Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

 

                    The chimney

Is south the chamber; and the chimneypiece

Chaste Dian bathing: never saw I figures

So lively to report themselves: the cutter

Was as another nature, dumb; outwent her,

Motion and breath left out.

 

-Iachimo

Cymbeline                      Act II Scene iv, Line 82

Iachimo is speaking to Posthumus, and to prove that he has slept with the latter’s wife, he is describing her bedroom. 

The chimneypiece he mentions is a statuette on the mantel. It is a figure of Dian bathing, and it was so lifelike is seemed almost that it could talk, report themselves. The sculptor was one of a kind, and the statue outdid even the beauty of Dian, except that it could neither move nor speak. 

Okay, here’s the thing. I could read that paragraph and understand, at least for the most part, what it was saying. Yeah, I looked at some footnotes to help me out a bit. And I knew the context of what was going on with the conversation. Maybe you could get the gist of this too?

I decided to find out if your average, intelligent person who doesn't read much Shakespeare would get much out of this passage. So I asked my two very intelligent associates (not the guy in back; that's King and he wasn't in town for this test) to read it. Well, unfortunately they didn't get too much out of it. I guess that sort of proves that you need to acquire a taste and a bit of a knowledge base in his style of writing to be able to truly enjoy Will's works. 

I think we'll get back to this topic again.