich papers, cigarette ends…
Even the Holy Ganges without corpse-boats is now holy to drink.
Centuries of chain-smoking from the machineries and automobiles
temporarily ends.
Now, The-lungs-of-the-earth shall breathe out his oxygen. Think!
It takes a draught, a plague, flu, an epidemic and a pandemic to
Come out of the material intoxication and to be in pink
Hubris and hamartia you and I are Oedipuses and Macbeths too.
Curses apart it came as a blessing under a hostile cloak.
We strangled her unanimously now we are choked insidiously
It’s time for us to realize culpably while she sighs refreshingly,
deciduously.

J Azhar Mohamed

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 21

The Pandemic-caused-Pandemic Integration:
The Glorious Victory

Oh Juliet! My dearest, dearest darling; the mate to my existence,
How I miss you, your hair and your kisses!
In the sick impotence of despair, I curse the source of our separation!
Corona they say the virus is savage:
Spreads like a wild fire kills the non-immune.
Social distancing is the key;oh how intolerance grows in me!

Oh miss you, so do I! Oh Romeo! Romeo! Look around!
Generous donations! Free services, sanitizers, surgical masks;
Luxury hotels into quarantine centres turn;
Applauds, the world, the everyday heroes.
No more torture suffers the earth, no more differences hold
The humans, in the face of adversities, join hands: the glorious
victory!
Humans stratify no more shall our families fight; So Darling,
Lose the spark of impatience! Breathe smiles of consolation!
Where love fails to unite people, this pandemic does!

Sreelakshmi V S

22 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Coronavirus hits Glamis

No longer filthy but delicate is the air.
The witches have spared their victims
For they cannot play tricks- foul or fair,
Because they practice social distancing.

Hecate has sealed up pots and doors
Empty are the roads and battlements.
Duncan has decided to stay in his home
Leaving the raven to brood in silence.

Inverness stands still before the martlet
Devoid of ghosts and floating daggers.
The porter has shut down the hall of banquet
And locked the gates with a drunken stagger.

For even the Thane of Glamis has to self-quarantine
And his lady makes sure that she washes her hands clean.

Maria Viju

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 23

Coronation of the bloody dagger

Brutus on his throne sits now proudly, “Suffer thou will” - his mind said,
heart pounding faster
Caesar none but Mother Earth- Humans played king; Brutus
Plunged concrete daggers into the heart of Caesar, his creator
Cries of Mother merely an echo- the Seed of Earth marvelled at his
own deed

Take his life a six-inch piece of steel did- his ideas though lived only to
avenge
Caesar could never forget anything- wandering like a spiritless ghoul
Wars made of blood, sweat and life we fought- killing our kin and
spreading hate
Until Caesar waged a war of his own on us- across the seven seas
spread the disease
Sick are the Brutuses across the world- miserable and crying for help

Now Brutus realizes what he bid- felt each knife that Caesar did
The wounds on Mother’s back are healing, torrid smokes subsiding-
Wash Brutus’ hands he must to remove the blood he did
Human learned to love, to care, to share- and to beware
To a better future He awaits, ask Caesar to give him a new life he did
“Pray you now- forget and forgive” for the sun will rise again and
Caesar will be smiling

Sreyas Sreekumar

24 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Dearest Desdemona

The world seems gloomy and sullen;
My visage is overwhelmed with love yet I’m disheartened,
As the heart ponders for your absence,
I long for my innocent love’s sensations,
Oh, was I blessed by your loving kisses;
Yet cursed to forbid Miss’s touches.
Your crimson heart adored this rugged alien,
“How could an alluring Red rose;
Cherish a curt Cactus?”- Our love is a wonder even to the masters,
For you treasured the pearl, breaking the oyster.
I care not to lose my pride and valour,
As life without you is an orchid without its savour.

Will our heart’s beat synchronise again?
Can our love win the agony of time?

