Mojo, The Bard, & Me

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Look, who comes here:

Will you be chid?

Timon

Timon of Athens           Act I, Scene i,  Line 177

That is to say, will you be scolded. Timon sees Apemantus coming and he’s warning the people that he’s talking to that Apemantus is going to be scolding them all. Though I’m not sure scolding is the right word to describe it. Timon addresses him as gentle Apemantus and the latter responds with

Till I be gentle, stay thou for thy good morrow;
When thou art Timon’s dog, and these knaves honest.

So he’s not scolding so much as he just being rude and insulting. Or perhaps we should say he’s speaking out in angry or displeased rebuke. That the MW definition of chide/chid. Yeah, that works better.

In any event, Apemantus is the anti-social, anti-people character that Timon will become by the end of the play. His favorite line is probably one that I heard my friend Uwe say once: I hate people.

Unhealthy as that is, I know I feel that way more than just a little bit. Have you ever heard yourself thinking that? I hate people. It’s kind of tough not to, at least occasionally.  Uwe and I were driving to dinner once when someone cut us off. I was driving and Uwe was in the passenger seat. He watched the other car drive away and stated very simply, very matter-of-fairly, I hate people. Of course he was really referring to the person that had cut us off, not all people, but it came out a little bit funny. To be clear, Uwe was not an Apemantus. In fact, Uwe was a pretty decent fellow.

Here's a pic of Mojo from when he was just a few months old.

This little polar bear has always been the polar opposite of a people hater. In fact, I don't think he's ever met a people that he didn't like. He loves people!