Mojo, The Bard, & Me

By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false report of him.

Second Serving-Man

Coriolanus                                          Act IV, scene v Line 148

The third time in four days that we hit Coriolanus, so that’s kind of interesting. This line is from the scene where Coriolanus goes over to the Volscians and offers to fight with them against Rome. In the beginning of the scene no one there knows who he is and he’s trying to talk the servants into letting him into the feast so he can talk to the Volscian general Tullus Aufidius. The servants are ready to throw him out, but finally Aufidius comes out to see what’s going on and he accepts Coriolanus in. Then, left alone, the servants discuss Coriolanus and what just occurred. Today’s Totally Random line is in reference to Coriolanus. I think for his sake, it’s a good thing that Second Servant-Man hadn’t ‘strucken him with a cudgel.’ It probably would have been the last person he would ever have strucken with a cudgel or anything else for that matter.

There’s plenty of stories and songs about really tough guys who are mistaken for not so tough guys. In most of those stories someone ends up paying the price for it. In the case of today’s line, no one paid a price.

And isn't that a great word- cudgel. The modern definition says short thick stick. I'm guessing the Shakespeare glossary is something like that too. You don't hear the word cudgel too much anymore, but it's a great sounding word.

So we could get into that old judging a book by its cover thing (which, by the way, is pretty important if you’re trying to publish and sell a book. At least that’s what I hear), but that's nothing new with Will. We know very well how Will loves to use all sorts of ways to paint his characters as different from what they really are. Sometimes he does it in obvious fashion, like having Rosalind in As You Like It dress up as the man Ganymede. Sometimes it's like Coriolanus here showing up looking more like a beggar than a general. And sometimes it's much more subtle. But Will loves this kind of stuff and he's really good at it. 

A little program note here. I started a new job on Wednesday. Yes, back to the world of accounting. Now I had not been working for about a year, so it was a little easier to do this blog. But the important thing is that I'm still enjoying doing it, so we'll keep working on it and see how it goes. And as a side note I should mention that my job is about a half hour commute each way, so I intend to utilize that time to listen to some Arkangel Shakespeare in the car. Gonna start with the Richards and Henrys. One more thing; I missed my post last night not because of the new job, but because my friend was down here in my office monopolizing my PC. But you can bet that we'll be working something out so that won't be happening again. Okay, here's your pic for today. You earned it (well, it's nothing great, so don't get too excited).

These are my old cudgels. They hang in the rafters above my desk. I have a newer set of Calloway X Hots in my bag that I use on the course. I have not ever strucken anything but golf balls with my cudgels. I'd like to keep it that way.