Sunday, February 18, 2018


Thy back, I prithee.



-Timon

                                   

Timon of Athens                              Act IV, Scene iii, Line 397





I didn’t realize what this line meant at first, but it’s delightfully simple once you realize what it is. Timon has been arguing with this other fellow and now he just wants that guy to go away. ‘Please let me see the back of you while you’re leaving.’ ‘I Prithee’ is just slang for ‘I pray thee’, which is just a long, polite way to say ‘Please’. Another, somewhat less polite, way to say it is ‘Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.’ Or just simply ‘Get lost!’


This is one of those lines that you could use constantly and the person you’re talking to wouldn’t know what you’re saying. And sometimes that’s a good thing. Are you thinking you're kind of done with this post and that you’d like to be saying this to me right now. "Thy back, I prithee!"

Okay then, I'm leaving.

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