Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

Why, what an intricate impeach this is!

I think you have all drunk of Circe’s cup.

If here you housed him, here he would have been;

If he were mad, he would not plead so coldly:-

You say he dined at home; the goldsmith here

Denies that saying. - Sirrah, what say you?

 

-Duke of Ephesus

 The Comedy of Errors          Act V, Scene i, Line 272

  

And we end the year with a bunch of confused people in the last scene of Comedy. Everyone is making different claims, and the Duke is trying to sort it all out.

An impeach is a charge or accusation.

Circe’s cup refers to the cup of potion she tried to give Odysseus to bring him under her spell.

The Duke is talking about Antipholus of Ephesus here, and he ends by turning to Dromio of Ephesus for his input: Sirrah, what say you? Dromio contradicts everything, declaring that Antipholus dined at the Porpentine Inn.

And that pretty much sums up The Comedy Of Errors. No worries though, everything’s going to be cleared up about thirty lines down when the other Ephesus and Dromio show up, finally in the same spot with the first Dromio and Ephesus. Phew!

And my takeaway today? The Porpentine Inn. That’s an old spelling of porcupine, and I love it. Porpentine! Yes, that’s right: My takeaway is Porpentine. Go figure.

And today's pic is brother Dave and his beautiful wife Kathleen. Why this pic? Well, it's because Dave brought us the unforgettable line, 'Rise and shine, Porpentine!'

Actually, Dave used Porcupine, but I'm sure he won't mind the transposition.

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 It shall be done.

  

-All

 King Henry the Sixth Part II         Act IV, Scene vii, Line 112

 

 Well that’s fairly declarative. It shall be done. No ifs, ands, or buts. It shall be done. Wow. Context aside, that’s a pretty good Totally Random Line. Don’t you agree?

Simple as that.

It shall be done.

And this will be called the Baobab Tree. 

It shall be done.

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 What! Shall we have incision? Shall we imbrue?

[Snatching up his sword]

Then death rock me asleep, abridge my doleful days!

Why, then, let grievous, ghastly, gaping wounds

Untwine the Sisters Three! Come, Atropos, I say!

 

-Pistol

 King Henry the Fourth Part II      Act II, Scene iv, Line 195

 

Pistol is a bit of a loose cannon here. He’s drunk in a scene at the Inn with Pistol, Bardolph, and Falstaff, among others. But enough of that.

To think, I started this blog in August 2016, and today is December 29, 2022. That’s over six years. I’m thinking that this blog has become my Watts Tower. That’s funny, I never thought of that before. My Watts Tower. LOL.

Oh world, thy slippery turns. I wonder if anyone will come to see my Tower. It doesn’t stick out like the ones in Watts, so it could easily go undiscovered. But did Mr Watts make his tower for anyone other than himself? I don’t know. Why should I care? Rounded with a sleep.

So, why am I building this tower? Well, it’s just that some of Will’s stuff is just, um, effable. He’s managed to make the ineffable effable. More people should see that, among other things.

Mr Rodia saw things that no one else saw in pieces of trash, and he used it to create Towers. If I were to say that I saw in Will’s stuff something that no one else sees, that would certainly not be true. I do see what many see, and have seen, but it is something that the vast majority of humanity has not seen; is not even fully aware that it exists. 

Hmmmmm. 

Watts Towers?

The Official Watts Towers Arts Center Campus

In case you don't know what I'm talking about

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool

Art thou to break into this woman’s mood,

Tying thine ear to no tongue but thiue own.

  

-Northumberland

 King Henry the Fourth Part I       Act I, Scene iii, Line 235

 

So Hotspur is on a rant against King Henry. Worcester keeps trying to interrupt to get his two cents in, but finally he gives up and says,

Farewell, kinsman: I’ll talk to you

When you are better temper’d to attend.

And that’s when Northumberland pipes up with Today’s Totally Random Line, which is basically saying to Worcester

Stop being an impatient old lady, and listen to someone besides yourself.

And Worcester does. He doesn’t leave and he waits until Hotspur is done, and then he lays out his plan for their plot against the King. Everyone likes the plan, and away we go.

