But, Valentine being gone, I’ll quickly cross,

By some sly trick, blunt Thurio’s dull proceeding.

Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift,

As thou has lent me wit to plot this drift!

-Proteus

The Two Gentelmen of Verona     Act II, Scene vi, Line 41

 

Today’s random line is the one with blunt Thurio in it. I added the line before it to make it an almost complete sentence. I added the two lines following it because they are the last lines of the scene and a rhyming couplet. And who doesn’t like a rhyming couplet.

As far as a bit of context: Proteus and Valentine are the titular gentlemen of Verona. Valentine’s got a new girl, Silvia, who Proteus just met. Thurio is another potential suitor of Silvia. Proteus decides that he wants Silvia and he spends this whole scene with a forty-three line soliloquy of why and how he’s going to get her.

Got it?

I didn't have a pic of Sylvia, so here is a pic of Lake Sylvia. It's pretty, isn't it?

 

As I with sudden and extemporal speech

Purpose to answer what thou canst object.

-Bishop of Winchester

King Henry the Sixth Part I          Act III, Scene i, Line 7

 

This is the very start of the scene and here’s the summary from my Shakespeare App (I think it’s just called the Shakespeare App) followed by three lines from the Biship.

At Parliament, Gloucester attempts to present a written list of complaints against Winchester, but the bishop grabs it and rips it up, telling Gloucester to speak it all directly…

        Do it without invention, suddenly;

                As I with sudden and extemporal speech

                Purpose to answer what thou canst object. 

There, that should give you context. I’m not exactly sure what we’re going to do with that context, but there it is nonetheless. 

Now, I’ve got to move on to some other things this morning, soooo, comments?

Shakespeare Pro on the App Store (apple.com)

I'll take the opportunity today to give a plug to the app I use pretty much on a daily basis. It's got a lot of features that anyone who does any amount of reading of Will's works will appreciate. According to this website it cost $10. I don't remember paying for it, but I've had it so long (years!) that I could have forgotten. Anyway, well worth $10 if that's what it is.

 

We still have known thee for a holy man.--

-Prince Escalus

Romeo and Juliet                   Act V, Scene iii, Line 269

 

We are only a few lines from the end of the play. We're in the tomb with the dead bodies, and Friar Laurence has just finished telling the assembled group the whole story of what’s taken place, pretty much a recap of the whole play. And today's line is the Prince’s response.

I would equate this to my own standard response when I’m presented with something that I don’t really know what to say. In those cases I usually say, “okay”, which is my way of saying that I’m not agreeing or disagreeing or even necessarily understanding. I’m just responding.

If I had just listened to the thirty-eight lines of Friar Laurence’s explanation of what’s taken place, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to come up with much more than “okay”. Apparently though, the Prince is a bit more versed than myself in how to respond to stuff, and still not really say anything. We still have known thee for a holy man. What the heck is that? He might just as well have said “okay”.

So you think I really owe you a picture because I didn't give you one yesterday? Okay.

 

 

Your worship’s friend, and Launcelot, sir.

-Old Gobbo

The Merchant of Venice                Act II, Scene ii, Line 55

This is a scene where Launcelot Gobo’s father shows up looking for his son. It’s interesting, but a little bit confusing. Young Gobo has a somewhat significant supporting role, whilst old Gobo shows up here and that’s it. At this point in the scene Launcelot is purposely trying to confuse the old man who does not yet realize he is talking to his son. With today’s line, Old Gobo is trying to clarify who he is looking for.

And that’s about it. That’s the context, but I really don’t have much else to give you on this one. I’d be happy to hear if anyone else has anything on it. Otherwise, I'll just put it out there and let you see if you can get something out of it.

        I'm trying to stick to my commitment to post as often as possible, with or without a pic. 

So guess what? No pic today.

