Mojo, The Bard, & Me

Why then we kill all our women. We see how mortal an unkindness is to them, if they suffer our departure, death's the word.

-Enobarbus

                                   

Antony And Cleopatra                               Act I, Scene ii, Line 134

Well now this is a line that's a bit hard to make out. We're early on in the play, and we're in Egypt. Antony has just received word from Rome that his wife, Fulvia, has died. Now Enobarbus enters and the first thing Antony says to him is I must with haste from hence. And Enobarbus replies with today's Totally Random line. And it really does seem totally random. Enobarbus does not know of Fulvia's death yet, so what is he flapping about? Is he speaking figuratively or literally? About the women in Egypt or Rome (seems like it's Egypt)? Or maybe all women? Well, rather than try to figure it out, why don't we leave it alone and take a look at a couple of other interesting things from today's line. 

First off, and I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in the past, I really like the name Enobarbus. Maybe I'll use that for a pet if I ever get a male dog or cat or pig or whatever in the future. This guy's name is Domitius Enobarbus, but most of the time people just call him Enobarbus. He's the epitome of the old soldier. The guy who's the right hand man of the general. The grizzled veteran who's spent his life in the military. I've no idea what he's talking about here, but he nonetheless has some really good stuff to say elsewhere in the play.

Another thing, and on a separate issue. I didn't feel quite sure about the punctuation in this line, and so I did what I always do when uncertain: I went back to my copy of the First Folio. Right or wrong, I consider this my most reliable source. I know, I know, there are questions even about the First Folio and there are inconsistencies even within different copies of the First Folio. But it's the best I've got. And I can tell you that there were less commas and more periods in the Folio version. But unfortunately nothing that helped me to clarify the meaning. 

Now what? Well, I guess I'll just move on to the rest of my day and if anyone thinks they have some insight on this line you can let me know.

This is my old friend Ron, whom I haven't seen in quite a few years. He's the closest I can find to a grizzled old veteran. He served in the marines, but he didn't make a career of it. I think I might have used his picture in a previous post. I'll bet it was a post about Enobarbus.