"Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!"

"Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" I, like so many others have been stunned by the beauty of this Shakespeare quotation, from Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo first sets eyes on his beloved. What an incredible image, where did he get it from, why exactly is it so compelling? What original genius! However, just recently I have considered an alternative possibility. Many of you will have heard of the tragic incident of a homeless woman from New Jersey deliberately burned to death on the New York subway. https://apnews.com/article/new-york-subway-burning-woman-688e2ebd46f0eb8f5c9e3430cf2b4bd5 Leaving aside the possibility that this might, indeed, have been preferable to life in New Jersey, isn't it really quite amazing how perfectly accurately this Shakespeare quotation described this woman's situation at the time? It is absolutely technically accurate, in detail, and, would have been particularly compelling in the sixteenth century, when witch burnings and the burnings of heretics were very common indeed, and when torches and candles were the only source of light after dark. Now, just before Shakespeare's birth, bloody Queen Mary was, indeed, burning heretics, male and female, rather frequently throughout England, and, one could actually smell their burning flesh on a regular basis throughout the land. So, isn't it rather likely, that Shakespeare would have heard about this, and known people would have witnessed it? And, when these unfortunate women were set alight with torches at the stake, wouldn't the fat from their burning flesh have caused the torches to flame ever more brightly? So, what could possibly be more natural, than that people would have shouted "Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" So, actually, the reason this particular passage and image in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is so compelling, is precisely, because he didn't make it up, at all. It's real! Shakespeare's just thought he could use it, and, perhaps, sanitize it a bit, for popular consumption. Indeed, I'll bet people in the audience in the sixteenth century actually laughed at it, recognizing its origins, and the reference! Of course, historians don't like this kind of thing. Historians are very socially conformist individuals, and don't like anything that confirms just how nasty, malicious and destructive human beings really are. That's why historians don't like to admit that political assassinations are often very useful indeed. Absent Leon Czolgosz' assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt might never have come to power, and necessary reforms and controls on robber baron capitalism might never have been put into place. Absent, Gavrilo Princip's assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, the Austro-Hungarian Empire might never have broken apart, and the nations making it up might never have gained their freedom, etc. So, next time you see a Shakespeare play, try to think what Shakespeare really had in mind, because, it's probably not at all what it seems, or what historians say!