Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Sir, make me not your story.

 

Isabella

Measure for Measure           Act I, Scene iv, Line 30

 

I think that Sir, make me not your story, might just be an expression, a figure of speech. Lucio has just told Isabella that her brother is in jail for getting a girl pregnant. Get out of town, she might say; or in this case, make me not your story. That’s the only sense that I can make out of it.

I have a glossary of words that Will used that have a different meaning than they have today, but unfortunately I don’t have a glossary of expressions. I do have a number of different compilations of his works, some with more footnotes than others. I could go through those and see if any have a footnote on this line. But I don’t think I’ll be doing that right now. So unless someone has an objection, make me not your story is going to be the same as get out of town.

Okay?

I'm pretty sure that Mojo has no objections. 

In fact, if he were to object I would respond with Make me not your story!