 

 

In answer of which claim, the prince our master

Says that you savour too much of your youth,

And bids you be advised there’s naught in France

That can be with a nimble galliard won;

-First Ambassador

King Henry the Fifth             Act II, Scene i, Line 257

That can be with a nimble galliard won; that’s the line that we ended up with this morning. So, I gave you most of the sentence, but I’d like to give you the context and then a little more, and you’ll see why in a moment.

The ambassadors from France have shown up in King Henry’s court and he has asked them to tell him what’s on the mind of the Dauphin, the crown prince of France. Here is the ambassador’s reply in full.

Thus then in few.

Your highness, lately sending into France,

Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right

Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.

In answer of which claim, the prince our master

Says that you savour too much of your youth,

And bids you be advised there’s naught in France

That can be with a nimble galliard won;

You cannot revel into dukedoms there.

He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,

This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,

Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim

Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.

 

For clarification, a galliard is a lively dance, and meeter means more suitable. So, in other words, stay the heck out of France and here’s something to spend your energy on instead. And when Henry asks what the treasure is that the Dauphin has sent him, Exeter replies,

                        Tennis-balls, my liege. 

That’s right; tennis-balls. The Dauphin sent the king of England tennis-balls to say, blow off your steam playing tennis instead of invading my country.

Tennis-balls, that’s the part I wanted to get to. I thought it was pretty interesting that Shakespeare had a reference to tennis-balls. I had no idea tennis had even been invented in Shakespeare’s time. Did you?

Of course, I would try to show you a pic of a tennis ball for today's post, wouldn't I. I'm not sure what good that would have done, but I don't have a pic of a tennis ball anyway. So here's a pic of a few baseballs. There are some interesting stories behind these balls, but I'm not going to go into that right now. Suffice it to say that I didn't receive any of these balls from an ambassador of a world leader. 

But now I'm thinking, in light of current events maybes I should send these balls to Moscow and tell Vlad to use them to blow off some steam instead of invading Ukraine? Ahh, that's useless. I don't think there's anything gonna stop Vlad any more than the tennis-balls stopped Henry (spoiler alert: they didn't).

Oyyy. So very little has changed in four hundred years; so very, very little.

 

These things, indeed, you have articulate,

Proclaim’d at market-crosses, read in churches,

To face the garment of rebellion

With some fine colour that may please the eye

Of fickle changelings and poor discontents,

Which gape and rub the elbow at the news

Of hurlyburly innovation.

-Henry

King Henry the Fourth Part I    Act V, Scene i, Line 75

The line I landed on this morning was With some fine colour that may please the eye, and I thought, ‘well that’s a nice line’. Then I decided to listen to the whole scene (and I’d like to once again put in my plug for listening to the scene whilst reading it whenever possible) and of course realized that this line was part of a much bigger thought. Henry is responding to Worcester who has just articulated the reasons for the rebellion. Those reasons are ‘these things’ that Henry is alluding to, and as you can see, fine colour that may please the eye is, in the context of Henry’s little speech, lipstick on a pig. Well, so much for the nice line.

There’s quite a bit to unpack in these seven lines, and a steamliner full of luggage to go through if we want to attack the whole scene, even though it’s only 141 lines. But I could spend the day on that, and there are other things I want to get to this morning. Perhaps one day I’ll be at the point where I can, and will, spend the hours needed on an excerpt like this; but I'm afraid it is not this day.

In the meantime, I think I’ll take the line a bit out of context and enjoy it for what I had initially seen in it. That's allowed, isn't it?

This is what Patrice was working on over the weekend. I like it a lot, and I think you can see why I thought of it when I read With some fine colour that may please the eye.

 

Who hath we here? Rome’s royal empress,

Unfurnisht of her well-beseeming troop.

-Bassianus

Titus Andronicus           Act II, Scene iii, Line 56

Bassianus and Lavinia have come across Tamora in the woods. The latter is alone, and the two formers are taunting her. Unfortunately for these latter two, Tamora’s not going to be alone for long. Her two sons show up, and that’s going to be the end of Bassianus and the beginning of Lavinia’s misery.

