If your honour judge it meet, I will place you 

Where you shall hear us confer of this, and by an 

Auricular assurance have your satisfaction; and 

That without further delay than this very evening. 

-Edmund 

King Lear                               Act I, Scene ii, Line 95 

So today we're looking at language; in particular, auricular assurance. Whoa, who says things like that? Seeing is believing, but in this case, hearing is believing. Do you think you would ever use this? Have you ever said, 'I need to hear it with my own ears.'? If you did, would you consider replacing that phrase with 'I need auricular assurance.'? For sure, it's a mouthful.

  

But what about context? Edmund is one of the Rat-Finks in this play, and he's in the process of tricking his father, Gloucester, into turning on his brother Edgar. Now the interesting thing here, and probably the reason Will used such a phrase that would draw attention to it, is that Gloucester is going to have his eyes gouged out a few scenes down the road. At that point he will only have the opportunity for auricular assurance, as opposed to optical assurance (seeing is believing). So Will seems to be doing a bit of foreshadowing here. Ahh, that clever Will.    

This is my personal apparatus for auricular assurance.

Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is Dead!

-Cinna

Julius Caesar                               Act III, Scene i, Line 78

No kidding, This is today's Totally Random line. This is what they're shouting immediately after stabbing Caesar to death.
So, Happy Memorial Day everyone. And while Memorial Day is the day to honor those who died while fighting for our country (at least that's what Wikipedia says), I'd like to think that they were fighting for liberty, freedom, and death to tyranny. Isn't that what our country is supposed to be all about?

His life was gentle; and the elements

So mixt in him, that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world, “This was a man!”

 

-Marcus Antonius

 

Julius Caesar                                         Act V, Scene v, Line 73

Okay, well here’s a pretty good line. And I guess it had better be since there are only eight lines left in the play. You would think that the audience is pretty attentive at this point so you wouldn’t want to be slipping in any B-grade stuff at this point. You want strictly A-grade material here.

They’re talking about Brutus, who just died, with this line. And though the name of the play is Julius Caesar, Brutus is pretty much the main character in this play. Remember that Caesar dies at the beginning of Act Three, and Brutus died just a few lines before today’s Totally Random line.

Now, today’s quote literally sounds like something you could use in a eulogy today if you wanted. I think you’d resort to this one if you were kind of stuck and didn’t have your own A-grade material for the recently deceased. If you were talking about someone close to you, who you felt good about, you’d probably be able to come up with some more specific stuff to say. But if it was someone that you got roped into talking about, well then this would be a good line, because it’s a bit vague. Now I’m sure if we do an in-depth analysis of the play we’re going to fine that there’s really nothing random about these words and they very specifically refer to stuff about Brutus from the play. But taken on their own, well they’re definitely a bit vague. But it sounds nice, doesn’t it? Of course it does, it’s Shakespeare for God’s sake!

I've given eulogies for people a couple of times. Once I ended it with a quote from John Keats's Ode On A Grecian Urn, and once I ended it with a quote from this book. But I'll keep this Julius Caesar quote in mind if I ever end up in the eulogy situation again. It's a pretty good line. Not that I'm too excited about the thought of giving any eulogies.

These quick-sands, Lepidus

Keep off them, for you sink.

-Antony

Antony And Cleopatra                      Act II, Scene vii, Line 61

Well, I have decided to get back to Totally Random mode, and here we are back in the Roman Empire again with Antony and Cleopatra. Actually, there's no Cleo in this scene, just Antony and a bunch of Romans. Yes, I found that it just wasn’t as much fun, nor did I find I was learning a whole lot more about the play, when I restricted myself to Measure For Measure. So, justice or no justice, I've found that a great part of the fun of doing this is not knowing where in the world I might end up. Today we're on a boat just off the shores of Miseno, Italy, just a bit to the north of Naples. So after having spent the past week in Vienna, getting a little sea air is quite refreshing.

I think that in today’s line Antony is just giving Lepidus a hard time. They’re all on board a party boat and mostly half drunk. Antony’s been describing Egypt (sort of) to Lepidus and now he’s telling him about the quick-sand. I’m not sure if he’s kidding around about there being quick-sand in Egypt, or whether he’s referring figuratively to something else that Lepidus should be wary of. Or maybe he’s doing a little bit of both. I suppose today’s line is a good line that you could use, speaking figuratively, if you want to warn your friend about something. For instance, suppose your friend Mitzi is thinking about getting involved with a married man:

‘These quick-sands, Mitzi, keep off them, for you sink.’

Yeah, that would work, and I think Mitzi would get the message. Don’t you?

Wait a tick, is that my two Cordelias sinking in quick-sand? No, of course not. They're just having some fun at the beach. No worries. 

For testimony whereof, one in the prison,

That should by private order else have died,

I have reserved alive.

-Provost

Measure For Measure                         Act V, Scene i, Line 462

I’m not sure, but I think that the Provost is telling the Duke that he’s got some guy in prison who’s going to be able to back up his story. ‘And who’s this guy’, asks the Duke. Well the answer to that is Tuesday’s Totally Random line that we didn’t get to post.

His name is Barnardine, answers Provost.

All right then. I’ve stuck to the most current plan and I’ve been drawing Totally Random lines exclusively from Measure For Measure. But the week’s gotten away from me, not enough hours in the day if you know what I mean, and I haven’t been able to get around to reading/listening to more than the first act of the play. Not only that, but I’ve not posted since Monday. Add to this the fact that doing it this way is just as, if not more, confusing than going Totally Random, and oh boy!  

So now I'm feeling all confused, and I’m not sure what to do. I wish I had this guy Barnardine to back me up.

