A solemn air and the best comforter
To an unsettled fancy cure thy brains,
Now useless, boil'd within thy skull!

Prospero

The Tempest                                      Act V, Scene i     Line 60

Okay, before we get into it I’m going to give you the stage direction that appears immediately before Prospero speaks this line. It might help. Might not, but it might.

Re-enter ARIEL before: then ALONSO, with a frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN and FRANCISCO they all enter the circle which PROSPERO had made, and there stand charmed; which PROSPERO observing, speaks:

And then Prospero gives today's Totally Random line.

I don’t think we’ve covered any lines this late in The Tempest. There’s a lot going on in this play, and it all takes place over a pretty short span of time. And here in Act V, scene i Prospero wraps everything up, pretty quickly I might add. The first thing he takes care of is this group that he had put under his spell earlier in the play. Prospero is talking to these guys now who are under his spell, or in a trance, or whatever you want to call it. He’s bringing them out of this trance, and that’s what he’s talking about. So their brains are not literally boiled within their skulls. No, of course not.  Though it’s going to take a little more than fresh air to bring them to their senses. It’s going to take Prospero. Sometimes I feel like my brains are just a little boiled. Those are the times I could use old Prospero to help me out. Ever feel that way?

Wait a minute! Is that Dracula behind Nina? And why isn't she scared? And what's that little kid doing on the fountain? Is he gonna jump in? Holy cow this is a crazy picture! And what's it got to do with today's Totally Random line? Maybe nothing. Maybe it's just a Totally Random picture.

Go, get thee to Yaughan; fetch me a stoop of liquor.

First Clown

Hamlet                                                 Act V, Scene i     Line 60

This is the graveyard scene from Hamlet. You know; Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well. Except that it’s Alas poor Yorick,  I knew him, Horatio. Except that’s not today’s line. But that is today’s scene. Today’s line is one gravedigger talking to the other. Why are they listed as ‘clowns’? I dunno. If you watch Kenneth Branagh’s version of Hamlet you’ll get the treat of seeing Billy Crystal perform this scene, and this line. Believe it or not he does a super job with it. Robin Williams has a small role near the end of this play as Osric too. It’s an amazing movie.

Anyway, this is the graveyard scene, shortly before the Yorick line and Hamlet and Horatio are watching and listening to the two gravedigger/clowns. The latter spend the first part of this scene conversing as they dig the grave for Ophelia. Ophelia, if you remember, drowned herself over the lost love of Hamlet. Hamlet will find out for the first time, later in this scene, that Ophelia is dead. Today’s Totally Random line is the last bit of conversation between the gravediggers as Billy Crystal sends the other guy off to get some liquor. I have no idea whether Yaughan is a person or a place, but knowing Will it has some relevance or other.

So today’s line is nothing really special, but the scene as a whole is pretty darn good. It’s sort of broken into three parts: the two gravedigger’s conversing, Hamlet and Horatio conversing, and then a bit of a brouhaha as the burial party of Ophelia arrive on the scene. As a whole there’s quite a bit, but the first part, the two gravediggers’ part, is only about sixty lines. So I’m going to give you that assignment for today. Here’s the link. Read it. You’ll enjoy it. And picture Billy Crystal as the First Gravedigger. Good luck.

It's a picture of a fake headstone. Sorry, that's all I've got for tonight.

The lamentable change is from the best.

Edgar

King Lear                     Act IV, Scene i   Line 5

Okay, so here’s the whole quote. This is Edgar talking to himself.  He’s on the run because his rotten half brother Edmund has turned everyone against him. Edgar knows that he’s on his own now. 

Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd,

Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst,

The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,

Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear:

The lamentable change is from the best;

The worst returns to laughter. 

The way I read this is that Edgar, talking to himself, is saying that he’s got nowhere to go but up. It’s a fairly optimistic way of looking at things given the situation that he’s got. On the other hand, it might be the best way of looking at things, given the situation he’s got. 

