Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,
I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,
Both to my God and to my gracious king:
And I do think—or else this brain of mine
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure

As it hath used to do—that I have found

The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy.

 

Polonius

Hamlet                    Act II Scene ii, Line 44

Polonius is the OG long-story-short-Tony. All he’s saying here is Yes, I think I know why Hamlet’s acting so strange.

Having said that, I must say that I like, and I wish I could remember it so I could use it, a piece of long-story-short-Polonius’s line: Or else this brain of mine hunts not the trail of policy so sure as it hath used to do. Oh boy, I could use that line many times a day. I guess a lot of people my age could. Only problem is that people my age are no way going to remember something that long because, well, these brains of ours hunt not the trail of policy so sure as they hath used to do. I think that’s what they call a Catch-22. Oh well. Still, not a bad line, even though it’s a little long.

Apparently we’ve petered out on the Peter streak. But just to make sure that you’ll not be too disappointed, here’s a second helping of Walker Peter with baby Mojo; no long-story-short-Pete stuff, just a good, solid pic.

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Come, fellow, follow us for your reward.

 

Henry

King Henry the Sixth Part II         Act II Scene iii, Line 101

You will never, in a million years, guess the name of the fellow that Henry is addressing in today’s line.
It’s Peter. That’s right, Peter Thump.

After that rant yesterday about the lack of Peters in Will’s works, we come upon a Peter for the second day in a row! Totally Random! Totally amazing!

I’m pretty sure that this is a scene that I’ve never visited. I can see from my unmarked text that we’ve never picked a random line from here before. It’s an odd little scene that starts with the Duchess of Gloster being sent into exile and ends with two commoners coming before the king for judgment. And one of them is Peter Thump. That’s right, Peter Thump. Apparently, Peter Thump is the servant of Thomas Horner. I’m not exactly sure why, but it’s been determined that these two will duel to decide the outcome of a dispute. And Peter wins the duel.

So I think we’ll just end it at that for today. We’ll end it with Peter Thump, the victor, going off with the king to get his reward. 

Peter Thump.

Really. Peter Thump? 

Yes, that's right Mojo, Peter Thump.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Robin Starveling the tailor.

 

Peter Quince

A Midsummer Night’s Dream       Act I Scene ii, Line 54

This is Peter Quince taking roll call in the scene where we meet the actors of the play within the play. Quince is assigning roles as he goes, and Robin Starveling is assigned the role of Thisby’s mother.
The scenes with these actors is by far my favorite part of Midsummer Night’s Dream. And of course, who doesn’t like Bottom?

Quince is one of the few Shakespearean characters named Peter. Naturally I would notice this. And in fact, I don’t think Quince’s first name comes up much. It does in the next line when Robin Starveling answers Here, Peter Quince. However, in the cast of characters and throughout the script, Peter Quince is noted simply as Quince or Quince, a carpenter. Though on quick perusal I can see that Peter Quince is used at least five times in this scene, mostly as the players answer roll call.

I know that there are other Peter’s throughout Will’s plays, but not too many. Naturally, I always notice Peters when I run into them.
I went through grammar school and high school with a kid named Peter McGuinness. I always felt a kindredship with him, and I always felt that it was mutual because we shared the same name. We were never close friends, but we were always friends.

I can’t think of any Peters that I currently know and deal with. Except of course Walker Peter.

I'm pretty sure that Mojo has always felt a kindredship with Walker Peter.

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

What should we do with these bald tribunes?

 

Coriolanus

Coriolanus                     Act III Scene i, Line 164

Bald is foolish, and tribunes are the peoples' representatives in the senate.  

What should we do with these foolish representatives?

This scene is all about two of the smarmy tribunes confronting Coriolanus and the latter’s response to them, of which Today’s Line is only a small part.

The tribunes are indeed much more than just foolish, and every time I look at this play I am reminded of the many fools we have in D.C. today.

I can’t help it.

PULL UP, Pete! PULL UP, PULL UP!

