Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness,

Or whether that the body public be

A horse wherein the governor doth ride,

 

-Claudio

 

Measure For Measure   Act I, scene ii      Line 156

We'll keep today's post fairly short.

Claudio is talking about the duke’s new deputy who is enforcing an unused law about lecherous behavior to have him, Claudio, locked up. Claudio is saying that he’s not sure why the new deputy is enforcing this law. Whether it’s just because the guy is new at the job, or whether the guy is enjoying having power over the people. He speculates in the next lines that maybe the deputy is just trying to make a name for himself.

So we’ve been on this very same page just about a month ago. At that time we were talking about Claudio’s sister entering the cloister. And that has to do with tonight’s line as well. That line about his sister is that he wants his friend Lucio to go to his sister in the cloister and ask her to speak to the deputy on Claudio’s behalf.

They’re going to try everything they can to deal with this deputy. After all, the penalty for the law that the deputy is enforcing is for Claudio to lose his head. So that wouldn’t be real good for Claudio.

This is a picture of me while my mom was reading this play to me when I was little. I was excited that I got to act out the part of the governor riding the horse of the body public. But then mom explained to me that it was just a figure of speech and that there wasn’t actually a horse being ridden in the story. She got into the whole figurative vs literal language thing, and that was a bit of a buzzkill. But is was helpful that she explained it to me. And then she changed my pants for me. That was pretty helpful too.

With tearful eyes add water to the sea,

 

-Queen Margaret

King Henry The Sixth Part III       Act V, scene iv   Line 8

Dedicated to Spike and Noah

There’s really more to this line than what’s here. The sentence, and thought, begins before this line, and as you can see by the comma it continues after this line. But this line, all by itself, is particularly appropriate for today’s mood, and I say kudos to the die which once again appears to be anything but random. We're just going to go with the eight words of the line above. Let me explain.

My posts run about twelve days behind the day that I originally pick the line and write the posts. That is to say, I began this project of picking Random lines on August 1, but for the first ten days I did the writing just on a word document. I wanted to see if I would want to continue to do it before I actually took the time to start a blog. Well I did like doing it, so on August 10 I started posting. And I started with the August 1 Random line. Since then I’ve missed a few days of posting, but I never miss a day of picking a line. Long story short, I end up posting my blog posts about twelve days after I actually pick the line and write about it. It works out well, and it gives me a chance to clean up the writing a bit before I post it.

Why am I telling you this? Yes, there is a method to my madness. This random line is from November 17. Those of you who are diehard readers of this blog (yes, both of you) might recall that November 16 was the first date since I began on August 10 that I didn’t post. And on the following morning I pulled this line. Well the reason I didn’t post on November 16 was because I was pretty upset. On that day we said good-bye to two friends who had been with us for quite some time. They were both very old, and very sick, and their time had come. But it was a bad day for all of us here at the homestead. So with tearful eyes, we did add water to the sea, and I was as usual amazed at the appropriateness of the Random line.

I couldn't have done this post twelve days ago. But I can do it now, as now, our lives go on.

That's Spike on the left, and Noah on the right. They were only a few years old at the time, as this picture is quite old. That little guy in the middle was a neo-nate, and now he stands about 5' 8'', and  he's doing quite well thanks. But our friends Spike and Noah have left us, and we're sad about that.

‘Tis no matter: ne’er a fantastical knave of them all shall flout me out of my calling.

-Sir Oliver Martext

As You Like It     Act III, scene iii  Line 102

I thought this Sir Oliver Martext fellow was a pretty minor character, so I decided to google him to see what was out there on him. I found an interesting blog post suggesting that Sir Oliver Martext is a clue pointing to the conclusion that Christopher Marlowe wrote As You Like It. You can read about that if you like. Here’s the link: http://marlowe-shakespeare.blogspot.com/2010/10/significance-of-sir-oliver-mar-text-in.html

In any event, apparently Sir Oliver appears only in this scene with three speaking lines, and is mentioned in one other scene. And yet he gets the final line, alone, in Act III Scene iii. He’s been called out as a fellow who is incapable of performing a legitimate wedding and so Touchstone, Audrey , and Jaques head off to find a proper vicar. At which point Sir Oliver says ‘No matter, these knuckleheads aren’t going get me to change my calling by insulting me.’

