Swear his thought over
By
each particular star in heaven
-Camillo
The Winter’s Tale Act I, Scene ii, Line 423
This is near the beginning of the The Winter’s Tale. King Leontes is already completely convinced
that his wife is having an affair with his friend King Polixenes (spoiler
alert: Leontes is nuts and there is absolutely no affair going on). Leontes
tells one of his guys, Camillo, to murder Polixenes. Camillo is convinced there
is no affair, and then he runs into Polixenes. The latter realizes something’s
amiss, and he gets Camillo to tell him what’s going on. Camillo tells Polixenes
that Leontes thinks he has toucht his
queen forbiddenly. Below is the exchange that follows:
Polixenes-
O, then my best blood turn
To an infected jelly,
and my name
Be yoked with his that
did betray the Best!
Turn then my freshest
reputation to
A savour that may
strike the dullest nostril
Where I arrive, and my
approach be shunn’d,
Nay, hated too, worse
than the great’st infection
That e’er was heard or
read!
Camillo-
Swear his thoughts over
By each particular
star in heaven and
By all their
influences, you may as well
Forbid the sea for to
obey the moon,
As or by oath remove,
or counsel shake
The fabric of his
folly, whose foundation
Is piled upon his
faith, and will continue
The standing of his
body.
I kind of like the best blood turn to infected jelly and also A savour that may strike the
dullest nostril parts. I don’t know, but there’s something a little bit
funny about that savour thing. Of course, the you may as well forbid the sea
for to obey the moon is a pretty good line as well. In fact, that one
is pretty usable.
Is congress ever going
to stop with the partisanship and get something constructive done?
You may as well forbid
the sea for to obey the moon.
One other note here: In today’s line we hear of blood being turned to infected jelly.
In Lear when Regan (or was it Goneril?)
is gouging out Glouster’s eye’s she refers to them as vile jelly. Vile jelly. Infected jelly. I wonder if Will
ever talks about jelly in any good context? Did they even have real jelly for spreading on bread back around 1600? They must have had it!
Now this here is some jelly that is neither vile nor infected. It's just delicious.
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