Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

You have put him down, lady, you have put him down.

-Don Pedro

Much Ado About Nothing             Act II, Scene i, Line 271

 

The lady to whom Don Pedro is speaking is Beatrice. The him, that Don Pedro is talking about is Benedick. These two, Beatrice and Benedick, are sparring again. From what I understand, and from the little bit that I’ve read of lines from this play, these two sparring seems to be the main event of this play. And then they get together in the end.

A little earlier in the scene there are a few really good lines of Benedick’s. He is talking to Don Pedro and telling the Don that he’s willing to do pretty much anything other than spend time with Beatrice. Check this out.

Will your grace command me any service to the world’s end? I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on; I will fetch you a toothpicker now from the furthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of Prester John’s foot; fetch you a hair off the great Cham’s beard; do you any embassage to the pigmies;-- rather than hold three words’ conference with this harpy. You have no employment for me?

This is great. The Antipodes is the other side of the world, Prester John, according to Wikipedia, is some legendary Christian patriarch and king (but I don’t know what the deal is with his foot), and Cham is an old word for Kahn (which could refer to any number of Mongol leaders). But my favorite part of that needs no explaining. I will fetch you a toothpicker now from the furthest inch of Asia. That’s fabulous. It sounds like something out of Dr. Seuss’s If I Ran The Zoo where the kid goes to the far ends of the earth to get the rare animals. I love that. I’ve gotta memorize that, or better yet the whole thing, so that I can quote it the next time someone asks me to do something that I don’t want to do.

What’s that? You want me to turn my socks right side in and make sure I put them in the clothes hamper? Well, I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on; I will fetch you a toothpicker now from the furthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of Prester John’s foot; fetch you a hair off the great Cham’s beard; do you any embassage to the pigmies;-- rather than do that!

Now I know that I've used this pic before, but it's the perfect one for this post. This Spiderman wearing a ski cap would never have happened if I had taken off my socks, turned them right side in, and put them in the clothes hamper.  He could only have happened by haphazardly tossing my socks and letting them lie where they fall. And we wouldn't have wanted to miss out on this Spiderman, would we?