Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

                 

This fell whore of thine

Hath in her more destruction than thy sword,

For all her cherubin look.

 
-Timon

Timon of Athens                       Act IV, Scene iii, Line 61

This is really a classic tale. If you’re not yet familiar, Timon was a well-off guy who’d throw great parties and give out money and gifts to his guests. But he spent more than he had, and when his money ran short, he looked to his friends for help, and not one of them would lend him a dime. It was then he realized that none of them were friends, and he gave up on mankind and went to live in a cave.

In this scene Alcibiades, a general has happened upon Timon. He has with him two mistresses. Timon wants nothing to do with any of them. He tells Alcibiades to go,

Follow thy drum;

With man’s blood paint the ground, gules, gules:

Religious canons, civil laws are cruel;

Then what should war be? This fell whore of thine

Hath in her more destruction than thy sword,

For all her cherubin look. 

To which one of Alcibiade’s mistresses (whore?) replies

                                         Thy lips rot off!

 

First off, a few notes on vocabulary: Gules simply means red (paint the ground red with blood), and fell, if you recall is an adjective denoting evil.

Now, when I first read this I thought that the fell whore of thine that Timon spoke of might be war, because war can be considered any general’s whore. But I guess that since one of Alcibiade’s mistresses replied directly to Timon, it’s probably more reasonable to assume that Timon meant that she was the fell whore he was talking about. Or, perhaps Timon had a double meaning with it and meant both.

What do you think?

Okay, I had two thoughts regarding a pic for today's line, but neither thought actually had a pic. Confused? Let me explain. 

The first thought was to use Facebook, because this is an illustration of all the friends that Timon thought he had. You may have friends who are your friends on Facebook, but it's pretty certain that not all of your friends on Facebook are really your friends. But I couldn't think of a good pic for this.

The other thought was a movie that I watched last night. It was about two parents who had to pretend to inherit six million dollars to get their adult kids into visiting them. It worked: the kids came looking for a share of the money. But it was an Italian movie and the only clip I could find was in Italian. 

Which leaves me with...Oh what the heck; here's the movie clip. See if you can get anything out of it.

The Price of Family (2022) - IMDb