Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Each man to his stool, with that  spur as he would to the lip of his mistress: your diet shall be in all places alike. Make not a city feast of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first place: sit, sit. The gods require our thanks.

 

-Timon

 Timon of Athens              Act III, Scene vi, Line 62

 

I didn’t want to scare you off with something too long, but there’s two paragraphs to Timon’s welcoming speech to his guests. Here’s the second one, which starts off as a meal blessing, before taking a bit of a turn. 

                        You great benefactors, sprinkle our society with thankfulness. For your own gifts, make yourselves praised: but reserve still to give, lest your deities be despised. Lend to each man enough, that one need not lend to another; for, were your godheads to borrow of men, men would forsake the gods. Make the meat be beloved more than the man that gives it. Let no assembly of twenty be without a score of villains: if there sit twelve women at the table, let a dozen of them be—as they are. The rest of your foes, O gods, --the senators of Athens, together with the common tag of people, --what is amiss in them, you gods, make suitable for destruction. For these my present friends—as they are to me nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to nothing are they welcome.—

Uncover, dogs, and lap.

                        [The dishes are uncovered, and seen to be full of warm water.]

Yah, a bit long, but worth the read. But then, what writing of Will’s isn’t?

This, if you haven’t figured it out, is the scene where Timon has figured out that all of his friends are nothing but posers. He’s invited them all for a feast and serves them dishes of warm water.

The first paragraph, today’s Totally Random line, is his welcome to his guests. At this point the guests still think they’re going to be well treated. The second paragraph, beginning with You great benefactors, begins well, but ends with Uncover, dogs, and lap, which is not quite so nice.

The scene goes on a little further and Timon devolves even further, ending with

Burn, house! Sink, Athens! Henceforth hated be

Of Timon man and all humanity!

And he exits.

So in one short scene is summarized Timon’s transformation from gracious host and lover of man, to bitter, bitter hater of mankind. And the rest of the play centers on this latter theme.

I’ve often replied to my kids jokingly when asked ‘what’s for dinner?’ with the answer, ‘Rocks and sticks’. That’s actually a little worse than Timon's bowl of warm water. And, no, none of the kids ever saw the humor in that answer. Go figure. 

Anyway, I managed to find a stick pencil in my assortment of pencils. So there you go.