Pope
John Paul II made history in 1978 by becoming the first non-Italian pope in
more than 400 years.
“As the family goes, so goes the
nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live.”
—John Paul II
Pope
John Paul II was born Karol Józef Wojtyla on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland.
He was ordained in 1946, became the bishop of Ombi in 1958, and became the
archbishop of Krakow in 1964. He was made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1967,
and in 1978 became the first non-Italian pope in more than 400 years. He was a
vocal advocate for human rights and used his influence to effect political
change. He died in Italy in 2005. It was announced in July of 2013 that he
would be declared a saint in April of the following year.
Early Life
Born
Karol Józef Wojtyla on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland, Pope John Paul II's
early life was marked by great loss. His mother died when he was 9 years old,
and his older brother Edmund died when he was 12
.
Growing
up, John Paul was athletic and enjoyed skiing and swimming. He went to Krakow's
Jagiellonian University in 1938 where he showed an interest in theater and
poetry. The school was closed the next year by Nazi troops during the German
occupation of Poland. Wanting to become a priest, John Paul began studying at a
secret seminary run by the archbishop of Krakow. After World War II ended, he
finished his religious studies at a Krakow seminary and was ordained in 1946.
Rise Within the Church
John
Paul spent two years in Rome where he finished his doctorate in theology. He
returned to his native Poland in 1948 and served in several parishes in and
around Krakow. John Paul became the bishop of Ombi in 1958 and then the
archbishop of Krakow six years later. Considered one of the Catholic Church's
leading thinkers, he participated in the Second Vatican Council—sometimes
called Vatican II. The council began reviewing church doctrine in 1962, holding
several sessions over the course of the next few years. As a member of the
council, John Paul helped the church to examine its position in the world. Well
regarded for his contributions to the church, John Paul was made a cardinal in
1967 by Pope Paul VI.
Becoming Pope
In
1978, John Paul made history by becoming the first non-Italian pope in more
than four hundred years. As the leader of the Catholic Church, he traveled the
world, visiting more than 100 countries to spread his message of faith and
peace. But he was close to home when he faced the greatest threat to his life.
In 1981, an assassin shot John Paul twice in St. Peter's Square in Vatican
City. Fortunately, he was able to recover from his injuries and later forgave
his attacker.
Legacy
A
vocal advocate for human rights, John Paul often spoke out about suffering in
the world. He held strong positions on many topics, including his opposition to
capital punishment. A charismatic figure, John Paul used his influence to bring
about political change and is credited with the fall of communism in his native
Poland. He was not without critics, however. Some have stated that he could be
harsh with those who disagreed with him and that he would not compromise his
hard-line stance on certain issues, such as contraception.
In
his later years, John Paul's health appeared to be failing. At public
appearances, he moved slowly and seemed unsteady on his feet. He also visibly
trembled at times. One of his doctors also disclosed that John Paul had
Parkinson's disease, a brain disorder often characterized by shaking, in 2001.
But there was never any official announcement about his illness from the
Vatican.
John
Paul II died on April 2, 2005, at the age of 84, at his Vatican City residence.
More than 3 million people waited in line to say good-bye to their beloved
religious leader at St. Peter's Basilica before his funeral on April 8.
On
July 5, 2013, waving the usual five-year waiting period, the Vatican announced
that the Roman Catholic Church would declare Pope John Paul II a saint, and
that the canonization ceremony would likely take place within the next 16
months. The Vatican also stated that Pope John XXIII, who headed the Catholic
Church from 1958 until his death in 1963 and convened the Vatican II council,
would also be declared a saint.
On
September 30, 2013, Pope Francis announced that the canonizations of Pope John
Paul II and Pope John XXIII would occur on April 27, 2014. The announcement of
Pope John Paul II's canonization came after the Vatican revealed that two
miracles were attributed to the late pope. After a dying French nun, Sister
Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, prayed to Pope John Paul II for during her battle
with Parkinson's disease—the same illness that killed the pope—she was cured.
The second miracle involved a 50-year-old woman, who claimed that she was cured
of a brain aneurysm after a photograph of Pope John Paul II spoke to her.