Shilpa Veeramani

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 25

Dear Ophelia

Dear Ophelia, I wish you were here
In this day of thunderous rain
This torturous solitude, I can’t bear
Doing nothing, I lie here in pain.
The country, now a desolate place
No men, no songs, no laughter
It was in you, I realise, rests my solace
But I pushed you away for a better.
Watching my thoughts and empty hand
I hear the chirp of birds in my garden
Wished, if I could swing a magic wand
And bring you here to make my Eden.
For, now the men die like flies
And the rest flee like mice.

Meriya George

26 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Shakespeare Returns

In this hour of Tempest,
Rosalind in quarantined Arden with no Celia around.
When Viola in curfew waits to propose,
Duke dreams of Puck’s love in idleness,
Sanitized hands and masked faces stop the charm.
Toby belches turmeric milk,
Desdemona replicates Strawberry masks of silk,
Caesar is out of the conspiracy,
Thosetwenty three knives missed the goal,
Social distancing, the soul goal.
Lady Macbeth and Iago in isolation wards,
Hamlet learning life from grave-diggers,
When witches prophesied to stay home,
Literature, the food of life is what makes life As You Like it!

Durga R

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 27

What Would Portia Say Today?

“The quality of mercy is not strain’d”
Beyond the threshold of these hospitals you see,
How it blesseth the noble doctor who gives
And the sickly man who takes.
It doth teach humility to the mighty capitalist,
Who sat atop his throne of stocks and shares,
The numbers of his account now powerless,
In front of the ceaseless rise of Covid death count.
Fear shackles us to our abodes,
The mercy of frontline workers our only hope,
Monarchs rich of heart arising from the middle-class mass,
Mirror images of the God who created us all.
And this unbidden force of mercy sees no enemy,
Except Death and his haunted scythe.

Eashani Chettri

28 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Nemesis

Death knocks at my door
A knight bearing news, butler serving wine
The Eunuch offering council, Herald or the maids
A different form everyday
Now what good are a thousand swords
If the enemy never sets foot in battlefield
Now what good is royal blood if this curse spares none

Planned and plotted I have
Against my foes of the future and past
Yet you deceived even the eyes of sorcery
For the very first time I taste defeat
As I look down at the reward of my sins
The prize my beloved dangled in front of me-
A kingdom writhing in pain.

Irine Maria Jimmy

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 29

Finally Shakespeare and his Pen

Caesar rejects Calpurnia’s words,ejects castle,
Strike from pathogenic sword,spreads virus abruptly;
Macduff saves life,Macbeth meets Duncan pre-battle,
Whispers secretly, “Lady Macbeth washing hands frequently.’’

Iago flashes fake news on Desdemona’s beauty and health,
Hypochondriac Othello murders Iago stopping microbe reproduction,
Hamlet strikes Minister Claudius,betraying country and looting
wealth,
Lonely Gertrude dies of germ pillory:Hamlet coughs, drop down for
sedation.

Romeo kisses Juliet; Antony hugs Cleopatra, “last wish in pandemic,”
Lear the beggar cringes for meal, three daughters isolated;
Sphere shakes; Shakespeare’s ‘corona’ never falls unacademic,
History repeats,never fails: characters of worldly stage get alerted.

Masks (not masque), sanitisers (not stages) marks thy quarantine
securing,
Finally, Shakespeare and his pen progress social distancing.

Pranav Mohan Das

30 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Covid: Shall I Contempt Thee as the
Planet’s Bane?

Shall I contempt thee as the planet’s bane?
Thou are wilier and more desperate;
Tough times do shake the beaming hearts of men,
And Covid’s curse hath all too short a fate;
Sometimes you hide the sky of human minds,
And often art his bold volitions blocked;
And everywhere from far sometimes appears,
By choice or nature’s raging curse impos’d;
But thy infernal sojourn shall sure fade,
Or lose precision of that scare thou ow’st;
Or shall death drag thou plunders by his spade,
When in miserable times to crime thou grow’st;
So long as men can fight or eyes can stare,
No longer wins thee, and this gives life to flare.

Vaishnavi Nair

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 31

A Blissful Sonnet on Tragedy

Procrastination was not new to Hamlet;
But it was to the three witches,
Who appeared whenever and wherever they felt
To create in the lives of others – glitches.

