Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best,

Even to thy pure and most most loving breast.

  

Narrator

Sonnet 110             Concluding Couplet

All right then; that’s the last two lines of the sonnet, and this being a sonnet, like many of them, it’s hard enough to understand in its entirety, so it makes no sense at all trying to figure out these two lines. Unless of course we take a stab at the whole thing. Well that being said, no, I don’t mind if I do. Here goes.

As I’ve said many times, the sonnets are best viewed a quatrain at a time. Here’s number one.

Alas, ‘tis true I have gone here and there,

And made myself motley to the view,

Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear,

Made old offences of affections new;

Sounds like he’s saying that he’s been a pretty big jerk. It’s hard to tell exactly what he’s done, but he’s acted poorly, that’s for sure.

Most true it is that I have looked on truth

Askance and strangely: but, by all above,

These blenches (turnings aside) gave my heart another youth,

And worst essays (trials or tests) proved thee my best of love.

This second quatrain gets a little tougher. I think he’s reiterating that he’s done wrong, but by doing so it has allowed him to see anew that thee (whoever that is) is his true love.

Now all is done, have what shall have no end:

Mine appetite I never more will grind

On newer proof, to try an older friend,

A god in love, to whom I am confined.

I’m pretty much throwing up my hands and waving the white flag on this quatrain. Okay, I’ll take a crack at it. Now that all is said and done, there’s nothing he can do about it. But he’s changing and never again will try something new to test his love for thee, to whom he is committed solely.

 

Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best,

Even to thy pure and most most loving breast.

He’s saying, ‘please welcome me back and accept me, you who are the next thing to heaven for me; welcome me to your loving breast.’

There, I did it. Now, as is always the test, let’s take a look at what Katherine Duncan-Jones has to say in The Arden Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Here’s her one sentence summation.

The speaker acknowledges that he has strayed in affection from the youth (Thee), but claims that this has served only to strengthen his original and continuing devotion.

Yeah, that’s pretty much what I said, isn’t it? Ahhh, sonnets; they’re the best!

Mojo slept through the entire Daily Mojo. 

Oh well, who can blame him.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.

 

Nurse

Romeo and Juliet             Act I, Scene iii, Line 12

I think that Nurse and Friar Knucklehead might be the two most interesting characters in this play. That’s not to say that the other players lack interest, but just to say that these two are the best.

This scene is with Nurse, Juliet, and Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother. When the Lady brings up the fact that her daughter is of a pretty age (not yet fourteen), Nurse gives us Today’s Line. But she doesn’t stop there. She goes into thirty-odd lines about raising Juliet, whom she calls Jule, from a pup. Then she and Juliet get into a bit of a laughing fit about a story of Jule falling on her face when she was just a toddler.

Anyway, the reason for this scene taking place is Lady Capulet telling her daughter that Paris is going to be seeking her hand in marriage. Therefore, Juliet should check him out closely at the party the Capulets are having that evening. Juliet agrees to this since she hasn’t yet met Romeo. Of course, she’ll meet her titular lover this evening, so the Paris thing won’t be working out quite the way that Lady Capulet wants.

Ah well, the best laid plans of mice and men, eh?

I'm not sure what's up with Mojo. He's told me before that R&J is not one of his favorite plays, but that can't be it. Something's gotten into him, and he doesn't seem to want to leave the security of his gated community this morning. 

Yes, we call it his gated community. Don't ask. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Aye, and it makes men hate one another.

 

 First Serving-Man

Coriolanus             Act IV, Scene iv, Line 225

I bet that in a million years you could not guess what it is these guys are saying makes men hate one another. Give up? It’s peace. Yes, peace makes men hate one another.

Reason: because they then less need one another.

Yup, that’s the simple explanation given by Third Serving Man as to why peace makes men hate one another: because then they don’t need each other as much as they do in war.

These are three waiters talking amongst themselves. They are working a feast where the Volscians have just decided to go and attack Rome. These guys, the waiters that is, think that’s great. Listen to the exchange between the three of them when they hear the news that they’re going to war (though it seems unlikely that these three will be going anywhere).

Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.

Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as day does night; it’s spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy (unconsciousness), lethargy; mull’d, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war’s a destroyer of men.

‘Tis so: and as war, in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.

Ay, and it makes men hate one another.  

So these guys, who are not going to be having any part of the war, think war is a great idea and a much greater thing than peace. And one of the reasons is that even though war is a ravisher, peace results in more bastard children being born. That’s right, it’s better to have people being killed, than to have a bunch of out-of-wedlock or extra-marital sex taking place.

I was taking this seriously and was a bit aghast, until I realized that Will is going for a laugh here. He likes to use anonymous characters to add a little comic relief in his tragedies. At least, I hope this is comic relief. It must be; right?

  

I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Mr. Blagys. Those guys back then had a pretty different outlook on life. You know what they said: 'better dead than sexually fed'...

