The World is an Oyster
I was talking to my mom and this was the piece of advice she gave me. "The world is an oyster." When queried, she admitted that she had no idea what that meant. I offered the suggestion that she might have made the phrase up. Has anyone else ever heard it and do you have any idea what it means?
posted by Shoshana @ 11:25 AM
2 Comments:
"THE WORLD'S MINE OYSTER
Falstaff: I will not lend thee a penny.
Pistol: Why then the world's mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.
Falstaff: Not a penny.
If you boast that 'The world's my oyster' nowadays, you are claiming that the world's riches are yours to leisurely pluck from the shell. The braggart ensign Pistol, however, utters the phrase as sort of a threat -- of the aggressively bombastic kind he's known for. Sir John Falstaff, a baggart almost the equal of Pistol, refuses to lend him a penny; Pistol promises to use his sword, if not on Falstaff, then on other helpless victims, to pry open their purses. Pistol's thievish intentions have largely been forgotten, and 'The world's my oyster' has become merely a conceited proclamation of opportunity."
From "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" by Michael Macrone (Random House, New York, 1998).
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/7/messages/132.html
Post a Comment
<< Home