The
official sainthood ceremony, held on April 27, 2014, brought together four
popes. Pope Francis led the event to elevate Pope John Paul II and Pope John
XXIII to sainthood, which was also attended by Francis's predecessor Emeritus
Pope Benedict.
Actress Marilyn Monroe overcame a
difficult childhood to become one of the world's biggest and most enduring sex
symbols. She died of a drug overdose in 1962.
Actress Marilyn Monroe was born as
Norma Jeane Mortensen on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, California. During her
all-too-brief life, Marilyn Monroe overcame a difficult childhood to become one
of the world's biggest and most enduring sex symbols. During her career, Monroe's
films grossed more than $200 million. Monroe died of a drug overdose on August
5, 1962, at only 36 years old.
Early Life
Marilyn Monroe was born as Norma Jeane
Mortensen (later baptized as Norma Jeane Baker) on June 1, 1926, in Los
Angeles, California. During her all-too-brief life, Marilyn Monroe overcame a
difficult childhood to become one of the world's biggest and most enduring sex
symbols. She never knew her father, and once thought Clark Gable to be her
father—a story repeated often enough for a version of it to gain some currency.
However, there's no evidence that Gable ever met or knew Monroe's mother,
Gladys, who developed psychiatric problems and was eventually placed in a
mental institution. As an adult, Monroe would maintain that one of her earliest
memories was of her mother trying to smother her in her crib with a pillow.
Monroe had a half-sister, to whom she was not close; they met only a half-dozen
times.
Growing up, Monroe spent much of her
time in foster care and in an orphanage. In 1937, a family friend and her
husband, Grace and Doc Goddard, took care of Monroe for a few years. The
Goddards were paid $25 weekly by Monroe's mother to raise her. The couple was
deeply religious and followed fundamentalist doctrines; among other prohibited
activities, Monroe was not allowed to go to the movies. But when Doc's job was
transferred in 1942 to the East Coast, the couple could not afford to bring
Monroe with them.
At 7 years old, Monroe returned to a
life in foster homes, where she was on several occasions sexually assaulted;
she later said that she had been raped when she was 11 years old. But she had
one way out—get married. She wed her boyfriend Jimmy Dougherty on June 19,
1942, at the age of 16. By that time, Monroe had dropped out of high school
(age 15). A merchant marine, Dougherty was later sent to the South Pacific.
Monroe went to work in a munitions factory in Burbank, California, where she
was discovered by a photographer. By the time Dougherty returned in 1946,
Monroe had a successful career as a model, and had changed her name to Marilyn
Monroe in preparation for an acting career. She dreamt of becoming an actress
like Jean Harlow and Lana Turner.
Famed Career
Monroe's marriage to Dougherty fizzled
out as she focused more on her career. The couple divorced in 1946—the same
year that Monroe signed her first movie contract. With the movie contract came
a new name and image; she began calling herself "Marilyn Monroe" and
dyed her hair blonde. But her acting career didn't really take off until the
1950s. Her small part in John Huston's crime drama The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
garnered her a lot of attention. That same year, she impressed audiences and
critics alike with her performance as Claudia Caswell in All About Eve,
starring Bette Davis. She would soon become one of Hollywood's most , about
Monroe's relationship with Sir Laurence Olivier in 1957's The Prince and the
Showgirl.
She would soon become one of
Hollywood's most famous actresses; though she wasn't initially considered to be
star acting material, she later proved her skill by winning various honors and
attracting large audiences to her films.
In 1953, Monroe made a star-making
turn in Niagara, starring as a young married woman out to kill her husband with
help from her lover. The emerging sex symbol was paired with another bombshell,
Jane Russell, for the musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). The film
was a hit and Monroe continued to find success in a string of light comedic
fare, such as How to Marry a Millionaire with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall,
There's No Business like Show Business (1954) with Ethel Merman and Donald
O'Connor, and The Seven Year Itch (1955).
With her breathy voice and hourglass
figure, Monroe became a much-admired international star, despite her chronic
insecurities regarding her acting abilities. Monroe suffered from
pre-performance anxiety that sometimes made her physically ill and was often
the root cause of her legendary tardiness on films sets, which was so extreme
that it often infuriated her co-stars and crew. "She would be the greatest
if she ran like a watch," director Billy Wilder once said of her. "I
have an aunt Minnie who's very punctual, but who would pay to see Aunt Minnie?"
