Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Go hang yourself, you naughty, mocking uncle!

 

Cressida

Troilus and Cressida              Act IV, Scene ii, Line 25

I wouldn’t think we need a lot of explanation regarding what Cressida is saying. I suppose a little context might be nice. Well, it’s a short scene, so perhaps I’ll listen to it.

Okay, I read the short summary and listened to the scene. This is the scene where Cressida finds out that they’ve traded her to the Trojans as part of a deal to end the war. But that’s not what she’s reacting to here. The beginning of this scene is her waking up with Troilus. Her uncle Pandarus has entered and is teasing her for having had Troilus in her bed all night. 

Her reaction to Pandarus later in the scene when he tells her she’s been traded to the Trojans is much different. First she says she won’t go. Then, when Pandarus says she must, she replies

I will not, uncle: I have forgot my father;

I know no touch of consanguinity;

No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me

As the sweet Troilus.—O you gods divine,

Make Cressid’s name the very crown of falsehood,

If ever she leave Troilus! Time, force, and death,

Do to this body what extremes you can;

But the strong base and building of my love

Is as the very centre of the earth,

Drawing all things to it.—I’ll go in and weep,--

 

She has a little more to say, but I think you get the gist of it.

I think I lost him on consanguinity.

Heck, I think I lost myself on consanguinity.