Original artwork, not a still
Measure for Measure · 1623
Thou hast nor youth nor age, but, as it were, an after-dinner’s sleep, dreaming on both.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The speaker describes a state that belongs fully to neither youth nor age. An after-dinner sleep becomes the comparison, with both stages appearing only in dreams. The image makes the experience sound drowsy and suspended, caught between two conditions without securely inhabiting either.
Context reviewed
