Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Sir,

He is with Caesar.

 

Soldier

Antony and Cleopatra            Act IV, Scene v, Line 8

This is one of those metric lines that’s split up between more than one speaker. Mark Antony and one of his soldiers are discussing the fact that someone has deserted and gone over to Caesar’s side, and Antony asks, who?

Soldier

One ever near thee: Call for Enobarbus,

He shall not hear thee; or from Caesar’s camp

Say ‘I am none of thine.’

Mark Antony

What say’st thou?

Soldier

Sir,

He is with Caesar.

 

See? What do you think? You don’t care? You don’t care about looking how one line of iambic pentameter is split up between two speakers? And it is a perfect line of iambic pentameter

Say I/ am none/ of thine/ what say’st/ thou sir.

See?

You still don't care, do you. Well, forget about the iambic pentameter, how about that Antony’s most trusted right-hand man, Enobarbus, has gone over to Caesar’s side?

You still don't care, do you?

They don't care, Mojo. They just don't care!

Ughh!  Cretins!!

He's flabbergasted.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

‘Tis well, ‘tis well: no more.

 

Page

The Merry Wives of Windsor         Act IV, Scene iv, Line 10

What I gave you above is actually the second part of line 10. The first part, starting a few lines earlier, is spoken by Ford:

                                 Henceforth do what thou wilt;

I rather will suspect the sun with cold

Than thee with wantonness: now doth thy honour stand

In him that was of late an heretic

As firm as faith.

 

                                ‘Tis well, ‘tis well; no more:

 

So I guess Ford was assuring Page that he thinks well of him, and Page is accepting that thought. Well that's nice. 

No Mojo, of course I would never suspect you of wantonness. 

But let's be honest here; you have no idea what wantonness is, do you?

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

It is not lost; but what an if it were?

Desdemona

Othello            Act III, Scene iv, Line 82

The subject here is a handkerchief that Othello (jealous husband) gave as a gift to Desdemona (innocent wife). Iago (dirty rat fink) has convinced Othello that Desdemona gave this hanky to Cassio (completely innocent bystander in this whole mess), the guy that Iago is saying is having an affair with Othello’s wife.

Now the subject of the hanky has come up and Desdemona can’t seem to produce it. Othello accuses her of losing it, and that’s when she comes up with today’s line. She keeps trying to change the subject back to Cassio, who she is trying to put in a good word for with Othello. Well, that’s not going to help.

Oh the trouble that a silly little hanky can cause!

Wow, that's a really good Rat Fink Iago face, Mojo. You nailed it... Hey, wait a minute! Are you eating the hanky!? That's a prop, Mojo, you're not supposed to eat it! 

Oh Mojo!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father, and refuse thy name;

Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,

And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

 

Juliet

Romeo And Juliet          Act II, Scene i, Line 75

Well, there you have it. Today’s Totally Random Line picked totally randomly. I suppose we were bound to hit this, or maybe To be, or not to be, sooner or later. Well, today is that sooner or later, so should we take a look?

Remember, wherefore means why, it has nothing to do with where. Why are you Romeo, she’s asking. Actually, she doesn’t really have a problem with the name Romeo so much; it’s his last name of Montague that’s the kicker. It’s just another case of two factions, in this case families, that hate each other just because of which faction they’re born into. That should resonate, unless you’re living under a rock somewhere. But of course, in this story Will has these two lovers rising above the ridiculousness of factional hate, so at least that’s nice. Well, it doesn't really work out all that well, but let's not go there right now.

I'm not sure what else to say about this famous, totally random line. I guess maybe nothing, other...

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?

As soon as Mr. Ham-it-up heard that we were doing Romeo and Juliet he decided he wanted to act out his favorite scene.

No, no Mojo, wherefore art thou doing the scene at the end of the play where Romeo goes belly up. You're on the wrong scene!

Oh well, I guess it's the only part he knows. What a piece of work this guy is.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

In thy foul throat thou liest: Queen Margaret saw

Thy murderous falchion (sword) smoking in his blood;

The which thou once didst bend against her breast,

But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

 

 

Lady Anne

King Richard the Third            Act I, Scene ii, Line 93

Yes, there’s a lot of this type of talk in the play King Richard the Third. And certainly much of it involves, in one way or another, Richard. In the case of today’s line, it is he who is being accused by Lady Anne of killing her husband. This is the scene where Richard talks Anne into marrying him, even though Anne is right: Richard did kill her husband. Strange times, eh?

