Wherefore Art Thou Romeo? Traditional Cache
Wherefore Art Thou Romeo?
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Some scholars believe that Shakespeare's plays were not actually written by William Shakespeare, but by another author with the same name.
Additionally, many scholars of sixteenth century literature assert that when Juliet said “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” she meant “Nuts! Why did you have to turn out to be a Montague?” But don’t you think that if Shakespeare had meant for her to say that he’d have written her line that way? Seems clear to me that she meant "Hey dude, where are ya?"
Anybody who does much writing knows that the first draft doesn't have to be perfect; it just has to be written. After that comes editing, omitting needless words, tuning a phrase to give it more punch, making imagery more vivid, etc. Even Shakespeare, the greatest playwright in the history of the English language, pitched a lot of stuff into the waste bucket. They have been preserved for us because Christopher Marlowe, seeking inspiration (and needing to pay the bills), took a job as Shakespeare's janitor. Of interest to geocachers, these rescued fragments reveal that Billy boy was one of us. Some examples:
"To see or not to see, that is the question." (Hamlet)
"Is this a cache which I see before me?" (Macbeth)
“Lord, what fools these cachers be!” (A Midsummer Night’s dream)
“A cache! a cache! My kingdom for a cache!” (Richard III)
"Oh will all great Neptunes oceans wash this mud clean from my hands?" (Macbeth)
"Alas, poor Butcher, I knew him, Horatio." (Hamlet)
“All the world‘s a grid, and all the men and women merely seekers.” (As You Like It)
“Beware the Pides of March.” (Julius Caesar)
“We mob, we happy mob, we band of bozos;
For he to-day that scans this crud with me
Shall be a bozo; be he ne'er so mild,
This day shall rankle his disposition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That sought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.”
(Henry V – Henry’s locker room speech before an assault on Happy New Year, guardrail10)
Some references to geocaching survived editing and wound up in the final copy. Notably:
“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” (The Tempest) This is an obvious reference to team caching)
When the witches in Macbeth said, "Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble," they were clearly referring to Two of Hearts.
Shylock in The Merchant of Venice: “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” is an obvious reference to buckthorn.
“I cannot tell what the dickens his name is.” (The Merry Wives of Windsor). Some scholars believe that Shakespeare had a cognitive disorder that made it difficult for him to associate cachers’ handles with their real names, but I believe he was lamenting his inability to make out the names on a soggy log.
This cache is placed in honor of that illustrious geocaching pioneer, William Shakespeare. Now, "the cache's the thing." (Hamlet)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ebzrb pbhegrq n Pnchyrg. Lbh ner frrxvat n pncfhyrg.