Deadly Corona held all captive inside
Including the witches, spoiling their dirty plan,
To instigate Macbeth to commit regicide;
Leaving King Duncan to live and rule as long as he can.

Quarantine averted Iago and Roderigo to conspire,
Changing forever Othello and Desdemona’s tragic marital fate;
And King Lear serving his people had no time to spare,
To ask his daughters, “Who doth love us most?” amidst the pandemic
state.

And Shakespeare in this lockdown tried to be optimistic, once and for
all
And wrote, “Maybe a tragedy could prevent greater tragedies yet to
befall.”

Annie V Verghese

32 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Taming of our Crew

Katherine never bowed to anyone,
Man lived on earth as if he was the only one.
Katherine was foul tempered and sharp tongued,
Man, was money minded and cold hearted.
Kate believed independence and intelligence were her guard,
Man didn’t believe in god rather he wanted to become god.
She attacked everyone as her temper’s need,
Man destroyed Mother Nature for money’s greed.
No longer could the creator see this, he closed his eyes on us,
Crystal crown tears fell on us, the curse; it’s the creator’s tears.
He sent Petruchio to tame the shrew,
His crystal-crown like tears is here, to tame us too.
When the schools remain ceased,
His lessons have begun through the disease.
He never hesitates to forgive twice, so now let’s realize
And answer his cries or else mankind may never rise.

A K V Kirubalakshmi

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 33

The Crowned Devil

Yet who would have thought
Procrastinating becomes better
Wait till morrow.
Strange commands, Unable to take a breath
The world has washed her hands
“Out, damned spot .”
Stay where you are
The letter is held up in Italy
Swamps spread across the valley of dreams.
Such sweet sorrow
Seriousness to maturity when all are not Desdemona.
Migration to solitude
The crowned devil with us
Content that the fault is not in our stars.

Nayana Francis K

34 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Your Cuisine has Gone ‘Viral’, Mrs Macbeth!

“Double, double flavour and smell;
Fire burns, till the mixture bubbles.
Bat’s wing, pangolin’s tail and
All the fillet you get from the store …”

Mrs Macbeth, stubborn and cool,
Relished well the recipe that noon,
Pictures of her cuisine went ‘viral’ so soon.
The phantom news was sudden:A Pandemic!

“Go Corona”- Chants rang loud, utensils banged,
Torchlights flashed, folks apprehensive.
Mrs Macbeth now frightened to death,
Sleepwalkedat night and cried “SANITIZER!”

But none went ‘viral’ in an internet age like
The little devil with its spiky shell!

T Amiya

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 35

Bard on Quarantine

The question is “to be or not to be”?
Storm howls across the globe, and the brief candle is at dark.
Oh Lady! Your words were true,
Even all the perfumes of Arabia cannot sweeten these little hands
anymore.
I didn’t slaughter anyone.
Though, my hands are impure.
Is this some weird game?
Ariel, was this the loneliness,
the seclusion that you bore, that bored you for those dozen years?
In which dungeon you locked your thoughts?
Let them be the silver lining on the gloomy clouds.

Ans Maria Xavier

36 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Corona in the Time of Shakespeare

The author is dead,
and the virus as free as his characters.

Macbeth’s lady, now everywhere
and sanitizer her perfume.

Not Hamlets but Ophelias to doubt:
‘to be or not to be’ effected.
Desdemona not to forget her kerchief around her mouth.
And Emilia, not to touch it,
even if Des decides to leave it.
No, not even when Orlando and Rosalind wish for it.
Now nothing will happen: ‘As you like it’.
And I here like that locked down Juliet, hopes:
‘All is well’ and that should all end well.

*Title inspired from the novel Love in the time of Cholera.

Haripriya T K

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 37

The Bard’s Tragedy

In worlds parallel we encountered,
The tragedies of counts and kings;
But never did they ever expected,
A pandemic that creativity brings.
For this ‘The Bard’ would’ve penned,
A play mundane to contemplate.
Spectators a million to comprehend,
Wouldn’t have understood their fate.
A bloodlust driven silence lingered,
Throughout this nature’s horizon.
Resonated the innocence covered,
With ailing planet of dead invention.
A dissolution in vain expected by all
To walk the lands before winter fall.