Better to be despised and know it, than to be despised and not know it. If you’re the worst then you can still have hope and not live in fear. The lamentable change is to change from the best. If you’re already the worst (as he considers himself to be now) you can laugh and be happy because you’ve no fear of things going bad. You’re already there!

I don’t think there’s really that many of us who are in as bad a situation as Edgar, but there are times when we all probably feel like we are. So I guess those are the times that we can say ‘The lamentable change is from the best.’ 

Do you know what that yellow circle in the middle of this picture is? I'll tell you. It's a pee stain from a little dog on this carpet. And do you know how new this carpet is? It's brand new. Now if this was a pee stain in an old, beat up rug it wouldn't be so bad. But since it's a brand new rug we can say the lamentable change is from the best. Yes, this is a quite lamentable change; from brand new to pee stained. Very lamentable.

Ay, but not yet to die.

Desdemona

 Othello                                 Act V, Scene ii    Line 54

This is an odd little line. I know, you're probably saying 'well at least it's little!'

Now it seems that we spend quite a bit of time with Othello. And that’s okay because it’s a pretty good play, at least from my perspective. And we’re here in the last scene again and things are about to go downhill fast (things have not unraveled to the point they were at the last time we visited this scene). Othello has decided that he’s going to kill his wife and has informed her that she’s lying on her death-bed. For some reason she agrees that it’s her deathbed, but not today it isn’t. So I’m not exactly sure why she answers with today’s Totally Random line. It seems a little random indeed to me.

In any event I read the whole last scene this morning and it’s pretty interesting. Right at the end, when he is about to stab himself, Othello makes a bit of a strange reference to a 'malignant and turban’d Turk' in, of all places, Aleppo. I think it’s almost bizarre that of all the towns in the Mideast that Will could have used for this last line that he picked one that is so pivotal in today’s Mideast situation; and one that, like this play, is the scene of so much suffering. Some of Will’s stuff seems ageless by design, and some by pure luck.

But I’ve strayed a few hundred lines away from today’s Totally Random line, ‘Ay, but not yet to die’. Tis a strange line. And of course the poor girl turns out to be wrong. Right about the ‘Ay’, but tragically wrong about the ‘not yet to die,’ as Othello kills her a few lines further on. ‘Ay, but not yet to die.’ There’s something there that I’m missing. But what is it?

See that little white squiggle? That's the electric connection being made. This is a little thing that me and my buddy put together for his school science project. We sprayed some different combustible materials in a little container that we snapped into the round grey collar you see there. And then we snapped on the electric current to see which material was most combustible. Well we tried it a bunch of times and only got one explosion. The other times there was something missing, but we never quite figured out what. Sometimes you just can't figure out what's missing.

By my troth, this is the old fashion; you two never meet but you fall to some discord:

Hostess

King Henry The Fourth Part II            Act II, Scene iv   Line 55

Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parley

Into his ruin’d ears, and thus deliver:

Henry Bolingbroke

King Richard The Second               Act III, Scene iii Line 33

We have the last two day’s Totally Random lines here and they are similar in theme. Let's face it, even if they weren't I'd find a way to tell you that they were. But they are because they're both talking about the inability of two people to come to terms. The first one states this right out, and the second one implies it.

Yesterday’s line comes from Henry the Fourth Part II. And just to be perfectly clear, Henry IV is Henry Bolingbroke, the guy talking about Richard’s ruin’d ear in the second line. But it’s not Henry being referred to in the first line. This ‘By my troth’ line is the Hostess talking to and about Doll Tearsheet and Falstaff. And the fight between Falstaff and Doll is one that’s very much out in the open, but also very much a lot of bluster as opposed to substance.

