Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                   If thou couldst, doctor, cast

The water of my hand, find her disease,

And purge it to a sound and pristine health,

I would applaud thee to the very echo,

That should applaud again.

 

Macbeth

Macbeth                                  Act V, Scene iii,  Line 51

  

Today we have our friend Macbeth, not Frank Macbeth, or Sam Macbeth – just Macbeth. He’s in a bit of a sour mood. His servant has just told him that there are thousands of English soldiers marching on his castle, and the doctor has just told him that Lady Macbeth (at least she has a title; of course if she didn’t then we wouldn’t know, when we said Macbeth, whether we were talking about him or her) is ill and has a disease of the mind that he has no cure for.

Not a lot of good news for Macbeth. Today’s Totally Random Lines are Macbeth’s response to the doctor. I must say, it’s a bit of an odd response. First, that after all that the Macbeth couple have done, to expect the doctor to bring her back to a sound and pristine health. Yes, that’s right – not just sound but pristine. And if the doctor could do that, Macbeth would applaud him to the very echo, that should applaud again? That seems like a fairly odd way to compensate the good doctor, doesn’t it? And first off, what's this cast the water of my hands nonsense?

It's a fairly odd line today from the Scottish play.

This is the result of the doctor purging Lady Blagys's disease and bringing her to a sound and pristine health. To be clear, neither Lady Blagys, nor her husband Blagys, was involved in any murder plot. Lady Blagys's disease was flat feet. It seems unlikely that Will would write a play about flat feet, but you never know.