Mojo, Will, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

                 

You know me well; an herein spend but time

To wind about my love with circumstance;

-Antonio

The Merchant of Venice                Act I, Scene i, Line 153

This is the first two lines of an eight-line reply that Antonio makes to Bassanio. I’m afraid that the entire eight lines in one sentence, so I’m going to have to give you the whole thing.

You know me well; and herein spend but time
To wind about my love with circumstance;
And out of doubt you do me now more wrong
In making question of my uttermost
Than if you had made waste of all I have:
Then do but say to me what I should do,
That in your knowledge may be me be done,
And I am prest unto it: therefore, speak.

Yup, there’s a period at the end, there, Yup, there is.

So Bassanio preceded this eight lines of Antonio’s with his little bit about shooting one arrow to find the first. Antonio realizes that Bassanio wants to ask something of him, and he takes the eight lines above to say Alright, already: just tell me what you need!
Bassanio’s reply begins with
In Belmont is a lady richly left.
And we all know where this is going.

Today’s lines, therefore, are eight lines of Antonio essentially telling Bassanio that he would do anything for him. This, among other lines, is the reason that many believe that the relationship between these two guys was more than just friends.

Isn’t it interesting, though, how careful Will is with this. Look at line four above,
In making question of my uttermost,
Uttermost what? Presumably uttermost love. Uttermost by itself can be anything: uttermost contempt, uttermost ambivalence. Did Will leave out the word love for the sake of not having it too obvious to Elizabethan audiences, or did Will have Antoino leave it out for some other reason?

See, that’s what I mean when I say that Will’s works are a treasure trove. They’re full of little nuggets like this that you can marvel over and look at from all sorts of angles.

Uttermost.

This young lady has my uttermost.