These
quick-sands, Lepidus
Keep
off them, for you sink.
-Antony
Antony And Cleopatra Act II,
Scene vii, Line 61
Well, I have decided to get back to Totally Random mode, and here we are back in the Roman Empire again with Antony and Cleopatra. Actually, there's no Cleo in this scene, just Antony and a bunch of Romans. Yes, I found that it just wasn’t as much fun, nor did I find I was learning a whole lot more about the play, when I restricted myself to Measure For Measure. So, justice or no justice, I've found that a great part of the fun of doing this is not knowing where in the world I might end up. Today we're on a boat just off the shores of Miseno, Italy, just a bit to the north of Naples. So after having spent the past week in Vienna, getting a little sea air is quite refreshing.
I
think that in today’s line Antony is just giving Lepidus a hard time. They’re
all on board a party boat and mostly half drunk. Antony’s been describing Egypt
(sort of) to Lepidus and now he’s telling him about the quick-sand. I’m not
sure if he’s kidding around about there being quick-sand in
Egypt, or whether he’s referring figuratively to something else that Lepidus
should be wary of. Or maybe he’s doing a little bit of both. I suppose today’s
line is a good line that you could use, speaking figuratively, if you want to
warn your friend about something. For instance, suppose your friend Mitzi is
thinking about getting involved with a married man:
‘These
quick-sands, Mitzi, keep off them, for you sink.’
Yeah, that
would work, and I think Mitzi would get the message. Don’t you?
Wait a tick, is that my two Cordelias sinking in quick-sand? No, of course not. They're just having some fun at the beach. No worries.
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