Considering that there is no real character development of this guy, and no further appearances by him, it’s hard to see what this line has to do with anything, or what purpose it has. So maybe that lends credence to that blog post referenced above. Or maybe not. Who the heck knows?

What do you think?

Looks like these folks are looking for the Vicar to perform a christening. I hope the Vicar hasn't been flouted out of his calling!

O my dear father! Restoration hang

Thy medicine on my lips;

 -Cordelia

King Lear             Act IV, scene vii Line 26

I consider this a beautiful line. I believe there is no truer love expressed in all of Shakespeare’s works than the love shared between Cordelia and her father. And maybe that’s just the father of two Cordelias talking, I’m not sure.

In any event, Lear wakes up after this line and he and Cordelia have a reconciliation as only Shakespeare would paint it. Yes, they both end up dying a few scenes further down the road, but for now they are still both alive and together. If you have a daughter, or perhaps if you are a daughter, you might want to read the scene. It’s pretty short.

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/lear/lear.4.7.html

Remember, long story short, Lear gave his kingdom to the two daughters who falsely told him how much he loved them. Meantime he very foolishly rejected the third daughter Cordelia, the one who truly loved him, because she would not give him false flattery. The other two daughters ended up turning him out of house and home, and he wandered the heath in a storm going quite nearly mad. Now Cordelia is back, she’s found him and is looking after him.

I’ve got no more to add today.

Two Cordelias

Is it possible disdain should die while she hath

such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick?

 

-Beatrice

Much Ado About Nothing           Act I, scene i       Line 112

So the key word in this line appears to be ‘disdain’. What exactly, and I do mean exactly, is disdain. It’s a not uncommon word, but do we really know its specific meaning. It’s a feeling of contempt for someone or something regarded as unworthy or inferior. That’s from merriam-webster.com. So this is a pretty good insult. As long as we’ve got Signior Benedick around, we’ll always have someone that we feel is contemptible. Well it turns out that these two, Beatrice and Signior Benedick have a bit of a running feud going on. They’ve not started some specific argument in this scene, but rather they are continuing something that appears to have been going on between them for some time. And it gives me great wonder as to whether or not there is really any disdain here, or whether they might not actually like each other and are simply using this ongoing spat as a way to continue to be able to interact with each other. I guess we’d have to either finish the play, or at very least read the summary, but I’m betting that they end up together before it’s all over. Any takers?

Okay, I read the last scene of the play. I win.

My friend is treating me with a certain amount of disdain by refusing to be photographed with me. But whether or not it's disdain, dis Spain.

They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase

Soil our addition; and, indeed, it takes

From our achievements, though performed at height,

The pith and marrow of our attribute.

 

Hamlet

Hamlet                 Act I, scene iv    Line 22

This is Hamlet, one of the greatest, and perhaps the saddest, of Will’s creations. And this is a fabulous line. He starts out, in today’s Totally Random line, talking about the Danish people generally and excess drinking and celebrating specifically. He then immediately progresses in the lines that follow to talk about ‘particular men’ specifically (and I can’t but help feel that he’s referring to himself), and bad habits or aspects, ‘some vicious mole of nature’, generally. In both cases he’s remarking that one bad thing (in this case of the Danes, over-celebrating) can overshadow all the good things (again, in the case of the Danes, their good reputation).

Here, I don’t do this too often, but please read the whole passage. It’s not that long; twenty-six lines. If I can take the time to type it out, you can at least read it. It’s a little tough, but you can do it. I have faith in you. The custom he’s referring to in the beginning is drinking and revelry, and ‘they clepe us’ means  ‘they describe us’. The guts of this passage start on line 11, ‘So, oft it chances…’. Now give it a shot!

         Ay, marry, is’t:

         But to my mind, though I am native here,

         And to the manner born, --it is a custom

More honored in the breach than the observance.

