Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

O Helicanus, strike me, honour’d sir;

Give me a gash, put me to present pain;

Lest this great sea of joys rushing upon me

O’erbear the shores of my mortality,

And drown me with their sweetness.

  

Pericles

Pericles               Act V, Scene i, Line 193

These five lines can be summed up with four words: pinch me, I’m dreaming.

Pericles has just come to the realization that the young woman he is talking to is his daughter, who he thought was dead. He tells his friend Helicanus to hit him; not because he thinks he might be dreaming, but because if he doesn’t get some pain right now, he might die of happiness. 

Well, not exactly the same as “pinch me I'm dreaming,” but the same idea. Will takes three lines to say “Lest I die of happiness.” Here’s where he proves himself the Poet Playwright.

Lest this great sea of joys rushing upon me

O’erbear the shores of my mortality,

And drown me with their sweetness.

Well, actually, the meter’s a bit questionable here, but oh well.

Forget about the meter, Mr. Blagys; 

just keep scratching.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines everywhere.  

 

Feste (the Fool)

Twelfth Night              Act III, Scene i, Line 28

 

This is a line I recently ran into that really struck me. This is Feste in Twelfth Night. It’s not actually the line that was picked for Today’s Totally Random Line. That one was from King Lear’s fool,

Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels when she put’em i’the paste alive; she knapt ‘em o’the coxcombs with a stick, and cried, ‘Down, wantons, down!’ ‘Twas her brother that, in pure kindness to his horse, butter’d his hay.

Now, granted, that one is good too, and all the fools in Shakespeare are worth listening to, but this line from Feste is much easier (and shorter). Also, it comes with a good personal story. Yes, I can see the eyes rolling from here.

I recently took up the challenge of community theater. I’m working with a player’s group that will be presenting Twelfth Night. I’ve got a small walk-on part (Antonio’s arresting officer) and I’m also the group’s dramaturge for this play. It’s this latter role that I’m excited about.

Anyway, we were working this scene, and this line of Feste’s for some reason jumped out at me,

Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines everywhere.  

Coincidentally, minutes later the director went back and was trying to work out Feste’s entrance to the scene: was it from stage right, or left? She was trying to make sure it made sense in terms of where Feste had been previously. Just then a light bulb went off in my head: it didn’t matter! Foolery (Feste being the personification of foolery) is everywhere; it just shows up!

Feste has license in this play to be any/every where at any time. He can just show up; stage left, stage right? It doesn’t matter. I made this point, and not only the director, but some of the actors were in complete agreement with me. I love it when that happens.

But I was right. Not only that, but this is a pretty important line regarding Shakespeare’s philosophy. This idea shows up in just about all of his plays that have fools: comedy, or tragedy. There’s Feste here, the nameless fool in King Lear, Launcelot Gobo in Merchant, Touchstone in As You Like It… I could go on. And it’s also at the heart of one of his other philosophy’s: things aren’t always what they seem. In other words, it’s the “fool” who often seems to know the most. Good ol’ Will.

Well, that turned out pretty long. Still, it really is a great line, and one worth remembering. So do try to remember it.

One more time,

Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines everywhere.  

 

If the play titled 341 Radmere Road were written, two things would be certain: one is that it would be a comedy, and two is that Mojo would play the role of the fool. Of course, I’m talking about a Shakespearean fool: one who is taken by the other players for knowing very little, but one who knows more than most of them. In other words, Mojo is no one’s fool.

And don’t you think he knows it.   

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

So please your Grace, my ancient;

A man he is of honesty and trust:

To his conveyance I assign my wife,

With what else needful your good Grace shall think

To be sent after me.

 

Othello

Othello                         Act I, Scene iii, Line 124

 

Classic. This is Othello speaking to the Duke (your Grace) about Iago (my ancient).

I think I may have made this point before, but I’m going to make it again since it bears repeating, and since most of you probably missed that earlier post.

Point: If you read or see this play it is easy to come to the conclusion that Iago is so obviously rotten that it would be impossible for the other people in this play not to realize it. You might think that this play is unrealistic because of this fact. In some respects, I did.

