Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 Make that demand to the Creator. It suffices me thou art.

 

-Thersites

Troilus and Cressida              Act II, Scene iii, Line 68

 

I’m not sure what they were discussing, but Thersites suddenly decides that pretty much everyone, including himself, a fool.

        Agamemnon is a fool to offer to command Achilles;

        Achilles is a fool to be commanded of Agamemnon;

        Thersites is a fool to serve such a fool, and

        Patroclus is a fool positive.

To which Patroclus replies,

Why am I a fool?

And that’s where Thersites comes in with Today’s Totally Random Line,

        Make that demand to the Creator. It suffices me thou art.

Sounds like Thersites is fed up with the whole lot and Patroclus is just collateral damage. But what do I know? At least we’ve moved on from eyes!

Two heavy thinkers in Barren Plains.

Another one of those pics that just showed up, all on its own. Sort of. 

No, it's got no relevance. But I couldn't go three days in a row without a pic. Could I?

 Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

  

O your sweet queen!

That the strict fates had pleas’d you had brought her hither

To have blest mine eyes with her!

 

-Dionyza

Pericles                   Act III, Scene iii, Line 8

 

Pericles is leaving his infant daughter with King Cleon and his wife Dionyza whilst he goes off on more adventures. They promise to care for her as if she were their own, Dionyza declaring how blest her eyes are just to have seen the baby. But of course, it’s not going to work out quite as well as Pericles may have hoped for.

This is one of Will’s plays that doesn’t really fit into the Comedy or Drama category. It’s mostly an adventure with a little romance, and it’s got a happy ending. This play wasn’t included in the First Folio, where all the plays were categorized as Comedy, History, or Drama. I believe the Shakespeare scholars already have a fourth category that they use. I’ve heard the term Problem Plays, and also Romance Plays.

I’m not sure either of these works for Pericles. Perhaps we’ll have to come up with our own category name. Pericles starts with incest, includes betrayal and adventure, and has a happy ending. Anyone? I’m open to suggestions.

Okay, so yesterday it was wagging eyelids, and today it's blest eyes. Seems like the eyes have it. And yet, I've got no good eye pics. I promise, if there's eyes again tomorrow we'll have a pic. 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 Good my lord, be quiet.

 

-Horatio

Hamlet                    Act V, Scene i, Line 272

  

Laertes and Hamlet are fighting and arguing in Ophelia’s grave and everyone is trying to get them to stop. Horatio, Hamlets best bud, is the last one to speak before the two separate and climb out of the grave. Then Hamlet says

        Why, I will fight with him upon this theme

        Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

That’s right, until his eyelids will no longer wag. One more time, until those eyelids stop wagging.

I’m just having a really hard time with that visual: wagging eyelids. How about you?

Well, I've heard of tongues wagging, and there's wagging tails. But wagging eyelids? I just couldn't come up with pic of wagging eyelids. Sorry, no pic today. 

 

1/28/23

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

                                     O Griffith, sick to death!

My legs, like loaden branches, bow to the earth,

Willing to leave their burden. Reach a chair:-

  

-Katherine

 King Henry the Eighth          Act IV, Scene ii, Line 3

 

 

The Queen is replying to Griffith’s query, How does your Grace? Apparently, her Grace does not so well.

I guess we all have those sort of days, don’t we?

I'm not sure this helps, but at the very least, it's an interesting idea. And I thought those Chinese folks were all about the tea?

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 He is a man, setting his faults aside,

Of comely virtue.

  

-Alcibiades

Timon of Athens                    Act III, Scene v, Line 15

 

Unfortunately, the fault that needs to be set aside is murder. The man, whose name we never learn, killed someone, apparently in a drunken brawl. He is a soldier and Alcibiades, his captain, has come to plead his case in front of the senate. Ultimately, the senate banishes Alcibiades for his efforts.

This scene reminds me of The Merchant of Venice and of Coriolanus; the former for its talk of pity (mercy), and the latter for the way Alcibiades gets banished and immediately begins plans to revenge his banishment by coming back to attack the city.

It’s a good scene and, whilst it fits in perfectly with the play (of course it does), it also stands on its own. It’s worth a read, in that there are some really meaty propositions put forth in it that are food for thought and prime for further discussion (I think I just made myself hungry). The meatiest one is the idea of the acceptance of murder in war vs the unacceptability of murder in peacetime. Perhaps that’s an oversimplification, but there is a valid question buried in there. If nothing else, Will’s gonna make you think. And thinking is a good thing. We should all spend a little more time thinking and a little less time just being entertained.

