#1  
Old 30-Apr-2003, 20:22
mei
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Default accidents by flood and field

Hi,

Could anyone tell me what the phrase 'accidents by flood and field" means? Thanks a lot.

Mei
  #2  
Old 30-Apr-2003, 22:20
RonBee's Avatar
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Default Re: accidents by flood and field

Quote:
Originally Posted by mei
Hi,

Could anyone tell me what the phrase 'accidents by flood and field" means? Thanks a lot.

Mei
I don't recall ever seeing that phrase, but I might be able to guess its meaning if I have sufficient context.

8)
  #3  
Old 01-May-2003, 16:34
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Default Re: accidents by flood and field

It comes from Shakespeare:
Of moving accidents by flood and field.
- Othello the Moor of Venice (Othello at I, iii)

From the text, I think it means 'accidents that occured in fields or with floods'. :D
Her father loved me; oft invited me;
Still question’d me the story of my life,
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have passed.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To the very moment that he bade me tell it:
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth ’scapes i’ the imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
And portance in my travels’ history;
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven,
It was my hint to speak,—such was the process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear 2
Would Desdemona seriously incline.
  #4  
Old 01-May-2003, 18:19
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Default Re: accidents by flood and field

Sometimes, the context needed to understand an unfamiliar phrase is considerable indeed.

Shakespeare wrote such poetry as stands up down throught the ages. It moves the soul.

:D

8)
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Old 02-May-2003, 11:20
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Default Re: accidents by flood and field

I had to look it up- without the context, it would have meant nothing at all to me. :?
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