Today’s Totally Random
Lines
[Music plays]
Duke
Come hither, boy: if ever thou shalt love,
In the sweet pangs of it remember me;
For such as I am all true lovers are,
Unstaid and skittish in all motions else,
Save in the constant image of the creature
That is beloved.
—How dost
thou like this tune?
Viola/Cesario
It gives a very echo to the seat
Where love is throned.
Twelfth Night
Act II, Scene iv, Line
18
This is a scene
with the Duke of Illyria and Viola. Remember, if you will, that Viola is disguised
as the young man Cessario. She has come to the Duke’s court, and has fallen
madly in love with him. Unfortunately, she faces two problems: the Duke is in
love with another woman (who wants nothing to do with him), and the Duke thinks
that Viola is a young man named Cessario.
In any event, in Today’s Lines the Duke is giving Cessario advice about love. I included Viola’s two-line response to the Duke because they are such a beautiful two lines that I didn’t want you to miss them.
The modern meaning of the word unstaid, in the third line above, is uncontrolled or unrestrained, but the obsolete meaning, per MW online, is unsteady or vacillating. You can decide for yourself which meaning works better.
Now that I’ve given you a little context, and the history of unstaid, I think the lines stand pretty much on their own. I like them a lot, but I’m not sure I really have anything else to say about them. Perhaps we should just read them once more and enjoy them.
As you may have
noticed, we’ve been away for a few weeks. In fact, we were quite far away, in
beautiful Japan for nephew John’s wedding (and some sightseeing). In our stead,
Walker Peter has been holding down the fort and minding Mojo. As you can see, WP
has been keeping the little fellow safe and sound, and as you can also see, the
little fellow has been keeping a pretty low profile. He was a bit more outgoing
upon our arrival home last night. One might even say he was unstaid, in the modern
meaning of the word, when he saw us.
No comments:
Post a Comment