Some Shakespeare Quotations for Linden Lab

Location: Virtual Globe Theater

The Lab will have an even harder time winning back disaffected educators and non-profits if they let The Virtual Globe Theater close.

Here's hoping that the CEO will let Ina Centaur have access to her account again. As "nexus burbclave" pointed out at New World Notes, the treatment of debtors by the Lab is Kafkaesque. Centaur does owe the Lab a great deal of money, but one wonders about the PR value of magnanimity from the godlike powers in-world? Even one month's extension of the death penalty?

Be wary of portents, otherwise, Linden Lab. You'll get all the academics hauling out their Riverside Shakespeares for appropriate quotations. Here are a few about those who dwell overmuch on money:

• Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that; You take my house, when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house; you take my life, When you do take the means whereby I live.  Shylock, Act IV, scene i, The Merchant of Venice.
• Thus do I ever make my fool my purse. Iago, Act I, scene iii, Othello.

And of the foolish decisions by those in power:

• I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.  King Richard, Act V, scene v, Richard II.
• Men’s judgments are a parcel of their fortunes; and things outward do draw the inward quality after them, to suffer all alike.  Enobarbus, Act III, scene xiii, Antony & Cleopatra.
• As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods, — They kill us for their sport. Gloucester, Act IV, scene i, King Lear.

Of course, Mr. Humble and Linden Lab, Ms. Centaur owes you money. She needs to pay it. But wouldn't it be better to work out a deal and give her a reprieve for a few weeks, before deleting her avatar's accounts? Shakespeare's plays contain a great deal of forgiveness and mercy. And remember:

• All's well that ends well; still the fine's the crown; Whate'er the course, the end is the renown. Helena, Act IV, scene iv, All's Well that Ends Well.