I'm using this pic because it has the word Scottish in it, in homage to the Scottish prisoners that are the focal point of today's scene. Exactly what this thing in the picture is - the DEAS, the CATH, and all that - well, that's anybody's guess. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

Prospero-
    Dost thou hear?

Miranda-
                       Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

The Tempest                   Act I, Scene ii, Line 105

 

So that is today’s line(s).

Now, I think that you’re probably not going to be having anyone say to you ‘Dost thou hear?’ But you might have someone say, ‘Do you hear what I’m saying to you?’ Or something of that ilk. And if they do, here’s your perfect reply.
‘Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.’

Perfect! Now don’t forget it, because that reply will really frost ‘em.

Speaking of frost --- I can't get these guys out of my sauna. I figured they would either get tired of it or melt. But no, they just love it. Guess I better turn up the heat. That'll de-frost 'em. 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

By this she hears the hounds are at bay,

Whereat she starts like one that spies an adder

Wreath’d up in fatal folds just in his way,

The fear whereof doth make him shake and shudder;

Even so the timorous yelping of the hounds

Appalls her senses, and her spirit confounds.  

 

-Narrator

Venus And Adonis                 Line 877

 

Here’s an interesting little fact: the first line of this stanza, as noted, is line 877 in this poem. The very first Totally Random Daily Line posted, on August 11, 2016, was line 889 (that’s two stanzas down), The dismal cry rings sadly in her ear. Rather than repeat the paragraph of explanation on this poem, I will refer you to that previous post, and take the rest of the day off.

Snowmen in a Sauna. Well, they look happy so far...

 Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!

John, to stop Arthur’s title in the whole,

Hath willingly departed with a part;

And France - whose armour conscience buckled on, 

Whom zeal and charity brought to the field

As God’s own soldier, - rounded in the ear 

With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil, 

That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith,

That daily break-vow, he that wins of all,

Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids,

Who having no external thing to lose

But the word “maid”, cheats the poor maid of that,

That smooth-fac’d gentleman, tickling commodity,

Commodity, the bias of the world -

 

-Bastard

King John                       Act II, Scene i, Line 567

 

And then he goes on (and on) about Commodity. Let me give you a few things up front:

A composition in this case (Mad Composition!) is an agreement, truce or settlement.

Rounded (rounded in the ear) is whispered.

And finally, That broker, that daily break-vow, that smooth-fac’d gentleman are all references to commodity, and commodity in this reference pretty much means self-interest.

Here’s my Shakespeare App’s summary of what Bastard is talking about here -

The Bastard expostulates on how quickly self-interest makes people forget their oaths, and he decides that he might as well do the same himself.

There, that’s your head start.

 So, Today’s Totally Random Lines are fourteen lines of a thirty-eight line scene-ending soliloquy by Bastard (You gotta love that the guy’s name throughout the play is simply Bastard). The random line picked is in the middle of the fourteen lines, and I couldn’t find any kind of a complete thought without keeping these lines intact. Even with this, the thought is not completely done. Bastard goes on about how commodity, or self-interest runs the world and he’s going to let it run him.

King John is that odd, sort of out of place, history play about the twelfth century king who was halfway between William the Conqueror and Edward III, the progenitor of the War of the Roses. All the other history plays are contiguous, from Richard II to Richard III (oh sure, there’s Henry VIII, but that’s almost contemporary), but this one is a loner. And it’s a little bit odd. Will supposedly wrote it in the middle of his history play writing period. It’s almost as if he needed a break from the War of the Roses saga that he was writing with the other eight history plays.  

Anyway, what to say about this line, this soliloquy, this scene, this play, this mad world? I'm not sure I've anything of substance to add. I think perhaps I’ve said enough. 

