Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Then, I am sure, you know how much the gross sum of deuce-ace amounts to.

 

-Moth

Love’s Labour’s Lost              Act I, Scene ii, Line 44

Wordplay. Well, I suppose you could argue that Will’s works in their entirety are all wordplay? No, let’s not go down that road. But today’s selection, and indeed most of this scene is a bunch of wordplay. Anyway, the answer is It doth amount to one more than two.

This is Armado talking to his page named Moth. Armado is listed as a fantastical Spaniard and in this scene he and his page are talking a lot about nothing and using a lot of puns and other nonsense to create what should amount to, when presented on the stage, comedy. These two don’t have much to do with the main plot of this play; they’re just there to be funny. And they are. I listened to this scene this morning, and it’s pretty funny when you hear it (more so, I imagine when you see it). I’m not sure you would get that from reading this script, but it is. I guess you’ll have to take my word for it.

I think if I had to say which of my siblings seemed to be playing the comedy part in the script of my early life, it would be the guy here in the baggy checkered pants. And he played the part quite well.