Throughout her career, Monroe was signed and released from several contracts
with film studios.
Tired of bubbly, dumb blonde roles,
Monroe moved to New York City to study acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actors'
Studio. She returned to the screen in the dramatic comedy Bus Stop (1956),
playing a saloon singer kidnapped by a rancher who has fallen in love with her.
She received mostly praise for her performance.
In 1959, Monroe returned to familiar
territory with the wildly popular comedy Some Like It Hot, with Jack Lemmon and
Tony Curtis. She played Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, a singer who hopes to marry a
millionaire in this humorous film, in which Lemmon and Curtis pretend to be
women. They are on the run from the mob after witnessing the St. Valentine's
Day Massacre and hide out with an all-girl orchestra featuring Monroe. Her work
on the film earned her the honor of "Best Actress in a Comedy" in
1959, at Golden Globe Awards.
Reunited with John Huston, Monroe
starred opposite Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift in The Misfits (1961). Set in
Nevada, this adventure drama features Monroe, who falls for Gable's cowboy but
battles him over the fate of some wild mustangs. This was her last completed
film.
In 1962, Monroe was dismissed from
Something's Got to Give—also starring Dean Martin—for missing so many days of
filming. According to an article in The New York Times, the actress claimed
that the absences were due to illness. Martin declined to make the film without
her, so the studio shelved the picture.
At the time, Monroe's professional and
personal life seemed to be in turmoil. Her last two films, Let's Make Love
(1960) and The Misfits (1961) were box office disappointments.
In her personal life, she had a string
of unsuccessful marriages and relationships. Her 1954 marriage to baseball
great Joe DiMaggio only lasted nine months (she wed playwright Arthur Miller
from 1956 to 1961).
On May 19, 1962, Monroe made her
now-famous performance at John F. Kennedy's birthday celebration, singing
"Happy Birthday, Mr. President."
Death and Legacy
On August 5, 1962, at only 36 years
old, Marilyn Monroe died at her Los Angeles home. An empty bottle of sleeping
pills was found by her bed. There has been some speculation over the years that
she may have been murdered, but the cause of her death was officially ruled as
a drug overdose. There have been rumors that Monroe was involved with President
John F. Kennedy and/or his brother Robert around the time of her death.
Monroe was buried in her favorite Emilio
Pucci dress, in what was known as a "Cadillac casket"—the most
high-end casket available, made of heavy-gauge solid bronze and lined with
champagne-colored silk. Lee Strasberg delivered a eulogy before a small group
of friends and family. Hugh Hefner bought the crypt directly next to Monroe's,
and Monroe's ex-husband, Joe DiMaggio, famously had red roses delivered to her
crypt for the next 20 years.
Monroe did not own a house until the
last year of her life, and had surprisingly few possessions. One that she
prized was an autographed photo of Albert Einstein, which included an
inscription: "To Marilyn, with respect and love and thanks."
During her career, Marilyn Monroe's
films grossed more than $200 million. Today, she is still considered the
world's most popular icon of sex appeal and beauty, and is remembered for her
idiosyncratic sense of humor and sly wit; once asked by a reporter what she
wore to bed, she replied, "Chanel Number 5." On another occasion, she
was asked what she thought of Hollywood. "If I close my eyes and think of
Hollywood, all I see is one big varicose vein," she replied. Monroe is
also remembered for her romantic relationships with Marlon Brando, Frank
Sinatra, Yves Montand and director Elia Kazan, in addition to her three
marriages.
Monroe has been imitated over the
years by a number of celebrities, including Madonna, Lady Gaga and Gwen
Stefani. Actress Michelle Williams portrayed Monroe ina 2011 film, My Week with
Marilyn, about Monroe's relationship with Sir Laurence Olivier in 1957's The
Prince and the Showgirl.
In 2011, several rarely seen photos of
Marilyn Monroe were published in a book of photographs by famed photographer
Sam Shaw. August 5, 2012 marked the 50th anniversary of Monroe's death. Now
more than a half century later, the world is still fascinated by her beauty and
talent.
Ludwig van Beethoven was a deaf German
composer and the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between
the Classical and Romantic eras.