Okay, two justifications for this pic: Today's lines begin and end 'with world' - from Mad world to bias of the world. This pic is from near the end of the world, Ushuaia, Argentina and it's got a prison convict escaping down the side of the building, which is a little bit crazy, or mad. And the second justification - Argentina. Since they won the world cup two days ago, and since this one of the very few pics I have taken in/of Argentina...well, there you go. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 

From the besieged Ardea, all in post

Borne by the trustless wings of false desire,

Lust-breathed Tarquin leaves the Roman host,

And to Collatium bears the lightless fire

Which, in pale embers hid, lurks to aspire

    And girdle with embracing flames the waist

    Of Collantines fair love, Lucrece the chaste. 

 

-Narrator

Lucrece                                   First Stanza

 

Prepare yourself: a bit of a lecture today.

Okay, that’s the opening of the 1,855 line Lucrece, sometimes published as The Rape Of Lucrece. My book uses the former, and I prefer to use that title even though, as foretold quite clearly in that first stanza, this poem is going to center on the rape of Lucrece.

It’s a wonderfully written seven lines. Trustless wings of false desire and the lightless fire of lust. It also gives a very good idea to the reader of what the next 1,800 plus lines are going to be about.

This long poem can almost be compared to a short story written in verse, and it makes me wonder what kind of novelist Will would have been. There is much of the dialogue in his works that’s written in prose, and I guess, regarding my question, we can look at the introduction to Lucrece. This poem begins with The Argument which is a fairly long (historically accurate?) tale of the events upon which the poem is based. Spoiler alert: don’t read The Argument unless you want to know exactly what’s going to happen in the poem.

Regarding the art form of the long narrative, if I’m not mistaken, Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote was a contemporary of Will, and he is, by some, credited with the first novel. Yeah, pretty much all long narratives previous to that (and there’s a lot, going all the way back to Gilgamesh) had been written in some verse or another. Cervantes went and wrote a whole story strictly in prose (and Spanish) and in the process pioneered what became to be known as the novel. Since he was doing it in Spain, I don’t know that Will was ever exposed to it. As it was, the golden age of drama that Will was a huge part of had started just in time for him. Had he been born fifty years earlier the medium that he worked in may not have been there for him, and we would be left with only the sonnets and a handful of long poems, Lucrece among them.

But he wasn’t (luckily) born early, and he didn’t (regrettably?) discover that art of the long narrative. And that’s that.

Again, at 1,855 lines it’s a long poem. But it’s worth the read. Of course it is; it’s written by Will, isn't it?

Today's (actually, every day's) lecturer - Professor Blagys

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 

Madam, be still, -- with reverence may I say;

For every word you speak in his behalf

Is slander to your royal dignity.

 

-Earl of Warwick

King Henry the Sixth Part II         Act III, Scene ii, Line 208

 

Well, it's Saturday morning, and this line would require a bit of reading. So let’s look at it with zero context and perhaps comment on the words we have here.

Hmmm. Madam be still. Sounds like he's saying shut up, but still trying to express some reverence for her. And trying to shift all of the problem on ‘his’, whoever ‘his’ is.

I think that’s all I've got this morning. You see, this Totally Random thing just doesn’t come out that great every time, does it?

And that’s okay.

This here is a hotdog in a... well I'm not sure what that is, but it's definitely not a hotdog roll. No worries: it was all okay in the end. 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 

Yet sometimes ‘Tarquin’ was pronounced plain,

But through his teeth, as if the name he tore.

 

-Narrator

Lucrece                                          Line 1786

 

Lucrece has just killed herself after having been raped by Tarquin. Her father and husband, Collantine have come upon her and are both, understandably, quite upset. You need a few lines from the preceding stanza that come directly before this to give meaning to today’s line. Collantine has begun to speak...

 

                        But through his lips do throng

Weak words, so thick come in his poor heart’s aid,

That no man could distinguish what he said.

Yet sometimes ‘Tarquin’ was pronounced plain,

But through his teeth, as if the name he tore.

 

So Collantine is muttering something about Tarquin. All bad things I’m guessing, since Collantine knows that the guy raped his wife and was responsible for her suicide.

I think we can safely say that this poem qualifies as a tragedy.

I really couldn't think of any appropriate pic for today. I hope you understand.

 

 

La fin couronne les oeuvres.

Dies

 

-Clifford

King Henry the Sixth Part II         Act V, Scene ii, Line 28

 

So old Clifford gives us his last words, and then dies.

