Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly?

 -Menenius

 Coriolanus                          Act II, Scene iv, Line 137

 

Okay, in this context Aufidius is a foe in battle. Knowing that, it is easy to construe that the intended meaning of the word disciplined in this sentence is beat or defeated. Not knowing that, and not having any sense of what’s going on, you might assume that Menenius is asking whether or not Coriolanus made Aufidius sit in the corner of the classroom with a dunce cap on. But if you were attending this play, and you’d paid attention up to this point in Act Two, you should certainly have a sense of what’s going on. If you don’t know what going on at this point, perhaps it’s you who should be sitting in the corner wearing the dunce cap. 

Talking about sitting in the corner of the class with a dunce cap made me think of this pencil, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because if the teacher handed you this pencil while you're sitting in the corner it would be funny in a very mean sort of way. Maybe it's because I know that most (all?) teachers nowadays would give you this pencil and NOT make you wear a dunce cap. Or maybe (this is the best maybe) I'm thinking of Coriolanus sending this pencil to Aufidius to let him know that he plans to 'school' him. Yeah, let's go with that last one.