Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for

the rebellion of a codpiece to take away the 

life of a man!

 

-Lucio

Measure For Measure            Act III, Scene ii, Line 116

 

Lucio is speaking to the Duke, who is disguised as a friar. He’s talking about the fact that Angelo, the fellow who is in charge in the Duke’s absence, is going to have a man put to death for the crime of getting a woman pregnant (or was it just for having sex with her? Not sure). The rebellion of a codpiece. The codpiece was a flap of material that covered a man’s genitals. Interesting phraseology. The codpiece rebelled.

It’s always interesting to wonder about how many of these turns of phrase Will invented, and how many were common phrases of the day that he just documented. Certainly many had to be the latter. I guess the scholars know which is which from a study of other writings of the times, but I sure don’t.

Still, it’s an interesting phrase and one that could still easily be used. Let’s see.

Ahh, there was no rebellion of the codpiece last night, Bert. I came home from the bar quite alone.

Quel Domage, my friend. Quel domage.

 

 

Well finding a picture for today's topic could have got me into all sorts of trouble. So instead of staying on topic, I'll just give you a pic of Spike in his pajamas. It has nothing to do with anything, but I hope you'll admit that Spike really knew how to rock those pj's. In fact, getting back on topic, I'll bet those pj's could get 'ol Spikey into some codpiece rebellions if worn in the right company. Am I right?