Today’s Totally Random
Lines
I warrant you, with pure
love and troubled brain, he hath ta’en his bow and arrows, and is gone forth-to
sleep. Look, who comes here.
Celia
As You Like It Act IV, Scene iii, Line 5
This is Celia making excuses to Rosalind for Orlando. It’s past the time that the lad promised to show up, and there’s no sign of him. The who comes here is not Orlando, it’s Silvius. Now the conversation quickly turns from Orlando to Silvius and the latter’s unrequited love with Phebe.
So now, if I were going to key in on anything here, and I guess I am, I think it would be the phrase with pure love and troubled brain. What do you think? Celia’s trying to give Orlando the benefit of the doubt for standing up Rosalind, and so describes him to be with pure love and troubled brain. Pure and troubled. Not just pure. And not just troubled. Pure and troubled. Both are an indication of a young man in love, almost any young man in love. I guess maybe some old one’s too, but particularly the young ones. Both are a defense of Orlando. That is to say, he’s got a lot on his mind and that’s why he’s forgotten about his date with Rosalind, but it’s not because he doesn’t love her.
Yeah, let’s leave with that one. Pure
love and troubled brain.
2 comments:
I think it's very common for young love to be pure and troubled brain. If it were pure and untroubled, it would be more mature and wise love. Pure and troubled more aptly describes young love, like Romeo and Juliet. If they were pure and untroubled, they would have ended up a lot different, me thinks. Their troubled brains got them into some idiotic situations.
I agree with you.
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