Substance, however, is what the second line is all about. Deliver what? What is Bolingbroke (soon to be Henry IV) talking about by sending the ‘breath of parley’ into Richard’s ‘ruin’d ears’. Should I have included exactly what he wanted delivered in today’s line? Perhaps. So I’ll tell you what he said, but here’s the thing; the tone and words of the message he gives Northumberland to give to Richard are completely different than the tone and message he uses above. He talks about ‘brazen trumpet’ and ‘ruin’d ears’. You can tell that he’s not thinking too highly of Richard. Anyway, the message he wants delivered is that he, Bolingbroke, pledges allegiance to King Richard and all he wants is his land and inheritance back; the stuff Richard stole after he banished Bolingbroke. Of course the bottom line is that Bolingbroke is going for broke here (pun intended). He plans to take the throne from Richard and just about everyone, including Richard, knows that. This line is in the very scene after the one that ended with Richard’s ‘From Richard’s night to Bolingbroke’s fair day’.

So there you go. Two lines about two pairs of people trying, or maybe not trying, to get along. For the record, Falstaff and Doll will get along. Henry and Richard? Not so much.

Since today's theme is trying, or not being able, to get along, here's a pic from a few years back of me at Gettysburg. This is one of the monuments at that battlefield (there's lots of monument's there!), and it seems a little funny to me that we erect monuments on the battlefields of a war that was all about two sides of one country not being able to get along. Now it's a pretty cool monument, especially seeing that it's a huge statue of a book, but maybe if we made big deals out of the ways we were able to get along, our country would be just a little better off today. By my troth, I'm just sayin'.

I have, sir, as I was commanded from you, Spoke with the king and have procured his leave For present parting;

Helena

 All's Well That Ends Well                         Act II, Scene v    Line 57

My husband will not rejoice so much at the abuse of Falstaff as he will chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter:

Mistress Page

The Merry Wives Of Windsor              Act V, Scene iii   Line 7

Okay, today we're going to try the two Totally Random lines in one post thing again. I know we've done this at least one time before and it was a big hit, so we'll take another shot at it.

The first line is from a scene that has Lafeu, just like Beauty and the Beast. I wonder if Beauty and the Beast took anything else from All’s Well That Ends Well. After thinking about it, and taking a look at the play a little more, I think no. Bertram is a bit of a beast in this play, and in the end he appears to come around to loving Helena, but that’s about it. I think the Disney folks just borrowed the name of Lafeu, and that’s about it. 

Anyway, this is Helena talking to Bertram her husband. If you remember from one of our earlier posts back in December, she won her husband as a reward and he wasn’t too interested in becoming her husband. Now she addresses him as ‘sir’, and talks about what he commanded her to do. So that’s a little interesting, don’t you think?

Our second line is from the Merry Wives Of Windsor and it's interesting on a few notes. For one thing it’s only one line away from our only other post on The Merry Wives. That was the doctor saying

I know vat I have to do. Adieu.

And Mistress Page answers

Fare you well, sir. 

Then after the doc leaves she says today's Totally Random line

So we’ve hit this play but twice, and we’ve struck it on the same page only two lines apart.

So this is two days in a row that we have lines that have something to say about marriages. And really, neither one of them appears to be saying anything particularly good about this fine institution.

Come to think of it, Beauty And The Beast didn't say too much good stuff about marriage either, did it?

Our thunder from the south

Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town.

King Phillip

King John                                            Act III, Scene i    Line 411

Yes, that’s right, line 411. And the scene goes to line 598, so that’s a pretty long scene.

Now it’s Interesting that there was only one John among the English kings. It seems like a pretty common name. A bunch of Henrys, and Georges, and Edwards, and more. But only one John. Interesting. 

Anyway, this is King Phillip talking, but he’s the king of France, not England. Though King John (of England) is here as well. In this scene they’re together with their people outside the gates of Angiers, a town in France. I find this scene a bit confusing because what it boils down to is that John and Phillip have decided to join forces to level the town. And they’re just talking now about the specifics of the attack. Apparently Phillip’s going to take care of attacking from the south, though I’m still not sure why Phillip, the king of France, is going to join forces with John, the king of England, to level a French town. Can you see why I might be confused? And the ‘drift of bullets’ that he’s talking about is apparently cannon balls. I’m not sure if this might not be another of Will’s anachronisms or not, but I guess we’ll just let that one slide. 

