But to
the court!
-Countess
All’s Well That Ends Well Act
II, scene ii Line 6
But to the court!
This is being said by the Countess to the clown. Yes, another clown. Between
severed heads and clowns. I know, I still can’t get past that severed head
thing. But really, clowns?
Anyway this clown and the countess are having a bit of a
nonsensical conversation. Nonsensical and yet you know it has meaning, because
Shakespeare wrote it. It’s another one of those back and forths that you need
to read a few times, and you need to read it out loud. Or even better, see (or
at least hear) it performed (which I have done neither). But we can look at
just a few lines and you can see if you can get the meaning. We’ll start with
the beginning of the scene, since we’re almost there with today’s line. The
countess says, ‘Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of your
breeding.’ The clown replies, ‘I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught:
I know my business is but to the court.’ The countess replies, ‘To the court!
Why, what place make you special, when you put off that with such contempt? But
to the court!’ And that last part is today’s Totally Random line.
This will be a record short post because, to be honest, I don't really know much about this play, or this line. And also I'm not all that interested in this particular line. It just doesn't have that much going for it. I think it's only natural that I come across some lines like this, all things considered. There are some that we've had that have been just amazing, some that have been perfectly serviceable, and a few, like this one, that I really don't feel that I can do much with. So I'm going to let this one go. I'm a little more optimistic about tomorrow's line. It'll be from Henry V. See you then!
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