This heavy-headed revel east and west

         Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations:

They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase

Soil our addition; and, indeed, it takes

From our achievements, though performed at height,

The pith and marrow of our attribute.

So, oft it chances in particular men,

That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,

As, in their birth, --wherein they are not guilty,

Since nature cannot choose his origin,--

By the o’ergrowth of some complexion,

Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason;

Or by some habit, that too much o’er-leavens

The form of plausive manners;--that these men,--

Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,

Being nature’s livery, or fortune’s star,--

Their virtues else—be they as pure as grace,

As infinite as man may undergo—

Shall in the general censure take corruption

From that particular fault: the dram of evil

Doth all the noble substance of a doubt

To his own scandal.

I guess I cheated to get to that last line: The dram of evil doth all the noble substance of a doubt to his own scandal. But it’s a good one (I think a famous one? Okay, sidebar here: apparently this last line is famous for confusing people. Well I’m not interested in that; I’m interested in the main thought of this passage, i.e. that one fatal flaw can ruin a person. So that’s where we’re going with this post.), and the follow through and re-statement of today’s Totally Random line: and, indeed, it takes from our achievements, though performed at height, the pith and marrow of our attribute. So please forgive me for cheating.

I’m not sure what Hamlet considers his own ‘dram of evil’ or ‘particular fault’, but I believe he’s saying that he’s got one and that it’s overshadowing all the good stuff he’s got. Maybe his indecisiveness or his inability to take action? Whatever it is, it's got him down.

How about this guy? What's his particular fault? I'm thinking it's not just one thing, if you know what I mean.

Thy other banisht son, with this dear sight

Struck pale and bloodless;

-Marcus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus              Act III, scene i    Line 258

This line is only a few lines above our August 29 post, so we’ve already discussed the two severed heads in this scene. In fact, today’s Totally Random line leads me to consider setting up some rules governing just how close to another line we can get before disqualifying it as being already covered. But for today, I’m going to give this line some coverage.

So we know what’s going on, and we can conclude without belaboring the point that we’ve sampled Titus again and we’re in the middle of horrible stuff again (actually, repeat of some same horrible stuff). So let’s just look at the words. What about using that ‘t’ instead of ‘ed’ in ‘banisht’? What’s up with that? At first I thought that it was just being used here instead of ‘banished’ for some artistic reason. But I went back to Richard II because, of course, Bolingbroke and Mobray get banished in that play. I found out that they got ‘banisht’ as well, with no sign of ‘banished’. So apparently that was the word back then, ‘banisht’. Both spellings come out sounding the same. I’m not sure how they got to banisht when they very obviously had adopted ‘ed’ for past tense at this point. I guess the next step is to see what the Brits are using today. Is it still ‘banisht’? I dunno. Any Brits out there?

In any event, this is our fifth go round with Titus Andronicus and not one of our Titus Totally Random lines has been in a scene that didn’t have horrible stuff, or wondrous things as Aaron refers to it. So maybe we should just make a rule about skipping Titus altogether? Well, give it some thought. In the meantime I hope you don't get faced with too much that leaves you pale and bloodless.

I think if I ran into this guy it would leave me pale and bloodless. First of all he's all ready for battle with the helmet and the sword, and yet he's buck naked. And second of all he's got a shaft of metal stuck in his leg. What in the world is going on with this guy?

Engage it to the trial, if thou darest.

-Duke of Surrey

King Richard the Second               Act IV, scene i    Line 71

Out of the Henry’s! Oh my goodness! Those Henrys, mostly the sixth, really had us monopolized there, didn’t they! And now we’re on to Richard the Second, which by the end of this play will get us into Henry IV. But we’re not there yet. Henry is actually in this scene, but he’s still Henry Bolingbroke, not King Henry. I’m not sure where he gets the Bolingbroke from. His dad is John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. But, oh well.

Now I have absolutely no idea what this line is about. And I don’t know who the Duke of Surrey is. Okay, some quick research, listened to the Arkangel version, some notes in my Penguin classics, Four Histories, and we're ready to go.

