Mojo, The Bard, & Me

O day untowardly turn’d!

O mischief strangely thwarting!

O plague right well prevented! So will you say when you have seen the sequel.

-Don Pedro/Claudio/Don John

Much Ado About Nothing                           Act III, scene ii   Line 110

A few disclaimers up front. For one, I still know next to nothing about Much Ado About Nothing. And second, these are three lines spoken in turn by those three guys listed above. I could have stuck with the one Totally Random line, but I thought the sequence was pretty cool, so I gave you three lines. No need to thank me.

Now then, not knowing anything won’t stop me from giving you a little context. Maybe you think it should stop me, but it won’t.

Apparently Don John is the bad guy in this play, but remember, it’s a comedy, so he probably won’t be showing up with any severed heads. And that’s a relief! In any event it turns out that Don John (I can’t help but think of Don Johnson when I say Don John, but I don’t think it’s the same guy) has concocted some scheme where he’s going to make it look like Claudio’s fiancé, Hero, is cheating on him. Yes, that’s right, Claudio’s girlfriend/fiancé is named Hero. But let’s leave that one alone for now. So Don Johnson has told these two (I believe Don Pedro is friends to both of them) that Hero has men sneaking in her bedroom window at night. Unbeknownst to these two guys, Don John (see, I started to type Johnson there) has arranged for someone to be sneaking in the window tonight and he’s just talked these guys into going there tonight to spy on Hero. And today’s Totally Random lines is what each of them says as the scene ender.

Now if you haven’t realized by now, Will’s works (especially the comedies) are chock full of these deception/mistaken scenarios. I think the folks who did the writing for Three’s Company back in the seventies/eighties must have been avid Shakespeareans. But anyway, the line, the line.

So today’s Totally Random line is Claudio. And he’s the one who just found out that the woman he’s supposed to marry is cheating on him. And he say’s O mischief strangely thwarting! That seems like a pretty funny thing to say. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be funny, but maybe it was. This is, after all, a comedy. But it kind of seems like the right thing to say as well. His fiancé cheating on him certainly qualifies as mischief. And apparently he feels that this will thwart their relationship, or the wedding. And strange? Well yeah, if he’s not expecting it you could say it’s strange. So I guess it’s a pretty apt response if you stop and think about it. Right? And a lot more specific to the situation than just ‘Son of a bitch!’ or something like that.

I dunno, but I think this crew could cause some strangely thwarting mischief; especially that little guy in the plaid shirt in the front. I wonder if they’re dressed in that gay apparel ‘gainst the triumph-day? (see 10/4 post)