Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Thou shalt be as free

As mountain winds: but then exactly do

All points of my command.

 

Prospero

The Tempest    Act I, Scene ii, Line 500

Prospero is telling Ariel that he’s going to set him free, but that for right now he still needs him to follow his commands. And, (spoiler alert) Prospero is true to his word as he does set Ariel free at the end of the play.

I always like it when a writer, not just Will, adds a modifier to an expression that really adds something substantial. Ariel won’t just be as free as the wind, he’ll be as free as mountain winds. The wind outside my window is not nearly as free as the winds up in the mountains. Up there no one is around to do anything to impede it, and it’s higher up in the atmosphere where the air is thinner and the winds can blow more easily. Those winds are significantly more free than the ones around here.

A modern line that’s a good example of this is Sweet as an apple on Christmas day. It’s a Paul Simon song lyric that’s always stuck with me because… well, just because. It’s not just sweet as an apple, but it’s an apple being eaten on Christmas day, when everything is a little sweeter.

 

Here's one more pretty good example. 

Don't just say sleepy; say sleepy as Mojo on Pete's shoulder when he's spouting on about Shakespeare. 

Now that's sleepy!