6/6/17
This
is the truth, or let Benvolio die.
-Benvolio
Romeo And Juliet Act III, Scene i,
Line 171
This is Benvolio talking. The Prince has just arrived on the scene and both Mercutio and Tybalt are lying there dead. So he asks Benvolio what happened. Here’s Benvolio's reply
Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay;
Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink
How nice the quarrel was, and urged withal
Your high displeasure: all this uttered
With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd,
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast,
Who all as hot, turns deadly point to point,
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside, and with the other sends
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity,
Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud,
'Hold, friends! friends, part!' and, swifter than
his tongue,
His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled;
But by and by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain'd revenge,
And to 't they go like lightning, for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain.
And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.
Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink
How nice the quarrel was, and urged withal
Your high displeasure: all this uttered
With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd,
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast,
Who all as hot, turns deadly point to point,
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside, and with the other sends
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity,
Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud,
'Hold, friends! friends, part!' and, swifter than
his tongue,
His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled;
But by and by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain'd revenge,
And to 't they go like lightning, for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain.
And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.
That's right, he's ending his story by speaking of himself in
the third person, and declaring that he just spoke the whole truth and nothing but
the truth. And was it the truth? I'm not sure, I didn't read the whole scene. But here's the link
So I'll let you read it and then you can tell me whether or not it's the whole truth (or whether Benvolio should die).
Now, regarding last night's pic and it's relevance. That was a Greek stamp. I didn't have a Greek urn, so I gave you a Greek stamp. The last line of last night's blog was lifted from the John Keats poem Ode On A Grecian Urn.
That is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Here's how we express that we're telling the truth these days, not "Or let Pete die."
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