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Sat 28 Dec, 2013 06:54 am
1) 'twere fair and just To spare the lovely day your lust?
Does it mean "it was fair and just to spare your sexual desire in this lovely day"?
2) The sweet young maiden to betray,
So that by wish and will you bend her?
Do the two lines mean "you want to betray the sweet young maiden, so that you will own her as you wish"?
Context:
Ask you, pray?
Yourself, perhaps, would keep the bubble?
Then I suggest, 'twere fair and just
To spare the lovely day your lust,
And spare to me the further trouble.
You are not miserly, I trust?
I rub my hands, in expectation tender!
(He places the casket in the press, and locks it again.)
Now quick, away!
The sweet young maiden to betray,
So that by wish and will you bend her;
And you look as though
You've understood it just about right.
@Lustig Andrei,
Lustig Andrei wrote:
You've understood it just about right.
The question is:
It used "'twere fair and just" (it were fair and just) not "'twas fair and just" (it was fair and just). It seems not a subjunctive mood. Why?
Plus, what does "tender" mean?
Does it mean "in tender expectation"(in
gentle/mild expectation)?
What does "press" mean?
Context:
I rub my hands, in expectation
tender!
(He places the casket in the
press, and locks it again.)
@oristarA,
It's the conditional "if it were." It's a very formal way of saying it. Shakespeare, in
Macbeth, for example, writes "...if it were done when it's done," meaning "if only it was over and done with when I do it." It's conditional. Perhaps someone like JTT can explain it in more formal terms.
@Lustig Andrei,
Thank you LA.
Plus, what does "tender" mean?
Does it mean "in tender expectation"(in gentle/mild expectation)?
What does "press" mean?
Context:
I rub my hands, in expectation tender!
(He places the casket in the press, and locks it again.)
@oristarA,
What does "press" mean?
It's a cupboard. (The expression is still in current use in Scotland)
@McTag,
Thank you McTag.
BTW, I've always been confused by your avatar. What is it?
@oristarA,
Who would like to reply this:
What does "tender" mean?
Does it mean "in tender expectation"(in gentle/mild expectation)?
@oristarA,
It is a picture of my double bass, taken from the bottom end.
In fact, it is this one:
@McTag,
McTag wrote:
It is a picture of my...bottom.
And they say selective editing is misleading.
@izzythepush,
That dynamite piece of editing is on a par with some of my worst efforts.
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