This is an old walled town in France that I was visiting with the girls a few years back. I remember mentioning to them at the time that it made me think of this scene in King John at the gate of Angiers, and they said 'Geez Dad, you're absolutely right, we were thinking the same thing.' And then they went into a laughing fit for the next ten minutes, so I'm not so sure they actually meant what they said. 

Being at Greenwich,

After your highness had reproved the duke

About Sir William Blomer,--

Surveyor

King Henry The Eighth                                   Act I, Scene ii     Line 191

And then the surveyor gets interrupted by King Henry. The eighth. King Henry the Eighth. That is to say, the eighth Henry. We’ve spent quite a bit of time on Henrys IV, V, and VI because between them Will wrote six plays. He skipped over number seven, and wrote just one on the eighth Henry, and it was to be one of Will’s last plays. Remember now the Henry the Eighth was the father of Queen Elizabeth and that Elizabeth was alive when Will did about half of his writing (she was dead and buried when he wrote Henry the Eighth). So Will had to be careful and probably would not have used her father as a subject for one of his plays while she was still alive. All those other Hanks were a few generations back, and thus a little safer as play fodder. Not that he didn’t have to be a little careful about them as well.

So today’s line is from the Surveyor who is being questioned by Henry about the Duke of Buckingham. Now I’m not sure what politics are going on here, but I believe the Surveyor is the guy who takes care of Buckingham’s estate. So he’s got some info for the king about what Buckingham’s been up to. And I don’t think the king’s particularly happy with old Buck. In fact, I think that Buck might be making an early exit from this play. But I’m not sure. I guess you could up and read the play yourself if you want to find out.

This, believe it or not, is the top of the brick wall that surrounds the back yard of Buckingham Palace. And while the palace is not named after the Buckingham referred to in today's line, I'm going to nonetheless consider it relevant for today's pic. And I'm also going to say that the surveyor of this Buckingham estate has got quite a job on his hands.

a knave very voluble;

Iago

Othello                                 Act II, Scene i     Line 241

And just like that, back to Othello. It’s like a roller coaster ride, isn’t it? Just getting whipped around from one place to another. 

Anyway, this time it’s Iago talking and I had some thoughts on this guy. Iago never once seems to say anything particularly truthful and yet constantly he’s being referred to as ‘honest Iago.’ It’s almost to the point where it’s incredulous. Like, what was Will doing here, and why have people bought into this play? Are we to assume the he had been something different prior to the time of the play, something good that grew a good reputation, and that just now he’s turned rotten (talking about Iago here, not Will). That doesn’t seem plausible because he’s just too rotten and too good at being rotten for that to make sense. 

In today’s Totally Random line Mr. Rat-Fink Iago is talking about Good Michael Cassio. He’s talking to Roderigo, who’s no angel  (and apparently no Einstein) either, and of course Iago is bad mouthing Good Michael. He’s calling him a voluble knave, which is an insincere, simplistic scoundrel or rascal. Pot, kettle, black!!! 

I couldn't think of anything particularly clever, so I'm giving you a picture of Edwin Booth (yes, John Wilkes's brother) portraying Iago. It's from my A.L. Rowse Annotated Shakespeare book. Apparently Edwin was quite the Shakespearean actor.

From all such devils, good lord, deliver us!

Hortensio        

The Taming of the Shrew                  Act I, Scene i      Line 66

Well it’s a good stand-alone line, and perfectly usable, and eminently understandable, in today’s world. In fact, all too usable in today’s world. But in the play I believe that Hortensio is alluding to the Katharina, the titular shrew. So we’re only 66 lines into the play (not counting the two scene induction – another story for another day) and we’re already seeing Katharina (I like to refer to her as Kate, as in Kiss Me Kate) being referred to as the devil. Well we could talk about the stand-alone line, or we could talk about the play. Yeah, you guessed it, I don't know too much about this play.