Akhil R Kumar

38 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Pandemic Fries, Life Cries

Everyday life has come to a halt, not only mine ...
The medicine is restless, making others fine
Traffic has taken leave with crimes in a sieve
Earth is breathing at ease listing finite deaths
Heard cries speak of unheard memorable depths
This time not of a deer in the Forest of Arden
But of the pandemic deaths in this world of ardent desires
Not many to stand by the death, because of its spread
Yet the special melancholic Jacques stood by, amidst the land of
chaos
Unable to get away from his melancholy
Pandemic fries, life cries
Is the present scenario ...

Gracias Lourdhu Arokia Sabatini

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 39

Pandemic Curse

O thou, yond loathsome my curs’d Witches people!
lo, hadst I, blunder’r, urge a bizarre king Contagion.
Macbeth,
Alas! novel Corona; ‘tis wip’d out mineth citizens, ugly wrath,
Haphazardly public hath ebb: expiry? nay! fie, tomb legion;
Wherefore art thou advanced a satanic peril? haar, hark!
Not I, a tyrant henceforth: astute incomer couldst aid the state;
How can I saveth mine own people ere the demise of lark?
Beseech thee, wise Portia of Belmont, counseleth our fate.
Aye, me, Portia, overlord! waileth not, thine sanguinary heart,
Ye, lave thy begrim’d gory hands: behold! bid thy populace
To wipeth off their beggarly hands, hie, annihilate that black art,
Abhor thee, cataclysmic Corona, decease erelong by blaze, displace;
Promulgate: social distancing and quarantine, rig’rously heed spit,
Aha, comrades! Envisage ubiquitous optimism till Corona’s obit.

Heymonth Kumar V

40 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Shakespeare - The Contemporary of
The Novel Crown

Hey You, the Bard of Avon, the Classicist,
I loathe You, for being such a pessimist.
You could’ve taught your kids love isn’t blind,
To keep eyes closed, still to see with their mind.
But I loathe You even more, for being always true.
You knew that ‘now is the winter of our discontent’,
That, now, ‘to be or not to be’ is totally our dissent.
Yet, could’ve forgiven the remorseful Lady,
For she knew that the Crown was all bloody.
You could’ve ‘cleared her of all her deeds’,
For she counted upon a little water to clean herself,
For now, it is all that really counts,
You the Universalist, could’ve let her live.

Abiya A

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 41

42 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Flash fiction

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 43

44 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Coronisation Absolved

Pitch darkness had engulfed the entire street. A thunderous storm was
pursuing Lear, but the harsh weather seemed ineffectual before the
insolence and ingratitude of Goneril and Regan. Lear wandered lonely
in search of a shelter. He finds a hut. But decides to spend that night
there to help himself from the downpour and raging storm. There he
meets a sickly man.

8 days gone by.

Goneril and Reagan were taken aback by a bizarre errand from Lear,
whom they presumed died in the bad weather. Lear through the letter
conveys his daughters of a treasure he had inherited from a dying man
whom he took care during his final moments. Avaricious ladies once
again feign love towards father and welcome him back. Lear expresses
his wish to stay with Goneril and Regan and to share the treasure between
them.

After sharing the treasure, Lear apologizes to Cordelia for disowning
her and expresses his wish to see her before death. But prevents her
from visiting him, as the treasure he inherited from the dying man and
shared between his daughters was COVID19. Lear, while assisting
Edgar who was quarantined of Corona, unknowingly contracted the
disease and advertently gifted it to his daughters who desired all that
Lear owned.

He blesses Cordelia and warns her to stay away from her sisters and
lock herself down in the French palace until the pandemic recedes.

