Friday, June 30. William Shakespeare's Thought For The Day:

"Thou art baser than a cutpurse."

The Two Noble Kinsmen, Act II, Scene 2, Line 213.

Ah, Abramoff!

Now, I'm sure I'm not getting all of this.....just what is a cutpurse?

I am sure that this word is significant!

Anyway, another great job!

I salute you, kind sir......wouldn't miss these for anything!

:patriot:

You know, the owners of Indian casinos and such. A cutpurse is just that, a person who cuts the strings holding a purse to a man's belt. (This in the days when men carried purses, really just cloth sacks, for their coinage.) Cutpurses were legion in places like the Globe Theater, where everyone was distracted by the action on stage, and a cutpurse could make a good living wandering among the crowd, and snipping the strings of a purse without being noticed.

Hi, CalPeg! :hi:

I had a feeling it was something like that!

You are too clever for words, my dear Aristus!

:hi:

Our cutpurse congress has a nice ring to it, if applied in the right circumstance. Cutpurse CEOs.

from dictionary.com

n : a thief who steals from the pockets or purses of others in public places

I couldn't do it nearly as well. May I make one suggestion? Part of the beauty of S's language, at least for me, is the context. I know that the brevity of your quotes is designed to make the connection to the pic clear, but, for me at least, to see a complete quote posted somewhere below the pic and the selected quote would be very useful in appreciating S's genius. Perhaps you could then highlight the selected quote within the larger quote below.

Please, please do not take this as criticism. I will look forward to your Shakespeare posts just as they are, and truthfully, maybe doing as I suggest would muddy the intent unnecessarily. I don't know. I copied the following from a website as a possible example:

ARCITE.

Fie, Sir,
You play the Childe extreamely: I will love her,
I must, I ought to doe so, and I dare;
And all this justly.

PALAMON.

O that now, that now
Thy false-selfe and thy friend had but this fortune,
To be one howre at liberty, and graspe
Our good Swords in our hands! I would quickly teach thee
What 'twer to filch affection from another:
Thou art baser in it then a Cutpurse;
Put but thy head out of this window more,
And as I have a soule, Ile naile thy life too't.

You're right, though, I'm keeping them short pretty much for brevity's sake. Context is important, but sometimes the context will rob the quote of its bite regarding the subject I've chosen for it. In rare cases the full quote is beautifully savage towards the subject. Case in point is the WSTFTD with B*sh doing one of his "clueless" expressions, and the quote: "But man, proud man, drest in a little brief authority..."

The whole thing just fit him to a T.

I'm glad and proud to have you here every day, LL. I'll keep doing my best for ya. :-) :hi:

Unfortunately, most people can only handle it in small doses, myself included.

One day, however, I will leave DU (with Kiraboo and Ms. American Pie) for some tropical island (yet to be chosen). There I will again, happily and in ernest, take up the task.

to the popular question: "If you could take just one book with you to a desert island, what would it be?"

As you might expect, the Bible is the #1 answer.

You always match the image with the text perfectly!

:hi: :thumbsup:

:hi: Nice to see you. B-)