What do you think of that?

'And what,' I can hear you saying, 'do we have here? It looks like a slightly blurry, poorly taken picture of your IPhone, Pete. Surely this must be a mistake?'

No, my friend, it is not. It is indeed a slightly blurry, poorly taken picture of my IPhone. Why?

 BECAUSE I WOULD LIKE YOU ALL TO GET OFF YOUR DAMNED PHONES AND DO SOME THINKING!!!!

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

  

A damned saint!, an honourable villain!—

  

-Juliet

 Romeo and Juliet                           Act III, Scene ii, Line 76

 

Juliet just found out from her nurse that Romeo has killed her cousin Tybalt. So she goes into a rant where she comes up with a whole bunch of opposites that Romeo is. Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical! etc, etc. At this point she loves him, but also hates him for killing her cousin. Is that true? Does she hate him? I’m not so sure about that.

I guess Prof. Johnston would take this opportunity to point out the theme of opposites in this play: two lovers from opposite sides of the tracks for starters. And you can take it from there.

Go ahead!

How about these two? Are they opposites? And do opposites attract?

You tell me. 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

  

Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!

-Iachimo

Cymbeline                      Act I, Scene vi, Line 19

 

Here’s Iachimo’s full seven lines.

All of her that is out of door most rich!

If she be furnish with a mind so rare,

She is alone the Arabian bird; and I

Have lost the wager. Boldness be my friend!

Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!

Or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight;

Rather, directly fly.

 

So, a little context: This is Iachamo talking to himself when he first sets eyes on Imogen. A bit earlier in the play Iachamo was talking to Imogen’s husband, Posthumus Leonatus, in Italy. Posthumus was bragging about the beauty and the fidelity of his wife back home in Britain. Iachimo, having never met Imogen, claimed that on his upcoming travels to Britain he would easily be able to sleep with Imogen. So, being the sensible husband (sarcasm), Posthumus made a wager out of it.

Now Iachimo is in Britain meeting Imogen for the first time. He’s remarking to himself what a beauty Imogen is and realizing that bedding her is not going to be easy.

I think when he say’s out of door, he’s talking about her outsides, her appearance. The Arabian bird is a reference to the Phoenix, a rare and precious bird. And the Parthian were a cavalry famous for turning in the saddle as they retreated, shooting arrows at their enemy (Asimov’s Guide To Shakespeare, of course).

There, now you know as much about these lines as I do; which, let’s face it, isn’t all that much.

But how about we go back to Today’s Totally Random Line, 

Arm me, audacity, from head to foot! 

Not bad. And eminently useful if, like me, you tend to talk to yourself as Iachimo is doing here. In his case he’s being quite audacious in that his intent is to bed this married woman. But audacious behavior can be good behavior too. Showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks - that’s MW’s online definition, and it talks about bold risks, not the intent behind taking them.

There are lots of times when audacity can be our friend: when we’re afraid to ask that girl out, when we’re nervous about asking for that raise. There are a million examples like that, when saying to yourself Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!  can be a good thing to say to yourself.

Of course, if you’re going to say this to yourself, well then you’ve got to listen yourself too!

 

Arm me, audacity, from head to foot!

As is often the case, I was about to give up on finding a pic for today. Then, like mana from heaven...well, here you go. If that's not an audacious choice of sport coat I'm wearing on the right, then I don't know what is. 

Thanks Jim!

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

  

And these does she apply for warning and portents

And evils imminent; and on her knee

Hath begg’d that I will stay at home to-day.

  

-Caesar

 Julius Caesar                 Act II, Scene ii, Line 82

  

What are these? What is it that she believes to be portents?

Well, first of all, she is Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife. And she dreamt she saw Caesar’s statue

             …like a fountain with an hundred spouts,

        Did run pure blood; and many lusty Romans

        Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it.

Oh, is that all?

Caesar is talking to Decius Brutus. The latter has come to escort Caesar to the senate, and the former is telling Decius that he’s going to stay home today, and Today’s Totally Random Line is why. I don’t suppose I need to tell you that Decius ends up talking Caesar into going to the senate, do I? 

Shoulda’ listened to his wife, eh?

Heres' a pic of me and my Calpurnia (no, that's not actually her name). Do I always listen to her? Pretty much. Do I always do what she says to do? Well....

