Mojo, The Bard, & Me

Brew’d with her sorrow, masht upon her cheeks:-

-Titus

Titus Andronicus                   Act III, Scene ii, Line 38

Titus is telling his brother Marcus what Titus’s daughter Lavinia is thinking. She can’t speak for herself because her tongue was cut out and her hands chopped off by her rapists.

       

She says she drinks no other drink but tears,

        Brew’d with her sorrow, masht upon her cheeks:-

 

It’s not a pretty picture, and Titus is probably pretty close to correct in saying that this is what his daughter is thinking. Whilst this whole short scene is quite the downer, it’s full of exquisite writing of which these two lines are a perfect example. This is Will early on in his career, but it’s clearly Will, and clearly brilliant.

Did I mention that I was a pretty big Shakespeare fan?

Here's my drink: brewed with coffee beans, not tears (usually), and very rarely, if ever, do I mash it on my cheeks.

 Did I mention that I was a pretty big coffee fan?