Suryajith P S

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 45

Arabian Sanitiser

She was raiding her suite when Cassius Longinus entered into the
mess. “He has been diagnosed as brain-dead, Mrs. Macbeth.
Marcus would never have come onboard if you hadn’t persuaded
him. Thank you.”
“Well, sure. Your job is done. It is I who has to live with the guilt.”
“Pardon?”
“Something in me tells it was wrong.”
“But Mrs. Macbeth, he was shooting down all those who were
infected instead of ministering to them. He had to be stopped.”
“No. Even so, we could have jailed him up. Why did I convince Mr.
Brutus to kill him … Oh!”
She sank to her bed in desperation.
“It was inevitable. Remember, your husband will receive the reward
for your service. Were you searching for something?”
“Yes. My bottle of sanitiser. I just got back from the Theatre.”
“Here. Take mine. It’s from the Middle East. Supposed to be very
effective.”
“Oh- thank you.”
“Antony is in frenzy. God knows what he’ll do. He has gone to
address the media.”
“Do not worry, Cassius. He won’t be of trouble to you for long. I’ve
my best girl to the task.”
“Who?”
“Cleopatra.” She said as she rubbed her hands frantically.

AnittaThajudheen Jia

46 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Breaking News

“Dear viewers, we have an interesting piece of news coming in- Lady
Macbeth has become the new face of the fight against the deadly
COVID-19 after a video of hers went viral in which she is seen washing
her hands vigorously for a duration of FIFTEEN MINUTES , an act
which clearly challenges the advisory released by the health department
which asked the public to wash their hands for fifteen to twenty seconds.
The video has led to many people following her example, while a few
others accused her of spreading panic. Duke Orsino, who was earlier
reported to suffer from depression as the countrywide lockdown
prevented any contact with his beloved Olivia, tweeted in response to
the video: ‘Inspiring. Let’s keep ourselves safe so that we get to love
with a lot more passion once all of this is over. #missyouolivia’. Lady
Macbeth could not be reached for comments.”

Darsana B

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 47

Neither here nor there

‘Lord, what fools these mortals be!’ says Puck as he switches off his
phone. The Covid 19 pandemic had affected everyone and it was Puck
who got phone calls to solve each one’s problem. It was Shylock who
called first as he wonders how to get his pound of flesh without making
Antonio bleed and by keeping a distance of one metre. Brutus finds it
difficult to organize the conspiracy with Cassius and other noblemen
since grouping more than two was considered as a punishable offense.
Macbeth laments as Lady Macbeth had started to wash her hands
more than quarter of an hour since washing hands prevented virus
infection. Social distancing impedes Hamlet from getting actors to enact
‘The Mousetrap’ which would delay his revenge. Iago worries whether
lockdown would reconcile Othello and Desdemona which may spoil
his plans.
“What will I do?” utters Puck. “Even I was warned off by the officials
for wrongly pouring the juice of magic flower which created a great
commotion in the woods and paved way to breaking the lockdown
rules!!”
“Where are you Master Shakespeare?”Sighs Puck.
“Lucky that I’m dead” saysShakespeare retrieving his panoramic view
on earth.

Daniya Jose

48 Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19

Shakespearean Warriors

The witches of Hecate’s coven intimidated Macbeth about some kind
of mishap. On the same day, Titus tricks Tamora into eating a pie cooked
from her own deceased sons affected by contagious disease. She goes
to a playhouse where she sat beside Ophelia and Ophelia inherits the
disease. After a week Ophelia drowns in a river and stains the water
with the virus. The disease soon started to spread throughout. Macbeth
urged the help of finest pharmacist Friar Lawrence.But Dorothy ‘Doll’
being a brothel, he suggested them to try the medicines used to treat
venerable disease to curb the spread. King Henry ordered all the bawds,
gambling pubs and theatres to shut down but some selfish kings like
Alonso feared the spread. He left his kingdom desperately, migrated to
a deserted island and was seized by Prospero’s magical power. On the
other hand, Shylock in order to repent for his sins, transferred all his
property to the suffering people. Finally, Hamlet on seeing the grave of
Yorik understands that ‘the appearance of death is same no matter
how rich or poor you are, so instead of shedding lives in emulation and
jealous one might die in war fighting against the pandemic disease.’

Akila P S

Shakespeare in the Age of COVID-19 49