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 

The parcels and particulars of our grief,-
The with hath been with scorn shoved from the court,-
Whereon this Hydra son of war is born;

  

-Archbishop of York

King Henry the Fourth Part II      Act IV, Scene ii, Line 37

The archbishop is responding to King Henry’s son, Prince John of Lancaster. The latter is saying that the archbishop and his cohorts are leading a revolution against the peace of heaven and King Henry. The archbishop’s full reply is this,

                         Good my Lord of Lancaster,

 I am not here against your father’s peace,

But as I told my Lord of Westmorland,

The time misord’red doth, in common sense,

Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form

To hold our safety up. I sent your Grace

The parcels and particulars of our grief,-
The which hath been with scorn shov’d from the court,
Whereon this Hydra son of war is born,

Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm’d asleep

With grant of our most just and right desires,

And true obedience, of this madness cured,

Stoop tamely to the foot of his majesty.

 In other words, All the king has to do is to give in to our righteous demands, and we’ll forget about this whole deal and stoop tamely to the foot of his majesty. 

The archbishops and the cardinals really got involved with politics and war back then. They were very powerful men and managed to be in the thick of everything. To be sure, today there are still powerful religious leaders (even more so in other countries) but they have to be so in more indirect ways. In the USA at least, if you preach politics from the pulpit, you can lose your non-profit status. And nobody wants to lose that.

How about that big pulpit on the right, all carved out of dark wood and with the marble angel holding it up. I wonder if any politics got preached from that pulpit. 

(And what the heck do you think those two knuckleheads are looking at? Who brings binoculars to a church!?)

 Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 

And therefore are we certainly resolved

To draw conditions of a friendly peace;

 

-Henry

King Henry the Sixth Part I          Act V, Scene i, Line 38

  

Henry says he’s going to stop fighting with France and marry the daughter of the Earl of Armagnac as part of the peace deal.
It’s a short scene, so that I was able to read the whole thing this morning. It ends with Winchester, newly installed as a cardinal, giving an aside and concluding with a rhyming couplet:
I’ll either make thee stoop and bend thy knee,
Or sack this country with a mutiny.

So this guy is obviously up to no good.

But that’s not my line of thought this morning (and please don’t ask me to account for my line of thought - that’s a lost cause). What I was wondering was about the nature of the scene-ending rhyming couplet. Primarily, why do some scenes end with rhyming couplets and others don’t? Is there any rule governing where and why these bad boys are used?

(Okay, I just got auto-corrected from ‘governed’ to ‘for Vern Bing’.  Who the heck is Vern Bing? And don’t even get me started on AI. So, I just googled Vern Bing. All I got was someone named Vern Bing on Pinterest with one follower. Very odd. So I’ve decided to follow Vern. I'll keep you updated.)

Anyway, rhyming couplets. Right? I’m tempted to go through and start compiling a list of what plays and scenes use the rhyming couplet as and ender and which don’t to see if I can identify some rhyme or reason. Perhaps it’s just one of those unanswered questions, like what’s the rational for prose vs verse?

Wouldn’t it be great to have Will here to ask these questions to? Or even some of his personal writings where he talks about this stuff? Oh well, I don't see that happening anytime soon. Instead you're stuck with the personal writings of a bonehead like me. Ooof.

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

It is my only suit;

Provided that you weed your better judgements

Of all opinion that grows rank in them

That I am wise.

  

-Jaques

As You Like It                Act II, Scene vii, Line 45

 

What is his only suit? And with suit we have a double entendre. He’s asking for a coat. So, he is effectively suing for a suit. Suit, suit.
Will loves his wordplay in the comedies.

Anyway, Jaques is talking about a fool that he just met (in fact I posted about this part of the scene, and you can read that here if you want), and now he’s saying that he wants to be a fool. That’s his suit, I am ambitious for a motley coat. And when Duke Senior says he shall have one, Jaques gives us today’s totally random line.

So Jaques will get his wish and he can be the fool. Of course, you realize that in Will’s plays the fool is the smartest and gets to say whatever he wants to whomever he wants to say it to. Jaques knows this and that’s probably why he wants to be the fool. Yeah, come to think of it, the fool is not a bad gig, is it?

So, as I mentioned briefly yesterday, I just got back from a cruise and it was aboard a really big ship, a very crowded ship; Over 4,000 passengers. Oi! Good thing we were in the Haven! But now I’m home and sitting in my living room drinking coffee. And my biggest problem of the moment is that the sun is about to rise and get in my eyes, so that I might have to switch chairs. What a problem!!

