Today’s Totally Random
Lines
Yet
this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt
Till
my bad angel fire my good one out.
Sonnet
144 concluding
couplet
Well, since this is the concluding couplet, I
had thought that we might as well take a look at the whole sonnet, and to do it
one quatrain at a time. But to tell you the truth, as I typed the whole
sonnet out, I came across something more interesting: better angel. And since
the whole sonnet is fairly difficult - scratch that: damned near impossible - to
work with, why don’t we just take a look at better angel.
Will mentions
this angel in the first quatrain.
Two loves
I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colour’d ill.
Then
he makes reference to this better angel
again in the last line of the sonnet.
Till my
bad angel fire my good one out.
My good one in this last line is
his better
angel, though I’m not sure
what it means to have his bad angel fire my good one out.
In
any event, the better angels of our nature is a term made very famous by
Abraham Lincoln in his first inaugural address. I knew it was Lincoln, but I
had to look up to find out exactly where he said it.
The
mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely as they will
be, by the better angels of our nature.
These
better
angels of our nature have been referred to time and time again by
speakers and writers. And the credit has always been given to Abe for creating ‘better
angels’.
It’s a fine quote, and Abe was a wonderful writer and speaker,
and I would love to give him credit, however…
I
would be remiss if I failed to point out that Abe, whilst a great writer and
speaker, was also a great lover of, and reader of - you guessed it - William
Shakespeare. It’s quite well documented. So, whilst Abe is given credit for better
angels, I have to believe that consciously or not, he didn’t quite make
the term up.
Yup, it’s Will’s.
Am
I your better-
Yes Mojo,
you are certainly my better angel.