Today’s Totally Random
Lines
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
Duke of Illyria
Twelfth Night; Or, What
You Will Act I, Scene i, Line 1
I had thought to give you just that one first line, since it's a pretty famous line on it's own, but the next two lines finish the sentence and, more importantly, the thought. And the thought of the first line is terribly incomplete without those two additional lines.
So, just to be sure we’re all on the same page, surfeit is excess, or overindulgence, or even a disgust caused by excess. I believe what the Duke is referring to when he talks about the appetite sickening and dying, is the appetite for love, not for music. Much of this play is based around the duke’s unrequited love for Olivia, and so Will is getting right to that point in the first line of the play: the duke is tired of getting nowhere with his love for Olivia and would just as soon that his love sicken, and so die.
For all you who have heard that one line, If music be the food of love, play on; and thought that it was a positive sentiment about music and/or love, well, it’s not. And doesn’t that just show you how easily you can pluck a few words out of a sentence, or paragraph, or whatever, and with a lack of context completely misrepresent what’s being said.
Now it's one thing when this is done unintentionally (as with most of the people who might chance to quote this line), and an altogether different thing when done with full intent (as with modern day reporting on people or events). So let this line be a lesson to you.
What’s the lesson?
I feel like that's the exact some position you were in yesterday, Mojo.
That’s the lesson?
No that's not...
...Oh never mind!
No comments:
Post a Comment