Yes, my life is good, and I am very aware of this. I may forget this at times, but not I am very blessed.
So I don’t have Jaques desire to be anything other that what I am. I’ll just keep being Pete, which probably means being a little bit of a fool anyway. But it’s a good gig. Even on bad days, it’s still a good gig. I may forget this at times, but in my saner moments I’m very much aware of it. It’s a really good gig.

Yup, that's the sun coming up behind that big old maple tree. This sunrise is not quite as picturesque as the Caribbean sunset in yesterday's post, but I like it. 

 Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 That Paris is returned home, and hurt.

  

-Aeneas

 Troilus and Cressida              Act I, Scene i, Line 110

 

Okay, we’re at the very beginning of the play. We’ve just had Troilus whining to Cressida’s Uncle Pandarus about how much he’s in love with the latter's niece. Then Pandarus walks away and Aeneus, one of the Trojan commanders, walks in. When Troilus asks him for news from the battlefield, he gets Today’s Totally Random Line. Troilus’s response is Let Paris bleed; ‘tis but a scar to scorn. It seems like a pretty cavalier response considering that Paris is Troilus’s brother. But who am I to say?

Here's my excuse for not posting all last week. I was at sea, without internet.

And here's the reason I'm posting now. It's the sun setting on my cruise. 

I'm back home now. 

 Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

  

    Let us bury him,

And not protract with admiration what

Is due debt.—To the grave!

 

 

-Guiderius

Cymbeline                      Act IV, Scene ii, Line 233

 

Well, I skipped the first two lines of Guiderius’s little speech

                                       Prithee, have done;
And do not play in wench-like words with that
Which is so serious. Let us bury him,

 

I skipped it because I didn’t want to give you too much up front; I feel like I’ve been giving you some pretty long Random Lines lately, but then I realized that that second line, with the wench-like word thing was worth noting. I mean really, what’s a wench-like word? Okay, I wasn’t going to get into a lot of context, but I guess we’ve gotta go back and see what the previous speaker was saying.

It seems that the two brothers Guiderius, Arviragus, and their father Belarus are sitting here with two dead bodies. One is the headless Colten, a lout that Guiderius just killed, and other is Imogen, who these three guys think is a young lad named Fidele. I’m not sure how she died. Well, Arviragus just gave us a little eleven line speech about all the flowers he’s going to be putting on Fidele’s grave all year. I guess that’s the wench-like words. The fact is, all three of these guys are making a fuss over this lad, Fidele who they just met. It’s a little weird. But anyway, Today’s Totally Random Line is Guiderius saying ‘Enough! Let’s just bury the kid.’ Yeah, that’s today’s line. Prithee, have done is basically Enough!

Perhaps right now you’re saying to yourself as you’re reading this ‘Prithee, be done Pete! Enough!’ I guess I wouldn’t blame you.

Hi Jess! 

No pic today, just Hi Jess. Jess told me that she only looks at my blog for the pics. I'm testing here to see if that's the case. 

Hi Jess!

 Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,

For all the day they view things unrespected;

But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,

And, darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.

Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,

How would thy shadow’s form form happy show

To the clear day with thy much clearer light,

When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so?

How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made

By looking on thee in the living day,

When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade

Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!

All days are nights to see till I see thee,

And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

 

Sonnet 43

 

Okay, there you go. As usual, I’m giving you the whole sonnet, even though the Today’s Totally Random Line is the last one, And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me. But I think you can handle the full fourteen lines.

I’m not sure how much I want to get into this today. It’s a pretty interesting sonnet and not very hard to understand, which is nice. And it’s got some good stuff to look at and analyze. The problem (the same problem I face a lot) is that there’s a bit too much there, and if I really want to get into it, it’ll take a bit of time. Unfortunately, I’ve got a lot of other stuff that needs to get done today, so I don’t have that time. Retirement in a few years? More time then? Or will there just be different stuff taking up my time. But isn’t it all my time? Right? My time to do with as I please? Right? Well, I’m not so sure about that.

Anyway, why don’t you take a good look at the sonnet (if you’ve got the time). It’s uses a lot of really interesting things. Like talking about shadowing and literally shadowing the word shadow with the word shadows, and shadowing the word form with the word form. And that’s just the start. There’s the constant use of apparent contradictions, like days are nights and nights (are) bright days. And of course, there’s more.

So, go ahead, take a look yourself. It’s worth the look. Trust me.

A nice bowl of oatmeal with bananas. Why am I giving you this pic? Because this is the breakfast I didn't have this morning. Why not? It's because I slept so poorly that when I got up this morning to have my coffee I fell asleep in my chair for an hour, making myself late, without time for breakfast.