Still a fine play, though; a very fine play. It should be taught in our schools. Assuming we still have schools going forward.

PULL UP!

This little man isn't concerned about tribunes, or schools, or much of anything else. 

His concern? Sunbeams!

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

When they had sworn to this advised doom,

They did conclude to bear dead Lucrece hence,

To show her bleeding body thorough Rome,

And so to publish Tarquin's foul offense:

Which being done with speedy diligence,

   The Romans plausibly did give consent

   To Tarquin's everlasting banishment.

 

Lucrece                  Lines 1,849 – 1,855

Narrator

These are the last lines of this long poem/story, and they speak of Tarquin being banished for the crime of raping Lucrece. I’m not sure what the typical Roman sentence for rape was, but it seems like Tarquin’s getting off easy here. Lucrece, in case you didn’t know, killed herself in shame a few stanzas back.

It’s a fairly depressing poem, isn’t it. 

 

Fairly depressing?!

I’m ready to kill myself here!

 Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt

Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

 

Sonnet 144                     concluding couplet

Well, since this is the concluding couplet, I had thought that we might as well take a look at the whole sonnet, and to do it one quatrain at a time. But to tell you the truth, as I typed the whole sonnet out, I came across something more interesting: better angel. And since the whole sonnet is fairly difficult - scratch that: damned near impossible - to work with, why don’t we just take a look at better angel. 

Will mentions this angel in the first quatrain.

Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colour’d ill.

Then he makes reference to this better angel again in the last line of the sonnet. 

Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

My good one in this last line is his better angel, though I’m not sure what it means to have his bad angel fire my good one out.

In any event, the better angels of our nature is a term made very famous by Abraham Lincoln in his first inaugural address. I knew it was Lincoln, but I had to look up to find out exactly where he said it.

The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely as they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

These better angels of our nature have been referred to time and time again by speakers and writers. And the credit has always been given to Abe for creating ‘better angels’.

It’s a fine quote, and Abe was a wonderful writer and speaker, and I would love to give him credit, however…

I would be remiss if I failed to point out that Abe, whilst a great writer and speaker, was also a great lover of, and reader of - you guessed it - William Shakespeare. It’s quite well documented. So, whilst Abe is given credit for better angels, I have to believe that consciously or not, he didn’t quite make the term up.

Yup, it’s Will’s.

 

Am I your better-

Yes Mojo, you are certainly my better angel.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

And, were they attired in grave weeds,

Rome could afford no tribune like to these.

 

Titus

Titus Andronicus                  Act III Scene i, Line 44

Two of Titus’s sons have just been led off to be executed for a crime they did not commit. Titus is pleading for his sons’ lives with the tribunes, who appear to be ignoring him, when Titus’s other son, Lucius, comes in. He tells his father that he is pleading in vain, and that no tribune is listening to them. Here is Titus’s full response to his son.

Why, ‘tis no matter, man: if they did hear,
They would not mark me; or if they did mark,
They would not pity me. Yet plead I must:
And bootless unto them…
Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;
Who, though they cannot answer my distress,
Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,
For that they will not intercept my tale:
When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
Receive my tears, and seem to weep with me;
And, were they but attired in grave weeds,
Rome could afford no tribune like to these.
A stone is soft as wax, tribunes more hard than stones;
A stone is silent, and offends not,
And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.—
But wherefore stand’st thou with thy weapon drawn?

That last line refers to the fact that Lucius has decided to go rescue his brothers.

I think it’s a good little speech about the quality of tribunes and of stones and of a man’s desperation. It made me think a little of the Simon and Garfunkel line… and a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries…

It also makes me think, more so, of some of today’s public officials, today’s tribunes, and how they are worth less than stones, for the reasons that Titus gives. Yes, there are days when I feel that many of our current tribunes are as dumb and deaf, and as worthless as rocks or stones.

Well put, Will.

Pull up, Pete, pull up!

Forget about pulling up, Pete… are you as deaf as rocks and stones! 

I’m down here! Let me out of this thing!

HEY!