So,
so; now sit: and look you eat no more
Than
will preserve just so much strength in us
As will revenge these bitter woes of
ours.
Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus Act
III, scene ii Line 1
This Titus play really keeps me on my toes. I’ve been
complaining since last August that every time we visit Titus they’re either
committing, or talking about committing, unspeakable acts. Well finally, in
this scene, they seem to be taking it a bit easy (well, they get a little crazy
going after that fly later in the scene, but we’ll give them that one). ‘Sit
and eat no more than will preserve just so much strength in us as will revenge
these bitter woes of ours.’
So what exactly is he saying here? Eat just enough to give
ourselves (and this is not the royal ‘ourselves’ that we hear in the history
plays) strength to revenge our bitter woes. The first few times I read this I
thought he was talking about dealing just with their woes, not the people who
brought about their woes. But now, I’m not so sure. Which is it? I think that
in order to understand it fully, we need to read the whole scene. Oh I know
what you’re going to say; “Not the whole scene, Pete! This is supposed to be a
line or two.” Well, to be fair, it’s only eighty-six lines, and God knows we
all need to practice our ability to concentrate on something longer that a
thirty second YouTube video. And add to that that one of the lines is ‘O, O,
O,’, and three of the lines are the three lines that are today’s Totally Random
Daily lines that you’ve already read. So we’re done to eighty-two lines already. But
I’m not going to beg you to read the lines. It’s your loss if you don’t. I read
them a few times already today. It’s really good stuff. There is just a ton
packed into this short scene.
Here, I’ll give you a super short recap/context in case you
want to read it. Brothers Titus and Marcus are sitting down to dinner with
daughter Lavinia and grandson Lucius. Two of Titus’s sons have already been
murdered and his daughter Lavinia (present at this dinner) has had her hands
chopped off and her tongue cut out. As well, Titus was tricked into chopping
off one of his own hands. There, that’s enough to get you going without getting into too much of the gory details. So it’s up to you. I’ll be giving you a picture here
one way or the other today, since I short-changed you on that part yesterday. But
first, here’s the link in the hopes that I’ve peaked your interest enough to
read it
Yes, that’s Tarzan. Even he was intrigued by today’s scene
and the fact that it didn’t contain any blood, gore, or guts. He actually came
down from the rafters to read it! Surely that should be enough to guilt you
into reading it too.
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