Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

 

‘Tis but the boldness of his hand, haply, which his heart was not consenting to.

 

-First Gentleman

All’s Well That Ends Well      Act III, Scene ii, Line 79

 

Haply means perhaps. Can you see the hap in both words?
The First Gentleman is talking about a letter, the contents of which the reader is unhappy with. Context beyond that? Nah!

The boldness of his hand.
His heart was not going along with his hand.
He doesn’t mean what he wrote.

Well then, I’ve often heard people claim that they didn’t mean what they said, or in some cases, wrote. But is that really so? Do they really not mean it? If it’s something that they’re apologizing for, then they probably said it whilst in some emotional state. So, then didn’t it come from the heart?
The Servant qualifies his statement with haply/perhaps: perhaps his heart was not consenting. Okay, perhaps his heart was not consenting; but perhaps it was.

That's right, perhaps he didn't mean what he wrote with his Blackwing Volume 7. Or perhaps he did. The good thing about writing it with his Blackwing is that he can erase it if need be. Whilst I know that they didn't have Blackwings in Will's day, I don't know whether or not they had pencils at all, in any form. 

Haply they did?