The Duke of Surrey just threw down his gage (glove), challenging Fitzwater to battle, and he follows it up with this line which is just daring him to accept his challenge. Long story short. ‘Pick up the glove and accept my challenge, if you dare!’ That’s what he’s saying.

So they do this a lot in these history plays. The stage direction says ‘he throws down his gage’. In fact, in this scene there’s a gage-fest going on. I counted six ‘he throws down his gage’s’. Surrey’s is the fifth. They throw down their glove to challenge to the other guy to fight. At one point in this scene one of the guys has to borrow a glove because he’s all out of gloves and wants to challenge another guy. Lots of gloves!

Here's my gage. I throw it down a lot. But it's not to challenge anyone. It's when I take off my gage to have a coffee break, or a lunch break. And half the time I don't remember where I threw my gage down, and then I spend a half hour looking for my gage. So I bought a second pair for those days when I throw down my gage and forget where I threw it.

You of my household, leave this peevish broil,

And set this unaccustom’d fight aside.

 

-Duke of Gloucester

Setting – The Parliament House

Present – King Henry, Exeter, Gloucester, Warwick, Somerset, Suffolk, Bishop of Winchester, Richard Plantagenet, Mayor, Serving Men, others
 
King Henry The Sixth Part I          Act III, scene i    Line 92

And lets get started with the next hundred posts. First off, can’t seem to shake the Henry’s; day eight without a break from them. Let’s just get at it then.

I think we’ll make this a rather short one. This is more of that War of the Roses thing. The different factions of the royal families not getting along. At this point the squabble has gone beyond the royals and out to the common folk. And the Duke of Gloucester is telling his followers to cut it out. But of course this is Act III of Henry The Sixth Part I. We still have Henry The Sixth Parts II and III, not to mention Richard III to go. So this squabbling’s not going to be stopping for quite some time yet.

Peevish broil! That’s what he wants them to stop. Now that’s an interesting couple of words. We don’t much use either of those words much anymore. Well, we use broil, but it’s a cooking term and wouldn't be used as a word for fighting. And peevish? The online MW site says it’s ‘easily irritated, especially by unimportant things.’ It’s a perfectly acceptable word. I don’t think I’d want to be called peevish. It sounds like another word for thin skinned. But I think I’ll keep this one in my vocabulary arsenal. Peevish. I might find a use for it. It’s one of those words that you can use on someone without them knowing exactly what you’re saying. But with this one I think they’d be pretty sure you’re not giving them a compliment. So use it carefully!

And one last thing, pretty much impeccable iambic pentameter today, eh?

Here’s a red and a white rose. According to the story, one day the principals of the different factions that fought the War of the Roses were in the palace garden and the leaders each picked a different colored rose and then had everyone there pick a rose, red or white, to show which side they were on. But it didn’t become known as the War of the Roses until much later. Why? Because the palace garden scene was fiction. Good fiction, but fiction none the less.  Did I already cover all of this in an earlier post? Apologies if I did.

One Hundredth Post

Today is the one hundredth post. It has been 102 days since we started, so we’ve only missed posting on two days, and both those two days came in the last week. I had hoped to go one hundred days straight without missing a day, but that was just not to be.

Hopefully you’ve noticed that there is no line of Shakespeare at the beginning of this post. I’ve decided that instead of adding a new line, we should spend this post looking back on the first one hundred posts. So, what have we learned in 102 days.

We’ve found some really fabulous lines, some of them were great as soon as we laid eyes on them, and some of them took a bit of work to find the greatness. And we’ve found some lines that were just plain difficult to work with. My four favourites are

What need the bridge much broader than the flood

Nothing

O world, thy slippery turns

Good Michael, look you to the guard tonight

We've learned quite a bit about Shakespeare’s works. Coriolanus, for one, is a play that I didn’t even know existed and now I know it pretty well. Also I’ve gained a pretty good working knowledge of all the kings that make up Shakespeare’s history plays from Edward III to Richard III.

