Mojo, The Bard, & Me

Octavius, I have seen more days than you:

And though we lay these honours on this man, To ease ourselves of divers slanderous loads,

He shall but bear them as the ass bears gold,

To groan and sweat under the business,

Either led or driven, as we point the way;

And having brought our treasure where we will,

Then take we down his load, and turn him off,

Like to the empty ass, to shake his ears,

And graze in commons.

-Antony

Julius Caesar                                     Act IV, Scene i, Line 26

Without his roe, like a dried herring: flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified!

-Mercutio

Romeo And Juliet                                Act II, Scene iv, Line 34

Well we have two interesting lines from two days in a row, and I’m going to try to spend a little time on both of them. They have the common thread of both comparing someone to an animal. The first is Antony talking about Lepidus, comparing him to a donkey, and the second is Mercutio comparing Romeo to a dried herring. Let’s go in order.

Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus make up the triumvirate, the group of three that is ruling Rome. In fact though, Lepidus is a bit older and pretty much just a nominal member of the triumvirate. I’m not sure why he’s part of it all, and Antony is making it clear to Octavius that he doesn’t think much of Lepidus either. And his comparison of him to an ass is pretty clear. It’s a few lines long, but worth reading.

Mercutio’s line is not quite so clear. Without his roe? Like a dried herring? Mercutio seems to be spending a lot of time in this scene flapping away and not saying much. I’m not sure if he’s not supposed to be comic relief in this play, or at least this scene, but that’s what it seems like. Romeo and Juliet is one of the plays for which I have a book that gives a “modern” line for line “translation.” Yes, that’s right: a “modern translation”. Just to be clear, Shakespeare wrote in modern English. It wasn’t Middle English like Chaucer, or Old English like Beowulf. It was modern English. Okay, just so we’ve got that clear. Anyway, “without his roe” is supposedly “thin and spent.” And the rest reads the same as what Will wrote. So “Thin and spent, like a dried herring. Flesh, oh flesh, how thou are fishified.”

Now let’s face it, fishified is a funny word. And I’m not exactly sure what you’re saying about someone if you’re comparing them to a fish. Saying that someone is like a donkey who does the work, takes orders, and then looks for something to eat, well that’s pretty clear. But what’s being said about Romeo if we say he’s like a fish? Smelly? Or just a continuation of ‘thin and spent’? I dunno. What do you think?

If I was going to be compared to an animal I wouldn't mind being compared to a Chihuahua, like Nutsy here. She's cute and pretty adventurous. Those are two good qualities.