"That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain."
Okay my Shakespeare is slipping. Oh silly of me to not have gotten this sooner. I guess I've just been stuck with Kipling and Downton for so long. (Bates quotes Kipling, Matthew quotes Kipling. I love Kipling. My recent fanfic includes Kipling!)
Anyway, I've always loved Carlisle's remark to Matthew that he could smile and smile and be a villain, but I knew it wasn't Carlisle's own remark, it didn't just come to him. It is to good of a line to belong to Carlisle and it really doesn't fit Matthew at all even if it does make sense from Carlisle's pov (but who cares about Carlisle's point of view?)...
The source though is important. Which play does this line come from? Hamlet. Who says it? Hamlet says it about his mother. So haha Carlisle is throwing this attack casting Matthew as the women? Hamlet is an overly emotional young man crippled by circumstances all around him in the broadest of terms just that general basis is somewhat akin to Matthew. Given the subtext of the rest of the conversation about Lavinia, about Mary. I just thought it was interesting.
Act 1. Scene V
HAMLET
O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else?
And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, hold, my heart;
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven!
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables,--meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark:
Anyway, I've always loved Carlisle's remark to Matthew that he could smile and smile and be a villain, but I knew it wasn't Carlisle's own remark, it didn't just come to him. It is to good of a line to belong to Carlisle and it really doesn't fit Matthew at all even if it does make sense from Carlisle's pov (but who cares about Carlisle's point of view?)...
The source though is important. Which play does this line come from? Hamlet. Who says it? Hamlet says it about his mother. So haha Carlisle is throwing this attack casting Matthew as the women? Hamlet is an overly emotional young man crippled by circumstances all around him in the broadest of terms just that general basis is somewhat akin to Matthew. Given the subtext of the rest of the conversation about Lavinia, about Mary. I just thought it was interesting.
Act 1. Scene V
HAMLET
O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else?
And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, hold, my heart;
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven!
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables,--meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark: