0
What is the meaning of the quote by shakespeare Is love a generation of vipers?
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
Pandarus says this in Act III Scene 1 of Troilus and Cressida. Pandarus (who has been acting as the sexual go-between between Troilus and Cressida and who is basically a pimp) has just finished singing an incredibly obscene and filthy song to Paris, who is dallying with Helen of Troy in the Trojan palace while the Trojan warriors are out on the battlefield fighting the Greeks. Paris says "He eats nothing but doves, love, and that breeds hot blood, and hot blood begets hot thoughts, and hot thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is love." Doves, it would seem, are an aphrodisiac. Pandarus replies "Is this the generation of love? hot blood, hot thoughts, and hot deeds? Why, they are vipers: is love a generation of vipers?" He means "Is this what generates love?" He then refers to a phrase used in the King James Bible, (three times in St. Matthew's Gospel and once in St. Luke's) a "generation of vipers". This means in The Bible, either a generation as we would understand it or the offspring of vipers. But here he has just talked about the process of generation (hot blood, hot thoughts, and hot deeds) of love and then asks if the next step is from love to vipers.
This doesn't make much sense unless you remember that vipers are snakes and think about what someone with an incurably dirty mind thinks of when you start talking about snakes. Hot blood makes hot thoughts which makes hot deeds which makes love and that makes . . . you know what.
It's a filthy play. Don't even try to get started on the song he sung just before.
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
What Shakespeare play is this quote from 'Love is the most beautiful of dreams and the worst of nightmares'?
The quote does not appear in any Shakespeare play.
What was the quote William Shakespeare on The Gilded Age?
Shakespeare wasn't alive during the Gilded Age.
What book of shakespeare this quote came from - feel the pain until it hurts no more?
Shakespeare did not say that. It is an internet meme which has somehow become attached to Shakespeare.
Which author wrote the line to be or not to be?
William Shakespeare; it is a line from Hamlet's soliloquy in the play 'Hamlet' (act 3, scene 1).
William Shakespeare quote do no harm?
No this is part of a physicians creed. First do no harm.
Who wrote this quote 'a kind of excellent dumb discourse'?
William Shakespeare. I don't understand the meaning of this particular quote, so don't ask.
What Shakespeare play is this quote from 'Love is the most beautiful of dreams and the worst of nightmares'?
The quote does not appear in any Shakespeare play.
What was the quote William Shakespeare on The Gilded Age?
Shakespeare wasn't alive during the Gilded Age.
What play was to be or not to be in?
"To be or not to be" is a quote from the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
What line is the quote to be or not to be that is the question in?
The quote "To be or not to be, that is the question" is found in Act 3, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.
Who wrote the quote you band of brothers?
It is from Henry V by Shakespeare.
What book of shakespeare this quote came from - feel the pain until it hurts no more?
Shakespeare did not say that. It is an internet meme which has somehow become attached to Shakespeare.
Which author wrote the line to be or not to be?
William Shakespeare; it is a line from Hamlet's soliloquy in the play 'Hamlet' (act 3, scene 1).
Is there a quote in one of Shakespeare's plays about being asleep in the arms of Morpheus?
It is an oft quoted phrase but it is not from any of Shakespeare's plays.
Did William Shakespeare have a famous saying?
His most famous quote is probably "to be or not to be"
What quote does Edward Cullen say a lot?
mainly stuff from shakespeare
Who has said the quote The miserable have no other medicine but hope?
William Shakespeare
