Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt

Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

 

Sonnet 144                     concluding couplet

Well, since this is the concluding couplet, I had thought that we might as well take a look at the whole sonnet, and to do it one quatrain at a time. But to tell you the truth, as I typed the whole sonnet out, I came across something more interesting: better angel. And since the whole sonnet is fairly difficult - scratch that: damned near impossible - to work with, why don’t we just take a look at better angel. 

Will mentions this angel in the first quatrain.

Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colour’d ill.

Then he makes reference to this better angel again in the last line of the sonnet. 

Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

My good one in this last line is his better angel, though I’m not sure what it means to have his bad angel fire my good one out.

In any event, the better angels of our nature is a term made very famous by Abraham Lincoln in his first inaugural address. I knew it was Lincoln, but I had to look up to find out exactly where he said it.

The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely as they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

These better angels of our nature have been referred to time and time again by speakers and writers. And the credit has always been given to Abe for creating ‘better angels’.

It’s a fine quote, and Abe was a wonderful writer and speaker, and I would love to give him credit, however…

I would be remiss if I failed to point out that Abe, whilst a great writer and speaker, was also a great lover of, and reader of - you guessed it - William Shakespeare. It’s quite well documented. So, whilst Abe is given credit for better angels, I have to believe that consciously or not, he didn’t quite make the term up.

Yup, it’s Will’s.

 

Am I your better-

Yes Mojo, you are certainly my better angel.