 Just to be clear, in case you’re not, that second line could be read Without her fine-looking entourage.

 Yes, it’s a pretty dark play: lots of death and destruction. Personally, the older I get the less inclined I am towards this type of entertainment. I’ll take a nice light comedy over this sort of thing any day of the week. Unless, of course, it's Shakespeare.

This is my entourage from a few years back. I'm afraid those little black and white guys are no longer with us, and the other little guy in the middle is not quite so little anymore, but other than that, the entourage is still intact, and it's still a really good entourage.  

 

 

For though you lay here in this goodly chamber,

Yet would you say ye were beaten out of door;

And rail upon the hostess of the house;

-First Servant

The Taming of the Shrew      Ind., Scene ii, Line 86

This is the second act of the Induction, which is sort of a different word for introduction. It is a two-scene story which precedes the play. Whilst it is thematically linked to the play, the induction has nothing to do with the action of the play itself. So that’s a little odd. But who am I to question Will?

I’m not going to give you the full story of the induction. It’s about three pages long and I’ll give you the link so that you can read it if you’d like. Long story, very short, it’s about transforming someone, in this case a n’er do well drunk, into a cultured gentleman.

And this of course is basically the theme of the play, transformation. In the case of the Induction, it’s the transformation of a man via trickery.  In the case of the play, it’s a forced transformation of a woman: a taming. Or is it? Hmmm, something to think about.

The Taming of the Shrew - Induction (shakespeare-online.com)

Okay, first off, here's the link to the Induction, so that you can read it.

And second off, if you read the Induction, you will understand the relevance of this pic. And by the way, I should tell you that the fine print on the label informs us that, though this ale was not brewed in England, it has its origin in Burton-upon-Trent in England around 1820. So, it's even more relevant. 

 

Patience awhile, good Cassio.—Come, come;

-Iago

Othello                                   Act V, Scene i, Line 87

Sweet Phebe, good Cassio. Same sentiment? No, not really. Yesterday was Silvius pleading with Phebe who he really does think is sweet, and today’s speaker is Iago, and nothing ever good comes from Iago. As well, nothing very truthful ever comes out of Iago’s mouth. This we know.

To be clear, Cassio is lying there bleeding to death from a wound inflicted in the dark from behind by, you guessed it, Iago. And now the ratfink Iago is pretending to care and telling Cassio to be patient. Yes, that’s what’s happening. Oyy. Good old, honest Iago. Have you ever known anyone quite so dishonest and just downright bad as Iago? To tell you the truth, I can think of a few in my recollections who come close. No names.

And no pics either.

 

 

 Sweet Phebe,--

-Silvius

As You Like It                Act III, Scene v, Line 81

That’s it: Sweet Phebe. Well that’s a pretty short line. And I’m not even going to make you read any of the before or after lines; just Sweet Phebe.

Silvius is sort of pleading with Phebe because he’s in love with her, and she’s giving him a hard time with that. There, that’s your context.

I got nothing else on this today. Wait, I take that back: I do have one thing. It’s sweet. This is a funny word in that it can go both ways. In today’s line Silvius is using it in a positive sense, calling Phebe sweet. But I often find myself using that word in a fairly negative sense when somethings’ not going my way: Sweet mother of…..!

I should probably work on using it more the way Silvius is using it.

Now here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. When she got accidentally kicked down the stairs and had her leg broken, you can bet she wasn't saying 'Oh sweet Karen.' It had to be something more along the lines of 'Sweet mother of...!'

 

Come unto these yellow sands,

-Ariel

The Tempest                  Act I, Scene ii, Line 375

This is the first line of the song that Ariel is singing as he leads Ferdinand in. It’s only a few lines, so I thought it would be worth our while to have the whole thing. Here you go (with a little of the preceding stage direction):

 

Enter ARIEL, invisible, playing and singing.

FERDINAND following.

ARIEL’S song.