Well, that's not exactly true. I've read and listened to this one. I just haven't done it recently. But it's a good one, and it's a comedy. So if you're going to start getting upset that we're referring to a woman as a shrew (or the devil), well maybe you should at least try to take a look at more of the play before you pass judgement.

In the meantime, well, you can use this line as a stand-alone for any situation you find appropriate. Even Will if you're so inclined.

Agreed, not the devil. Just the same, someone that I might want to be delivered from. How about you?

He had two sons: if this be worth your hearing,
Mark it: the eldest of them at three years old,
I' the swathing-clothes the other, from their nursery
Were stol'n, and to this hour no guess in knowledge
Which way they went.

First Gentleman

 Cymbeline                                          Act I, Scene i      Line 58

This line is sort of interesting to talk about. This is two gentleman talking, and this is the very beginning of the play. They’re the first two guys to show up on stage, in the garden of the palace of Cymbeline, and they’re here to give an introduction to the audience. Oh they’re speaking to each other, one asking questions, and the other giving up the facts, but their only purpose is to give the audience a heads up as to what’s going on. It’s interesting because Will uses this feature in some of his plays to one extent or another, and in some plays he just skips it all together and assumes that you, the viewer of the play, know what’s going on and what the back story is. This particular line is telling us about the king’s two sons who went missing as a baby and a toddler over twenty years ago. As I said, in some of Will’s works we just skip any kind of intro, and in some we get a pretty extensive one like we have here. In fact, this is definitely one of the most extensive that I can think of. And one of the only ones where the introduction is done by two no-names who have no other part in the play. So what do you think about that?

I was thinking about going through all Will’s plays, or maybe just the comedies, and making note of which ones had this sort of intro and which ones didn’t. But I thought better of that exercise.

In the meantime, do you want to read the whole conversation between these two gentlemen? Here it is. This pretty much gives you the set up for the whole play. Which, I suppose is only going to be relevant to you if you plan on reading and/or seeing the play. So, on second thought, never mind.

Boy, we’re just not getting anywhere with this line today. Let’s cut our losses.

What do you suppose would be the intro by the two gentleman for this scene of Tarzan holding up a Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency pencil while the snow piles up outside?

   Second Gentleman-

                  So what's with the guy with no shirt and the big pencil?

    First Gentleman-

                  Oh that's just Tarzan. I believe MEMA hired him as their new spokesperson.

    Second Gentleman-

                  Ay, sooth!

            

Ay, and greater wonders than that.

Orlando

As You Like It                                     Act V, Scene ii    Line 27

And greater wonders than that. Greater than what? Do we need to know? This is from Act V, Scene ii of As You Like It and it’s an exchange between Orlando and Rosalind. I know this play, but not really well, and I don’t remember exactly what’s going on in this scene. I can tell you that the preceding line is Rosalind saying

Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to swoon when he showed me your handkerchief? 

So apparently Orlando is referring to her pretending to swoon when he talks about greater wonders.  But beyond that I’m really not sure what he’s referring to. And do I care? No, not really. And if you asked me why, what would I say. I’d probably say that I’m not that interested in this line today. It’s true, I care about other things besides Shakespeare. To which you might ask, ‘You, Pete, what could you possibly spend your time on besides Shakespeare? Maybe watching television?’ And of course I’d reply, ‘Ay, and greater wonders than that.’

                                                                   Ay, and greater wonders than that.

For treason is but trusted like the fox,

Who, ne’er so tame, so cherisht, and lockt up,

Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.

