This Top-Proud Fellow

BUCKINGHAM
This butcher's cur is venom-mouth'd, and I
Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best
Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar's book
Outworths a noble's blood.

NORFOLK
What, are you chafed?
Ask God for temperance; that's the appliance only
Which your disease requires.

BUCKINGHAM
I read in's looks
Matter against me; and his eye reviled
Me, as his abject object: at this instant
He bores me with some trick: he's gone to the king;
I'll follow and outstare him.

NORFOLK
Stay, my lord,
And let your reason with your choler question
What 'tis you go about: to climb steep hills
Requires slow pace at first: anger is like
A full-hot horse, who being allow'd his way,
Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England
Can advise me like you: be to yourself
As you would to your friend.

BUCKINGHAM
I'll to the king;
And from a mouth of honour quite cry down
This Ipswich fellow's insolence; or proclaim
There's difference in no persons.

NORFOLK
Be advised;
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself: we may outrun,
By violent swiftness, that which we run at,
And lose by over-running. Know you not,
The fire that mounts the liquor til run o'er,
In seeming to augment it wastes it? Be advised:
I say again, there is no English soul
More stronger to direct you than yourself,
If with the sap of reason you would quench,
Or but allay, the fire of passion.

BUCKINGHAM
Sir, I am thankful to you; and I'll go along
By your prescription: but this top-proud fellow,
Whom from the flow of gall I name not but
From sincere motions, by intelligence,
And proofs as clear as founts in July when
We see each grain of gravel, I do know
To be corrupt and treasonous.

Back again a week on - free drinks ahead, but fearing still the need to pay a proper penance for last week's indulgence. Perhaps the reputation is firm and so little new damage has been incurred. Yet it is the uncertainty of the specific action/accusation that lies uneasily. Alas, in such a world with its complexities, to be worried by matters as trivial as unremembered revels. In seeking out the Shakes, I came across this gem from one Douglas Engelbart that gets quickly to the rub: “The rate at which a person can mature is directly proportional to the embarrassment he can tolerate.”

Remember how the mere repeating of this quote prompted a look at the photos and the realization that a night of knowing frowns may be best avoided. Fraser (at least his camera) was the one to capture the sadly perfect shot for posterity. It is one to print and save for laughs in future climes.

So, the choice is made. Scotia Square for the ingredients, a run across the harbour on the boat and back, and then some festing with Nasser and co. Where that leads, who might say, but it has the merits of anonymous enjoyment, reflection, and rejoicing. What more is there?

Look up at the closeness of the full moon and wonder.

And bookmark that moment out of tiredness today at noon, in discussing compliance CBL foolishness, when the mind reeled in its full confrontation with the why this one-consciousness/perspective philosophical debate. You could always stay. But that is another reason why you must go.

Those tumbling dice were cast awhile ago now, and there is no picking them back up.