Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

In winter’s tedious nights sit by the fire

With good old folks and let them tell thee tales

Of woeful ages long ago betid;

-Richard

King Richard II              Act V, scene i, line 41

Betid: that's a funny word, isn't it? It just means 'happened', past tense of betide. Tell them tales of woeful ages that happened long ago. 

This is part of a longer response that Richard gives to his queen when she asks Richard if he is both in shape and mind transform’d and weaken’d? Bolingbroke has deposed him, and Richard is on the way to the Tower. ‘Aren’t you at least going to go down roaring like the lion that you are?’, she asks him.

Here is his full response to that:

        A king of beasts, indeed; if aught but beasts,

        I had been still a happy king of men.

        Good sometime queen, prepare thee hence for France:

        Think I am dead and that even here thou takest,

        As from my death-bed, they last living leave.

        In winter’s tedious nights sit by the fire

With good old folks and let them tell thee tales

Of woeful ages long ago betid;

And ere thou bid good night, to quit their griefs,

Tell thou the lamentable tale of me

And send the hearers weeping to their beds:

        For why, the senseless brands will sympathize

        The heavy accent of thy moving tongue

        And in compassion weep the fire out;

        And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black,

        For the deposing of a rightful king.

 

Yah, stick a fork in him; he’s pretty much done.

Going with the State Fair theme one more day, I can tell you that these foot-longs are pretty much done too. No need for a fork, though.