While walking through St Stephen’s Green (a small park in the centre of Dublin, very agreeable to the heart) I ran into a clown.
I was returning from lunch, my favorite place for lunch in Dublin is Ely’s wine bar, and I was just contemplating the different shades of melancholy and suddenly there was this clown. He was shouting: “Shakespeare for free.” His face was white, and he was wearing a green cap. But probably he was more than just a clown, he was a performer maybe an artist, given the fact that he was shouting: “Shakespeare for free.” He had no customers yet. On this beautiful Friday afternoon nobody seemed to be interested in Shakespeare for free.
I was tempted to be his first client, to tell him: “Yes I would like to have Shakespeare for free.” But my time is more valuable than my money and above all I’m a coward.
Maybe “Shakespeare for free” was a code in Dublin for cocaine or child pornography and besides that I feared that this clown would hang on to me for the next hours to come.
Given the choice between a clown who offers Shakespeare for free and melancholy I chose the melancholy and a short but intense nap.