Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

She is young and apt:

Our own precedent passions do instruct us

What levity’s in youth.

 

Old Athenian

Timon of Athens                    Act I, Scene i, Line 136

 

I find this line easily understandable. Is that because I read a lot of Shakespeare, or is it indeed easily understandable? Either way, it’s a nice line.

Just to add some context: the Old Athenian is at Timon’s house. It so happens that one of Timon’s servants is in love with the Old Athenian’s daughter and the old man is trying to get Timon to forbid his servant from seeing the girl. Timon asks if the girl is in love with his servant, and this is the Old Athenian’s response: she’s young, and our own experience of being young tells us how irresponsible and impulsive young people are. Our own precedent passions. Such a nice phrase, precedent passions.

See, that’s what Will is all about: putting words like that together. It’s so simple, and yet, two words that say so much. Precedent passions describe the feelings we experienced when we were young that we now no longer feel, and yet still remember.

Will struck this very same note in The Tempest when Prospero was watching his daughter Miranda interacting and falling in love with Ferdinand. Prospero said,

So glad of this as they I cannot be,

Who are surprised withal; but my rejoicing

At nothing can be more.

Prospero’s saying that he can’t feel the emotions the young’ns are feeling, but he’s still happy.

So glad of this as they I cannot be is nowhere near as lovely as precedent passions, but it gets the point across.

It’s interesting to note that both Timon and Tempest were written towards the tail end of Will’s career when he himself was getting older and feeling much more like the Old Athenian, or Prospero than like a young lover.

I could go on here, about my own personal experience and the difference between youthful bliss that can only be experienced and felt by the young, and the different kind of love and happiness that comes with an older age. But I won’t.

Anyway, I really like precedent passions.

So, how can this picture possibly be relevant? Well, I'll tell you how. It's tree climbing.

Yes, tree climbing is a boy's activity, and one that an older fellow can look back on and only try to remember the joy of being up so high and looking down on everything; a joy an older guy like me can no longer experience.

Or can he?

Granted, tree climbing does not involve the same degree of passion as the precedent passion talked about in Today's Line, but I think the relevance is valid nonetheless. 

And just in case you're wondering 'Where's Mojo?', well, he's in that fenced in area below the Prius - the light brown area with the raised beds. I guess you can't actually see him, but he's there. You can't see Patrice or Walker yelling  'Get out of that tree before you fall and break your neck, you old fool!', but they're there too. 

Ahhh, tree climbing.