Mojo, Will, & Me

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

 

Sometime he runs among a flock of sheep,

To make the cunning hounds mistake their smell,

And sometime where earth-delving conies keep,

To stop the loud pursuers in their yell;

And sometime sorteth with a herd of deer:

Danger deviseth shifts; wit waits on fear.

 

Venus

Venus and Adonis                         Line 681

Venus has a premonition that Adonis will get killed if he goes boar hunting, so she’s telling him to hunt for rabbits instead. Then she goes on to describe how skillful the rabbits are at not getting killed or caught. I guess she's telling Adonis that he should be clever like the rabbit.

I’d like to focus on that last line because I haven’t made full sense of it yet. She’s talking about all the ways that the rabbit eludes danger, and then summarizes with

Danger deviseth shifts; wit waits on fear.

First part first. Danger deviseth shifts. I believe shifts is a noun here, and my glossary advises me to use strategies. Danger devises strategies.

Wit waits on fear. So the person or thing evading the danger uses wit because wit waits on fear. How do we read ‘waits on’ here. Wit serves fear like a waiter? Wit waits for fear, like waiting for a bus.
Okay, here’s my simple answer. When you’re overpowered with fear you won’t be thinking straight - scared out of your wits. Wow, once I saw scared out of your wits it became crystal clear. So simply put, danger is going to be clever, and wits have to wait for the fear to subside before they can work, and therefore don’t let fear overpower you. How simple is that? Should I have seen that from the giddy up?

And that brings me to a very pertinent story. My associate is obsessing about a speeding ticket he got. He’s afraid it’s going to affect his driving record. Afraid. And this fear is, at least a little bit, clouding his ability to think straight. Or, I should say, he’s having a hard time thinking about anything else. Wit waits on fear.
And I’ve been doing the same thing with some work stuff that I’ve been having a hard time getting done properly. I’ve been worrying about it a lot. My associate and I are a lot alike and, we’re both falling prey to wit waits on fear. 

And there are your words for today: Wit waits on fear.

 

Wit Waits on Fear