Composer Ludwig van Beethoven was
baptized on December 17, 1770, in Bonn, Germany. He was an innovator, widening
the scope of sonata, symphony, concerto and quartet, and combining vocals and
instruments in a new way. His personal life was marked by a struggle against
deafness, and some of his most important works were composed during the last 10
years of his life, when he was quite unable to hear.
Early Years
Composer and pianist Ludwig Van
Beethoven, widely considered the greatest composer of all time, was born on or
about December 16, 1770 in the city of Bonn in the Electorate of Cologne, a
principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Although his exact date of birth is
uncertain, Beethoven was baptized on December 17, 1770.
Since as a matter of law and custom,
babies were baptized within 24 hours of birth, December 16 is his most likely
birthdate. However, Beethoven himself mistakenly believed that he was born two
years later, in 1772, and he stubbornly insisted on the incorrect date even
when presented with official papers that proved beyond any reasonable doubt
that 1770 was his true birth year.
Beethoven had two younger brothers who
survived into adulthood, Caspar, born in 1774, and Johann, born in 1776.
Beethoven's mother, Maria Magdalena van Beethoven, was a slender, genteel, and
deeply moralistic woman. His father, Johann van Beethoven, was a mediocre court
singer better known for his alcoholism than any musical ability. However,
Beethoven's grandfather, godfather and namesake, Kapellmeister Ludwig van
Beethoven, was Bonn's most prosperous and eminent musician, a source of endless
pride for young Ludwig.
Sometime between the births of his two
younger brothers, Beethoven's father began teaching him music with an
extraordinary rigor and brutality that affected him for the rest of his life.
Neighbors provided accounts of the small boy weeping while he played the
clavier, standing atop a footstool to reach the keys, his father beating him
for each hesitation or mistake.
On a near daily basis, Beethoven was
flogged, locked in the cellar and deprived of sleep for extra hours of
practice. He studied the violin and clavier with his father as well as taking
additional lessons from organists around town. Whether in spite of or because
of his father's draconian methods, Beethoven was a prodigiously talented
musician from his earliest days and displayed flashes of the creative
imagination that would eventually reach farther than any composer's before or
since.
Hoping that his young son would be
recognized as a musical prodigy à la Mozart, Beethoven's father arranged his
first public recital for March 26, 1778. Billed as a "little son of six
years," (Mozart's age when he debuted for Empress Maria Theresia) although
he was in fact seven, Beethoven played impressively but his recital received no
press whatsoever. Meanwhile, the musical prodigy attended a Latin grade school
named Tirocinium, where a classmate said, "Not a sign was to be
discovered& of that spark of genius which glowed so brilliantly in him
afterwards."
Beethoven, who struggled with sums and
spelling his entire life, was at best an average student, and some biographers
have hypothesized that he may have had mild dyslexia. As he put it himself,
"Music comes to me more readily than words." In 1781, at the age of
10, Beethoven withdrew from school to study music full time with Christian
Gottlob Neefe, the newly appointed Court Organist. Neefe introduced Beethoven
to Bach, and at the age of twelve Beethoven published his first composition, a
set of piano variations on a theme by an obscure classical composer named
Dressler.
By 1784, his alcoholism worsening and
his voice decaying, Beethoven's father was no longer able to support his
family, and Ludwig van Beethoven formally requested an official appointment as
Assistant Court Organist. Despite his youth, his request was accepted, and
Beethoven was put on the court payroll with a modest annual salary of 150
florins.
In an effort to facilitate his musical
development, in 1787 the court decided to send Beethoven to Vienna to study
with Mozart. Upon his arrival, Beethoven auditioned for Mozart and the great
composer remarked, "Keep your eyes on him; some day he will give the world
something to talk about." However, only a few weeks after he arrived in
Vienna, Beethoven learned that his mother had fallen desperately ill, and he
immediately rushed home to Bonn. She died several months later, sending her son
into a fit of depression that lasted several years. Remaining in Bonn, Beethoven
continued to carve out his reputation as the city's most promising young court
musician.
