Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Whoreson dog! I give him satisfaction? Would 

he had been one of my rank!

 

-Cloten

Cymbeline              Act II, Scene i, Line 15

Cloten is one of the bad guys in this play. I don’t know Cymbeline well, but I do know that. And the first part of this scene requires very little context. It’s just showing what an ass Cloten is. He’s the son of the queen, the stepson of the king. He thinks he’s better than most anyone else, and he doesn’t mind using his position of power (or proximity to power) to his advantage. One of the other people in the scene is giving a lot of asides (that’s a comment that the audience hears, but the other people on the stage don’t) telling us what he really thinks of Cloten. His aside/reply to Cloten’s line above is To have smelt like a fool. So obviously he believes Cloten to be a fool.

I suppose it’s a good scene to read for two things. One is that we can see Cloten for the ass that he is and realize that the ass that you had to deal with yesterday, or the day before, or last week in the store, or at the gym, or at work, is just one of those folks who’ve been there forever and always will be there; nothing you can do about it. You just gotta deal with ‘em. The other thing to think about after reading this is to look at yourself and try to make sure that you’re not ever being a Cloten.  

 

Well, I thought about putting in a pic of someone who I thought had been a Cloten, but then I thought maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. So I’m focusing on the second thing I mentioned. I think we can all be a little Clotenish from time to time, and could probably all use a little reminder about it occasionally. So here’s a little reminder to self:  

Don’t be a Cloten, Pete!