Then came 2024, when half the country decided to put Iago in charge.

Now, all I can do is marvel, all the more, at the genius of William Shakespeare.

Who’s Iago, Mr. Blagys?

Never mind, Mojo; no one you need to worry about.

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

By gar, he has save his soul, dat he is no come; he has pray is Pible vell, dat he is no come: by gar, Jack Rugby, he is dead already, if he be come.

 

Doctor Caius

The Merry Wives of Windsor   Act II, Scene iii, Line 7

Yes, this is Shakespeare. Occasionally Will likes to give his players an accent. I don’t know what nationality Caius is supposed to be, but based on how he’s speaking, we can assume that Doctor Caius is not a native Englishman.

So, this is not one of those occasions where I’ll suggest that you appreciate the beauty of the language. In fact, I’m not sure what to suggest in regards to this line. We can’t just ignore it because this is the line that was randomly picked, like it or not. I’m not going to get into context because I still don’t have much of an appreciation for this particular play.

I suppose I’ll just let you figure out what you want to do with Today’s Line, even if that’s… nothing. And we all know what will come of nothing, don’t we Cordelia?

On second thought, rather than simply giving you nothing, I’ll give you a link to a previous, more interesting, and slightly related post. Hmmm, this may be a first, a link to a previous post. Oh well, enjoy.

Totally Random Daily Shakespeare

 

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Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

That you are well restored, my lord, I’m glad:

Let the rest go.

 

Helena

All’s Well That Ends Well         Act II, Scene iii, Line 149

Helena, the daughter of the deceased physician, has just cured the king. In gratitude, the king has granted Helen, who is a commoner, that she can choose any man in the court to be her husband. She chooses Bertram, but he objects that he does not want to marry her because she’s not worthy of him,

A poor physician’s daughter my wife!—Disdain

Rather corrupt me ever!

The king gives Bertram a long speech about why Bertram should take Helena, but he still refuses. At this point Helena gives us Today’s Line, in response to the king. She’s gonna cut her losses. However, now the king’s pretty pissed off at Bertram for going against him, so he insists and Bertram acquiesces to take Helena for his wife.

But he’s not happy about it.

So what do we take from Today’s Line?

Let the rest go.

Words of wisdom that are often so very useful when we are upset about things. Let it go. We get upset about so many things that don’t really matter. Helena says that the king’s recovery is the important thing here.

Let the rest go.

We could all take a lesson from my little friend here. He's getting a belly rub. That's all that really matters; so...

Let the rest go. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

I found him under a tree, like a dropped acorn.

Celia

As You Like It             Act III, Scene ii, Line 240

This is Celia talking to Rosalind, and the acorn she’s talking about is Orlando. Yes, Orlando is being referred to as an acorn.

Now let me think: isn’t there someone around here that we refer to as an acorn. Who was that? Hmmmm… don't worry, it'll come to me.

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

He will not fight with me, Domitius?

 

Mark Antony     

Antony and Cleopatra       Act IV, Scene iii, Line 1

 

Antony is talking to his right-hand man Domitius Enobarbus. They’re discussing the fact that Caesar refuses to fight with Antony. Why should he when he stands a chance of losing to Antony; especially since Caesar’s army is sure to defeat Antony’s. Caesar is no dummy.

Somehow or another in all the time of doing this blog I seem to have missed that Enobarbus had a first name: Domitius. How’d I miss that? And this is a character that I’ve paid a lot of attention to over the years because I like both his name, Enobarbus, and his character, the grizzled war veteran.

So okay, Enobarbus’s first name is Domitius. 

Once more, a pic that is neither Mojo, nor relevant to Today's Totally Random Line. No, this is not Domitius Enobarbus, though he is a grizzled war veteran, of both WWII, and the eternal war of parenting. This is the original Papa Bear (believe it or not, some people think I resemble him). Why this pic? Well, though Papa Bear shuffled off his mortal coil many years ago, today is the one hundredth anniversary of his birth. Yup, born July 10, 1926. How's about that.