Farewell, kinsman. I’ll talk to you
When you are better tempered to attend.
Shakespeare – as ever – is able to pin that frustration down more adeptly than anyone! One of the best things about studying – or teaching – literature is that great writers can express your feelings better than you can. Simple as. And it is comforting to feel that other people have been in the same position as you have, it really is …
I finished off the day with a brief, but heated, conversation with someone who I felt was not giving me an opportunity to defend or explain myself. It was all very accusatory. They asked me a few peremptory questions, barked a little, a lot actually – quite like a dog who wanted to feel they’d made their presence felt when the postman arrives – and I retreated from the situation, as it seemed pointless to hang around. Like that postman, I was irritated, but a tiresome yappy dog isn’t going to spoil the rest of my day …
I’m not just feeling hard done by, or in truth a little insulted by the way I was spoken to. But frustrated that I had not been allowed to put forward my version of events.
It put me in mind of Worcester trying to talk some sense into his distracted and irrational nephew, Harry Hotspur in Henry IV part 1. Sometimes you have to accept that people aren’t going to listen.
You start away
And lend no ear unto my purposes
So far, so frustrating. Like Worcester, I thought it pointless to go on:
Farewell, kinsman. I’ll talk to you
When you are better tempered to attend.
In this situation, I’m convinced I will eventually get some of this. I AM in the right, and if I’d been listened to … :
God forgive me!
Good uncle, tell your tale. I have done.
At which stage, Worcester will arrive in my mind again to say, with delicious sarcasm:
Nay, if you have not, to it again.
We will stay your leisure.
So, whilst we might call this ‘quote of the day’ it really is ‘exchange of the day’. We’ve reached number two in the process, but I do expect to reach number four.
And, wonderfully, Shakespeare has given me some catharsis tonight. I’m off to to do something more fun …
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Author: Boar's Head, Eastcheap
Villainous abominable misleader of youth; old white-bearded Satan - according to my boss. Landlord at Shakespeare's notorious tavern; hyperactive English Teacher; Unashamed Socialist; Reader; Scrabble Warrior; friend of the Orangutan
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