Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

This is strange: your father’s in some passion

That works him strongly.

 

Ferdinand

The Tempest                   Act IV, Scene i,  Line 144

 

This is at the end of the masque that Prospero is presenting for Ferdinand and Miranda. Prospero has suddenly remembered that he has to deal with Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo.

This got me to thinking if I ever had to deal with the father of a girlfriend who was in a passion that worked him strongly, and I don’t think that I ever did. Lucky me, I guess. On the other hand, I never had the father of a girlfriend throw a masque for her and me either.

No, I’m not going to ask Mojo if he's ever had this experience. I know for a fact that he hasn’t. 

"Well, have you, Mojo?"

"Thinking, thinking..."

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Mome, malt-horse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch!

 

Dromio of Syracuse

The Comedy of Errors    Act III, Scene i,  Line 32

 

Yes Mojo, I believe these are all insults that Dromio of Syracuse is yelling at Dromio of Ephesus. No Mojo, I would never call you a coxcomb. 

Merriam Webster online:

Mome: blockhead, fool (archaic)

Capon: a castrated male chicken

Coxcomb: jester’s cap (archaic), fool (obsolete)

Patch: noun (2) fool, dolt

Nothing for Malt-horse.

So, other than malt-horse, these insults are all available in Merriam Webster online. How about that?

He's such a sensitive little guy.

I would never call him a coxcomb, or a mome, or malt-horse, or any of these things.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Who? Sylvia?

 

Thurio

Two Gentlemen of Verona     Act IV, Scene ii,  Line 23

 

“Who’s Sylvia?”

“No, Mojo, Who? Sylvia?”

“No, who is Sylvia?”

“Oh. I’m not sure.”

“You’re not sure?”

“Yes, I’m not sure. I don’t know this play very well.”

“So, you’ve been doing this for over seven years, and you still don’t know the plays?”

“Well, I know them, but I don’t know all of them really well, and this is one of the ones that I don’t know well at all.”

“Ugfff. Can we play throw the chipmunk now?”

Some days we don't get too far with this new format.

I don't know where your stuffed Chipmunk is, Mojo.

I don't know who Sylvia is, and I don't know where the stuffed chipmunk is, and I'm beginning to seriously question why I decided to include you in this blog.

Ooof!

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Why, thou full dish of fool, Troy.

 

Thersites

Troilus and Cressida                      Act V, Scene i,  Line 9

 

So, we're at it again, Mojo and me, taking our morning foray into the world of Elizabethan drama.

“I don’t get it.”

“It’s pretty simple Mojo: Thersites is delivering a letter to Achilles who is hanging out with his buddy Patroclus. The latter asks Thersites where the letter is from, and Thersites answers that it’s from Troy, calling Patroclus a full dish of fool in the process.”

“So, he’s calling the guy a full dish of fool?” My little man looked up at me, obviously confused.

“Yes, you’ve got it.”

“A full dish of fool: that’s an insult?”

“Yes, obviously. Would you like me to call you a full dish of fool?”

“No, I’d like you to get me a full dish of food.”

“Okay, well now you’re changing the subject.”

“No I’m not. I’d like a full dish of food, please.”

“It’s hard to stay on topic with you.”

“I think we’re on the topic of a full dish of food. What’s so hard about that?”

“Okay.”

1. It didn't stay full very long.

2. Why do I feel like some little guy with a tail just made a full dish of fool out of me?

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

If there be one among the fair’st of Greece

That holds his honor higher than his ease;

That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril;

That knows his valour, and knows not his fear;

That loves his mistress more than in confession

With truant vows to her own lips he loves,

And dare avow her beauty and her worth

In other arms than hers,-- to him this challenge.

 

Aeneas

Troilus and Cressida                      Act I, Scene iii,  Line 268

 

Well, Aeneas is a Trojan and he’s come down to the Greek camp to issue a challenge. The challenge is for any of the Greeks That holds his honour high, etc, etc. to come and fight Troy’s best guy. That would be Hector.

