Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief?

 

Earl of Kent                                                        

King Lear                      Act IV, Scene iii, Line 10

 

Kent is speaking to a messenger who had brought the former’s letter to Cordelia describing what has happened to Lear, her father, and how her sisters have mistreated him. Remember, after Lear rejected Cordelia she went and married the king of France. So, I guess that makes her a queen.

The messenger’s response, indeed this whole very short act, is worth reading. Well, it’s Shakespeare; so what else is new. Anyway, here’s the first part of the messenger’s response to Kent. 

Ay, sir; she took them, read them in my presence;

And now and then an ample tear trill’d down

Her delicate cheek: it seem’d she was a queen

Over her passion; who, most rebel-like,

Sought to be king o’er her.

The tear was ample, it trill’d, and her cheek was delicate.

I wish I could write like that.

Your writing's pretty good, Mr. Blagys. 

Of course, it's not Shakespeare; but whose is?

Thanks Mojo.