How may likeness made in crimes,

Making practise on the times,

To draw with idle spiders’ strings

Most ponderous and substantial things!

 

-Duke

 

Measure For Measure                                    Act III, Scene ii, Line 279

 

Okay, hopefully you’re ready for a bit of a lengthy post today. But ready or not…

 There’s a little bit of an issue of clarity in the syntax of today’s four lines. They’re part of a soliloquy. The Duke is talking about Angelo. By now in the play we realize that Angelo is passing judgement on people when he himself is very much at fault. And that’s the gist of the Duke’s short soliloquy. Here’s the whole thing.

He who the sword of heaven will bear
Should be as holy as severe;
Pattern in himself to know,
Grace to stand, and virtue go;
More nor less to others paying
Than by self-offences weighing.
Shame to him whose cruel striking
Kills for faults of his own liking!
Twice treble shame on Angelo,
To weed my vice and let his grow!
O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side!
How may likeness made in crimes,
Making practise on the times,
To draw with idle spiders' strings
Most ponderous and substantial things!
Craft against vice I must apply:
With Angelo to-night shall lie
His old betrothed but despised;
So disguise shall, by the disguised,
Pay with falsehood false exacting,
And perform an old contracting.

I added the bold and italics to highlight today’s Totally Random lines.

At first I thought it was just me. But I did a little Googling on this and found out that it’s not, and I came up with a very interesting conclusion. A gentleman named Carl D. Atkins wrote a scholarly article on today’s lines. How about that? And Dr. Atkins points out not only the issue with the syntax, and the possible solutions proposed by a few other Shakespearean scholars, but also his own conclusion which I tend to favor. In his article Dr. Atkins talks about several other’s ideas and possible solutions for the confusion in the syntax before he proposes his own solution.

Here’s three versions: Starting with what I have above, drawn from my compilation of Shakespeare’s works, moving on to Dr. Atkins amended version, and ending with the punctuation found in the online text of the Bodliean First Folio. I like going to the First Folio whenever these questions come up.

Above

O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side!
How may likeness made in crimes,
Making practise on the times,
To draw with idle spiders' strings
Most ponderous and substantial things!
Craft against vice I must apply:

Atkins

O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side?
How many likeness made in crimes,
Making practise on the times?
To draw with idle spiders' strings
Most ponderous and substantial things,
Craft against vice I must apply.

Bodleian

O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side?
How may likeness made in crimes,
Making practise on the Times,
To draw with idle spiders' strings
Most ponderous and substantial things?
Craft against vice I must apply.

So the text above, and in the First Folio, starts the sentence with ‘How may likeness…’ and ends that sentence four lines later making it very difficult to understand the meaning. It just doesn’t seem to make sense. In fact, the sentence doesn’t appear to have verb. ‘To draw’, as is pointed out in Dr. Atkin’s article (and not just by him), is an infinitive and not a proper predicate. So what is the ‘likeness’ doing? Well Dr. Atkins is suggesting that there are a couple of typos in the original First Folio and that the first two lines are one thought, really a continuation of the thought that’s in the two lines before that, and also that ‘may’ should be ‘many.’ And it does make very good sense.

O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side?
How many likeness made in crimes,
Making practise on the times?

The likeness in crimes making practice is referring to what a man may hide.

Then he takes it a step further in tying the last three lines together as one sentence, and that makes really good sense too.

To draw with idle spiders' strings
Most ponderous and substantial things,
Craft against vice I must apply.

The Duke is saying that he’s going to have to be sly to come up with a plan to deal with Angelo. And then in the final lines of the soliloquy the Duke explains what that plan is.

It all works very well and Dr. Atkins pretense is that the standard text is the result of a mistake in the typesetting of the First Folio. And we are certain that there were many mistakes in the typesetting as evidenced by the differences between different First Folios. Now I guess I’ll have to go back to some other online First Folios (because there are more than one) and see if thes lines are different in any of those. But for now I’m going with Dr. Atkins solution.

Now after going through all that, I’m thinking that you must agree with me that, regardless of what’s right or wrong with the typesetting and the syntax, these two lines are fabulous and can be utilized in any number of situations.

To draw with idle spiders' strings
Most ponderous and substantial things!

