 | The complete poems of S. Weir Mitchell |  |
INNOGEN
[_]
A stage direction in the old copies of “Much Ado about Nothing” is: “Enter Leonato, Governour of Messina, Innogen his wife, Hero his daughter, and Beatrice his niece, and a messenger.” As the wife of Leonato takes no part in the action, and neither speaks nor is spoken to throughout the play, she was probably no more than a character the poet had designed in his first sketch of the plot, and which he found reason to omit afterward.
Dear for unspoken words that might have been,
Compelled to silent sorrow none may share,
A ghost of Shakespeare's world, unheard, unseen,
How many more like thee have voiceless stood
Uncalled upon the threshold of his mind,
The speechless children of a mighty brood
Who were and are not! Never shall they find
The happier comrades unto whom he gave
Thought, speech, and action—they who shall not know
The end of our realities, the grave,
Nor what is sadder, life, nor any human woe.
| The complete poems of S. Weir Mitchell | |