For much imaginary work was there;

Conceit deceitful, so compact, so kind,

That for Achille’s image stood his spear,

Griped in an armed hand; himself, behind,

Was left unseen, save to the eye of mind:

   A hand, a foot, a face, a leg, a head,

   Stood for the whole to be imagined.



-Narrator

                                   

Lucrece                                                     Line 1423





This is the part of the poem Lucrece where Will goes into a really long description of a painting on the wall that Lucrece is looking at. It’s a painting of the Greek siege of the city of Troy. It’s hard enough to try to make sense of one stanza in this long poem, let alone one line of the stanza. So I gave you the whole stanza. No need to thank me.



Just to summarize, this is the day after Lucrece has been raped by her husband’s associate, and she’s wandering alone around the house in a desperate funk when she stops to look at this painting. Will goes on for a page describing this painting of a battle scene. Today’s Totally Random line is just one piece of this long description.



I guess you’d have to look at each piece of the description, each stanza, to figure out the significance of what Will is describing in each. I can tell you that the stanza above is near the end of the battle scene description, and that after these many descriptions of people in this battle scene, the page leads up to Lucrece finding Hecuba in the picture, and the latter is shown as looking half dead herself as she stares down at her dead husband Priam.



So we’re talking about a dead-in-spirit woman, Lucrece, looking at another dead-in-spirit woman, Hecuba, who in turn is looking at her literally dead husband, Priam. Pretty grim.



And one more thing: Earlier on in the battle Achilles killed Priam's son, Hector, and Priam had to go a beg Achilles for Hector’s body just to be able to bury it. Further, it is later on in the siege that Priam is killed by Achilles’s son Pyrrhus.



Okay, I think that’s all the relevant background facts. Lucrece has been raped, she’s looking at a picture of slaughtering, there’s a stanza about Achilles, but Lucrece wants to see Hecuba grieving over her dead husband who’s just been killed by Achilles’s son. Got it?



So, what does this bit about Achilles, and his spear, and the rest of his body hidden from sight add to the whole thing? Well it’s a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, isn’t it? Darned if I know how this piece fits in. You got anything? 

So what's this? It's the puzzle shelves of course.

The spring, the summer,

The childing autumn, angry winter, change

Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,

By their increase, now knows not which is which:

-Titania          

                       

A Midsummer Night’s Dream         Act II, Scene i, Line 112

Before we get started let me say one thing that occurred to me this morning whilst reading today’s Totally Random line. Isn’t it amazing that Will never once repeated a line of description verbatim throughout all of his pages of works? Or maybe he did? But I haven’t seen it yet. Let me know if you find one.

Now, on to the lines. Here’s how I read it:

The spring, the summer, the cool autumn and angry winter are changing their appearances and the confused world doesn’t know which season is which.

Okay, let’s look up a few words:

Childing- fertile, fruitful, teeming

Wonted- usual

Liveries- uniform (as in clothing)

Mazed- bewildered, confused, perplexed

Those are the four words that I wasn’t sure of, and in each case the modern definition is the same as the one out of my Shakespeare glossary. And it changes my interpretation, but only a little bit. Childing has nothing to do with chilly, it has to do with fruitful. The rest I got right. He’s talking about the autumn being fruitful, as in harvest time, not chilly. Actually, she’s talking. It’s Titania, Oberon’s wife. I’m not quite sure what the total, contextual gist of this is. As I’ve oft mentioned, Midsummer is not one of my favourite works.

Holy cow; it just occurred to me how prescient these lines are with today’s unpredictable weather what with climate change. To be clear, the context of these lines has nothing to do with today’s weather, but all the same, it’s a great quote to use in talking about climate change. Wow.

 This picture is outside the train station in Paris a few years ago on March 19. So I think it qualifies for an example of slightly unusual weather.

    Swear his thought over

By each particular star in heaven

-Camillo

                       

The Winter’s Tale                             Act I, Scene ii, Line 423

This is near the beginning of the The Winter’s Tale. King Leontes is already completely convinced that his wife is having an affair with his friend King Polixenes (spoiler alert: Leontes is nuts and there is absolutely no affair going on). Leontes tells one of his guys, Camillo, to murder Polixenes. Camillo is convinced there is no affair, and then he runs into Polixenes. The latter realizes something’s amiss, and he gets Camillo to tell him what’s going on. Camillo tells Polixenes that Leontes thinks he has toucht his queen forbiddenly. Below is the exchange that follows:

Polixenes-

                        O, then my best blood turn

To an infected jelly, and my name

Be yoked with his that did betray the Best!

Turn then my freshest reputation to

A savour that may strike the dullest nostril

Where I arrive, and my approach be shunn’d,

Nay, hated too, worse than the great’st infection

That e’er was heard or read!

Camillo-

                        Swear his thoughts over

By each particular star in heaven and

By all their influences, you may as well

Forbid the sea for to obey the moon,

As or by oath remove, or counsel shake

The fabric of his folly, whose foundation

Is piled upon his faith, and will continue

The standing of his body.

I kind of like the best blood turn to infected jelly and also A savour that may strike the dullest nostril parts. I don’t know, but there’s something a little bit funny about that savour thing. Of course, the you may as well forbid the sea for to obey the moon is a pretty good line as well. In fact, that one is pretty usable.

Is congress ever going to stop with the partisanship and get something constructive done?

You may as well forbid the sea for to obey the moon.

One other note here: In today’s line we hear of blood being turned to infected jelly. In Lear when Regan (or was it Goneril?) is gouging out Glouster’s eye’s she refers to them as vile jelly. Vile jelly. Infected jelly. I wonder if Will ever talks about jelly in any good context? Did they even have real jelly for spreading on bread back around 1600? They must have had it!

 

 Now this here is some jelly that is neither vile nor infected. It's just delicious.