When the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II
died in 1790, a 19-year-old Beethoven received the immense honor of composing a
musical memorial in his honor. For reasons that remain unclear, Beethoven's
composition was never performed, and most assumed the young musician had proven
unequal to the task. However, more than a century later, Johannes Brahms
discovered that Beethoven had in fact composed a "beautiful and noble"
piece of music entitled Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II. It is now
considered his earliest masterpiece.
Composing for
Audiences
In 1792, with French revolutionary
forces sweeping across the Rhineland into the Electorate of Cologne, Beethoven
decided to leave his hometown for Vienna once again. Mozart had passed away a
year earlier, leaving Joseph Haydn as the unquestioned greatest composer alive.
Haydn was living in Vienna at the
time, and it was with Haydn that the young Beethoven now intended to study. As
his friend and patron Count Waldstein wrote in a farewell letter,
"Mozart's genius mourns and weeps over the death of his disciple. It found
refuge, but no release with the inexhaustible Haydn; through him, now, it seeks
to unite with another. By means of assiduous labor you will receive the spirit
of Mozart from the hands of Haydn."
In Vienna, Beethoven dedicated himself
wholeheartedly to musical study with the most eminent musicians of the age. He
studied piano with Haydn, vocal composition with Antonio Salieri and
counterpoint with Johann Albrechtsberger. Not yet known as a composer,
Beethoven quickly established a reputation as a virtuoso pianist who was
especially adept at improvisation.
Beethoven won many patrons among the
leading citizens of the Viennese aristocracy, who provided him with lodging and
funds, allowing Beethoven, in 1794, to sever ties with the Electorate of
Cologne. Beethoven made his long-awaited public debut in Vienna on March 29,
1795. Although there is considerable debate over which of his early piano
concerti he performed that night, most scholars believe he played what is known
as his "first" piano concerto in C Major. Shortly thereafter,
Beethoven decided to publish a series of three piano trios as his "Opus
1," which were an enormous critical and financial success.
In the first spring of the new
century, on April 2, 1800, Beethoven debuted his Symphony No. 1 in C major at
the Royal Imperial Theater in Vienna. Although Beethoven would grow to detest
the piece -- "In those days I did not know how to compose," he later
remarked -- the graceful and melodious symphony nevertheless established him as
one of Europe's most celebrated composers.
As the new century progressed,
Beethoven composed piece after piece that marked him as a masterful composer
reaching his musical maturity. His "Six String Quartets," published
in 1801, demonstrate complete mastery of that most difficult and cherished of
Viennese forms developed by Mozart and Haydn. Beethoven also composed The
Creatures of Prometheus in 1801, a wildly popular ballet that received 27 performances
at the Imperial Court Theater.
Around this time Beethoven, like all
of Europe, watched with a mixture of awe and terror as Napoleon Bonaparte
proclaimed himself First Consul, and later Emperor, of France. Beethoven
admired, abhorred and, to an extent, identified with Napoleon a man of
seemingly superhuman capabilities, only one year older than himself and also of
obscure birth.
In 1804, only weeks after Napoleon
proclaimed himself Emperor, Beethoven debuted his Symphony No. 3 in Napoleon's honor.
Later renamed the "Eroica Symphony" because Beethoven grew
disillusioned with Napoleon, it was his grandest and most original work to date
-- so unlike anything heard before that through weeks of rehearsal, the
musicians could not figure out how to play it. A prominent reviewer proclaimed
Eroica, "one of the most original, most sublime, and most profound
products that the entire genre of music has ever exhibited."
Losing Hearing
At the same time as he was composing
these great and immortal works, Beethoven was struggling to come to terms with
a shocking and terrible fact, one that he tried desperately to conceal. He was
going deaf. By the turn of the century, Beethoven struggled to make out the
words spoken to him in conversation.
Beethoven revealed in a
heart-wrenching 1801 letter to his friend Franz Wegeler, "I must confess
that I lead a miserable life. For almost two years I have ceased to attend any
social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people: I am
deaf. If I had any other profession, I might be able to cope with my infirmity;
but in my profession it is a terrible handicap." At times driven to
extremes of melancholy by his affliction, Beethoven described his despair in a
long and poignant note that he concealed his entire life.
Dated October 6, 1802 and referred to
as "The Heiligenstadt Testament," it reads in part, "O you men
who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do
you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to
you and I would have ended my life -- it was only my art that held me back. Ah,
it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I
felt was within me."
