Mojo, The Bard, & Me

My life, sir, in any case: not that I am afraid

to die; but that, my offences being many, I

would repent out the remainder of nature: let

me live, sir, in a dungeon, I’the stocks, or any

where, so I may live.

-Parolles

All’s Well That Ends Well             Act IV, scene iii  Line 241-245

Okay, this is the second time we’ve hit All’s Well That Ends Well, and this time I've given you an earful. The first time we had the King talking about not buying into the advice of medical quacks. This time we’ve apparently got some guy named Parolles trying to bargain for his life. I could have given you just a piece of this, but I thought it was better to kind of give the whole statement. Just to give you a little context, the line previous to today’s Totally Random Daily Shakespeare is First Soldier saying ‘I perceive sir, by our general’s looks, we shall be fain to hang you.’ And, well you see the response above; this is Parolles pretty much pleading for his life. So what do we do with this? Well I’m not quite sure.

To be honest, I’m a little jaded by some of the good stuff we’ve come up with in the past week or so. Macbeth, Lear, Othello! And now we’re back to this play I know nothing about. Okay, well why don’t we just see what we can do with this line without trying to get too much into the play itself.

So first off, what’s the deal with this prose? I mean, where’s the blank verse iambic pentameter? It looks like this whole play is written in prose as opposed to the famous blank verse. Also, interestingly, I notice by looking at my cheat sheet that this play was written right between writing Othello and King Lear. So Will was in his heyday at this point. I never got a satisfactory answer about why Will worked sometimes in prose and sometimes in blank verse. In some plays, Henry IV for example, he uses both within the same play, switching back and forth. I suppose at some point we’re going to have to get into this a little further. Not now.

How about we cheat and talk about the word ‘fain’. I am fain to do so. It’s actually in the lead up First Soldier’s line and not the actual Totally Random Daily Shakespeare line, but it’s a good word nonetheless. Now this word is in the Shakespeare glossary, but it’s also in the modern dictionary even though it’s noted as archaic. It simply means ‘pleased’ (as I used it a few sentences ago), or ‘obliged’ (as the First Soldier used it). This is one of those words that I’ll actually use on occasion. Yes, I get the rolling eyeballs when I use it, but what the heck. It’s a perfectly good word, and why should we be discarding vocabulary? We shouldn't! I think I’ve previously mentioned ‘whilst’ and that I would be fain to have this word be brought back into popular usage. Well 'fain' is in the same boat.

So let's get at it People. That is today’s assignment (and also as far as we're going to go with today's line). I want you to find a way to work the word ‘fain’ into a conversation today. Honest, that word is still in the dictionary. Perfectly good English. So get at it. I am fain that you do so.