So this is the tie-in between my spiel about time and Will's sonnet about sleep. Because I didn't get that good sleep last night (irrespective of what dreams I had), I was short on time this morning, and missed out on the breakfast pictured above.

So you see, it's all related. 

 

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

 What must the king do now? Must he submit?

The king shall do it: must he be deposed?

The king shall be contented: must he lose

The name of king? O’ God’s name, let it go:

I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads,

My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,

My gay apparel for an almsman’s gown,

My figured goblets for a dish of wood,

My scepter for a palmer’s walking-staff,

My subjects for a pair of carved saints,

A little little grave, an obscure grave;--

 

-Richard

King Richard the Second       Act III, Scene iii, Line 146

 

Yeah, that’s a little bit long, but I could have gone further. He goes on to talk more about the grave, and then he gets into the tears; so I stopped here.

Context: Bolingbroke (soon to be Henry IV) has come to demand his land and inheritance back, along with the repeal of his banishment. He claims that he will be a faithful subject to King Richard. Richard knows full well that he does not have the power to resist Bolingbroke’s demands, and he also knows that once he gives into these demands he is signaling his weakness He knows that by giving in to these demands he is basically giving up the kingship, because irrespective of what Bolingbroke says, everyone knows that he intends to usurp Richard’s crown. Today’s lines are Richard’s reflection on this inevitable outcome.

Richard does a fair bit of reflection in this play. This speech strikes me as similar to the one near the end of the play, just before he dies in prison

        I have been studying how I may compare

        This prison where I live unto the world:

        And, for because the world is populous,

        And here is not a creature but myself,

        I cannot do it; -- yet I’ll hammer it out.

I really love yet I’ll hammer it out. I’ve covered that prison soliloquy twice before: here and here if you’re interested.

Anyway, they are both very similar speeches, very resigned to accepting what’s to come, very fatalistic. Perhaps I relate to these lines because I feel this type of resignation myself quite a bit. And yet, I’ll hammer it out.

In a very literal sense, this is what I've been hammering stuff out with for the past nearly fifty years. I'm not talking about a hammer, I'm talking about this specific hammer. Yes, this specific 16 oz, steel shaft, Stanely hammer. At least, that's what I think it is, but I looked really, really, closely at it just now and I can't find even a trace of manufacturer's markings on it. It's too worn. Anyway, I worked with a carpenter/housebuilder named Lou Forsell for a summer back in 1979. I started the summer with a wood handled hammer, but Lou told me to get a steel shaft because it would hold up to much more pounding and abuse than the wood handled one would. Well, I got this guy, and I've used it ever since. And I've used it A LOT. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I own anything today that I've owned as long as this guy, or gotten as much use out of. What an interesting thought. 

So, thanks for the good advice, Lou.

 

Today’s Totally Random Line(s)

 

A villain kills my father; and for that,

I, his sole son, do this same villain send

To Heaven.

 

-Hamlet

Hamlet                    Act III, Scene iii, Line 77

 

And we start the new year with two guys; one trying to figure out how he’s going to get to heaven after all the crimes he’s committed, and the other trying to figure out how to best kill the first to ensure that he doesn’t go to heaven. Ha!

Whilst it sounds a bit, ummm, what’s the word? It’s not evil, but it’s something with a strong negative connotation. The word escapes me, but my thought is that whilst this description of the scene makes it sound a bit evil, this is a very good scene for a number of reasons. In it, we find Claudius alone, lamenting his situation with his ‘O, my offence is rank…’ soliloquy, followed by Hamlet coming upon him unobserved. Hamlet sees Claudius on his knees and wants to kill him but talks himself out of it, telling himself that if he does it now, whilst Claudius is praying, the latter might go to heaven. Hamlet wants to send him straight to hell, so he walks away.

Of course, Hamlet (the play and the person) is filled with thought preventing action. And there’s a lot of talk about this throughout the play. At one point Claudius says ‘That we would do, we should do when we would.’ We had this on a recent Random Line. Remember? And of course there’s that part of Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy about the will to act being ‘sicklied o’er with the pale cast of Thought’.

Yeah, Will has a lot to say about taking or, more often, not taking action when perhaps we should. It’s a pretty interesting thought to start the new year with, don’t you think?

I think I might have used this pic before, but it's an appropriate one for today. Why Because it's a pic of me around the time I would have been reciting my memorized, aforementioned 'O my offence is rank...' speech in Jay Riedy's British Lit class in 1974. 

Yup, that's right, 1974. That was a few old years ago.

Happy New Year.