Today’s Totally Random
Lines
Twice
did he turn his back, and purposed so;
But
kindness, nobler ever than revenge,
And
nature, stronger than his just occasion,
Made
him give battle to the lioness,
Who
quickly fell before him: in which hurtling
From
miserable slumber I awaked.
Oliver
As You Like It Act
IV, Scene iii, Line 132
Oliver
is telling the story about how he was sleeping under a tree and a lion was
about to attack him, but his brother Orlando happened to be walking by, and
even though he thought about not doing anything, his kindness and good nature
forced him to fight off the lion, at which point the slumbering Oliver woke up.
Now this rather fantastic story (which is accepted
without any questioning) raises a number of questions (other than why it would
be accepted without questioning). First and foremost, where the heck does a
lion come from? But, I guess in the name of theatrics we can just let that one
slide. And if we’re going to accept that a lion is possible, I guess we can also
accept that Orlando can subdue the lion with his bare hands. Sure.
Fantastic or not though, this story reminds me of
a personal experience with lions laying in wait to attack. We were on safari in
Botswana (no, really, we were. I know that sounds almost as fantastical as
Oliver’s story, but we were actually on safari in Africa), and it was an
observational safari, not a hunting safari. One day we were out with our guide
driving around and we came across a herd (I think herd is the right word) of
zebras (pronounced zeb-ra, not zee-bra) on the airstrip. We were sitting still
watching them and the guide pointed out a lion in the brush on the opposite
side of the runway. Then we drove around the herd to the other end of the runway,
to the other side, and we saw three or four lions. So we pulled up on the other
side, at the other end, and we weren’t too far from one of the lions crouching
in wait. We stopped and parked, just waiting to see what happened next. The
lion near us, not too near but not too far, looked over at us and I swear he
gave us this look that said, “you guys better not screw us out of our dinner
here.” Well, we didn’t but then something else did. I forget what it was, but
some other animal got wind of the lions and spooked the herd, and they all took
off. We learned from our guide that lions don’t chase, they wait and pounce
when their prey is very close. The zebras never got close enough.
So I thought about that when I read Will’s words about the lion
Lay crouching, head on ground, with catlike watch.
That line was a few lines up from Today’s Totally Random Line.
Now I don’t mean to sound like a know it all, but
that’s a really good description of the lion that we were watching, which
raises the question, how the heck did Will know what a crouching lion would
look like.
So, that’s the thought I’m leaving you with today (assuming you haven’t already left me, seeing how long and rambling this post has been): How the heck would Will know what a crouching lion looked like?
Oh yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Uh huh.
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