Mojo, The Bard, & Me

I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holiness: but, I think, thy horse will sooner con an oration than thou learn a prayer without the book. Thou canst strike, canst thou? A red murrain o’ thy jade’s tricks!

-Thersites

Troilus And Cressida                        Act II, scene i, line 16

Another fool. Well, they don’t list him as a fool. He’s listed in the Dramatis Personae as ‘a deform’d and scurrilous Grecian’. Now, to be clear, I’m not sure where this ‘Dramatis Personae’ thing comes from. In the First Folio there is often no cast of characters at all, and when there is it’s not called ‘Dramatis Personae’, I know that for sure. But I guess that’s an issue for another day.

In any event, Ajax is trying to get some info out of Thersites. Whilst the latter does not appear to be Ajax’s servant, he is clearly his subordinate. Thersites is giving Ajax a hard time, and Ajax gives him a smack and says,

            Speak, then, thou vinewedst leaven, speak: I will beat thee into handsomeness.

He’s calling him moldy yeast and smacking him. And that’s when Thersites gives us today’s Totally Random line in reply. ‘beat thee into handsomeness,’ that’s kind of funny. And notice that Thersites is saying that there’s no way he can be beaten into handsomeness.

By the way, this is the play in the First Folio that’s not listed in the table of contents. Have I mentioned that before? Yeah, there’s thirty-six plays in the First Folio and only thirty-five in the table of contents. Go figure.

 

How about one of these horses; do you think they can give a speech? That's what 'con an oration' means. Yeah, I don't think they're going to be giving any speeches. In fact, if anything I think they might even be a bit moldy!