Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Stay, murderous villains! Would you kill your brother?

 

Aaron

Titus Andronicus      Act IV, Scene ii, Line 88

 

In this play everyone pretty much kills anyone, so I’m not quite sure why Aaron is questioning whether these guys would kill their brother. In fact, if you’re going to pick one random line from this play, picking one with the words murderous villains in it seems quite appropriate. 

I had thought to skip the context this morning, because it’s pretty convoluted, but it’s occurred to me that since the topic is race, maybe we should go for it. 

Okay, in one sentence: Queen Tamora had a baby with Aaron the Moor (black man, not her husband) and sends her adult sons, with the newborn, dark-skinned baby that no one’s seen yet, to Aaron with instructions for the baby to be killed and disposed of. How’s that? Problem is, Aaron doesn’t want to kill the baby, his only son.

Now here's the thing, it’s interesting that in this play of heinous acts of murder, right and left, there is such an emphasis on parental love: Titus doing what he can to protect his kids (to the point of cutting off his own hand), Tamora’s strong protective sense for her sons (well, not this new son - sorry, but that little dark-skinned guy could get her killed), and now Aaron also looking out for his son.

So if we can look past all the violence for a minute, today’s line gets into the issue of how Will treated minorities in his plays. Granted, there wasn’t too much of their presence in his works (or perhaps in his world?), but it was there. He looks at it here in Titus (blacks), with Shylock in Merchant (Jews), and with the strangers in Sir Thomas More (immigrants). In each case there are very compelling  arguments that Will recognized the existence of the prejudices but that he looked past those prejudices and presented the human side of the marginalized minorities. In fact I would argue that Will did a better job than some of us are doing now. Will recognized and showed the reality of his world. The reality is that there were people being treated differently and poorly. He didn’t’ try to whitewash it, but he did try to show that these people were people, like the rest of us. I would argue that some of today’s writings don't do as good a job recognizing the reality of our world. Yes, like it or not, the prejudices and mistreatments continue to exist. I think in some instances, good intentioned or not, we want to whitewash it. Not a good idea. 

 

 

In the interest of today's theme, Mojo suggested that I use a pic of his Tennessee cousins for today's post. He thought it would be nice to show a picture of different colors and types coexisting in harmony. 

Left to right, that's Luigi, Truffles, Maple, and Jess.

 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Here is a letter from Queen Hecuba;

A token from her daughter, my fair love;

Both taxing me and gaging me to keep

An oath that I have sworn.

 

Achilles

Troilus And Cressida        Act V, Scene i, Line 38

Well, I looked at the scene summary and apparently the oath that Achilles swore was to his girlfriend, Hecuba’s daughter, who also happens to be Hector’s sister. It was an oath not to kill Hector. So there goes tomorrow’s plan about killing Hector. Well, you know what they say, the best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry. Well, at least that’s the way I say it. The original is actually

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

    Gang aft agley.

   That’s from a Robert Burns poem about a mouse. It’s written in 1785 in the Scottish vernacular. I’m tempted to give you the whole poem because it’s just lovely, but I guess I won’t do that to you. Anyway, it’s translated a few different ways. I like The best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry.  And ain’t that the truth!

  Oh heck, I can’t help myself. Here’s the whole poem. Leave the world behind for a few minutes and enjoy! It’s only eight stanzas. I know that there are some parts of it that are hard to understand (though the dialect and words are so delightful), but if you know the basic premise you can pretty much get through it. And the basic premise is in the subtitle: he’s turned up a mouse’s nest with his plow and now he’s talking to the mouse about that, and what it will mean to the mouse. I particularly like the last two stanzas; and pay special attention to the last; it has a really good message. 

 

To A Mouse

On Turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November 1785.

 

Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie,

O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

          Wi’ bickerin brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee

          Wi’ murd’ring pattle!

 

I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion

Has broken Nature’s social union,

An’ justifies that ill opinion,

          Which makes thee startle,

At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,

          An’ fellow-mortal!

 

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;

What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!

A daimen-icker in a thrave

          ’S a sma’ request:

I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,

          An’ never miss ’t!

 

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!

It’s silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!

An’ naething, now, to big a new ane,

          O’ foggage green!

An’ bleak December’s winds ensuin,

          Baith snell an’ keen!

 

Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste,

An’ weary Winter comin fast,

An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,

          Thou thought to dwell,

Till crash! the cruel coulter past

          Out thro’ thy cell.

 

That wee-bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble

Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!

Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,

          But house or hald,

To thole the Winter’s sleety dribble,

          An’ cranreuch cauld!

 

But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

          Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

          For promis’d joy!

 

Still, thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me!

The present only toucheth thee:

But Och! I backward cast my e’e,

          On prospects drear!

An’ forward tho’ I canna see,

          I guess an’ fear!

 

The more I read that poem, the more wonderful it is. Once again, proof that I do appreciate writers other than William Shakespeare. 

 

And what are your plans for the day, my wee, sleeket, beastie?