Mojo, The Bard, & Me

Tell Bolingbroke--for yond methinks he stands--
That every stride he makes upon my land
Is dangerous treason: he is come to open
The purple testament of bleeding war;
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons
Shall ill become the flower of England's face,
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace
To scarlet indignation and bedew
Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood.

-Richard

King Richard The Second                   Act III, Scene iii, Line 96

Be patient, princes; you do know, these fits
Are with his highness very ordinary.
Stand from him. Give him air; he'll straight be well.

-Warwick

King Henry The Fourth Part II           Act IV, Scene iv, Line 115

And since, on two successive days we have skipped, from the end of Richard’s reign to the end of his successor Henry’s reign, I’ve decided to bless you with two Totally Random lines today.

The first selection is King Richard talking about Bolingbroke (Henry IV) and the trouble that’s going to come of Bolingbroke’s actions to take Richard’s crown. And of course, Richard is right. Then, skipping forward, 'his highness' being referred to in today’s line is Bolingbroke again, but better known in today’s play as King Henry the Fourth. Do you suppose that tomorrow’s Totally Random line will be from the end of Henry the Fifth’s reign, and then Henry the Sixth? Given that there are 1,320 pages in the book that I’m picking from randomly, I’d have to say the odds are no.

Which leads me to another discussion: should we be changing the format so as to add some sort of continuity to Totally Random (almost) Daily Shakespeare? Don’t think that I haven’t considered it, because I have. Oh there’s several ways I could go. One that I’ve thought of is to take one play and stick to it for a month. Pick a random line from each successive page, or pick the pages randomly? There is a strong argument for maintaining some element or other of randomness. Hmmm. Well we’ll let that one go for now and perhaps we’ll get back to it at a later date.

Back to today's lines; now sometimes I have to agree with the teacher who said that it’s worth teaching kids Shakespeare just so that they get to hear his words, irrespective of whether they understand or appreciate them. Certainly, I’d like to see them understand and appreciate, but Will’s language is just so incomparable that it’s worthwhile just having these words heard.

…and bedew her pastures’ grass with faithful English blood.

And yet, there are so many people, most of us in fact, who just have no idea…

Then again, what of today’s line, about the ordinary fits of his highness. Well, in my humble opinion it does not stand with many other more notable lines. In fact, I don’t think it quite stands with yesterday’s line. But that’s okay, isn’t it? And if you want another one as striking as the Richard II line? Well…

Be patient, princes (and princesses).

Here's one of my favorite pastures. I've seen it bedewed in dew (redundant?), but I pray it never gets bedewed in blood, English, American, Lithuanian, or otherwise.