        Come unto these yellow sands,

                And then take hands:

        Court’sied when you have and kist,--

                The wild waves whist,--

        Foot it featly here and there;

        And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.

                Hark, hark!

                        [Burden, dispersedly, within. Bow, wow.]

                The watch-dogs bark:

                        [Burden, dispersedly, within. Bow, wow.]

                Hark, hark! I hear

                The strain of strutting chanticleer.

                        [Cry: Cock-a-diddle-dow.]

 

FERDINAND

Where should this music be: i’the air or the earth?

        It sounds no more:--and sure, it waits upon

        Some god o’ the island. Sitting on a bank,

        Weeping again the king my father’s wrack,

        This music crept by me upon the waters,

        Allaying both their fury and my passion

        With its sweet air: Thence I have follow’d it,

        Or it hath drawn me rather:--but ‘tis gone.

        No, it begins again.

 

ARIEL sings,

        Full fadom five thy father lies;

                Of his bones are coral made;

        Those are pearls that were his eyes;

                Nothing of him that doth fade

        But doth suffer a sea-change 

        Into something rich and strange.

        Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:

                [Burden within. Ding-dong]

        Hark! Now I hear them, -Ding-dong, bell.

Okay, I snuck a little extra in there. I wanted to give you the whole song and it’s interrupted in the middle by Ferdinand talking to himself for nine lines. I figured nine more lines wouldn’t kill you.

By the way, sea change, in the fifth line of the second part of the song, is a word (or phrase) used nowadays. It’s defined by Merriam Webster- a marked change: TRANSFORMATION. Merriam Webster, by the way, makes note of the fact that Shakespeare originated this usage in the passage that you just read. So next time someone uses the term sea change you can tell them they’re speaking Shakespeare’s language.

Now this is kind of interesting. I ran into this Sea Change Foundation (and I snipped a copy of their logo to paste here) whilst surfing about.  It's a philanthropic foundation that lends their support to a number of different endeavors. Currently they seem to be working mostly on the issue of Climate Change. Now get this; they have a staff of advisors called the Tempest Advisors Staff. Are we to assume that they know that the name of their foundation originates in Shakespeare's Tempest? It would certainly seem so.

 

But I, -- who never knew how to entreat,

Nor never needed that I should entreat, --

Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep;

-Katharina

The Taming of the Shrew      Act IV, Scene iii, Line 7

It’s great when we pick a line early in the scene because then the context is usually pretty easy to pick up (assuming you have some familiarity with the play) by reading from the beginning of the scene. Here, I’ll give it to you from line one:

Grumio.

        No, no, forsooth; I dare not, for my life.

Katherina.

        The more my wrong, the more his spite appears:

        What, did he marry me to famish me?

        Beggars that come unto my father’s door,

        Upon entreaty have a present alms;

        If not, elsewhere they meet with charity:

            But I, -- who never knew how to entreat,

Nor never needed that I should entreat, --

Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep;

With oaths kept waking, and with brawling fed:

And that which spites me more than all these wants,

He does it under the name of perfect love;

 

So, what’s going on here? Well, just as in the Merchant line from last week, the first line from this play is the middle of the conversation. It’s clear from what’s being said that Kathrina has been begging Grumio to give her some food before the scene begins, but he doesn’t want to go against his master’s (Kathrina’s husband’s) orders. As far as why not? Well, do you have any familiarity with this play? If you do, you would know that Katharina’s husband Petruchio is taming her. Yes, that’s right, taming her. After all, there’s a reason why this play is called The Taming of the Shrew.

Oh boy. Before you have me cancelled for subjecting you to this senseless bit of jingoism, can we talk about this? No? Okay, cancel away.

 

How would he look, to see his work, so noble,

Vilely bound up? What would he say? Or how

Should I, in these my borrow’d flaunts, behold

The sternness of his presence?

