'Some Carry-Tale, Some Please-Man'

I enjoy gossip as much as the next guy – hearing it more than passing it along. There’s a reason they call it dirt. A longtime reader on Friday shared a nasty and most likely true story about a fellow blogger. Lip-smacking was audible in his email. I get it. I briefly felt that rush of satisfaction we experience when people we don’t like confirm our low estimation of them. I claim no virtue in not being a tattle-tale. That sort of thing has a way of biting you in the ass when you least expect it. 

I make a point of reading Shakespeare’s lesser plays, some of the dreary ones, unfunny comedies and so forth, simply to stay in practice and remind myself that even tepid or mediocre Shakespeare is studded with unexpected jewels. Here is Biron speaking to the king and princess in Act V, Scene 2 of Love’s Labour’s Lost:  

 

“Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight zany,

Some mumble-news, some trencher-knight, some Dick . . .”

 

Carry-tale: isn’t that gorgeous folk poetry, intuitively understood? That it rhymes with fairy tale is bonus. The OED cites Shakespeare and defines it as “a person who habitually spreads rumours or gossips; a telltale, a gossip.” The Dictionary cites the same passage in its entry for please-man: “a person who tries to please others; a sycophant, a flatterer.” And "Dick" is a man's name.