I wonder if I’ll lapse into French, or perhaps German, for my last words. And what will those words be? And for that matter, what the heck did Clifford say? I looked up those two words and they mean crown and works. The end of the crown’s works? I guess, maybe. But I think there’s gotta be a better translation. And I can pretty much assure you that those will not be my last words.

I think about the future a lot, but I don’t spend much time considering what my last words will be. The way I’ve seen people die in real life, they mostly drift off so that there really are no last words.

I think some of us might remember the last thing that someone said to us, even though they were not that person’s last words. The last thing I remember my dad saying to me was ‘I’m glad you’re here, Pete.’ So those are pretty good last words to remember. In fact, I can’t think of any better last words to remember someone by.

 

Here's a pic of my dad at the other end of his life. That's him standing with his mom and little sister around this time of year 91 years ago. 

Time is a bugger, isn't it.

 

That such a slave as this should wear a sword,

Who wears no honesty.

 

 -Kent

 King Lear               Act II, Scene ii, Line 116

 

So, where are we today? Kent’s about to be put in the stocks for being all pissed off. He just can’t stop ranting. Just looking at Oswald has got him all wound up. You can look at a couple of previous posts on this scene here, here, and here to give you a little more background, but the bottom line is that Kent just can’t shut himself up. He continues ranting against Cornwall and the others until they end putting him up in the stocks. 

Talk less. A line from the play Hamilton which might have served Kent well at this point. Talk less. 

I find that to be good advice for myself in many situations, and I try to follow it when I can; not always, but often. I can’t remember the last time I just went off uncontrollably… oh wait, actually I can remember. It was a few years ago with my next-door neighbor about the property line. He had just paid a surveyor to find out that he was wrong about the line, and our discussion quickly devolved into me yelling at him uncontrollably. Yup, I went full Kent on him. Luckily, I didn’t end up in the stocks. Luckily, I have Patrice, who saved me by intervening. Good thing too. Oooof. 

Yes - Talk less. And yell and swear less too. 

This, believe it or not, is a pic of the aforementioned property line. There's a little bit of pink ribbon (See it? It's in the middle of the picture.) attached to the stake that the surveyors placed here. So I knew exactly where the line was, and StickBoy did too. Oh boy, I'm getting riled up just thinking about this. Okay, never mind. Talk less; or just stop talking. 

Goooooosfraba.

 

Arm, gentlemen, to arms! For I have thrown

A brave defiance in King Henry’s teeth,

And Westmoreland, that was engag’d, did bear it,

Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.

  

-Douglas

 King Henry the Fourth Part I      Act V, Scene ii, Line 44

 

To arms! To arms. King Henry gave these guys (the rebels), including, Douglas the chance for a pardon, but they don’t believe him, so they’re just gonna fight it out.

He threw a brave defiance in King Henry’s teeth. That there is some pretty nice imagery, if you're into that sort of thing.

Anyway, no sense trying to talk it out when you can just fight. Right?(That's sarcasm, in case you missed it.)

I didn't have any pertinent pic for today, so I'm giving you this one which I thought was kind of nice.

This is the spout I wear on weekends to keep my hair out of my eyes. However, I just got a haircut this morning, so now it's not long enough to spout. 

No more spouts for a while. 

 

Were it not better,

Because that I am more than common tall,

That I did suit me all points like a man?

A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh,

A boar-spear in my hand; and- in my heart

Lie there what a hidden woman’s fear there will-

We’ll have a swashing and a martial outside;

As many other mannish cowards have

That do outface it with their semblances.

 

 

-Rosalind

 

As You Like It                                Act I, Scene iii, Line 119

 

Yup, that’s right, I gave you the whole paragraph instead of a line. But it’s pretty short, and pretty understandable. Rosalind’s just been banished from the court, so she and her cousin are talking about taking off on their own. Celia suggests that they give themselves a dirty appearance so as not to be taken advantage of since they will be two women traveling alone. Rosalind has a better idea:

Wouldn’t it be better, since I’m so tall, that I disguise myself as a man? An axe on my thigh and a spear in my hand, and, regardless of the woman’s fears in my heart, I’ll have a swaggering and valiant appearance; much like many cowardly men who have a manly look to them.