-Perdita

The Winter’s Tale  Act IV, Scene iii, Line 23

Perdita is speaking to Florizel, the prince. These two have got a little  something going, and Perdita is telling him that the differences in their statuses is going to be a problem. The he and his in this passage is referring to Florizel’s father, the king. His work is a reference to the king’s son, Florizel, and finally, flaunts is fine clothing. There, given all that, meaning of the lines should be pretty clear.

I think the first sentence is pretty interesting when she refers to herself as vilely bounding up Florizel. It doesn't seem to express a very high opinion of herself, does it?

Comments?

Well, here's a pic that's got little to nothing to do with today's line, but a lot to do with today's date. It's Feb 14 today, and this is my valentine posing with her picture that won Honourable Mention in the art show. It's the picture on top and it's called Night Leaves. Pretty good, eh?

 

Three thousand ducats, - well.  

-Shylock

The Merchant of Venice        Act I, Scene iii, Line 1

And so it begins. This is our first glimpse of, and the first lines spoken by, Shylock. It's also the first line of the scene, and it's spoken by the infamous Shylock.

What an absolutely mesmerizing character he is. Polarizing? Maybe. Dull? Never. When most people think of this play, they think of Shylock and the pound of flesh. Of course, there’s a lot more than that to the play, and there's a lot more than that to Shylock. But it’s here in the third scene that the pound of flesh first comes up.

The scene begins in the middle of a conversation. Obviously Bassanio has already been talking to Shylock and he’s asked for the loan, but we open the scene not with Bassanio’s request, but rather with Shylock’s consideration of the request - Three thousand ducats, - well.

You can almost see Shylock stroking his chin as he says the line slowly. Three thousand ducats, - well.

No, that's not Shylock. It's me. And I'm not thinking about loaning three thousand ducats; I'm thinking about why people stroke their chin when they're thinking about something. I'll need to think about this a little more. 

 

 

We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think we shall never see the end of it.—Who goes there?

-Michael Williams

King Henry the Fifth                     Act IV, Scene i, Line 91

Okay, good scene. Here we have the English camp on the night before the battle of Agincourt. King Henry decides to go disguised among his men to see what the mood is. He’s about to come upon Michael Williams, John Bates, and Alexander Court, common soldiers all. Before Henry shows up, the three have a few introductory lines:

 

Alexander Court-

Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks yonder?

 John Bates-

I think it be: but we have no great cause to desire the approach of day.

 Michael Williams-

We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think we shall never see the end of it.—Who goes there?

And that’s where King Henry enters.

As you can see by these three lines, the guys here are not particularly optimistic about the impending battle. That’s understandable considering how greatly outnumbered by the French they are.

It’s an interesting conversation they have with the disguised king, the undercover boss, if you will. They talk about death and what responsibility the king bears for their lives, among other things. You really should read it. It’s one of those pieces, like so much of Will’s work, that can really lead to good discussion of issues that are forever pertinent. And I’ll leave it at that.

So do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to read, and think about, the conversation these guys have. You won’t regret it.

Act IV, Scene i

Here's a link to the scene. The conversation begins around line 140, in case you want to skip ahead to it. You should read Henry's reflections after the three guys leave too. That goes to about line 335. Yup, 200 lines of Shakespeare. Think you can do it? I know you can!

 

 

Thrice nobel Titus, spare my first-born son.

-Tamora

Titus Andronicus                   Act I, Scene i, Line 120

Nope, not gonna happen. And so it begins, and it begins (it would seem appropriately) with Titus. What would have happened if he had said, ‘well, okay, you’re right. There’s no need for bloodshed here. Let the boy go.’ I suppose if he had said that, then this wouldn’t have been much of a play. Instead he says, ‘…die he must,’.  So die he does, and it’s the first of many deaths and maimings in the play.

This play was made into a movie in 1999 with Anthony Hopkins in the titular role. I’ve seen a few segments of it, but never the whole thing. It’s one of those that I’ve been meaning to catch. If you get a chance to see it you’ll have to let me know what you think.

