Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Variations on a Theme: Bid me ... Farewell

There's a sort of symmetry in these scenes.

From Richard III 1.2.213-219:
GLOUCESTER: Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it. 
LADY ANNE: I have already. 
GLOUCESTER: Tush, that was in thy rage:
Speak it again, and, even with the word,
That hand, which, for thy love, did kill thy love,
Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths thou shalt be accessary.

From Richard III 1.2.251-253:
GLOUCESTER: Bid me farewell.  
LADY ANNE:  'Tis more than you deserve;
 But since you teach me how to flatter you,
 Imagine I have said farewell already. 

From Much Ado About Nothing 2.3:
BEATRICE:  Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.   
BENEDICK:  Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.  
BEATRICE:  I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would not have come.  
BENEDICK: You take pleasure then in the message? 
BEATRICE:  Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point and choke a daw withal. You have no stomach, signior: fare you well. 

From Much Ado About Nothing 4.2:
BENEDICK:   Come, bid me do any thing for thee.  
BEATRICE:   Kill Claudio.  
BENEDICK:   Ha! not for the wide world.   
BEATRICE:   You kill me to deny it. Farewell.

No comments: