Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

                                                               Angelo,

There is a kind of character in thy life,

That to th’observer doth thy history

Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings

Are not thine own so proper, as to waste

Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,

Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues

Did not go forth of us, ‘twere all alike

As if we had them not.

 

-Duke

 

Measure For Measure                     Act I, Scene i, Line 31

 

This is the very beginning of the play and these are the first words that the Duke says to Angelo. He’s going to follow this up by telling the Angelo that he, the Duke, is leaving town and he’s going to put Angelo in charge. Angelo objects, the Duke insists, and that’s that.

Now, the whole gist of this play revolves around justice, and we’re going to find out by the end that Angelo is not so virtuous as the Duke makes him out to be.  But then, there’s quite a bit that will take place between these words of the Duke and the completion of the play. So for today, we’ll just enjoy these words.

I like the part about heaven and the torches. If you just read that sentence first it makes the first part of today’s lines clearer. But I think it also raises some questions. What do you think?

 

Well, the idea was to find a picture of a torch. But since I couldn't find that, we'll have to settle for this picture of a cave, which is a place where you might expect to find a torch. Again, no torch.