O, let my sovereign turn away his face,
And bid his ears a little while be deaf,
Till I have told this slander of his blood,
How God and good men hate so foul a liar!
-Thomas Mowbray
King Richard The Second Act I, Scene i Line 111
This is the beginning of the play, and here’s Thomas Mowbray, the Duke of Norfolk, talking to King Richard about Bolingbroke. Mowbray and Bolingbroke have brought their dispute to the king for Richard to mediate it. The short version of the four lines above is that Mowbray is calling Bolingbroke a liar. But of course, Will doesn’t often give us the short version, does he? And I'm afraid I'm not going to give you the short version today either.
It seems that I couldn't think of anything further to write about this, and I couldn't think of any picture to add. Until now. I've come up with some relevant comments, and maybe even a picture, but it's going to take a stretch, so you'll have to indulge me. Or just stop reading here.
In between starting this post, and attempting to continue it, I had the experience of watching my son do a bit of piano playing whilst he was watching and listening (with headphones) to a youtube video on his phone at the same time. Now you might think that it would take some degree of talent to play a piano, reading the music, whilst at the same time watching and listening to an unrelated video. Well, yes, maybe it does. But that's the point. If he's good enough to do that (and don't get me wrong, he doesn't sound that good when he's playing that way) then he's got to possess some degree of musical talent. And I think he does. But if he's got this talent then why the heck doesn't he actually put a little serious effort into it. And, in fact, why can't he do anything whilst he's awake without watching damn videos whilst he's doing it. The piano thing this evening got me so frustrated that I went in the other room, closed the door, and watched tv. And I really do love (usually) listening to him play piano. But I was so frustrated that I turned away my face and bid my ears a little while be deaf to his piano playing.
Oof, that was a long way to go for today's somewhat tenuous tie-in. And yes, it's not a very good tie-in. But it is a legitimate use of the lines and with pretty much the same meaning as today's line, albeit turning and bidding for completely different reasons than why Mowbray is telling Richard to turn and bid. So be it.
Yup, here's the little wiener at his first recital. He's currently playing stuff a bit more demanding than Mary Had A Little Lamb. And his feet touch the ground now too.
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