Earl of Worcester

King Henry The Fourth Part I                       Act V, Scene ii    Line 10

Today we have hit upon a line that could easily have been picked unrandomly. Ay sooth, I suppose that unrandomly is not a word. But nevertheless…

I say that about today’s line because it’s a saying that can be used in any number of situations (especially within Will’s realm). So it’s not like those lines that are just part of a larger conversation and really don’t stand on their own; like yesterday’s line and for that matter like the majority of the stuff that we come up with randomly. So it’s a good line and its purpose is to explain a characteristic, in general terms, of treason, and it does so by talking about a fox. The Earl of Worcester is saying that unless the fox is tamed and locked up he’s gonna be a fox and  he’s gonna eat that chicken. So nobody’s gonna trust a fox. And once a loyal subject (such as himself) has been treasonous, no king is gonna trust that subject again. So they’re kind of screwed.

Now granted, treason doesn’t actually come up all that much in modern day to day living. But the simpler, more pedestrian form of treason, let’s call it betrayal, does. It’s pretty easy to betray someone’s trust or to have your own trust betrayed. And once you betray someone’s trust you’re kind of in that same boat as that fox; that is to say you’re not going to be trusted. So it’s a good line and it stands on it’s own. How about that?

This is Nutsy, and I think she looks a little like a fox. And as you can see, she's tethered so that she can't jump from the basket she's in. No, you just can't trust that little fox-like Nutsy.

Ay, sooth; so humbled

That he hath left part of his grief with me, to suffer with him. Good love, call him back.

Desdemona

Othello                                                 Act III, Scene iii                 Line 53

This is Desdemona replying to Othello when he asks her if that is Cassio who just left as he, Othello, was approaching. And of course it was Cassio. He and Desdemona spend a lot of time talking in this play. They’re talking about how Desdemona can help Cassio, Good Michael Cassio, get back in Othello’s good graces. I don’t remember how he got out of Othello’s good graces, but apparently he did. And I can pretty much guarantee you that he’s not going to be getting back in them any time soon.

‘Good love, call him back.’ But Othello will not call him back. And the more Desdemona tries to get him to call him back, the more he resists and the more he begins to wonder what’s going on with good Michael Cassio. It’s certainly nice to be able to read this line and understand what the heck is going on, isn’t it? Phoenix and Turtle indeed!

And Desdemona is such a pretty name. But being such a tragic character I don’t suppose it’s a name that’s ever caught on all that much. By the way, sooth means truly. So she’s saying ‘Yes, truly.’ I think that’s a phrase you could use in just tons of places.

‘Are you done with your homework?’

‘Ay, sooth.’

‘Did you have a good day?’

‘Ay, sooth.’

‘Can you say something besides ‘Ay, sooth?’’

‘Ay, sooth.’

Do I know why I've got my hands up in Svalbard as if someone's holding me at gunpoint? Ay, sooth! No, wait a minute. Actually I don't know why I'm holding my hands up in Svalbard. Nuts, that didn't work.

That it cried how true a twain

Seemeth this concordant one!

Love hath reason, reason none

If what parts can so remain.

Narrator

 The Phoenix and the Turtle                                         Stanza 12            Line 48

Okay, now you should see why I like the plays. For the record, I pushed the random pick forward a whole page because the page I randomly picked was a page of Passionate Pilgrim that was made up completely of non-Will materials. So….

Now, what of this Phoenix and Turtle? And by the way, from what little reading I’ve done on this I do know that we’re talking about two birds, the second one being a turtledove, not a shelled amphibious animal. Again, so…

First off, this is a one page poem with eighteen stanzas. The first thirteen are four lines each with an ABBA rhyme scheme and the last five are three lines each with an AAA rhyme scheme. Honestly, who came up with that? Will? So you can see above, this is stanza number twelve with twain, one, none, remain as the rhyme scheme. Again, honestly!

Further, what’s it all mean Basil? This reminds me of half of James Taylor’s songs; a lot of nice sounding words, but meanings? Well, not so much. But it’s Will, so I must be wrong.

