Wild-goose chase – Shakespeare Speaks

It was early in the evening.
William Shakespeare is at home.
He’s expecting a visit from his actor friend Robert Harley.
Good evening, Mr Shakespeare.
Welcome, welcome Robert! Come in.
Good evening Mister Harley…
Miss Shakespeare… I’m sorry I’m late – I was out horse riding.
It was wonderful – so fast, so exciting!
Ahhh, the wild-goose chase! Take care when you race that way young Robert,
we don’t want to spoil those good looks of yours…
Why is it called a wild-goose chase? It’s a horse race! They’re not chasing geese!
Dear daughter, a wild-goose chase is indeed a kind of horse race.
The riders have to follow one horse, keeping up with him wherever he goes,
just as wild geese follow the leader when they fly.
Ohhh… I expect you kept up with him very well, Robert…!
Thank you, daughter. Now to the play: Romeo and Juliet.
Robert, you are playing Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend.
In this scene, there is a different kind of wild-goose chase.
This chase is all about words and jokes. Mercutio and Romeo are competing with each other
each of them trying to tell the cleverest and funniest jokes.
A competition of intelligence, of wits and quick thinking!
Mercutio will win, won’t he!? He is handsome – and clever!
Mercutio is indeed quick-witted, but Romeo is better – much better,
and Mercutio knows it – so he gives up this wild-goose chase
before it even starts, saying:
Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase…
Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done,
for thou hast more of the wild goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.
We’ll leave them there for now.
Endless consumerism sends us on a wild-goose chase
for happiness through materialism.
We looked for the restaurant for hours, but it was a wild-goose chase:
turned out that it closed down years ago!
So, no wild-goose chase for Mercutio.
You could chase me, though Robert…
Oh dear… to chase, or not to chase: that really isn’t a question.