Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

And, were they attired in grave weeds,

Rome could afford no tribune like to these.

 

Titus

Titus Andronicus                  Act III Scene i, Line 44

Two of Titus’s sons have just been led off to be executed for a crime they did not commit. Titus is pleading for his sons’ lives with the tribunes, who appear to be ignoring him, when Titus’s other son, Lucius, comes in. He tells his father that he is pleading in vain, and that no tribune is listening to them. Here is Titus’s full response to his son.

Why, ‘tis no matter, man: if they did hear,
They would not mark me; or if they did mark,
They would not pity me. Yet plead I must:
And bootless unto them…
Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;
Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,
For that they will not intercept my tale:
When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
Receive my tears, and seem to weep with me;
And, were they but attired in grave weeds,
Rome could afford no tribune like to these.
A stone is soft as wax, tribunes more hard than stones;
A stone is silent, and offends not,
And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.—
But wherefore stand’st thou with thy weapon drawn?

That last line refers to the fact that Lucius has decided to go rescue his brothers.

I think it’s a good little speech about the quality of tribunes and of stones and of a man’s desperation. It made me think a little of the Simon and Garfunkel line… and a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries…

It also makes me think, more so, of some of today’s public officials, today’s tribunes, and how they are worth less than stones, for the reasons that Titus gives. Yes, there are days when I feel that many of our current tribunes are as dumb and deaf, and as worthless as rocks or stones.

Well put, Will.

Pull up, Pete, pull up!

Forget about pulling up, Pete… are you as deaf as rocks and stones! 

I’m down here! Let me out of this thing!

HEY!