Today’s Totally Random
Lines
But
come, I’ll tell thee all my whole device
When
I am in my coach, which stays for us
At
the park-gate; and therefore haste away,
For
we must measure twenty miles to-day.
Portia
The Merchant of Venice Act III, Scene iv, Line 82
Portia is talking to her right-hand lady, Nerissa. She’s talking
about the fact that they need to get moving if they’re going to get to Venice
in time, and the fact that she’s going to tell Nerissa the whole plan (my whole device) in the
coach, on the way. Of course, the plan she’s alluding to is where Portia will
show up at the trial disguised as Balthazar.
I’m trying to recall if there are any instances in Will’s plays where a guy gets dressed up as a lady (other than the male actors who play all the women’s roles). I can’t think of one, and yet the women getting dressed up as men happens time and time again. What’s up with that?
By the way, I hope you noted the rhyming couplet: haste away, miles today. You know what that means, don't you? That's right - the last lines of the scene. Very good!
2 comments:
Maybe Shakespeare thinks that men would never deign to humiliate themselves by dressing up as women. Whereas women would be improving themselves to dress up like men.
Sure, let's go with that.
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