One of the most enduring sayings that comes to us from Shakespeare is “All that glisters [glitters] is not gold / Often have you heard that told.” This couplet from Act 2, Scene 7 of The Merchant of Venice (read it here) is, indeed, oft-told and has a life of its own independent of the source material.
Capturing that interplay between appearance and reality, the statement rings true across countless circumstances in our everyday lives. And though brief, the notion that “all that glitters is not gold” manages to sum up a range of complex situations across Shakespeare’s plays. This theme appears in the romantic misunderstandings of comedies such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Here, fairy queen Titania falls under a spell and believes herself to be in love with a man with the head of a donkey. But that tension between expectation and actuality also underlies tragedies like Macbeth, in which promises of power and glory lead only to murder and madness.
This summer, perhaps you can ask your students to reflect gently on moments or opportunities that had seemed to be one thing but were in fact another. What did they learn from that, and what will they do differently in the future? But most importantly, be sure to include a follow-up question: what about something that at first seemed grim but proved to be glittery? Perhaps it was a part they did not want to play but ended up loving; or even a feeling of stage fright or worry over learning lines that they were able to overcome. As Shakespeare, and the experience of performing Shakespeare, teaches us: all that glitters is not gold, and we can never tell what hidden treasures may come to light.