Almost miraculously, despite his
rapidly progressing deafness, Beethoven continued to compose at a furious pace.
From 1803-1812, what is known as his "middle" or "heroic"
period, he composed an opera, six symphonies, four solo concerti, five string
quartets, six string sonatas, seven piano sonatas, five sets of piano
variations, four overtures, four trios, two sextets and 72 songs. The most
famous among these were symphonies No. 3-8, the "Moonlight Sonata,"
the "Kreutzer" violin sonata and Fidelio, his only opera. In terms of
the astonishing output of superlatively complex, original and beautiful music,
this period in Beethoven's life is unrivaled by any of any other composer in
history.
Despite his extraordinary output of
beautiful music, Beethoven was lonely and frequently miserable throughout his adult
life. Short-tempered, absent-minded, greedy and suspicious to the point of
paranoia, Beethoven feuded with his brothers, his publishers, his housekeepers,
his pupils and his patrons. In one illustrative incident, Beethoven attempted
to break a chair over the head of Prince Lichnowsky, one of his closest friends
and most loyal patrons. Another time he stood in the doorway of Prince
Lobkowitz's palace shouting for all to hear, "Lobkowitz is a donkey!"
For a variety of reasons that included
his crippling shyness and unfortunate physical appearance, Beethoven never
married or had children. He was, however, desperately in love with a married
woman named Antonie Brentano. Over the course of two days in July of 1812,
Beethoven wrote her a long and beautiful love letter that he never sent.
Addressed "to you, my Immortal Beloved," the letter said in part,
"My heart is full of so many things to say to you -- ah -- there are
moments when I feel that speech amounts to nothing at all -- Cheer up -- remain
my true, my only love, my all as I am yours."
The death of Beethoven's brother
Caspar in 1815 sparked one of the great trials of his life, a painful legal
battle with his sister-in-law, Johanna, over the custody of Karl van Beethoven,
his nephew and her son. The struggle stretched on for seven years during which
both sides spewed ugly defamations at the other. In the end, Beethoven won the
boy's custody, though hardly his affection.
Acclaimed Works
and Death
Somehow, despite his tumultuous
personal life, physical infirmity and complete deafness, Beethoven composed his
greatest music -- perhaps the greatest music ever composed -- near the end of
his life. His greatest late works include Missa Solemnis, a mass that debuted
in 1824 and is considered among his finest achievements, and String Quartet No.
14, which contains seven linked movements played without a break.
Beethoven's Ninth and final symphony,
completed in 1824, remains the illustrious composer's most towering
achievement. The symphony's famous choral finale, with four vocal soloists and
a chorus singing the words of Friedrich Schiller's poem "Ode to Joy,"
is perhaps the most famous piece of music in history.
While connoisseurs delighted in the
symphony's contrapuntal and formal complexity, the masses found inspiration in
the anthem-like vigor of the choral finale and the concluding invocation of
"all humanity."
Beethoven died on March 26, 1827, at
the age of 56. An autopsy revealed that the immediate cause of death was
post-hepatitic cirrhosis of the liver. The autopsy also provided clues to the
origins of his deafness. While his quick temper, chronic diarrhea and deafness
are consistent with arterial disease, a competing theory traces Beethoven's
deafness to contracting typhus in the summer of 1796.
Recently, scientists analyzing a
remaining fragment of Beethoven's skull noticed high levels of lead and
hypothesized lead poisoning as a potential cause of death, but that theory has
been largely discredited.
Ludwig van Beethoven is widely
considered the greatest composer of all time. He is the crucial transitional
figure connecting the Classical and Romantic ages of Western music. Beethoven's
body of musical compositions stands with Shakespeare's plays at the outer
limits of human accomplishment.
And the fact Beethoven composed his
most beautiful and extraordinary music while deaf is an almost superhuman feat
of creative genius, perhaps only paralleled in the history of artistic
achievement by John Milton writing Paradise Lost while blind. Summing up his
life and imminent death during his last days, Beethoven, who was never as
eloquent with words as he was with music, borrowed a tag line that concluded
many Latin plays at the time. "Plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est,"
he said. "Applaud friends, the comedy is over."