Monday, April 04, 2011

Alexander the Pig

   
GOWER:  O, 'tis a gallant king!

FLUELLEN;  Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower.  What call you the town's name where Alexandesr the Pig was porn?

GOWER: Alexander the Great.

FLUELLEN;  Why, I pray you, is not pig great?  The pig, or the great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the magnanimous, are all one reckoning, save the phrase is a little variation.

GOWER:  I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon; his father was call'd Philip of Macedon, as I take it.

FLUELLEN:   I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn.  I tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the 'orld, I warrant you sall find, in the comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations, look you, is both alike.  There is a river in Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth: it is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both.
 --Shakespeare, Henry V IV viii

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