 

They did not say that, Mojo. You're a piece of work. 'Better dead than sexually fed'; Where do you even come up with this stuff?

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

He has made too much plenty with ‘em,

He’s a sworn rioter: he has a sin that often

Drowns him, and takes his valour prisoner:

If there were no foes, that were enough

To overcome him: in that beastly fury

He has been know to commit outrages

And cherish factions: ‘tis inferr’d to us

His days are foul, and his drink dangerous.


Second Senator

Timon of Athens                Act III, Scene v, Line 72

The senator is speaking about a man who they are about to pass sentence on for murder. The murderer is a soldier, and his general, Alcibiades, is here pleading for his life. He’s telling the senators what a great soldier this guy is and how well he has served and defended his country. Apparently though, this fellow can’t handle his drink, and that’s a problem.

Previous to Today’s Line Alcibiades is saying of the soldier,

How full of valour did he bear himself

In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds.

Apparently, though, according to the senator, he makes too many wounds and much of them are made not in battle but in bar rooms. The senator makes reference to the soldier’s drinking problem

                               …he has a sin that often

Drowns him, and takes his valour prisoner:

Bottom line is that they end up sentencing the guy to death for murder. Alcibiades gets a bit overzealous in his defense of the soldier and in the process manages to really piss off the senators; so they banish Alcibiades just for good measure.

We’re done with the soldier after this scene (in fact, we never actually see the guy), but banished Alcibiades will show up later in the play interacting with the self-banished Timon. So, this scene is merely a set up for Alcibiades to be banished, and the soldier is just collateral damage of the plot line.  Hey, what do you think of that wording: collateral damage of the plot line. I like that, and it carries the battle scene imagery straight through. Not bad, eh?

 

And there he goes again with the ‘how great his writing is’ thing.

Not listening. NOT LISTENING.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

The fee-simple! O simple!

 

Mercutio

Romeo and Juliet                      Act III, Scene i, Line 35

Here’s the deal. First off, a fee-simple is the totality of ownership. A fee-simple title is full, complete, and unencumbered ownership (I had to look it up). Now, Mercutio and Benvolio are talking and drinking. Mercutio has just spent sixteen lines telling Benvolio how moody and quarrelsome he is:

Come, come, thou art as hot as a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy; and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved.

Benvolio responds with a sort of “I know you are, but what am I” line:

An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter.

Mercutio then responds with Today’s Line.

The fee-simple! O simple!

So Today’s Line is just Mercutio simply (no pun intended) making a pun on Benvolio’s use of the word simple (in a not so simple line: buy the fee-simple of my life for an hour and a quarter? What the heck is that?)

Anyway, it’s a pun. Yes, a pun. Now I know that puns have been referred to as the lowest form of humor, but that is a subjective pejorative. Will used puns liberally in his works as, in fact, puns are as old as language itself. Don’t believe me? Well, I dare you to prove me wrong.

Really? A pun?

Oh, go back to sleep, 

Mr. Superior-Language-Skills

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

But when he saw my best alarum’d spirits,

Bold in the quarrel’s right, roused to th’encounter,

Or whether gasted [frightened, alarmed] by the noise I made,

Full suddenly he fled.

 

Edmund

King Lear                    Act II, Scene i, Line 55

This is a pretty good line. Of course, Edmund here is lying through his teeth. He’s telling his father, Gloster, that he was just fighting with his brother Edgar, but that Edgar ran off right before Gloster came into the room. He’s saying that he’s not sure whether it was his determination (best alarmun’d spirits) or his yelling (the noise I made), that made Edgar run off (full suddenly he fled). Either way, he’s managed to convince his father that Edgar is out to kill him (Gloster), and he’s convinced Edgar that everyone’s out to get him (Edgar). Edmund is a serious weasel.

Notice the new/old word for the day, gasted. That’s right, it means frightened, alarmed, or scared. It’s a pretty good word. It makes me think of aghast, or perhaps flabbergasted. I believe we could put this word to good use.

I asked Mojo to give me his best gasted look. 

Not bad, Buddy.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Thou (Cloten) bidds’t me to my loss: for, true to thee

Were to prove false, which I will never be,

To him (Posthumus) that is most true.—To Milford go,

And find not her (Imogen) whom thou pursuest.—Flow, flow,

You heavenly blessings, on her!—This fool’s (Cloten’s) speed

Be crost with slowness; labour be his meed!(Reward)

                                                                                     [Exit]

 

Pisanio

Cymbeline                   Act III, Scene iv, Line 159               

This is, admittedly, a little bit confusing. I’ve tried to clarify it a little bit by adding names after a bunch of the pronouns so that you know who Pisanio is referring to. Of course, this assumes you know who Cloten, Imogen, and Posthumus are and have some sense of what’s going on at this point in the play, and you probably don’t know either. Do you? In fact, you’re not even paying attention to any of this, are you?

 

What is she doing over there? Is she getting me a treat? I think she might be getting me a treat.