We’ve found that the random system seems to work pretty well. In one hundred days we’ve sampled all but three of the thirty-seven plays in my compilation along with two poems and some sonnets. We’ve also found that the random system can be quite quirky.

We’ve decided that the random system does make a certain sense in that it gets us to spend time in places that we might otherwise never spend the time. And we’ve found that some of those places are certainly worth spending the time.

We’ve seen firsthand how relevant much of Will’s work is to our world in 2016. We shouldn’t be surprised.

We've come to realize that it takes a bit of time to post on a daily basis. Perhaps too much time. We'll have to give this some thought.

This and more we’ve learned. We intend to move forward with the Daily Lines. I expect we’ll be making some changes as we go, but for now we’re still enjoying doing it. And that’s what counts.

What are you talking of debating? In few words,--

If you’ll not here proclaim yourself our king,

I’ll leave you to your fortune, and be gone

To keep them back that come to succour you: Why shall we fight, if you pretend no title?

-Sir John Montgomery

 King Henry The Sixth Part III       Act IV, scene vii Line 53

Yet, as we may, we’ll meet both thee and Warwick.--

-King Edward

 King Henry The Sixth Part III       Act IV, scene vii Line 85

Well, believe it or not, we’re in the Henrys for not only the sixth, but also the seventh straight day. And not only that, but I have managed to strike within the same short act on two consecutive days. And since I was still working on polishing up yesterday’s post when I rolled this second line from Act IV, scene vii, I’ve decided to combine two day’s post into one. Yes, it’s a bold and innovative idea! We’ll look at both lines, and perhaps the whole scene, since it’s pretty short anyway.

This scene is dominated by Edward IV who will be securely ensconced on the throne by the end of this play, and he will still be there when then next play in the chronology, King Richard the Third opens. In fact, at this point in this play both Edward and Henry are listed as kings in the script. Remember if you will, in this soap opera of the monarchy, that the crown passes from Henry the VI to Edward the IV, then back to Henry the VI, then once again back to Edward IV. So I guess you could argue that they would be Henry VI and VII and Edward IV and V? But they didn’t see it that way. Well I’m not quite sure which round of passing we’re on, but the crown is getting ready to pass from Henry to Edward in this scene.

It seems that Edward is a bit hesitant and has decided to wait a bit, hoping for a peaceful changing of the crowns. But that’s when this John Montgomery fellow shows up. He’s there to fight for Edward the King, not Edward the Duke. That’s what he’s saying above in the What are you talking of debating? quote. He's pretty much saying to Edward 'You gonna fish or cut bait?' When Edward realizes that he’s going to lose Sir John if he doesn’t start fishing, he changes his mind and decides to go for it. His line thee and Warwick (‘thee’ is Edward’s brother Clarence), the second quote above, is about the fact that he’s decided make the challenge and tomorrow he’s going to be meeting his brother and Warwick (I’m not too familiar with this Warwick guy) when he challenges, and perhaps battles, Henry for the crown. Apparently both Clarence and Warwick are on Henry’s side.

See, that’s why we need those name tags that say who you are, whose side you’re on, whether or not you’ve switched sides, and a few other things. This, by the way, is the middle of the War of the Roses, which is what the three Henry VI plays, and the Richard III play are really all about. And just to reiterate, in this War of the Roses, the red rose guys were the grandkids, and great-grandkids of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster (he dies in Richard II right after he gives his famous …This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle.. speech) and the white rose guys are the grandkids and great-grandkids of Edmund Langley the Duke of York (Lancasters vs Yorks). And remember, John of Gaunt and Edmund Langley were brothers, so that all these guys fighting each other are cousins. And just to make it even a little more interesting, the mother of Edward and Richard who are both Yorks, was herself a Lancasterian. Or is that Lancastersherian? Whatever it is, she married the son of her mother’s first cousin. With the amount of inbreeding going on it’s amazing all these folks weren’t completely insane. Which isn’t to say that they didn’t have their share of imbeciles on the family tree.

And that pretty much sums up King Henry The Sixth Part III, Act IV, Scene vii.

Questions? I have one. Do you suppose there’s any chance we can roll a non-Henry line for tomorrow?