It’s hard to say just how much Will fictionalized and sensationalized the actual historical facts in the process of writing this play. It's a little hard to fathom a fellow being able to successfully seduce a woman just a few minutes after she confronts him about killing her husband. But remember, Will's job was to fill theaters, not lecture as a history professor. It’s a known fact that he got the basic stories right in his history plays, but it’s also a known fact that he took a lot of liberties with the details. Richard the Third is remembered historically as being a reasonably rotten guy, but in recent years his history has been rewritten a little by modern day historians who’ve taken a second look, and question whether history might have given him a bad rap, helped on a bit by Will’s famous portrayal of him. It's hard to tell exactly who’s got the story right. But it did make for a good play. Some considered King Richard the Third Will’s breakthrough play, the one that first put him on the map in his day.

By the way, I put the word sword in parentheses so that you would know what a falchion was as you read the line. I’ve not previously done this, but it seems like a good way to help make the line easier to understand as it’s being read, instead of giving you the explanation afterwards. So I think I might adopt this method going forward. Just know that whenever you see a word in parentheses that it’s my word being inserted, not something that Will wrote. 

 

 

Our titular hero literally fell asleep on my wrist as I was typing today’s Mojo, The Bard, And Me.

Perhaps I should take that as a sign?

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

The spirit of my father grows strong in me, and I will no longer endure it: therefore allow me such exercises as may become a gentleman, or give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament; with that I will go buy my fortunes.

 

Orlando

As You Like It            Act I, Scene i, Line 74

Orlando is talking to his older brother, Oliver, who he feels is mistreating him. When their father died, Oliver, being the oldest, got the farm and everything, and Orlando got nothing. Now he’s telling Oliver that he’s had enough of being treated like a peasant, and he’s going to be leaving home.
Ahh, impetuous youth!

This is the very beginning of the story and this is just a set-up, a reason for Orlando to venture forth and have his adventures in the forest; the adventures that make up what this play is all about.

Speaking of getting fed up, I got pretty impatient with Mojo last night, perhaps as much so as Orlando is with Oliver. It’s been cold and windy outside and Mojo has been refusing to pee out there. The problem is that he’s not using the puppy pads inside, so it seems like he’s not peeing at all. Obviously, it’s possible (probable) that’s he’s peeing inside on the sly somewhere that he’s not supposed to, and that’s not good, so we’re trying to make sure he pees outside, which he’s been pretty good about doing - until lately.

So I decided that this morning I would not be in a rush when I took him out. In fact, I walked him all around the back yard. Well, the little bugger took a nice long pee on Sam’s tree right outside the garage, so I didn’t need the long walk. But hey, that was the plan, so I stuck with it. And It’s all good. We didn’t have quite the adventure that Orlando does in the forest of Arden, but I don’t think Mojo and I were really up for anything like that anyway. And the important thing is that Mojo peed and Pete didn’t get all worked up, and we both got a bit of a walk and some fresh air in the process.

And there you have it.

So, I did notice a few interesting things on our walk.
First, the big pine tree has dropped tons of little four-inch lengths of branch ends with the needles intact, so that it looks like a carpet of these little things underneath it.
Second, the mimosa tree on the back boundary line is really getting big. We haven’t gotten a good pink bloom out of that tree yet, but I’m looking forward to one this year.
Third, the ground back in the corner of the yard where the old shed is is crinkly. Yah, crinkly. When you walk on it it collapses an inch or so - kind of weird. 

Anything else? I think just that I enjoyed the walk. My feet are still warming up from it, and Mojo is tucked deep in my robe warming up, but the walk and the fresh air was good, very good. A nice way to start the day. Next time I'll bring my phone and take a few pics so you can see what I'm talking about.

Maybe Orlando just needs a good walk and some fresh air to clear his head. 

Or maybe not.

 

 Trust me, Mojo Leadbladder is tucked in there in my robe, warm and cozy and out of sight.