"Life is a tragedy for those who feel," writes Walpole. I think he had in mind those people who are swayed by every emotional current, battered upon the rocks of despair, whisked before the eddies of hope and flung about by uncertainty and angst.

I know several such people. They are always in some kind of emotional turmoil, joyful one moment, in despair the next, never knowing what unsettling thing lies under the next wave. They are vulnerable not only to the tides of human affairs but also to every little ripple, unable to anchor themselves in the sargasso sea of water ravaged kelp.

On the other hand, Walpole writes, "but a comedy to those who think." Reasoning, thinking people look for logic and comprehensibility in their sensibilities. They understand and look for reasonable outcomes. Finding none, they see the absurdity of it all and burst into laughter. It is as it is. It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. All of the sturm und drang? It doesn't mean a thing.