Since I is an engineer (properly prounced with a hard “g”), I thought I’d feature Engineers in Literature.
This feature was inspired by the entry in Jesse’s Word of the Day for “hoist on one’s own petard”.
A selection from Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4, as formatted by The Tech at MIT:
The scene thus far: Hamlet has just rebuked Quene Gertrude for her incestuous relations with the King.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me.
HAMLET
I must to England; you know that?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alack, I had forgot: ‘tis so concluded on.
HAMLET
There’s letters seal‘d: and my two schoolfellows, Whom I will trust as I will adders fang‘d, They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, And marshal me to knavery. Let it work; For ‘tis the sport to have the engineer Hoist with his own petard: and ‘t shall go hard But I will delve one yard below their mines, And blow them at the moon: O, ‘tis most sweet, When in one line two crafts directly meet. This man shall set me packing: I’ll lug the guts into the neighbour room. Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor Is now most still, most secret and most grave, Who was in life a foolish prating knave. Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you. Good night, mother.
Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS
What engineers suffered such a fate? The unlucky Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, as revealed later. Or consider another fine point of view.
HTML rendition of the Bard from The Tech at MIT. Reproduced with permission.