This is a page of my book How To Fish In Salt Water. My mom and dad gave me this book when I was a kid. I figured it was relevant for today's post because of the 'fish or cut bait' reference. Looks like that guy in front has hooked a keeper, but I have no idea what that guy in the back of the boat is doing.

Then, Joan, discover thine infirmity,

That warranteth by law to be thy privilege.--

 -Joan La Pucelle

Setting – Camp of the Duke of York in Anjou

Present – York, Warwick, La Pucelle, a shepherd, and others

King Henry The Sixth Part I          Act V, scene iv   Line 61

And the next words out of Joan's mouth (who is speaking of herself in the third person here) is that she is pregnant. That’s her privilege and her infirmity, and something that she hopes will keep the English from killing her. I’m pretty sure that she’s not really pregnant, just saying that to try to save her own skin. In any event, it doesn’t work as they haul her off to be burned at the stake.

So it’s a little interesting that her pregnancy is her ‘privilege’. I’m not sure what law she’s referring to. I guess some fifteenth century code that says you can’t kill pregnant women? We’d have to defer to James or Stephen or one of those experts on that one. In any event, this scene paints a pretty unflattering picture of Joan. First she denies her father (an old shepherd who comes up to claim her as his daughter), then she claims to be a virgin with immaculate properties, then she claims to be pregnant (changing three times the name of the father), and finally exits cursing the English. I’ve got to do some research (because I don’t see James or Stephen chiming in to help me out) but I’m thinking that Joan of Arc is not really a highly regarded figure in England, at least not at the time that Will was writing these tales.

Now, what of this ‘infirmity’ and ‘privilege thing? In one breath she declares pregnancy to be nearly an illness, and at the same time something that gives her entitlement? I think that’s a little bit interesting. I’m not sure that present day sensibilities would allow us to refer to pregnancy as either of these things.

In the meantime, some programming notes here.

First, we missed posting a new post last night for the first time since we started in August. And I was so excited that 100 straight days was coming up. Oh well. I'll get into the reason for the lapse next week, can't do that now.

Second, this is five days in a row of Henrys. Of course, there are six Henry plays, so that’s not entirely amazing. However, this is the third Totally Random line spoken by Joan, and the second in the past three days. So that’s a little bit interesting. And again, who knew that Joan was even a part of Will’s works? Well, I’m sure a bunch of people knew it, but I know I didn’t. 

This is a pic of me at Grant's tomb. Another random pic? No sir! In my research on Joan of Arc I found, to my great surprise, that there is a Joan of Arc Park, complete with a statue of Joan on horseback, on Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It just so happens that I was exploring that area this time last year. Unfortunately I did not get to the Joan of Arc Park (I did not know at the time that it existed), but I did get to Grant's Tomb and since it is only about a mile away I decided that a pic from there would be appropriate. I hope you agree.

What’s he?

-Duke of Orleans

Setting – The French camp near Agincourt

Present – The Constable of France, the Lord Rambures, Orleans, and others.

King Henry The Fifth      Act III, scene vii Line 101

Tonight, a short line and a short post. Clearly, it isn’t much of a line to work with. I do think it’s interesting that we’re on our fourth day in a row of Henry plays, but today’s line is a bit a bit, well, there’s just not much to it. What’s he? I think the Duke is simply saying ‘who?’ The ‘who’ he’s referring to is the Dauphin. No, not the dolphin, the Dauphin. The Dauphin is the title of whoever is next in line for the throne of France. I don’t know if it has any relation from a semantics standpoint to the word dolphin, but I doubt it.

We knew going in to it there’d be days like this, so we’ll just take the day, and the line and be done.

No, no! I said Dauphin, not dolphin.

There goes the Talbot, with his colours spread,

And all the troops of English after him.

 

-Joan La Pucelle

Setting – The plains near Rouen

Present – Charles, the Bastard of Orleans, Alencon, Joan, and forces

King Henry The Sixth Part I          Act III, scene iii  Line 32

I’m not quite sure why he’s the Talbot. I always did like the ‘u’ in colours… and favourite, and all those other ‘ou’ spellings that get you the red underline in Word. It’s just so British.