 

titus movie - Bing video

 

Here’s a link to the movie trailer, if you’re interested.

 

 

Take thou no scorn to wear the horn;

It was a crest ere thou wast born:

-Forester

As You Like It                Act IV, Scene ii, Line 14

This is a very short scene. Jaques and company have come across a hunter with a fallen deer. They’ve set the deer’s horns upon the hunter’s head, and now one of the foresters is singing a song for him.

 

        What shall he have that kill’d the deer?

        His leather skin and horns to wear.

        Then sing him home;

 

        Take thou no scorn to wear the horn;

        It was a crest ere thou wast born:

        Thy fathers wore it,

        And thy father bore it:

        The horn, the horn, the lusty horn

        Is not a thing to laugh to scorn.

 

And that’s the end of the scene as they all parade off the stage. I told you it was short. There’s only eighteen lines in the scene, and the song is half of them. 

So, what do you think of the song?

Sorry, no pic today.

 

Clap’s into Light o’ love; that goes without a burden: do you sing it, and I’ll dance it.

-Margaret

Much Ado About Nothing     Act III, Scene iv, Line 41

There you go; that line is a bit of a tester. But I’m not going to spend any time on it, so I’m afraid you’re on your own. Let me know you come up with.

Hold on, I’ve got some decent footnotes to help you out:

Clap – break into a song

Light o’ Love – a well known ditty of the times

Burden – chorus

 

There, that should help. And here's a nice pic for you.

 

This is a delicious breakfast. Pepper and eggs with raspberry jelly toast. Yummy!

Brew’d with her sorrow, masht upon her cheeks:-

-Titus

Titus Andronicus                   Act III, Scene ii, Line 38

Titus is telling his brother Marcus what Titus’s daughter Lavinia is thinking. She can’t speak for herself because her tongue was cut out and her hands chopped off by her rapists.

       

She says she drinks no other drink but tears,

        Brew’d with her sorrow, masht upon her cheeks:-

 

It’s not a pretty picture, and Titus is probably pretty close to correct in saying that this is what his daughter is thinking. Whilst this whole short scene is quite the downer, it’s full of exquisite writing of which these two lines are a perfect example. This is Will early on in his career, but it’s clearly Will, and clearly brilliant.

Did I mention that I was a pretty big Shakespeare fan?

Here's my drink: brewed with coffee beans, not tears (usually), and very rarely, if ever, do I mash it on my cheeks.

 Did I mention that I was a pretty big coffee fan?

  

 

Masters of the people,

Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter-

That’s thousand to one good one—when you now see

He had rather venture all his limbs for honour

Than one on’s ears to hear it? Proceed, Cominius.

 

-Menenius

Coriolanus                              Act II, Scene ii, Line 96

 

Well, I know what’s going on, but this is a hard line Than one on’s ears to hear it? I can only assume that on’s is on his. Menenius is asking the senators how can Coriolanus flatter the masses (of which one in a thousand is any good) when he’d rather be venturing all his limbs for honour (fighting for his country) than one of his limbs on his ears to hear it?

Ummmm, gonna need to look at my book that has the footnotes. I’ll try to get back to you later today.

Update (day two): Okay, very simple explanation. Than one on's ears to hear it is one of his ears. It's of, not on. So that makes it easy. He'd rather venture all of his limbs for honour than venture one of his ears to hear about that honour. Comprendez?

I know, you thought I was gonna give you some crappy pic of my ear. Well I thought about it, that's for sure. But these are far more interesting. This is a Roman aqueduct we saw in Spain. In the first pic you can see a bird at the very top. I believe it's a common crane, but don't quote me on that. In the second pic you can see the bird better and you can also appreciate the detail in the construction of the aqueduct and get an idea why it's still here even though it was built in Coriolanus's time. 

Forget about Coriolanus and all the other generals, I think it's the builders and the engineers who deserve all the honour. What do you think?