Day 6

 

Wonderful 🌿 Let’s step into Day 6. Today, we’ll hear one of Shakespeare’s most haunting farewells — Othello’s last speech before his death — and then move with Plato into the opening of the Phaedrus, where Socrates and Phaedrus walk out into the countryside and begin to speak of love.

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Day 6 – Shakespeare & Plato

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Shakespeare: Othello, Act V, Scene 2

Othello’s last words

Context:
At the end of Othello, having killed Desdemona in a storm of jealousy, Othello discovers the truth: he has been deceived by Iago. Devastated, he delivers a farewell speech — defending himself, confessing, and finally taking his own life. It is at once proud, tragic, and deeply human.

Extract (~40 lines):

Soft you; a word or two before you go.
I have done the state some service, and they know’t:
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
Of one that lov’d not wisely but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplex’d in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;
And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban’d Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduc’d the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him, thus.

[He stabs himself.]

I kiss’d thee ere I kill’d thee: no way but this,
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.

Reflection prompts:

• Copy the line “Of one that loved not wisely but too well.” What does this reveal about Othello’s self-understanding?
• Shakespeare gives Othello both grandeur and self-delusion. Do you hear confession, excuse, or both?
• Compare this to Lear’s “More sinn’d against than sinning” and Brutus’ “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” Each tries to shape how they’ll be remembered — why do humans turn so instinctively to last words as legacy?

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Plato: Phaedrus

The walk outside the walls

Context:
Unlike the prison setting of the Phaedo, here Socrates and Phaedrus stroll outside Athens along the river Ilissus. The dialogue begins playfully — about rhetoric and a speech by Lysias on love — but soon opens into deeper reflections on eros, the soul, and beauty. This opening scene sets a pastoral, almost theatrical stage: philosophy as something done in fresh air, by the water, with myth and conversation woven together.

Extract (~3–4 paragraphs, Jowett translation):

Socrates: My dear Phaedrus, whither are you going, and whence do you come?

Phaedrus: I am coming from Lysias the son of Cephalus, and I am going to take a walk outside the wall, for I have been sitting with him the whole morning; and to tell you the truth, I am only too glad, Socrates, that I can get him to repeat to me a speech which he has just made.

Socrates: Lysias, the man of the sweetest discourses? What was the subject?

Phaedrus: Love; and the discourse was very ingenious.

Socrates: I wish that he would favor me with it. But perhaps you can repeat it from memory?

Phaedrus: Indeed, I tried very hard to remember it, and he was very willing to recite it several times; yet I cannot repeat it exactly, but I will do my best. For the place is delightful, and it would be pleasant to rest ourselves here. See how the plane tree spreads wide, and the agnus-castus, high and in full bloom, gives forth a delicious fragrance. And the stream flows beneath the plane tree very sweetly and coolly to the feet. Indeed, the place seems made for summer noonday repose.

Socrates: Indeed, a fair resting place. How delightful is the breeze! and see how the grass, like a pillow, gently slopes to the head. You may recite now, and I will listen.

Reflection prompts:

• Copy the phrase “The place seems made for summer noonday repose.” Philosophy begins here not in a court, but by a riverbank.
• Compare the setting of the Phaedo (prison, last day) with the Phaedrus (open air, flowing water). How do settings shape thought?
• Try this: take a walk outside, find a “plane tree” of your own, and read aloud. Does the place change the words?

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✨ Today’s resonance:
Othello ends in blood and memory, asking others to narrate his story justly. Socrates begins in sunlight and fragrance, inviting Phaedrus to speak of love. One is farewell, one is beginning.