In any event, here again is Joan La Pucelle, AKA Joan of Arc. It seems that the Talbot is one of the big English guys and he’s marching up and down France causing all sorts of problems for the Frenchies. Joan is about to get her hands on the Duke of Burgundy and have a bit of a chat with him. It seems that Burgundy, a Frenchman, with his followers has sided with the Talbot. I’m not at all clear why. But once Joan has a talk with Burgundy he promises to come back to the French side. And so things seem to turn in the French direction again.

Joan refers to Talbot here ‘with his colours spread’ and a little earlier ‘like a peacock sweep along his tail’. So apparently this Talbot fellow has a bit of showiness about him, and causes just a little bit of fascination on Joan’s part. Can it be that she has a begrudging crush on him? Well, if Sir Richard can have a man crush on Hal, why not Joan on the Talbot?

Is that the Talbot? No wait, that's Gaston!

Ay, but she’s come to beg; Warwick to give:

She, on his left side, craving aid for Henry;

He, on his right, asking a wife for Edward.

She weeps, and says her Henry is deposed;

He smiles, and says his Edward is install’d;

 

-King Henry

 

Setting - A chase (woods) in the north of England

Present - Two keepers with cross-bows, and Henry

King Henry The Sixth Part III       Act III, scene i    Line 45

From Henry IV Part I we skip all the way to the end of the Henry plays, Henry VI Part III. Remember now that the succession of Kings goes Richard II, Henrys IV, V, and VI, Edwards IV and V, Richard III. Remember also that Will did not do a play on either of those Edwards (apparently he did one on Edward III who preceded Richard II, but that’s another story). Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because Will covered a bit of both of the Edwards in his other plays. Edward IV is on the throne by the end of Will’s Henry VI Part III. And the play Richard III starts with one of the Edwards on the throne, I’m not clear which. Now, how exactly these transitions take place is complicated and I still don’t have all the facts straight. But what I do know is that the king of France gets involved. That’s who the ‘his’ is above. Warwick is working on the king of France on Edward V’s behalf, and Margaret (Heny VI’s wife) is the ‘she’ who is working on Henry VI’s son’s behalf (Coincidentally also named Edward. Could this be any more confusing?). And today’s lines is Henry talking to himself about all of what’s going on. He’s probably as confused as we are and going over all of these facts to try to straighten it out in his own head. Of course the final bit of confusion to sprinkle in here is that Will did not stick completely to the historical facts so that when I go to the history books to figure out what’s going on with whom I sometimes just manage to get a little bit more confused.

Anyway, now that I’ve completely lost you, where do we go from here? I guess, in a sense, since you don’t know where you are anymore, any direction taken is just as good as any other. Okay then, let’s talk Henrys. These three Henrys (IV, V, and VI) are the only father, son, grandson succession in this whole section of British history that Will’s trying to cover. But even though that seems as though it should be pretty clean and straight-forward, it’s not. Unfortunately Henry IV took the throne from Richard II, his first cousin. And Henry VI is going to lose it, re-gain it and lose it again to another cousin, who’ll then lose it to another cousin. All cousins here. And we find out through these plays that even though Henry IV was strong enough to take the throne from his cousin Richard II, he still wasn’t a very good king. And Will gives us the next Henry, number V, as the guy who is really the strong king and spends his time winning battles in France. Henry VI (the guy talking today) is the third Henry and apparently he’s not a very strong ruler either. Remember, way back in September we had the first line of today’s play, Henry the Sixth Part III, and at that time they were running around looking for Henry, so we knew he was in trouble from the get go.

All right then, perhaps I’ll leave you there. Henry VI is wandering through the woods talking to himself about the fact that his wife is in France begging the French king for help in holding on to his throne. That’s the long story short of it.

No, this isn’t Henry wandering in the woods, it’s my friend Ronny wandering in the woods. He looks a little confused too, but I’m pretty sure he’s not worrying about any succession business.