Now we were looking at today’s passage, Mojo and I, and it sort of made sense until we got to the bit about loving his mistress more than in confession. That’s the part where Mojo looked up and me and said, “What’s this nonsense?” Well I certainly didn’t know and I told him as much. “And you’re thinking about using me to be your spokesman for telling people to read Shakespeare?” he said. I tried to explain to him that there are passages that we would come across that might take a little work to get a true understanding of. “Sure,” he replied, “let me know how that works out for you. I’m pretty sure my breakfast is calling me.” And off he strutted.

So I guess we’re going to have to work out the kinks in this Mojo Reads Shakespeare idea of mine.

Maybe I should just stick to letting the guy help with getting the knots out of my shoelaces. Leastways, that's what he told me he was doing. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

                   If thou couldst, doctor, cast

The water of my hand, find her disease,

And purge it to a sound and pristine health,

I would applaud thee to the very echo,

That should applaud again.

 

Macbeth

Macbeth                                  Act V, Scene iii,  Line 51

  

Today we have our friend Macbeth, not Frank Macbeth, or Sam Macbeth – just Macbeth. He’s in a bit of a sour mood. His servant has just told him that there are thousands of English soldiers marching on his castle, and the doctor has just told him that Lady Macbeth (at least she has a title; of course if she didn’t then we wouldn’t know, when we said Macbeth, whether we were talking about him or her) is ill and has a disease of the mind that he has no cure for.

Not a lot of good news for Macbeth. Today’s Totally Random Lines are Macbeth’s response to the doctor. I must say, it’s a bit of an odd response. First, that after all that the Macbeth couple have done, to expect the doctor to bring her back to a sound and pristine health. Yes, that’s right – not just sound but pristine. And if the doctor could do that, Macbeth would applaud him to the very echo, that should applaud again? That seems like a fairly odd way to compensate the good doctor, doesn’t it? And first off, what's this cast the water of my hands nonsense?

It's a fairly odd line today from the Scottish play.

This is the result of the doctor purging Lady Blagys's disease and bringing her to a sound and pristine health. To be clear, neither Lady Blagys, nor her husband Blagys, was involved in any murder plot. Lady Blagys's disease was flat feet. It seems unlikely that Will would write a play about flat feet, but you never know.

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

And of all Christian souls, I pray God. –God be wi’ you.                                                                                                 [Exit]

 

Ophelia

Hamlet                    Act IV, Scene v,  Line 198

The stage direction at the end of that line says Exit, but in fact Ophelia checked out a while ago. She’s pretty much gone at this point, singing silly songs and talking nonsense. And this is the last we’ll see of Ophelia in this play. A couple of scenes down the road we hear of her drowning, and then the scene after that she shows up at her own burial.

Ophelia has lent her name to all sorts of things in today's world, most of them in one way or another relating to troubled girls, troubled young women. Here's one example.

Natalie Merchant - Ophelia (Official Music Video) (youtube.com)

Ophelia was a bride of God
A novice Carmelite
In sister cells the cloister bells
Tolled on her wedding night

Ophelia was the rebel girl
A blue stocking suffragette
Who remedied society
Between her cigarettes

And Ophelia was the sweetheart
To a nation overnight
Curvaceous thighs, vivacious eyes
Love was at first sight, love was at first sight
Love

Ophelia was a demi-goddess
In pre-war babylon
So statuesque a silhouette
In black satin evening gowns

Ophelia was the mistress to
A vegas gambling man
Signora Ophelia Maraschino
Mafia courtesan

Ophelia was the circus queen
The female cannonball
Projected through five flaming hoops
To wild and shocked applause
To wild and shocked applause

Ophelia was a tempest cyclone
A goddamn hurricane
Your common sense, your best defense
They wasted and in vain

For Ophelia'd know your every woe
And every pain you'd ever had
She'd sympathize and dry your eyes
Help you to forget, and help you to forget
And help you to forget

Ophelia's mind went wandering
You'd wonder where she goes
Through secret doors down corridors
She wanders there alone, all alone

Es kostet mich keine kleine krise die verunreinigung und das
Es kostet mich keine kleine Krise die Verunreinigung und das
Suechtige aus meinem Leben auszuschliessen
But it is for me no little effort to exclude
The polluting and the addictive from my life

Compondo musica en un estado de ecstases
Composing music in a state of ecstasy
Fuerza de vida, de vida
Strength of life, of life
Mein Vater ist ein Architekt
My father is an architect