Honestly, that can be the reply to almost anything. In fact, I just used it in a texting conversation. Oh Shakespeare is just fabulous.

These are some idle spider strings on the cellar window above my desk. Or are they cobwebs? Or is that the same thing? O, most ponderous and substantial things!

    ….and here

Have I , thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit

Than other princess' can, that have more time

For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.

-Prospero

The Tempest                                        Act 1, Scene ii, Line 72

This is Prospero explaining to his daughter, Miranda, about their situation on the island. He’s giving her the backstory which is, of course, for the sake of the audience. One would have thought that since they’ve been stuck together on the island, just the two of them, for twelve years that they might have previously broached this subject. But apparently not. Anyway, all he’s saying is that he has been her teacher and that he’s done a good job at it. It’s part of a longer tale of how they got to the island. Again, backstory.

Since Prospero was bragging about what a great teacher he was, I thought I'd show you a picture of my MAT diploma and brag that I'm at least qualified to teach (even if I'm not teaching). But I couldn't find the darn diploma, so here's a picture of the cowl (is that the right word?) that I got when I got my masters. I'll have to ask my wife where the diploma is. She'll know.

This house is little: the old man and his people

Cannot be well bestow’d.

-Regan

                                   

King Lear                               Act II, Scene iv, Line 289

‘The old man’ that Regan is referring to is, of course, her father. Good old Regan. She’s kicking papa out into the night.

Well, we’ve discussed this woman and her sister Goneril before. I’m not sure I’ve got anything new to say about either of them.

Yes, that's right. She's giving dear old dad the boot. I really don't like Regan.

My half-supped sword, that frankly would have fed,

Pleased with this dainty bit, thus goes to bed.

-Achilles

Troilus And Cressida                                      Act V, Scene viii, Line 19-20

Okay, back at it. This is an interesting line towards the end of an interesting, albeit short, scene. In the original Iliad, Achilles battles Hector and wins. In Shakespeare’s version Achilles pretty much has his guys take care of Hector. Here’s the whole scene; it’s only twenty-two lines.

SCENE VIII. Another part of the plains.

Enter HECTOR

HECTOR

Most putrefied core, so fair without,
Thy goodly armour thus hath cost thy life.
Now is my day's work done; I'll take good breath:
Rest, sword; thou hast thy fill of blood and death.

Puts off his helmet and hangs his shield behind him

Enter ACHILLES and Myrmidons

ACHILLES

Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set;
How ugly night comes breathing at his heels:
Even with the vail and darking of the sun,
To close the day up, Hector's life is done.

HECTOR

I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek.

ACHILLES

Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I seek.

HECTOR falls

So, Ilion, fall thou next! now, Troy, sink down!
Here lies thy heart, thy sinews, and thy bone.
On, Myrmidons, and cry you all amain,
'Achilles hath the mighty Hector slain.'

A retreat sounded

Hark! a retire upon our Grecian part.

MYRMIDONS

The Trojan trumpets sound the like, my lord.

ACHILLES

The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth,
And, stickler-like, the armies separates.
My half-supp'd sword, that frankly would have fed,
Pleased with this dainty bait, thus goes to bed.

Sheathes his sword

Come, tie his body to my horse's tail;
Along the field I will the Trojan trail.

Exeunt

And that’s it. And that’s the end of Hector. While I’ve not read the Iliad (I really need to do that; I bought Fagles’s translation last year) I’m pretty sure that the battle between Hector and Achilles is a one-on-one and a pivotal scene. Here it’s just a little talk and then the Myrmidons take care of the task. The Myrmidons, by the way, are Achilles guys. I guess they’re all from Myrmid? Not too sure about that. But they’re not a bunch of male mermaids. That would just be weird.

Anyway, there’s some good stuff in that short scene. It starts with Hector talking to his sword and it ends with Achilles talking to his, before he gets ready to drag Hector’s body around the walls of Troy (and isn’t that where someone shoots Achilles in the heel and kills him, thus begetting the saying ‘the Achilles heel’?). And they really give some life to those swords, don’t they? Achilles sword is ‘half-supped’, would have liked to eat more, but now it’s going to bed. It almost makes me see a little sword guy prancing around.  

 

Mr. Sword