That’s my paraphrasing of today’s lines. It just seemed that whole little speech was better intact. Also, regardless of the fact that I paraphrased it for you, the original text is pretty understandable to me. What do you think?

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a curtle-axe (because I don't know what a curtle-axe is), but it's about the right size to wear upon my thigh. My favorite son-in-law found it for me in a little flea market store outside Nashville. The funny thing is that it's imprinted with the Boy Scout logo and the manufacturer, Bridgeport Howe Mfg Corp, Bridgeport, CT. Since I was a Boy Scout in Bridgeport, CT, Jeff rightly assumed that I would want it. 

Just the same, I probably won't be wearing it on my thigh anytime real soon. 

(postscript: I just looked up curtle-axe in my Shakespeare Glossary and apparently it's a cutlass, a sword. Since I don't have a cutlass, I'm sticking with my Bridgeport made, Jeff discovered, hatchet.)

 

 

By love, who first did prompt me to inquire;

He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes.

  

-Romeo

 Romeo and Juliet           Act II, Scene i, Line 122

 

Love lent him counsel. That’s really not much of an answer to Juliet’s very reasonable question,

By whose direction found’st thou out this place? 

This is the very, very famous balcony scene. Juliet was just  talking to herself (the even more famous O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?), and now she has just realized that Romeo is there in the dark, below her window. How the heck does he know where I live?, she's thinking.

Now, if you were to stop ten people randomly on the street and ask them to describe one scene from a Shakespeare play, this is probably the scene that nine of them would describe. Heck, it’s probably the only scene that nine of them would know. Sure, most of them would know the lines ‘To be, or not to be…’, but they wouldn’t know what that scene is. It is this scene that is probably the most famous, well-known scene in Shakespeare, perhaps in all of drama. And what is it a scene of? If written in modern times, this might be called a scene about a peeping tom or a stalker. No, really. He ran into the girl at a dance earlier that evening, became infatuated with her, and now he’s outside her bedroom window in the middle of the night. Right?

Of course, that’s not the way it’s playing out here. She’s as in love with him as he of her, and pretty happy that he’s there. Go figure.

I have found that the plot lines of Will’s plays do, sometimes, seem to stretch the limits credibility. And yet, every time I say that, I end up finding a credible example in real life of the supposedly incredible story that he painted. No, I don’t have one of those examples for you this morning. And yet, I know it will eventually come to me.

Therefore and ergo - Romeo is not a stalker.

Ok, what the heck is that a picture of? Well, this is the spot on the drainpipe next to my desk here in the cellar where I turned to see a pic of Juliet's balcony. Unfortunately, the pic is not there, and I'm not sure where it is. And that's too bad, because it would have been a really appropriate pic. Oh well, if I find it I'll let you know and then I'll give you a better description of it. In the meantime, be a little bit careful about hanging around outside girls' bedroom windows. In most cases, it's probably not a really great idea. 

 

 

Not long before your highness sped to France,

The duke being at the Rose, within the parish

Saint Lawrence Poultney, did of me demand

What was the speech among the Londoners

Concerning the French journey: I replied,

Men fear’d the French would prove perfidious,

To the king’s danger.

 

 -Surveyor

 King Henry the Eighth          Act I, Scene ii, Line 156

 

There’s a pretty long line for you, but only one sentence. We’ve covered this part of this scene before, here, here, and here. So I’m thinking there’s no need to rehash this.

What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Away, you starveling, you eel-skin, you dried neats-tongue, you bull’s-pizzle, you stock-fish,-- O, for breath to utter what is like thee!—You tailor’s-yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing-tuck,--

  

-Sir John Falstaff

 King Henry the Fourth Part I       Act II, Scene iv, Line 248

 

And thankfully Prince Henry interrupts Falstaff after ‘standing-tuck’ to set the story straight.