So I found some interpretive works on this poem. I was just now thinking about putting some links here, but thought better of it. I tried getting through a few of these interpretations and, well, let’s just say that the interpretations could use some interpreting. Then, what do we do? 

Now it just occurred to me: I’m a reasonably intelligent fellow. No genius, mind you, but reasonably intelligent. Given that, what did the average Englishman of 1603 think of this poem? Did he/she understand it? Did they get it? Did they enjoy it? I wish I had him/her here to tell me what they thought of it. But I don’t, do I?

I think we might amend our page limit to 1250. I’ll have to give it some thought. Today's Totally Random line? I just don't know.

Since I didn't really give you much on The Phoenix And The Turtle, I'll give you a picture of The Noah And The Tortoise. And a nice warm summer day!

Marcus Andronicus, so I do affy

In thy uprightness and integrity,

And so I love and honour thee and thine,

Thy noble brother Titus and his sons,

And her to whom my thoughts are humbled all,

Gracious Lavinia, Rome's rich ornament, That I will here dismiss my loving friends,

And to my fortunes and the people's favor Commit my cause in balance to be weigh'd.

Bassianus

Titus Andronicus                                              Act 1, Scene i    Line 48

I believe that when I was being taught language arts back in grammer school (when it was simply called English class) today’s Totally Random line would be referred to as a run-on sentence. But of course since it’s Will’s, we won’t call it that. 

So we spent the weekend with some non-play material; Lucrece and The Passionate Pilgrim (I’d like to find out where that second title comes from). But today we’re back to the plays. And thankfully as far as I’m concerned. Oh, his other works have some good stuff in them, don’t get me wrong. But it’s just nice to be back in the plays. Even if it is this trouble maker Titus Andronicus.  But today’s line, other than its length, is not very troubling at all. In fact, there’s not one iota of blood and gore and guts in it. Not even an oblique reference. 

This is the very beginning of the play and we have Bassianus talking. He’s responding to Marcus, Titus’s brother. Bassanius and Saturninus are the two candidates for leadership of Rome (not sure what the title of the leader is). They’ve just introduced themselves when Marcus pipes up that Titus, who is a great warrior, wants to be considered for leadership. This is Bassianus’s reply to Marcus, and it seems to be a pretty positive reply, don’t you think?

And new word today, in the first line: affy. It means to trust in. Interesting, isn’t it? So Bassianus and Saturninus are going to trust in Marcus’s uprightness and integrity and go along with him, welcoming Titus into the election. It all seems pretty rosy, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, it won’t last. This is all just setting up an incredible contrast for what’s to come. If you’ve forgotten, you can go to the ‘Will’s Works/Pete’s Posts’ tab and check out the posts on Titus. There’s quite a few there. Or if you’d rather enjoy the rosiness of the moment and prefer not to think about the bad stuff, stay away from those posts. Your choice.

That's right, affy in what I told you and be prepared for the worst if you plan on going and checking out those Titus posts.

All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder;

Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire:

Thine eye Jove’s lightning seems, thy voice his dreadful thunder,

Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire.

Narrator

The Passionate Pilgrim                                 Stanza 5              Line 68

The Passionate Pilgrim. We’ve made it so very close to the end of the compilation. This is page 1,248 out of a possible 1,252 pages. And this back section of the compilation is devoted to Will’s non-play materials. This particular selection? It’s something called The Passionate Pilgrim and it’s a work that’s comprised of a bunch of miscellaneous stuff. A bunch of the pieces of poetry included in this work are assumed to have not been written by Will. Yes, that’s right. And so with Today’s Totally Random line I cheated a little bit.  I went Totally Random on the page, but I limited my pick on the page to the stuff that’s pretty much assumed to actually be Will’s. And the sonnet I took this from is one of those. Based on the content, I have to agree. But what about today’s lines?

