This is a brave night to cool a courtesan.—I’ll speak a prophecy
ere I go:
-Fool
King Lear Act III, Scene ii, Line 80
Do you want to hear the prophecy? Remember, it’s the fool speaking so that the prophecy might not make sense to you (or me). It’s fourteen lines. I think Will’s really big on the fourteen line thing even when it’s clearly not a sonnet. Or is it a sonnet?
When brewers mar their
malt with water;
When nobles are their
tailors’ tutors;
No heretics burned, but
wenches suitors;
When every case in law is
right;
No squire in debt, nor no
poor knight;
When slanders do not live
in tongues;
Nor cutpurses come not to
throngs;
When usurers tell their
gold i’the field;
And bawds and whores do
churches build;--
Then shall the realm of
Albion
Come to great confusion:
Then comes the time, who
lives to see’t,
That going shall be used
with feet.
Well? Comments? As ususal, there’s a bit to unpack. And of course the fool talks in riddles. As if much of Will’s work wasn’t hard enough to understand in the first place. But how about if we just take the last part, the last four lines.
The first ten lines talk about things that aren’t happening now, and the last four about what will happen when these things come to pass. Albion is England, so that England will be in great confusion and going shall be used with feet. I don’t know about the confusion in England, but I do know that Pete is confused. Going shall be used with feet. What on earth does that mean?
Okay, I found this passage explained (sort of) in one of my books. That going shall be used with feet is referred to as an intentionally absurd truism. Well, I guess that makes sense. You'll be using your feet when you are going somewhere. Okay, there you go; presumably using your feet.
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