While not exactly a masterpiece, the following piece combines two of my favorite things: Shakespeare and limericks.
There once was a depressing young Dane.
It appeared he was wholly insane,
But he’d planned to seem mad
While avenging his dad
Who[m] his evil old uncle had slain.
a limerick by Paul Burgess
Hamlet [5.1.198-205]
Hamlet:
Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander
returneth to dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make
loam; and why of that loam whereto he was converted
might they not stop a beer barrel?
Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.
O, that that earth which kept the world in awe
Should patch a wall t’ expel the winter’s flaw!
4.3.26-30 [King=K, Hamlet=H]
H: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a
king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
K: What dost thou mean by this?
H:
Nothing but to show you how a king may go a
progress through the guts of a beggar.
Miscellaneous Inanities 