Well one advantage to reading a sonnet as opposed to a play is that you really don’t have to worry about figuring out what’s going on in the play. The sonnet is a pretty much stand alone piece that’s only fourteen lines long. And this one? Ummm...

Sweet Baby James, Fire and Rain? No, I guess not, but I can’t help but think of that when I read that last line. And what about sweet fire? And what about this woman he's talking about? Her eyes like lightning and her voice like thunder? But when it's not being angry it's like music and sweet fire? What's sweet fire?

Okay, maybe the stuff from the plays is easier.

Fire and Rain? Sweet Baby James? Sweet Fire? No?

Her eyes like marigolds had sheathed their light,

And canopied in darkness sweetly lay,     

Till they might open to adorn the day.

Narrator

 Lucrece                                      Stanza 57            Line 402

Right to the end of the book we go today, and the poem Lucrece. This is our second visit to this pretty dark poem. Here’s the first post if you want to read it for a little background.

Keeping in mind that the other title for this poem is The Rape Of Lucrece, we know what this poem is about. And the stanza that we take today’s line from is a section, about a half dozen or so stanzas, that describe Lucrece as she lies asleep in bed. Now that could be a nice scene if it were not for the fact that what is being described is what the rapist is seeing and this is just about to turn into a rape scene. So that’s a bit disturbing.

But it almost seems like Will wants to make you forget that context and just concentrate on the beauty of Lucrece. And he uses a lot of nature references here to do that. A few lines earlier he was talking about her pure white hand on the green blanket, comparing it to a daisy in the grass. And in today's Totally Random line we're talking about marigolds. Lots of flower references, eh? It’s a pretty interesting section.

Her eyes are not just closed, they are ‘canopied in darkness’. And when they open they won’t just be open, they will ‘adorn the day’. My goodness Will’s wordplay is, is… well it’s beyond my ability to describe his wordplay. Or perhaps wordwork. Or maybe wordArt. Yes, wordArt, that’s what it is. Okay, that's right, Microsoft’s got that one and uses it for their artsy font stuff. So, oh well.

In any event, today’s line, albeit a prelude to a rape, has some absolutely beautiful language. And I think we could take this into a discussion which has the potential of going in a few different directions; perhaps a contrast of the beauty of this section of the poem with the uglilness of rape? But I’ll leave that up to you. Read it, share it, discuss it.

Here's one more flower; not a marigold or a daisy. In fact, I have no idea whatsoever what kind of flower this is. Anybody?

Thus yields the cedar to the axe's edge,

Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle,
Under whose shade the ramping lion slept,
Whose top-branch overpeer'd Jove's spreading tree
And kept low shrubs from winter's powerful wind.

Earl of Warwick

King Henry The Sixth Part III                                       Act V, scene ii    Line 15

Warwick is, of course, talking about dying. And he is dying. He’s lying on the battlefield and he’ll be speaking his last words a few lines down. In today’s Totally Random passage he’s comparing himself to a cedar tree. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me he’s painting a pretty noble picture of himself. And why cedar? There must be a reason that Will picked the cedar. Just because it fit into the Iambic pentameter scheme (it does). But there must have been other choices. Maple? That would work. Oak, birch, those don’t work with the meter. But anyway.

I’m pretty sure that the princely eagle and the ramping lion refer to someone in this play, but I’m also pretty sure I don’t know who. And he’s saying he was taller than Jove’s spreading tree? That’s going out on a limb, if you’ll excuse the pun. And he protected the low shrubs from the powerful wind. I’m guessing the powerful wind and the low shrubs refer to someone or something. Again, dunno what. I’ll look it up and see if I can find anything on this. In the meantime, it’s all very nice sounding, don’t you think?

Well I tried to find a picture of the cedar tree in the front yard of the house I grew up in, but no luck. So I give you this pic of a sequoia. Now if Warwick really wanted to compare himself to something, he should have gone for this, not some scraggly cedar. Of course, they didn't have sequoias in England back then, and they still don't. But just the same, this is a real tree.