He gave you all the duties of a man;

Trimm’d up your praises with a princely tongue,

Spoke your deservings like a chronicle,

Making you ever better than his praise

By still dispraising praise valued with you;

 

-Sir Richard Vernon

 King Henry The Fourth Part I      Act V, scene ii    Line 57

Today we’re back to the history plays. Yes, we got away from these guys for a while, but since they make up about a quarter of my compilation we were bound to get back to them sooner or later. Our Totally Random line(s) is Sir Richard Vernon describing to Hotspur (Harry Percy), the manner in which Prince Hal issued his challenge. Hotspur assumed it was with contempt, but Sir Richard is explaining that Hal issued it very modestly. Sir Richard goes on for several more lines after this to the point that Hotspur finally asks Richard if he’s got a crush on Prince Hal. Well, not exactly, but he sort of says that. And it’s a fair question considering the way Richard is going on and on about Prince Hal.

Now this is a pretty common practice of Will to take something and really run and run and run with it. Richard’s reply goes on and on and on about how nice Prince Hal is being in offering this challenge to Hotspur. It’s eighteen lines (of which we have five for today’s Totally Random lines) of an answer to Hotspur’s question. The question is ‘When Hal issued the challenge did he do it with contempt?’ It’s literally a yes or no question to which Richard gives a ‘Tony, long-story-short’ answer. Tony was a guy that I worked with (really nice guy) who would tell stories that went on forever with a level of detail that no one needed, and all throughout the story Tony would be saying ‘long story short…’. And we would all be thinking (sometimes saying) ‘Tony, there’s nothing short about this story!’ So I can just imagine Hotspur breaking in around line five or six of Richard’s replay with ‘Okay Tony, I get it! Hal’s a nice guy, fine!’ But of course he doesn’t do that. He does give a pretty good response to Richard though. ‘Cousin, I think thou are enamoured on his follies.’  i.e. ‘Dude, are you in love with this guy, or what?’

Long story short, these houses have lawns for roofs. Don't ask me how that works, or whether they have to mow their roofs, or what that has to do with today's post. I just thought it was an interesting picture.

He’s flung in rage from this ingrateful seat

Of monstrous friends; nor has he with him to

Supply his life, or that which can command it.

 

-Flavius

 

Timon Of Athens                            Act IV, scene ii    Line 24

Timon has flown the coop, and he left without his backpack or anything else and headed up into the hills away from everyone. That’s what this boils down to. Now I don’t know too much of Timon Of Athens, but I do know that it’s a story of a kind hearted soul who gave all his friends the shirt off his back. And later on, when his money was all gone, he found that he had no real friends, and no one would help him out. And at that he lost his kind heart and walked away from it all.

Now If you don’t mind, I’m going to continue one more day on the theme of the week’s events. But rest assured that I’m keeping it pertinent to today’s line.

I can’t help but feel that this week’s loser in the general election has got to feel a little like Timon at this point. Can you imagine spending your life in service to people only to be refuted in the end by the people? And not only refuted, but to have a paragon of sloth and ignorance chosen over you? It would not surprise me at all to learn that she had headed up into the hills never to be heard from again. I know that I would be tempted to do that. I’m guessing, though, that even if she did that she would certainly not go without her backpack. And her contingent of secret service (former first lady; remember?). And no, in reality I don’t believe we’ve heard the last of her. And hopefully her end does not mirror Timons.

All right, that’s all I have to say about that, and hopefully by tomorrow I’ll have my head back on my shoulders and back into Will’s game. It got knocked off a bit by the results of Tuesday, but I’m slowly recuperating. I’ll do my best, and I don’t think I’ll be flung in rage. After all, I have much still with me to supply my life and to stay in command of myself. Yes, I most certainly do.

This is me heading up into the hills about twenty years ago. We hiked up from down below on the bottom right hand corner of the picture. Up in the upper left hand corner, sort of out of the picture, is Farewell Gap. If you go through that gap you're in the High Sierra back country. We didn't go that way. We hiked up to Lower Franklin Lake, camped out for one night, and headed back the next day. And there was no rage involved at all.