For
treason is but trusted like the fox,
Who,
ne’er so tame, so cherisht, and lockt up,
Will
have a wild trick of his ancestors.
Earl of Worcester
King Henry The Fourth Part I Act
V, Scene ii Line 10
Today we have hit upon a line that could easily have been
picked unrandomly. Ay sooth, I suppose that unrandomly is not a word. But
nevertheless…
I say that about today’s line because it’s a saying that can
be used in any number of situations (especially within Will’s realm). So it’s
not like those lines that are just part of a larger conversation and really
don’t stand on their own; like yesterday’s line and for that matter like the
majority of the stuff that we come up with randomly. So it’s a good line and
its purpose is to explain a characteristic, in general terms, of treason, and
it does so by talking about a fox. The Earl of Worcester is saying that unless
the fox is tamed and locked up he’s gonna be a fox and he’s gonna eat that chicken. So nobody’s gonna
trust a fox. And once a loyal subject (such as himself) has been treasonous, no king is gonna
trust that subject again. So they’re kind of screwed.
Now granted, treason doesn’t actually come up all that much
in modern day to day living. But the simpler, more pedestrian form of treason,
let’s call it betrayal, does. It’s pretty easy to betray someone’s trust or to
have your own trust betrayed. And once you betray someone’s trust you’re kind
of in that same boat as that fox; that is to say you’re not going to be
trusted. So it’s a good line and it stands on it’s own. How about that?
This is Nutsy, and I think she looks a little like a fox. And as you can see, she's tethered so that she can't jump from the basket she's in. No, you just can't trust that little fox-like Nutsy.
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