Today’s Totally Random Lines
Nay;
good my fellows, do not please sharp fate
To
grace it with your sorrows.
Antony
Antony and Cleopatra Act
IV, Scene xiv, Line 135
Well, day three of retirement. Another day, and
another line in a long list of Shakesperar’s characters’ last words. Perhaps we
should look at the whole passage since it’s Antony’s last. And let’s face it,
we have time now. Don’t worry, it’s only six lines.
Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp fate
To grace it with your sorrows: bid that welcome
Which comes to punish us, and we punish it
Seeming to bear it lightly. Take me up:
I have led you oft: carry me now good friends,
And have my thanks for all.
I think it’s a pretty easy passage. At first I got lost on
the first line because somehow I missed the fact that ‘please’ is the verb
there. Don’t make fate happy with your
sorrow: Welcome cruel fate, and you will punish fate by taking its punishments
lightly. Or something like that.
Now the more I look at it, the more I like that first line.
Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp fate
To grace it with your sorrows.
Wow, that is classic. The whole thing. This is exactly why they refer to Will as the Poet Playwright. Those two lines are poetry. Nay, good my fellows. I love that – good my fellows.
And do
not please sharp fate. Isn’t that about the best one word description of
fate – sharp! The twists and turns of fate can be as sharp as anything
there is.
What a great line. I think I found the opening line of my own elegy. I love it.
Okay, but just a sec. I made a mistake. Antony doesn’t die here; it just sounds like he does. He fell on his sword several lines back, but apparently he temporarily survives his suicide attempt. They carry him, dying, to Cleopatra and he dies in the next scene. For the record, his last word, in the next scene, are,
Now
my spirit is going; I can no more.
I felt I had to give you that since I opened
telling you that we had Antony’s last lines. And now we did.
But one more time..
Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp fate
To grace it with your sorrows.
Fabulous!
2 comments:
It's a bit soon to be working on your elegy.
I suppose you're right.
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