Today’s Totally Random Line(s)
A terrible childbed hast thou had, my dear;
No
light, no fire: th’unfriendly elements
Forgot
thee utterly; nor have I time
To
give thee hallow’d to thy grave, but straight
Must
cast thee, scarcely coffin’d, in the ooze;
Where,
for a monument upon thy bones,
And r'er-remaining lamps, the belching whale
And
humming water must o’erwhelm thy corpse,
Lying
with simple shells. — O, Lychorida,
Bid
Nestor bring me spices, ink, and paper,
My
casket and my jewels; and bid Nicander
Bring
me the satin coffer: lay the babe
Upon
the pillow: hie thee, whiles I say
A
priestly farewell to her: suddenly, woman.
Pericles
Pericles Act III, Scene i, Line 56
I constantly associate one and two digit
numbers that I come across with athletes. So this is act three, scene one, line Lawrence Taylor. And no, I don’t have an athlete for every number from one to
one hundred. Talk about random, eh?
Anyway, I gave you Pericles’s whole speech here, instead of cutting out a little piece of it. And wow, there’s a lot going on here. Long story short: he’s on a boat at sea, in a storm. His wife, moments ago, died in childbirth. One of the sailors has told Pericles that his wife’s body must be thrown overboard to appease the gods and ease the storm. And that’s where we are. Pericles is speaking to his dead wife. I’ll give you my summary of what he’s saying in the lines above, line by line.
Remember, he starts out here talking to his dead wife (he finishes up talking to the nurse-servant).
You had a rotten birthing, dear,
No light, no fire; the unfriendly
elements
Forgot thee completely: nor have I time
To put thee in a hallowed grave.
I must cast thee, barely in thy coffin,
into the sea,
Where for a gravestone upon your bones
and ever-remaining eyes,
The belching whale and humming water
will overwhelm your body
As it lies with simple shells.
And then he finishes by telling the nurse-servant to go tell some other servants to bring him a bunch of specific stuff from below, and to lay the newborn on a pillow there whilst he, Pericles, says a few words over the dead body.
There. What do you think of that?
I was at the seashore on Monday, and it made me think of a song. And it seems somehow appropriate for today's lines. So here you go.
1 comment:
I like the line by line translation. You should do that more often.
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