Dined at home!—Thou villain, what sayest thou?

-Antipholus of Ephesus

The Comedy of Errors               Act IV, Scene IV, Line 68

 

This is taking place shortly after the two Ephesus guys were denied entrance to their own house (see 4/21 post), and now they meet up with A of E’s wife who’s telling him that he just had dinner with her (it was A of S who had dinner with her). So, in one sense, it’s pretty understandable that he’s going to be upset with his wife’s claim. In another sense, you would really think that by this point someone would have figured out what’s going on here. But wait, this is a comedy and we’re purposely asked to suspend our credulity. Right. Got it. Credulity suspended (see 4/27 post re credulity).

 

Here's some artwork from my nephew Will. He's the son of my illustrator Bill. Since we're talking about Comedy of Errors today, I should note the I've been trying to get going on a retelling of this one with Will as the illustrator. Obviously the kid's got talent. Now I just need to get going on the book!

 

Good king, that must approve the common saw,

Thou out of heaven’s benediction comest

To the warm sun!

Approach, thou beacon to this under globe,

That by thy  comfortable beams I may

Peruse this letter!

-Kent

King Lear                   Act II, Scene II, Line 161

 

Okay, this is the beginning of Kent’s little soliloquy that ends this act. In terms of context, Kent has been put in the stocks for the night by Regan and Cornwall, and there we find him all alone, contemplating the overall situation. I have to tell you, this speech is a bit hard to understand. I contemplated giving you the whole thing, fourteen lines, but decided against it. You’re welcome.

It does however have a good, and easily understandable, ending, so I’ll give you the line he ends with.

Fortune, good night: smile once more: turn thy wheel!

Sleeps

 

And here you have a pic of the warm sun. Or perhaps it's the beacon to this under globe, or maybe the comfortable beams. Whichever you prefer.

 

To beg of you, kind friends, this coat of worth,

For it was sometimes target to a king;

I know it by this mark.

 

-Pericles

Pericles               Act II, Scene I, Line 136

 

Pericles has just ended up on shore after being shipwrecked. The fishermen nearby have just hauled in Pericles’s suit of armor with their nets, and Pericles is asking them to give him the armor. Of course, they’ll hand it right over. How that armor managed to wash up on shore quite so quickly, well that’s another thing altogether, but I guess we’ll just have to suspend credulity for the time being.

On the other hand, what’s credulity? Well that could get us into a very long, philosophical discussion. Couldn’t it?

 

Speaking of credulity, consider Exhibit A: Here we have a picture of my two Cordelias. Now they’re both in their thirties, so even though they are my little girls, I think it’s fair to refer to them as grown women. So, does it strain credulity that one grown woman would stand on the back of another grown woman to spy over the fence at the neighbors? Well if we want to get into a philosophical discussion of it, I suppose we could ask Jess’s fiancé (Jess is the one peeking over the fence) since he is a philosophy professor. Isn’t that a coincidence. And just to make it more interesting, Jess and Andy (that’s the philosophy professor) went to see the play Pericles when they were dating early on. I was supposed to go with them but hurt my back and got sidelined. And, by the way, Andy has told me I could declare myself a philosopher if I wanted to (which I have). 

So there’s a lot going on here; certainly enough to strain, if not shatter, credulity. A suit of armor washing up on shore? Well I guess that's nothin'.