That's Barnardine? No, I don't think so. Well...I dunno... maybe?

He would not, but by gift of my chaste body 

To his concupiscible intemperate lust, 

Release my brother; and, after much debatement, 

My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour, 

And I did yield to him;  

-Isabella 

Measure For MeasureAct V, Scene i, Line 104 

Day three of Measure For Measure and there's a few things to look at here. For starters, how about that concupiscible intemperate lust? Wow, that a mouthful! And the chaste body? And let's not forget about the sisterly remorse confuting her honour. There's just a whole lot of language going on here.

So let's see; concupiscible is lustful or desirable, intemperate is lacking self control, and confutes is proves to be wrong. At least that's what they mean today. Still, keeping in mind that there are a lot of words that have changed significantly in meaning since 1600, I'm going to assume that these are the meanings of these words in todays Totally Random lines.

So Isabella is talking to the Duke about Angelo and she's saying that Angelo wouldn't release her brother unless she gave up her virgin body to Angelo's lustful, uncontrolled lust. And that after giving it some thought, her regret for her brother's situation outweighed her honour, and so she gave in to Angelo.

But not really.
In fact, Isabella tricked Angelo into thinking that she gave in to him when in fact she set him up. The rendezvous took place in the dark and it was another woman who gave up her questionably chaste body to Angelo.

Oh that Isabella is quite the trickster.

Now this book looks old enough to be assured that the meanings of the words in here are the same as the meanings of the words as Shakespeare used them. But not really. This book has a 1941 copyright. Even so, I didn't use this book today. I cheated and used MW online. Oh that Pete is quite the trickster.

He shows his reason for that;--to have a dispatch of complaints, and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand against us.

-Escalus

Measure For Measure                                     Act IV, Scene iv, Line 11

Ladies and Gentlemen, today we’re doing something different. Today, and for the next few days, we’re going to be less random than usual as we try something that I’ve been considering for a while. We’re going to restrict our randomness to one play. Why? Simply because there are plays that I don’t know and want to get to know better. And I don’t have enough time in one day to get this blog written, let alone figure out whole plays. So I’m going to stick with one play for a week, maybe more, until I’ve actually read/heard the whole thing. The line from within that play, like todays, will continue to be random. It can/will be any line in the entire play. This way we’re all going to learn a little more about Measure For Measure. And remember, we have visited this play before, so if you want to get a little bit familiar with it (since we’ll be on this one for a while) you can find all the Measure For Measure posts by going to the Will’s Works/Pete’s Post tab of this blog.  Here we go.

First off, I’m going to give you a pretty heavy duty lead in here. This play is about Vincentio, the Duke, leaving town for a while and putting Angelo in charge of the town. In today’s scene, late in the play, Angelo and his right hand man Escalus are reading a letter from the Duke telling them that he’ll be returning and he wants them to meet him at the gates to the town to turn their powers back over to him. The letter also states that an hour before he returns they are to proclaim that if anyone wants to be heard about any injustice they’ve received, they should make their case in the streets. Angelo is wondering why the Duke wants this done. One other thing, the Duke has remained, disguised, in town throughout the play and he knows what’s been going on in town. Of course, Angelo and Escalus don't know this. And that gets you to Escalus’s line above.

Whew! After all that I don’t feel like we need to do much more with today’s line. How about you? Tell you what; why don’t you go ahead and read Act IV, Scene iv. Here it is. It’s only about 40 lines long, most of it has been explained above, and the last lines are a soliloquy by Angelo. And one more bit of intro before you read. Angelo was left in charge and it turns out that he’s not the best guy in the world. He’s enforcing laws that he himself has not been abiding by. In particular, Angelo had one fellow sentenced to death for engaging in pre-marital sex, whilst at the same time Angelo participated in the same activity himself. Oh what a tangled web….

And this is what pushed me over the edge. I was reading the chapter in this book this morning on Measure For Measure, the play we looked at with yesterday's Totally Random line, and I decided I wanted to learn more about this play. And by the way, do you recognize the picture on this book? You should.

Then, Angelo, thy fault thus manifested,--

Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage,--

We do condemn thee to the very block

Where Claudio stoop’d to death, and with the like haste.—

Away with him!

-Duke

Measure For Measure                         Act V, Scene i, Line 413

And since this is a comedy we can assume that Angelo’s not going to get his head chopped off, and that Claudio’s not really dead. That Will is a pistol, isn’t he!

I'm not quite sure why I'm standing on the rock mantelpiece of this humungous stone fireplace holding a broom upside down with Phil below me, but I'm not quite sure what today's Totally Random line is all about either. So I guess it works.

But now I am cabin’d, cribb’d, confined, bound in

To saucy doubts and fears.

 

-Macbeth

Macbeth                      Act III, Scene iv, Line 25

Oh poor Macbeth. What do you suppose he’s talking about? What is so troubling him that he is confined to doubts and fears? In the lines previous to this he says that he would have been perfect, whole as the marble, founded as the rock, as broad and general as the casing air. What brought him from being whole to being penned in by fears? I’ll tell you what happened. The murderers that Macbeth sent out to kill Banquo and his son Fleance have come back to report that Banquo is dead, but Fleance got away. For sure, Banquo’s throat is cut and now safe in a ditch he bides, with twenty trenched gashes in his head. But Fleance got away and that’s what’s upsetting Macbeth.

Yes, Poor Macbeth. 

 

This is a pic taken from the bell tower of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Normally, being up this high up, with my fear of heights, would  make me quite cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears. But for some reason that day I was founded as a rock. How about you? What makes you cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears?