Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I shall do that that is reason.

 

Slender

The Merry Wives Of Windsor          Act I, Scene i, Line 199                                   

There are mornings that I don’t feel like writing about the line that I pick. Sometimes it’s me, and sometimes it’s the line, or maybe the play. Today I think it’s a little of both the line and the play, but I’m going to soldier on here and see where I get.

Well, there’s the that that in the line. I always find it interesting when you have a proper sentence that has two words, like that that, together. At first glance it can seem clumsy, or perhaps a typo (in fact, I’m surprised that Word doesn’t highlight that that in red as I’m typing), but it’s not. It’s merely that that that is needed to convey the thought. Did you see how I cleverly used three thats in a row in that last sentence that I typed. Now I’m just trying to use the word that as many times as I can in a sentence, and I’m just getting silly. Yes, I’ve been known to get silly. Perhaps that’s a sign that I need to end this post?

I guess you could argue that I shouldn't have bothered soldiering on today. Well anyway, I hope you don’t mind if I end by saying…

 …and that’s that.

Really? That's what you're going to end with? That's that?

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats (a lawn game like bocce or horseshoes) with ‘em? 

 

Hamlet

Hamlet                             Act V, Scene i, Line 97                                   

This is the scene where Hamlet and his buddy Horatio come upon the churchyard at night, and they are watching two gravediggers at work. The gravediggers have tossed up a skull that they’ve come across whilst digging, and it is the skull that Hamlet is talking about. They’ll come across another skull a few lines down and that one is the famous Yorick. But the skull in Today’s Line is just that of some anonymous henchman, and Hamlet is remarking at the insignificance of it, regardless of how important the owner of the skull may have been in life.

It’s a philosophical comment and not surprising considering that it’s coming from Hamlet. I can get a bit philosophical myself at times, and that’s not surprising either considering it’s coming from me. In fact, Mojo and I spend a lot of time philosophizing, thinking deep thoughts.

Sometimes I like to imagine what Mojo is thinking about: perhaps the nature of existence, or maybe the true meaning of beauty?

Squirrel!

Up in that tree, squirrel!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

A valiant Greek, Aeneas,- take his hand,-

Witness the process of your speech, wherein

You told how Diomed, a whole week by days,

Did haunt you in the field.

 

Paris

Troilus and Cressida          Act IV, Scene i, Line 8                                    

 

This line and scene are confusing. It takes place on a street in Troy. You’ve got the Trojans Paris and Deiphobus, they’re brothers. You’ve got Aeneas and Antenor, they’re Trojan generals. And you’ve got Diomedes, a Greek general. What the heck is a Greek general doing on a street in Troy?

I wanted to listen to this scene to see if that gave me some clarity, but this play is missing from my hard drive, so I’ll have to fix that. I guess I could look a the Play Shakespeare App summary. Okay, Paris has brought Diomedes into Troy for the prisoner exchange. That, at least, explains what Diomedes is doing in Troy.

So, without getting into the details of who’s being exchanged for whom, Paris (the son of King Priam of Troy) is talking to Aeneas (one of the Trojan generals), about Diomedes (a Greek general). He’s bringing up the fact that Aeneas had said that Diomedes had haunted him on the battlefield for a week. And that’s pretty much all of Today’s Line.

I guess if we were watching the play we would know at this point (the beginning of Act Four) who’s who, and this dialogue would make easy sense to us. I guess. Although, I remember watching a tv show the other night and some lady showed up in a scene as though she were one of the regulars, and I had no idea who she was. Luckily Patrice did, so that was pretty helpful. That saucy little wench can be pretty indispensable at times, that’s for sure. 

 

 This guy, on the other hand…

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I  cannot scratch mine ear.—Prithee, tell her but a worky-day fortune.?

 

Charmian

Anthony and Cleopatra         Act I, Scene ii, Line 50

 

Worky-day. That’s the original form of workaday. Tell her an ordinary, mundane fortune, that’s what Charmian is saying.

Speaking of Charmian…

...our beautiful daughter-in-law is named Charmaine (slightly different spelling). 

Mojo loves going to visit Charmaine because she has a really nice house, and Mojo gets his own luxurious accommodations there. They are anything but worky-day. In fact, they are accommodations fit for a king; which of course, is what Mojo feels he deserves.

It's always quite an adjustment for Mojo when we come home from Charmaine's house. Luckily he has his friend to console him as he eases back into his worky-day accommodations. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

O honey nurse, what news?

Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away.

 

Juliet

Romeo and Juliet           Act II, Scene iv, Line 18

 

Juliet is talking to Nurse whom she sent to bring a message to Romeo. She is very anxious to hear Romeo’s reply. 

Nurse is more like Juliet’s nanny, than a nurse. She’s the woman who’s been tending to Juliet her whole life. I’m not sure if that’s the reason she’s calling her ‘honey nurse’, or if it’s that she’s just over-excited to hear the news from Romeo, or perhaps a little of both. In any event, it’s a bit of a curious moniker, don’t you agree?

Honey nurse.   

I wish I had a honey nurse. I bet she'd feed me honey and hold me comfortably in her arms, not make me squeeze behind her neck like this bozo does.

I heard that.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

For what doth cherish weeds but gentle air?

 

Lord Clifford

King Henry the Sixth Part III      Act II, Scene vi, Line 21

 

Clifford is lying on the battlefield, wounded and whining about what a poor king Henry has been. Here, I’m going to give you a bit of it.

And, Henry, hadst thou sway’d as kings should do,

Or as the father and his father did,

Giving no ground unto the house of York,

I and ten thousand in this luckless realm

Had left no mourning widows for our death;

And thou this day hadst kept thy chair (throne) in peace.

For what doth cherish weeds but gentle air?

And what makes robbers bold but too much lenity?

So the gentle air in Today’s line is Henry’s gentle treatment of his enemies; and these same enemies, robbers (the Yorks and all those following the Yorks) are nothing but weeds. You gotta be a little bit tough with the weeds or they’re just gonna grow and take over. Right?

There, it’s a gardening metaphor. You can’t go wrong with a gardening metaphor.

 

And speaking of gardens: 

here is our ever vigilant Mojo, guarding against weeds in our garden. 

Go Mojo!

Weeds schmatz!

 I'm just here for the sunbeams. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Ay, madam: he desires to make atonement

Between the Duke of Gloster and your brothers,

And betwixt them and my lord Chamberlain;

And sent to warn them to his royal presence.

  

Duke of Buckingham

King Richard the Third         Act I, Scene iii, Line 37

 

The ‘he’ in Today’s Lines is King Edward IV, Richard the Third’s brother. Richard starts off in this play as the Duke of Gloster and doesn’t become king until Act Four.

The ‘madam’ in Today’s Line is Queen Elizabeth, King Edward IV’s wife.

This play portrays Richard as a fairly petty and evil little man. History tells us that he wasn’t all that bad, and that whilst his brother Edward was king he was quite faithful to him.

Today’s Lines tell us that Richard (Duke of Gloster) was already making trouble and that King Edward was working on smoothing this trouble out.

That’s what Today’s Lines are about.  

Sometimes when we get into theses scenes that are all about the different royals, Mojo likes to strike his Mojo the First pose to show me that he too could have been a royal,

Yes, your royal highness, that is a truly regal profile. 

Yah, you bethch'a!