This is the scene where Prince Henry and Poinz meet up with Falstaff and the other three of his group at the inn. Falstaff is relating the tale of what happened to him and the other three. According to Fastaff, they had just finished robbing a group of travelers when they were set upon by a very large group of bandits who took all the loot. The Prince knows that it was he and Poinz wearing masks who were the ‘very large group’ of bandits, and he is calling Falstaff’s bluff. And this is why Falstaff is calling the Prince every name he can think of.

My favorite in this paragraph is bull-pizzle. It just sounds good. I don’t know what most of these insults mean, but I looked up pizzle and apparently it means penis. So that just makes it better. I may have to use this one, though I’m pretty sure that if I do the person will know that I’m not saying anything good about him.

Bull-pizzle.

I found the perfect parking spot this morning.

No bull-pizzle.

 

 

 Your eyes do make no coaches; in your tears

There is no certain princess that appears;

You’ll not be perjured, ‘tis a hateful thing;

Tush, none but minstrels like of sonneting!

 

-Berowne

Love’s Labour’s Lost             Act IV, Scene iii, Line 154

 

What have we here?

I’ve no idear.

 

 

Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.

 

-Beatrice

Much Ado About Nothing     Act IV, Scene i, Line 327

 

Okay, here’s the deal, and I’ve said this before: although I do know some bits and bobs of this play, I don’t know the whole thing. I’ve never seen, read, or heard the whole thing. So this morning I googled Much Ado About Nothing summary, and I got a pretty good summary on litcharts.com. It’s about twelve paragraphs long, and, well, I still don’t know much about this play.

In the first place, there are too many characters. In the second place, everyone is pretending to be someone else. In the third place, actually I didn’t get to a third place. The play just seems like such a mish mosh.

I guess I’ll have to read, see, or hear it.

In the meantime, here's a pic of today's birthday boy. Phil is 64 today. That's him rockin' the plaid overalls in front of Jean. I think I might have used this pic recently, but it's a good one and the only one I could find of Phil. 

So, Happy Birthday Phil!

 

 

Not that I think you did not love your father;

But that I know love is begun by time;

And that I see, in passages of proof,

Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.

 

-Claudius

Hamlet                                   Act IV, Scene vii, Line 110

 

Today, Claudius and Laertes are plotting about what to do with Hamlet. Claudius is getting Laertes wound up about the fact that Hamlet killed his father. He asks Laertes if he really loved his father and Laertes answers,

Why ask you this?

At which point Claudius goes into his answer gives us Today's Totally Random Lines.
Then he gets in a long thing about the fact that they should act whilst they’re still hot about it.

There lives within the very flame of love
A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;
And nothing is at a like goodness still;
For goodness, growing to a pleurisy,
Dies in his own too-much: that we would do,
We should do when we would; for this ‘would’ changes,
And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
And then this ‘should’ is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing.

Claudius is saying a lot of the same stuff that Hamlet was saying about how the desire to act wanes when over time. I really like the that we would do, we should do when we would. Say that ten times fast. 

I gave you a lot of verbiage there, and a lot to digest. So here's a nice, peaceful and simple pic that you can enjoy without any heavy thinking; 

in fact, no need to think at all. 

 

 

Brown, madam: and her forehead

As low as she would wish it.

-Messenger

Antony and Cleopatra            Act III, Scene iii, Line 32

Today’s scene is where Cleopatra is learning some details about Octavia, the new wife that Antony has taken in Rome as part of some political wrangling. The messenger who’s bringing the news is the same guy who had previously brought the initial news that this wife existed, and he got his ears boxed soundly for that. So he’s pretty hesitant to come in front of Cleopatra in this scene.

Now she is asking questions about this new wife's appearance, and the messenger is being very careful and clever with his answers. He is making sure that everything he says about Octavia is not as good as Cleopatra. Ocatavia is shorter, has a deep voice, and a large round face. Her hair? Plain old brown, and with a low forehead no less. 

This guy knows what he’s doing, and he’s not about to get his ears boxed again. 

I'm pretty sure this is more or less what the messenger is trying to tell Cleopatra that Octavia looks like. 

Oh, he's a clever fellow this messenger.